Banyan City Jiang Ding
Banyan City,
No. 1 High School, inside the classroom.
Name: Jiang Ding
Chinese (out of 150): 109
Mathematics (out of 150): 70
Ideology and Morality (out of 150): 137
Comprehensive Sciences (out of 300, Biology, Chemistry, Physics): 151,
Comprehensive Humanities (out of 100, History, Geography): 61
Bonus Electives--
Cultivation (out of 300): Peak Bone-Refining Realm 50,
Primary Weapon Elective (out of 60): Heavy Machine Gun: 17
Melee Secondary Weapon Elective (out of 40 points): Low-Tier Swordsmanship--Three Gale Slashes, 25
Actual Combat (out of 150 points): 23
Total Score: 643
In the last row,
a delicate-looking teenage boy stared at the mock exam results that had just been handed out and looked for a long time.
Cultural score total 850 points, I can only score 534 points,
cultivation bonus total 400 points, I can only score 97 points, and not to mention actual combat scores, I can't beat anyone. Jiang Ding sighed repeatedly.
Sigh... Going on like this, let alone getting into the School of Dao Cultivation at Qianling University, I won't even be able to get into an ordinary tier-three university. Perhaps entering vocational school early to learn a craft is the right path...
The Immortal Sect relied on spiritual veins scattered across the globe to build thirty-nine universities respectively.
Most of the students in these universities were ordinary people, and only the twenty-year schooling system of the School of Dao Cultivation would impart knowledge of immortal cultivation, master extraordinary power, and hold the promise of longevity.
And to get into the School of Dao Cultivation of universities everywhere, spiritual roots were ignored, cultivation levels were ignored, and family background was ignored. Even if you were the direct child of a Golden Core True Person, it was useless.
The sole standard was, the College Entrance Exam score!
You could even ignore cultivation and electives altogether. Even if you were a trash in immortal cultivation and martial arts, as long as your college entrance exam score reached the score line of the School of Dao Cultivation of universities everywhere, you would definitely be admitted.
The Immortal Sect College Entrance Exam was the greatest fairness to students all over the world!
Of course, throughout the history of the Immortal Sect, there were not many divine people who could give up the 550-point cultivation bonus and still end up getting admitted to the university's School of Dao Cultivation.
And, apart from getting admitted to the School of Dao Cultivation, cultivation bonus electives had no other use.
Ordinary university departments only looked at cultural course scores.
"Peak Bone-Refining Realm!"
His deskmate said with a sour tone, "It's quite good too. Your strength can resist eight hundred catties. Placed in ancient times, wearing heavy armor, you would at least be a match for ten thousand men."
Li Junhao was relatively short and very thin, which made his head look very large and his appearance somewhat comical.
"Placed in the present, it's just a matter of a single magazine from an assault rifle." Jiang Ding shook his head and sighed, changing the subject, "Is your cultural course score 690 points, or 698 points?"
Banyan City First High School was hailed as the cradle of students for the School of Dao Cultivation. Except for people like him who were specially recruited for ideology and morality, everyone else had some tricks up their sleeves.
"701 points."
Li Junhao's sourness disappeared as he said proudly.
"Exceeded 700 points?!!"
Jiang Ding was startled.
This was no small matter. Although cultural scores and cultivation scores were separated, the two were not opposed, but rather interconnected and inseparable.
Chinese contained a large amount of basic knowledge and principles of talismanic seals and cultivation techniques. A student who could write a good article would step onto the path of cultivation in the future, and their understanding of talismanic seals and cultivation techniques would definitely not be low.
Mathematics explicitly included calculation and knowledge foundations related to formations;
the physics, chemistry, and biology of comprehensive sciences, as well as the history and geography of comprehensive humanities, were all inextricably linked to spiritual beasts, spiritual materials, artifact refinement, and spiritual veins in immortal cultivation.
However!
Immortal cultivation was a discipline that closely integrated theory and practice.
