Chapter 19

"Forget it. No point thinking about it. It has nothing to do with me anyway." Xu Jintang sat cross-legged by the bed and resumed cultivating her mental power.

She was only a first-tier ability user, the lowest rank. No matter how many ideas she had, no one would listen.

She still needed to grow stronger before her words would carry weight.

A month passed in the blink of an eye.

Throughout the lockdown and alert across the entire star region, Xu Jintang behaved herself and stayed out of trouble.

Aside from attending classes on time, she mostly cultivated and learned to make new inscription talismans.

By selling fire-attribute inscriptions, she had made a net profit of twenty-five thousand star coins that month. She finally had money to spare.

Early one morning, Xu Jintang headed toward the cafeteria after finishing her morning run.

The communicator on her chest vibrated, displaying a notification for the entire star region:

[The presence of dangerous high-rank beasts in Blizzard Forest has now been confirmed. By decision of the Federation, Blizzard Forest will be permanently sealed off until the threat has been resolved.]

Xu Jintang froze for a moment.

It looked like the Federation really had mistakenly assumed that Brother Long was hiding in Blizzard Forest.

They probably had not found any trace of Brother Long and could only seal off the forest for now, then take their time searching.

"Class monitor, you got the notification too, right?" Song Duoduo ran up from behind, looking a little excited. "Blizzard Forest is going to be permanently sealed off. Good thing we went there over winter break. It would've felt like a bit of a loss if we'd never even been there before they banned us from going."

Xu Jintang gathered her thoughts and answered, "Yeah."

"Come on, let's eat." Song Duoduo linked arms with Xu Jintang and entered the cafeteria.

That afternoon brought another piece of good news.

Standing at the podium, Jiang Lu said with a smile, "The joint alert operation across the entire star region has ended. Huang Binhan and the academy's other teachers will return this afternoon, and the assessment that was left unfinished last month will resume."

"Also, a teacher from Leikdasi Military Academy came to our star region because of the alert operation. She may stop by to observe our third-year assessment. Do your best, everyone. Don't miss this opportunity."

The classroom erupted with excitement.

"A teacher from Leikdasi Military Academy is coming to watch the assessment! That's amazing!"

"But our team was eliminated in the last round. Can we have another revival round?"

"If we do really well in the assessment, could we get specially recruited by Leikdasi Military Academy like Song Tianqi?"

Xu Jintang looked up, a little surprised.

A teacher from Leikdasi Military Academy was coming to observe? This was a great chance to show what she could do.

After class, Song Duoduo came over of her own accord. "Class monitor, should we get back to training?"

Xu Jintang nodded, a glimmer flashing through her eyes. "We need to train hard this time."

Song Tianqi, however, hung his head, looking utterly dejected.

The military academy teacher would definitely check his training progress during her visit.

The pressure was intense.

Meanwhile, at the entrance to Dawn Academy, Zhuang Silin walked slowly onto the grounds in a blue uniform, accompanied by numerous academy administrators.

"Teacher Zhuang, your timing couldn't be better. Our third-year students happen to be taking their assessment. Song Tianqi, whom your academy specially recruited, is participating as well. If you have time, you could stop by to observe and offer some guidance."

Dean Wang spoke with a broad smile.

Zhuang Silin replied as she walked, "I wouldn't presume to offer guidance. But since I'm here, I might as well see how strong the students are now."

Her main purpose this time was to check Song Tianqi's training progress, then take a look at the overall standard of Dawn Academy's students while she was there.

The All-Star-Region Joint Examination would begin in less than six months.

Leikedasi would be recruiting students too.

Keeping an eye on promising students in advance would also make it easier for their teachers to compete for them when the time came.

The group had not walked far when Jiang Shiyi appeared ahead of them.

She approached, stopped in front of Zhuang Silin, and lowered her head. "Teacher."

Zhuang Silin smiled. "You've been here for about a month now, haven't you? How has it been?"

Jiang Shiyi nodded and replied, "Mm, not bad."

Zhuang Silin shook her head with a smile, a hint of helplessness in her eyes.

Jiang Shiyi had actually been sent to experience life in a lower star region as punishment from the military academy.

Two months earlier, Jiang Shiyi, only a first-year military academy student, had gotten into an unauthorized fight on campus and broken a fellow student's bones, sending them to the hospital.

Reportedly, that student had provoked Jiang Shiyi verbally first, which had led to the fight.

But military academy rules prohibited unauthorized fights between students.

Jiang Shiyi had knowingly broken the rules and had to be punished.

Still, everyone knew that the academy clearly had no intention of truly punishing Jiang Shiyi with this measure.

People were always more forgiving toward geniuses.

Dean Wang joined in with a smile. "Teacher Zhuang, I'll go make arrangements for the assessment, then."

Zhuang Silin nodded with a smile. "Yes, sorry for the trouble, Dean."

