Chapter 22 (continued)

Fang Chuyun was relatively calm. Her voice trembled as she said, "All right, Captain Lin."

Lin Yuesuo looked at Li Yang again and paused before speaking. "You've mastered Fist Burst?"

Li Yang's face was pale. Biting her lower lip, she said in a small voice, "Y-yes."

Lin Yuesuo thought for a moment. "Come on, use it on me once."

Li Yang immediately shook her head.

Lin Yuesuo said gently, "Don't be afraid. I have a defensive Star Skill. You can't break through it."

Only then did Li Yang say, "Teacher, I'm out of strength."

Lin Yue: "..."

She looked closely and saw at a glance that the Star Apertures in Li Yang's body were indeed empty. The two Star Apertures that had once been brimming with Power of Starlight were now dim and lifeless.

"You did very well." Lin Yuesuo stepped forward and patted her on the shoulder. "You not only saved yourself, but your classmates too. You also did me a huge favor."

Li Yang looked up at her blankly.

Lin Yuesuo blinked. "If anything had happened to you, my escort mission would have failed."

Lin Yuesuo was quite fond of Li Yang's adorably blank and honest manner.

She took a small box from inside her clothes and put it in Li Yang's hand. "You killed a Star Wielder of the same grade at a critical moment, so you should be able to break through and open your third Star Aperture. This Aperture Stabilizing Pill can help you open it faster."

Li Yang hesitated, but Lin Yuesuo had already pressed the small box into her hand. "Take it. You earned it."

Lin Yuesuo looked at Fang Chuyun, who was struggling to remain calm, and Yu Hongyuan, who was so frightened he was close to tears. "We have Li Yang to thank this time. She successfully drew stars into her body over the summer vacation. I used Mental Resonance to pass a simple Star Skill on to her, and she took care of this intruder and protected you."

Fang Chuyun and Yu Hongyuan listened in a daze, at a loss for words for quite a while.

Lin Yuesuo still had to deal with the situation outside. "Get some rest. There probably won't be any more danger tonight." She turned and left the tent.

The cultists had already fled, and Lin Yuesuo didn't send anyone after them. Their mission was to escort the students; they couldn't put the cart before the horse.

A member of the city guard sent word to Huangcheng, which had already dispatched people to surround and wipe the cultists out.

The Descending Star Cult's Huangcheng branch had come out in full force this time. If they could catch them on the way, they might be able to wipe them all out in one fell swoop.

Lin Yuesuo examined the shadow man's corpse and saw the two dim Star Apertures in his body, confirming his cultivation level. "First Grade Low Stage... he probably obtained an advanced Star Skill by chance."

Lin Yuesuo was knowledgeable and well-traveled, so she naturally knew about Star Skills that concealed one's aura.

Even so, the sneak attacker's Star Skill was indeed extraordinary. It had actually let him cross two major cultivation realms and fool her... What a pity that such a rare Star Skill had fallen into the hands of a cultist like him.

Inside the tent.

After a brief silence, Fang Chuyun spoke. "Li Yang, thank you."

Yu Hongyuan's eyes were red. The big, burly fellow was like a child now, thanking Li Yang in a pitiful voice too.

Li Yang was still shaken. She shook her head and said, "You don't have to thank me. That attacker came for me; I was only defending myself. The person I really need to thank is Team Leader Lin. It's a good thing she taught me a Star Skill."

If Lin Yuesuo hadn't taught her Fist Burst beforehand, she really might not have been able to resolve the crisis without getting hurt.

What she said put Yu Hongyuan at ease as well. He leaned over curiously and asked, "Are you already one of the Star Wielders?"

Fang Chuyun snapped back at him as usual. "Obviously!"

Yu Hongyuan said sheepishly, "I can't even make sense of the Basic Star-Wielding Cultivation Technique, and you're already one of the Star Wielders, Li Yang... Ahem, is there some trick to it?"

Fang Chuyun spoke again. "There's no trick, just self-study."

Yu Hongyuan pursed his lips. "You haven't learned it either..."

"My comprehension isn't as good as Li Yang's, and I don't work as hard as she does." Fang Chuyun looked at Li Yang. "You must have spent a lot of time studying the Basic Star-Wielding Cultivation Technique this summer, right?"

Li Yang: "..." How should I put it? She had indeed spent a lot of time on it-lifespan, that was. All told, it amounted to quite a few summer vacations.

Fang Chuyun said with conviction, "I've been neglectful. I'll work harder!"

Yu Hongyuan rolled his eyes. If she had been neglectful, what did that make him? He really had spent the entire summer vacation playing! Being around these overachievers was far too much pressure!

Yu Hongyuan didn't want to talk about it, so he changed the subject. "What Star Skill did Team Leader Lin teach you? It looked amazing!"

Li Yang said, "Team Leader Lin said it's called Fist Burst."

Yu Hongyuan had never heard of it and thought it sounded really cool. "Is it hard to learn? I want to learn it after I enroll too!"

Fang Chuyun, however, came to a realization. "So it's a basic fist-type Star Skill."

Li Yang was quite curious about Star Skills. Seeing how much Fang Chuyun knew, she asked, "Are there other basic Star Skills? Are some Star Skills better than others?"

