Spiritual Root

"No, but I've got a spare. Here, take one."

The girl held her hands behind her back, then set a pink pen on his desk.

"Thanks."

Xu Yuan nodded.

"You're welcome. I heard you were grouped with Yang Xiaobing and Jiang Xueyao this morning. How did you do?" Wen Xiaoning asked.

"No idea." Xu Yuan sighed. "We seemed to have disobeyed orders. I really don't know what score we'll get."

As a professional,

setting foot in an unfamiliar field of combat for the first time,

he shouldn't get too cocky.

Even if his team had outshone everyone else, he ought to wait for the results before saying so.

That was the safer approach.

When wandering the martial world, caution came first.

"Jiang Xueyao is too strong. She won't listen to you in a fight. Team up with me for the next monthly exam. I'm good at hand-to-hand combat, and I can fight alongside you."

Wen Xiaoning spoke quietly.

She was the class monitor, and she was always bringing her classmates together. She held considerable sway in the class.

Xu Yuan was a little surprised.

He glanced around and saw several girls—and boys—looking his way.

So that was it.

His fight with Jiang Xueyao that morning had made quite a few people reassess his strength.

After all, he had used the Flying Swallow Chain sword technique.

"Well... actually, I was the one who insisted on doing things my way... haha..."

Xu Yuan sounded a little embarrassed.

Wen Xiaoning was about to say more when their homeroom teacher, Liu Mingdao, walked in carrying a huge stack of exam papers.

The classroom fell silent at once.

The students who had been talking, eating, or letting their minds wander all hurriedly sat up straight. They stared at the podium with puzzled faces, as though they had been utterly absorbed in studying and knew nothing of the world around them.

An entire class of award-winning actors.

A moment later, though, groans and sighs broke out.

The stack of papers was almost as tall as a person.

One glance told them it was a massive exam covering every subject.

Those exams took a lot out of you.

Liu Mingdao set the papers on the podium and swept his gaze across the classroom. His resonant voice rang out:

"Students, the team battles are over."

"Settle down."

"Focus on what you've learned in each subject and prepare properly for tomorrow's written exam."

"This is a comprehensive exam. It's fresh from the printer."

"Pass it out and try to finish before school lets out this afternoon."

"If you get stuck, go straight to the office and ask the teachers for each subject."

"Class monitor, come up to the podium and keep order."

With that, Liu Mingdao hurried away.

Wen Xiaoning gave Xu Yuan a reluctant glance, then got up and began handing out papers with a few other student officers.

She hadn't even finished what she wanted to say.

Now she had been called to sit at the podium and keep order.

Who knew when she would get another chance to talk to Xu Yuan?

Xu Yuan, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief.

He had no desire to form a new team.

Jiang Xueyao was first-rate. Yang Xiaobing was both capable and easy to get along with. And Fatty Afei's "tower" was a rare Magic Treasure that could clinch a victory.

These days, getting reborn and immediately ending up with a few random teammates who didn't drag you down was no easy feat.

Suddenly, a tiny figure climbed onto his desk, unfolded itself, and became a Talisman.

A Message-Passing Talisman.

The crooked handwriting was unmistakably Zhao Afei's:

"While you were asleep just now, Wen Xiaoning used a Transposition Talisman to take your pen."

Xu Yuan froze.

So it really was her.

I knew I felt something sneaking toward the front row.

She took my pen, then gave me another one.

What was this class monitor up to?

Had she done it just to start a conversation and invite him to join her team?

Thinking back carefully—

Before the original Xu Yuan had revealed that he had reached the Qi Refining Realm, this esteemed class monitor had hardly ever smiled at him.

"Forget her. You said you'd treat us to lunch, but then you ran off with a girl. What a dog."

Xu Yuan finished writing and flicked the Talisman.

It folded into a tiny figure, climbed down from the desk, and scurried toward Zhao Afei's.

After reading it, Zhao Afei lowered his head. Even his presence seemed to shrink.

"What do you want for breakfast tomorrow?" he wrote.

"Beef noodles, steamed buns, soy milk, and an order of pan-fried dumplings. Don't forget the vinegar," Xu Yuan wrote.

"Were you a starving ghost in your last life? Eat that much and you'll choke to death," Zhao Afei wrote.

"Who's that girl? Why did you lose your head the moment you saw her? Come on, spill it, Afei," Xu Yuan wrote.

"Your breakfast will be in the classroom on time tomorrow," Zhao Afei wrote.

Giving up already?

This might be true love!

Xu Yuan grinned wickedly.

Just then, the exam papers reached them.

