novelraw Chapter 5 : Chapter 5
Chapter 5 : Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Expel Li Mu? What a Brilliant Decision You’ve Made!
Blackwater High School was a school that ranked at the bottom in every category.
The reason was simple.
It was new.
Because it had not even been founded for ten years yet, it was extremely difficult for it to make a name for itself.
The principal had no backing, and the school was jointly suppressed by the major established schools with deep foundations.
Good students did not want to come, so the overall quality of the student body could not improve.
And because of that, the school could not obtain resources from the Ministry of Education.
A vicious cycle.
Sure enough, the moment Li Mu reached the front gate of Blackwater High School, he saw a banner.
"Special transfer promotion today! All tuition and miscellaneous fees waived! Students at the late stage of First Grade or above will also receive an admission gift!"
At a glance, it looked less like a school banner and more like a supermarket sale...
The corner of Li Mu's eye twitched a few times, but he still strode inside.
He was definitely going to claim that admission gift, because he was already at the late stage of Yellow Rank First Grade.
Inside a martial artist's body, there were four life meridians—Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow—known collectively as the Four Ranks.
Yellow Rank was the lowest, and Heaven Rank was the highest.
Each life meridian had nine nodes, making the Nine Grades. First Grade was the lowest, and Ninth Grade was the highest.
Through bitter cultivation, Li Mu had only barely reached the late stage of Yellow Rank First Grade.
All martial artists began cultivating internal arts and universal techniques in their first and second years of high school.
But without a talent, their speed would be greatly limited, and they would basically remain stuck at First Grade.
In the second half of the third year, talents began to awaken.
And it was only after talent awakening that the true gap rapidly revealed itself.
Those with high-grade talents could see their cultivation rise sharply within just a few days of awakening.
Among third-year students, the early stage of First Grade was the norm.
The late stage of First Grade already marked one as a top student.
If someone could reach Second Grade, that was the realm of geniuses.
If they reached the late stage of Second Grade,
that was the realm of heaven's favored.
After Li Mu explained his purpose to the gate guard, the guard enthusiastically pointed out the way to the Academic Records Office.
At this time, Blackwater High School seemed oddly empty, perhaps because classes were in session.
Only faint noise drifted over from the teaching building and the martial practice grounds.
Li Mu went straight into the Academic Records Office.
The enrollment process went abnormally smoothly. The moment the director of Academic Records heard that Li Mu was at the late stage of Yellow Rank First Grade and wanted to transfer in,
he personally tested Li Mu's realm on the spot.
Then he took Li Mu's papers and hurried off to process the records.
He even arranged for two office staff members to stay behind and chat with Li Mu, as though he were afraid Li Mu might run away.
In just eight minutes, the director had even found Li Mu a school uniform and badge.
It was no wonder he was so excited.
At the Soaring Dragon Martial Academy across the street, there were hundreds upon hundreds of students at the late stage of First Grade.
But in the entire Blackwater High School, the number of martial-track students at the late stage of First Grade did not exceed sixty.
Now that one had practically delivered himself to their doorstep, how could they possibly let him slip away?
"Hahaha, come, come, Student Li. Here is your school uniform, your badge, and your student card!"
"You have been assigned to Third Year, Class Seven. Your homeroom teacher is Zhao Qingshan, and you can go report to him right away."
"Also, you have an admission gift."
"You may choose any one Common-grade cultivation method, and ten thousand in cash!"
"The money has already been loaded onto your student card, though you can withdraw it as well."
"As for the cultivation method, you can ask your homeroom teacher to advise you. Choose carefully."
Beaming from ear to ear, the Academic Records director handed the uniform to Li Mu and instructed him in a gentle voice.
"Thank you, Teacher."
After thanking him, Li Mu took the uniform and left the Academic Records Office.
But inwardly, he was rather surprised. Blackwater High School was truly willing to spend heavily to attract talent.
Cultivation methods were expensive to begin with, and since he could choose freely, he could pick a more valuable one.
At the very least, it would be worth ten or twenty thousand.
They were giving him more than twenty thousand the moment he enrolled. That was genuinely generous.
Like spirit treasures and weapons, cultivation methods were divided into:
Common Grade, Superior Grade, Fine Grade, Special Grade, Rare Grade, Immortal Grade, Divine Grade, and Divine Treasure Grade.
At present, Li Mu was flat broke.
Military training started tomorrow, and the Abyss First Battle would begin three days later.
This cultivation method would solve his urgent need.
So Li Mu had no intention of wasting time going to see his homeroom teacher.
He headed straight for the school library.
Cultivation methods existed as energy forms in spirit stone form.
In essence, they were a powerful martial artist's understanding of a technique, condensed into an energy body. That was how a cultivation method was created.
During the process of creating one, the martial artist could not hold anything back, nor could they deliberately distort their insights to create a flawed method.
Doing so would only bring severe backlash upon themselves.
That was why every cultivation method represented a martial artist's deepest understanding and insight into that art.
As for how much a learner could comprehend from it, that depended even more on talent.
If a Special-grade cultivation method fell into the hands of a wastrel, it would be nothing less than a tragic waste.
Upon arriving at the library, Li Mu used his student card to enter the cultivation method section directly.
If divided more finely, cultivation methods included internal arts, movement techniques, martial techniques, and other categories.