Without becoming a cultivator, without magical power and divine sense, one could not truly observe and practice things.
It was just like a eunuch drawing spring palace pictures; everything relied entirely on imagination, and they could only calculate and deduce answers based on principles, formation structures, and magical power execution diagrams in books.
Separated by a thick layer of cloth.
No matter how smart a person was, there was a limit. Even with talent and willingness to work hard, under such conditions, an ordinary person scoring four or five hundred points could be considered exceptionally good.
"You can consider which of the top 2 universities to attend," Jiang Ding said not without jealousy.
The top ordinary academic prodigies only scored six hundred and some points. These were already saplings for Clearwind University and Big Dipper University, with a non-negligible possibility of being admitted to these top two institutions of the Immortal Sect.
Of course, it was only for ordinary departments; the top cultivation geniuses would not compete with them.
Seven hundred points was a hurdle.
This meant that in immortal cultivation subjects, he could rival the top cultivation geniuses in certain aspect or aspects.
Pity that among the three bodily-refining realms—skin-refining, flesh-refining, and bone-refining—giving birth to inner Qi and returning to the innate state, Li Junhao had only barely reached the late skin-refining stage, with a realm bonus of 10 points. Firearms, cold weapons, and actual combat electives were similarly disastrously poor, all three being single-digit scores of 5, leaving a meager total cultivation elective of only 25 points.
"Sigh~"
The two looked at each other with bitter expressions.
In the past ten years, even the score line for the School of Dao Cultivation at Qianling University in their home province, which had the lowest score requirements, had been 842. The two of them had completely no hope.
"It's really unfair."
Li Junhao secretly glanced at the dozen or so people in the front row.
"Their cultural courses don't even reach 400 points, yet because of their innate spiritual roots, they don't need to practice martial arts or forge their bodies, give birth to inner Qi, and revert from acquired to innate. They are naturally able to practice immortal cultivation techniques and become high-and-mighty Qi-Refining cultivators. Without studying, they get over 200 points in cultivation bonuses, leaving us who study hard overnight until two in the morning far behind."
Li Junhao revealed a hint of unwillingness.
Jiang Ding knew that he was actually very proud. Lacking magical power and divine sense, he had forcibly learned cultural courses better than most Qi-Refining cultivators.
Yet this pride was smashed to pieces in front of the gap in reality.
Whether it was scores in school, future status in society, or even lifespan, they were far inferior.
"...Fourteenth place, Zou Xiyuan, cultural score 411 points, cultivation 377 points, total score 788 points."
Head teacher Guo Kui's usually stern face finally had a trace of a smile as his head raised slightly.
"Second-layer Qi Refinement, an improvement from before. Continue to maintain this momentum. There is still a year until the college entrance exam. By then, if you can break through to the middle stage of Qi Refinement, or raise your geography, biology, history, and chemistry scores a bit more, the School of Dao Cultivation at Qianling University is promising!"
The reason it was these subjects was because the purpose of Blueglow Star's education was to select immortal cultivation talents. The three subjects of Chinese, mathematics, and physics involved the operational principles of cultivation techniques and meridians in immortal cultivation, as well as talismanic seals and formations. They were extremely difficult, and impossible to improve without talent and hard work.
However, high school year one and two had already finished the high school curriculum. Unless a miracle occurred in the remaining year, it was basically impossible to drastically improve the scores of these three foundational academic pillars, and they could only put effort into the other subjects.
As for ideology and morality, this was a subject that examined the understanding and support of the Immortal Sect system. As long as it was a normal person studying normally without too many heretical thoughts written down, they could basically pass.
Yet getting a high score was similarly very difficult, very subjective, without a specific answer. It was graded by the Immortal Sect's ancestral heritage—the Central Array-Spirit Computer, which gave scores according to its programmed logic based on test papers, students' past experiences, online and real-life remarks, and even family political background.
