Chapter 30: You Are So Arrogant~
"Sun, Teacher Sun. Sir, what are you doing?" Li Yao was confused and flustered. He stepped forward, intending to help Sun Biao up. But he never thought that this old fogey would be as immovable as casted metal that continued to maintain its bowed form. No matter how much Li Yao tried, Sun Biao would not move.
Sun Biao was still bending over when he said seriously, "This school is meant for discovering talent and is a place where talented people are fostered. Your overall combat strength isn't too outstanding, but you possess the combat awareness like that of a keen beast, and you have an abundance of combat experience as well. Indeed, you are a sapling that's worth nurturing. However, our school was unable to unearth you from the Common Class a bit earlier, wasting and harming a great amount of your youth. This was a neglect of duty by all members of our teaching faculty and staff. So, I can only represent our school in giving you an apology. Student Li Yao, I am truly sorry."
Li Yao's mouth was gaping open. He truly did not how to respond. He was indescribably touched from the depths of his heart.
"Is this the mettle of a true 'teacher'?"
Li Yao had never met a teacher like Sun Biao. No wonder Sun Biao was the man who was able to unearth Fiend Blade Peng Hai!
"Then..." Sun Biao finally rose and once again a frivolous expression appeared on his face. A fanatical flame burned in the depths of his eyes. "Kid, have you heard of the Federation's Youth Limit Challenge?"
Li Yao's pupils suddenly shrunk back and he subconsciously nodded his head. His heart rate sped up abruptly.
Of course, he had heard of it before. The Federation's Youth Limit Challenge Competition was held jointly between the Federal Army and the Nine Elite Universities. It was a large-scale competition that was meant to unearth cultivation geniuses. The competition was held every year around two months before the university exams, with a scope that encompassed the whole nation. It was comprised of several hundred competition arenas that ran simultaneously. This Youth Cultivation Competition was the Federation's oldest tradition.
It's said that each competition arena was like an isolated island, built in such a way that no one could escape. The military would set loose countless savage Demon Beasts on the island, and the competitors would have to find a way to survive for five days on the island in unarmed and defenseless circumstances. Besides facing the Demon Beasts, competitors must also complete a series of utterly difficult missions. These missions were known as the "100% Complete Simulation of True Combat". The difficulty level was set at an absolutely hellish standard.
Competitors were required to push their physical bodies and mental capabilities to the limit. Only then would they be able to distinguish themselves from the many other young geniuses.
Scouts from the Nine Elite Universities were very likely to keep an eye out for those who succeeded and would directly recruit them into the Nine Elite Universities on the spot. There wouldn't be a need to take the University Entrance Exams.
Even if your performance wasn't that outstanding, as long as one demonstrated a type of special strength, there was still a huge possibility that one would get on the Nine Elite Universities' Preferential Score Admittance List. If one was able to get their required entrance score reduced by 10~20 points, they would be able to simply eliminate thousands upon thousands of competitors!
These benefits caused all the third year exam takers to rush madly to compete in the Limit Challenge Competition. They sharpened their mental capabilities to prepare to compete, and Li Yao was no exception.
However, this was an important competition. No average Joe Shmoe could willy-nilly take part in it.
Every year, the competition organizers would send out invitations to every major high school in the Federation. The number of "admission tickets" they sent for each high school was determined by the high school's ranking and strength.
This year, Crimson Nimbus Second received 10 of these tickets!
The competition would start in about 40 days. Crimson Nimbus Second was assigned to competition arena #0571. This area would contain three thousand elite students of Floating Spear City and thirteen neighboring cities. All of these students would be gathered under one roof, to go head to head against each other!
In a month, Crimson Nimbus Second would hold a fighting competition in which all of the third year students were qualified to participate. This was the fairest method to decide which students would get these 10 tickets!
Sun Biao saw Li Yao's heart racing and infatuated expression and said, "Kid, I know you stirred up some trouble in this school. However, there is a way to get off scot-free! All you need to do is to prove your strength by seizing one of these tickets in the fighting competition. Then Helian Lie can't do a thing to you!"
Li Yao thought it over and asked, "Over a thousand students make up the third years and there are only 10 admission tickets. In other words, my strength must reach the top 10?"
