High-Level Martial Era

The Martial Dao Assessment was scheduled for the third day.

...Li Yuan did not disrupt his cultivation plan because of the exam; he still arrived at school a little after four as usual to practice the Basic Cultivation Method.

At seven o'clock, after showering in the Martial Arts Room, he hurried to the canteen for breakfast.

Then he rushed to the examination venue with Zhou Qi, Yan Zhou, and the others.

The January mid-year exam was one of the two most important large-scale standardized tests before the college entrance exam; both the Education Bureau and the schools took it extremely seriously.

All the standards were strictly modeled after the college entrance exam requirements, such as not being able to bring smart rings and other devices into the exam halls, among various other checks... The 20 classes were divided into 40 exam venues in total.

The seating arrangement in the cultural exam halls was determined by the rankings from the last major exam's cultural subjects.

"Brother Yuan, we're heading upstairs," Zhou Qi waved, laughing.

"Brother Yuan, do well in the exam; we'll be waiting for you upstairs."

A group of classmates teased Li Yuan as they went up, where higher floors signified higher rankings.

"These guys," Li Yuan shook his head with a smile.

Suddenly, Li Yuan glanced at the admission ticket in Li Tianyou's hand and smiled, "Tianyou, I'm in exam room 29, and you're only in room 33, huh? Do well, I'll be waiting for you upstairs."

With that, Li Yuan too ascended the stairs.

Leaving behind a disheveled Li Tianyou.

...Students in exam room 29 belong to the lower-middle ranks in terms of cultural subjects at Guan Mountain District's top high school.

However, as a key high school, even students from exam room 35 have hopes of being admitted into a first-tier university specializing in cultural studies.

After sitting down, Li Yuan looked around and saw many familiar faces.

Apart from classmates from his own class, it seemed that quite a few were from the Elite Class.

Students of the Martial Arts Elite Class generally didn't score high on cultural subjects.

Energy is limited for everyone; without investment, it's hard to achieve good returns.

"Gu Qianghan, you're here too?" Li Yuan smiled at the person next to him.

"Just call me Gu Qiang," the handsome youth responded stubbornly.

"Alright, Xiao Qiang," Li Yuan laughed, "I remember your sister called you by that name a few days ago."

Li Yuan and Gu Qianghan often encountered each other as they both had private Martial Arts Rooms on the fourth floor of the Elite building.

The handsome young man glared and stood, as if he wanted to dispute this with Li Yuan.

"The invigilator is here, your homeroom teacher," Li Yuan pointed towards the distance, sitting upright.

The young man quickly sat down and turned his head, finding no one; annoyed, he turned back to Li Yuan, "You fooled me."

"She's really here this time," Li Yuan said seriously, "Your homeroom teacher."

"I don't believe you," Gu Qianghan showed Li Yuan the middle finger, his face filled with contempt.

"Gu Qianghan!"

"Sit down! The test papers are about to be distributed!" A stern voice suddenly exploded from the entrance of the classroom; Gu Qianghan shivered and immediately bent his head and sat down.

The homeroom teacher of the senior year Martial Arts Elite class was a female Martial Artist.

At Guan Mountain District's top high school, she and Xu Bo were known as the 'Cultural Martial Asuras'.

...

The cultural subject exams that lasted a day and a half were uneventful for Li Yuan.

For over a year, Li Yuan's spiritual power had steadily increased, making it extremely easy for him to memorize rote learning material.

However, an increase in spiritual power did not directly translate to an increase in intelligence, and since he spent very little time on cultural subjects... Li Yuan was clear-headed about this.

"People like Zhou Qi, with their good academic performance and the amount of time they spend studying."

"My ranking in cultural subjects should improve slightly compared to the last exam... but I'm not expecting a dramatic change," Li Yuan mused. "Just do my best."

...

After finishing the cultural subjects exam, all the students returned to their classrooms where many began comparing their answers.

