The fervor of the monthly exam didn’t linger long on the campus of Qiming First Martial High School.
For these prodigies who had dedicated their lives to the Martial Dao, the end of one exam merely signaled the beginning of a new round of training.
That night, the Martial Arts Room for First Year, Class 3 was brightly lit.
After the day’s grueling battle, most students had chosen to return to their dorms to rest and reflect.
But in one corner of the room, three familiar figures were still training, drenched in sweat.
Qin Feng, Shi Potian, and Qian Duoduo.
The three of them were like tireless training machines. Less than two hours after the monthly exam ended, they had once again thrown themselves into the tedious yet intense training.
To them, today was no different from any other day in the past month.
"HUFF... HUFF..."
Qian Duoduo finished a set of maximum-weight squats. He dropped the barbell, which weighed several tons, to the ground with a loud CLANG, then collapsed into a boneless heap on the floor, his chest heaving violently.
He picked up his water bottle and chugged a few mouthfuls, then looked over at Qin Feng, who was meticulously practicing the basic forms of the Thousand Army Spear.
"Hey, Qin Feng."
Qian Duoduo’s voice was muffled from his heavy breathing. "The results come out tomorrow. Aren’t you nervous? Not curious how many credits you’ll get?"
Qin Feng lowered his spear, steadied his breathing, and walked over to sit beside him.
"Worrying about it is useless. It’s better to get some more practice in."
"Heh, you’ve really got a great attitude."
Qian Duoduo chuckled and pulled up his data slate, swiping at the screen. "Still, I can’t help but try to calculate it. I’ve asked around, and our school’s credit reward system for the monthly exam is really complicated."
Shi Potian, who had been practicing his blade techniques nearby, also finished up and walked over, clearly just as interested in the topic.
"The monthly exam credits are divided into three main parts."
Qian Duoduo held up three chubby fingers and began explaining like a little teacher. "First, there’s the ’Ranking Reward.’ This one is the most straightforward. It’s based on your overall score and your rank among all the first-years. As long as you make it into the top one hundred, you get credits. The higher your rank, the more generous the reward. I heard that if you can get into the top ten, the credit reward is no less than what you’d get for outstanding performance in a practical combat class."
"Second is the ’Improvement Reward.’ This is for students who started with a weaker foundation but worked hard enough. The school calculates an ’improvement margin’ based on your high school entrance exam rank and your rank in this monthly exam. The greater the improvement, the more credits you’re awarded. This reward is mainly to motivate us students who are ranked lower."
"Third is the ’Regression Penalty.’"
Qian Duoduo’s expression turned serious. "If your rank this time drops too much compared to when you enrolled, not only will you not get a reward, but you’ll also have credits deducted. Our school doesn’t tolerate slackers."
He paused for a moment before continuing, "And besides the overall ranking, there are also individual subject rankings. For academics, they don’t reward you for being in the top ten of a single subject, they just penalize you for failing. But for ’Comprehensive Martial Arts’ and ’Combat Simulation,’ those two are calculated separately. As long as you rank in the top hundred of your year in either one, you’ll also get credits."
"In other words, from a single monthly exam, we can earn up to four types of credit rewards: the Overall Rank Reward, the Martial Arts Subject Reward, the Combat Subject Reward, and the Improvement Reward."
After he finished, Qian Duoduo looked at Shi Potian with an envious expression.
"Someone like you, Brother Shi, with your high life force index and solid foundation, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get the Overall Rank and Martial Arts Subject rewards. But the combat reward is harder to say. After all, combat techniques aren’t about physical stats."
He then turned to Qin Feng, his expression changing to one of encouragement.
"As for you, Qin Feng, it’s the exact opposite. Your overall rank probably won’t be too high because of your disadvantage in life force index. But your combat score is without a doubt number one in our year! Professor Gu Yue herself gave you an hour of private tutoring—who would dare question the value in that? The credits from that alone will be more than enough for you!"
"Mm. Qin Feng’s credits this time shouldn’t be bad either."
Shi Potian picked up the conversation, his voice deep. "The credits from the monthly exam, plus the credits from practical combat class, probably still won’t be enough. It might even be far from enough."
"That’s right, it’s not enough."
Qian Duoduo smiled. "But I found out that in the Imperial Arena, if you can fight your way to First Rank, you get a 50-credit reward. Add that to the rest, and you’ll definitely have 100 credits, enough to upgrade to a C-rank contract."
"Mm, the placement matches are a set of 10, right?"
"The Imperial Arena’s placement matches value overall skill, not your win-loss record. So if you end up unranked, it just means your combat techniques aren’t at the First Rank level. There are no shortcuts."
"It’s tough. Our combat techniques are too weak. Only Qin Feng has a shot."
At this, the two of them looked toward Qin Feng.
Indeed, only Qin Feng had a real hope of reaching First Rank in his placement matches.
This meant... Qin Feng might even be the first among this batch of new students to be promoted to a C-rank contract.
"Sigh, now that’s a true genius."
Shi Potian clapped Qin Feng on the shoulder and smiled. "Guys like me just consumed way more resources than you. That’s why my life force index is high, and life force index requires a ton of resources. So, Qin Feng, you need to hurry up and get that C-rank contract. That way, you’ll shore up your weakness in no time."
"Right! A C-rank contract!"