Over the years, high-scoring ideology and morality test papers had appeared, but basically every single paper was different. Countless tutoring teachers studied for countless days and nights without finding any common points, making improvement very difficult.
This was also the reason why Jiang Ding's cultural and cultivation classes were unimpressive, yet he could enter First High School.
The teachers and principal of First High School were supporters of the Immortal Sect, with extremely high political awareness. How could they allow talented people to be left abandoned outside the school?
The gazes of over twenty people in the classroom all turned toward a freckled girl, carrying complex emotions such as envy, burning heat, and inferiority.
School of Dao Cultivation promising!
Jiang Ding's mood was also extremely complex.
The advantages of cultivators,
were too many!
Qi-Refining stage, cultivation bonus 200, second-layer Qi Refinement bonus 20. For the three subjects of heavy machine gun use, precise shooting, cross-boundary shooting, and blanket shooting in firearms, they easily achieved the martial artist's limit of a perfect score of thirty points with the assistance of divine sense.
--The remaining thirty points, named tank driving combat. Martial artists without divine sense, even innate martial artists hailed as comparable to Qi Refinement, did not even have the qualification to participate.
"Tenth place..."
"Ninth place..."
"Second place, Wu Tianli, fifth-layer Qi Refinement, cultural score 730 points, cultivation bonus 467 points, total score 1197 points."
Swish!
In an instant, almost all gazes were attracted over, including those who were also in the Qi-Refining stage.
That was a confident, sunny, and handsome teenage boy who slightly nodded, politely responding to the classmates all around.
"Fifth-layer Qi Refinement!"
A commotion broke out all around.
"Wu Tianli seems to have metal, wood, water, and fire four spiritual roots. How could his cultivation speed be so fast?"
"His spiritual root attributes are relatively better, possibly extremely close to three spiritual roots."
"Three spiritual roots! Excluding beyond the realm, this is almost top-tier talent..."
Jiang Ding silently listened to the discussions of the surrounding classmates, acting like a transparent person.
Over ten thousand years ago, Blueglow Star was still a spiritually barren planet. Even after intersecting with the immortal cultivation world for over ten thousand years, the local spiritual veins and spiritual roots remained extremely scarce. Four spiritual roots were already extremely rare, appearing perhaps once in eighty or ninety thousand people, let alone three spiritual roots, two spiritual roots, and the legendary heavenly spiritual root.
Four-root cultivators, who were called fake spiritual roots outside the realm, were already geniuses on Blueglow Star.
"Guaranteed bottom fifteen university Schools of Dao Cultivation, middle twelve universities promising, and even upper twelve universities are not without a shred of possibility," Guo Kui said with a beaming smile.
You must know that among the thirty-nine universities with Schools of Dao Cultivation, the middle twelve universities were generally something only three-root cultivators could dare to wish for.
"I will work hard, teacher," Wu Tianli said seriously.
Everyone knew what he was referring to.
The upper twelve universities, including Clearwind University and Big Dipper University, held a title: Hometown of Golden Cores!
According to past student statistics, the probability of students from the top twelve universities becoming Core Formation cultivators was ten times, dozens of times greater than all other schools and rogue cultivators combined!
"This..." Guo Kui encouraged, "Keep it up, the teacher believes in you!"
The Dao Cultivation Department of the top twelve universities was also known as the Twelve Palaces. Every single palace had a Nascent Soul True Lord in quiet meditation, and even native three-element spiritual root students found it immensely difficult to test into them. Only geniuses who had achieved the very pinnacle in Dao enterprise and cultivation could enter.
Out-of-realm cultivators had a nickname for the students of the top twelve universities.
Nascent Soul True Lord's registered disciples!
At least in the eyes of out-of-realm cultivators, the status of a top twelve university student was equivalent to that of a Nascent Soul patriarch's registered disciple, and any interactions would treat them as equals.
Thus, one could imagine the difficulty involved.
Basically, out of hundreds of millions of people in a single province, only nearly a hundred students qualified to enter the top twelve universities each year.
