Chapter 48: Struggle

Inside the venue.

Accompanied by the transport of drones, boxes of lunch sets were being brought in.

With the conclusion of the first and second stages of the Magic Competition, it was already time for the midday meal.

However, the many contestants eating their lunch sets were still discussing the highlights of the previous two matches, occasionally glancing at the score rankings on the large screen.

The name that had originally been ranked fourth had vanished; the current top ten were still dominated by the three prestigious schools: Bailong High School, Ziyun High School, and Hongta High School.

This was because, with the complete end of the first and second stages, the top ten displayed on the screen had switched to the overall total scores.

Only by entering the top ten in the final total rankings of the Magic Competition could one receive prize money, earn a true ranking, and obtain a result recognized by universities, which could serve a purpose during university interviews.

But that name, which had torn a gap in the second stage and forced its way into fourth place, had now disappeared like a phantom.

It was as if a small bird attempting to break through the heavens had been swatted back down by the massive hands formed by the three prestigious schools.

Teacher Yan sighed inwardly: "In the end, Zhang Yu's score in the first stage's flying sword competition was a bit low, which held him back. That's why his total score couldn't squeeze into the top ten."

But what could be done?

The wealthy held an absolute advantage in the manipulation of flying swords. Teacher Yan couldn't exactly blame Zhang Yu's family for not buying him a mana-infused flying sword.

"You can only blame bad luck; he just happened to run into the sponsorship of a flying sword manufacturer."

On the other side, Zhang Yu looked at the lunch set in his hands, complaining as he ate, "Eighty yuan for a single lunch set? Why doesn't Hongta High School just go out and rob people?"

Just as Zhang Yu was complaining, a lunch set was shoved in front of him.

Zhang Yu looked up and saw that Teacher Yan had brought a lunch set over.

Teacher Yan said with a kind and benevolent expression, "You've been so tired all morning, I knew you'd be hungry. Here, take this one too."

Beside them, Bai Zhenzhen watched this scene and curled her lip inwardly: "Could I be hungrier? Yu-zi resolved that special mana in a minute and a half, but I had to endure it for over eight minutes before I was done. It exhausted me."

Seeing Zhang Yu eat two portions of food, Teacher Yan grew more and more satisfied. Such a large appetite clearly indicated a good student.

As for Bai Zhenzhen, Qian Shen, and He Dayou having large appetites? Heh, in a magic competition where they have no chance of ranking, eating this much—aren't they just gluttons?

Teacher Yan encouraged him, "You performed very well this morning. Just do your best this afternoon; don't put too much pressure on yourself."

Although Teacher Yan desperately wanted Zhang Yu to exert four hundred percent of his focus and fight with everything he had, she knew that matters of mana circulation could not be rushed. One's mindset had to be calm, otherwise, it might backfire.

Thus, fearing that Zhang Yu, who had secured a ranking in the second stage this morning, would face too much psychological pressure, she immediately came to comfort him, wanting him to participate as relaxed as possible.

Meanwhile, Teacher Yan couldn't help but calculate Zhang Yu's scores in her head.

"80 points in the first stage, 93 points in the second stage, total score of 173 points."

She looked up at the large screen, scanning from the first place's 195 points down to the tenth place's 176 points.

"As long as Zhang Yu can catch up by 4 points in the next stage, he can enter the top ten."

Four points sounded like not much, but Teacher Yan knew that in a high-difficulty, high-competition event like the Magic Competition, the higher the score, the harder each individual point became to obtain.

Especially when a total of thirty top students from the three prestigious schools were all fighting for these top ten spots.

Thinking of this 4-point gap, Teacher Yan couldn't help but feel slightly nervous: "It all depends on what the final stage is about."

Lunchtime ended quickly, and the final stage of the afternoon Magic Competition officially began.

The host walked up and spoke: "To learn martial arts, to learn Taoist arts, come to Xianyun. Three hundred laboratories, one hundred cultivation masters, focusing on immortal cultivation education for 100 years. We thank the Xianyun Education Group for sponsoring this Magic Competition..."

Xianyun Group. Zhang Yu remembered that this company belonged to the Wanfa Sect—the very large company where he had worked the trial job and obtained the Zhou Tian Qi-Gathering Method.

He also remembered seeing the Xianyun Group's Songyang City Director at Li Xuelian's art exhibition.

A moment later, a complex diagram of energy circulation was distributed to every participating student.

