Raising a Martial Artist Is Harder Than Ever

Qin Yan felt the weight of it too.

He possessed the enormous advantage of the System Panel, which could accelerate the cultivation of his skills.

When it came to Martial Arts Skill, he was confident that as long as he kept training diligently, he might even have a chance to reach a perfect score of 100 before the college entrance exam.

But what about Blood Qi?

Increasing Blood Qi was a mountain blocking his path.

Stance Training could indeed speed up the tempering and growth of Blood Qi, but without sufficient resources such as Blood Qi Potions, Blood Qi Pills, and Advanced Medicinal Meals, even if one trained Stance Training to the profound fourth layer or fifth layer, Blood Qi would not grow very quickly.

A single bottle of the most basic standard Blood Qi Potion cost as much as 2,000 Huaxia Coins.

Wanting to increase Blood Qi quickly was, in essence, burning money.

With his ordinary—one could even say impoverished—family circumstances, he simply could not afford such an enormous expense.

Gu Feng watched as the students lowered their heads one after another, their morale sinking, and knew the timing was about right.

Suppressing them was meant to make them see reality clearly and keep them from becoming arrogant or impatient, not to destroy their confidence.

Moreover, he understood the difficulties these students faced.

Most students in the Ordinary Class came from average families. They could not build up their strength with resources like the wealthy children in the Elite Class. Their only advantage was their willingness to work with everything they had.

"Raise your heads!" Gu Feng's voice suddenly rose. "Why are you all hanging your heads like that? The Martial Path is like rowing against the current. You can't even bear this little pressure?"

The students instinctively straightened their backs, their gazes focusing on the coach once more.

Only after Gu Feng saw that he had everyone's attention did he continue. "The school has just issued a notice! To encourage Senior Three students to prepare for the college entrance exam with everything they have, Outstanding Student Scholarships will be awarded in April's Monthly Exam!"

He deliberately paused. Only after seeing every student abruptly lift their heads, light rekindling in their eyes, did he slowly speak again.

"Top 50 of Grade: a reward of 30,000 Huaxia Coins!"

A wave of uncontrollable gasps rose from the crowd.

Thirty thousand Huaxia Coins!

For many students, that was an enormous sum!

It was enough to buy fifteen bottles of Blood Qi Potion!

"Top 10 of Grade!" Gu Feng's voice boomed like a great bell, drowning out all the noise. "A reward of 50,000 Huaxia Coins, plus... ten bottles of Blood Qi Potion!"

"Gasp—"

The entire Gymnasium erupted! Fifty thousand in cash plus ten bottles of Blood Qi Potion, with a total value exceeding seventy thousand Huaxia Coins!

Those resources were enough to let a student's Blood Qi and strength make a tremendous leap before the college entrance exam!

The students ranked near the top of the class instantly flushed red with excitement, their eyes burning fiercely.

If they gave it everything they had, this reward truly seemed within reach!

Even Qin Yan felt his heart pounding wildly, his blood flowing faster.

His Stance Training had already reached the Third Layer, and his absorption and utilization efficiency for Blood Qi Potions far exceeded that of his peers.

If he could obtain this reward, especially the abundant resources for the top ten...

If he pushed his Stance Training to the fourth layer, or even the fifth layer!

Then, the effect of his absorbing one Blood Qi Potion would rival or even surpass someone else absorbing four or five!

"I have to get it!" Qin Yan clenched his fists. "I'm going all out this next month! I'll charge for the top fifty, even the top ten!"

He calculated rapidly in his mind. "Last time, the student ranked fiftieth in the school had 74 Cal of Blood Qi and 73 points in Martial Arts Skill."

"In the Monthly Exam, Blood Qi and Martial Arts Skill carry the same weight. Seventy-four Cal of Blood Qi converts to 74 Points, so that person's total score was 147 points."

"Some time has passed now, and the college entrance exam is drawing closer. They'll definitely use more resources to make a final push, so their results must have improved... But with the System Panel backing me, as long as I put in enough effort, reaching or even surpassing that level shouldn't be difficult..."

After announcing this bombshell news, Gu Feng looked at the students whose fighting spirit had been rekindled. Without saying anything more, he directly dismissed them.