"First place, Hua Bing! Level six Qi Refinement, cultural score 723, cultivation bonus 479, total score 1202."
Numerous adoring and respectful gazes turned toward the girl in the center of the first row. She had wheat-colored skin, a heroic and handsome appearance, and possessed a strong big-sister aura.
"High probability of mid-tier twelve universities, with a slight possibility of entering the top twelve universities."
Guo Kui made a judgment based on his professional experience.
She seemingly only lagged Wu Tianli by 5 points, but people were different. A three-element spiritual root, coupled with the all-out cultivation of a Foundation Establishment realm father, she was already at the peak of level six Qi Refinement and could enter level seven Qi Refinement at any time, becoming a late-stage Qi Refinement cultivator.
For late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators, their mana and divine sense would undergo a minor qualitative change, which was also the foundation of their ability to crush early and mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivators.
An extra 10 bonus points did not amount to much, but the growth and minor qualitative change of mana and divine sense—especially divine sense—could slightly enhance a cultivator's calculation ability, memory, and divine sense scanning precision, these crucial abilities.
It would cause a minor growth in learning ability.
Subjects like Chinese, mathematics, physics, and biology were very likely to see a comprehensive, minor upward growth. If the growth was large enough, aspiring to the top twelve universities was not entirely out of the question.
"These are the students with spiritual roots, and as for the other students, you must never lose heart." Guo Kui withdrew his gaze from Hua Bing, looked at mortal students like Jiang Ding and Li Junhao, and said solemnly:
"Unlike long-lived professions like cultivators whose cultivation is extremely difficult and slow, where even with peerless natural talent it takes years of solid, step-by-step accumulation, according to the teachers' experiences, after the third year of high school, young martial artists with top-tier talent and deep foundations will usher in an explosive growth in their cultivation."
"Every single Immortal Sect citizen has their flesh and meridians washed within twenty-four hours of birth by innate martial artists using medicine of at least thirty years' age, and within three days, by Qi Refinement stage cultivators using Nourishing Origin Spirit Liquid."
"In terms of aptitude, any Immortal Sect citizen would be a genius in some low-level small worlds that only possess martial arts heritage."
"The Immortal Sect setting it so that martial artists can participate in the college entrance examination is not to serve as a foil for those with spiritual roots!"
Guo Kui's tone was extremely earnest.
"On the contrary, the massive educated ordinary population is the most important cornerstone of the Immortal Sect, and the top students among them will achieve accomplishments in the future that are not a whit inferior to those with spiritual roots."
"Many Immortal Sect grand mighty figures also lacked spiritual roots, but this did not hinder them from roaming freely across the heavens and earth!"
Many students without spiritual roots were energized, regaining hope.
Jiang Ding pressed his lips together.
He noticed Teacher Guo's use of the phrase "top-tier talent."
And it made sense.
Cultivating immortality as a mortal—if one were not a dragon or phoenix among men, how could one dare to harbor such aspirations?
"Alright, since the results of the last mock test are out, students who have improved must not grow proud and complacent, and students who have regressed must work even harder to live up to youth."
Guo Kui put the class score sheet aside, touched his shiny bald scalp, and opened the ideology and morality textbook.
Ever since the advent of the transcendent, ideology and morality had leaped to become a major subject comparable to Chinese and mathematics, worth a total of 150 points and carrying immense importance. It was fine if the score wasn't high, but failing to even pass posed an extremely serious problem.
While it wouldn't go so far as failing to get into university, many future opportunities would be directly closed off.
"Recite the [First Law of the Immortal Sect]. Your tone must be solemn and dignified. Begin," Guo Kui said.
The sound of clear and crisp reading rang out accordingly.
"The First Law of the Immortal Sect!"
"All knowledge within Blueglow Star, including that of public and private institutions, and personal property; whether patented or unpatented; cultivation knowledge and non-cultivation knowledge; everything created and discovered in the past, present, and future, belongs to all citizens collectively!"
