Elite Student Assessment

Chen Lie watched his mother leave, then shut the door. He walked over to the table, opened the lunch box containing exotic beast meat, and slowly began eating.

As soon as the first piece of exotic beast meat entered his stomach and dissolved, Chen Lie immediately felt a surge of violent energy arise within him. Yet rather than slowing down, he ate even faster.

As he consumed more and more exotic beast meat, the violent energy gradually filled Chen Lie's body. He could feel his blood vessels throbbing wildly and his pulse beating powerfully yet erratically.

After swallowing the last piece of exotic beast meat, Chen Lie immediately left his room and headed to the training room at home.

At that moment, Chen Lie felt an intense swelling pain in his blood. He hurriedly began practicing the Basic Body Tempering Art of Tai'a Star Province.

Because the energy in his body was massive and violent, he immediately began with the third form of the Basic Body Tempering Art.

The third form of the Basic Body Tempering Art differed from the first two. It contained forty-two movements, which, when linked together, could stimulate the body's blood and qi to circulate rapidly, converting energy into nutrients for the body to absorb.

By the time Chen Lie reached the seventh of those forty-two movements, he could already feel the blood and qi within him stirring, madly devouring the violent energy brought by the exotic beast meat.

More than two hours passed, and Chen Lie repeatedly practiced the forty-two movements of the third form of the Basic Body Tempering Art ten times.

By then, the violent energy in his body had nearly been completely devoured by his surging cells, while his blood and qi had become several times more abundant than before.

To avoid depleting his body's nutrients again by training too fiercely, Chen Lie promptly ended this session.

Chen Lie sent out a strand of mental power to examine his body and found that his blood and qi had grown by a considerable amount compared to before. As for the exact figure, he would need an instrument to test it.

"I wonder how much my blood and qi has increased this time. But compared to just now, it has at least more than doubled."

Chen Lie left the training room, returned to his bedroom to change clothes, then sat cross-legged on his bed and began cultivating the constellation visualization method of the Lingguang Divine Refinement Chapter.

He had successfully awakened Mind Sense and cultivated mental power within his sea of consciousness. Because the strength of his mental power far exceeded that of ordinary people, Chen Lie would not feel the slightest fatigue even if he went more than ten days without sleep.

Without the aid of the Mind-Nurturing Flower, however, his progress in cultivating mental power had slowed considerably.

A whole night passed, yet he had failed to light up even a single star of Gui Lodge, the second lodge among the seven lodges.

Early in the morning, Chen Lie got out of bed. After washing up, he left home and headed to school.

The high school he attended was a key high school in East River Province. The school required martial arts students to attend compulsory classes every Monday and Thursday, while they were free to arrange the rest of their time as they wished.

Chen Lie arrived at his class, Senior Year Martial Arts, Ordinary Class 16, found his seat, and sat down.

His memories of his classmates had already become quite vague, so he did not speak to anyone.

Before long, Ren Hongguang, the instructor of Martial Arts Ordinary Class 16, entered the classroom.

The entire classroom fell silent as soon as Instructor Ren Hongguang arrived. Only Chen Lie stood up and walked straight to the podium, stopping before Ren Hongguang.

"You there, what's going on? Didn't you hear the class bell? Why aren't you back in your seat?"

When Ren Hongguang saw Chen Lie walk up to the podium, he immediately reprimanded him.

"Teacher Ren, my blood and qi value has surpassed 3 cal. I want to advance to the elite class, so please approve a form for me."

"You? Your blood and qi value has surpassed 3?"

Ren Hongguang looked at Chen Lie in confusion. "Didn't you get tested just a few days ago? Your blood and qi value was 0.93 cal at the time. How has it suddenly surpassed 3 now?"

"My blood and qi surpassed 3 long ago. I simply never revealed it. As for the previous blood and qi test, I had someone else take it for me."

"Hm?"

Ren Hongguang stepped forward, raised a hand, and grabbed Chen Lie's wrist, carefully sensing it.

