Green Seedling Program

Han Zhen brought Chen Mochuan back to the office. With the most important matter resolved, he finally had the mood to consider other issues.

"Is Li Biao, like you, also someone who recently awakened a Spirit Talent?"

Unlike the low-key and reserved Chen Mochuan, the changes in Li Biao had been quite obvious lately.

Perhaps others couldn't tell, but based on Han Zhen's understanding of Li Biao, about half a month ago, this student had "I've taken off" written all over his face.

Han Zhen had also happened to notice Li Biao's suddenly increased appetite recently. Combining this with Chen Mochuan's situation, he already had his suspicions.

Chen Mochuan was slightly stunned, not expecting Han Zhen's observations to be so meticulous.

He didn't want to lie to Han Zhen, but without Li Biao's consent, he wouldn't reveal his awakening to anyone else, so he could only say, "Teacher, it would be better if you asked him about that yourself."

Upon hearing this, Han Zhen understood immediately.

Given the relationship between Chen and Li, information was surely shared. Since Chen Mochuan didn't deny it, it was highly likely that Li Biao had indeed awakened a Spirit Talent.

As far as he knew, among the seniors at First High School, another student had awakened a Spirit Talent this week, bringing their total to six.

Compared to the situation at Eighth High School, where only two had awakened previously, this had already formed a crushing posture.

Although on the path of martial arts cultivation, awakening a Spirit Talent didn't necessarily mean one would go further—there were plenty of top-tier powerhouses who hadn't awakened one—it was undeniable that Spirit Talent holders progressed much faster in the early stages than the vast majority of those who hadn't.

Beyond the overall graduation rate, what high schools valued most was the admission rate into top-tier prestigious universities, and the high school stage was precisely the best time for awakened individuals to exert their strength and widen the gap between themselves and others.

Although Eighth High School being suppressed by First High School in the Martial Arts Department was already the norm, the gap between the two schools this year was simply too large.

In the last city-wide unified exam, First High School not only had a significantly higher average score in the Martial Arts Department than Eighth High School, but the number of students in the high-scoring bracket also steadily surpassed them.

Now, the crushing number of awakened students had created a sense of urgency among the school leaders at Eighth High School. The principal had even held several meetings specifically for this matter to discuss countermeasures.

But Spirit Talent awakening was an objective and private matter; no matter how anxious the school leaders and teachers were, they couldn't influence it, and there were no good ways to respond.

They could only start increasing financial aid rewards for Martial Arts Department students from this month on, hoping to narrow the overall gap with First High School.

Han Zhen had also been unable to rest well recently because of this, which was one of the reasons he had taken the initiative to talk to Chen Mochuan today.

Fortunately, the result did not disappoint him. With this, including Chen and Li, the number of awakened students among the seniors in the Eighth High School Martial Arts Department had reached four.

The heavy stone that had been weighing on his heart finally fell to the ground.

In the afternoon, at the Eighth High School principal's office.

Principal Wang Binren received a report application submitted after the initial review by the Academic Affairs Office, which required his final approval.

Seeing the words "Spirit Talent Awakening" on the cover, he couldn't help but feel a surge of joy and hurriedly opened the document to examine it.

"Huh... is it him?"

Wang Binren had a very deep impression of this student named Chen Mochuan.

In his first year, Chen Mochuan had gone from the bottom of the key class to the top three in the grade in just two semesters. He had once placed high hopes on him, believing he was a candidate for the top martial arts student and had the potential to challenge "The Big Six."

However, in his second year, his body developed issues, his blood-qi value growth became extremely slow, and he gradually faded into the crowd, falling off his list of key students to watch.

He hadn't expected him to have awakened a Spirit Talent now.

"Could his abnormal blood-qi growth back then have been caused by the transformation period of a Spirit Talent awakening? But where is there such a long transformation period?"

Temporarily suppressing the doubts in his heart, Wang Binren continued to read on.

In addition to the Spirit Talent test results, the application report contained some of Chen Mochuan's personal information and physical data, as well as Han Zhen's very objective evaluation of him.

"His blood-qi value rose from 2.92 to 3.66 in just over half a month..."

Wang Binren was surprised once again. He knew that after awakening a Spirit Talent, because the body had just undergone a transformation, there would be an explosive period of rapid blood-qi growth, after which the growth rate would tend toward a relatively normal level.

Therefore, the initial stage of awakening could not be seen as the norm for blood-qi growth, but Chen Mochuan's rate of increase was truly astonishing. At the very least, when Jiang Hao and Su Zhining had just awakened their Spirit Talents, the growth hadn't been this large.

"His mastery of martial arts techniques is also progressing rapidly... Could it be that he awakened a Mysterious-grade Spirit Talent?"

Although the difficulty of awakening a Spirit Talent was quite high, counting as one in a thousand, according to the strength of the abilities displayed by various Spirit Talents, they were divided into four grades: Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, and Yellow.

Jiang Hao and Su Zhining hadn't reported the specific abilities of their Spirit Talents to the school, but through long-term observation, Wang Binren could roughly judge that their Spirit Talents were likely only Yellow-grade.

The talent Chen Mochuan was currently displaying was clearly higher than those two, so reaching the Mysterious-grade shouldn't be a problem.

"In addition to the school's financial aid resources, I'll apply for the 'Green Seedling Program' scholarship for him as well."

Even as the principal of a county-level city high school, Wang Binren still possessed some resources and information that ordinary teachers could not access.

The "Green Seedling Program" was a special cultivation program launched by Hua Nation specifically for high school students to encourage and discover young martial arts talent.

Wang Binren had previously applied for the "Green Seedling Program" scholarship for the top ten students at Eighth High School, but only Jiang Hao, Su Zhining, and two other students had passed the lowest-level Grade D review.

These four students could receive a considerable scholarship every month while attending high school.

And that was just the lowest Grade D. It was said that for the top-tier Grade A, in addition to money, there was also the opportunity to obtain some martial arts resources that were difficult to acquire on the open market.

Wang Binren logged into the website to apply for the "Green Seedling Program," uploaded Chen Mochuan's Spirit Talent test report, and explained his progress over the past half-month one by one, while also attaching his own judgment that his Spirit Talent might reach the Mysterious-grade.

Upon final submission, Wang Binren looked at the four options: "Grade A, Grade B, Grade C, and Grade D."

"There's definitely no problem with Grade D for his situation, but his blood-qi value is really too low; Grade C might be a stretch..."

After a brief moment of hesitation, Wang Binren still chose to apply for the third tier, "Grade C."

Although the application for "Grade C" might be slightly troublesome, it would at most mean the review team would call him to ask about Chen Mochuan's specific situation, followed by another round of evaluation.

This wouldn't take up too much of his energy, and he had to give it a try; who knew, maybe he would actually get approved?

After submitting the application, Wang Binren was in quite a good mood, and he suddenly remembered that there was still a "Dream Iris" seed in his drawer.

When this flower bloomed, it was extremely magnificent, but its requirements for soil, sunlight, humidity, and other growth environments were very harsh, making it difficult to cultivate.

As a master of flower cultivation, Wang Binren had tried to grow this flower many times over the past two years, all of which ended in failure, and he only had this one seed left in his hand.

Feeling a sudden impulse, he cleared out a flowerpot and planted the last remaining "Dream Iris" seed into the potting soil.

"I hope it can bloom this time," he murmured, his eyes filled with anticipation, as if he were looking forward to both the seed and Chen Mochuan growing up strong.