"Any citizen whose political rights have not been deprived may read any knowledge and any heritage of Blueglow Star upon application and proof of possessing the ability to understand said knowledge!"
"If the knowledge is within its patent period, a patent fee approved by the Central Array-Spirit Computer must be paid!"
Jiang Ding and the others chanted loudly in solemn tones, every single punctuation mark and pause exact and without the slightest error.
As for their thoughts, they had no thoughts whatsoever.
Because they had started learning this on the very first day they entered preschool, as did character recognition—the vast majority of Immortal Sect citizens recognized these words before any others.
"If any institution or individual violates the First Law of the Immortal Sect by refusing a legitimate citizen's lawful request for reading, the citizen must report it immediately to the local Immortal Sect institution and the Array-Spirit Computer of their place of household registration."
"For institutions or individuals that repeatedly refuse to execute the First Law of the Immortal Sect despite warnings, the military of the place of household registration is obligated to execute strict material and soul destruction programs against them under the supervision of the Central Array-Spirit Computer."
The clear reading voices fell silent.
"I won't elaborate much on the importance of the First Law of the Immortal Sect. I, along with your middle and primary school teachers, have said it many times. It is a mandatory test subject on the college entrance examination; even the location, question types, and score allocations are prescribed."
"This is free points, a gift of fifteen points, but!"
Guo Kui's expression tightened as he said, "This time, we actually had two students write a wrong character! This is copying, there are no deformed questions, it's just copying!"
The fury of a late-stage Qi Refinement cultivator caused gales of wind to whip through the classroom.
Papers fluttered noisily, and only everyone's breathing gradually grew clear.
"I won't name who it was."
Guo Kui calmed his emotions and said sternly, "Right now I am grading your papers, and everyone still has a chance to correct it. Once you reach the college entrance examination, it will be graded by the Central Array-Spirit Computer, and everything will be set in stone, wasting so many years of hard work."
"Did you understand?"
"Understood!"
Facing a furious late-stage Qi Refinement cultivator, all the students answered obediently.
"Good, now we will continue with the previous sample problem: the first detailed rules for confidentiality triggered by the words 'legal citizen of Blueglow Star' in the First Law of the Immortal Sect."
"Question one: If the Immortal Sect's out-of-realm ally, the Five Elements Heaven Sect, has student-cultivators composed of true disciples acquire temporary citizen qualifications at customs, then if there is an opportunity to converse with them, what knowledge can be shared, and what is strictly prohibited from leaking even the slightest bit, so as not to trigger the [Immortal Gate Grand Curse]?"
"For this, you can refer to the customs regulations, detailed rules for temporary citizen permissions..."
On the platform, Guo Kui spoke eloquently, extending the sample problem from theory to reality before returning to theory, while the students below recorded rapidly.
The difference was that mortal students like Jiang Ding wielded their pens like the wind, sweat flying, while front-row cultivators like Wu Tianli held a jade slip to record using divine sense and mana, relaxed and leisurely, yet with an efficiency far surpassing the former.
Jingle...
"You must firmly remember the knowledge points taught in this class and do more sample problems when you go back..."
Two hours later, Guo Kui closed his textbook with a sense of unfulfilled desire and left the classroom.
The moment he left, swishing sounds erupted as figures vanished in a blur.
The fastest were naturally the cultivators blessed with the Wind-Riding Art, vanishing in the blink of an eye like a wisp of blue smoke, leaving students with lower martial arts realms unable to even see when they had departed.
Second were naturally the three inner-breath realm martial artists in the class; although inner breath was far inferior to a cultivator's mana, it was more than enough to crush a host of body-refinement martial artists.
Last came peak bone-refinement martial artists like Jiang Ding, who gave a single-handed push off the desk and sprinted toward the cultivation room amidst Li Junhao's envious gaze.
