The morning sunlight filtered through a gap in the curtains, rousing him from sleep.
"Getting to bed early really is comfortable." Li Wen stretched lazily, contentment washing over him as the last traces of sleepiness vanished.
By habit, he gave the thought a slight nudge, and a translucent virtual panel unfolded before his eyes.
[Name: Li Wen]
[Age: 18]
[Realm: Unranked (6.2→6.3)]
[Profession: Scholar lv3 (101/400)]
[Skills: Blade Technique · Advanced (Perfection), Blade Art: Peak (Not Initiated)]
[Technique: Fracture Edge Gold Sha Method (Minor Accomplishment 40→50/100)]
His eyes swept quickly over the panel, pausing briefly on "Realm" and "Technique."
"Sure enough, my flesh rank has gone up another 0.1." Seeing the number change to 6.3, Li Wen couldn't help the corners of his mouth from lifting.
The once-unreachable threshold of a 7.0 flesh rank was drawing closer, step by step. He was now just 0.7 away from the registration cutoff for a martial arts university.
He bent his knees, engaged his core, and sprang neatly to his feet, landing steadily on the slippers at the foot of the bed. His lightness and strength made the changes brought by his growing cultivation unmistakable.
As he turned the doorknob, the aroma of food drifted in. Li Hong had already prepared breakfast. The sweet scent of corn porridge and the fresh taste of the side dishes made his mouth water.
"You're up, A-Wen." Hearing him, Li Hong turned around with a warm smile.
"Morning, Dad." Li Wen replied, ruffling his slightly messy hair as he headed for the washroom.
With his mind entirely set on charging toward martial arts university and keeping up with his studies, Li Wen didn't notice how much more deeply his father's brows were furrowed than usual. Nor did he notice the way Li Hong deliberately kept his breathing shallow.
Father and son ate breakfast together as usual, the cool morning light beyond the window falling across their quiet figures.
When breakfast was over, Li Wen slung on his schoolbag and headed out after saying goodbye as he always did.
"Cough... cough..." Only after the heavy front door had shut completely and his son's footsteps had faded from the corridor did Li Hong abruptly turn around. Bracing himself against the wall, he broke into a violent, suppressed coughing fit, a dull rumble sounding in his chest.
It took quite a while for his breathing to settle. He rubbed his aching chest, his face full of worry.
The family's savings were like sand slipping through his fingers, dwindling faster and faster.
His wife had been shouldering the household expenses and their son's cultivation resources alone, and she was already exhausted.
His illness had come at the worst possible time. He'd lost his factory job, cutting off an important source of income.
His son's future—getting into university, advancing in martial arts... Which of those didn't require vast amounts of qi and blood resources?
Without his income, how could they afford to support him? Was Li Wen's talent going to be wasted, trapped by a qi and blood bottleneck? Every time the thought crossed his mind, Li Hong felt crushed, as though he could barely breathe.
He went out to the balcony and watched the direction his son had gone. The morning breeze brushed past, but it could not blow away the heavy sorrow knotting his heart.
In the end, all his inexpressible anxiety and uncertainty about the future became a long, silent sigh.
Qingshi No.3 High School, Grade 12 Class 21 humanities classroom.
The bell had barely stopped ringing before the classroom came alive again. A few humanities-track students near Li Wen were eagerly discussing yesterday's math mock exam.
"I only got stuck on the last fill-in-the-blank and the three subquestions in the final problem. I should be safe above 135." Wang Ruiming, sitting in front, wore a confident smile.
"Don't remind me. I did way worse than you. I wasted too much time on the earlier questions and only managed the first subquestion of the final one. I'd be lucky to get 120." His deskmate Huang Yu shook his head, looking dejected.
"120 is still pretty impressive. Math isn't your strong suit. You'd have to try pretty hard not to get into a first-rate university with your overall humanities score." Across the aisle, Yang Junzhe, seated in front of Huang Yu, turned around and joined the discussion.
"Hard to say. The humanities track is fiercely competitive too," Huang Yu said, waving a hand. "As far as I can tell, Wei Wu's the only one in our class with a sure shot at a first-rate university."
"Nothing we can do about that." Wang Ruiming's envy was plain in his voice. "I heard his family even bought him a mental potion to improve his concentration while studying."
"A mental potion? Those cost several times more than an ordinary Qi-Blood Potion! They're really willing to spend big." Huang Yu clicked his tongue in amazement.
Ding-a-ling—
The class bell cut off the envious discussion just in time. The math teacher walked up to the podium with a stack of exam papers tucked under his arm, a thermos in hand, and his lesson plan clamped against his side.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat. "Overall, the results of this mock exam were passable. But a few students did exceptionally well!"
The teacher paused deliberately, sweeping his gaze across the class. It lingered on top students like Wei Wu and Chen Yashi, then seemed to pass casually over in Li Wen's direction.
"Several students in the class broke 140 points. That's no small feat!"
The moment he finished speaking, the classroom erupted in a hubbub. They were in the third round of review, and mock exams were usually as difficult as—or even harder than—the college entrance exam. Scoring above 140 meant being a top student among top students!
"Quiet down. I'm going to announce the scores now!" The math teacher raised a hand and pressed down for silence.
"First in the class, 147 points: Wei Wu."
"Second in the class, 145 points: Chen Yashi."
The two names came as no surprise, drawing the expected looks and murmurs from the class.
"Third in the class, 142 points." The teacher paused, his gaze settling once more on the back of the classroom.
"This student... has made tremendous progress and deserves high praise. I hope he keeps up the momentum!" As he spoke, he again looked unmistakably toward Li Wen.
That glance made Huang Yu and Wang Ruiming's hearts leap! Huang Yu even straightened his back without thinking, while Wang Ruiming clenched his fists. Could it be...?
"And that student is—Li Wen!" The math teacher finally stopped teasing them and gestured emphatically toward Li Wen. "Let's give Li Wen a round of applause!"
Clap, clap, clap—
For a moment, the classroom fell into stunned silence. Then a wave of applause burst out!
Everyone, including the teacher at the podium, turned their eyes toward the student who had always been mediocre in humanities classes and whom the martial arts students even considered an "uneven student."
A flicker of surprise crossed Wei Wu's eyes. Chen Yashi glanced over, while Xue Jun furrowed his brows, hardly able to believe what he'd heard.
[You placed third in the class in yesterday's math exam. Scholar experience +80]
[Profession: Scholar lv3 (113→193/400)]
The information that appeared on the virtual panel was crystal clear.
Seeing his experience points surge, Li Wen finally let go of the tension he'd been holding and smiled with satisfaction.
142 points—far beyond his expectations! It not only proved how effective [Absolute Focus] was when activated at full power, but also let the [Once Proven, Forever Proven] skill shine in his humanities classes!
"Fourth in the class, 140 points: Huang Yu."
"Holy crap! Huang Yu!" Wang Ruiming nearly jumped out of his seat. He whipped around to glare at his deskmate, who'd been "playing the victim" just moments ago, his face turning green.
"140?! And you called that 120?! You exam-hiding snake!"
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