Future Giant

Exactly two in the afternoon.

"Fall in!" A sonorous, forceful voice pierced the racket and clanging metal inside the Martial Arts Room.

The towering figure of Wang Hu, the Martial Arts teacher for Class 21, appeared on schedule at the open front door, like a boundary stele that had suddenly descended from the heavens.

The hubbub was severed as if by a sharp blade and fell silent in an instant.

The students who had been practicing with equipment, regulating their breathing, or sparring in pairs all stopped and quickly gathered at the assembly point in front of the classroom, carrying a trace of awe and the exhaustion of training.

Li Wen rose from the resting chair in the corner, which was covered by an old mat.

After an afternoon of high-intensity blade practice, the soreness throughout his body had yet to recede, and beads of sweat still seeped from his bangs.

He casually wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, feeling the faint tremor lingering in his knuckles—the aftereffect of exerting precise force for so long.

He took a deep breath and suppressed the heaviness born of fatigue before quickly merging into the moving crowd, his gaze calm.

Once the more than forty students in the class had swiftly formed several scattered rows before him, Wang Hu's bright, tiger-like eyes swept across them. Only then did he nod in satisfaction. His voice was steady as he got straight to the point:

"All right, quiet down." His gaze passed over several young faces that concealed anticipation.

"We're gathered today to announce something first. Quite a few of you sharp-eared students have probably already heard some rumors—the school board has decided to officially establish this year's senior-class 'Flying Star Class' at the beginning of next semester!"

His words fell, and although the crowd did not immediately explode, low exclamations and murmurs instantly filled the room.

The words "Flying Star Class" seemed to carry magnetic force, firmly capturing everyone's attention.

"So it's true!" Standing among the crowd, Li Wen's heart jolted. Wei Wu's mysterious words from that morning suddenly became clear and heavy.

Wang Hu did not pause and continued, "The selection requirement is to rank among the top sixty in Martial Arts for the entire grade!"

"Sixty?!"

"It's actually true!"

"Sixty? That's ten more spots than Wei Wu said."

Li Wen keenly caught the difference in the numbers. It was as if a ray of light had been poured into his heart; the path to the Flying Star Class seemed to have widened by a narrow crack because of those extra ten places. His hope rose another notch.

"As for the assessment method," Wang Hu's voice overwhelmed the discussion, "it will completely follow the Martial Arts College Entrance Exam! It will have three parts: skill assessment, Flesh Rank, and cultural assessment!"

He pronounced the score ratio of "five, three, two" word by word, like striking three heavy hammers that sank deep into everyone's mind.

Immediately afterward, he deliberately paused. His gaze swept over everyone again, and an uncommon solemnity appeared on his face as his voice abruptly rose by a pitch:

"And there's one more thing—the most crucial point! The teacher responsible for teaching Martial Arts in the Flying Star Class has been confirmed to be the Super Warrior our school spent a fortune hiring!"

Wang Hu enunciated the words "Super Warrior" clearly. They carried the weight of a mountain and crashed heavily into every student's heart!

The entire Martial Arts Room fell into a brief, absolute silence, as though even the air had solidified beneath the weight of that title.

"A Super Warrior? My heavens..."

"A Super Warrior will personally teach them?"

"Damn! If someone can enter the Flying Star Class... wouldn't that mean..."

The ensuing outburst consisted of stunned and disbelieving murmurs.

A Super Warrior! An existence above ordinary Warriors, someone who had truly stepped into the transcendent realm! To these senior-year students, such a person was an existence they could only look up to!

Yet beneath this immense temptation, reality poured down like a basin of cold water.

"A Super Warrior... what a pity." Not far from Li Wen, a boy whose previous physical assessment score had been around the middle shook his head. Clear self-mockery covered his face. "It basically has nothing to do with us..."

No more words were needed. The entire senior grade had twenty-one classes. Most students in the first twenty classes were outstanding students who had entered Qingshi No. 3 High School through fierce competition.

Only Class 21 was an existence mockingly called the "Special-Channel Class." It could not be said that every student lacked talent, but the fact remained that their overall Martial Arts strength ranked at the bottom of the grade.

Sixty spots divided among twenty-one classes—an average of nearly three per class? That was only theoretical! Resources would only tilt toward the strong, making them stronger. The top sixty? To most students in Class 21, that was no different from a castle in the air.

Only the two or three students at the very top of the class had even the faintest hope of fighting for a place.

The results of the grade-wide mock examination from more than a month ago instantly surfaced before Li Wen's eyes.

His ranking—thirty-fourth in the class, merely one place above the bottom ten—looked so glaring and insignificant before the grand goal of "fighting for the top sixty in the grade."

To charge from the middle and lower ranks of the class into the top three in barely more than a month? The difficulty was like climbing a blade's edge.

Just as Li Wen's thoughts raced like electricity, Wang Hu's explanation also reached its end.

