The light and shadow before his eyes dissipated, the familiar victory and defeat chimes of the Imperial Arena still echoing in his ears.
Qin Feng’s consciousness withdrew from the highly focused battle, returning to the grand and solemn real-world arena of the "Crown of the North Pole."
Five placement matches: three wins and two losses. He was thoroughly warmed up, and his mental state was now at its peak.
He had just opened his eyes when he heard a suppressed exclamation from Qian Duoduo beside him.
"Found it!"
Qin Feng turned his head. Qian Duoduo was holding his wrist-mounted terminal, its virtual screen densely packed with streams of information. He wore an expression of someone who had just discovered a new continent.
Shi Potian was also drawn by the commotion and shot him an inquisitive glance.
"What’s with all the fuss?"
"Intel! Important intel!"
Qian Duoduo lowered his voice, but the excitement in his tone was hard to hide. "I’ve been scouring the hot threads on Planet Morningstar’s public Martial Dao forum. I finally managed to dig up the toughest nuts to crack in this freshman tournament!"
He turned the screen toward Qin Feng and Shi Potian, pointing at the first entry.
"Check this out. Lei Yi, from Dubhe Martial Arts Senior High School. This guy was the top scorer on the entrance exam for our entire year on Planet Morningstar! They say that after enrolling, his school treated him like a treasure, pouring massive resources into him. Right now, his life force index is conservatively estimated to be around 15.0. He dual-wields short cudgels and cultivates a Combat Art called ’Wind and Thunder Cudgels,’ which is known for its ferocious offense, as fast as wind and thunder. He’s already cultivated this Combat Art to the Minor Success Realm. And supposedly, he didn’t just break through—he reached it a long time ago. He might even be at the Grand Completion Realm. His strength is unfathomable, and he’s the biggest favorite to win the freshman tournament!"
Hearing this, Qin Feng mulled it over.
’Could he really be at Grand Completion? My life force index is over 14, and it’s still rising on its own. My Combat Art reached Grand Completion long ago, and I’m just a stone’s throw from Perfection... I should be able to beat Lei Yi. Assuming that information is correct, of course.’
Qian Duoduo swiped the screen again, pulling up a second profile.
"This one, Shi Dang, is from Star River Military Affiliated High School. He didn’t rank high on the entrance exam—somewhere past a thousand—so he’s a super dark horse who came out of nowhere. The most special thing about him is his bloodline. He supposedly has some Stone Race blood, giving him a naturally powerful physique and abnormally high Defense Power. He uses a broadsword. Life force index, unknown."
At this point, Qian Duoduo couldn’t help but click his tongue in amazement. "Speaking of which, his dad must be really something else. The Stone Race... they’re like rocks. How could he even... ahem, you know... wasn’t he afraid it would hurt?"
"Piss off."
Shi Potian rolled his eyes and cut him off coldly. "The Cosmos is vast, filled with countless races and bizarre methods of reproduction. The Stone Race uses a typical method called ’Stone Blood reproduction.’ Their Life Core is in their blood. When their blood combines with human blood under specific conditions, there’s an extremely low probability of producing a mixed-blood descendant. The Stone Race is one of the few Exotic Star humanoid races that can have children with the Human Race. However, a Stone Man produces only one drop of blood every hundred years, so it’s truly rare."
"Uh... is that how it works?"
Qian Duoduo was taken aback, then gave a sheepish laugh. "Alright, pretend I didn’t say anything. Haha, let’s move on to the third one."
He cleared his throat and pointed to the last profile.
"The third one is named Li Qing, from Golden Dragon Martial High School. Fifth place on the entrance exam, another top-tier genius. His life force index has also supposedly reached 15.0. His fighting style is strange; he uses throwing knives. He cultivates two Combat Arts simultaneously: one is ’Basic Throwing Knives,’ and the other is a Body Technique called Illusion Step. The combination of these two makes him extremely slippery. His movements are bizarre and unpredictable, making him very hard to deal with."
After introducing the three, Qian Duoduo summarized, "For now, these three are the monsters of the freshman tournament. Their strength is a cut above the rest. Besides them, I also dug up about a dozen other guys to watch out for. Their strength is generally at the Minor Success Realm for their Combat Arts, with life force indexes above 10.0. They’re about on your level, Old Stone."
At this, he suddenly turned to Shi Potian. "By the way, Old Stone, your Combat Art should be at the Minor Success Realm by now, right?"
"Reached it two weeks ago, by a stroke of luck."
Shi Potian’s reply carried a barely perceptible trace of pride.
