What Do You Mean I Awakened Blue Silver Grass?

"Passerby A, forty-third level of the Qi and Blood Realm! Awakened the one-star trait Blue Silver Grass!"

"Passerby B, thirty-fifth level of the Qi and Blood Realm! Awakened the one-star trait Heaven-Rumbling Earth-Splitting Luo Sanpao!"

"Passerby C, forty-ninth level of the Qi and Blood Realm! No trait awakened!"

The talent awakening plaza at Donghai Martial Arts No. 1 High School.

On the awakening platform, the teacher in charge of the awakening shouted out names and results, one after another.

Nearly a thousand people crowded below the platform, their voices surging in waves that threatened to overturn the plaza.

At the very back of the crowd, a rather lean young man squatted beside a statue, secretly pulling out his phone to launch Genshin Impact.

His name was Chu Ge, and his story was pretty outrageous.

In his previous life, he had accidentally eaten mapo tofu, then been chased down by Mapo's husband in a helicopter and elbowed to death.

When he opened his eyes, he had been reborn as a baby in this high-martial world. Eighteen years had passed in the blink of an eye.

Just like the script of every urban high-martial novel, today was the most important hurdle of his life.

His first year of high school, his talent awakening.

Primordial Force was everywhere in this world, and all living beings could use it to cultivate.

The starting point was the Qi and Blood Realm.

This realm had a full hundred levels. Every time someone broke through a level, their strength increased by a hundred jin.

Above that were the major realms of Black Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and so on. Each major realm was divided into four minor stages.

Early, middle, late, and peak.

Besides diligently meditating and cultivating, those with good luck could also awaken additional trait talents.

Traits could be special physiques, skills, or all sorts of strange buffs...

To put it bluntly, it was like being born with an extra cheat.

Just like the "Blue Silver Grass" and "Heaven-Rumbling Earth-Splitting Luo Sanpao" the teacher had announced.

Those two might only have been one-star traits, the lowest grade, but not everyone had one.

The chance of awakening a trait was one in five.

Anyone who awakened something, even a one-star trait, stood a head above the rest at school.

Awaken a two- or three-star trait, and you were instantly the whole class's hope.

As for the four-star traits above those, the number in an entire high school, from first to third year, could probably be counted on one hand.

"Next, Chu Ge!"

Hearing his name, Chu Ge promptly swiped the app away and pushed through the crowd toward the platform.

"Make way, classmates. If I step on your feet, I'm not paying compensation."

"Hey, you there. Your fly's open."

Muttering all the way through the crowd, Chu Ge climbed onto the awakening platform and stood before the awakening stone.

Everyone below turned their eyes toward him.

Once they saw the face beneath the hood of his black sweatshirt, quite a few people's expressions changed.

"It's actually him... Now I'm not sleepy anymore."

"Who's that? Is he famous? A genius from some major family?" someone beside them asked, looking bewildered.

"He's definitely a genius." Someone who knew Chu Ge clicked their tongue twice. "But what he's really famous for is publicly breaking off his engagement to the Lin Family."

"Which Lin Family?"

"The four great martial arts families of the East Sea: Ye, Lin, Xiao, and Chu. Which other Lin Family could it be?" The person launched into gossip. "Some people die of drought while others drown in floods. The Lin Family's eldest miss is one of our Jiangcheng's three great beauties. If he didn't want her, he could've given her to me."

"He didn't even want a beauty? Is there something wrong with his head? Or does he like men?"

"I heard Chu Ge himself didn't even know he'd been betrothed as a baby. His family only told him last month, saying they'd wanted to surprise him. Once Chu Ge found out, he took the marriage contract to the Lin Family by himself that very night and broke off the engagement. His reason was something like..." The person thought for a moment, then said uncertainly, "Romantic entanglements would slow him down on his way to beating the whole high-martial world."

"...What a weirdo."

"There's something even juicier. The Lin Family's eldest miss thought having her engagement broken off was too humiliating, so she challenged Chu Ge to a spar on the spot."

"What happened? Who won?"

"Fifty-fifty, I guess."

"Not bad. Chu Ge's pretty strong. I heard the Lin Family's eldest miss has already broken through to the eightieth level of qi and blood."

"No." The person shook their head, their expression peculiar. "I mean, in five seconds, Chu Ge sent her flying with five kicks."

"Huh?! She's a beautiful girl! How could he bring himself to kick her?!"

"Tell me about it. The Lin Family's eldest miss asked the same thing at the time and cursed Chu Ge for having no heart."

"What did Chu Ge say?"

"He said, 'Keep yapping and I'll farm you like a demonic beast.'"

"Are there really people like that?"

"You're just scared."

"Who wouldn't be..."

While the two were chatting away below, Chu Ge had already pressed his hand against the awakening stone on the platform.

The next second.

Boom-!

The entire awakening stele shuddered violently as boundless qi and blood surged out, sweeping across the whole awakening plaza in an instant.

The wind blew everyone's faces out of shape.

"Holy crap! Ninety-ninth level! Somebody slap me across the face! Am I still asleep?"