"Your pulse is strong, and your blood and qi flow is steady and forceful. Your blood and qi value is no lower than 3 cal."

Ren Hongguang released Chen Lie's wrist and nodded kindly. "It seems you really have been concealing your strength. I won't ask why.

"However, since you are already in your senior year, the review for advancing to the elite class is much stricter than it is for first- and second-year martial arts students. Not only will your blood and qi be tested, but also your strength and comprehension.

"So, I advise you to build up your foundation a little longer. Otherwise, if you fail the elite class review, it may hurt your confidence."

Chen Lie nodded. "I understand. Thank you for the reminder, Teacher, but I've built up my foundation for long enough. Please approve the form for me."

"Very well, then. Come with me to the office."

Ren Hongguang had just determined that Chen Lie's blood and qi value was no lower than 3 cal, and he also believed that Chen Lie had spent some time building up his foundation. Thus, he nodded in agreement.

Chen Lie followed Ren Hongguang out of the classroom and into the office.

Ren Hongguang went to his desk, opened a drawer, and took out a form labeled Elite Student Advancement Assessment Recommendation Form. He wrote his own name in the recommender instructor section.

"Fill in your personal information on the recommendation form. I'll handle the rest through the supercomputer. Report to the elite student verification office at exactly noon today for your assessment."

As he spoke, Ren Hongguang handed the form to Chen Lie.

Chen Lie accepted the recommendation form and said, "Thank you for the trouble, Teacher."

With that, Chen Lie turned and left the office.

Chen Lie remembered that the elite student assessment office was beside the elite campus. After casually eating something in the cafeteria, he headed there.

East River Province Key High School was a large high school with more than fifty thousand students, over thirty thousand of whom were martial arts students.

Among those thirty thousand martial arts students, fewer than two thousand were in elite classes—not even one-tenth of the total number of martial arts students.

Elite students received preferential access to the school's martial arts resources.

According to official data released by the school, every elite student received at least twenty thousand star dollars' worth of resource subsidies from the school each month.

With a monthly resource subsidy of twenty thousand star dollars, Chen Lie naturally had no reason not to compete for it.

Upon arriving at the elite student assessment office, Chen Lie walked straight inside.

Many people were already waiting in the first-floor lobby of the elite assessment office. Chen Lie entered, found a seat in the waiting area, and sat down.

The more than one hundred seats in the waiting area were sparsely but nearly fully occupied. This was not because so many students were applying to advance to elite student status, but because every student awaiting an elite class assessment was accompanied by their parents.

Chen Lie was not surprised. Students who advanced to elite classes were almost certain to gain admission to a key martial arts university in the future. For many families, advancing to an elite class was a major event, and it was common for parents to accompany their children on the day of the assessment.

Beside Chen Lie, a young woman was encouraging her child, a short-haired girl.

"Nini, don't be nervous. You're only a second-year student, so the assessment for advancing to the elite class won't be that strict. Adjust your mindset. Our blood and qi value has surpassed 3, so we've already met the standard. As long as you perform normally, you'll definitely pass!"

"Mm, I understand, Mom!" The short-haired girl nodded vigorously.

In the seats in front of Chen Lie, both parents of another student were encouraging their child.

"Son, keep a calm mindset. Although you failed the elite assessment last time, you've been eating exotic beast meat continuously for a month now, and your blood and qi value has already surpassed 4 cal.

"Our blood and qi value exceeds the requirement by so much. No matter how strict the elite assessment is for senior-year students, you'll definitely pass!"

"That's right, your mother is right. I'll go fill out the form for you later, and your mother will help you adjust your mindset. We'll definitely pass this time!"

Chen Lie turned a deaf ear to everything happening around him and quietly waited for noon to arrive.

Before noon had even arrived, the school administrative staff responsible for assessing elite students had already taken their places behind the counters.

The waiting parents all went to line up in front of the counters.

Chen Lie glanced toward the counters and found that every person in line was a student's parent. Not a single student was among them.

Faced with the long line, Chen Lie was in no hurry. He waited until all the parents in line had left before calmly walking up to the counter.