Chapter 2: Growth

The date was September 1st, Year 7,621,134 of the Continent Calendar. It was Yang Tong’s first day of school. Luoyu County wasn’t a very large county, but it still covered a thousand miles in radius. The county city had a population of up to three million, divided into three districts: the Outer District, the Middle District, and the Inner District. The Inner District was where the population was concentrated, with eighty percent of the three million people living there. The Inner District was further divided into eight county zones based on direction, and each zone had a school. The Middle District was where poorer residents lived, while the Outer District consisted of farmland for growing crops.

The reason farmland was placed within the county city was because the area outside the city was infested with Savage Beasts. Without protective city walls, the fields would only be destroyed by Savage Beasts. So, the Fengxuan Continent was a high-martial world where everyone practiced martial arts to strengthen themselves.

Before dawn, Yang Tong was woken up by his father. First, he practiced the horse stance for half an hour. Ever since Yang Tong was five years old, his father had required him to practice the horse stance every morning to build a solid foundation.

Around 8:30 AM, Yang Tong’s father took him out. Parked outside their door was a vehicle that looked like a motorcycle. Unlike motorcycles on Earth, this vehicle had no wheels, only two disc-like air pads. Its body was covered in thick armor, and there were six weapon racks mounted on both sides of the vehicle.

If such a vehicle were on Earth, ordinary people wouldn’t dare ride it on the streets. This wasn’t a civilian vehicle at all; it was clearly an armed motorcycle.

Yang Tong understood that the value of this vehicle was equivalent to their family home. The vehicle was called: Flying Disc Motorcycle. It was a product of the unique technological civilization of the Fengxuan Continent.

The technological civilization of the Fengxuan Continent was known as Artifact Technology civilization. In Yang Tong’s understanding, it was a special form of civilization that was semi-cultivation and semi-mechanical. Humans developed powerful tools using various crystals found in the world as energy sources, and these tools were called Spirit Tools. There was a wide variety, ranging from everyday household items to powerful combat weapons.

Spirit Tools were classified into nine grades. The family’s Flying Disc Armed Motorcycle was a top-grade Grade One Spirit Tool. It could hover up to three meters high and reach a top speed of five hundred kilometers per hour. Under normal circumstances, it hovered half a meter high with an average speed controlled around sixty kilometers per hour. The crystal energy consumption for this vehicle was basically zero. This was also an advantage of crystals: before they were depleted, they could absorb natural energy to recharge themselves. The higher the grade of the crystal, the faster its recovery speed, and naturally, the higher its value. Most importantly, this energy source was pollution-free.

Yang Tong was very interested in this special technology, and he naturally looked forward to school very much.

Southeastern Academy combined both primary and secondary education. Children started school at six years old. Primary education had six levels, and secondary education had four levels. It took ten years to complete secondary school.

The school was very large, with a total of fifty thousand students enrolled, so it naturally occupied a vast area.

“Go inside. Take your student ID and find your class,” his father said, lifting Yang Tong down from the motorcycle and giving him a serious instruction. “Study hard, understand?”

“Yes, I know. Goodbye, Dad,” Yang Tong replied with a smile, answering cutely. Yang Tong understood that not every child could attend this school; the tuition wasn’t cheap.

Holding his student ID, Yang Tong walked through the school gate. His journey to truly understand this world’s unique form of civilization began from here.

He arrived at his class: Primary Level One, Class Five. There were one hundred students in the class.

A female teacher who looked about forty years old walked up to the podium.

“Hello everyone, my name is Xue Ying. You can call me Teacher Xue. Starting today, I am the homeroom teacher for this class. I am responsible for teaching you about the types of Savage Beasts. In Primary Year One, the subjects include Martial Arts Theory, Martial Arts Practice, Warrior History, Cultural Studies, General Geography, and Savage Beast Types. Generally, mornings are for martial cultivation, and afternoons are for academic studies,” Teacher Xue introduced. “Now, let’s welcome the martial arts teacher to begin class.”

After speaking, Teacher Xue left the classroom. A young man with a somewhat scholarly air walked in.

“Hello everyone, my name is Zhang Tianming. You can just call me Teacher Zhang. I am an Apprentice Ninth-Level Warrior, and I will be teaching you martial arts for the next six years.”

“Today is the first day of class, so let’s start with some relaxed theory. Do you know why we learn martial arts?” Teacher Zhang spoke eloquently. “For self-protection, for physical strengthening, and most importantly, for Awakening! Our human bodies are actually a great treasure trove, but this treasure is locked. Starting with strengthening our bodies, we train to become stronger, possessing great power, agility, and robust physiques. All of this is to unlock our own treasure trove. The first step in unlocking this treasure is what we call Awakening!”