"What was the answer to the last multiple-choice question in math? Was it B?" a conspicuous student eagerly asked.

"It should be C," replied a student who normally scored nearly perfect on math.

"But I guessed randomly, so maybe I'm the one who's wrong," the math prodigy added.

"Damn, I initially calculated C, but then changed it to B... I feel like I won't score over 150 in math again," the conspicuous student said, frustrated.

With a total of 200 points, math was the most significant subject.

In the midst of the noisy discussions,

Li Yuan sat at his desk, lost in thought.

He never compared answers.

Not out of confidence, but indifference.

Cultural subjects totaled 1000 points, but if one chose to apply to Martial Arts University, the cultural score would be converted to 100 points, accounting for only 10%.

For Li Yuan, there was only a 10-point difference on the total score between scoring 700 and 800 in cultural subjects.

But the amount of effort required was vastly different.

"According to tradition, the difficulty of the January mid-year exam is higher than that of the college entrance exam," Li Yuan calculated silently, "This time, I should've got all the basic points; scoring over 650 in cultural subjects would mean success."

Suddenly.

Chen, the homeroom teacher of the cultural class, entered the room with a stern expression, "Everyone sit down; we have the schedule for the Spiritual Aptitude Test. Our class starts at 2 PM; we're the first to be tested."

The senior year (1) class was the Elite Class and had all awakened their Martial Spirit, so there was no need for retesting.

The senior year (2) class was the first one to be tested.

"After the test, we'll have self-study," Chen instructed, then left the class.

"The Spiritual Aptitude Test! It's coming again."

"I wonder if I can change my fate."

"Stop dreaming."

"Wake up, it's senior year; I'm not peeing yellow enough to sprinkle you," the students once again began discussing among themselves.

Many top cultural class students had already silently taken out their books to resume studying.

If choosing the cultural path, even if one awakened the Martial Spirit, it wouldn't grant any extra credit.

"Brother Yuan, your physical quality seems to have surpassed level 7.0; you must have awakened," Zhou Qi said cheerfully.

"Maybe," Li Yuan replied thoughtfully.

He wasn't certain if a 0.6% Spiritual Awakening Level would bring any change.

...

An hour and a half later.

"I've awakened the Martial Spirit?" Zhou Qi walked out of the testing room, both shocked and baffled, staring at his test result in disbelief.

This caught the attention of the surrounding classmates.

"Zhou Qi, he has actually awakened?"

"This?" A buzz of discussion arose, almost all the students found it unbelievable.

Zhou Qi's Martial Path grades in class were known to be among the lowest.

"Zhou Qi has awakened?" Li Yuan cracked a slight smile, glancing at the 'unawakened' marked on his own test slip.

He had anticipated his own lack of awakening, as the Divine Palace panel had basically explained.

But how could Zhou Qi's compatibility with high-rank cultivation methods exceed 85% in the senior year?

"Some pursue tirelessly and fail to attain, while others gain without even hoping for it." Li Yuan glanced at the doorway of a distant testing room.

Li Tianyou was looking enviously at Zhou Qi, who had become the center of attention.

"Sometimes, it really is about fate," Li Yuan remarked with a sigh.

...The testing for Class 3 of the senior year concluded.

In the end, only Zhou Qi succeeded in awakening.

As one gets older, with the body and skeleton becoming set, the hope of attaining compatibility with high-level cultivation methods grows bleaker.

For Class 3 of the senior year to witness the continuous awakening of two students' Martial Spirits within a single term was already a rare occurrence.

...

In the Martial Dao Assessment, the tests for Qi and blood, Fist Strength, and Martial Arts Skills were all closed tests; other students wouldn't learn of the specific data immediately.

But the physical quality tests such as forty meters, one hundred meters, one kilometer, ten kilometers.

These were public.

On the third day of the January exams.

The students of Class 3 of the senior year followed behind the Elite Class students, arriving at the school's largest playground.

There, they could undergo a ten-thousand-meter running test.

