‘Both of us come from families living in public renting houses. Since Senior Lin Chuan could do it, I can definitely do it too. In fact, I will reach Heaven Realm earlier than him!’
As Meng Chao stared at his idol on the monitor, his fighting spirit erupted like a volcano.
His train of thought then changed, and he thought of something else. ‘Now, Senior Lin Chuan and Yan Feirou are known as the Golden Children on the livestreaming channel. Lin Chuan is even more popular than Yan Feirou now.
‘After all, Yan Feirou’s Ripple Force is just a basic force execution method, and she has never proven her strength in real fights before, while Senior Lin Chuan has slaughtered his way out of a pile of corpses with his fists.
‘If I can get acquainted with Senior Lin Chuan, can I use his power to promote the Ultimate Style? If even the Weeping Reaper stands up to support the Ultimate Style, it’ll be much easier for me to push the Ultimate Style onto the stage.
‘Wait… There’s something else, I don’t think I’ve heard of Senior Lin Chuan’s name in my previous life. Logically speaking, that shouldn’t be the case. He reached Heaven Realm before thirty, which made him really famous.
“Many of the mega industries, spirit energy research centers, and even Agricultural University’s martial arts course are fighting for him. They’re willing to invest copious amounts of cultivation resources into him. With this development, even if he doesn’t reach Deity Realm, he should reach the peak of Heaven Realm and be like Soul Breaking Saber Luo Wu. There’s no way he can become a nobody.
‘Could it be… he died?’
Meng Chao felt his heart tense up.
When he thought about it carefully, it did feel like it was the case.
Since the northern offense would not go smoothly, there was a high chance that they had, in fact, lost miserably.
And Senior Lin Chuan stayed at the frontlines practically twenty-four hours a day, where he fought fiercely and lived by torturing himself like an aseptic monk. Even if he faced the raging horde of evolved and mutated monsters, he would definitely not back down.
It was highly likely that he would die.
‘If that’s really the case, I must think of a way to change Senior Lin Chuan’s fate.
‘With his glorious achievements, even if he’s not a heroic citizen, he’s definitely at least an elite among elites. In the future, he’s highly likely going to rise to a heroic citizen. As long as he remains alive, he will contribute greatly to Dragon City.
‘Besides, he has a positive and determined image. He’d be the perfect ambassador for the Ultimate Style.
‘Also, he’s really popular and has a lot of connections with various forces of power. Through him, I might also be able to get into contact with some of the higher-ups coming up with the strategies for the northern offense and find the “correct person”.’
Meng Chao made up his mind. He wanted to use Weeping Reaper Lin Chuan as his breakthrough.
And it was simple to get in contact with Senior Lin Chuan. As long as he started killing monsters madly, he would definitely make Lin Chuan, a senior, pay attention to him, a junior.
Once he became certain of his direction, Meng Chao relaxed.
Li Yingzi finished introducing the basic rules of the camp to the freshmen. She then brought them to the cafeteria to eat and get to know their comrades from the other universities.
When they reached the entrance of a large tent which could accommodate thousands of people eating inside at the same time, someone suddenly slapped Meng Chao’s shoulder.
He turned around and saw a really dark soldier.
Dragon City was an international metropolis. Before they transmigrated, there were foreigners in the city, Africans and Westerners alike. As decades passed, they left behind their descendants, but there were not many of them.
Meng Chao frowned. He did not remember having any African friends, and he could not understand why the man would be staring at him with teary eyes. He looked like he was about to pounce on him and start bawling.
“Meng Chao…” the African soldier called out in an airy voice.
Meng Chao found the voice familiar, and he squinted to observe the man for a long while before shock suddenly rushed through his system. He could not believe his own eyes when he asked, “F-Feixiong?”
‘Oh my God, isn’t this my best friend? Isn’t he supposed to be as white and plump as a stuffed bun?’
When they met during the summer holidays, Feixiong was still a fatty who weighed more than one hundred and fifty kilograms. He just joined the military school, so how did he lose at least fifty kilograms and why did he look as black as charcoal?
Also, even if the military school had a unique nature compared to the other universities and two-thirds of its students had to join the northern offense, the freshmen who had yet to awaken to supernatural abilities were not allowed on the battlefield.
Since Chu Feixiong was here, that meant that…
“You’ve become a superhuman?” Meng Chao was both shocked and delighted. He slapped his best friend’s shoulder. “Feixiong— No, I should call you Black Bear now. You’re horrible. You didn’t contact me at all after you entered military school. How could you not tell me that you became a superhuman? That’s a big event!
“I only became a superhuman because I fought to the death with the Bloody Moon Wolf King during the national college examination and inherited part of Principal Sun’s strength. But you? It’s just been a few months. There’s no way you should have reached the level where you can awaken.
“You must have run into a miracle. Did you find your very own heroic spirit? Did you get a legendary Predecessor? That’s a treatment only main characters in novels have!”
“Can we please not talk about it?” The big white bear… No, he should be called the big black bear now. The big black bear that lost more than fifty kilograms of weight found himself wanting to cry, but unable to do it. “I’ve indeed found my very own heroic spirit and managed to become a heroic spirit user somewhat, but… Ah, how should I say this? I really want to cry!”