"Not at all, not at all. It's only what I should do." With the pleasantries over, Dean Wang turned and left with the others, smiling.

Zhuang Silin's gaze settled on Jiang Shiyi. "How has Song Tianqi been lately?"

Jiang Shiyi considered for a while. "Not bad. He's already made the top eight in the assessment. His team will be competing for a place in the top four next round."

Zhuang Silin nodded, then asked, "Aside from Song Tianqi, are there any other students worth watching?"

Jiang Shiyi paused, and Xu Jintang's figure surfaced in her mind.

She pressed her lips together. "The girl on Song Tianqi's team is called Xu Jintang. She awakened a domain-type ability with a slowing effect. She seems like a support, but when I watched her and Song Tianqi in the elimination round from sixteen to eight, she showed impressive combat experience. I feel like she may still have some trump cards hidden away."

The corners of Zhuang Silin's lips lifted slightly. "A student with secrets? I like that."

Meanwhile, inside a simulated battlefield combat room.

Xu Jintang woke in a daze after being blown to death yet again.

She rubbed her temples, feeling a buzzing vibration filling her head.

"We dealt a thousand damage and took a thousand ourselves. The demon beast died, but so did we. That means we still lost out, because three of us died." Song Duoduo tallied it up with a numb expression.

Song Tianqi scratched his head awkwardly. "This ability's second form really is hard to handle. It's too destructive. I can't control it at all."

Once Xu Jintang had recovered a little, she looked at the two of them. "If that's the case, we have one less trump card, because Song Tianqi can't use this move in the real world."

Song Duoduo lowered her head, sounding dispirited. "But no matter how well our skills work, neither of us has any attack power. If we run into a strong team, we can't keep counting on Song Tianqi alone."

Song Tianqi scratched his head, beginning to blame himself. "It's all because I'm so useless. If I could master this ability, our team could definitely win the championship."

After a moment of silence, he raised his head. "How about I go back into the simulated battlefield and practice this move by myself?"

Xu Jintang shook her head. "Our opponents will only get stronger from here. We can't rely on you for everything."

If her guess was right, Song Tianqi would probably have to reach the second tier before he could control this move proficiently.

Using it now was already drawing on power beyond his current limits, so it was normal that he could not control it well.

"All right, let's rest for now." Xu Jintang stood and hopped out of the simulation pod.

After leaving the combat room, Xu Jintang returned to her dorm room alone.

She pulled out a chair and sat at her desk. Lowering her head slightly, she took out her talisman-making materials and began teaching herself how to add demon beast cores to inscription talismans.

Her previous attempt to teach herself fire-attribute inscriptions had been successful. This time, she planned to follow a similar process.

When making inscriptions, Xu Jintang was at her calmest and her thoughts were clearest, making it a good time to think through battle tactics.

She held her breath and focused, turning her gaze to the raw stone.

Strands of mental power began engraving the small raw stone.

Pinpricks of light swirled around her.

Her initially restless mood gradually settled.

Ten minutes later, Xu Jintang took the remaining Flowing Fire Lizard core from her bracelet's storage space, held it in her palm, and crushed its outer shell.

The core's ferocious energy rapidly spilled out.

Controlling her mental threads, Xu Jintang gathered the core's energy back together bit by bit and slowly infused it into the inscription talisman.

The process was somewhat strenuous.

Her brows knitted tightly, and the hand holding her inscription pen trembled slightly.

The mental power within her was also being rapidly depleted.

"Steady your mind. Don't let the demon beast core's energy affect you." The Ice Soul Dragon's timely reminder rang out.

He had been sleeping, but had suddenly sensed a faint trace of demon beast energy invading Xu Jintang's mental sea, waking him.

Xu Jintang immediately cleared her head, gritted her teeth, and set all her mental power vibrating, dispersing the demon beast energy inside her.

Another ten minutes passed.

The demon beast core's energy was infused into the inscription talisman bit by bit, and the small talisman burst with dazzling light.

"So this is the power of a demon beast core." Xu Jintang withdrew her mental power and curiously examined the exquisite inscription talisman in her palm.

This was the first enhancement inscription she had successfully made with added demon beast core energy.

She could feel that the energy in this inscription talisman was stronger than in any of her previous ones.

Supposedly, adding demon beast cores was harder than adding spiritual plants, because a core's energy was more ferocious.

She had not expected to succeed on her first try with this too.

Xu Jintang thoughtfully toyed with the inscription talisman in her hand, the corners of her lips lifting slightly.

Moreover, making this inscription had also helped her figure out how to maximize the effects of her and Duoduo's abilities without relying on the second form of Song Tianqi's ability.

Sensing her excitement, the Ice Soul Dragon asked curiously, "What are you thinking about?"

"I thought of a really good battle tactic." Xu Jintang kept him guessing. After putting away the inscription talisman, she lay down on her bed. "I'm in a good mood today. No cultivating. Time to sleep!"