Nine Aperture Awakenings

Linjiang First High School, Martial Arts Field.

"Once the human body reaches its limit, there is a certain chance of breaking through its physical shackles and becoming an Aperture Awakened, standing shoulder to shoulder with Talent Users."

"Although this is already my ninth attempt at Aperture Awakening, still..."

"Not enough!"

Jiang Yan's muscles bulged all over his body. He suddenly drove force through the soles of his feet and forcibly pried apart the Gravity Machine before him.

Boom!

A piercing explosion rang out across the Martial Arts Field. The Gravity Machine crashed to the ground, startling every student into stopping their training as their eyes turned in this direction.

Dust billowed everywhere, and a blurry figure lay on the ground.

"Jiang Yan, it's Jiang Yan! Could it be that he's finally awakened his apertures?"

"Holy shit, has the hardest-working person in the whole school finally achieved enlightenment?"

"Aperture Awakening my ass! He fucking trained himself half to death! Go call a teacher!"

Under countless watchful eyes, Jiang Yan was carried away.

In the School Infirmary, Jiang Yan slept in a stupor. His breathing was weak, his face pale, and he looked as though he were on his last breath.

When Wang Zhong, the homeroom teacher of Class Three at Linjiang City First High School, heard the news, he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. He was so furious that he cursed loudly in the office.

"How many times has this been this month? I already told that brat to know his limits, yet he fucking went and caused me another mess this huge."

Wang Zhong muttered under his breath, "The College Entrance Exam is just around the corner. You brat, don't you dare get yourself killed on me..."

The teachers from other classes had clearly heard of Jiang Yan's exploits as well, and they all tried to persuade Wang Zhong to calm down.

"Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down? Whether he awakens his apertures or not doesn't matter—what if someone dies?"

"No, I have to go take a look at that brat."

Wang Zhong hurried out of the office and rushed toward the infirmary.

Sure enough, the moment he entered the infirmary, Wang Zhong saw Jiang Yan lying on the hospital bed, barely clinging to life, his fate unknown.

"Jiang, if you're not dead, squeak."

"Squeak..."

A weak voice came from him, but it was enough to make Wang Zhong breathe a sigh of relief.

He strode to the bedside and kicked the bedframe irritably. "Do you know how dangerous that was?"

"Cough, cough... Teacher Wang, I want some peace and quiet."

"You can think of whoever you want, it won't help. From now on, you need my permission before going to the Martial Arts Field, understand?"

As he spoke, Wang Zhong took a bottle of green medicinal liquid from his pocket and forcibly poured it down Jiang Yan's throat.

Gulp, gulp—

After drinking the medicine, Jiang Yan's complexion improved greatly, and his voice was no longer so weak.

"Thanks, Uncle Wang."

"At school, address me by my title," Wang Zhong replied coldly.

"Thanks, Plant Wang."

Wang Zhong was so annoyed that he laughed. "You brat."

He let out a heavy sigh, and his voice sank.

"Sigh! If you die trying to awaken your apertures, how could I ever face your parents? I promised them I'd take good care of you."

Jiang Yan's expression grew complicated as he sank into old memories.

His name was Jiang Yan. He had transmigrated to Blue Star as an infant, and eighteen years had already passed.

This world was vastly different from his original one. It possessed the Extraordinary Power systems that had once existed only in fantasy.

Fierce Beasts, martial artists, races of the starry cosmos—these words had brought immense shock to Jiang Yan when he had first encountered this world.

Unfortunately, Jiang Yan's parents had died when he was young during an operation to clear Fierce Beasts outside the city.

As for Wang Zhong, he had once fought side by side with Jiang Yan's parents. After being injured and retiring, he came to teach at Linjiang First High School.

After Jiang Yan's parents died in battle, Wang Zhong took sole responsibility for raising him.

"Little Jiang, don't believe those rumors about so-called Postnatal Aperture Awakening. Look at the regular classes in our Linjiang First High School—if one person out of forty in a class successfully awakens their apertures, that would mean smoke was rising from their ancestral graves. You can't fight tooth and nail for something with odds this low."

Wang Zhong tried to persuade him with painstaking sincerity.

