Galaxy Martial God Temple - Entrance Exam (5)
I changed my tactics.
Charging blindly with brute force against an opponent who was clearly leagues above me was a fool's errand. Even if I reinforced my muscles further, the teacher could simply match my output. The reinforced body of a fully realized martial artist would have an efficiency several, if not dozens of, times greater than that of an undeveloped six-year-old. Pitting my strength against hers was a losing battle.
I had to play mind games.
I slowly dialed back my muscle reinforcement, making it seem as though my internal qi was running dry, and swung my sword with deliberate sluggishness.
When the teacher's eyes flickered with the thought, Ah, this is his limit, as she blocked my strike, I instantly accelerated using my lightfootwork and slashed.
Thwack!
Caught off guard, she barely managed to deflect my sword at the very last second. Her wooden sword, which had been effortlessly sliding past mine, clashed head-on.
Because of the sudden burst of speed and power, she glanced down at her wrist, likely feeling the strain. But it wasn't a serious blow. She had instinctively protected her wrist with internal qi at the moment of impact.
"Oh, a feint." The teacher looked at me with newfound interest, a hint of admiration in her eyes.
Did I land a blow? No, this wasn't enough to count as a true hit. I wouldn't be satisfied until I widened those eyes that were currently looking down on me.
"I thought... it would... work..." I gasped out, deliberately inserting heavy breaths between my words.
I continued to swing my sword, adhering to the forms of the Blue Wood Swordsmanship, while gradually letting my strength fade.
"Are you pretending to be exhausted again? Or are you truly out of strength? Even if this is your limit, you've fully digested the elixirs bestowed by your family. I must praise your diligence."
"Thank... you... for the... praise."
The elixirs distributed during early childhood were primarily designed to aid bone and muscle growth. Elixirs that directly boosted internal qi were only given once or twice a year. I had diligently absorbed every single one with Siwoo's assistance. Though the result of that diligence was being banned from active training, I still had plenty of internal qi left.
The teacher assumed my internal qi was running dry. Given my age and expected realm, her assumption was perfectly logical. But sometimes, common sense betrays you. And when it does, it hurts.
I kept attacking, constantly shifting my tempo from slow to fast. Once I felt she had adapted to the pattern, I accelerated half a beat faster right when she expected me to slow down.
I poured every ounce of my internal qi into the Yongquan acupoints on the soles of my feet, moving 1.5 times faster than the speed she believed to be my absolute limit.
Breaking past my perceived ceiling, I swung my sword. The teacher failed to react in time.
With the absolute best strength, the absolute best trajectory, and the absolute best strike I could muster, I slashed downward.
I got her! It worked!
Crack.
...Crack?
My wooden sword had clearly bypassed her guard and was slicing through the air toward her. Yet, before it could even touch her body, a sound echoed—not the sharp whistle of wind, but a dry, splintering crack.
Shatter!
In an instant, my wooden sword exploded, bursting into countless splinters.
"Whoa!"
I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the impact of the flying debris. But the pain never came. Instead, something soft and warm wrapped around me.
When I opened my eyes, I saw Siwoo. Anticipating the outcome, she had already leaped forward to shield me in her arms, catching every single flying splinter with her free hand.
Siwoo smiled warmly down at me. "Congratulations on stepping into the 2nd-rate realm, Young Master. I knew you were on the verge of a breakthrough, but I did not expect it to happen today."
"2nd-rate? Ah... so that's why the wooden sword exploded."
"Indeed. Ordinary wood lacks the durability to withstand the unstable qi of a sudden breakthrough."
As I blinked in surprise, Siwoo gently set me down and turned to the teacher. "I believe his skills have been sufficiently verified. Let us conclude the test here."
"A-Ah! Yes, of course!"
The teacher replied with a tense, nervous nod. She seemed thoroughly shaken by Siwoo's martial prowess—Siwoo had crossed into her personal space in the blink of an eye to intercept the exploding splinters.
Wait, was that shocked expression because of my attack, or was she just terrified of Siwoo?
I sighed inwardly. It was a shame. If only my final strike had landed, it would have been perfect. It was a flawless surprise attack.
"You worked very hard today, so I must prepare a special, nourishing lunch. Is there anything you would like to eat?"
"Ah... meat? Beef!"
Siwoo nodded at my request and turned to Soyeon's mother, Kang Seo-young. "Would it be alright if we stopped by the market on our way back?"
Since we had hitched a ride in her car, they had been waiting for me to finish both my virtual reality exam and the physical test. Siwoo had probably told them they could head back first, but Soyeon had undoubtedly thrown a tantrum to wait for me.
"Of course. I need to do some grocery shopping as well," Kang Seo-young replied.
Soyeon approached me with a beaming smile, her mouth running a mile a minute.
"Ah! My mouth was practically itching to death! You've finally broken through! I wanted to tell you so badly, but knowing about the next realm when you're stuck at the threshold can actually do more harm than good. If you obsess over it, you might end up in a bottleneck..."
For some reason, Soyeon seemed far more excited about my breakthrough than I was.
On the drive back, Soyeon's non-stop chattering made me feel like my ears were going to bleed. It got so bad that even her mother, who was driving, practically begged her to be quiet so she could focus.
Are my ears okay? I think I'm hearing phantom ringing...
In the principal's office of Cheonmu Elementary School, the Principal leaned back in his chair, reviewing the results of the class assignment exams.
This year's intake of direct descendants totaled 237. It was an exceptionally large number compared to last year's 87 and the previous year's 134. Of course, it was only about half the size of the current 6th-grade class, which boasted a record-breaking 489 students, but it was still significantly higher than the historical average of just over a hundred.
