Chapter 203: Chapter 198: Academy’s Monthly Competition

Chapter 308: The Academy’s Monthly Competition.

"The Academy’s Monthly Competition? Is it a type of tournament?" Qiu He asked.

Di Cang smiled and nodded. "Yes, it’s a type of event. All students in the Imperial Academy will have to participate, including the Holy Hall. However, the Holy Hall will directly enter the final rounds. Those arrogant folks would never fight our Outer Circle Students, so your final opponents will definitely be them."

"I see..." Qiu He frowned slightly, thinking to himself, ’It would be great if Mu Chen were here. We really need his leadership right now.’

"What do you mean our final opponents will definitely be them? Who are these opponents?"

Just then, another voice came from the hallway. Immediately after, Mu Chen, dressed in white purer than snow, strode in. When he looked up and saw Lingyun and Di Cang, Mu Chen smiled. "Instructor, Instructor Lingyun, you’re both here. It seems like there’s a big event happening."

Di Cang looked at Mu Chen and said irritably, "You brat, tell me honestly. Was it you who beat up Tang Yuan’s second son, Tang Yu, yesterday? And you crippled their family’s entire Elite Guard Team, too. It was you, wasn’t it?"

Mu Chen rubbed his nose and said helplessly, "Uh... about that. I did do it, but that’s because they were bullying people first. I was acting in self-defense."

"Self-defense my foot! Still, good job beating them up! Those bullies who throw their weight around deserve a good thrashing. I’ve taken care of the fallout for you this time. Just don’t start fights in the Imperial Capital again. You’re lucky Xuan Yin favors you. Otherwise, I would have had to punish you severely myself," Di Cang said, huffing and stroking his beard irritably.

Mu Chen chuckled but didn’t say anything. Instead, he looked at the listless students slumped over their desks and asked, "What’s wrong with everyone?"

With that, Mu Chen’s powerful Spiritual Power swept out in a flash, enveloping the entire classroom. The moment Mu Chen released his Spiritual Power, Di Cang’s expression shifted slightly. "Late-stage Kan Realm Spiritual Power," he exclaimed in surprise. "Tsk, tsk. This kid is developing in all areas. What a monster."

"This... Instructor Lingyun, what did you have them do? The students with minor injuries have about twenty percent of their muscle fibers torn, while the severe cases have up to sixty percent torn. And you still walked from the dorms to the classroom like this? You all have some serious willpower."

Mu Chen’s brow furrowed slightly as he spoke. It wasn’t just anything—he knew the pain of torn muscles. But for someone with sixty percent of their muscles torn to still get up and attend class was just insane. He knew that if this kind of injury wasn’t healed quickly, it could affect their entire future.

Upon hearing this, Lingyun became a little flustered. "Torn muscles? Sixty percent torn? How could it be so severe?"

Mu Chen nodded. "It is very severe. Thankfully, I’m here. Otherwise, even with a large amount of high-level medicinal herbs and elixirs, they wouldn’t have been able to do any strenuous training for the next half a month."

With that, Mu Chen began to circulate the power of the White Dragon Cauldron within him, transferring healing effects into the students’ bodies one by one. The students he touched only felt a cool sensation spread through the painful areas, followed by a feeling of extreme comfort. Ten seconds later, the students Mu Chen treated suddenly realized the places that had been aching moments ago no longer hurt, and their spirits immediately lifted.

One by one, after half an hour, Mu Chen wiped a bead of sweat from his temple and let out a breath. "They’re all finally healed. You all feel much better now, right?"

All the students couldn’t help but look at Mu Chen with adoration, shouting, "Much better, Class Monitor!"

In the students’ hearts, the already towering image of their class monitor grew even taller. There was only one type of person who could heal injuries, and so quickly at that: a Cauldron Master. This meant that their class monitor wasn’t just abnormally strong in the Martial Artist Realm, but he also possessed considerable power in alchemy and healing.

"Heh..." Mu Chen smiled faintly and turned to Lingyun and Di Cang. "Instructor Lingyun, Instructor, please hear me out. Training and improvement can’t be rushed. It’s a long process. If pushing oneself to the absolute limit could truly and rapidly raise a Martial Artist’s realm without any side effects, the Extreme Martial Continent would probably be teeming with countless experts. Since not many people on the Extreme Martial Continent use such extreme methods, it means this way is not advisable; it’s wrong."

"I came today to tell everyone that for the next phase of our cultivation, even if we spend our days chatting, singing, and playing around, we can still surpass the Holy Hall within a year. Because I have already successfully refined the Gathering Essence Pills." With a wave of his hand, seventy purple jade bottles instantly appeared on the lecturer’s desk. Each bottle was filled to the brim with purplish-red elixirs.

Di Cang froze at his words. He immediately grabbed a bottle, uncorked it, and took a light sniff. "A Peak Xuan-grade Elixir. What a powerful Primordial Power fluctuation."

