7: Yikunnian

It was six in the afternoon, and school was out.

“Brother Chen, junior high requires evening self-study, and I’m still a bit unaccustomed to it.”

“You’ll get used to it gradually. Evening self-study will be very tiring.”

“Body tempering, for a lazy person like me, is truly terrifying.”

“The 86th Edition Body Tempering Technique, 9 sets of 81 movements. I tried it last night and could barely finish three sets. The fourth set is simply anti-human; it puts too much pressure on the body.”

“Brother Chen, you’re already doing well. I can barely make it to the third set.”

After dinner, Lin Chen and Zhou Heshan chatted, enjoying a moment of leisure.

Because junior high students have too many subjects to study, evening self-study came into being.

The two-hour evening class had only one subject: body tempering.

The body tempering teacher was a bald, burly man named Tang.

Teacher Tang treated all students equally. He wouldn't go easy on you just because you were a girl and the body tempering was too painful to bear.

In the 86th Edition Body Tempering Technique, every set of movements has a body tempering effect, with each subsequent set having a stronger effect than the last.

Each set has nine movements, and each movement must be held for one minute before transitioning to the next, meaning it takes nine minutes to complete one set of movements.

To achieve success in body tempering, one must practice at least 9 times a day to stimulate the body's potential and allow it to accommodate more blood qi.

Physique, blood qi, and spirit, commonly known as the human San Bao of essence, qi, and spirit—each is very important and influences the others.

A strong physique can accommodate strong blood qi and spirit.

Strong blood qi can, in turn, affect physique and spirit.

A strong spirit can control physique and blood qi.

The three can be unbalanced, but the gap between them cannot be too large; otherwise, being stuck in a realm is the smallest danger. Losing one's soul, losing one's mind, and losing balance are the most terrifying things.

Losing one's soul: The spirit is strong, but the body is weak. The body cannot contain the soul, so the soul will detach from the body and become a spirit body.

Losing one's mind: The body is strong, but the spirit is weak. The soul cannot control the body, or controlling the body consumes all its energy, which will inevitably lead to side effects like dementia and low intelligence.

Losing balance: Blood qi is strong, but the body and spirit cannot restrain the blood qi. The power of the blood qi will inevitably oppress the spirit and body. At this point, the martial artist becomes a blood qi bomb, ready to explode at any moment.

Time flew by like a white colt passing a crevice.

Another year passed in the blink of an eye.

Lin Chen was 14 years old, in the second semester of junior high, with only half a year left until high school.

On the first day of the second semester of junior high, there was a unified test.

“Oriental Red Sleeve, strength 25 tons, speed 32 meters per second, blood qi 2500, realm early Third-Order Martial Master.”

“Lin Fan, strength 23.36 tons, speed 33 meters per second, blood qi 2336, realm early Third-Order Martial Master.”

“Lin Chen, strength 18.88 tons, speed 28 meters per second, blood qi 1888, realm early Third-Order Martial Master.”

“Zhou Heshan, strength 9.89 tons, speed 20 meters per second, blood qi 989, realm late Second-Order Martial Artist.”

...

A year later, Lin Chen had made significant progress.

Other classmates also made good progress.

Among the 30 students in Class 1, the lowest cultivation had reached the mid-stage Martial Artist with 500 points of blood qi, while the highest was Oriental Red Sleeve, with 2500 points of blood qi.

Lin Chen ranked third in the class, unable to surpass the cheat-like Lin Fan and the dual-awakened talent and profession of Oriental Red Sleeve.

In the grade ranking, Lin Chen was seventh.

The top student in the grade, from a commoner background, with both talent and profession awakened, had blood qi exceeding 8000 points and was in the late Third-Order Martial Master realm, with combat power sufficient to defeat an ordinary early Fourth-Order Martial Ancestor.

One could only say that heroes were as numerous as carps crossing the river.

In a small place like Feng City, where the highest strength was only Seventh-Order, Lin Chen being in the top 1% was still due to his family background.

If he were in a broader region, or even the entire Federation, Lin Chen would seem very ordinary, and there would be countless others like him.

Fortunately, Lin Chen had a good mindset. His talent was his greatest guarantee; if he fell behind now, he would catch up in the future.

During this past year, Lin Chen had been relatively low-key and amiable. In his interactions with others, he was neither overbearing nor obsequious. Besides his close friend Zhou Heshan, he had very good relationships with the other classmates.

“Brother Chen, have you heard?”

“The training camp, right? What’s the specific situation? Tell me about it.”

When the training camp was mentioned, nearby classmates gathered around, wanting to hear if Zhou Heshan had any inside information.

“Nirvana Training Camp. Our current batch is lucky. A few years ago, a continent-type dimensional fragment descended, and this year it was completely conquered, with a new city established in the central area of the continent.”

“The new city was built around a treasure. That treasure is said to assist martial artists in condensing higher quality blood qi and shorten the cultivation time for martial artists below the Fourth-Order.”