“So, you might ask, how can one awaken? I tell you, this step is very difficult. If you don’t study hard these six years, you might never awaken even in old age. Generally, reaching the Apprentice Ninth-Level stage makes awakening the easiest. Of course, there are exceptions; some awaken at Apprentice Seventh Rank, and there are even cases of very young children awakening. Perhaps there is such a genius among you.”

“If any of you feel a flow of heat inside your body, quickly inform me or your family. Do not hide it, because this is a very good thing.”

“Alright, since it’s your first day, you don’t need to learn anything too complicated. I’ll just introduce the classifications of combat professions. In the Apprentice stage, all of us humans train our bodies through martial arts. But once we awaken, classifications appear. Some people, after awakening, manifest both Spiritual Power and Mental Power talents. Those strong in Spiritual Power are called Martial Spirit Masters, while those strong in Mental Power are called Mind Masters.”

Next, Zhang Tianming talked about a lot of theory, making Yang Tong’s understanding of this new world much clearer.

Yang Tong’s learning and growth journey began here. In the first three years of primary education, the cultural curriculum taught writing and simple mathematics. Here, there was no need to learn sentence composition or write essays; as long as you could recognize characters, understand reading, and perform practical calculations, it was enough. The martial arts courses were all about building the foundation and strengthening the physique.

Through classroom learning and, most importantly, self-study in the school library, Yang Tong’s knowledge had already caught up with that of an ordinary adult.

This world was far more dangerous than Yang Tong had imagined. The wilderness was populated with all kinds of Savage Beasts, which were external factors threatening human survival. But at the same time, these Savage Beasts were also the raw materials for the progress of human civilization. Within the county city, many warriors made a living by hunting Savage Beasts. Generally, a family of three only needed to hunt thirty low-grade, elementary Savage Beasts per month to exchange for enough living supplies. Among Savage Beasts, the weakest low-grade elementary Savage Beasts were equivalent to human Apprentice Fifth-Level warriors. Low-grade intermediate Savage Beasts were equivalent to human Apprentice Seventh-Level warriors, and low-grade high Savage Beasts were equivalent to human Apprentice Ninth-Level warriors.

In Yang Tong’s family, his father was an Apprentice Ninth-Level warrior. He only needed to hunt three low-grade intermediate Savage Beasts each month to live quite comfortably. And Yang Tong’s father would go out for ten days each month, bringing back hundreds of low-grade elementary Savage Beasts and dozens of low-grade intermediate Savage Beasts.

No wonder, for people to survive, they needed at least Apprentice Fifth-Level strength. Otherwise, they could only stay within the county city, doing manual labor, odd jobs, or farming.

Through self-study, Yang Tong also learned that after humans awaken, above Apprentice Warrior comes the Earth-Rank Martial Spirit Master and Earth-Rank Mind Master. The former possesses melee combat abilities far superior to Apprentice Warriors and can draw upon certain earth forces for their use. The latter possesses psychic power, allowing them to remotely control Spirit Tool weapons specifically designed for Mind Masters to attack. Most importantly, Mind Masters weren’t just for combat; the very foundation of human Artifact Technology development was based on Mind Masters!

Professions derived from Mind Masters included: Spirit Tool Masters, Potion Masters, Formation Masters, and Illusion Masters. Especially the first three professions, which were not combat professions; it was these three professions that established the prosperity of human civilization. All these professions required strong psychic power support. Of course, Spirit Tool Masters could be further subdivided into countless specializations, and the other two professions were similar. However, Martial Spirit Masters, apart from combat functions, seemed to have no other functions. Precisely because of this, Mind Masters held a much higher status in human society compared to Martial Spirit Masters! Unfortunately, the ratio of Awakened to non-Awakened individuals was 10,000:1. And among the Awakened, the ratio of Martial Spirit Masters to Mind Masters was 1,000:1. No one knew before awakening whether they would become a Martial Spirit Master or a Mind Master.

Yang Tong calculated: the probability of becoming a Mind Master was one in ten million. Normally speaking, only one Mind Master would appear among ten million people!

During his three years in school, although Yang Tong performed very well in his entire grade level, consistently ranking at the top of his class, he himself was not satisfied.

“Annoying. So I crossed over. Dude, I crossed over to save someone. Shouldn’t I get some benefits?” But in fact, Yang Tong found that apart from some knowledge of the Book of Changes, the Eight Trigrams, and Plum Blossom Divination Art, he had no scientific knowledge. He couldn’t figure out how to use cheat knowledge. Moreover, he didn’t know if the Book of Changes, based on theories of yin-yang, the five elements, the heavenly stems, and earthly branches, was still as accurate as before.

Based on Yang Tong’s understanding, the Book of Changes itself was a study of calculation. In theory, it could deduce and calculate the evolution of the universe. But this depended on one’s level of Dao Attainment.

Because of his adult mentality, Yang Tong couldn’t really play with the children around him, appearing somewhat of a loner. Apart from studying, he practiced martial arts.