Chapter 19

The urgency of not being able to afford food returned.

After leaving the shop, Xu Jintang went straight back to her academy dormitory and began working overtime making inscriptions, ready to earn back the money she had spent.

Night fell, and Xu Jintang finally stopped after making more than a dozen inscription talismans in a row.

She opened her communicator panel, preparing to book a pickup by the staff at Have You Earned Money?

Just then, the mysterious scales that had remained in her sea of consciousness suddenly trembled.

The pointer on the scales tilted from the left toward the right, letting out a clear ding.

Chapter 19

Xu Jintang froze for a long moment before coming to her senses and shouting, "Brother Long, Brother Long! What's going on?"

The Ice Soul Dragon had also sensed the scales' unusual movement.

He flew over to the scales, his body coiling in midair. "They did just move. Perhaps making so many inscription talismans and channeling mental power with the star attribute increased the scales' energy, causing that movement."

The mental power Xu Jintang used to make inscription talismans did indeed require her to draw on the star attribute. Moreover, every time she successfully made an inscription talisman, the star attribute within her grew a little stronger.

Xu Jintang's eyes lit up.

"So if I keep using star-attribute mental power, they might move again?"

The Ice Soul Dragon said, "Possibly. The Inscriptionist Association in your human world should have cultivation methods specifically for star-attribute mental power. When you have time, you can look into them and see whether they affect this ability."

Originally, Xu Jintang had only wanted to earn money by making inscriptions. She had never planned to join the Inscriptionist Association or anything like that.

Now it seemed she would have to pay the Inscriptionist Association a visit.

However, after joining the association, the fact that she had two abilities might be exposed. That felt like it would be troublesome.

Xu Jintang rubbed between her brows. She would leave it until after the assessment.

After the drawing ceremony ended, the entire academy was discussing Xu Jintang's team facing Xu Bohan's team in the semifinals.

"I thought these two teams wouldn't meet until the finals. They're fighting so soon."

"It was a random draw. It's all down to luck. Still, I'm looking forward to it. An earlier fight means everyone gets to enjoy the show sooner. That's not bad either."

"I heard Xu Bohan's team has been practically living in the simulated battlefield lately. It definitely won't be easy for Xu Jintang and the others to win."

Meanwhile, inside the simulated battlefield.

In the large tree before Xu Jintang, a monkey with its mouth stretched wide hung from a branch by one arm, swinging back and forth through the air.

It was a tier-one demonic beast, a Vajra Copper-Toothed Monkey.

It had a mouthful of indestructible vajra copper teeth and an extremely powerful bite. Even steel would not last two seconds between its jaws.

Xu Jintang pressed her lips together and crushed a tier-one attack inscription.

Three blades of air shot toward the Vajra Copper-Toothed Monkey.

The Vajra Copper-Toothed Monkey opened its mouth slightly, wrapped one arm around the thick trunk, and nimbly leaped down from the tree, narrowly slipping past the three air blades.

Planting both arms on the ground, it raced toward Xu Jintang, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Xu Jintang retreated, channeled her mental power, raised her right hand, and activated her ruby sleeve-arrow magical treasure.

Several arrows fired at once, whistling through the air.

The Vajra Copper-Toothed Monkey stamped about in fury, constantly leaping left and right to evade the arrows.

The next instant, Xu Jintang's eyes flickered.

-Ice Slow.

A slowing force carrying the ice attribute gradually descended, slowing the movements of the rapidly dodging Vajra Copper-Toothed Monkey.

One concealed arrow struck its left arm, making it bare its teeth in pain.

Xu Jintang swiftly advanced. Just before she collided head-on with the Vajra Copper-Toothed Monkey, she changed her angle, turned sideways, and ran past it.

She raised her right arm and activated the ruby sleeve-arrow attack again.

This time, the Vajra Copper-Toothed Monkey had nowhere to dodge. Several arrows struck its vital points in succession, and within seconds, it collapsed to the ground and stopped breathing.

Xu Jintang stopped moving and calculated the time.

Less than five minutes had passed since her fight with the Vajra Copper-Toothed Monkey began.

Her speed had nearly doubled.

She lowered her eyes to the ruby sleeve-arrow weapon on her right arm.

As expected of a magical treasure worth sixteen thousand star coins, it really made a substantial difference.

Xu Jintang pressed the sleeve-arrow weapon's arrow-retrieval button, and the arrows scattered on the ground swiftly returned to it.

Leaving the simulated battlefield, Xu Jintang woke up inside the simulation pod.

She still had a theory class with her homeroom teacher that afternoon, so she stopped training, left the combat room, and headed toward the teaching building.

After she returned to the classroom, the chatter of classmates gossiping around her reached her ears one after another.

Before long, Jiang Lu walked in and stood at the lectern. "The admissions brochures and entry requirements for the various military academies are out. After class, you can check them yourselves on the academy network's forum."