He stopped replying, took a paper from a classmate, and began reading the questions.

Working through practice questions did have its benefits.

It helped him reinforce all sorts of cultivation knowledge and gave him ideas for real combat.

Xu Yuan bent over his paper and got to work.

Once he started, he lost track of time.

By the time he looked up for a short break, nearly two hours had passed.

It was almost four in the afternoon.

The classroom was very quiet.

All he could hear was the scratch of pens on paper.

Xu Yuan stretched and prepared to finish the last few long-answer questions.

Then he saw their homeroom teacher appear in the doorway. Liu Mingdao looked around, nodded in satisfaction, and beckoned toward the back of the classroom.

"Xu Yuan, come out for a moment."

Bewildered, Xu Yuan stood and walked out into the corridor under his classmates' gazes.

"Sir?" Xu Yuan said.

"You fought Jiang Xueyao this morning, but she started it. It wasn't your fault, so I won't criticize you."

Liu Mingdao smiled.

"Thank you, sir," Xu Yuan said quickly.

"You used the Flying Swallow Chain well. The university admissions officers were impressed. Now there's an opportunity. Come with me to the Auditorium. It's time you took part in this, too."

Liu Mingdao called several more students out of the classroom and led them away.

Before long, the group reached the large Auditorium beside the school sports field.

It was already full of teachers.

The admissions officers sent by the universities sat at the very front, chatting and laughing with the principal.

Students from other classes were standing in the open area as well.

Among the students,

Xu Yuan immediately spotted a tall, graceful girl in a blue-and-white school uniform.

Her skin gleamed like white porcelain. Her nose was straight, her lips red, her teeth white, and her almond-shaped eyes were like a lake hidden beneath trees in autumn.

There was no need to guess.

Who else could that gentle, long-legged girl be but Yang Xiaobing?

Yang Xiaobing spotted him too. She waved at him with a delighted grin.

"Wait here. When your name is called, go up for the test."

After giving them those instructions, Liu Mingdao went inside and found a seat.

Meanwhile,

more teachers arrived with students and joined the line.

Xu Yuan looked left and right, then slipped past a few people to stand beside Yang Xiaobing. He asked quietly:

"What's this for?"

"An old tradition. After the monthly exam, we show our Spiritual Roots to the university admissions officers," Yang Xiaobing said.

She added, "You'd never shown what you could do before, so you wouldn't know."

"Yeah. All I ever did was keep my head down and train. There's plenty I don't know." Xu Yuan sighed.

The old Xu Yuan hadn't even achieved Path Entry.

Yang Xiaobing explained without being asked:

"All Qi Refiners must have a Spiritual Root. Without one, Spiritual Power can't remain in the body."

"Once we reach the Qi Refining Third Layer, the nature of our Spiritual Root gradually begins to infuse our techniques and change them."

"Jiang Xueyao, for example, has a Thunder-Fire Spiritual Root. Her sword is the Flame Sword, and when she blends her Flame Spirit attribute into her attacks, they become devastating."

As she spoke, she took out a Talisman and patted Xu Yuan with it here and there.

Xu Yuan looked at the Talisman, then at Yang Xiaobing, his face full of questions.

"It's a new Talisman I made! It cleans, hydrates, softens, and repairs your skin—all four in one!"

Yang Xiaobing grinned and kept patting him with it.

Xu Yuan stood still. He really did feel cleaner and cleaner.

It was as if moisture had gathered and seeped into his skin, leaving even his face feeling smooth and supple.

Recalling the final moments of the monthly exam's team battle, Xu Yuan asked another question:

"She used a move called 'Flame Spirit, Twin Flying Swallows.' That was her Flame Spirit attribute at work, right?"

That was the move that had left the Human-Skin Monster with nothing but its head. It had fallen into the building, out of sight.

Only then had the battle turned into a matter of "catching a turtle in a jar."

"Exactly. Take me, for example. I have a Water Spiritual Root. You saw the Mushroom I grew. Pretty impressive, right?"

Yang Xiaobing looked at him.

"Impressive." Xu Yuan gave her a thumbs-up, sounding utterly convinced.

One Mushroom had propped up an entire subway station.

How sturdy did it have to be?

Xu Yuan, at least, had found it breathtaking.

But back to the point.

At the Qi Refining Third Layer, a Spiritual Root could be tested.

A Spiritual Root—

I don't even know what kind of Spiritual Root I have.

If he infused his Spiritual Root's attribute into sword techniques like "Swallow's Return" and "Three Questions," as the two of them did, how powerful would they become?

Xu Yuan pondered in silence.