Mu Chen nodded. "That’s right, it is indeed a Peak Xuan-grade Elixir. After refining it, I already tested it. If an ordinary martial artist uses a Gathering Essence Pill, their cultivation speed can increase by nearly fifteen times. For an attribute martial artist, their cultivation speed will increase by nearly ten times. There are seventy bottles here, and each contains sixty Gathering Essence Pills. So, even if you all take one of these pills to aid your cultivation every day, one bottle is enough to last each of you for two months. Two bottles will last four months."

"During these four months, if you take the pills daily without fail and spend twice as much time cultivating as the Holy Hall Students, then the ordinary students will be forty times faster than them, and the attribute martial artists will be twenty times faster. By that calculation, four months of our cultivation will be equivalent to them cultivating for six years and ten months. Even if we account for the differences in talent and resources, we can definitely match four years of their cultivation time."

Mu Chen grew more and more excited as he spoke, finally shouting, "So what if we use Gathering Essence Pills to cultivate for an entire year?"

"Using Peak Xuan-grade enhancement elixirs for a whole year... My heavens... how extravagant is that!" Lingyun’s face was flushed, her hands trembling with excitement.

Di Cang looked at Mu Chen in surprise and said, "But won’t there be side effects? Using elixirs to boost cultivation can indeed rapidly increase one’s Martial Artist Realm and Primordial Power growth, but the realm achieved that way is hollow. In the end, it’s nothing more than an empty shell."

Mu Chen turned his head and smiled. "Instructor, you’re right. But of course, I’ve already thought of a countermeasure. A Martial Artist Realm gained this way will indeed be very hollow, and the Primordial Power will lack any purity. Even if your Martial Artist Realm reaches First-Ring Martial King, the power you can unleash would only be around that of a Five-Ring Martial Spirit. It’s quite pathetic."

"Then, Mu Chen, why are you doing this?" Lingyun now understood the issue.

"Hehe, Instructor, Instructor Lingyun, didn’t you teach them a palm technique yesterday? Isn’t the purpose of that palm technique a peculiar combat skill for compressing Primordial Power?"

Mu Chen’s words made both Di Cang and Lingyun freeze. They said in unison, "You mean... the Energy-Draining Palm?"

"Of course. With the Energy-Draining Palm, we can constantly temper our Dantian’s Primordial Power through a continuous cycle of recovery, absorbing Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, and then expending it. This way, we can discard all that tedious weight training and those ancient, arduous methods. Of course, there are some areas where we’ll need to train very hard, such as... our ability to fight as a team and in small squads." A sharp glint flashed in Mu Chen’s narrowed eyes. Back when he was challenging the Tower of Calamity, he had seen the Holy Hall’s cohesiveness firsthand—they were like a tray of loose sand, each fighting for themselves.

"Team and squad combat abilities? Why train that?" Lingyun asked.

Di Cang, however, gave Mu Chen a meaningful look and thought, ’This kid’s insight is just too sharp. Everything he says is astonishing. And once he commits to something, he figures out all the escape routes and drawbacks and solves them beforehand. Otherwise, he wouldn’t take such risks.’

"I agree with Mu Chen’s point of view. It just so happens that for the upcoming monthly competition, we can focus our efforts on team and squad tactics. Coupled with the effects of the Gathering Essence Pills, the overall strength of our Demon Castle will undergo a world-shaking transformation this month. Therefore, I announce that for the upcoming training, all weight training is canceled. It will be replaced with training focused on team and squad coordination to attack a single target."

"HOORAY!" The students all cheered.

Mu Chen, on the other hand, was a bit baffled. He asked in confusion, "Monthly competition? What monthly competition? Why don’t I know about it?"

Di Cang paused, then chuckled. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. At the end of this month, the academy is holding a monthly tournament. All students from the Holy Hall and the Outer Circle will participate. We have to make a name for the Demon Castle this time. It’s a good thing you brought up the monthly competition, or I would have forgotten something important. I’ll explain the rules to you now, since you’re all new students this year."

"Every year, during the first month of the first semester, there’s a monthly competition. The competition is held in two formats: individual battles and team battles. The individual battles highlight personal ability. It’s one-on-one combat. The winner can either continue to challenge the next member of the losing side or choose to step down and let the next person challenge another opponent. As for the team battle, it’s two squads attacking each other, testing the team’s cohesion and coordination. This is a more difficult type of battle, as a single misstep by one person can lead to the entire team’s defeat."

"However, on this point, I’m not worried about you little rascals from the Demon Castle at all. You are the most cohesive group of students I’ve ever seen. This monthly competition will consist of two matches: a team battle and an individual battle series. Winning the individual battles overall counts as one point, and winning the team battle counts as one point. Earning two points is a complete victory. If both sides get one point, a draw will be held to decide whether to have another team battle or another individual battle. That final match will determine the entire outcome."