4: Chapter 4 The Sleeping Stars

On the way home, inside a driverless taxi.

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

"I remember you submitted your application for regular employment last month, didn't you?" Xu Chenyang asked with a look of astonishment. "Did Manager Huo call you up just now to fire you?"

Xu Chenyang knew the rule that teaching assistants who didn't become regular employees within a year had to leave.

"That doesn't make sense." Xu Chenyang shook his head in confusion. "With your performance and skill level, serving as an Elementary coach is more than enough. How could you fail to pass?"

"Haha, Datou, you're overthinking it," Fang Yu laughed. "I wasn't fired. Manager Huo notified me that my regular status was approved, but I turned it down."

Less trouble was better than more, so Fang Yu didn't plan on telling him the truth.

It would only add unnecessary worries.

"You resigned?" Xu Chenyang was even more stunned. "Although martial arts junior colleges are a four-year system, the fourth year is an internship period. You can apply for early graduation to sign with a company... Isn't it great to officially join the Tieshan Martial Arts Club?"

In Xu Chenyang's eyes...

Although Tieshan Group wasn't one of the Eight Great Martial Artist Groups, its founder was at least a Starry Sky Martial Artist... The Tieshan Martial Arts Club under Tieshan Group could still be considered a big company.

Martial arts junior college students enjoyed a slightly higher status than regular academic undergraduates.

Still, being able to join such a company was already a dream for many martial arts junior college students.

Salespeople like them weren't even considered formal employees... For clerical positions at such large companies, campus recruitment would never target regular academic junior colleges.

Without the right educational background, they would be screened out right at the first step.

He never expected that Fang Yu would actually reject becoming a regular employee.

"I want to apply for the junior-college-to-bachelor's upgrade," Fang Yu said. This wasn't deceiving Xu Chenyang; it was also the truth.

If he wanted to apply for the college upgrade, he naturally couldn't officially sign with a company ahead of time.

In reality...

Had he not accidentally overheard the conversation between Supervisor Gao and Manager Huo at the martial arts club last time, and verified it himself using the Vital Qi and Blood potions distributed to students by the club, confirming that Supervisor Gao and Manager Huo were buying potions from small factories and selling them as authentic products from The Eight Great Groups...

He might have submitted his resignation letter half a month ago.

Precisely because he knew their dirt, Fang Yu intentionally dropped subtle hints to test Supervisor Gao, provoking the man's suspicions on purpose... In the end, just as Fang Yu had expected, they used the opportunity of his regular employment review to kick him out of the club.

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And he, in turn, took the opportunity to make a small fortune.

For Fang Yu, even if the plan had failed, he wouldn't have lost anything, as he had already intended to resign anyway.

The only risk was that the other party might "silence him forever"... But Fang Yu was confident that as long as they were merely suspicious, and given that he had Senior Brother Dong as his backer, they wouldn't take such a dangerous gamble.

"Murder someone over such a small matter?"

"This is Xia Country, where the Martial Artist Laws of the Blue Moon Alliance have been enforced for fifty years and Heavenly Eye surveillance reaches every corner, not Primal Star," Fang Yu thought to himself. "I merely obtained the maximum severance pay within the limits allowed by law."

As for exposing them?

Fang Yu knew he didn't have that kind of capability yet... The Vital Qi and Blood potions sold by Manager Huo and his accomplice still had eighty to ninety percent of the original's efficacy. Let alone ordinary students, even Senior Martial Artists might not be able to tell the difference.

Not everyone possessed Fang Yu's special talent.

Xu Chenyang naturally didn't know the underlying reasons and assumed everything Fang Yu said was genuine.

"The college upgrade?" Xu Chenyang froze for a moment upon hearing this, then said, "Brother Fang, I remember that the slots for martial arts junior college upgrades are extremely few, right?"

"Yeah, it's hard. Our school only has 20 direct-recommendation slots for the college upgrade," Fang Yu nodded. "If that fails, I can only try to compete for the other 30 additional slots."

Compared to the 5,000 students in each class, the upgrade ratio at Wuling Martial Arts Junior College was only 1%.

It was far lower than the upgrade ratio for regular academic junior colleges.

"Only 50 in the whole school? That really is tough!" Xu Chenyang lamented. "Makes sense, though. After martial arts students pass the upgrade exam, they can study at a university for two more years. During those two years, the state guarantees a baseline investment of 300,000 Star Coins worth of resources each year, plus chances to compete for various scholarships and special resources at the university."

"Yeah," Fang Yu nodded gently.