"Of course some are better than others!" Fang Chuyun said. "Basic Star Skills are all relatively simple and easy to learn, but their effects are relatively limited too. Once we enroll, we'll be able to exchange a small number of merit points for the chance to learn them, but rare Star Skills are another matter."

A thought occurred to Li Yang. "Did that cultist who slipped past Team Leader Lin and attacked us have a rare Star Skill?"

"That's right," Fang Chuyun said. "He definitely had a rare concealment-type Star Skill. It was incredibly powerful, to think it could evade a Third Grade Star Wielder's mental scan."

So that was how it was. Li Yang now understood a little more about the Star Skill Hidden Shadow.

A Star Skill that could evade a Third Grade Star Wielder's scan was a good way to stay alive!

Yu Hongyuan leaned over again. "Then how do you get a rare Star Skill like that?"

"There are many ways," Fang Chuyun said. "The safest is naturally to exchange merit points for one at school, but the price is steep."

Yu Hongyuan and Li Yang spoke almost in unison. "How steep?"

Fang Chuyun paused. "My older sister exchanged 500 merit points for a rare Star Skill last year."

Yu Hongyuan asked what he didn't understand. "How many Huaxia coins is one merit point worth?"

Fang Chuyun said calmly, "Ten thousand."

Li Yang: "..."

Even Yu Hongyuan, who came from a wealthy family, was dumbfounded. "Huh?"

It cost five million Huaxia Currency!

For a moment, she didn't know whether to say the Star Skill was too expensive, Fang Chuyun's older sister was too rich, or complain about the outrageous exchange rate between Merit Points and Huaxia Currency.

Li Yang swallowed dryly and asked quietly, "How many merit points do you think that cultist's Star Skill... was worth?"

Fang Chuyun said with certainty, "At least 500."

Li Yang: "!"

At that moment, she felt that the Longevity System really was a good Tongzi.

Although it was a little sharp-tongued, played dead a little, and slacked off a little... it had taught her a rare Star Skill worth five million in just four years...

Longevity System, I, Li Yang, officially declare you a good system!

Yu Hongyuan clicked his tongue. "It's a shame that now the cultist's dead, the Star Skill is gone too."

"It can't be helped," Fang Chuyun said. "Most rare Star Skills of that kind can't be passed down. Even if he were alive, he couldn't pass it on to anyone else."

Li Yang asked, "Then where do the rare Star Skills at school come from? Why can they be exchanged for merit points?"

Fang Chuyun hesitated before saying, "Most rare Star Skills come from the Astral Realm... My dad and my sister haven't told me much about it either. We'll gradually learn more after we enroll."

"The Astral Realm..." Yu Hongyuan sounded somewhat wistful. "So it's not all danger over there."

"Obviously," Fang Chuyun said. "Danger and opportunity have always gone hand in hand."

The three chatted for a while, and each grew somewhat tired. Li Yang especially was already physically exhausted after severely overextending her Power of Starlight.

Fang Chuyun said to Li Yang, "Hurry and use the Aperture Stabilizing Pill to open your third Star Aperture. You killed someone of the same grade, so this is the best time to break through. Don't waste this precious opportunity."

Li Yang nodded. "I'll try."

She was about to close her eyes when she remembered something and asked Fang Chuyun, "Do you know the market price of this Aperture Stabilizing Pill?"

Fang Chuyun paused. "Only about ten merit points. It's not expensive."

Li Yang: "..." A hundred thousand, huh? That really is so inexpensive.

Li Yang closed her eyes and meditated. Fang Chuyun and Yu Hongyuan stopped disturbing her.

The two of them also took out the Basic Star-Wielding Cultivation Technique, ready to study it in earnest. Fang Chuyun in particular had gained some insights after tonight's attack. If she seized the moment and made another push, she might be able to draw stars into her body!

Li Yang appeared to be meditating, but she was actually checking her system panel.

Name: Li Yang

Lifespan: 2 years / 100 years

Physique: 200

Spirit: 200

Star Apertures: 3 (1%)

Cultivation technique: Basic Star-Wielding Cultivation Technique (100%)

Pills: Star-Attracting Pill (can be improved), Aperture Stabilizing Pill (can be improved)

Star Skills: Fist Burst (100%), Hidden Shadow (first stage, 1%)

Note 1: Only 2 years of lifespan remain. Please harvest plants as soon as possible to obtain lifespan.

Note 2: The Star-Attracting Pill and Aperture Stabilizing Pill contain too many impurities. It is recommended that lifespan be spent to purify them.

Note 3: Proficiency in the Star Skill Hidden Shadow is extremely low. Please spend lifespan to improve proficiency.

Li Yang stared at the Star Aperture entry for a while and muttered inwardly, Have I already broken through?

There was no way the system would speak up, and Li Yang wasn't counting on it to.

Li Yang entered a meditative state and observed the Star Apertures in her body.

There was indeed another point of light at her heart. Two points flickered weakly for lack of Power of Starlight, while the other held only a wisp of tiny starlight and flickered even more faintly.

She tried drawing stars into her body. It was much easier than it had been in Huangcheng. Starlight soon gathered around her and slowly filled her Star Apertures...

The Starlight in the wilderness was probably denser, which was why she could draw stars into her body more easily. Then, if she took a Star-Attracting Pill, would the efficiency...