"All right, that's all the information about the Flying Star Class. As for the application process: students who are interested can hand your personal application forms to me before school ends tomorrow afternoon."

Wang Hu's gaze swept over everyone, carrying a trace of understanding that was difficult to detect.

He knew perfectly well that among the students before him, Xue Jun was probably the only one with absolute confidence of entering the Flying Star Class.

Even the student ranked second in the class was on shaky ground, let alone the others. He had announced this mainly to give these children a goal, so they would not let their minds slacken during the month-long winter vacation and would have something to strive toward.

"Dismissed! Continue your individual training!" Wang Hu waved his large hand and said no more.

The students seemed pardoned from a sentence and scattered, but the excitement and anxiety filling the air lingered for a long time. Many people instinctively glanced toward Xue Jun, whose spear techniques were fierce.

Wang Hu, meanwhile, began dutifully patrolling the spacious Martial Arts Room.

His steps were steady, and his eyes swept over every student's movements like an eagle's. From time to time, he stopped to point out flaws or incorrect force exertion, speaking concisely and striking directly at the crux.

Before long, he reached the corner.

Li Wen had always been one of the students he watched most closely. That drive born from the bottom reminded him of his own stubbornness in his youth. Wang Hu habitually turned his gaze toward him.

However, in the next instant, this Martial Arts teacher, who had weathered countless storms, paused almost imperceptibly. A trace of astonishment flashed through his tiger-like eyes.

"Hm?!" His gaze locked tightly onto the blade light flashing in Li Wen's hand.

Smooth! Harmonious! Fierce, yet revealing the first signs of effortless mastery!

This... was this really blade technique that had only broken through to Greater Accomplishment yesterday?

As an experienced mentor, Wang Hu knew far too well the characteristics displayed by different realms.

Yesterday, when Li Wen's blade technique had first entered Greater Accomplishment, his blade moves had been reasonably connected, but minute stiffness remained between transitions, and the flow of his strength had seemed slightly forced.

But now?

Wherever the blade passed, the shriek of it splitting the air rang out without end. The moves flowed seamlessly from one to the next, as if the entire blade art had been practiced thousands of times and carved into his bones.

Every slight turn of his wrist, every step landing on the ground, and every twist of his waist revealed the harmony and precision of flowing clouds and running water.

Most notably, there was a faint sense of control. His release and withdrawal of strength were more refined, and his force was exerted with greater precision and economy.

This was clearly a sign that he was about to enter the later stage of Greater Accomplishment. He had even... touched the edge of that invisible threshold leading to Perfection.

Such a speed of transformation was monstrous.

"Could it be... that he really awakened?!" A word he had heard only in Martial Arts legends or his elders' idle conversations suddenly intruded into Wang Hu's mind—[Awakening]!

Years of accumulation erupting at once, enlightenment in a single day! After years of silence, the hidden dragon emerging from the waters!

He had once thought it was merely a beautiful hope in stories, an encouraging phrase for those of mediocre talent who persevered without giving up.

Who could have imagined that today it would appear so vividly before him? That it would happen to Li Wen, whom he had personally taught and watched struggle upward from the basics?

An immense sense of absurdity and the wild joy that followed surged through Wang Hu's spine like an electric current!

The muscles on his usually resolute square face twitched faintly despite his control, while the corners of his mouth quickly curved upward by a tiny arc at a speed even he failed to notice.

A young mentor to a Flying Star Realm powerhouse? The guide who led a future giant?

These two thoughts were like incantations, instantly igniting the long-buried professional passion and anticipation in Wang Hu's heart. He seemed to see the name Li Wen shining on a far broader stage in the future.

However, Wang Hu was no longer a brash youth fresh out of the gate. He knew that the Martial Arts path was long and full of variables; a momentary burst of speed did not necessarily last forever.

He drew a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the surging heat in his chest, his face once again returning to its stern, rigid appearance.

No rush. Watch a little longer. Observe for some time and confirm that this speed could be sustained.

Wang Hu warned himself inwardly. Then, pretending that he was merely making a routine patrol, he naturally shifted his gaze away and walked steadily past Li Wen without slowing, as if the shock of that instant had never happened.

Li Wen, immersed in the world of blade technique, naturally had no way of knowing about Wang Hu's stormy inner journey over those brief seconds.

Li Wen's mind was completely immersed in the rhythm of the swift blade cleaving through the air. The blade light was an extension of his will, and every strike was an evolution born from the fusion of technique and strength.

He could clearly feel that every optimization of the blade's trajectory and every correction in the transfer of force became a faint yet solid pulse of experience points.

This period was the golden eruption that came from the perfect fusion of his skill and years of accumulated foundations. It was the crucial window in which he might leap over the dragon gate like a carp and squeeze into the Flying Star Class. The slightest relaxation could make him miss the fleeting dividends brought by his accumulated reserves.

