Freshman Monthly Competition

Back in his room, no longer thinking about the Class Leader, Lin Ming took out the Storage Ring Master Toso had given him as a farewell gift that day. At the time, he had only given it a hurried glance and had not examined it closely. Naturally, he could not take such valuable things out during the flight, so even now, he still did not know exactly what was inside.

He opened the Storage Ring and took out all the pills and pill formulas within. Before Lin Ming lay dozens of Jade Bottles and more than a dozen pill formulas.

Lin Ming first identified the pills. The most useful ones to him were the twenty Qi Replenishing Pills, while the rest were various healing pills. After figuring out the pills, Lin Ming looked through the pill formulas one by one.

After reading through the pill formulas, Lin Ming was overjoyed. When he had looked at the pills earlier, he had found it strange that there were only recovery and healing pills, with not a single one capable of raising cultivation.

Only then did he understand. The family—or, more precisely, Master Toso—had deliberately withheld Finished Pills that could raise his cultivation so that he would not fall behind in alchemy while studying at Jia Nan Academy. Instead, he had replaced them with the corresponding pill formulas and medicinal materials.

Lin Ming stared at the dozen or so pill formulas and fell into thought, because they were simply too valuable. Aside from two Second Tier Pill Formulas, all the rest were above Tier Two.

Third Tier Pill Formulas made up half of them. One formula recorded a pill called the Liquid Energy Pill, which was suitable for Lin Ming's current Dou Master stage and could raise his cultivation. Taking one Liquid Energy Pill could allow a Dou Master-stage cultivator to advance by One Star within half a month. However, a person could only take two in their lifetime. Taking more than two would not only fail to improve cultivation, but would also disrupt one's originally pure Dou Qi and instead slow cultivation speed. Furthermore, after taking one Liquid Energy Pill, one had to wait three months before taking the next. Even so, being able to take two would save Lin Ming three or four months, so he was very satisfied. Besides the Liquid Energy Pill, the Third Tier Pill Formulas also included the formula for the Qi Replenishing Pill. There were eight Third Tier pill formulas in total.

There were also four Fourth-Order pill formulas. Among them, the formula for a pill called the Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill moved Lin Ming the most. Taking one Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill could directly raise a Da Dou Shi cultivator's cultivation by One Star, and one could likewise take two of them. However, refining the Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill, a pill at the Tier 4 Peak, was not so easy. Lin Ming suspected that even Master Toso's Pill Formation Rate for this pill would not exceed thirty percent, so there was no need for him to even think about it now. Still, he could give it a try after advancing to the Da Dou Shi realm.

Looking at the final two pill formulas, Lin Ming was startled. They were actually Fifth Tier Pill Formulas, and one of them was even the well-known Spirit Dou Pill.

The Spirit Dou Pill was a pill that only those with Dou King cultivation could consume, and its effect was extremely simple: it could directly raise a Dou King's cultivation by One Star without side effects. Although one could only take one in a lifetime, at the Dou King stage, raising one's cultivation by One Star could take one or two years, or even several years. Thus, the temptation of directly advancing by One Star was enormous.

Lin Ming was a little dumbfounded himself. Did Master Toso really think so highly of me? Did he think I could rise from second-grade alchemy to a Tier 5 Alchemist within four years? You had been stuck as a 4th Grade Alchemist for more than a decade, yet you still had not broken through to become a Tier 5 Alchemist.

After reading the pill formulas, Lin Ming also found enough medicinal materials in the Storage Ring Master Toso had given him to refine three batches of Liquid Energy Pills and three batches of Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pills.

Those were all the things Master Toso had placed in Lin Ming's Storage Ring, worth as much as two or Three Million Gold Coins. Even for the family, that was no small sum. I can only repay it in the future. With that thought in mind, Lin Ming began opening the final meridians of the Mountain Rushing Flood Fist.

As a two-handed fist technique, the Mountain Rushing Flood Fist required nearly twice as many meridians as an ordinary Profound Tier High-grade Dou Technique. During the month-long journey from the Jia Ma Empire aboard the Griffon Beast, Lin Ming had already circulated the meridians needed to cultivate the Mountain Rushing Flood Fist almost completely. He expected to complete the formal circulation within the next day or two.

On the second night, Lin Ming formally completed the circulation of the Mountain Rushing Flood Fist. He threw a punch through the air with one hand, leaving a Fist Print on the wall opposite him. Looking at the Fist Print on the wall, Lin Ming burst into laughter. It truly deserved to be a Profound Tier High-grade Dou Technique. With the Mountain Rushing Flood Fist, Lin Ming had achieved the ability to release Dou Qi beyond his body and injure opponents from a distance, something only Dou Ling cultivators could normally do. And this was only the power of Mountain Rushing unleashed with his left hand. If he used both hands together, he could probably punch straight through a wall from afar.

With that left-handed Mountain Rushing attack, it meant that Lin Ming had completed the cultivation of the Mountain Rushing Flood Fist. He only needed to find time to practice it more often. Releasing it instantly would merely be a matter of time.

Next, it was time to cultivate Dou Qi! He would strive to break through to a Three-Star Dou Master within this month. Then next month, he would go see what Jia Nan Academy's Alchemy Department was really like.

