His mother shoved him back into his room. His wristwatch vibrated, and when he looked down, he saw an official message from the school's academic affairs system.
[Linjiang District Third High School Notice: Lin Ye, congratulations on your official selection for our "Key Cultivation Program." Your access to relevant resources has been activated. Please log in to the school platform to review the policies and usage instructions. With the High School Entrance Exam approaching, we hope you will continue striving and enjoy a bright future.]
The message was brief and official. Lin Ye stared at the screen for several seconds before slowly letting out a breath. A weighty sense of being formally recognized welled up inside him. This wasn't just a teacher's verbal notice; it was a complete system of rules and procedures that he could look up and put into practice.
Following the instructions in the message, he logged in to the school's official platform with his student account. Sure enough, a prominent gold-bordered link had appeared on the webpage: [Key Cultivation Program · Exclusive Resources].
After he clicked it, a Key Cultivation Program Student Pledge popped up. It ran to more than a dozen pages, but the core terms boiled down to a few points: resources were for personal use only and could not be transferred or sold; students had to take regular assessments, and their qualifications would be revoked if their progress fell below the standard; after the High School Entrance Exam, resources would have to be repaid proportionally or bought out if a student failed to get into a Martial Arts University, depending on their final admission results.
The terms seemed rather strict, but Lin Ye skimmed them and found that the standards were actually not very high. Take the Blood Qi Value requirement in the second clause: students had to gain at least fifteen points per month. He reckoned the school's resources could help even a pig improve by fifteen points in a month. There was no need to worry about the third clause, either. Including him, there were five students in the program, and Lin Ye thought it extremely unlikely any of them would fail to get into an ordinary Martial Arts University. After all, the cutoff score for ordinary Martial Arts Universities the previous year had been around 420 after conversion—not very high.
Once he had confirmed that he hadn't missed anything, Lin Ye signed his name in the electronic signature field at the end of the pledge.
After he submitted his signature, the full list of resources finally opened up.
The Key Cultivation Program's resource page was clearly laid out, listing their resources by category.
Daily resources: F-Grade Nutrient (available for pickup at the on-campus pharmacy)
Weekly resources: Gravity Chamber training (twice, four hours each); Medicinal Bath Body Tempering (once)
Meal resources: Deluxe nutrition meals (free pickup at the paid cafeteria counter with a Campus Card)
Knowledge resources: borrowing access to D-Grade Martial Arts and below (limited to one at a time, due by the end of the semester)
After reading the list, Lin Ye saw that everything matched what Teacher Zheng had told him.
His gaze traveled down the list and finally settled on the last item: borrowing access to D-Grade Martial Arts.
His breathing quickened slightly. The access had come at just the right time.
In this world, martial arts copyright protections were extremely strict—or rather, the barriers to knowledge were incredibly high.
Basic, unranked martial arts could be found in public lessons and inexpensive materials on the market. But once a martial art was ranked, even if it was the lowest D-Grade, everything changed.
It was said that ranked martial arts touched upon "principles"—the very things that truly separated one martial artist from another. As a result, every ranked martial art was protected by the Martial Arts Intellectual Property Law. Learning or spreading one without authorization wasn't merely an ethical issue; it was a serious crime.
Their homeroom teacher, Chen Guo'an, had once told them that more than twenty years ago, a Mortal Shedding Realm martial artist had secretly spread a Martial Arts Master's techniques without authorization. When the Martial Arts Master who had created them found out, he hunted the man down and killed him. The aftershocks of their battle had affected most of the district, causing considerable damage to nearby residents and buildings. Ever since, unauthorized study or dissemination of ranked martial arts had been considered an extremely serious crime. No one had dared to cross that line—not openly, anyway. Those who did cross it wouldn't dare show it in public.
So ordinary people had only three ways to learn them.
First: pay to buy access. But even the most ordinary D-Grade Martial Art usually cost more than 100,000 Great Xia Currency to obtain a learning license.
Second: join an organization that owned the copyright to the martial art, such as a school, martial arts school, the military, or a company. Members could receive permission to learn or get a discount on the licensing fee. Quite a few students at the school took this route. A D-Grade Martial Art that might cost 100,000 yuan outside could be bought for just 10,000 yuan by a student—but each student could only buy two. The cost was still steep for Lin Ye, but this was already the best way for most ordinary martial artists to get access to ranked martial arts.
Third: receive private instruction through a fortuitous opportunity. This also had to be registered with the Martial Arts Association, and such chances were few and far between.
So before, with no money to spare, Lin Ye could only ask Teacher Zheng if he knew of a way to help. But now, free borrowing access lay quietly in the resource list.
Without the slightest hesitation, he clicked the link under [Knowledge Resources]. The system automatically took him to the school's sprawling [Martial Arts Database] submodule.
It contained some of the martial arts Linjiang No. 3 High School had accumulated, purchased, or acquired licenses for over the decades. Most were D-Grade, while the conditions for borrowing the handful of C-Grade Martial Arts were so harsh they were enough to crush anyone's hopes. A filter bar at the top of the page divided them into categories: fist techniques, leg techniques, movement techniques, weapons, hardening techniques, Breathing Techniques, and more.
Lin Ye's gaze went straight to the [Movement Techniques] category.
He still clearly remembered reviewing his performance in the Martial Dao Ranking Tournament. Movement techniques were his greatest weakness right now, so with only one martial art available to borrow, prioritizing a movement technique was the best choice.
"I need a movement technique."
Inside the Virtual Pod, he murmured to himself as his finger scrolled across the screen.
Willow Catkin Wind-Following Steps (D-Grade): Focuses on long-distance dashes and evasion. Requires delicate control of Blood Qi.
Eight-Step Cicada Chaser (D-Grade): A burst-style movement technique for straight-line charges, with powerful acceleration but limited turning ability. Consumes a great deal of Blood Qi. Note: Prerequisite: Late Body Tempering Stage; exceptional leg strength.
Swallow Skimming Water (D-Grade): Focuses on lightness and is suitable for clearing obstacles, dodging attacks, and making nimble shifts. Requires a strong sense of balance and a powerful core.
Lost Track Steps (D-Grade): Focuses on quick changes of direction over short distances to confuse opponents. The steps are elusive and unpredictable, requiring an excellent sense of space and rhythm.
After studying the descriptions for a while, Lin Ye's gaze wandered between Swallow Skimming Water and Lost Track Steps, before finally settling on Lost Track Steps.
Without a doubt, the words "short-range movement," "confuse opponents," and "elusive and unpredictable steps" struck a chord with him. He didn't need to dash over long distances, and he thought the forward momentum of Rolling Stone Fist could make up for a lack of straight-line bursts. What he needed most was the ability to quickly adjust his position in a confined space, create openings, or break free from an opponent's lock-on.
During the earlier Virtual Combat, if he'd had a movement technique like this, he might have ended the second round faster. He probably could have lasted a few more moves in the third round, too.
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