From 4 PM to 6 PM was cultivation class.
In the cultivation area, sure enough, the top 10 cultivation rooms had already been occupied by various fierce figures. Jiang Ding swiped his student ID card at the entrance of the forty-first cultivation room, and the steel metal door slowly opened.
The student behind him wore a look of regret and lunged toward the adjacent forty-second cultivation room.
Blueglow Star and the cultivation world had intersected for barely over ten thousand years; spiritual energy was thin and resources scarce. Currently, all spiritual energy had been reclaimed by the Immortal Sect, leaving only enough external spiritual energy for cultivators to barely maintain breathing and assimilation.
Of course, Jiang Ding was merely a martial artist; he could neither sense nor use spiritual energy.
What they were actually fighting for inside the cultivation room was the "Essence-Consolidating Bone-Strengthening Soup" uniformly provided by the Immortal Sect Ministry of Education for senior high school bone-refinement students. Developed by the Immortal Sect Academy of Sciences and concocted from hundreds to thousands of medicinal herbs, it was refined to the utmost perfection. Although mass-produced, its effects were not inferior in the slightest.
In some low-level small worlds, it could well be called a heavenly treasure, requiring both strength and opportunity to obtain.
The higher the ranking of the cultivation room, the better the effect of the Essence-Consolidating Bone-Strengthening Soup.
If it were cultivators or martial artists of lower realms, what they obtained would also differ—it might be the spiritual energy concentration of that serial number, or a potent soup to nourish tendons and bones.
The door opened, revealing a space over a hundred square meters in size. Weapon racks stood nearby, holding sabers, spears, swords, and halberds. At the exact center was a banyan tree root intertwined in the shape of a palm, and cradled in the center of the palm was precisely a bowl of milky-white thick soup that emitted a pungent aroma.
Stepping into the cultivation room, the metal door behind him slowly closed.
A postcard-like blue light screen unfurled gradually.
[Name: Jiang Ding]
[Student ID:]
[Realm: Peak Bone-Refinement Realm]
[Last Training Subject: <Eagle Hatchling Takes Flight Sword Art, Sixty-Eighth Set> (Proficiency 32%)]
Below the light screen was a virtual little figure composed of lines of meridians, with every muscle, bone, and patch of skin clearly labeled, capable of being freely zoomed in and out.
Skin and muscles were mostly 100%, while small areas—such as the skin under the armpits, the scalp, facial muscles, and gastrointestinal muscles, which were difficult to exercise—were 12%, 46%, and 0% respectively.
No matter how one trained, these areas were extremely difficult to reach and could only be perfectly exercised later by using inner breath as an auxiliary once it was born.
Generally speaking, most of the skin and muscles had reached their current limits. The cultivation room's computer was connected to the Banyan City Array-Spirit Computer, which functioned equivalently to an avatar of a Spirit Transformation grand mighty figure observing, assisting, and confirming with absolute zero errors or omissions.
The real difficulty lay in the spinal column.
The limbs, ribs, sternum, and outer skull were all 100%. Only the spinal column showed very few areas at 60%, with most at 1%, 2%, indicating an extremely low degree of quenching.
Jiang Ding knew the reason why.
"Young Eagle Takes Flight Formula (Proficiency 32%)."
He sighed.
Young Eagle Takes Flight Formula!
This cultivation technique had a very ordinary name and was merely the lowest tier among the "classics, canons, techniques, methods, and formulas," designed for young children among mortals to study. It looked complete trash.
In reality, it possessed a title across dozens of worlds in the surrounding area, including the cultivation world.
The Number One Foundation-Establishment Divine Art of the Myriad Realms!
None could dispute it!
Because this cultivation technique had an extremely terrifying effect: if a mortal could successfully break into the innate realm with it, they would forge the "embryonic form of the Dao body," driving their cultivation aptitude straight toward the level of top-tier four-element spiritual roots.
It could be called defying the heavens and changing one's fate!
Before you continue