This was the content of the final stage of this Magic Competition: following the route in this circulation diagram to convert one's own mana into special mana.

At the same time, the cameras of the Soul Cultivators had already scanned the entire venue, ready to judge the status of every contestant at any time, which would also facilitate recording the order in which contestants completed the assessment.

As the timer officially started, students began to circulate their mana according to the routes in the diagram.

Zhang Yu frowned slightly as he looked at the route on the diagram.

"This thing... seems to be a type of special mana used for combat."

Although his control over mana was extremely powerful due to the existence of the Level 10 Zhou Tian Qi-Gathering Method, the route in the diagram before him was extremely different from the mana cycle of the Qi-Gathering Method.

If the Zhou Tian Qi-Gathering Method was an internal circulation method for self-improvement, then the circulation route in this diagram was a method of applying mana externally for combat.

He could feel that, in terms of complexity, this circulation route was inferior to the Zhou Tian Qi-Gathering Method.

However, both the circulation route and the techniques contained within were vastly different from the Zhou Tian Qi-Gathering Method Zhang Yu was familiar with.

In particular, there was a technique of oscillatory refinement that he had never encountered before.

"This Magic Competition is overstepping the syllabus way too much."

And as luck would have it...

Zhang Yu looked at the Feather Book floating beside him and found that there was no change whatsoever.

"Isn't it a cultivation method?"

"Then I'll just have to try practicing it by force."

Zhang Yu raised the mana in his dantian and began to carefully circulate it according to the diagram.

***

Meanwhile, at the Ziyun High School section.

Lian Tianji gazed at Le Mulan not far away. Seeing her confident demeanor, he thought to himself, "The sacred number one in the grade will surely achieve remarkable results. All I need to do is not hold us back and bolster our school's total score..."

Le Mulan looked at the diagram before her and suddenly tilted her head. "I think I've seen a similar problem before."

"Let me think... this is the Protective Qi of a martial arts cultivation method, right?"

She circulated the mana in her body and, as expected, began to skillfully convert wisps of mana into the special mana indicated by the diagram.

Protective Qi, converted from mana, was considered a type of special mana belonging to the martial arts branch within the immortal cultivation system established by the Ten Great Sects.

Le Mulan remembered that converting mana into Protective Qi required a step of mana oscillation, and the more powerful the quality of the Protective Qi, the more oscillations were required.

"Every mana oscillation makes the resulting Qi of higher quality, but also harder to control."

"According to the instructions in this diagram, it should require seven mana oscillations, then circulate according to the route..."

Suddenly, her brow furrowed slightly.

Listening to the various muffled groans and cries of pain coming from nearby, she felt a sense of noisiness.

Some students had been injured while resolving mana in the previous stage, and since their injuries had not yet healed, the start of the energy circulation had aggravated their wounds.

"Can't these students from ordinary high schools afford better medicinal salves?"

"Even if they can't afford good salves, can't they at least afford decent quality painkillers?"

Thinking of this, Le Mulan suddenly realized: these poor people from ordinary high schools might truly not be able to afford expensive painkillers.

This was the sound of poverty.

"It's affecting my exam."

But Le Mulan knew that the power of money could isolate the sound of poverty.

With a reach, she put on a pair of noise-canceling earmuffs worth tens of thousands of yuan. Feeling the environment finally become quiet, a slight smile appeared at the corner of her mouth as she continued the mana conversion.

***

On the other side, in the Bailong High School section, Song Hailong stared at the diagram in his hand while his entire body's mana began to circulate naturally, moving as if following his thoughts, gradually approaching the instructions in the diagram.

Having practiced mana circulation while carrying a Heavenly Spiritual Root for a long time meant that even now, having removed the Heavenly Spiritual Root, his manipulation of mana was incredibly proficient.

He had also practiced many similar problems before, making his movements more practiced and his speed several points faster.

*Boom!*

A mass of mana within his dantian suddenly scattered into a cloud under intense oscillation, then was slowly gathered back together by Song Hailong.

"First mana oscillation, complete!"

"Simple! Simple! Simple! Too simple!"

My parents possess the most excellent genes selected through countless trials.

I have stopped sleeping since I was five years old.

At eighteen years old, every single year has seen me achieve the best performance, the highest scores, and the strongest physique among my peers in the Song family! I am also the only one among my peers who has not committed suicide, has not developed school refusal, and has not suffered from depression! I am the ace son of the Song family!

"You pieces of trash in this arena, what right do you have to fight me!"

