The Sleeping Star Aspect

On the way home, in a self-driving taxi.

"Brother Fang, you're not working at the martial arts society anymore?"

"I remember you submitted your application to become a permanent employee last month, didn't you?" Xu Chenyang looked astonished. "Did Manager Huo call you upstairs just now to fire you?"

Xu Chenyang knew the rule that assistant instructors had to leave if they weren't made permanent within a year.

"That doesn't make sense." Xu Chenyang shook his head in confusion. "With your performance and skill level, you're more than qualified to be a junior instructor. How could you not pass?"

"Haha, Big Head, you're overthinking it," Fang Yu said with a smile. "I wasn't fired. Manager Huo told me my application had been approved, but I turned it down."

Fang Yu figured it was better to avoid unnecessary trouble, so he had no intention of telling him the truth.

It would only cause needless worry.

"You quit?" Xu Chenyang was even more taken aback. "Martial arts college is a four-year program, but the whole fourth year is an internship. You can apply to graduate early and sign with a company... Wouldn't it be good to become a permanent employee at the Iron Mountain Martial Arts Society?"

As Xu Chenyang saw it.

Although the Iron Mountain Group wasn't one of the eight great martial artist groups, its founder was a Starry Sky Martial Artist, after all... The Iron Mountain Martial Arts Society, which belonged to the Iron Mountain Group, counted as a major company too.

Martial arts college students held a slightly higher status than ordinary academic bachelor's students.

Even so, joining a company like that was already a dream for many martial arts college students.

Salespeople like them didn't even count as permanent employees... When big companies like this recruited administrative staff from schools, they would never recruit from academic colleges.

Without the right qualifications, they were stopped at the very first step.

He had never expected Fang Yu to turn down a permanent position.

"I'm going to apply to transfer into a bachelor's program," Fang Yu said. He wasn't deceiving Xu Chenyang; it was the truth.

If he wanted to apply for the transfer, he naturally couldn't sign a permanent contract with a company ahead of graduation.

In fact.

If Fang Yu hadn't accidentally overheard the conversation between Supervisor Gao and Manager Huo at the martial arts society last time, then used the qi and blood potions the society handed out to students to verify it, ultimately confirming that Supervisor Gao and Manager Huo were selling qi and blood potions acquired from a small manufacturer as genuine products from the eight great groups.

He might have handed in his resignation letter half a month ago.

Precisely because he knew their "dirty secret," Fang Yu had pretended to probe Supervisor Gao, seemingly intentionally yet unintentionally, deliberately drawing his suspicion... In the end, just as Fang Yu had expected, they used the opportunity of his application for a permanent position to kick him out of the martial arts society.

And he had taken the opportunity to earn a little money.

As far as Fang Yu was concerned, even if the plan had failed, he wouldn't have lost anything. He had already intended to leave anyway.

The only risk was that they might "kill him to silence him"... But Fang Yu believed that, with nothing more than suspicion and with "Senior Brother Dong" backing him, they wouldn't go so far as to take that risk.

Kill someone over a minor matter?

This is Xia Nation, where the Blue Moon Alliance's martial artist laws have been in force for fifty years and Sky Eye surveillance reaches every corner, not Primordial Star, Fang Yu thought. I simply obtained the maximum compensation reasonably and within the bounds of the law.

As for exposing them?

Fang Yu asked himself and knew he wasn't capable enough for that... The qi and blood potions Manager Huo and the others sold were eighty to ninety percent as effective as the genuine products. Let alone those students, even an Advanced Martial Artist might not be able to tell the difference.

Not everyone had Fang Yu's special talent.

Xu Chenyang naturally didn't know the reason and simply assumed everything Fang Yu said was true.

"A bachelor's transfer?" Xu Chenyang was startled at first, then said, "Brother Fang, if I remember right, martial arts colleges have very few transfer places, don't they?"

"Yeah, it's hard. Our school only has twenty guaranteed transfer places," Fang Yu said with a nod. "If I fail, I can only try to compete for the other thirty additional places."

Compared with the five thousand students in each class, Wuling Martial Arts College's bachelor's transfer rate was only one percent.

That was far lower than the transfer rate at academic colleges.

"Only fifty in the whole school? That really is hard!" Xu Chenyang exclaimed. "That makes sense, though. After a transfer, martial arts students can study for another two years in a bachelor's program. During those two years, the nation guarantees an investment of at least three hundred thousand star coins' worth of resources each year, and they also have a chance to compete for the various scholarships and special resources at the university."

"Mm." Fang Yu nodded gently.