Someone immediately asked, "Sir, are the five great military academies admitting many students this year?"

Jiang Lu answered, "The same as last year. But according to the academy's statistics, over ten thousand students will be taking this year's star-domain-wide joint entrance exam, considerably more than last year. Competition will be fierce."

Xu Jintang had also followed military academy admissions last year.

Top institutions like the five great military academies admitted at most a hundred students each year, selecting only the best.

Next came the first-tier military academies, which admitted around a thousand students. Students rejected by the five great military academies generally considered academies at this level.

Below those were the second-tier military academies and ordinary military academies.

Of these, ordinary military academies ranked lowest, with an enormous gap between their teaching resources and those of good military academies.

Xu Jintang felt a little less pressure than her classmates.

At worst, she still had Brother Long and the visiting-student place at Leikedasi to fall back on.

However, the happiest person in the classroom was probably Song Tianqi. As a special recruit of the First Military Academy, he did not even need to take the joint entrance exam.

After class, Xu Jintang followed Jiang Lu to the office and left with a stack of military academy admissions brochures.

She paid little attention to the other military academies' admissions information, only glancing at Leikedasi's admissions slogan: [Work hard and strive to be your best self.]

"Class monitor, which military academy are you planning to apply to?" Song Duoduo had also just come out after collecting her admissions brochures. Spotting Xu Jintang, she hurried to catch up.

Xu Jintang answered without hesitation. "Leikedasi, of course."

Song Duoduo sighed. "I wouldn't dare dream of the First Military Academy. I'd be satisfied getting into a first-tier military academy."

Although she had always been able to contribute to the team, she knew she was more of an added bonus than someone they could not do without.

Her ability's potential was average, and there was basically no chance of any particularly outstanding development, so she had long since accepted that fate.

"But class monitor, I know there's more to your strength than meets the eye. I believe you can get into Leikedasi." Song Duoduo smiled again and looked at Xu Jintang.

Fighting alongside the class monitor these past few days, she had noticed many strange things.

For instance, the class monitor's ability seemed capable of lowering the temperature.

Moreover, the class monitor's mental power was immense, almost more than twice her own.

All the evidence indicated that the class monitor must still be hiding trump cards.

Xu Jintang smiled faintly and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Let's both do our best."

The academy gave them a total of three days to prepare before the semifinals.

For the first two days, Xu Jintang's team and Xu Bohan's team each practiced combat without incident.

On the third day, Xu Jintang was carrying her freshly served meal toward a table.

As though he were blind, Xu Bohan walked straight into her.

The hot food and soup spilled onto the floor, even dirtying Xu Jintang's clothes.

Xu Jintang frowned and looked coldly at Xu Bohan. "If you're blind, get to the infirmary and have it treated before you go around making trouble for other people."

Xu Bohan deliberately sneered arrogantly. "Xu Jintang, you're just a support. If you weren't riding on Song Tianqi's coattails, you would've been eliminated ages ago. You wouldn't have a chance to mouth off at me. You'd better thank Song Tianqi properly. If it weren't for-"

Before he could finish, Xu Jintang abruptly seized his collar, her voice icy. "Got a death wish?"

"I don't know whether I have a death wish, but with your measly skills, you're not qualified to kill me, are you? If you've got the guts, fight me in the arena! Let everyone get a good look at just how strong a support like you really is." Xu Bohan's face was full of disdain as he continued provoking her.

Xu Jintang stared at him calmly and flung his collar aside. "Fine. To the arena, then!"

Before long, Song Duoduo and Song Tianqi heard that the two were heading to the arena and hurried over.

"Xu Bohan, I've never seen you act this shameless before. You're so desperate to win tomorrow that you can't wait to challenge our captain today, huh?" Song Tianqi was the first to start berating him.

Song Duoduo immediately backed him up. "Exactly. Challenge Song Tianqi if you've got the guts. What's this about challenging our captain? Picking on her because she only has a support ability?"

Song Tianqi continued, "Usually, only people without any real strength go out of their way to bully supports."

Song Duoduo nodded solemnly. "Exactly. Looks like your team isn't much after all."

The two traded lines, sandwiching Xu Bohan between them and tearing into him without mercy.

"Shut up!" Xu Bohan snapped, his expression ugly.

His face darkened, and he clenched both fists, veins bulging on the backs of his hands.

Only then did Song Duoduo and Song Tianqi stop their barrage.

Xu Bohan took a deep breath and calmed down.

The previous round had made him realize that Xu Jintang's ability might not be so simple.

The semifinals were tomorrow, and of course he wanted to win.

So no matter what, he had to test what trump cards Xu Jintang had today.

Entering the academy's arena area, Xu Jintang began loosening her wrists and ankles. She turned to glance at Xu Bohan. "Why insist on making such a production of this? After losing today, you'll still have to lose tomorrow. Aren't you embarrassed?"

Those words were mocking to the extreme.