"Heavens, he's only eighteen! He's already almost reached the end of the Qi and Blood Realm?"

"Hmph, what's so special about that? It's just the ninety-ninth level. If I'd been born into one of the four great families and had all the resources I needed growing up, I'd be even stronger than him."

Beside the awakening stone, the awakening teacher looked at Chu Ge with satisfaction, then shook his head regretfully.

"His cultivation talent really is terrifying. As expected of someone from the Chu Family. It's just a pity... he didn't awaken a trait."

The teacher knew perfectly well that the children of major families had always been proud and arrogant. If anything went wrong on their cultivation path, their Dao hearts might even shatter.

Worried that Chu Ge had taken a blow as well, he hurried to comfort him:

"Chu Ge, traits are good, but in the end, they're just flowers added to brocade."

"In Blue Star's martial arts history, there have been plenty of people who reached the peak without awakening a trait."

"So, how far you can go in cultivation depends on you in the end."

But right then, Chu Ge wasn't listening at all.

[Ding! Host detected completing the talent awakening ceremony. Successfully bound the "Webnovel Trait Check-In" system!]

[Would you like to start today's check-in?]

...A system?

So I have a system too?

Emotions churned inside Chu Ge like rivers and seas. He was so excited he nearly jumped on the spot, even more excited than when he had pulled a Glory Crystal in a single draw in his previous life.

Eighteen years.

A whole eighteen years!

So it wasn't that I didn't have a cheat. Mine was just delayed in shipping!

Mother Earth really hasn't forgotten this wanderer stranded in another world!

Check in! Hurry up and check in! he shouted frantically in his mind.

[Ding! Check-in successful!]

[Obtained one-star trait "Blue Silver Grass"-when used, it can summon Blue Silver Grass to entangle an opponent and suffocate them to death.]

Chu Ge: "..."

The good news was that he finally had a trait.

The bad news was that this trait seemed worse than having none.

Blue Silver Grass? Isn't that what Passerby A just awakened?

So I waited eighteen years just to get the same thing they sell at a roadside stall?

When other protagonists started out, their systems gave them either a god-tier bloodline or a chaos body. Failing that, they at least got a divine artifact.

When it was his turn, his check-in gave him a one-star trait, and the most laughable one at that.

Could this system be a defective product?

Expressionless, he looked at the awakening teacher, who was still earnestly trying to comfort him, and his mouth twitched.

"Um... Teacher, can I go down now?"

"Huh?" The awakening teacher froze, then realized the ceremony wasn't over yet. He hurriedly coughed and waved his hand. "Oh, right, go on down..."

He watched Chu Ge turn and walk down from the awakening platform.

His back was straight, but somehow it always seemed to carry a faint trace of sorrow, as though he had just suffered some major blow in life.

"Sigh, he really is upset because he didn't awaken a trait." The awakening teacher sighed softly, his face full of sympathy.

Then he cleared his throat and called out the next student's name.

Below the platform, Chu Ge squeezed back into the crowd and looked down at his palm, still ranting furiously in his head.

Blue Silver Grass. Just Blue Silver Grass!

And suffocate someone to death... I might as well suffocate first.

As he grumbled inwardly, someone suddenly patted him on the shoulder from behind.

Chu Ge turned and saw a twin-tailed loli in a Lolita dress smiling at him.

It was his older cousin Xiao Yan.

Someone who lived for amusement.

She was from the Xiao Family, one of the four great families, and was one of the East Sea's three great beauties.

Who knew which bastard had made that list?

She wasn't even as tall as his shoulder.

"Don't lose heart, little bro. It's fine that you didn't awaken a trait. Big sis will buy you grilled sausages. Two of them!" Xiao Yan looked at him comfortingly, thinking he had suffered some terrible blow.

Chu Ge glanced at her and said irritably:

"Get lost. Don't tell me you'll have forgotten your money again and make me pay."

"Listen to you. I'm your big sis. What's wrong with you paying for me?" Xiao Yan said without blushing or missing a heartbeat.

"Cousin," Chu Ge stressed.

"I'm still your big sis."

"Then pay me back the twenty-four fifty you owe me first."

"...Let's not bring that up."

Xiao Yan immediately changed the subject and continued, "Little bro, you're at the ninety-ninth level of qi and blood. Even without a trait, there's probably no one in the Qi and Blood Realm who can beat you."

Chu Ge said nothing.

He couldn't very well say, "No, I did awaken one. I awakened Blue Silver Grass, and a system gave it to me."

Just saying it out loud was embarrassing.

He sighed, turned, and headed out of the school.

"Where are you going?" Xiao Yan called after him.

"Home." Chu Ge waved his hand, no longer caring. "To study my Blue Silver Grass."

Xiao Yan stood behind him in a daze for two seconds before it sank in.

"Wait?! You awakened a trait?! Blue Silver Grass?! Damn, why didn't you say so earlier?!"

She shouted as she chased after him, and the two disappeared at the far end of the plaza, one following the other.