Sun Biao shook his head saying, "There will certainly be luck involved when the entire grade fights in the competition. Following what happened in the previous years, those whose strength were in the top 20 were able to seize the hope that is the admission ticket."
Li Yao thought back to his memories. The top 20 in the grade seemed to be composed of cultivation geniuses with an Actualization Quotient of at least 65%.
His Actualization Quotient was only 58%. He could not even achieve an absolute victory just then against the person who was ranked last in the important class, Zhao Liang with his Actualization Quotient of 60%. Li Yao had to rely on underhanded means for victory.
Videos of the fight between him and Zhao Liang would certainly be spread across the entire campus instantly. Everyone would be on their guard. They wouldn't give him opportunities to prevail.
After a month, would he be able to face directly and prevail against those experts with Actualization Quotients exceeding 65%?
His heart was filled with hesitation, and this hesitation was written all over his face. Sun Biao laughed lightly and said, "Kid, based on your current strength, don't even think about being top 20 in the whole school. You might not even count as top 50! But, if you receive my special training for a month at my place, then things may change!"
"What?" Li Yao's pair of eyes flickered and glowed. He jumped from excitement and asked enthusiastically, "Teacher Sun, you'd be willing to teach me personally?"
The man standing across from him was the super amazing man who unearthed Fiend Blade Peng Hai. Yet, this man was willing to carry out special training for him! Tsk tsk tsk tsk. As long as he could cultivate to the strength of Peng Hai's pinky finger, it would be enough for him to strut arrogantly at Crimson Nimbus Second!
Sun Biao laughed heartily, exposing a big mouth that was missing a few teeth. "This old geezer has been working in this stuffy warehouse for many years. The bones in my entire body are practically rusted. It was rare enough to discover this interesting toy. Free time is still free time. I can play as I wish! However, it's a bit too soon to be celebrating. This old geezer's special training program can't be endured by any average schmuck. Come, kid. Look at this old geezer's hellish special strength training program."
Sun Biao's arm flickered causing a micro crystal processor to project a hologram that was densely packed with words describing cultivation training programs.
"Day one, at 4 am. Run 20,000 meters at a variable speed as a warm up."
"At 5 am, 10 sets of 10 reps of 500 kg squats. To be done in half an hour."
"6 am. Breakfast while studying the military applications of the Thirteen Forces of the War Beasts. Only that cultivated by the special forces of the military. It removes all the fanciness and reduces it down to its principles, raising the killing potential of the Thirteen Forces of the War Beasts. It's completely different than the simplified version cultivated by high school students."
"7 am. Frog jumping 5km while bearing 100 kg of weight."
"8 am......"
"9 pm, the first day of special training is done!"
"Day 2......"
Sun Biao grinned nastily and said, "Whats wrong? If you can't handle this, then speak up now! Don't be embarrassed. Back in the day, countless cultivation geniuses were trained into dying dogs under this old geezer's special training program. They had no choice but to give up. Over the course of 90 years, only a few people were able to make it through an entire month!"
Li Yao read through the program rapidly. He finished reading at rapid speed. He asked somewhat baffled, "It looks to be nothing special. Completely average with nothing weird. There's nothing particular about it..."
In the dream of grandeur, he had assumed the identity of a low-level worker at the Hundred Smelting Guild. He bore through training that was a hundredfold more painful and bitter. That was true persecution and ruin that could easily break a trainee completely. Then the trainee had been kneaded back together, and broken again, then kneaded back together. Only after this happened over and over for several hundred times did he rise from a low-level worker to a forge worker.
Sun Biao's special training program was, in the end, at the high school level. In the eyes of Li Yao, there was nothing excessive about it.
"Student Li Yao, you sure are arrogant!"
This special training program was formed from 90 years of Sun Biao's heart and blood. An unknown number of cultivation geniuses had shown shock and horror when faced with this special training program. Yet today, Li Yao had devalued the program to being worthless. And, according to the calm and composed expression on Li Yao's face, Li Yao really didn't think this training program was serious.
A prickling glow was unable to be held back by Sun Biao and was let out immediately from the depths of his eyes. Sun Biao's entire face was wrinkled and bunched together. In an instant, his expression had suddenly changed to an incomparable malevolence.