It had been explained clearly in high school history class.
Five hundred years ago, secret realms of all sizes suddenly appeared around the world.
Countless vicious beasts poured out of them, and caught completely off guard, humanity lost a quarter of its territory within a single year.
Countries such as Dongying and Gaoli had nearly been wiped off the map by the beast tide.
If the Lighthouse Nation hadn't come to their aid, those two countries would have disappeared from the map long ago.
After a century of bloody battles, humanity had only just managed to suppress the vicious beasts and station troops in the major secret realms.
The Beast Realm was a true meat grinder, a defensive line built with human lives.
Every year, countless martial artists died in the Beast Realm.
And they wanted a group of high school students to take an exam in a place like that?
Shen Tingxue waved a hand.
"Don't worry. The Beast Realms have all been cleared out. The strongest vicious beasts inside are only first rank."
"They're not even as dangerous as the outskirts of Sea City."
"The higher-ups simply want to test the examinees' mental fortitude and combat abilities."
Gu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.
A first-rank vicious beast didn't pose much of a threat to him now.
"I see."
Shen Tingxue looked at Gu Yuan.
"I suspect the college entrance exam will involve killing vicious beasts to earn points."
"Study this martial technique carefully and try to earn as many points as you can."
She paused.
"With your current strength, getting into a top Martial University is a sure thing."
"But you can try to aim for a national ranking."
Shen Tingxue tapped the desk with a finger.
"You can't imagine the benefits of ranking near the top."
After staying at the Destiny Bureau a little longer, Gu Yuan was sent home by Shen Tingxue.
The moment he got home, Gu Yuan hurried to his room.
He sat cross-legged on his bed, opened the copy of Overlapping Wave Fist Shen Tingxue had given him, and began studying it carefully.
The first page introduced the technique's strengths and weaknesses.
First, controlling the rhythm was extremely difficult.
All six punches had to be thrown in rapid succession, with no more than half a breath between them.
If he went too fast, the previous punch's force wouldn't have had time to land before the next punch followed, making the forces collide. If he went too slowly, the power would dissipate in his meridians, wasting his effort.
Second, the technique demanded extremely resilient meridians.
Its core principle was to stack force, which would be stored in the arm's meridians before each punch.
If his meridians weren't tough enough, he wouldn't even make it to the sixth punch. His arm would suffer the backlash by the fourth.
Third, it was extremely difficult to adapt in actual combat.
The fixed rhythm of the six punches required exceptional footwork and foresight to execute properly.
But when Gu Yuan saw the section on its combat performance, his eyes went wide.
A martial artist who mastered the technique could make the sixth punch hit with more than five times their basic punching strength!
A second-rank martial artist had once used this technique to smash through a third-rank vicious beast's armor with a single blow!
Its power was comparable to that of an advanced martial technique.
No wonder it was rated as an intermediate martial technique. Those life-threatening drawbacks had dragged it down.
"Damn, that's impressive." Gu Yuan rubbed his chin, clicking his tongue in amazement.
The explosive power was outrageous, but the drawbacks were just as deadly.
Still, this was exactly what he needed to make up for his critical lack of offensive techniques.
The only thing he'd mastered so far was a basic movement technique. If he ran into a thick-skinned vicious beast, he couldn't exactly dodge around until it dropped dead of exhaustion.
If he couldn't kill anything, being fast on his feet just made him an advanced deserter.
He had to master this technique over the next few months.
The college entrance exam would take place in the Beast Realm. The strongest beasts were only first rank, but who could guarantee nothing would go wrong?
In the web novels he'd read, nine times out of ten, the protagonist ran into trouble during a trial: secret realms suddenly merging, vicious beasts going on a rampage, or cultists launching a surprise attack. It was practically routine.
What if he had that kind of rotten luck too?
One more trump card meant one more chance at survival.
Gu Yuan kept reading.
Starting with the second page, the book contained illustrated instructions for each move. Beyond that were detailed diagrams showing how qi and blood flowed through the meridians, with so many notes that they made his eyes swim.
After quickly flipping to the last page, Gu Yuan shadowboxed a couple of times, then tossed the book onto his desk.
A good memory was no substitute for taking notes, and theory was no substitute for real practice.
He glanced at the wall clock. It was half past nine at night.
Time to sleep!
He'd rent a training room at the martial arts center first thing tomorrow morning.
Wasting time that could be spent sleeping meant wasting precious time cultivating his qi and blood.
Over the past few days, he'd thoroughly figured out the hidden property of the [Saint Hand Pulse Clearing] trait.
His qi and blood circulated automatically at all times, but only when he entered a deep sleep did his cultivation speed soar like a rocket.
In other words, the more soundly he slept, the faster his qi and blood grew.
While other people stayed up late to train, he stuck to an early bedtime and early mornings. It was just as good as studying and training hard.
Gu Yuan flopped onto the bed and pulled the covers over himself.
What a delightful cheat. It made him feel good inside and out.
The next morning.
The sky had barely begun to brighten when Gu Yuan left home.
He went to the front desk and, wincing at the price, swiped his card and spent 2,000 Great Xia Currency to rent a private training room.
The school had free training rooms, but he absolutely wasn't going there right now.
Inside the training room.
Gu Yuan stood in front of an alloy dummy and rolled his wrists.
"Qi and blood flow out from the Dao Foundation, circulate through the body, and gather at the fist..."
He recited the instructions from the book, stepped forward sharply, and drove his right fist out.
Bang!
His punch landed on the alloy dummy's chest with a sharp crack.
Then he twisted from the waist, driving his shoulder as qi and blood surged through his meridians. His second punch followed close behind.
Bang!
The third punch!
Bang!
Just as he was about to throw the fourth punch, a wave of soreness ran through the meridians in Gu Yuan's right arm, and the flow of qi and blood abruptly stalled.
His fist struck the dummy weakly, without even making a sound.
"No, no."
Gu Yuan shook out his aching right arm and frowned.
The rhythm was completely off.
He rubbed his chin and stared at the alloy dummy, replaying the details of his punches in his mind.
The strain this technique put on his meridians was too intense. Relying on qi and blood alone to power through would easily cause a backlash.
He had to find a way to release the pressure on his meridians the instant he threw a punch, or use something to protect them.
A flash of inspiration crossed Gu Yuan's mind.
What if he added his mental power?
Over the past few days, he'd genuinely accumulated quite a bit of mental nourishment.
If his mental power flowed alongside his qi and blood, would anything change?
Gu Yuan's eyes lit up.
No sooner had the thought occurred to him than he put it into action.
He closed his eyes and drew on the faint strand of mental power in his sea of consciousness.
His mental power followed the path of his qi and blood, slowly flowing into the meridians of his right arm.
Gradually, his mental power intertwined with his qi and blood, forming a thin membrane that wrapped around the turbulent energy and gathered at his fist.
Gu Yuan suddenly opened his eyes and punched.
Bang!
A deep, muffled thud.
The alloy dummy in front of him trembled slightly.
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