Chapter 105 New Troubles (Part 1)

Crack! Crackle!

Throughout the night, the sound of breakthroughs could be heard from time to time, and his strength kept increasing.

"I didn't expect the night to pass so quickly!"

Finally, Zhang Xuan opened his eyes.

By now, it was already broad daylight.

Having not slept all night, he felt not the slightest bit tired, but instead energetic and full of vigor.

Thanks to the purity of his true qi and the uniqueness of the Heaven's Path Divine Art, breaking through was very simple; the only trouble was finding the acupoints, which took some time. Even so, in one night, he had successfully broken through a full twenty acupoints!

According to normal standards, a martial artist can only open seventy-two acupoints, with every eighteen constituting a level.

That is to say, the initial stage of the Aperture Opening Realm opens acupoints 1–18, the middle stage 19–36, the later stage 37–54, and the peak stage 55–72!

Of course, many people, because the grade of their cultivated true qi is too low and the order of acupoints is problematic, reach their peak after opening only thirty or forty acupoints and can no longer advance, so they have to find a way to break through to the seventh level of the Martial Artist Realm, the Tongxuan Realm.

Therefore, this level division is only theoretical. According to the standards of the Tianxuan Kingdom, ten acupoints make one level—that is, the initial stage of the Aperture Opening Realm opens acupoints 1–10, the middle stage 11–20, the later stage 21–30, and the peak stage 31 and above.

As long as one opens more than thirty-one acupoints, regardless of the exact number, in the Tianxuan Kingdom, they are considered at the peak of the Aperture Opening Realm!

When Zhang Xuan was at the peak of the Dingli Realm, he possessed the strength of eight ding. Later, he recultivated the techniques of the first three levels, increasing his strength by another twelve ding, for a total of twenty ding. Now that he had opened twenty acupoints, using only true qi, he possessed a tremendous force of forty ding, already comparable to a peak Aperture Opening Realm expert!

For others, opening a single acupoint might take ten days to half a month; he had opened twenty in half a night, and nine-tenths of that time was spent on research. If it were someone else, they would surely find it hard to believe.

However, if the flawless Heaven's Path Divine Art did not have such an effect, it would truly be a joke.

Leaving his room, he casually ate something and strode toward the classroom.

...

"You say... Teacher Zhang, in order to help you find a way to activate your physique, was willing to debate alchemy to become an alchemist?"

In the classroom, Zhao Ya was telling Wang Ying and the others about what had happened yesterday.

"Teacher Zhang created techniques for us and took such risks for us..."

"No matter what, in the freshman competition, we must achieve good results; otherwise, we will let Teacher Zhang down!"

Zheng Yang and the others had fiery eyes, and even the usually lazy Yuan Tao was extremely excited.

A scholar would die for one who appreciates him. Teacher Zhang had done so much for them; if they were still ungrateful, they would truly be heartless!

"No, I want to start cultivating now!"

"Me too!"

In an instant, everyone was motivated, with only one goal in mind: to bring glory to Teacher Zhang and make a stunning showing in the freshman competition!

"What's gotten into them?"

Arriving at the classroom and seeing that not only were all the students present, but each was cultivating more seriously and diligently than the last, Zhang Xuan felt a bit out of sorts.

What kind of medicine had these guys taken?

"Teacher!"

Just as he was about to start the lesson, he saw Wang Tao, Wang Yan, and Zhao Yanfeng approaching.

Wang Tao and Wang Yan were the auditing students Zhang Xuan had agreed to, allowed to audit his lectures. Why had Zhao Yanfeng also come?

"I took the liberty of dropping Teacher Lu's class. If this causes any trouble, please punish me!"

As soon as he entered the room, Zhao Yanfeng voluntarily confessed his fault.

Hearing this, Zhang Xuan finally understood why Lu Xun had come looking for trouble with him for no reason.

So this was the root cause.

He was the most famous star teacher in the academy, while Zhang Xuan was the worst-ranked waste. Now, for the sake of auditing a waste's class, two students had voluntarily dropped his course. Anyone would find that hard to accept.

Once the news got out, how could he continue to teach students? How could he make students trust him?

"Audit here then!"

Since it had already happened, if he now sent Zhao Yanfeng back, it might seem as if he was afraid of Lu Xun, so he had to pretend not to know.

After all, they were just auditing students; he didn't need to give them individual guidance. They could listen if they wanted, or leave if they didn't; it wouldn't take up too much time.

"Alright, stop. You've all cultivated the technique I gave you yesterday, right?"

No longer paying attention to the three, Zhang Xuan looked at Zhao Ya, Wang Ying, and the others.

"We have!"

Everyone's eyes shone with excitement.

The technique Teacher Zhang had personally created for them was indeed powerful. After just one night of cultivation, they felt their internal strength had increased significantly, matching the effect of a full ten days before!

Because of this, they admired this teacher, who was not much older than them, even more.

"Mm, each of you perform a set of boxing techniques for me to see. Wang Ying, start with you."

Zhang Xuan looked over.

"Yes!"

Wang Ying stepped forward and quickly executed a set of boxing techniques.

"Not bad."

After watching, Zhang Xuan casually commented and pointed out some shortcomings in her practice.

Then Zhao Ya, Liu Yang, and the others each performed their martial techniques in turn.

Overall, the five students were cultivating at a good pace; compared to other teachers' students, their progress could be called astonishing.

However, with this rate of improvement, after half a month, they would still be far from being able to compete with Lu Xun's students.

Lu Xun was the academy's star teacher, and those who could enter his class were almost all the top performers in the entrance examination.

The entrance examination tested overall quality and talent. Zhao Ya, Wang Ying, and the others had great potential, which allowed them to rank in the top hundred. But in terms of pure strength, only the former was decent; the other four would probably rank after five hundred.

Especially Yuan Tao, who was dead last—well-deserved.

Lu Xun had hundreds of students; naturally, he wouldn't have them all compete against Zhang Xuan's five students—that would be unfair. He would surely select five from among them.

Choosing five from several hundred—it was easy to imagine how difficult it would be for Zhao Ya and the others to win!

Not to mention others, it was said that the top three in the entrance examination were all in his class and had already broken through to the second level of the Martial Artist Realm!

Even Zhu Hong, who ranked fourth, could defeat all five students working together. How could they possibly contend with those three?

Although potential, talent, and overall quality could improve their scores in the freshman competition, what cultivators valued most was still strength!

Without strength, nothing else mattered.

If they lost on the competition stage, everything before would be denied.

"Wang Ying's leg injury has just healed; she's still not fully adapted, and her strength can't flow through her whole body. Given two months of recuperation, she might improve, but... half a month is too difficult!"

"Zheng Yang has emerged from his shadow and his spear technique is advancing boldly. However, the freshman competition is about points, not killing. Once weapons are restricted, his advantage will become a disadvantage. I must quickly enhance his unarmed combat ability!"

"Liu Yang's right hand problem will take at least half a month to resolve... Sigh, time is really too tight!"

After reading all the books about his students generated in the Heaven's Path Library, Zhang Xuan rubbed his temples, full of worry.