The students left the Gymnasium in twos and threes, excitedly discussing the reward plan that had just been announced.

For Ordinary Class students like them, whose family circumstances were generally average, this rare act of generosity from the school was undoubtedly timely help, an important boost on their path to Martial University.

"Sigh, the rewards are great, but they've got nothing to do with you or me." Zhou Yuan sighed as he walked.

His overall ranking was in the upper-middle of the class. Breaking into the Top 50 of Grade was harder than climbing to the heavens.

Qin Yan patted his friend on the shoulder. "It all depends on what you do. We still have a month to prepare."

In the Xia Kingdom, and even across all of Blue Star, Martial Artists possessed extremely high status and authority.

Many large corporations required high-level Martial Artists to oversee them, while even ordinary small businesses needed at least a First-Rank Martial Artist as a security consultant.

Otherwise, the business could not survive at all and would not even be able to obtain the most basic production safety permit.

Not to mention that powerful Martial Artists also bore the mission of resisting invasions by otherworldly civilizations.

Powerful Martial Artists had always been figures admired and envied by all young people.

But becoming a Martial Artist was difficult! The only path they currently knew of to become one was Martial University.

Therefore, getting into Martial University and becoming Martial Artists was the shared goal of every Senior Three student across Blue Star!

The two then had a simple lunch at the school cafeteria.

Their trays mainly contained high-protein meat and a small amount of vegetables—Stance Training consumed an enormous amount of physical energy, and this food could only maintain their basic daily needs. To advance quickly, they had to rely on medicinal meals and medicine for supplementation.

But those things were absurdly expensive, far beyond what they could afford.

All things considered, directly taking Blood Qi Potions offered the best value for money.

Qin Yan ate especially much because he still had to keep practicing Spear Technique that night.

As for Stance Training, with his current Blood Qi level, two hours of training per day was already his limit.

This meal cost Qin Yan fifty Huaxia Coins. A Martial Artist could not skip any of their three daily meals, or their Blood Qi would fail to keep up.

Food alone cost one hundred and fifty a day. That came to at least 4,500 Huaxia Coins a month.

And that was only basic food, not including Blood Qi Potions, medicinal meals, and other expenses. Otherwise, the cost would be even higher.

Martial arts—was all about burning money. Raising a Martial Artist was harder than ever.

After leaving the cafeteria, the two walked side by side toward the classroom.

After arriving, they took out their books and began studying their academic subjects. Academic subjects were also one of the Three Barriers of the College Entrance Exam and could not be neglected.

Because the Gymnasium had limited capacity, the school chose to stagger the martial arts and academic class schedules for different classes.

Senior Three Class One practiced martial arts every morning and studied academic subjects in the afternoon.

Compared with Blood Qi and Martial Arts Skill, the Martial Arts College Entrance Exam did not demand much from academic subjects. The full score was one hundred, and sixty was enough to pass.

Only the two Top Martial Universities required a score of seventy in academic subjects.

The same applied to the Monthly Exam. Grade rankings were based only on the combined scores for Blood Qi and Martial Arts Skill, while academic subjects only required a passing grade.

Qin Yan opened his textbook and began studying attentively.

The textbook mainly covered basic knowledge such as the human skeleton and meridians, the channels, and the internal organs.

Martial Artist cultivation was inherently a process of improving oneself, and most of these academic subjects explained the foundational knowledge related to it.

After studying all afternoon, he went to the cafeteria for another equally expensive dinner that night, spending another 50 Huaxia Coins.

Qin Yan once again deeply felt the enormous cost of martial arts cultivation.

"I must get into Martial University. Only then can I achieve something on the Martial Path."

Martial University did not merely offer a path to breaking through and becoming a Martial Artist; it also received preferential allocation of national resources.

The stronger the Martial University, the more resources the nation allocated to it.

Every examinee dreamed of getting into a powerful Martial University.

Jianghai Martial University, the number-one Martial University in Jiangnan Province, was Qin Yan's goal.

It was also the dream Martial University in the hearts of every college entrance exam candidate at Linhai No.1 High School.

Yet very few could get into Jianghai Martial University.

Last year, Linhai No.1 Senior High School had admitted only seven students.