Why were there so many academic students in society? Because the resources required from the state or the Blue Moon Alliance were minimal. In most cases, the resources consumed annually by academic junior college students and academic undergraduates weren't vastly different.

But martial arts Cultivation was extremely resource-intensive...

You get what you pay for in Star Coins.

For instance, a martial arts junior college student directly received baseline Cultivation resources worth 100,000 Star Coins each year, not including various school scholarships, expensive training facilities, faculty investment, and so on. If all of that were calculated, the total would be absolutely staggering.

As for martial arts university undergraduates, the resources invested were even more mind-boggling.

Precisely because of this...

Even for martial arts junior college students, Huguang Province could only recruit 100,000 each year... and martial arts undergraduates were capped at merely 10,000. Any more, and they simply couldn't afford to supply them.

After all, within the Blue Moon Alliance, there was also a vast population of graduated independent Martial Artists, and the massive amount of resources required for their Cultivation was the real major expense.

It could be said...

It was precisely because the entire Blue Moon Alliance spared no cost from top to bottom to nurture Martial Artists and encourage martial arts that a century of brilliant martial progress was forged, driving forward the life evolution of the entire civilization.

From sixty years ago when Intermediate Martial Artists were rare, to today when Senior Martial Artists are commonplace.

"Haha, Brother Fang."

"The college upgrade is hard for others, but with your skill level, even if you haven't Awakened a Void Star Constellation, you'll definitely succeed," Xu Chenyang chuckled. "I'm looking forward to celebrating your admission with a drink!"

Fang Yu smiled.

His departure from Tieshan Martial Arts Club was actually bad news for Xu Chenyang... After all, for a salesperson to have good numbers, they relied heavily on coaches.

Many martial arts club coaches took the extra time and effort to contact students and parents directly, leaving salespeople no chance to earn commissions.

Yet Xu Chenyang didn't show the slightest hint of displeasure.

"Datou, don't worry. I'll put in a word with Manager Dong, and you can transfer directly to the Changsha South Road Branch," Fang Yu smiled. "I'll ask him to look out for you."

"It's just that you'll have to travel a bit further for your daily commute."

If Xu Chenyang stayed at the Xinjiekou Branch, he might end up targeted by Manager Huo and his clique... Xu Chenyang wasn't even a Martial Artist yet, so he wouldn't be able to handle that.

"Brother Fang, then I won't stand on ceremony with you!" Xu Chenyang's eyes lit up.

He knew full well how much influence the "Manager Dong" Fang Yu mentioned possessed... Such a connection was something he wouldn't normally dare to dream of.

"Why be polite between brothers? It's a small matter," Fang Yu laughed. That he and Datou could become sworn brothers was not mainly due to being classmates, but because of their compatible personalities.

Being classmates just meant being forced to spend a few years together in the same classroom; it didn't guarantee genuine harmony.

Good friends and brothers from one's youth were truly rare and precious.

Xu Chenyang was someone who would genuinely go all out for a brother. Likewise, he was never pretentious when accepting benefits from Fang Yu.

Soon.

Xu Chenyang was the first to get off, leaving Fang Yu to continue heading toward home alone. He rolled down the car window, letting the setting sun's afterglow fall upon his face.

The summer afterglow was truly beautiful.

"The college upgrade?" Fang Yu looked out at the trees lining the street, lost in thought.

"To guarantee direct recommendation, it's best if I can Awaken a Void Star Constellation... But that blurry Star Phase I visualized, when will it finally Awaken?"

Thinking up to this point, Fang Yu gently closed his eyes.

*Buzz~*

In a trance, Fang Yu felt his consciousness arrive at a mysterious domain.

All around was boundless and fathomless, with only a colossal figure standing in the center.

Looking from afar, it lay there quietly as if in deep slumber, its form blurry around the edges. One could only discern that it resembled a hairless black ram, with a massive mouth taking up over half its body.

Its facial features were even more obscured.

"This is my Star Phase. It seems that after my skill reached Micro-consummation, it became a bit clearer again," Fang Yu's consciousness murmured. At the same time, through that massive, blurry Star Phase, he faintly sensed several pieces of information being transmitted:

———

Phase Visualizer

Life Level: Rank 15.9 (Elementary Martial Artist)

Martial Skill: Micro High-Rank (Qi and Blood)

Soul Rank: Rank 18.4

Void Star Constellation: Unknown (Please work hard to achieve a higher Life Level)

Innate Divine Ability 1: Devour (Faster digestion speed and better digestion effect after consuming various rare treasures)

Innate Divine Ability 2: Unknown (Please work hard to achieve a higher level living organism)

———

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