Future Titan

2:00 p.m.

"Assemble!" A loud, powerful voice pierced through the clamor and metallic collisions in the Martial Arts Room.

Class 21's martial arts teacher, Wang Hu, appeared punctually at the open front door of the classroom, his burly frame like a boundary marker that had suddenly descended.

The noise was cut off as if by a sharp blade, instantly falling silent.

The students who had been practicing with weapons, regulating their breathing, or sparring in pairs all stopped. With traces of reverence and the exhaustion of training, they quickly gathered at the assembly point at the front of the room.

Li Wen rose from a rest chair in the corner, its cushions old and worn.

After an afternoon of high-intensity blade practice, the aching swell throughout his body had yet to recede like the tide, and beads of sweat still seeped from beneath his fringe.

He casually wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, feeling the faint tremor lingering in his knuckles—an aftereffect of sustained, precise exertion.

Taking a deep breath, he suppressed the heaviness born of exhaustion and briskly merged into the moving crowd, his gaze calm.

Once the more than forty students of the class had formed several loose yet swift rows before him, Wang Hu swept his bright tiger eyes around the room and nodded slightly in satisfaction. His voice was steady as he went straight to the point:

"All right, quiet." His gaze swept over several young faces carrying barely concealed anticipation.

"We've gathered today to announce something. I imagine quite a few of you have sharp ears and have already caught some wind of it—the board has decided to officially establish this year's senior Flying Star Class at the beginning of next semester!"

The instant his words fell, the crowd did not immediately erupt, but gasps and murmurs in small clusters swiftly filled the room.

The words "Flying Star Class" seemed to possess a magnetic pull, firmly capturing everyone's attention.

"So it really is true!" Standing in the crowd, Li Wen's heart jolted. Wei Wu's mysteriously toned words from that morning instantly became clear and weighty.

Without pausing, Wang Hu continued, "The selection criteria: the top sixty students in martial arts performance across 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 that number. It was as though a glimmer of light had been poured into his heart. The path toward the Flying Star Class seemed to have widened by a sliver with those extra ten places. His hope grew accordingly.

"The assessment method," Wang Hu's voice overrode the discussion, "will completely follow the Martial Arts College Entrance Exam! There are three parts: skill assessment, Flesh Rank, and academic assessment!"

He enunciated the score ratio of "five, three, two" word by word, as though striking three heavy hammers and branding them deep into everyone's minds.

Then, he deliberately paused. His gaze swept over them again, and an unusual trace of solemnity appeared on his face as his voice suddenly rose:

"And... the most crucial point! It has been confirmed that the teacher responsible for instructing the Flying Star Class in martial arts is indeed a Super Warrior our school hired at enormous expense!"

Wang Hu pronounced the words "Super Warrior" clearly, carrying the weight of a mountain range as they slammed fiercely into every heart!

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

"A Super Warrior? Oh my god..."

"A Super Warrior will really teach us personally?"

"Damn! If someone gets into the Flying Star Class... wouldn't that mean..."

What followed was an eruption of stunned, incredulous murmurs.

A Super Warrior! That was an existence above ordinary martial artists, someone who had truly stepped into the extraordinary realm! To these senior students, such a person was someone to look up to!

Yet beneath that immense temptation, reality came down like a basin of cold water.

"A Super Warrior... what a pity." Not far from Li Wen, a boy whose last physical assessment results had been middling shook his head, clear self-mockery on his face. "It basically has nothing to do with us."

No further explanation was needed. The entire senior grade had twenty-one classes. Most students in the first twenty classes were top talents or standouts who had fought fiercely to earn admission to Qingshi No.3 High School.

Only Class 21 was jokingly called the Special-Channel Class. It was not as though every student lacked talent, but the class's overall martial arts strength ranked at the bottom of the grade. That was an indisputable fact.

Sixty slots divided among twenty-one classes meant nearly three per class on average? That was only theoretical! Resources would only flow toward the strong, making the strong even stronger. Top sixty? To most of Class 21, that was a castle in the air.

Only the top two or three students in the class had even the faintest hope of competing for a place.

The results of the grade-wide mock exam from just over a month ago instantly surfaced before Li Wen's eyes.

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

In just over a month, charging from the middle-to-lower ranks of the class into the top three? The difficulty was like climbing a blade's edge.

Just as Li Wen's thoughts whirled like lightning, Wang Hu's announcement also reached its end.

"All right, that's all the information about the Flying Star Class. As for the application process: any students interested should submit their personal application forms to me before school ends tomorrow afternoon."

