Unlike the Life Force test, which focused on mobilizing one's sense of qi and stimulating the body, the Mental Strength test was a little different. It required a gentler warm-up.
A moment later, a relatively intelligent, gentle female voice sounded in Qin Shi's ear:
"Relax. Take a deep breath..."
Soft instrumental music flowed through the room, like an invisible hand massaging his mind, helping him calm down and relax his muscles.
Next, cool sensor patches were placed on both his temples and the center of his forehead.
A film, similar to a VR headset, covered his face, feeling moist, breathable, and gentle against his skin.
Once all the preparations were complete, the gentle voice spoke again:
"The game is starting. Here are the instructions..."
Qin Shi's vision first went pitch-black, like a heavy curtain. Then, countless irregularly moving points of light flashed into view.
He had to track them with his eyes, locking onto them as their numbers grew from seven or eight to dozens, then hundreds.
Like a video game, their speed would keep increasing, and their paths would grow more and more complicated.
"I only made it to level eight. I wonder how that compares."
Five minutes later, Qin Shi finished the preliminary test, which had been like a little game.
Before long, the pitch-black background lit up again.
This time, moving targets crisscrossed the screen. Their number and difficulty would also keep increasing.
"Level eleven. I smashed 375 targets."
Qin Shi thought:
I have to do more than lock onto the targets and focus my eyes. I also have to channel an urge to destroy them.
Fortunately, the moist film on his face quietly soothed his eyes, keeping them from getting too sore and tired.
As the background turned pitch-black again, beams of red laser shot toward him at varying speeds and along different trajectories.
Qin Shi had to control his character to dodge them. Grazing the edge of his body drained his health bar, while a direct hit to a vital spot meant instant death.
"Two minutes, 120 seconds. Level four."
In the tests that followed, Qin Shi took on one seemingly simple but actually difficult "game" after another.
He thought his scores weren't too bad. At least he hadn't been knocked out in the first level.
But Lin Yunqing, at the control panel, grew more and more solemn. Her bright eyes stayed fixed on the extraordinarily active Mental Strength readings, which were soaring like a fighter jet shooting straight into the clouds!
These little games were meant to get the test subject's brain working faster, like warming up a car engine after turning the ignition.
As Qin Shi cleared one game after another, his mind naturally became intensely focused, producing a fluctuating line much like an electrocardiogram.
Right now, that line was rising at an astonishing rate, like the once-in-a-lifetime bull market of the A-share market!
"Attention, nerve response speed, sensory acuity... Not one of them is below eighty! Could Little Qin Assistant Teacher have broken through the Spirit Gate limit instead of the Sinew Gate limit?"
The excitement Lin Yunqing had felt at first vanished, replaced by incredulity and shock.
If Qin Shi had reached this level of Mental Strength without breaking through the Spirit Gate limit, there was only one possibility:
He was a natural-born practitioner of the mind!
"Mechanics have to communicate with machine spirits. Psionicists need to project their consciousness over long distances, set Anchor coordinates, and navigate... So these paths require not only Life Force, but a high level of mental cultivation, too."
Lin Yunqing's expression suddenly twisted, as if she'd been happily shopping with her paycheck only to realize she'd gone over budget.
Or as if she'd caught a faint whiff of beef, only to find she had no money to buy in big and make a killing!
Now she faced two choices.
Either give up, grit her teeth, and walk away—or go all in, then spend the rest of her days eating steamed buns and boiled noodles.
Either liquidate everything and never touch it again—or sell her car and house, take out a loan, and bet everything on one big play!
"If Martial Artists are the most popular profession, then mechanics are the best career choice.
"New star development, base construction, Divine Mecha maintenance, component welding... Once you become a mechanic and get certified, you can choose from over a thousand technical jobs. It's basically a guaranteed job for life.
"And Psionicists need no explanation. They're the fabled aristocratic profession, an Eastern Xia T0-tier path! Even young masters from the Imperial Capital and heirs from Haizhou have to defer to Psionicists whose future jobs are 'bridge commander' or 'star-sea navigator'!"
Lin Yunqing was as frantic as an ant on a hot pan. The feeling of finding an untouched gold mine but having only a pickaxe in hand left her unusually restless.
"Mechanics need certifications. For the most sought-after, perpetually understaffed technical jobs like 'advanced core welding,' 'machine spirit maintenance,' and 'machine spirit installation and awakening,' the first three years of investment would run into tens of millions.
"Psionicists are even trickier. You have to get into one of the Four Great National Universities to even study the related fields. And unless you spend three to five years mastering the skill of mental exploration, you won't be able to graduate."
Lin Yunqing, who had never thought of herself as short on money, slumped in her chair, feeling the helplessness poverty brought.
Compared to the boundless prospects of "mechanics" and "Psionicists," Martial Artists were completely ordinary, working-class professionals.
Those people could become "senior engineers," "Divine Mecha chief designers," "star-sea corps officers," or "Think Tank researchers."