At the moment, Li Mu lacked everything.
The only thing he did not lack was an internal art.
Only one internal art was needed, and Li Mu's Unranked Heavenly Immortal Art was already irreplaceable. He only needed to keep upgrading it.
As for movement techniques, Nine Steps of Earthwalking could serve as a temporary solution.
But martial techniques were the sort of thing where the more, the better.
The only martial techniques Li Mu knew were the most basic ones: Armor-Breaking Collapse Punch, Steel-Slashing Kick, and Gale Fist.
All of them were close-combat martial techniques.
But the purpose of learning close-combat skills was to ensure some means of self-preservation against Abyss monsters when one lost their weapon.
A weapon still had to remain the main fighting tool.
Since Li Mu had decided to use a staff, then naturally he needed to learn a staff technique.
Under the watchful supervision of a librarian who practically stayed glued to his side, Li Mu selected a Common-grade staff technique.
【Flowing Cloud Three Tremors】
Among martial artists, there were actually not many who used staffs, though plenty used spears.
Flowing Cloud Three Tremors was a technique shared by both spear and staff users, so it was still quite widely practiced.
After entering a training room, Li Mu sat down and began to comprehend the cultivation method.
The so-called Flowing Cloud Three Tremors used a special way of borrowing force to sweep at the enemy again and again with a long staff.
As the staff was swung, true qi was poured into the weapon, causing a shock effect when it struck.
Flowing Cloud Three Tremors referred to three successive swings.
Each strike could stack the might of the one before it, increasing its power.
The third strike was the strongest blow.
In real combat, it could be used repeatedly.
However, the stacking pattern of Flowing Cloud Three Tremors was rather rigid.
As long as another martial artist understood the technique, they could completely see through your next move.
That was why Flowing Cloud Three Tremors was not very suitable for combat between martial artists.
It was only extremely useful against Abyss monsters.
But under the support of the Unranked Heavenly Immortal Art,
Li Mu's understanding of Flowing Cloud Three Tremors instantly deepened by nearly fifty years.
Very quickly, it reached a level Li Mu originally could not even have understood!
It was as if he had become an old monster who had studied this technique for fifty years.
Once he grasped its essence,
what did "Three Tremors" even matter?
If Li Mu wanted to, he could stack Five Tremors, or even Seven Tremors.
And the stacking process could become far smoother and more fluid.
Even another martial artist would have no way of seeing through it.
In Li Mu's mind, this staff technique was alive!
Li Mu dared say that, as far as this staff technique was concerned, he was absolutely unmatched within the same realm.
While Li Mu was rapidly growing stronger,
the matter of his expulsion had already fully fermented inside Soaring Dragon Martial Academy.
The vice principal's office door was pounded on with explosive force.
The vice principal frowned deeply and barked, "Come in!"
The homeroom teacher of Third Year, Class Nine, Zhai Long, shoved the door open and strode in, seething with anger, speaking in the tone of someone lodging a complaint.
"Vice Principal, Li Mu from my class was expelled by Director Liang Hai! Did you know about this?"
"Li Mu? He only has an F-rank talent. If he was expelled, then he was expelled. What are you panicking over?" The vice principal glared at him with dissatisfaction.
"I want to know—on what grounds was he expelled?"
Zhai Long glared right back, pulled out his phone, and pointed to the video on it, which had been recorded by students watching at the martial practice grounds.
"The Student Council President called Li Mu over to act as a sparring partner, and Li Mu fought back and beat Sun Long bloody. That is enough to expel him?"
"I just went to ask Liang Hai, and Liang Hai actually said that he told Li Mu to apologize to Sun Long, and Li Mu refused. That is enough to expel him?!"
"When Li Mu awakened an S-rank talent, all of you treated him like a treasure. It has only been two days!"
"The Li family is morally rotten. That child has already suffered enough. Are we still going to treat him like this too?!"
The vice principal became even angrier on the spot.
"What? Li Mu even injured Sun Long? Then he should be expelled all the more. What are you yelling here for?!"
"In the past two days, if not ten thousand people then at least eight thousand have undergone talent transfer!"
"That was a decision made inside someone else's clan. What does it have to do with outsiders? What gives you the right to comment on it?!"
Zhai Long looked utterly incredulous as he demanded,
"Vice Principal, what part of your brain is malfunctioning? Did you even watch this video?"
"Li Mu lost his S-rank talent. He has an F-rank talent now!!"
"Sun Long is an A-rank talent holder, and he is at the same cultivation level as Li Mu, yet Li Mu beat him like a dog!"
"Do you still not understand how much that means?!"
"Can you use that pig brain of yours for once?"
Bang!
The vice principal slammed the desk and sprang to his feet.
"Zhai Long!! Who gave you the damn nerve to speak to me like that? Get out!"
"And let me tell you this—if anything happens to Sun Long, then you can get out right along with him!"
Zhai Long was so furious that he laughed.
He knew the words he had spoken today had indeed gone too far.
But he simply could not suppress the fire in his chest. He forcefully swallowed that rage back down and raised a thumbs-up toward the vice principal.
"Brilliant... truly brilliant!! Just wait and see."
Zhai Long let out a mocking laugh, turned, and walked out of the office, leaving behind nothing but a long, faint sigh drifting through the hallway...