Wang Hu's gaze swept across the students, carrying a trace of barely perceptible understanding.

He knew clearly that among the students before him, Xue Jun was probably the only one with a one-hundred-percent chance of entering the Flying Star Class.

Even the second-ranked student in the class was hanging by a thread, much less everyone else. He was announcing this now more in hopes of giving these children a goal, so that during this month-long winter break, they would not let their training resolve scatter and lose heart. At least they would have something to strive toward.

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

As though granted a pardon, everyone turned and dispersed, but the excitement and unease hanging in the air lingered for a long time. Quite a few gazes unconsciously drifted toward Xue Jun, whose spearwork was fierce and sharp.

Wang Hu, meanwhile, began making his dutiful rounds through the spacious Martial Arts Room.

His footsteps were steady, his gaze sweeping over every student's movements like that of a hawk. From time to time, he stopped to point out flaws in their forms or improper points of exertion, his words brief and striking straight at the heart of the matter.

Soon, he reached the corner area.

Li Wen had always been one of the students he paid the most attention to. That drive to fight his way up from the bottom reminded Wang Hu of his own stubbornness in his youth. Out of habit, Wang Hu turned his gaze toward him.

Yet in the next instant, this martial arts teacher, who had weathered countless storms, paused so slightly it was nearly imperceptible. A flicker of surprise and doubt flashed through his tiger eyes.

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

Smooth! Rounded! Fierce and forceful, yet carrying a hint of emerging ease!

This... how could this be the blade art that had only broken through to Greater Accomplishment yesterday?!

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

Yesterday, Li Wen's blade art had only just entered Greater Accomplishment. His moves were reasonably connected, but there was still a faint sense of stagnation between transitions, and the flow of his strength was slightly stiff.

But now?

Where the blade passed, its piercing howl through the air rang without end. The moves flowed from one into the next without gaps, as though this blade art had been practiced hundreds and thousands of times until it had been carved into his bones.

Every minute turn of his wrist, every landing of his foot, every twist of his waist carried the harmony and precision of drifting clouds and flowing water.

Especially that faint sense of control—it was more exquisite in drawing strength in and releasing it, more precise and economical in exertion.

This was clearly the sign of someone 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 downright monstrous.

"Could he... really have awakened?!" A term Wang Hu had only heard in martial arts legends or in the casual conversations of teachers suddenly burst into his mind—[Awakening]!

Thick accumulation, then a single burst of realization! Years of silence, then the hidden dragon emerged from the waters!

He had once thought those were merely beautiful expectations from stories, words of encouragement for those of mediocre talent who persevered without rest.

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

A tremendous sense of absurdity, followed by wild joy, shot through Wang Hu's spine like an electric current!

The muscles on his usually resolute square face twitched faintly despite themselves. The corners of his mouth rose in a tiny arc at a speed so swift that even he did not notice it.

The youthful mentor of a Flying Star Realm powerhouse? The guide of a future titan?

Those two thoughts ignited the professional passion and anticipation Wang Hu had buried in his heart for so long like a spell. He seemed to see the name Li Wen shining upon a broader stage in the future.

However, Wang Hu was no inexperienced greenhorn. He knew full well that the road of martial arts was long and filled with variables. A momentary burst of astonishing progress did not necessarily mean forever.

He took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the burning emotions surging in his chest. His face returned to its usual stern, rigid expression.

No rush. Watch a little longer. Observe him for some time and confirm whether this pace could be sustained.

Wang Hu cautioned himself inwardly. Then, pretending that he was merely making his routine rounds, he naturally shifted his gaze away and walked steadily past Li Wen without slowing, as if that moment of shock had never occurred.

Naturally, Li Wen, immersed in the world of his blade art, knew nothing of the tempestuous upheaval Wang Hu had experienced in those few short seconds.

At this moment, Li Wen's entire mind was immersed in the rhythm of the fast blade slicing through the air. The blade-light was an extension of his will, and every swing was a deduction born from the fusion of skill and strength.

He could clearly feel that every optimization of the blade's trajectory and every adjustment to the transmission of force became a minute yet solid jump in experience points.

This period was the golden outbreak after the perfect fusion of his skills and years of accumulation. It was the crucial window in which he could determine whether he would leap through the Dragon Gate like a carp and squeeze into the Flying Star Class. The slightest slackness might cause him to miss this fleeting dividend brought by his accumulated foundation.

