High Martial Arts Era 6

Chapter 6: Martial Arts is a Gold-Devouring Pit

“Maybe I have a high talent?” Li Yuan’s pupils constricted slightly.

He couldn’t help but think about the last note on his Divine Palace panel, “contains a certain unawakened higher spirituality within.”

Li Yuan trusted the Divine Palace panel’s detection, it had never been wrong in the past year.

It should be more reliable than Teacher Xu Bo’s guess.

The information Teacher Xu Bo mentioned today also gave Li Yuan more ideas.

Previously, although Li Yuan had searched many times on the virtual network, he couldn’t access many of the information due to insufficient permissions.

“I have high talent? I possess a Heart Temple, perhaps this is also a talent?” Li Yuan silently repeated in his heart.

Over the past century, countless cultivation methods have gradually been opened up. With technological development, a large number of Wujia (Warriors) have also emerged in human civilization.

And those exceptional Wujia who can achieve feats like flying through the air and surviving nuclear explosions, which of their growth experiences wasn’t filled with legends?

Li Yuan didn’t believe that the Heart Temple he possessed would be an exception.

“Teacher, what should I do then?” Li Yuan proactively asked.

He was very smart, since Teacher Xu Bo had taken the initiative to call him over, it was definitely not just for a few words of encouragement.

“Be persistent.” Xu Bo looked at Li Yuan, he originally wanted to say “follow the routine,” but changed the words at the last minute.

Seeing Li Yuan’s surprised expression, Xu Bo continued, “Your progress has been very fast, don’t be too anxious about not awakening your Martial Spirit, with your current performance, it will be easy to get into a Martial Arts University.”

“If you continue with normal cultivation, your physical fitness should reach 10.0 level in two or three years at most.”

“When you become an Entry-level Warrior, advanced cultivation methods will no longer be a constraint for you.”

“Maybe in the future, you can create an advanced cultivation method that belongs to you.” Xu Bo laughed.

“Create a cultivation method?” Li Yuan couldn’t help but say, “Can I?”

“Haha, what can or cannot?” Xu Bo laughed, “You are still so young, you have endless possibilities.”

“Even the founders of the three great Martial Temples, when they were young, who knew they could achieve such accomplishments?” Xu Bo smiled at Li Yuan, “The founders of the three great Martial Temples are too distant, but don’t you even have the ambition to surpass me?”

“My physical fitness is only 19th level.”

Li Yuan held his breath.

Since Xu Bo became his Martial Arts class teacher, he had always taken him as his goal.

Now he finally knew his teacher’s strength, his physical fitness was actually as high as 19th level.

No wonder he was a Special Grade Martial Arts teacher.

“Let’s talk about something practical.” Xu Bo looked at Li Yuan, “Although you haven’t awakened your Martial Spirit, your physical fitness and Martial Arts skills are very good, combined with your family situation… I will apply to the school to give you a third-class scholarship.”

“Third-class scholarship?” Li Yuan’s eyes lit up.

Martial Arts cultivation requires a lot of resources.

Therefore, for students who excel in Martial Arts, starting from high school, the government will issue various bonuses and subsidies.

Guanshan District No. 1 High School, as a provincial key high school, received more government funding than ordinary high schools.

Every large-scale unified exam, the top 100 in the Martial Arts performance would receive extra rewards.

Top 50, rewarded 2,000 Lanxing Coins.

Top 30, rewarded 5,000 Lanxing Coins.

Top 20 would receive an additional two basic Qi and Blood Medicine on top of the top 30 reward.

Top 10 would receive a separate independent Martial Arts cultivation room in addition to the top 20 reward.

These were exam rewards.

Scholarships, however, were more special. They were based on both academic performance and family background, and required teacher recommendation to have a chance of obtaining.

Few people received scholarships.

“You have made significant progress, but your Martial Arts performance is still only within the top 30 in the grade, it would be quite difficult to apply for a second-class scholarship or higher.” Xu Bo said, “But the hope for a third-class scholarship still exists, of course, even if you apply and get it, the money won’t be much, just 20,000 Lanxing Coins, don’t complain.”

“Thank you for your concern, Teacher.” Li Yuan was incredibly grateful.

