Chapter 105: New Troubles (Part 1)

Pop! Crackle!

Throughout the night, sounds of breakthroughs could be heard occasionally, and his strength continuously increased.

"He hadn't expected the night to pass so quickly!"

Finally, Zhang Xuan opened his eyes. It was already broad daylight. Despite not sleeping all night, he felt no fatigue at all. Instead, he was invigorated and full of energy.

Thanks to the purity of his True Qi and the unique nature of the Heaven's Path Divine Art, breaking through was incredibly simple. The only time-consuming part was locating the acupoints. Even so, he successfully broke through twenty acupoints overnight!

According to normal standards, a martial artist can only open 72 acupoints, with every eighteen points counting as one level. This means the Acupoint Opening realm is divided as follows: early stage (1-18 points), middle stage (19-36 points), late stage (37-54 points), and peak (55-72 points).

Of course, many cultivators, due to low-grade True Qi and incorrect acupoint sequences, reach their peak after opening only thirty or forty acupoints, unable to progress further. They then have to find ways to attempt a breakthrough to the seventh stage of martial arts, the Tongxuan (Profound Connection) realm. Therefore, this level division is merely theoretical. By the standards of Tianxuan Kingdom, ten points constitute a level. This means the Acupoint Opening realm is divided as follows: early stage (1-10 acupoints), middle stage (11-20 points), late stage (21-30 points), and peak (31 or more). As long as one opens thirty-one or more acupoints, regardless of the exact number, it is considered the peak of the Acupoint Opening realm in Tianxuan Kingdom!

When Zhang Xuan was at the peak of the Dingli (Cauldron Strength) realm, he possessed the strength of eight cauldrons. After re-cultivating the first three stages of his cultivation method, his strength increased by another 12 cauldrons, totaling 20 cauldrons. Now, having opened 20 acupoints, his True Qi alone grants him a formidable 40 cauldrons of strength, already comparable to a peak Acupoint Opening realm expert!

While others struggled for ten days to half a month to open even one acupoint, he opened twenty in half a night. Nine-tenths of that time was even spent on research. Anyone else would find this hard to believe. However, if the flawless Heaven's Path Divine Art didn't have such an effect, it would truly be a joke.

He left his room, ate a quick meal, and strode towards the classroom.

"You mean... Teacher Zhang, in order to find a way to activate your constitution, was willing to debate alchemy just to become an alchemist?"

Inside the classroom, Zhao Ya recounted the events of yesterday to Wang Ying and the others.

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

"No matter what, we must achieve good results in the Freshmen Grand Competition. Otherwise, we'd be letting Teacher Zhang's guidance down!"

Zheng Yang and the others had fervent eyes, and even the usually lazy Yuan Tao was incredibly excited. A scholar dies for his confidant. Teacher Zhang has sacrificed so much for them; if they were ungrateful, they'd truly be heartless!

"No, I must cultivate now!"

"Me too!"

Instantly, everyone felt invigorated, with a single goal in mind: to bring glory to Teacher Zhang and make a splash in the Freshmen Grand Competition!

"What's gotten into them?"

Upon entering the classroom, Zhang Xuan was a little unused to seeing all his students present and cultivating with such diligence and effort. "What kind of medicine did these guys take?"

"Teacher!"

Just as he was about to start class, Wang Tao, Wang Yan, and Zhao Yanfeng walked over. Wang Tao and Wang Yan were auditing students Zhang Xuan had agreed to let attend classes. But why was Zhao Yanfeng here too?

"I took the liberty of dropping Teacher Lu's class. If this causes any trouble, please punish me, Teacher!" Zhao Yanfeng proactively confessed as soon as he entered the room.

Hearing this, Zhang Xuan finally understood why Lu Xun had been bothering him for no reason. So that was the root of it. Lu Xun was the most famous star teacher in the academy, while Zhang Xuan was the bottom-ranked 'failure.' Now, for the sake of an auditing 'failure' student, two students had voluntarily dropped Lu Xun's classes. Anyone in Lu Xun's position would find that hard to accept. Once the news got out, how could he teach students in the future? How could he gain their trust?

"Just audit here then!" Since the matter had already occurred, if he were to send Zhao Yanfeng back now, it might be misinterpreted as him being afraid of Lu Xun. So, he simply pretended not to know. Anyway, they were just auditing students. He didn't need to give them individual guidance. If they wanted to listen, they could; if not, they could leave. It wouldn't take up too much time.

"Alright, stop. I assume you've all cultivated the techniques I gave you yesterday!" Ignoring the three newcomers for now, Zhang Xuan looked at Zhao Ya, Wang Ying, and the others.

"We have!" Everyone's eyes lit up with excitement. The cultivation techniques personally created by Teacher Zhang were indeed formidable. After just one night of cultivation, they felt their internal strength become much more profound, equivalent to ten days of their previous cultivation! Precisely because of this, they admired this teacher, who wasn't much older than them, even more.

"Alright, each of you perform a set of fist techniques for me to observe. Wang Ying, you first!" Zhang Xuan looked over.

"Yes!" Wang Ying stepped forward and quickly performed a set of fist techniques.

"Not bad!" After observing, Zhang Xuan casually offered some comments, pointing out a few flaws in her cultivation. Then, Zhao Ya, Liu Yang, and others performed their martial techniques one by one.

Overall, the five students' cultivation speed was not slow; for other teachers, it would be considered astonishing. However, even with such progress, competing against Lu Xun's students in half a month would still be a considerable challenge. Lu Xun was the academy's star teacher; almost all students under him were top performers in the entrance examination. The entrance examination tested comprehensive qualities and talent. Zhao Ya, Wang Ying, and the others had great potential, which allowed them to enter the top hundred. However, in terms of sheer strength, only Zhao Ya was decent; the other four would probably rank among the five hundreds or lower. Especially Yuan Tao, who truly earned his last-place ranking.

Lu Xun had hundreds of students, so it would naturally be unfair for him to compete with just Zhang Xuan's five. He would surely select five of his own students. With hundreds of students to choose from, the difficulty for Zhao Ya and her peers to win was imaginable! Not to mention, he heard that the top three students from the entrance examination were all under him, and they had all broken through to the second stage of martial arts! Even Zhu Hong, ranked fourth, was someone Zhang Xuan's five students couldn't defeat even by teaming up. How could they hope to contend?

While potential, talent, and comprehensive qualities could significantly boost scores in the Freshmen Grand Competition, what cultivators valued most was actual strength! Without strength, everything else was useless. If they lost on the competition stage, all their previous efforts would be negated by others.

"Wang Ying's leg injury had just healed, and she was still somewhat unaccustomed, unable to channel power throughout her entire body. Two months of recuperation might improve it, but... half a month was too difficult!"

"Zheng Yang's spear techniques had bravely advanced as he moved past his shadow, but the Freshmen Grand Competition was merely a sparring match where weapons might be restricted. If so, his advantage would turn into a disadvantage. He needed to significantly increase his unarmed combat strength in a short amount of time!"

"Liu Yang's right hand issue would take at least half a month to resolve... Sigh, time was simply too tight!"

After reading all the books generated about his students in the Heaven's Path Library, Zhang Xuan rubbed his brows, filled with worry.