Drawing Qi

Candidates below:?

Linjiang City residents:??

Viewers who had poured in from other Live Stream Rooms:???

Candidates below: What is this? Tell your dad what that thing flying in the sky is?

"Cheat! Cheat! Holy—"

"No, I could still explain you running just now, but what the hell does it mean that you're flying directly now?"

"You can actually cheat on the College Entrance Exam? Fucking capital has ruined me again!"

The people who had just been speaking up for Jiang Yan no longer knew what to say.

Say he wasn't cheating? He was fucking flying. Say he was cheating? Jiang Yan was from Linjiang—how could they have the nerve to tell outsiders about something like this?

:It's over. I ate mushrooms this morning, and now I'm hallucinating when I look at things.

:I took off seven times last night. I feel dizzy now, and I can't see anything clearly.

:Kids, I think I'm not fully awake yet.

Jiang Yan's heaven-shocking spectacle was recorded into a video. Before long, it appeared across major social media platforms, its views surpassing ten million in a short time.

The comments below were a uniform sea of abuse.

"OP, your editing skills are great. Don't edit again next time."

"I see some people will throw away even their faces for traffic."

"To those who chop up videos and spread rumors, let me ask you something."

"Guy above, don't ask. There won't be a wallet."

The self-proclaimed neutral rationalists had already begun analyzing just how absurd the video was, laying it out logically and convincingly.

OP: Don't disbelieve it. If you've got the guts, go watch Stream 9527 yourself.

"Heh, I'll watch it. If it's fake, I'll be the first to report the OP."

Thus, huge numbers of people flooded into Jiang Yan's Live Stream Room.

Then they witnessed a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

Jiang Yan stomped heavily on the void, each step producing a terrifying, muffled boom. Yet those forceful, mountain-crushing steps did not burden him until he fell; instead, they carried his body hurtling toward the horizon.

BOOM!

Jiang Yan crashed heavily onto the summit of the Stairway to Godhood.

"Congratulations to Candidate 9527, Jiang Yan, for being the first to reach the summit. Reward: 300 points."

"Congratulations to Candidate 9527, Jiang Yan, for being the first to reach the summit. Reward: 300 points."

The female voice from last time rang out again, reaching the ears of candidates in every area and every viewer watching the live streams.

The next moment, Jiang Yan's figure flashed, and he appeared inside a hotel-like room. The live stream lost its image from that point on.

This announcement sent huge waves crashing through the candidates' hearts.

In another area.

A peerlessly handsome man holding a folding fan leisurely crossed one long stair after another, treating the pressure on his body as nothing. Seeing that only half the staircase remained before him, a mocking smile curved his lips.

Below him, everyone had been left far behind and could only gaze at his back.

"Is this all there is? What a disappoint—"

"Congratulations to Candidate 9527, Jiang Yan, for being the first to reach the summit. Reward: 300 points."

The folding-fan man's smile froze on his face.

He spent another minute rapidly climbing to the top, his face black as thunder.

"Congratulations to Candidate 1, Shang Xingren, for reaching the summit in second place. Reward: 200 points."

"Hahahaha, interesting. Truly interesting. It seems this Martial Exam won't be too boring after all."

His smile returned to his lips.

"Speak up, haters! All those who said I edited the video, get the fuck out here and apologize!"

On Douyin, Jiang Sheng—the blogger who had once been cursed so badly that only a bottle of Coke remained in his home, still wheezing—began fighting back through the comments.

Jiang Sheng: @xx Where are you now?

Jiang Sheng: @xxx Yo, weren't you barking pretty loudly just now? Where are you now?

Jiang Sheng: @xxxx Speak up, hater. Tell your dad who came first?

xxx: Bro, I was wrong. Stop @-ing me.

xx: Big bro, who could have imagined that kid could really fly? I apologize for what I said earlier.

A farce thus came to an end, while Jiang Yan's fame directly eclipsed the Two Capitals Prodigies and rose to the top of the trending searches.

"Shocking: A College Entrance Exam candidate openly takes flight in the examination grounds..."

With such a classic headline, ordinary people who clicked it would assume some clickbait account was exaggerating, but those who truly knew the truth understood—

It was merely stating the facts!

The media did not even need to hype things up, because this was simply Jiang Yan's everyday life.

At this moment, in Linjiang City.

Wang Zhong watched the Live Stream Room replay over and over, tears and snot streaming down his face.

"Fuck, that brat has become this promising already."

Snort—

Wang Zhong blew a wad of snot into a tissue, his eyes red-rimmed.

"Damn it, if that brat finds out I cried like this, I won't be able to show my face."

Snort—

"As expected of a descendant of the Old Jiang Family. He's got guts, just like his old man!"

Jiang Yan had no idea how much of a commotion his actions had caused outside. At this moment, he stood in a luxurious hotel room, staring at the furnishings before him in disbelief.

"Could it be that every candidate on Blue Star receives treatment this good?"

If that were true, the authorities' generosity would be absurdly extravagant.

Meanwhile, Shang Xingren stared dark-faced at the barren wasteland before him. Left with no choice, he sat cross-legged and began meditating.

The unique treatment for first place.

Jiang Yan lay on the soft bed. Estimating that nearly twelve hours remained in this round of the exam, he closed his eyes, and his consciousness entered the Divine Martial Space.

Inside the study room, Jiang Yan sat cross-legged, meditating as he sensed the existence of "qi."

"You are meditating to sense qi. Your sensitivity to qi has slightly improved."

There was no qi within the Divine Martial Space, yet it connected his senses to the outside world.

Jiang Yan could already slowly draw the qi in the air toward himself, but he did not do so.

The First Mother Qi was extremely important to martial artists, even greatly affecting the height they could reach in the future. Jiang Yan did not want to waste this one and only opportunity.

What exactly was the strongest qi like?

Jiang Yan had no way of knowing, but Heaven Rewards Diligence continued working silently.

"You are diligently searching for 'qi.' Your ability to find high-quality qi has slightly improved."

"You are diligently searching for 'qi.' Your ability to find high-quality qi has slightly improved."

Time passed second by second.

Jiang Yan slowly opened his eyes, seeming to have gained some insight.

"I think... I have a bit of a lead."

He continued sinking into meditation.

Within the void, he seemed to see a strand of strange divine light.

This was clearly an Alternate Space opened by the Space Martial Saint, yet Jiang Yan's Spiritual Sense seemed to pass through every barrier, directly resonating with the starry sky beyond the domain.

In the unseen vastness, from the universe's boundless wilds, an unfathomable aura drifted toward Jiang Yan.

Jiang Yan's breathing grew smooth, the pores across his body relaxed, and his entire being sank into a wondrous sensation.

BOOM!

Suddenly, a streak of golden light transformed into a meteor and smashed toward Jiang Yan.