20,000 Lanxing Coins? That’s equivalent to two months of my aunt and uncle’s salary!

All the scholarships I’ve received since I started high school combined were less than 20,000.

“Is there anything you want me to do, Teacher?” Li Yuan followed up.

“No need for you to do anything, just study hard and get good grades.” Xu Bo waved his hand, “Go eat, I’ll let you know when the application is approved.”

“Yes.” Li Yuan left, closing the door as he exited.

Watching Li Yuan leave.

“This kid, does he still think I want something from him?” Xu Bo shook his head and laughed.

Suddenly, he frowned slightly.

The man, who looked like a towering iron tower, now showed a hint of pain.

“Time to take medicine again?” Xu Bo endured the pain and walked towards the physiotherapy room.

…

Walking out of the office building.

“Good.” Li Yuan couldn’t help but clench his fist, finding it hard to suppress the joy in his heart.

Before entering the office, he guessed that something good would happen.

But he didn’t expect it to be this good.

“Teacher Xu didn’t mention these things before, was it because I was performing well in the past, but he didn’t think I was good enough?” Li Yuan thought to himself, “Did my performance today qualify?”

Li Yuan had read many books.

In some stories, many seniors like to promote juniors.

But the prerequisite is that the juniors are worthy of promotion.

“If one doesn’t put in enough effort, if one isn’t good enough, then even if they encounter an opportunity, they will miss it.” Li Yuan silently repeated in his heart.

“Should I send a message to the family group?” This thought just popped into Li Yuan’s mind, but he immediately suppressed it.

Hu!

Just as a gust of wind blew past, making Li Yuan even more calm.

“No rush.”

“Teacher Xu is a special grade teacher, but he’s not part of the school’s management, even if it works out, it will probably take a while for the application to be approved.” Li Yuan thought to himself, “If it doesn’t work out, it’ll be a false hope.”

“I’ll tell Uncle and Aunt when the scholarship actually comes through.”

“Well, I can’t tell other classmates about this either.” Li Yuan had already thought things through, “Teacher Xu called me out separately, and let Wan Xiao leave first, he probably doesn’t want others to know.”

“If the school wants to publicize it, they can wait until the school makes an announcement later.”

His past experiences, coupled with the books he had read, made Li Yuan understand the phrase, “Success comes from secrecy, failure from leaks.”

Don’t spread the word about things that haven’t materialized.

“Let’s eat first.” Li Yuan regained his composure and ran towards the cafeteria.

…

Guanshan District No. 1 High School had over 6,000 students, so the cafeteria was very large.

As soon as Li Yuan entered the cafeteria door.

“Yuan Ge (Brother Yuan), over here.” Zhou Qi was already squatting in the distance, beckoning him, along with Wan Xiao, Yan Zhou, and over ten other boys, occupying two large tables eating.

Li Yuan smiled and walked over.

The boys in the class liked to eat together.

“Yuan Ge, your two nutritional meals.” Zhou Qi said as he ate, pushing two special lunchboxes in front of Li Yuan.

“Who swiped the card? Yan Zhou?” Li Yuan asked with a smile as he sat down to eat.

“I said I’ll pay you back later.” Yan Zhou laughed.

“The few breakfasts I brought you, just the hot dry noodles and egg soy milk, cost less than 50 Lanxing Coins.” Li Yuan shook his head, “My two nutritional meals cost 150.”

Among so many boys present, the prices of the meals they ate varied greatly.

Like the ordinary two meat and two vegetable dishes, three meat and two vegetables, a meal cost less than 20 Lanxing Coins.

Zhou Qi and Yan Zhou ate this kind of meal.

Because they went to evening cultural classes and didn’t have any strenuous exercise, their energy consumption was less.

But for someone like Li Yuan, who had to engage in high-intensity Martial Arts cultivation at night, ordinary meals weren’t enough. If this continued, it would lead to a deficiency of Qi and Blood in his body.

He had to eat special nutritional meals from the cafeteria, but they were much more expensive.

One meal cost 75 Lanxing Coins, and Li Yuan needed to eat two.

To be precise, Li Yuan’s normal three meals a day cost nearly 300 Lanxing Coins per day.

At least 8,000 Lanxing Coins per month.

