Ding—Another notification sounded.
[You have received a transfer of 100 Great Merits from the school office (note: Special Talent Birthday Blessing Package)... Your current balance is 600 Great Merits.]
"Huh? There’s such a benefit? The teacher didn’t mention it."
Lu Chenzhou was pleasantly surprised.
He immediately called Qingtian Cang.
The teacher chuckled,
[Yes, there is. I saw your birthday was coming up, didn’t I? If I told you directly, wouldn’t it spoil the surprise?]
"Alright, thank you, teacher."
Lu Chenzhou was truly delighted.
Although his birthday had passed a few days ago,
No wonder it’s a Top Martial University; it’s so thoughtful.
He did the math; aside from tasks and competition rewards, each year he would get a fixed birthday cash gift of 100 Great Merits, 24 Great Merits from the rankings reward, and 360 Great Merits spend exemption. That alone made 484 Great Merits, and with miscellaneous income, it totaled over a thousand.
No wonder it’s hard to evaluate special talents.
His earning capacity now might even surpass his master’s.
Lu Chenzhou checked his savings account.
He hadn’t spent cash in a long time.
"Advanced protective suit... not far off."
On his birthday, he had a conversation with his master.
There was another heavyweight commercial competition this year where he could make money.
It was the annual All Nations Martial Arts Academy Challenge, hosted by Da Xia Martial Artists Association and National Martial Arts Hall Alliance—a national grand event. Giants like Daoist Science and Technology, Divine Martial Technology, Martial Medicine Factory No.6 all provided commercial sponsorships.
Lu Chenzhou had already conquered the city-level and regional Martial Arts Academy competitions, and before ascending to Martial Artist status, he just needed one last national competition to make his mark.
This was essentially defeating the final boss of Low Class root bone!
Moreover, per his contract with Daoist Science and Technology, he had to participate in this type of competition while wearing a joint training suit from Daoist Science and Technology and Flying Swallow Martial Arts Hall.
Daoist Science and Technology needed to use his "National Number One" fame for company promotions, including subsequent endorsements and advertisements,
Lu Chenzhou had to cooperate.
Such Martial Arts Academy exchange matches had similar rules to previous ones.
Divided into youth, young adults, and middle-aged groups.
Next year he would turn 19 and could only participate in the young adults group.
In fact, given his current progress, he was most likely going to be promoted to Martial Artist next year, meaning commercial competitions like these would be out of his reach. He wouldn’t postpone his promotion just for the prize money; that would be like losing a watermelon to pick up a sesame seed. Hence, the All Nations Martial Arts Academy Challenge would be his last commercial competition before becoming a Martial Artist.
After becoming a Martial Artist, there were only two social competitions worth participating in:
Da Xia’s bi-annual "Heavenly Path Cup" and the decennial "All Nations Martial Arts Competition," one a grand race of Da Xia’s proud children, the other the grandest Martial Arts event of mankind.
Others were not worth participating in.
The champion reward for the All Nations Martial Arts Academy Challenge was ten million.
The runner-up five million, third place three million.
The competition date was on February 2.
Since many Martial Arts Academies were involved, the All Nations Martial Arts Academy Challenge began the preliminaries a month in advance. Those who hadn’t reached the Third-Rank Cultivation had no qualification to participate. Competitors like Lu Chenzhou, a Tenth Rank, were exempt from preliminaries and entered directly into the top 32.
These miscellaneous tasks were taken care of by personnel from Daoist Science and Technology assigned to help him.
What Lu Chenzhou needed to do was to go to the Imperial Capital to compete, aiming to secure at least third place.
Lu Chenzhou had just finished his Heavenly Pile Cultivation when suddenly a message notification sounded on his phone.
Opening WeChat, there were thousands of unread messages in the small group of Flying Swallow Martial Arts Hall.
Lu Chenzhou glanced at them; his expression slightly changed.
"Du’s father has encountered a Virtual Disaster..." ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ ɴovelfire.net
He immediately called Du, comforting him,
"Du, I just saw the group chat... take care of yourself."
On the phone, Du’s voice was husky, and with a crying tone, he said, "Chenzhou, I feel terrible... I just celebrated my dad’s birthday last week, and I promised him I’d become a Martial Artist before turning thirty, but now he’s gone."
Lu Chenzhou didn’t know how to comfort him, he softly said:
"Become stronger, Du."
He was very grateful that he could be in a talent class.
His master also took great care of his family.
Having loved ones in good health was the greatest happiness in this era.
"Thank you, Chenzhou."
"Don’t leave school for now, just quietly grow stronger."
According to his knowledge, Du’s mother left quite early.
Now, Du seems not to have any attachments in this world.