To cultivate a Combat Art to the Minor Success Realm in just over two months after starting school was enough to be called a genius anywhere.
However, when his gaze swept over the calm-faced Qin Feng, that little bit of pride instantly vanished, replaced by the helpless feeling of wanting to curse him for being a "Demon."
He knew full well that the dozen or so so-called geniuses who had also reached the Minor Success Realm for their Combat Arts had probably, like him, gambled all their training time and energy on cultivating that one art just to barely achieve such a result.
’And Qin Feng?’
’That monster had already reached the Minor Success Realm for his Combat Art by the first monthly exam!’
’Comparing yourself to him is infuriating.’
Back when Shi Potian had been stuck at a bottleneck with his life force index, he had fought several times more ranked matches in the Imperial Arena than Qin Feng every day. He had reached the Minor Success Realm purely through grinding and hard work.
...
「Dubhe Martial Arts Senior High School·Observation Area」
A lean, well-built young man with eyes as sharp as a hawk’s was quietly polishing two dark gold short cudgels in his hands.
He was Lei Yi.
"Brother Lei, the championship for this freshman tournament is in the bag for you!"
"Of course! Brother Lei was the top scorer on our year’s entrance exam. Looking across all of Planet Morningstar, who could possibly be your opponent?"
"I was just on the forums. The other schools don’t have any noteworthy freshmen. Qiming First High School, the old top dog, hasn’t had any news at all. They probably don’t have anyone impressive."
Lei Yi didn’t speak, but the motion of polishing his cudgels paused for a fraction of a second.
His gaze traveled across the tens of thousands of spectators, landing precisely on the section for Qiming First High School. The corner of his mouth curved into a confident arc.
’His goal, from the very beginning, had only ever been one thing.’
’The championship.’
...
「Star River Military Affiliated High School·Observation Area」
A young man with an unusually burly frame and skin the color of pale grey rock was leaning back in his seat, resting with his eyes closed.
He was Shi Dang.
Several seats around him were empty; no one dared to approach.
His boulder-like body radiated a forbidding pressure that warned others to stay away.
Of course, it wasn’t because he was strong that no one spoke to him, but because of the strange looks and opinions people had about those of mixed or impure blood.
His voice was low, like grinding stone.
"’First place...’"
"’Father said my bloodline is a glory, not an impurity.’"
"’I must take first.’"
"..."
His fists clenched silently, the sound of his knuckles cracking echoing softly.
Even at a military-affiliated high school, Shi Dang still endured many cold stares.
But he was glad. Glad he had applied to the military-affiliated school and not a private one like Golden Dragon Martial High School. Otherwise, he would have had to deal with more than just cold stares—all sorts of messy business that would have affected his training.
’Cold stares alone? I don’t care about those!’
’As long as it doesn’t affect my training, it’s fine!’
Although Shi Dang thought this, his tightly clenched fists still showed that he cared a great deal about his bloodline.
...
「Golden Dragon Martial High School·Observation Area」
A handsome young man with a faint, ever-present smile was deftly playing with several throwing knives, each as thin as a cicada’s wing, between his fingers.
He was Li Qing.
Unlike the other two’s solitary pride, he was surrounded by people, both men and women. He was clearly very popular, the center of attention.
Golden Dragon Martial High School was a private Martial Arts High School. Most of its students were "second-generation martial artists," and the class divisions were obvious. Bullying incidents were even a common occurrence.
"Brother Qing, you’re being too modest. Won’t this freshman tournament be a walk in the park for you?"
A lavishly dressed girl said, looking at him with adoration.
"You can’t say that."
Li Qing smiled, the knives dancing between his fingers like butterflies. "A lion uses its full strength even to catch a rabbit. However..."
His tone shifted as his gaze swept across the arena. "I’ve looked around, and there really aren’t any opponents worth special attention. That Qiming First High School is being all mysterious; not a single useful piece of information has leaked out. But, based on past years, while their students have solid fundamentals, most of them are a bit rigid. Nothing to worry about."
The reason information from Qiming First High School was so scarce wasn’t because it lacked geniuses, but because its management style was completely different from every other school.
There was no student council, no various clubs, and certainly no student idle enough to post intelligence about their classmates on external public forums. At most, they would just chat on the school’s internal forum.
Qiming First High School was, on all of Planet Morningstar, the school with the strictest academics, the toughest school spirit, and the most insane training atmosphere.
Every student here pushed themselves to a near-cruel degree, all to follow in the footsteps of those who came before.
Even a lazy dog like Qian Duoduo would be influenced by the surrounding atmosphere and driven to work hard.