This was far from enough to support Li Yuan’s normal cultivation, he occasionally had to eat various expensive Qi and Blood Medicine and supplements.

If physiotherapy was added, the monthly expenses would be a staggering number.

This was still because Li Yuan was a student, he could practice in the school’s Martial Arts classroom all the time, with various training equipment like cold weapons, sandbags, and venues for practicing Gun Fa (Gun Technique) being fully equipped.

The effect couldn’t match a separate Martial Arts cultivation room, but the school’s Martial Arts classroom was free.

If he went to a regular martial arts school in society? The rent was calculated by the hour, ordinary families couldn’t afford it.

Martial Arts is a gold-devouring pit, it’s no exaggeration.

This was also the reason why Li Yuan was eager to get into the top five prestigious universities.

Because, his Martial Arts cultivation had reached a point where Uncle and Aunt could no longer afford to support him.

…

Walking out of the cafeteria.

“Yuan Ge, we’re going to the cultural building, see you tomorrow.” Zhou Qi and Yan Zhou said to Li Yuan.

“Okay.” Li Yuan nodded.

Students of this era, starting from high school, would study cultural courses every morning, and then engage in Martial Arts training in the afternoon.

Evening? It was up to the students to choose, depending on which path they wanted to pursue.

Martial Arts universities, there were only twenty-nine in all of Xia Country.

While cultural universities, there were over a thousand nationwide.

If you wanted to get into a Martial Arts university, your cultural course score would be converted, accounting for 10%.

If you chose to pursue cultural studies, your Martial Arts score would be converted, accounting for 30% of the total score.

Although you wouldn’t decide on whether to go for Martial Arts or cultural studies until you filled in your application, most students would have a focus starting from high school.

Li Yuan returned to the Martial Arts classroom.

Looking around, there were only less than ten people left in the classroom, it was empty.

Some students from the Class 3-2, chose to focus on cultural courses, which was also the choice of the vast majority of students.

“Getting into a Martial Arts university is indeed difficult.” Li Yuan thought to himself.

Every year, there were millions of college entrance exam candidates in Jiangbei Province.

The only Martial Arts university, Jiangbei Martial Arts University, enrolled no more than 10,000 students each year, accounting for less than 1% of all candidates.

Guanshan District No. 1 High School, as a provincial key high school, the number of students who got into Martial Arts universities each year would hardly exceed a hundred.

It wasn’t dark yet.

The ten or so people in the classroom were mostly chatting with each other.

Evening Martial Arts training, there was no teacher supervision, it all depended on self-discipline.

“Li Tianyou.” Li Yuan’s gaze fell upon that figure in the corner of the classroom.

The boy, about 1.8 meters tall, had a somewhat thin face, wore a martial arts uniform, said nothing, and was diligently practicing the basic cultivation method.

He wasn’t affected by the chatter of others at all.

One could tell from the sweat dripping from his forehead that he had been training for a while.

“So dedicated!” Li Yuan sighed, “He deserves to be the top student who always studies hard in our class.”

Without disturbing anyone else.

Li Yuan took out his big spear from his weapon cabinet, chose a bright spot in the classroom, and began practicing his Gun Fa.

Why not practice the basic cultivation method?

Because, Li Yuan would get up at 3:30 every morning, come to school, and train alone for two hours in the empty Martial Arts classroom.

Then, he would go to the cafeteria for breakfast at almost six o’clock, and then go to the cultural classroom to study on his own.

In the afternoon, he would train with everyone else for two hours.

The daily cultivation method, divided into two or three sessions, was best to last for four hours, this was confirmed by repeated experiments by numerous Martial Arts masters.

Life evolution, the tempering, recovery, and growth of the body’s muscles and bones, all take time.

Too much is as bad as too little.

The rest of the time, Li Yuan could use it to study his Gun Fa and body movements.

Two hours later.

The school bell echoed through the campus, students in the classroom had already left one after another, only Li Yuan was still practicing his Gun Fa, and only Li Tianyou was still practicing his Dao Fa.

Suddenly.

In Li Yuan’s vision, a message popped up, only he could see it.

【Your Gun Fa skill has improved from Three-Section 36% to Three-Section 37%】

(End of Chapter)

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