At this moment, he was wholehearted, without a single stray thought or distraction, wanting only to master the method in the diagram as quickly as possible to trample the top students of the other two prestigious schools under his feet.

***

At the same time, Xiong Bufan of Hongta High School was hunched over the diagram. His eyes were tightly shut, and his furry tail twitched rhythmly, appearing as if he had reached a critical moment in his cultivation.

The competition coach watching this scene thought to himself, "When Bufan's batch was in the breeding base, they started receiving injections from the womb. By the time they entered high school, his constitution was already the most excellent."

"When the school brought him from the protected breeding base, the toughness of his meridians was already more than ten times that of an ordinary student; no matter how he circulated his mana, there was no need to worry about injury."

"Since he enrolled, I have had him constantly training his mana circulation speed."

"He has also practiced Protective Qi many times before."

"He is bound to be the first to master this diagram."

"Hmm, as expected, I should have let the principal naturalize more monsters... no, wrong... plan for more demon-descendant students."

"How is one enough? I think adding four more to the competition team wouldn't be a problem. Those leaders insisting on pure human teams are still too conservative. I heard the neighboring city already has pure monster... pure demon-descendant foundations."

***

Zhang Yu had to admit that without relevant training and prior preparation, it seemed very difficult to achieve a ranking in this stage.

Competition was not just a contest of talent and quality, but also a contest of the financial power, influence, and foundation behind them.

*Dammit!*

*Is my competitive path ending here?*

*Zhang Yu! Are you going to lose to money?*

***

Not far away, seeing Zhang Yu's troubled expression, Teacher Yan also sighed inwardly.

She then glanced at the other students from Songyang High School. Seeing them either drenched in sweat, pale-faced, or looking like they were in desperate need of a bathroom, Teacher Yan shook her head helplessly.

The students of Songyang High School were inherently inferior to the top students of the three prestigious schools. After failing to achieve competitive results in the Magic Competition for a long time, the school simply stopped investing in this area.

Without school investment, the competitive results in the Magic Competition grew worse, and the school naturally became even less willing to invest. It was a death spiral.

And Teacher Yan understood that without the full support of the school and the lack of relevant teaching and practice, the two sides were simply not on the same starting line.

Just then, a student suddenly raised his hand: "I need to go to the bathroom."

Teacher Yan cursed inwardly: *So you really do need to go.*

"Go, quickly!"

At that moment, Teacher Yan suddenly heard the sound of bones and muscles resonating nearby.

She turned her head and found that it was actually Bai Zhenzhen practicing martial arts.

*Has she given up on herself? This is a mana circulation competition; what are you doing practicing martial arts?*

Zhang Yu was also drawn by the sound of the martial arts. After a glance, he sighed inwardly: *Sigh, Ah-Zhen has been driven mad.*

*Huh?*

Suddenly, Zhang Yu felt that Bai Zhenzhen's martial arts movements were strangely familiar, as if they could be combined with something.

This set of martial arts was very simple, consisting of only six moves. After watching it a few times, he suddenly realized something.

*This set of martial arts seems to be able to coordinate with the circulation diagram?*

Looking at the "Wuji Cloud Hand Level 0" appearing on his Feather Book, Zhang Yu felt like picking Bai Zhenzhen up and spinning her around.

"Ah-Zhen!"

"You are a saint!"

"The saving saint of Songyang High School!"

What was on the diagram was a method of mana circulation, while what Bai Zhenzhen was performing were external martial arts moves.

The combination of the two was a complete combat martial art—the Wuji Cloud Hand.

This was an advanced-level martial arts cultivation method.

However, this method emphasized internal cultivation over external moves; the key lay in the application of mana—how to convert mana into Protective Qi. The six external moves were less like actual strikes and more like six application examples.

This time, the Magic Competition had taken the circulation diagram out of it to use as a test question.

For ordinary people, whether or not they had the external moves would not affect their learning of the Protective Qi conversion method.

But for Zhang Yu, whether it was a complete cultivation method and whether it could be uploaded to the Feather Book... that was a world of difference.

Zhang Yu didn't know how Bai Zhenzhen had comprehended the external moves. He could only seize the time to immediately switch the Feather Book's specialization to the Wuji Cloud Hand and begin practicing.

[Wuji Cloud Hand Level 0 (0/1, 15.4/5 Mana)]

One time!

As long as he could practice it once! Even if it was full of errors, even if it was practiced in a mess, he could completely master this Wuji Cloud Hand!