Why were there more academic students in society? Because the nation, or rather the Blue Moon Alliance, had to invest very few resources in them. In most cases, there wasn't much difference between the resources an academic college student and an academic bachelor's student consumed each year.

Martial arts cultivation, on the other hand, consumed an enormous amount of resources...

For every star coin spent, there was a corresponding gain.

Martial arts college students, for example, directly received a guaranteed minimum of cultivation resources worth a hundred thousand star coins each year. That didn't even include the various scholarships established by their schools, the expensive cultivation facilities, the development of teaching staff, and so on. If all of it were counted, the total would be absolutely staggering.

And the resources invested in martial arts bachelor's students were even more astonishing.

For that very reason.

Even martial arts colleges could enroll only a hundred thousand students a year in Huguang Province... Martial arts bachelor's programs could enroll only ten thousand. Any more? There simply weren't enough resources to support them.

After all, the Blue Moon Alliance also had a vast number of martial artists in society who had already graduated. The enormous resources those martial artists needed for cultivation accounted for the bulk of the expenditure.

One could say.

It was precisely because the entire Blue Moon Alliance, from top to bottom, spared no expense in cultivating martial artists and encouraging martial arts that it had forged a glorious century-long path of martial arts, while also advancing the evolution of life throughout the civilization.

Sixty years ago, even Intermediate Martial Artists were rare. Now, Advanced Martial Artists were commonplace.

"Haha, Brother Fang."

"Transferring to a bachelor's program is hard for others, but with your skill level, you'll definitely succeed even if you haven't awakened a Void Star Aspect," Xu Chenyang said with a cheerful smile. "I'll be waiting for your celebratory drinks."

Fang Yu smiled.

His leaving the Iron Mountain Martial Arts Society was bad news for Xu Chenyang... After all, salespeople depended heavily on instructors if they wanted good results.

Many martial arts society instructors spent extra time and effort contacting students and their parents themselves, giving salespeople no chance to earn a commission at all.

Yet Xu Chenyang hadn't shown the slightest displeasure.

"Don't worry, Big Head. I'll have a word with Manager Dong. You can go straight to the Changsha South Road branch when the time comes," Fang Yu said with a smile. "I'll ask him to look after you."

"It's just that you'll have a longer commute."

If Xu Chenyang stayed at the Xinjiekou branch, Manager Huo and the others might even target him... Xu Chenyang wasn't even a martial artist. He couldn't withstand that.

"Brother Fang, then I won't stand on ceremony," Xu Chenyang said, his eyes lighting up.

He knew how much influence the "Manager Dong" Fang Yu mentioned had... A connection like that was beyond anything he dared imagine.

"Why stand on ceremony between brothers? It's nothing." Fang Yu smiled. Being classmates wasn't the main reason he and Big Head had become brothers and friends; it was because their temperaments suited each other.

Being classmates only meant everyone had been forced to spend a few extra years in the same classroom. It didn't necessarily mean they got along.

Good friends and brothers from one's youth were hard to come by.

Xu Chenyang was someone who would truly go all out for a brother. Likewise, he never hesitated to accept the benefits Fang Yu offered him.

Before long.

Xu Chenyang got out first, leaving Fang Yu to continue home alone. Fang Yu lowered the window and let the last rays of the setting sun fall across his face.

The summer afterglow was beautiful.

A bachelor's transfer? Fang Yu looked at the trees along the street, lost in thought.

If I want to secure a guaranteed place, it would be best to awaken a Void Star Aspect... But when will that indistinct Star Aspect I visualized finally awaken?

At that thought, Fang Yu gently closed his eyes.

Hum~

In a daze, Fang Yu felt his consciousness arrive in a mysterious place.

The vast expanse on all sides was unfathomable. Only at its center stood an enormous figure.

Seen from afar, it lay there quietly, seemingly asleep. The edges of its form were indistinct. He could only make out that it resembled a black sheep without wool, and that a huge mouth vaguely occupied more than half its body.

Its face was even more indistinct.

This is my Star Aspect. It seems to have become a little clearer since my skill reached the great accomplishment stage of Subtlety, Fang Yu murmured in his mind. At the same time, through the enormous, indistinct Star Aspect, he also faintly sensed several pieces of information being conveyed to him:

--

Aspect Observer

Life level: 15.9 (Junior Martial Artist)

Martial arts skill: Advanced Subtlety (qi and blood)

Soul level: 18.4

Void Star Aspect: Unknown (strive to attain a higher life level)

Innate divine ability one: Devour (digests all kinds of rare treasures faster and more effectively after swallowing them)

Innate divine ability two: Unknown (strive to become a higher-level life form)

--

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