"Twenty-one entered with properly trained martial arts. Fifty-six have formed a dantien with the help of their parents. One hundred and twenty-seven have yet to form a dantien. Thirty-three have failed to properly absorb even basic elixirs."
They would be assigned to Classes 1, 2, 3, and 4 based on these criteria.
Although the maximum capacity for each class was technically twenty, they had no intention of splitting the twenty-one students of Class 1 into two separate groups. According to school guidelines, a class required a minimum of fifteen students to run.
In a normal school, smaller class sizes were preferred as they allowed teachers to focus more on individual students. But this was a specialized martial arts academy. Martial arts was a physical discipline, a study of combat against enemies. Combat required struggle, and struggle required competition. To foster that competition, a class needed a minimum threshold of rivals.
"Well, having too many is better than having too few. It's not as if we're short on instructors."
"Indeed, Principal."
Gathered in the office alongside the Principal were the Vice Principal, the female android Academic Director—who had administered the VR exam as Baobao—and the female Martial Arts Director. They had convened to discuss how to divide the freshmen based on the exam data.
"Whether they are placed in Class 1 or Class 2 isn't the critical issue. What matters isn't whether they entered the school already knowing martial arts, but whether they possess the innate talent to learn it."
The Vice Principal and the Martial Arts Director nodded in agreement. The school's ultimate purpose was to forge true martial artists.
The reason the android Academic Director was present was because she was the one who had operated the Baobao avatar in the virtual reality testing ground. While assessing talent was crucial for class placement, understanding a student's personality and temperament was paramount.
They could have easily administered a standard written exam on paper. The entire reason they utilized a virtual reality testing ground and approached the children through a friendly, animated mascot like Baobao was to accurately gauge their psychological profiles.
"First, let us separate the wheat from the chaff before we assign the classes."
Those identified as 'wheat'—the true gems—would become the core of their respective classes. It was a harsh reality, but the remaining students would be distributed to balance out those gems.
At the Principal's command, the Vice Principal and the Martial Arts Director began sorting the alphabetically arranged files. Although the twenty-one students of Class 1 were already set to be in the same class, they sorted them regardless.
"Talent evaluation: 6 Highest, 19 High, 185 Medium, 26 Low."
'Highest' denoted a genius; 'High' meant a prodigy; 'Medium' represented the ordinary; and 'Low' indicated a dunce.
A 'Lowest' rating meant the child was practically incapable of learning martial arts and thus ineligible for admission. Fortunately, no one had received a 'Lowest' rating this year.
Of the six students rated 'Highest', three were in Class 1, two in Class 2, and one in Class 3. Naturally, Class 4—composed of those who couldn't even properly absorb elixirs—consisted entirely of 'Low' and a few 'Medium' students.
"Among those rated 'Highest', the one who stands out the most is undoubtedly Cheon Soyeon of Class 1."
"Ah, the famous Heaven's Martial Body? The child who was kidnapped a few years ago and escaped on her own?" the Principal asked.
The Vice Principal nodded. "While it is true she neutralized and killed the kidnappers, my understanding is that her escape wasn't entirely unassisted."
"That is practically escaping on her own. Killing kidnappers at that age... are we sure she isn't a Lone Star of Death rather than the Heaven's Martial Body?"
"A Lone Star of Death? Please, do not speak of such ominous things. Cheon Soyeon is a textbook example of the Heaven's Martial Body."
"Hahaha! Well, that is a relief."
The Principal and Vice Principal shared a light laugh before diving deeper into Soyeon's evaluation.
"Because her reputation preceded her, I personally oversaw her evaluation. While her official exam results and submitted documents list her as 2nd-rate, the sheer ease she displayed suggests she has already reached at least the 1st-rate realm."
"To possess the wisdom to hide her true strength at such a young age... Did she realize this on her own, or was it her parents' doing?"
"I suspect the latter. Given her past trauma with the kidnapping, they likely taught her to keep her cards close to her chest. It is not a bad habit. 'Conceal thirty percent of your strength' has been a golden rule of the Murim since ancient times."
"True, but as educators, we must know their absolute limits to guide them properly. Our task will be to draw out her full potential during her time here. Her parents are both in the Transformation Realm, so I expect they might try to micromanage her education, but fortunately, they are both my juniors."
The Principal himself was a master of the Transformation Realm. Given that this academy educated the direct descendants of the prestigious Cheon family, it was only natural for the principal to possess such a legendary level of strength.
"In any case, Cheon Soyeon's evaluation is the absolute peak of the 'Highest' tier."
The Vice Principal and the Martial Arts Director—both masters of the Transcendental Peak realm—continued to deliver detailed assessments, starting from the 'Highest' tier down to the 'High' tier.
While the evaluations for the exceptionally talented students were extensive, they grew progressively shorter as they moved down the ranks.
Suddenly, the Principal's eyes narrowed as he stopped at a particular file.
"A talent evaluation of High-Low to Low-Medium?"
The detailed talent assessments were further subdivided into high, medium, and low tiers within each main category.
"His talent is barely above a dunce, yet he's in Class 1 and has already reached the 2nd-rate realm? Is this a clerical error?"
The name written at the top of the file the Principal held was 'Cheon Jiwoo'.
"His talent is that of an ordinary person bordering on a dunce—no, he is a definitive dunce. How on earth has he reached the 2nd-rate realm at this age? To achieve such a feat with this level of talent, he would need to be at least High-Low to High-Medium!"