During the following days, apart from his two days of classes each week, Lin Ming spent his mornings familiarizing himself with the Mountain Rushing Flood Fist. During the hottest An Hour at noon, he cultivated the Earth Tier Dou Technique, the Blazing Sun Saber Technique, on the rooftop. The Profound Tier High-grade Mountain Rushing Flood Fist was enough for Lin Ming to use now, so for the Blazing Sun Saber Technique, which he was in no hurry to use, he only used the noon hour when the technique could achieve twice the result with half the effort. He spent nearly all his remaining time raising his Dou Qi cultivation.

After more than half a month, Lin Ming finally broke through from a Two-Star Dou Master to a Three-Star Dou Master just before the end of the month. He had also been at Jia Nan Academy for nearly a month.

Tomorrow was the last day of the month, so he would relax and rest. The day after tomorrow, he would go take a look at the Academy's Alchemy Department.

"Knock, knock, knock." A burst of knocking sounded outside Lin Ming's door. Lin Ming thought about it. He had basically been cultivating the entire time and had not met many people. Who would come looking for him?

"Coming!" Though he had no idea who it was, he decided to take a look. He had finished cultivating anyway.

"Lin Xiuyai, what do you need me for?" Opening the door and seeing Lin Xiuyai outside, Lin Ming asked in confusion. Although Lin Ming knew this person from the original story, they had not interacted much in daily life, so he did not know why Lin Xiuyai had come to find him.

"Class Leader, no wonder your cultivation is so high. Every day, you're either cultivating or on your way to cultivate. We can hardly ever see you outside." Lin Xiuyai immediately showered Lin Ming with praise, leaving Lin Ming unsure what he was after. Lin Xiuyai was not such a flattering person in the original story! Could it be that his leg was too thick, making them want to cling to him?

"Get to the point." After considering it, Lin Ming felt that Lin Xiuyai was probably not that sort of person and told him to be direct.

"It's like this, Class Leader. Aside from the Outer Academy Tournament held at the end of every year and the Inner Academy Examination in the middle of the year, which requires an Instructor's nomination to register, students of the same year also hold a class ranking competition at the end of every month."

"Although the monthly same-year competition is not mandatory, basically everyone participates. That is because the rankings directly affect how many resources each class receives the following month, and they also have some impact on Instructor evaluations."

"Tomorrow is the end of the month, and our freshmen's first monthly competition will be held tomorrow. The students want you to lead us in this first monthly competition and establish the prestige of Black Tier Class One."

"Of course, if you are busy and have no time to participate in future monthly competitions, the rest of us will be enough."

Lin Xiuyai was also a genius. Among the freshmen, aside from Lin Ming, an insurmountable mountain whose peak could not even be seen, he feared no one else. The reason he had come to invite Lin Ming to participate in this monthly competition was also because the students had collectively discussed it and decided to do so for safety's sake. And since Lin Xiuyai was the strongest person in Black Tier Class One apart from Lin Ming, the task of inviting Lin Ming had fallen to him.

Lin Ming understood what Lin Xiuyai meant. Since tomorrow's monthly competition was the freshmen's first after entering the Academy, they wanted Lin Ming, a Dou Master, to give the other classes a show of force. As for whether Lin Ming would participate afterward, that would depend on his mood.

"Alright. Go notify everyone else. Gather in the classroom tomorrow morning, and I'll lead you in this monthly competition." He was resting tomorrow anyway, and having something to do was fine. He could go take a look and do something for the class. Thus, Lin Ming agreed.

"Alright, Class Leader. I'll notify the others right away." Lin Xiuyai finished speaking and turned to run. He had probably felt that he had fulfilled the students' request and was eager to tell them the news.

Early the next morning, when Lin Ming arrived in the classroom and saw that all the students had already gathered, he thought that they were not bad—they were all quite punctual.

"Since everyone is here, let's go!" Lin Ming finished speaking and led the students toward the site of the monthly competition. As for how Lin Ming knew where it was being held, naturally, someone knew and could show him the way.

After walking for nearly half an hour, the group arrived at a plaza. At that moment, quite a few people were already seated around it.

"Class Leader, our class's seats are over here." After they arrived at the plaza, Han Yue pointed to an empty area and spoke.

"Then everyone, head over there." Lin Ming led everyone toward their class's seats.

After everyone from his class had taken their places, Lin Ming asked Lin Xiuyai beside him how much longer it would be before the monthly competition began.

"Class Leader, it looks like there's still about half an hour," Lin Xiuyai replied.

"Lin Xiuyai, I hope your Black Tier Class One can hold its ground in the class battles later. If your arena is breached during the first monthly competition, then Black Tier Class One, the nominally top class of the Outer Academy, will truly be humiliated." Just as Lin Xiuyai finished answering Lin Ming, a voice came from the neighboring class.

"Heh heh, Liu Qing. You should worry about your Black Tier Class Two instead. If the nominally second-ranked class of the Outer Academy falls too far behind our Black Tier Class One, then that would be truly humiliating."

Liu Qing? That guy who ranked third on the Strong Ranking in the Inner Academy in the original story?

Hearing Lin Xiuyai's retort, Lin Ming looked toward the source of the voice. He saw a powerfully built man with a square face, thick eyebrows, and a black spear on his back, glaring provocatively at Black Tier Class One.

Seeing the two of them poised for confrontation, Lin Ming said with a wicked smile, "Heh heh, this is getting interesting."