59: Are you here for free?

In the eyes of many students, even if they weren't ultimately chosen for the official competition, they would still receive one thousand low-grade xuan stone, five packs of Body Tempering Potion, and five qi and blood pills. This was already a considerable income, and if they were chosen to compete, their benefits would double!

“I'm going all out!”

“I’ve already reserved a competition slot; the rest of you can do as you please…”

“Hahahaha, just you? Isn’t that a bit too much talk? It would be more like me!”

“Tch, do you think competition slots are that easy to get? It’s five choose one!”

Hearing someone say this, many students immediately realized that getting into the competition wouldn't be easy. With 52 people vying for 10 spots, the probability was actually less than one-fifth!

Someone thought carefully and said, “Actually, no. In my opinion, most of the competition slots should be taken by those in the Advanced Class, right? After all, they are older students. With the same talent, their Cultivation time is much longer than ours, so their strength is naturally much greater…”

“That’s for sure! Haven’t you seen the school’s Elite ranking list? Seven of the top ten are in the Advanced Class…”

“If that’s the case, why are they letting us from the Intermediate Class participate? Are we just here to be sparring partners?”

“Don’t even mention us in the Intermediate Class; look at the Elementary Class students, why are they joining in on the fun? Besides Ye Xuan, everyone else among them is probably here to freeload, right?”

“Exactly, exactly. I think they must have gotten the news early, knowing that the school invested heavily in this Inter-school Competition, so they came for the benefits. After all, besides Ye Xuan in the Elementary Class, everyone else is destined to be unable to compete on stage…”

“Indeed…”

As they spoke, the students’ discussion gradually focused on the Elementary Class, even portraying them as petty people who wanted to freeload off the school’s generous investment.

The Elementary Class students were the youngest and hadn't said much after arriving, but the more they listened, the more something felt wrong. They never expected to be called trash who came to freeload off the school’s benefits. This was intolerable. Qin Gui was the first to snap, jumping out and shouting, “What are you talking about?! We don’t even care about that small investment! If you’re so capable, come out and fight one-on-one, don’t be so foul-mouthed and insulting!!!”

“One-on-one?! You’re quite arrogant, kid. A person should know their place. Believe it or not, I can beat you with one hand!” The person who spoke just now said proudly. This person was from the Intermediate Class, named Hong Biao. True to his name, he was burly and spoke very arrogantly. He was also quite rash, failing to recognize that the other party was from the Qin Family, and never considering that winning against Qin Gui would offend the Qin Family. No matter how he calculated it, this was a losing proposition…

“Then let’s go up on stage and fight!” Qin Gui shouted, not backing down in the slightest.

“If you want to die, no one’s stopping you…” Hong Biao snorted.

“Everyone, quickly make way for them to go up and compete!”

“I’ll open a betting pool: Hong Biao wins within three moves! Anyone want to place a bet?”

“I’m in, I’m in…”

“Hahahahaha…”

“Quiet!!! All of you, be quiet!!!” Yun Feiyan finally exploded.

The students immediately fell silent, looking up to see Yun Feiyan’s cheeks flushed crimson, clearly very angry. She hadn't expected that right after she announced the benefits of the selection camp, the students below would start quarreling among themselves. Are young people these days all so wild?

“There will be plenty of time for you to fight later… But for now, listen carefully. The school never engages in any shady dealings. The reason why students from the Intermediate Class and Elementary Class are also included is for long-term consideration. Only by letting new students get exposed to high-level competitions like the Inter-school Competition early can they grow faster. Otherwise, what happens when the Advanced Class students graduate and leave, and the Intermediate Class and Low Grade Class students can’t take over? We suffered from this exact problem in the past two years. A group of young experts left at the same time, but those below couldn’t take over due to lack of training. In contrast, our opponents saw a concentrated emergence of experts, which led to our failures for the next two years!” Yun Feiyan sighed.

“So that’s how it is…” The students suddenly understood, never expecting that Fengyang No. 1 High School’s failures in the past two years had such a reason behind them.

Long Yuan also nodded in agreement. Yun Feiyan’s analysis was very reasonable. These young competitors were actually all at the Martial Apprentice stage. At this stage, they weren't much stronger than Mortals, and in the Martial Dao, they were still in the foundational period. The gap in strength between them wasn't too significant. If someone could train more, have a broader vision, and adopt more reasonable tactics, then their win rate would naturally increase considerably.

In other words, the combat power at the Martial Apprentice stage, besides being related to talent, also had a great deal to do with combat skills and proficiency. Whoever trained more, designed better tactics, and reacted faster in combat would appear to have higher combat power.

Furthermore, no matter how strong a team is, it’s impossible for it to remain strong forever. Being strong for a while isn’t difficult, but staying strong consistently is truly difficult, because there will always be times of transition. For example, although Fengyang No. 1 High School is a recognized strong team, it cannot guarantee that every batch of students will produce a group of Geniuses simultaneously. When the strongest students of a batch leave, because these individuals often occupy a large amount of resources and opportunities for training and competition while at school, given that these resources and opportunities are finite, the resources and opportunities allocated to others will naturally decrease. Consequently, a period of weakness for the team will inevitably emerge…

As for weak teams, there’s no need to be discouraged. As long as they persevere and work hard, there will always be a season for harvest. No matter how poor a family is, there’s always a time to eat dumplings. When luck comes, no one can stop it…

However, this also revealed another problem: the strength of this batch of Advanced Elite Class students at Fengyang No. 1 High School shouldn't be very good, because some of them must have participated in the previous two Inter-school Competitions and tasted defeat. How can a defeated general speak of courage?

No wonder Fengyang No. 1 High School also had to bring in students from the Intermediate Class and Elementary Class to participate in the selection. This was inherently a sign of a lack of trust in those in the Advanced Class…

Indeed, Yun Feiyan’s subsequent words proved Long Yuan’s guess. She continued, “Of course, if students from the Intermediate Class and Elementary Class perform exceptionally in this selection camp, we will also allow them to join the competition team early and fight alongside the Advanced Class students for the honor of our school!!!”

“Woah woah woah…”

The students from the Intermediate Class and Elementary Class immediately erupted in an uproar, each of them incredibly excited. It seemed that it wasn't impossible for them to secure a competition slot after all. Yun Feiyan had already promised it on the spot, proving that this selection camp was indeed different from previous ones, and everyone had a chance to join the competition team.

This was an enormous encouragement for students from more impoverished backgrounds, because the school was offering incredibly generous benefits to the competitors this time. If they could obtain them, it would be of great help to their Martial Dao career!

However, this selection mechanism was a blow to the Advanced Class students. Many of them had already considered the competition slots as their own, but they never expected Yun Feiyan to actually encourage students from the Intermediate Class and Elementary Class to compete with them. Isn't this blocking their path to wealth?

…