Giving and Receiving

To most students, spending more than a little divine power's worth of Faith Points might seem too extravagant. They might call him foolish, say it was not worth it, but Lin Xiao felt it was absolutely worth it.

Because once the promotion was complete, the Faith Threads between him and those 128 believers in his Divine Sea suddenly thickened. Whether they had previously been True Believers or Devout Believers, at that moment, every one of them became a Fanatic Believer—128 Fanatic Believers.

The Blackscale Naga race provided more Faith Points than Murlocs, roughly one-third as much as humans. But once Faith Points reached the level of Fanatic Believers, the amount they provided could not be judged by conventional rules.

A normal human Fanatic Believer could provide between fifty and a hundred Faith Points per day. By that logic, one-third would be between seventeen and thirty-three points, but in reality, the Faith Points provided by Fanatic Believers often exceeded that amount. In a frenzied state, they could even reach half that of humans.

With these 128 Fanatic Believers, Lin Xiao could receive three to four thousand Faith Points every day. Taking the median of 3,500, that would be over 1.27 million a year. These Naga could live for fifty years, and after upgrading, sixty years or even longer. Subtracting ten years and calculating on the basis of fifty, they could provide him with a total of 63.87 million Faith Points over their lifetimes.

They could also fight for him in the outer realms and reproduce. Even after dying and entering the Divine Kingdom, they could become Petitioners and continue providing Faith Points.

Well, some of them might die in battle along the way. That was unavoidable.

But even if only half were counted, that was still over thirty million Faith Points. Compared to the little over one million he had spent now, the return was astonishingly high.

Lin Xiao had never been shortsighted enough to look only at immediate gains. When it was time to invest, he would never begrudge the cost.

Several hundred students stood sparsely scattered across the enormous golden platform, but compared to before, more than half were gone. These were the students who had passed the three elimination rounds and successfully advanced to Second Year of High School.

After passing the three elimination rounds, they were already considered to have advanced to Second Year of High School. The exam that followed was merely for class assignments.

After the three elimination rounds, Class Three of First Year High School had only seventeen students left, far fewer than expected. Like the other classes, they had gathered in a group by class, waiting for the last few classmates to return.

Wan Chuan and Yuan Hong were standing together at the moment, while the other students kept several steps away from them.

Yuan Hong stared ahead and casually asked, "How many did you kill in the Half-elf round?"

Wan Chuan glanced at him. After a long while, he finally spat out two words:

"Didn't count."

"So not many?"

"Definitely more than you."

"Tch, I—"

A beam of golden light descended from the sky, signifying that someone had held on to their limit in Endless Mode before being eliminated. In that instant, it drew everyone's attention. Even the two of them forgot about their conversation and turned to look.

The golden light landed on the platform, revealing a handsome young man. Most of the students were surprised. "Who's that? Which class is he from? How come I've never seen him before?"

Lin Xiao's grades had previously been in the middle of both his class and year. He had been only two places away from 250th place. He could be called utterly ordinary, and aside from his own classmates, almost no one recognized him.

While students from other classes were merely puzzled, his classmates were stunned. Yuan Hong even shouted outright, "That's impossible!"

He had been eliminated in Endless Mode himself, so how could he not know how difficult Endless Mode was? He knew even better what it meant to last longer than he had.

Precisely because of that, he could not believe that a classmate who had still been in the middle of the class a little over a month ago had surpassed him so quickly.

But reality was reality. When Lin Xiao arrived at his class's area, several classmates instinctively stepped back and made room for him. He smiled faintly.

"Thanks!"

Reality was just that realistic. In the past, no one would have given him the time of day. Now, he had merely come over without saying anything, and someone had taken the initiative to make space for him. That was the difference.

He turned back and glanced at Yuan Hong and Wan Chuan. The doubt in their eyes had not faded, so he nodded to them in acknowledgment before turning away and ignoring them.

A while later, two beams of golden light descended almost simultaneously, one after the other, revealing Yan Renjie and Wan Ying. They exchanged challenging looks, then turned and left. There was none of the mutual admiration one might expect between geniuses.

They were the last to arrive. Once they returned to their respective classes, every golden sphere at the edge of the platform projected a beam of golden light, forming the projections of their respective Class Teachers. Together, they bowed toward the dazzling sphere of divine light at the dome, and a beam of golden light descended, transforming into a handsome white-haired middle-aged man.

All the teachers and students bowed in unison and called out together:

"Vice-Principal!"

The white-haired middle-aged man nodded and, without wasting words, said, "The elimination rounds of this year's First Year High School Final Exam have ended. The remaining students have passed and will advance to Second Year of High School next semester."

After a pause, his tone suddenly shifted. "Because of the Old Headmaster, there is an additional Endless Mode trial after these three elimination rounds. Those who made it into the final ten, ranked fourth through tenth, will each receive a Common Five-Star Card of their choice."

"Third place will receive a Rare Five-Star Card of their choice."

"Second place will receive an Uncommon Five-Star Card of their choice."

"First place will receive an Epic Five-Star Card, also of their choice."

At this point, his gaze swept over all the students below, and he smiled faintly.

"Furthermore, the Old Headmaster will offer one Super Freshman Summer Camp Spot for First Year High School students in the Huaxia District. It will be randomly awarded to one of the top three students."

It was not an illusion. Lin Xiao could clearly sense Wan Chuan and Yuan Hong beside him breathing a little faster. Looking at Yan Renjie and Wan Ying on the other side, even these two most outstanding geniuses of the entire year were now showing expectant expressions.

Lin Xiao knew why they were so eager. It was not for the rankings, nor for the reward cards, but for that Super Freshman Summer Camp Spot for First Year High School students in the Huaxia District.

The so-called Super Freshman Summer Camp was an annual event jointly hosted by the five Super Academies and 133 Key Universities of the Huaxia District.

Participating would not allow someone to directly enter those Key Universities, but the event was jointly organized by numerous Key Universities and selected elite geniuses from high schools throughout the Huaxia Region.

Participating during First Year of High School would place them directly in the sight of those Key Universities. If they displayed enough potential to catch their attention, they could receive a certain number of bonus points when applying to the corresponding Key Universities after the College Entrance Examination in Third Year of High School.

If they showed sufficiently high potential, they might even receive a direct special admission offer.

Whether it was entering the sight of numerous Key Universities directly or receiving bonus points during the College Entrance Examination, both were immensely tempting to them.

Normally, a city only had one or two Super Freshman Summer Camp Spots, and all the schools in that city had to compete for them before awarding them to students. However, one of the Old Headmaster's disciples at Lin Xiao's No. 5 High School was an important figure at a Super Academy, so they could often secure spots.