"I understand. Chenzhou, you be careful too. I know a senior with great talent, Eighth Rank Cultivation, who was targeted by members of a cult recently. Though he was ultimately rescued by our teacher, he lost an arm..."
"Alright, thanks for the warning."
Lu Chenzhou had already been assassinated twice.
He had rich experience in counter-killing.
For ordinary people, losing an arm meant that prosthetics could be installed, but for a Martial Artist, losing an arm meant incomplete Acupoints, which would inevitably affect one’s Martial Arts.
Feeling the misfortune of his friends by his side, Lu Chenzhou also felt an additional weight in his heart.
With three harms not eradicated, there will be no peace in the human world!
In the afternoon, during the Heavenly Pile class.
Lu Chenzhou took a deep breath, using focus to sense the direction of the Qian Gu Acupoint. Here, the Acupoint was unsealed, and threads of Mysterious Power emerged.
These powers swirled like a nebula, drawing the vast Qi-Blood stars within his body into its vortex; on the other end of the whirlpool, the Qi-Blood became more refined and purified, scouring his organs and bones, emitting an even stronger sound of muscles and bones in concert.
This indicated an improvement in the quality of his Qi-Blood.
This was the function of the Qian Gu Acupoint; subsequently, as his strength increased, the quality of his Qi-Blood would rise even further, with each Breakthrough Realm experiencing a qualitative change.
After Wu Zun finished instructing Xiao He, Lu Chenzhou asked,
"Teacher, after the Yemen Acupoint, which Acupoint is next?"
Wu Zun, unsurprised, replied,
"Zhongzhu Acupoint, this one belongs to the Wood Element. What is Zhongzhu? It is a sandy islet in water and lands beside it. The Qi-Blood refined by the Yemen Acupoint flows through this place, accumulating some kind of Mysterious Power within the Acupoint, like river water shaping a plain, forming sand and stones within the body, speck by speck of extraordinary cells.
When you make a breakthrough, you’ll need to gather these scattered extraordinary cells inside your body, compacting sand into soil, aggregating soil into land, eventually forming the embryonic form of the Martial Arts Internal Realm, the Inner Heaven and Earth Membrane, thereafter continuously consolidating the sand and soil.
Of course, this is an abstract expression; fundamentally, it is about strengthening the body, letting it gradually evolve in quality, and blending seamlessly with Innate Strength, transcending the ordinary."
Lu Chenzhou was enlightened.
Martial Arts is a path of Acupoints.
The human body’s 720 major Acupoints, through various combinations and arrangements, like programming code, produce complex extraordinary abilities and limitless physical forms.
After teaching the Pile Skill, Wu Zun said,
"From here the difficulty of the Acupoints will increase not insignificantly; maintaining an Acupoint every two months would be quite good, though of course, keeping up with your current rate of one Acupoint every forty days would be better."
He was dedicating most of his daily cultivation time to Pile Skill.
At four o’clock in the afternoon, Lu Chenzhou successfully completed the beginner level of Pile Skill.
As he was leaving, a voice resonant like a bell came,
"Chenzhou, you should have reached Tenth Rank ten days ago."
Wang Hongdao ended his grueling Heavenly Pile cultivation, his sweat steaming like clouds.
Lu Chenzhou smiled and said,
Lu Chenzhou knew that Wang Hongdao was also keeping a daily watch on his Hidden Dragon List points.
Wang Hongdao, looking serious, said,
"Now that it’s been ten days since your Breakthrough Realm, your realm has stabilized, and you must have adapted to the changes in your body... Tomorrow, let’s have a direct contest."
He still felt somewhat dissatisfied from his last loss to Lu Chenzhou.
It wasn’t resentment; he just felt that he hadn’t been able to exhibit his full capabilities.
Thus, he had been waiting for Lu Chenzhou to reach Tenth Rank.
"Alright, you decide the time and place."
"The grand stadium, public platform, at noon, how about that?"
Lu Chenzhou thought for a moment and asked,
"That works. But are you sure you want to compete publicly? I cultivate both internally and externally, and now that I’m at Tenth Rank... I think, your chances of winning don’t seem very high."
Wang Hongdao laughed and said,
"It’s not high, but it’s not nonexistent, right?"
"Then good, see you tomorrow."
Lu Chenzhou was indifferent; he wanted to give Wang Hongdao some dignity.
He turned and walked away, as Wang Hongdao’s voice came through,
"Tomorrow’s battle, I will give it my all. It’s not just about beating you; I want to see where my limits currently stand, to show the school my efforts and potential. I hope you won’t hold back too much; let’s have a real man’s fight."
Lu Chenzhou walked further away, raising his arm in a wave,