Half a month flew by.
His days had been fairly fulfilling and regular, though classes had only allowed him to leave the city with Shen Qingqiu once, bringing back fifteen bottles of essence blood.
Of course, none of that was the point.
The point was that today was the first!
Time to collect his supplies!
Jiang Lan got up bright and early and took a taxi to the Academy.
When he entered the Rocket Class classroom, everyone else was already there.
Seeing him come in, Chu Yun greeted him. "You're here, bro."
After spending all this time together, Jiang Lan had grown increasingly close to everyone in the Rocket Class.
Jiang Lan nodded, then took his seat.
A moment later, Xiao Feng pushed open the door and walked into the classroom.
"Good morning, Mr. Xiao."
Everyone greeted him in unison.
Xiao Feng nodded. His expression was a little more serious than usual as he said:
"We won't start training just yet. I have an announcement."
Hearing that, everyone exchanged glances and quieted down, waiting for Xiao Feng to continue.
Xiao Feng swept his gaze over them and said:
"In one week, the Academy will hold a Field Combat Assessment."
Chu Yun's eyes lit up, and he turned to glance at Jiang Lan.
He had mentioned before that there might be a combat assessment. He hadn't expected it to actually happen.
Xiao Feng continued:
"The assessment will take place in the Western Suburbs Wilderness Zone. You'll operate in squads, and your task will be to hunt ferocious beasts. Your overall scores will be based on the number you kill, their tiers, and your individual performance."
"The six members of the Rocket Class will be divided into two groups of three. I'll announce the groups when the time comes."
At that, he paused and glanced over everyone.
"The three highest-scoring students will receive additional resources as rewards."
"What rewards?" Chu Yun asked eagerly.
"First place gets twenty bottles of first-tier ferocious beast essence blood, plus two bottles of second-tier essence blood."
"Second place gets fifteen bottles of first-tier essence blood."
"Third place gets ten bottles of first-tier essence blood."
Chu Yun sucked in a breath.
Twenty bottles of first-tier essence blood, plus two bottles of second-tier essence blood. That reward was almost too generous.
As though he could tell what Chu Yun was thinking, Xiao Feng said:
"The Field Combat Assessment is no game to begin with. There will be real danger during the assessment, so generous rewards are only natural."
Sitting in his seat, Jiang Lan felt a stir of interest.
He couldn't use second-tier essence blood just yet, but first-tier essence blood was incredibly important to him.
Looks like I have no choice but to take first place.
Next, Xiao Feng gave them a rough rundown of the assessment's precautions, then let everyone train on their own.
After training ended, Jiang Lan didn't linger. He said goodbye to everyone, left the teaching building, and headed straight for the Academic Affairs Office.
Once there, Jiang Lan took out his student ID with practiced ease.
A moment later, Jiang Lan signed his name, picked up the box, and turned to leave.
The essence blood was his!
He'd had thirty-seven bottles before, obtained fifteen last week, and collected another thirty today.
Eighty-two bottles!
Enough for an upgrade!
At the school gates, Jiang Lan hailed a taxi and went straight home.
The Salvage Team had a job outside the city today, so Shen Qingqiu wasn't home.
Jiang Lan stepped inside, took off his shoes, and rushed straight into his room.
As soon as he put the newly collected essence blood beside his previous supply, a system notification sounded.
[First-tier ferocious beast essence blood x64 detected. Use it to upgrade indestructible diamond body?]
Jiang Lan didn't hesitate.
"Upgrade."
[Indestructible diamond body upgraded to level eight!] [Defense +80, vitality +800, strength +60]
Boom!
A surge of heat suddenly exploded inside Jiang Lan, flowing through every part of his body.
Under its effects, every muscle, bone, and layer of fascia rapidly grew tougher.
Jiang Lan gritted his teeth, feeling agonizing pain throughout his body.
He would call this feeling pleasure mixed with pain.
The pain was real, but so was the exhilaration.
The satisfying sensation of strength constantly pouring into his body, in particular, almost made him cry out.
After a long while, the heat slowly dissipated.
Jiang Lan opened his eyes and lightly clenched his fists.
These fists!
I could take down an ox!
No, forget an ox. Even if an elephant stood in front of me, I'd dare to take it on.
His already absurd strength had now doubled outright.
Jiang Lan slowly stood and lightly punched the air in front of him.
Bang!
The air burst with an explosive crack.
The gust from his punch sent a wave of air sweeping out, making the calendar hanging on the wall flap wildly.
Jiang Lan hurriedly reined in his strength and looked at the system panel.
[Host: Jiang Lan] [Realm: None (martial talent not awakened)] [Indestructible diamond body: Level eight] [Defense: 360] [Vitality: 4350] [Strength: 118.8 (average person: 10)] [Spirit: 41 (average person: 10)] [Agility: 29.5 (average person: 10)] [Constitution: 80 (average person: 10)] [Upgrade requirement: First-tier ferocious beast essence blood x128]
His strength had shot straight from 58.6 to 118.8.
It had doubled.
Three hundred and sixty defense, and over forty-three hundred vitality.
Even a martial artist in the Astral Condensation Realm might not be able to break through his defenses now.
Martial artists were divided into nine realms in total. The first was body tempering, the second was meridian opening, and aura condensation was the third.
After those came the three middle realms: the blood exchange realm, divine strength realm, and diamond realm.
Finally came the three upper realms: the immortal realm, limit-breaking realm, and warrior god realm.
Rumor had it that martial artists in the warrior god realm could even move mountains and fill seas, chase the stars and race the sun.
Of course, Jiang Lan had never seen one himself, so he didn't know whether that was true.
As for strength, with nearly 120 points of it combined with the force-generating method of Iron Mountain Fist, he scarcely dared imagine how much power a full-strength punch could unleash.
At that thought, Jiang Lan couldn't help grinning.
But his smile hadn't lasted two seconds before his gaze fell on the final line again.
One hundred and twenty-eight bottles.
His next upgrade would require 128 bottles of first-tier ferocious beast essence blood.
The Academy provided thirty bottles a month. Even if he didn't use any, he would have to save up for over four months.
Even if he actively went out of the city to hunt ferocious beasts, it would take at least a month or so to gather enough essence blood for the upgrade.
And... this time it's 128.
Will it double again next time, straight to 256?
Who could keep up with that?
But Jiang Lan soon shook his head.
There was no point thinking about that now. No matter how much essence blood the next level required, he could simply save up slowly.
Besides, perhaps the next upgrade would switch straight to requiring second-tier essence blood.
The quantity would surely decrease accordingly then.
Gathering his thoughts, Jiang Lan threw a few more tentative punches.
Every punch he threw now contained explosive power.
When he went to class the day after tomorrow, he could test just how much his strength had increased after the upgrade.
As Jiang Lan was thinking, the phone beside him suddenly chimed with a notification.
He picked it up and saw a message from Shen Qingqiu.
[Have you eaten? There's food in the fridge. Heat it up yourself.]
Jiang Lan smiled and typed:
[Okay, Auntie.] [Kitty acknowledged.jpg]