"They're all starting at annual salaries in the tens of millions, with government benefits. Some even get decorated and appointed as leaders. High-powered, able to get things done—blue-chip stocks through and through."
Lin Yunqing covered her face with both hands. As the fluctuating line on the control panel settled, it stopped at "15" as well. Her thoughts grew even more tangled, as if she'd missed out on a winning lottery ticket.
"Graduates from ten graduating classes at Qiguang Hengda University, before and after this one, could barely scrape together a handful who cultivated both Life Force and the mind. They're all in huge demand. Usually, the Four Great National Universities snap up promising talents like this. There's no way to keep them... Wait, I've got it!"
Lin Yunqing spun her phone around, unlocked it, opened the group chat [Cosmic Pretty Girl Girl Group (5)], and tapped out a message.
[Super Invincible Tyrannosaurus God of War: My luck's through the roof! I pulled an SSR in a single draw, but I can't afford to build it. What should I do? Help, urgent.]
A few seconds later.
[Heaven-Shaking Wave-Slaying: Sell the account. I'm a student, so I'll take it for free. Thanks.]
[Super Invincible Tyrannosaurus God of War: Get lost!]
A little while later, someone else joined the chat.
[Milky White Snow Child: Obviously, use other people's money to build your own card. Listen to me: rent the account out to unlucky players. You'll make money and save yourself the expense.]
[Wearing Sophie Shows My Divine Might: Ah Xue has a point. Crowdfunding to build the card is the way to go. SSRs are so rare, someone's bound to be willing to pay.]
[Lightning Whirlwind Chop: Lin Yunqing, you bitch! Don't let me see you! If I do, I'll beat the crap out of you every time!*******]
Watching the messages flash by, Lin Yunqing sank into thought.
[You added "Lightning Whirlwind Chop" as a friend.]
[Super Invincible Tyrannosaurus God of War: Sweetie, I've got an A+ project that can't lose money. What do you think? Want in?]
[Message sent, but rejected by the recipient.]
Lin Yunqing persisted, continuing to add her as a friend.
[Lightning Whirlwind Chop: Has that Old Martial Arts hottie come back from the dead?]
[Super Invincible Tyrannosaurus God of War: Wrong. He's now a prospective chief designer at Santan Heavy Industry, a reserve officer in the star-sea corps, and a genius young Old Martial Arts practitioner with a shot at becoming a Martial Artist.]
[Lightning Whirlwind Chop: Too many people. My place can't fit them all.]
[Super Invincible Tyrannosaurus God of War: It's legit. Life Force: fifteen. Mental Strength: fifteen. Still underage, can be sweet or salty, and knows how to hit women.]
[Lightning Whirlwind Chop: I'd sooner believe you found He Lanchán's Heavenly Imperial Secret Treasure.]
Lin Yunqing raised her phone and snapped a few photos, then sent over the Life Force and Mental Strength test results.
Then she coolly blocked and deleted her friend.
Got you, little guy. Piece of cake!
Next, she messaged her big brother, Lin Xiaohan.
[Sweetie: Bro, how much financial aid can an incoming student at Qiguang Hengda University apply for?]
[Lin Xiaohan: Depends on the student's talent and potential. They'll make an overall assessment.]
[Sweetie: What if I told you there was a high school senior under eighteen, with a Life Force of fifteen and Mental Strength of fifteen, following the Old Martial Arts path and having just broken through the first limit of the flesh? And the Four Great National Universities and the Martial Arts Association haven't discovered him yet.]
[Sweetie: How much is he worth?]
[Lin Xiaohan: Out of money again? I get it. So, what are you planning to buy, and how much are you short?]
[Lin Xiaohan: Next time, put more thought into your excuse. That story's obviously fake.]
[Sweetie: It's true! Urgent.JPG]
[Lin Xiaohan: Sis, here's a fun fact. According to the list of extraordinary paths in Eastern Xia published by North China Imperial Capital, the "spirituality" and "vitality" of a mortal body are usually mutually exclusive.]
[Lin Xiaohan: Otherwise, why do you think that in thousands of years of Great Reclamation in Eastern Xia, no one has ever attained both "Martial God" and "Mind Grandmaster"?]
[Lin Xiaohan: The closest cases so far are Yan Haishan, who attained Martial God through the body and came close to spiritual manifestation in the mind, and He Lanchán, who achieved spiritual manifestation in the mind but fell a little short physically—Half-step Martial God.]
[Lin Xiaohan: If that high school senior you mentioned can break thirty in Life Force and reach at least twenty-five in Mental Strength, all Four Great National Universities will recruit him specially.]
Lin Yunqing stared blankly as she closed the messaging app, then looked up at Qin Shi emerging from the testing pod.
Good grief!
Her dad had dumped her at the Youth Palace to reflect on her mistakes, and she'd ended up finding a peerless genius with Spirit-Flesh Union!
Was the protagonist template of a haughty, invincible heroine—the one she'd waited twenty-two years for—finally about to activate?
<The Noble City Girl Picks Up an Old Martial Arts Puppy Boy—Love Me, Don't Stop!>
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