However, the first physical test was the forty-meter sprint.

"The speed of those in the Elite Class is so fast."

"14.5 meters per second!"

"That one, reaching 15.7 meters per second, his physical quality is definitely over level 7."

"Damn! Damn! 17.2 meters per second? That's close to level 8."

"Well-deserving of the Elite Class." Next to Li Yuan, classmates watched as the Elite Class students crossed the finish line, bursting into exclamations from time to time.

No wonder the students of Class 3 were so amazed; their physical qualities were generally just over level 5.

In the Elite Class, after half a year of cultivation in their senior year, even the weakest had surpassed level 6, and quite a few were over 7.0.

Cultivating high-level methods, even if one could only absorb traces of Cosmic Origin Power each time, conferred a massive advantage over average people.

Of course, among the Elite Class students, those with a Physical Quality of level 8.0 were still few and far in between.

"Look, it's Lin Lanyue."

"First in Martial Arts Skills among the grade."

"It's her."

On the track, the girl in red training gear, with bright eyes and white teeth, immediately drew everyone's gaze.

No help for it, Lin Lanyue's fame was too great among the senior year.

"Lin Lanyue?" Li Yuan also turned curious and looked over; it was true that her physical quality was extremely strong.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

On the track, six figures burst into a sprint at once, with the crimson silhouette unleashing a terrifying speed.

In just over two seconds, Lin Lanyue had already crossed the finish line, far ahead of the other students.

On the distant display, Lin Lanyue's final result also appeared—"19.7 meters per second"

"Holy shit."

"Is this a high school student?"

"She's almost a Martial Artist."

"Damn, she's twice as fast as I am; one punch from her could definitely kill me." Waves of astonishment rose amongst the crowd, filled with shock.

Li Yuan's eyes fell upon Lin Lanyue and with a thought, the inquiry results appeared before him [Target person, Life Level: 9.0]

"Level 9.0?" Li Yuan was inwardly astonished.

Upon a slight comparison, Li Yuan concluded, "Her body's rate of improvement doesn't seem slower than mine."

Logically, as one progresses, the rate of physical quality improvement should slow down.

Yet, Lin Lanyue's physical quality improvement showed not a hint of deceleration and there was even a trend of accelerating.

The 40-meter test proceeded very quickly.

It wasn't long before it was Class 3's turn.

"Random student numbers, first group, number 36, number 1, number 8..." The proctor rapidly announced the exam numbers.

Li Yuan, as the top martial arts student of the class, was number 1.

He took his place at the starting line.

"Is Li Yuan being tested?"

"What's his level of physical quality?"

"Don't know."

"Should be over level 7, I think he was 6.5 at the start of the semester," Li Yuan's appearance also drew many students' attention.

Even many Elite Class students looked over.

Li Yuan, with the ability to make it into the top thirty of the general class and recognized as the first in Martial Arts Skills.

Especially after defeating Lin Lanyue in the last virtual fight, he had gained a considerable reputation at the school.

"Lanyue, look, it's Li Yuan... Oh, you're already watching him." The slightly plump girl beside her was about to call Lin Lanyue.

She then realized that Lin Lanyue had already stopped walking.

"Li Yuan?" Lin Lanyue watched intently; she was quite curious.

How did Li Yuan manage to sign a B-level contract with Starfire Martial Hall?

Perhaps this exam period might reveal some reasons.

"Lanyue, what do you think Li Yuan's physical quality level is now?" her chubby best friend asked curiously.

"Him?" Lin Lanyue hesitated, "Maybe it's 7.4."

"That high?" The best friend was a bit surprised; that level of physical quality would almost break into the top ten of the Elite Class.

At that moment,

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Whoosh! The six on the track had already burst from the start, Li Yuan like an arrow, instantly leaving the five classmates far behind.

Pulling nearly double the distance, he crossed the finish line directly.

"Beep—"

On the electronic display, Li Yuan's result instantly appeared—"17.8 meters per second"