Upon hearing Zhou Heshan's information, everyone understood the importance of this training camp.

First, Second, and Third-Order martial artists only needed to refine blood qi to break through realms, while breaking through to Fourth-Order Martial Ancestor required other conditions.

Blood qi quality and mastering a martial posture were both hard requirements; comprehension and resources were indispensable.

If they could shorten the cultivation time for the lower three orders, most of the students present would have a chance to break through to Fourth-Order Martial Ancestor by the college entrance examination, at least reaching the admission line for key universities.

And those like Lin Chen, who had already broken through to the Third-Order Martial Master realm, were even more eager to quickly cross the Third-Order level and enter the Fourth-Order level sooner.

“Shanzi, do you know how many spots our junior high has?”

“The quota is quite generous. Our school sent a large number of teachers to help establish schools in the new city, and Feng City also paid a lot to help establish the new city.”

Hearing that the quota was generous, the commoner students in the class breathed a sigh of relief; they had a chance to enter the training camp.

While aristocratic families did not compete for ordinary resources, they would never give up on benefits like the training camp, which had excellent effects.

The homeroom teacher, Zhou Xingchen, walked into the classroom and quickly announced the Nirvana Training Camp, stating that there would be one hundred spots for junior high students.

The good news was that all 30 students in Class 1 were on the list. The bad news was that the competition was extremely fierce; in Feng City alone, three thousand students would go to the new city to participate in the training camp.

There were twelve cities surrounding the new city—Blood City. Each city sent three thousand students, making it thirty-six thousand people. Blood City itself also had one or two thousand students participating in the training camp.

Fifty thousand students, with cultivation ranging from early Second-Order Martial Artist to peak Fourth-Order Martial Ancestor—this was a massive force anywhere.

The treasure in Blood City, named the blood origin throne, could accommodate up to fifty thousand people. The energy currently accumulated could activate it for one month, so the training camp would last for one month.

With the blood origin throne as the center, its power spread outwards in waves, affecting an area of one thousand meters. For every hundred meters further away, the effect decreased by ten percent.

Within the core first hundred-meter ring, it had a significant boosting effect even on Fifth-Order martial artists. In the outermost tenth ring, even though the effect was weakened to the minimum, it still had a clear boosting effect on Second-Order martial artists.

The next morning, at Lin Family Villa.

“Chen’er, your third uncle is stationed in Blood City. He will lead troops to guard the area around the training camp. If anything unexpected happens, you should run to the military camp and find your third uncle.”

“Grandpa, I understand.”

“For this month, you’ll be eating and living at the training camp. I’ve already had the family chef prepare a month’s worth of meals for you and placed them in your storage ring. Don’t starve yourself while you’re out.”

“Grandma, you’re so kind. I won’t starve myself.”

It was Lin Chen's first time leaving Feng City, and Lin Yuan and Luo Zhiyuan were somewhat worried.

Their child, whom they had cared for since childhood, was leaving home for the first time. Although it was just the neighboring city and not far, they were still very worried, afraid that Lin Chen wouldn't be able to take care of himself.

Lin Chen took a car to school, where they would all board a spaceship to Blood City.

Although Blood City was next to Feng City, the actual distance between them was very far, a full two thousand kilometers.

Because dimensional fragments could be captured by Blue Star at any time, an unknown area could appear on Blue Star's surface at any moment.

Therefore, there were very few connecting roads between cities. Most people chose to travel by airship for intercity transport. Land routes were mostly for show, serving as a precautionary measure.

On the airship, Oriental Red Sleeve approached Lin Chen and asked a question.

“Lin Chen, did your family arrange a spot for you near the inner ring?”

“No, they didn’t. Why, did your family arrange an inner ring spot for you?”

“No. It seems there won’t be anyone using backdoors in this training camp. The inner ring spots haven’t been reserved.”

Lin Chen's face darkened. Did Oriental Red Sleeve think he was someone who would use a backdoor?

“Sorry, among the 12 nearby cities, your family is the most powerful. If you used a backdoor, it would mean many other families would also use backdoors to secure benefits for their descendants. Since you didn’t use a backdoor, it means this training camp is very fair.”

“Alright, then.”

Oriental Red Sleeve was right. If even Lin Chen didn't use a backdoor to reserve a core spot, how could other families and organizations, whose power was inferior to the Lin Family's, have the nerve or dare to use backdoors?

The current Lin Family was not what it used to be. With support from the main family, Grandpa Lin Yuan had smoothly broken through to the Seventh-Order, and Grandma Luo Zhiyuan had also reached the Sixth-Order.

His three uncles and three aunts had all achieved Fifth-Order cultivation, and their positions had reached their current peak. As their strength broke through, their positions would also change accordingly.

The Lin Family's influence was no longer limited to Feng City; at least in the neighboring cities, the Lin Family had established a presence. The Lin Family had also contributed greatly to Blood City's rapid establishment.