At the mention of this, Qian Duoduo immediately perked up again. "Once you get to C-rank, you get more resources, and your life force index will improve even faster."
"Okay."
Qin Feng nodded slightly.
Now that he had learned Thousand Soldiers’ Evasion, his Thousand Army Spear had reached a basic level of mastery. It was time to do his placement matches.
The good news was that the fight he had after getting the Subspace Network Pass was just a regular match, so it wouldn’t affect his placement results.
The three of them chatted for a while longer, no longer dwelling on the next day’s results.
For them, the future was already clearly planned. All that remained was to walk down that path with unwavering resolve.
They stood up once more and threw themselves into another round of arduous training.
...
「That night, at nine o’clock.」
In Qin Feng’s room, Dorm 402.
He sat cross-legged on his bed and turned off all the lights, plunging the room into deep darkness and silence.
He cleared his mind of all stray thoughts about the monthly exam and credits, slowly closed his eyes, and began his unshakeable nightly routine before sleep: the Emperor Meditation.
He skillfully emptied his mind. In that boundless spiritual darkness, he began to visualize the imposing figure of the Emperor, clad in golden Battle Armor.
This time, it was different from all the others.
When that familiar, supreme majesty that reigned over the Cosmos descended upon him, Qin Feng did not struggle to resist it with his frail Will as he usually did.
Perhaps because he had experienced a true, bloody battle, his state of mind had undergone a subtle transformation.
He no longer saw that oppressive might as an enemy to be resisted.
Instead, he tried to understand it, to accept it, and to feel the vast Will contained within that majesty—a Will to protect humanity’s eternal peace.
In that moment, his spirit seemed to generate a faint, almost imperceptible resonance with the visualized figure of the Emperor.
In that very instant.
Deep within his consciousness, in the Spiritual World that had been stagnant for a whole month, it was as if an invisible wall of shackles was shattered with a deafening CRASH.
A cool, pure energy was born from the void, slowly nourishing his exhausted spirit.
At this moment, his status panel silently refreshed.
[Visualization achieved. Will has been elevated. Emperor Meditation proficiency +1]
[Emperor Meditation proficiency has reached 10. Realm advanced to ’Initiate’!]
[Cultivation Method: Emperor Meditation (Initiate)]
[Proficiency: 0/100]
[Effect:]
[Nail of Favor x1: The speed at which you practice Meditation is slightly boosted.]
’Success!’
An indescribable joy surged in Qin Feng’s heart.
Just then, he suddenly felt a faint, sharp pain above his left brow bone, like a mosquito bite.
He subconsciously reached up to touch it, but the sensation vanished in an instant, as if it had never been there.
What he didn’t know was that in that fleeting moment, a dark-gold object resembling a tiny rivet, visible only to him, had emerged from the void and silently pierced deep into his brow bone, leaving behind only the faint imprint of a round nail head that almost blended in with his skin.
This "Nail of Favor" concealed its form the moment it appeared, vanishing from sight.
Qin Feng only felt that after his Emperor Meditation broke through to the Initiate realm, his mind seemed clearer and more focused than before.
But the feeling was very faint, like a perpetually nearsighted person suddenly getting a new pair of glasses—the world was a little clearer, but he couldn’t say exactly by how much.
The cultivation of Mental Power was inherently a gradual process; it couldn’t be accomplished overnight.
His current Mental Power was probably so weak that even the school’s lowest-grade detection instruments couldn’t get a valid reading.
Without investigating further, Qin Feng ended his Meditation.
A dual wave of physical and mental exhaustion washed over him. He lay down on the bed and fell into a deep sleep almost the instant his head hit the pillow.
...
「The next morning, at 4:59 AM.」
Qin Feng’s eyes opened right on time.
Unlike any other time he had woken up, today he felt not the slightest trace of fatigue or drowsiness.
On the contrary, he felt that his mind was clearer than ever before, his thoughts as transparent and brilliant as polished crystal.
Moreover, his entire body was brimming with an inexhaustible, explosive strength.
It was as if he had been completely reborn.
He recalled some records from the *Comprehensive History of the Empire*.
In the distant, dark past, when humanity still lived on its home planet, plagued by industrial pollution and information overload, most people’s bodies were in a state of "sub-optimal health."
In that state, even if people slept a full eight hours, they would still wake up the next day feeling exhausted and listless, as if they could never get enough sleep.
Later, with the establishment of the Empire, the popularization of genetic optimization technology, and the spread of Spiritual Energy cultivation, this state of "sub-optimal health" disappeared from most Imperial citizens.
But even in the current Imperial era, the bodies of commoners living on mining planets with harsh environments, or dwelling in the sunless lower levels of the Nest Capitals, would still exhibit similar symptoms of sub-optimal health due to long-term malnutrition and mental oppression.
Before the root of his own illness was cured, Qin Feng himself had deeply experienced that feeling.
Every day, he had felt drained of energy and powerless, like a severely ill, aging patient.
But now, after reaching the Initiate realm in the Emperor Meditation, he finally understood for the first time what it truly meant to feel refreshed in both mind and spirit.
The strength of his body and the fullness of his spirit had reached a state of perfect harmony and unity.
"This... must be the benefit of the Meditation technique."
Qin Feng murmured to himself, the corners of his mouth involuntarily curling into a smile.
"I stuck with it for a month, and I’m finally seeing results."