The martial path was divided into nine grades: Body Tempering, Blood Coagulation, Xiantian, Inner Gang, Mystic Mastery, Dust Severing, True Mystic, Celestial Phenomenon, and Peak Martial Saint.

Without exceptional talent and opportunity, one was destined to have no connection to the martial path.

Talent Users were the kind of people everyone called the most suited for martial cultivation.

Talent Users often awakened strange and unimaginable abilities before the age of eighteen.

For example, some grew stronger simply by eating, some broke through for no apparent reason after taking a nap, while others were born with an affinity for elemental energy and could unleash natural elements such as lightning and fire against their enemies, their combat power rising in a straight line.

Talent Users were the cream of the crop among martial artists, beings who stood proudly above the masses. They were among the talents Blue Star's government valued most and enjoyed privileges ordinary people could never receive in many areas.

Below Talent Users were the Aperture Awakened, people who generally awakened their talents after turning eighteen.

To awaken one's apertures, one had to think of every possible way to stimulate the body's potential and open its hidden treasures.

The poor did it Jiang Yan's way—training themselves to the brink of death, honing themselves, walking the line between life and death, perhaps earning a sliver of a chance to awaken their apertures.

The rich had a much simpler method. They could use expensive potions as assistance, relying on powerful medicinal effects to help themselves open their apertures.

The hierarchy of contempt among Blue Star's martial artists was crystal clear: Talent Users > Aperture Awakened > ordinary people.

Everyone in Jiang Yan's regular class was an ordinary person. Not a single one was a Talent User or had successfully achieved Postnatal Aperture Awakening.

One could easily imagine how difficult Aperture Awakening was.

The Talent Users had long since been placed in a separate class, enjoying the best educational and cultivation resources in the entire school, while the regular classes could only pick at the scraps they left behind.

Unwillingness filled Jiang Yan's eyes as he looked earnestly at Wang Zhong. "Uncle Wang, there's still one month until the College Entrance Exam. I still have a chance."

He was unwilling to accept it. As a transmigrator, if he could not experience the Extraordinary Power of this world, then what was the meaning of his transmigration?

"Uncle Wang, I don't want to give up."

"It's too dangerous."

"Resisting Fierce Beasts is dangerous too, but didn't you choose that path back then as well?"

Jiang Yan's words stirred Wang Zhong slightly. His thoughts churned as he recalled the days when he had fought Fierce Beasts. His lips moved, but he did not say a word.

A heart full of hot blood? A belly full of passion? He too had once risked his life time and again for a chance at Aperture Awakening, just like Jiang Yan.

"Perhaps I shouldn't stop this child from pursuing his dream... even if that dream is so remote."

That afternoon, Jiang Yan attended class as usual. From time to time, several probing gazes fell upon him.

They were the same kind of people as Jiang Yan—the very bottom rung of the martial artist hierarchy of contempt, people forever fated to have no connection to martial arts, whose lifetime achievements might stop at the First Grade Body Tempering Realm.

But they were also different from Jiang Yan. They had already submitted, yielding to their own fates. After suffering one or two failures, they had become content with their circumstances.

Aperture Awakening? To hell with it. I just want to lie flat.

Mockery? Contempt? Look down on me if you want. I'm trash anyway.

Being a beast of burden wasn't necessarily bad. At least they would not have to exhaust themselves fighting for a slim and uncertain chance.

After witnessing Jiang Yan's failure, they became even more convinced that ordinary people would always be ordinary people. Miracles like those in novels would never happen.

Jiang Yan had worked so hard and still failed. How could they possibly succeed?

After a single class, the entire classroom was filled with oppression and dead silence.

Jiang Yan's injuries had yet to recover. He lay facedown on his desk and slept through the afternoon, completely ignoring his classmates' strange looks.

Suddenly, a burst of commotion erupted.

"Chu Ming awakened his apertures! Chu Ming awakened his apertures!"

"What? Chu Ming from our class?"

"Yes, hurry and check the class group chat."

The entire class exploded into noise. In a regular class, Aperture Awakening was a bombshell. Whoever awakened their apertures first would instantly become the center of everyone's attention.

No one discussed whether Jiang Yan had failed anymore. Everyone took out their phones and opened the class group chat.

Meanwhile, in an unnoticed corner, a mechanical electronic voice rang out in Jiang Yan's muddled mind.

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