He had to race against time! Once he missed the peak of this eruption, the speed at which his skill realm improved would inevitably fall onto a normal, or even sluggish, track. He would have to wait until his Scholar level reached the teens before he could hope to accelerate again. That was too far away.

The higher the Scholar level, the more terrifying the percentage increase in comprehension granted when [Absolute Focus] was activated. The ten percent at Lv1 was merely the starting point.

If he could cross the level-ten threshold, it would be a heaven-shaking transformation in which his comprehension directly doubled!

That was the fundamental confidence behind his choice of the Scholar Profession—its late-stage potential was virtually limitless! The prerequisite was that his body and mind could withstand the terrifying consumption of keeping the skill active for long periods.

Ssshh—!

Ssshh—!

Ssshh—!

The sharp shriek of the swift blade tearing through the air continued to ring out in the corner. Under Li Wen's control, the blade light flowed without end like shimmering mercury, outlining his persistent pursuit of a higher realm.

Time quietly passed amid this concentration so intense that it made the heart tremble.

"Ding-a-ling-ling~~" The shrill yet melodious school bell, like a heavenly song, instantly shattered the stagnant atmosphere inside the Martial Arts Room.

After training bitterly all afternoon, everyone's minds and bodies had long approached their limits. The bell was like an amnesty edict, and the accumulated soreness and fatigue could no longer be endured.

Almost one after another, the sounds of weapons being returned to their racks—"clang," "clatter"—rose and fell.

The students felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted. Without bothering to wipe the sweat from their heads, they immediately gathered in groups of three or five and hurried out the door. The clamor instantly replaced the solemn stillness of cultivation, and in the blink of an eye, the classroom was empty.

Before long, the spacious Martial Arts Room held only Li Wen, standing with his blade in hand. The setting sun shone through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, stretching a long, solitary shadow behind him.

"Hu~" As the final move of Tiger Guard Blade Art, "Tiger Crouching at the Pass," cleaved down with overwhelming force, its immense momentum subsided.

Li Wen slowly exhaled the turbid air that had gathered in his chest. His breath was condensed and prolonged, as if it had carried away some of the blade art's sharpness as well.

He did not immediately return the blade to its rack. Instead, his thoughts stirred, and the familiar pale-blue screen unfolded before his eyes:

[Skill: Blade Technique (Greater Accomplishment 65→80/100)]

"Not bad." Looking at the jumping value, Li Wen muttered softly. A faint yet utterly genuine satisfaction appeared on his tired face.

Fifteen experience points in one afternoon.

Compared with the fifty points he had explosively gained yesterday afternoon while under the effects of [Absolute Focus], this speed naturally seemed far from enough.

But he knew very clearly how difficult it was to improve a skill realm. The further one advanced, the more the accumulation and insight required for every experience point grew geometrically.

This efficiency relied entirely on the deep foundation accumulated through more than two years of near-maniacal practice.

Still, the dividends brought by those accumulated reserves were not inexhaustible.

He could clearly feel that although today's practice had been smooth, the frequency and intensity of the flashes of insight born from his past accumulation were clearly less fierce and dense than yesterday.

The climax of his eruption was slowly passing.

Once all his old reserves had been thoroughly digested, the speed at which his blade realm improved would inevitably fall back to a normal value belonging to his current true comprehension and training intensity.

But so what? Li Wen's gaze was calm and resolute. He was not an insatiably greedy person. The 80/100 proficiency before him had already far exceeded his expectations.

His goal had never changed, nor had it ever wavered—in the selection at the beginning of next semester, he would firmly step across the threshold of the top sixty in the grade.

As long as he entered the Flying Star Class and received an infusion of abundant resources... his Flesh Rank would inevitably rise rapidly, and with a Super Warrior personally guiding him, his skill realm would advance by leaps and bounds.

There were nearly six months left until the Martial Arts College Entrance Exam.

Six months! With the Scholar Profession, with the key to terrifying comprehension known as [Absolute Focus]... as long as his Flesh Rank did not become a hindering weakness, and as long as the Flying Star Class delivered on its promised resources... challenging the four top Martial Arts schools? For him, it was absolutely not the ravings of a fool.

Clang—!

The swift blade traced a precise silver line through the air and plunged squarely into the weapon rack, releasing a clear, ringing vibration.

Li Wen did not continue practicing. This was not slackness, but a profound understanding of and respect for his body.

His body needed to recover. It was both the furnace that bore the burning of his vital essence under Absolute Focus and the foundation that carried all his hopes and future.

The way of tension and relaxation lay in awe, and also in... waiting for the next eruption after accumulation.

Amid the afterglow of the setting sun, Li Wen slung his battered schoolbag over his shoulder. Dragging his sore yet resolute figure, he walked alone toward the road home, filled with hardship and hope.