He had to race against every second! Once he missed the peak of this eruption, the speed at which his skill realm improved would inevitably fall into a normal, or even slow, track. He would have to wait until his Scholar level rose past ten before it could possibly accelerate again. That was far too distant.

The higher his Scholar level, the more terrifying the percentage increase in comprehension granted when [Absolute Focus] was activated. The 10% at lv1 was merely the beginning.

If he could cross the threshold of level ten, it would be a heaven-shaking transformation—his comprehension would directly double!

This was precisely the fundamental confidence behind his choice of the Scholar profession—it possessed nearly limitless potential in the later stages! The prerequisite was that his body and mind could withstand the terrifying drain of keeping the skill activated for long periods.

Sshhk—!

Sshhk—!

Sshhk—!

The sharp whistle of the fast blade tearing through the air continued to ring in the corner. The blade-light flowed endlessly like shimmering mercury under Li Wen's control, tracing his unwavering pursuit of a higher realm.

Time quietly slipped away amid this bitter training, focused to a degree that made one's heart tremble.

"Riiing~~" The piercing yet delightful dismissal bell, like music from heaven, instantly shattered the stagnant atmosphere in the Martial Arts Room.

After training bitterly for an entire afternoon, everyone's minds and bodies had long since neared their limits. The bell was like an amnesty decree, and the accumulated soreness and exhaustion throughout their bodies could no longer be endured.

Almost at the same time, the sounds of weapons being returned to their racks—"Clang!" and "Crash!"—rose one after another.

The students felt as though a heavy burden had been lifted. Without even bothering to wipe the sweat covering their heads, they immediately formed groups of three or five and surged impatiently toward the door. The clamor instantly replaced the concentrated stillness of training, and in the blink of an eye, the classroom was empty.

Before long, only Li Wen remained standing with his blade in the empty Martial Arts Room. The setting sun streamed through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, drawing a long, solitary shadow behind him.

"Hoo~" As the final form of the Tiger Guard Blade Art, Tiger Crouching at the Pass, slashed out with fierce force, its majestic momentum also drew in.

Li Wen slowly exhaled the stale air gathered in his chest. That breath was condensed and long, as though it carried away some of the blade art's sharpness as well.

He did not immediately return his blade to the rack. With a slight movement of his thoughts, a familiar pale-blue screen instantly unfolded before his eyes:

[Skill: Blade Art · Advanced (Greater Accomplishment 65→80/100)]

"Not bad." Looking at the rising value, Li Wen murmured softly. A trace of satisfaction, not intense yet deeply genuine, appeared on his tired face.

Fifteen experience points in one afternoon.

Compared with the fifty points he had explosively gained yesterday afternoon while in [Absolute Focus], this speed naturally could not compare at all.

But he understood perfectly well just how difficult it was to improve a skill realm. The further one progressed, the more the accumulation and insight required for every single experience point increased geometrically.

To achieve such efficiency was entirely thanks to the deep foundation laid down by his nearly insane practice over the past two-plus years.

However, the dividends brought by that accumulated foundation were ultimately not inexhaustible.

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

The climax of his eruption was slowly passing.

Once all his old reserves had been fully digested, the speed of his blade art's advancement would inevitably return to a normal value that matched his current genuine comprehension and training intensity.

But so what? Li Wen's gaze was calm and resolute. He was not a greedy man who never knew contentment. The 80/100 proficiency before him had already far exceeded his expectations.

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

As long as he could enter the Flying Star Class and obtain that vast infusion of resources... his Flesh Rank would surely rise at rapid speed, and under a Super Warrior's personal instruction, his skill realm would advance by a thousand miles each day.

There were still nearly six months before the Martial Arts College Entrance Exam.

Six months! With the Scholar profession, with [Absolute Focus], the key that led to terrifying comprehension... as long as his Flesh Rank did not become the weakness dragging him down, as long as the Flying Star Class delivered the resources it promised... challenging the four top martial arts academies would by no means be an idle dream for him.

Clang—!

The fast blade drew a precise silver line through the air and plunged deep into the weapon rack without the slightest deviation, releasing a crisp, resonant ring.

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

His body needed recovery. It was both the furnace that endured Absolute Focus burning through his vital essence and the foundation that bore all his hopes and future.

The way of tension and release lay in reverence, and also in... waiting for the next burst after deep accumulation.

In the afterglow of the setting sun, Li Wen slung his worn schoolbag over his shoulder and, dragging his aching body yet walking with steadfast steps, headed alone down the road home, a road filled with hardship and hope.