Chapter 13: A Hopeless Romantic? One’s Nature Is Hard to Change

On the enormous screen above Zhang Changhao’s Awakening Platform, countless streams of data flickered.

It seemed to be carrying out an analysis.

The red light covering his body gradually receded back into the metal sphere as well.

Then, a line of enormous text appeared on the screen.

【Combat-Type B-Rank Talent: Elemental Affinity (Lightning)】

When the students below the stage saw the result, their eyes turned red with envy.

“It’s even a combat-type talent. What kind of ridiculous luck is that?”

“I heard that after awakening an elemental affinity combat talent, whenever you use any martial art, you can draw in the corresponding elemental power from heaven and earth.”

“And when it’s infused into your martial techniques, the power becomes unbelievably strong.”

“Lightning-element power is already violent and fierce to begin with, and it can also temper the body. Zhang Changhao really hit the jackpot this time!”

“I’m officially jealous!”

“Swap faces with me already—make it mine!”

Every one of the students was sour with envy.

On the Awakening Platform, Zhang Changhao wore an expression of wild delight.

He held his head absurdly high.

His eyelids looked as though they were about to flip up into the sky.

His face was full of swagger.

As a student of the martial arts elite class, he knew very well what a B-rank talent represented.

As long as he cultivated martial arts step by step, he would be able to enter one of Great Xia’s Four Great Martial Arts Academies with ease.

He would bring glory to his family and ancestors.

Aside from Zhang Changhao, the other students who had awakened talents were also grinning from ear to ear.

Their mouths practically stretched all the way to their cheeks.

They all stepped down from the Awakening Platform and hurried off to share the good news with their homeroom teachers.

As for the few students who had failed to awaken even the lowest E-rank talent, their faces were ashen, as though their parents had just died.

Among them, two girls even covered their faces and began sobbing.

Without the blessing of a martial talent, one’s physical fitness would basically never improve significantly again.

More importantly, without a martial talent, it was impossible to inflict any damage at all on the rampant aberrant beasts.

These aberrant beasts, which poured out from interdimensional nodes, possessed an invisible layer of an invisible special energy field across the surface of their bodies—even the weakest F-rank aberrant beast was no exception.

Protected by that layer of energy field, even modern large-scale heavy weapons could inflict only negligible damage on them.

As for powerful S-rank aberrant beasts, they could bathe in a rain of nuclear bombs without suffering the slightest injury.

That was precisely why, when humanity first faced the invasion of aberrant beasts, the human armies suffered catastrophic losses and collapsed across the entire front.

A single C-rank aberrant beast was enough to wipe out a small nation.

It was not until someone accidentally awakened a martial talent and killed an aberrant beast with their bare hands that humanity’s upper echelon finally understood that those who awakened martial talents would naturally generate a unique kind of energy within their bodies.

By relying on ancient martial arts, they could bring that power to its utmost limit and inflict tremendous damage upon aberrant beasts!

From that point onward, ancient martial arts at last burst forth with new vitality!

Martial artists gradually stepped onto the stage of the world.

And from that moment on, humanity entered an entirely new era.

The Martial Dao Era!

That was also why the Four Great Martial Arts Academies would not admit students without martial talents.

Because there was simply no point.

It could be said that their path in martial arts ended there.

For students who dreamed of becoming martial artists, it was an enormous blow.

But reality was just that cruel.

Every year in Great Xia, at least more than half of all students failed to awaken a martial talent.

And lost their qualifications to participate in the martial arts examination.

Of course, being unable to take the martial arts examination could not exactly be called the end of the world.

It merely meant that they could not become the martial artists admired and revered by everyone else.

They could still take the ordinary college entrance examination and attend a normal university.

They could go into business, politics, or any of the countless other professions.

...

As the first batch of students successfully awakened their talents, the rest of the students also continued their testing in an orderly fashion.

The entire martial arts elite class, more than two hundred students in total, completed their awakenings before long.

Their luck was exceptionally good, and more than half of the students awakened martial talents.

Aside from Zhang Changhao at the start, three more students had actually awakened B-rank talents.

And not only that.

One student had even awakened a combat-type A-rank talent!

Purple light wrapped around their entire body and shot ten meters into the air!

The entire field erupted into an uproar!

On the stage, Principal Chen Guorong’s old face bloomed like a chrysanthemum.

For a city-level martial arts high school, being able to discover one student with an A-rank talent in a single year was already considered a remarkable achievement.

There would certainly be rewards for that.

“Old Chen, congratulations. No. 7 High School has produced so many fine martial arts seedlings again this year.”

“These little ones will all become the pillars of our Great Xia Nation in the future.”

“You could be said to have students everywhere under heaven.”

Beside Chen Guorong, an old man with glasses and a ruddy face spoke with a genial smile.

As he spoke, he lifted a white porcelain teacup and took a light sip.

This man’s status seemed to be extremely high.

Even Chen Guorong did not dare show the slightest negligence.

He quickly turned slightly sideways, lowered his head a little, and replied respectfully, “Elder Lin, you flatter me.”

“This is all thanks to your presence in Jiangnan Province, Elder Lin, and your vigorous development of the province’s economy.”

“The people’s standard of living has improved, their constitutions have grown stronger, and that is why the probability of awakening talents has risen so greatly.”

“You are the one whose merits cannot be overlooked.”

His gaze was reverent and steadfast.

His words rang out sonorously and forcefully.

He was exceedingly eager to improve himself.

At once, the surrounding school executives and the distinguished guests who had come to observe broke into enthusiastic applause.

Elder Lin waved a hand modestly.

The applause subsided.

“Old Chen, you old fellow, really...”

“It’s just a pity that on such an important day, Martial God Fang has gone to carry out a secret mission for the nation and could not attend.

“Otherwise, if he could have come to No. 7 High School and let the students witness the bearing of Great Xia’s Martial God with their own eyes, “what an honor that would have been.”

When Fang Zhenhai was mentioned, even this great figure from the province, Elder Lin, could not help but reveal a look of yearning admiration.

Though he wielded enormous influence and held great weight in Jiangnan Province, capable of stirring wind and rain, in the face of a Half-Step Martial God who all but represented the highest tier of Great Xia’s combat power, he still regarded him almost as a deity.

“Oh, right.”

Elder Lin smiled as he swept his gaze over the densely packed students below.

His eyes gradually settled on Fang Qingchen, standing among Class Seven.

“If I remember correctly, the son of Martial God Fang should also be awakening his talent today, shouldn’t he?

“This little fellow is a hopeless romantic. He has a certain stubbornness to him, though it’s a pity he’s using it in the wrong place.

“I only hope he can awaken a better martial talent later, so that he’ll focus more on martial arts.”

He spoke with a sigh.

Although Fang Qingchen’s identity was known by almost no one within Linjiang No. 7 High School, among Great Xia’s upper echelon, it was hardly any secret.

And all the ridiculous things he had done had long since spread throughout the highest circles of Great Xia.

Privately and publicly, he had been mocked more than a few times.

Many high-ranking families had even used him as a negative example when lecturing their own children.

Listening to Elder Lin’s words, the guests from the province and the city who had come to observe the ceremony

all nodded in agreement on the surface, but inwardly, they were full of contempt.

A leopard cannot change its spots.

Even if this useless lapdog Fang Qingchen were given an S-rank talent, it would still be a pearl cast into darkness.

Awakening it in a dog would be better than giving it to him.