“What? You obtained the favor of a Predecessor and became a heroic spirit user? That’s an even rarer fighting occupation compared to being a martial artist, and many people can only dream of becoming one. Why do you look so scornful? That’s not how you’re supposed to brag about yourself while pretending to be humble, you know?”
Meng Chao became interested. He dragged his best friend to the side to sit. “I have to say, the military is really good at training people. If we walked on the streets, I wouldn’t have dared to call out to you in case I mistook you for someone else. Come on, tell me. What happened?”
Chu Feixiong seemed to have been holding back a lot. The moment he sat down, he started grumbling that he should not have registered for the military school in the first place.
The management there was much stricter compared to the management of the undergraduate students in Agricultural University. During the new recruit training period, which lasted the first three months after joining, not only were they not allowed to leave the school, their communications with the outside world were cut off.
When Chu Feixiong finally managed to get through it, he ran into the outbreak of war at the northern frontlines. Most of the military students were then pushed into the armored airships before they even knew what happened.
Shattered Starlake was fifty kilometers away from the main city, and the interference to spirit energy magnetic fields along the way was strong, so it became even more impossible for them to contact the outside world. Forget about contacting Meng Chao, Chu Feixiong had only phoned his family three times.
Also, Agricultural University’s martial arts course put an emphasis on the students developing freely. The lectures, missions, and resources were offered up, and it was up to the students as to how they wanted to cultivate. The cultivation maniacs could train day and night, but if they could no longer last, they could take a breather.
It was different in the military school. They treated the freshmen as elite special forces soldiers and trained them fiercely. Even if they were resting, they sometimes had to go through emergency gatherings at two in the morning. Then, they would have to carry weights while doing cross-country running from thirty to fifty kilometers. They could not relax for even half a second.
Besides, Chu Feixiong had chosen to enrol in the heroic spirit course, which was the strongest course in the military school.
Usually, the ones who enrolled in the heroic spirit course were all elites among elites. Most of the people there were sons and daughters of generals. They drank gene medicine like water since young, ate superbeast meat, and watched their parents, who were top officers in the army, train as they grew up. Hence, no matter how tough the training programmes were, they could grit their teeth and bear through it.
Chu Feixiong was lucky. He relied on the extra points and made it past the minimum passing score for the heroic spirit course.
When he entered the heroic spirit course, though, he was naturally ranked dead last. He scored last place in every subject in his course.
But the military school placed a huge emphasis on unity.
Take Meng Chao for an example. He held himself aloof from the other students and constantly daydreamed during the professional classes, but no one said anything. At most, they thought that he had given up and abandoned himself.
But this would not do in the military school. When one student’s scores held the others back, the entire unit suffered. After everyone received their punishment, they would also “kindly” help that student. In just a few months, everyone had helped Chu Feixiong so much that he lost more than fifty kilograms and was completely different from how he used to look.
“I’m seriously stupid,” Chu Feixiong said, wanting to cry. “When I filled up my registration form, Demon Yan tried persuading me that even with the extra marks, I have only barely made it to the minimum passing score for the heroic spirit course.
“He said that if I’m serious and work hard, even if I’m in another course, I can still rise high. He told me that the heroic spirit course is famous for being a demonic course, and if I’m not strong enough, even if I manage to make it in, I’ll be eliminated.
“He then added that instead of being dead last in the heroic spirit course and being trampled upon by the geniuses there, it would be better if I obediently went to register for the military school’s martial arts course and learn the Gun Fighting Style.
“But I refused to believe him. I thought that I had a good personality and looked handsome, so I was born to be the most dazzling protagonist. When I entered the military school, I would be immediately chosen by a heroic spirit and inherit great power, which would then allow me to start writing my own legend.
“But who would have known… Ah, who would have known?”
Meng Chao gathered his spirit energy around his eyes and observed his best friend. He noticed a faint layer of spirit flames surrounding him, and there were a few spirit meridians that were exceptionally clear on his arms. Even though he had not cleared a lot of main meridians, he was indeed a superhuman and a heroic spirit user.
So why was he still displeased?
“Could you summon your heroic spirit so that I can look at it?” Meng Chao asked. “You’re the first heroic spirit user that I know, after all.”
Chu Feixiong nodded. Then, he sighed and clenched his fists before he gritted his teeth. His veins popped up on his temples.
Gradually, something amazing happened. The spirit flames surrounding him started dancing gently and encircled him to slowly turn into a faint green human behind him.
Even though the spirit flames were really thin, Meng Chao could still tell that it was a soldier with big eyes and thick eyebrows. He gave off an honest feeling. In fact, he seemed a little foolish. He wore a washed-out training uniform and stood around like a blockhead.
“Um…” Meng Chao scratched his head.
Heroic spirits were beings created when a human died and left behind a powerful vitality magnetic field.
During the process of their creation, they absorbed the spirit energy in the world to gather their form and grow stronger. It meant that they usually no longer were 100% human, but looked even mightier, more domineering, and sometimes even monstrous.
One of the examples was the student recruiter Meng Chao and Chu Feixiong had seen when they went over Red Dragon River in the armored train.
The heroic spirit of the captain in the promotional video was a black guardian god made of more than a dozen soldiers who died defending a fort. They had died in battle in a mighty manner, and their spirits, as well as determination, were nourished nonstop by the spirit energy in the world, which allowed them to turn into a firm, steady, and sturdy spirit energy magnetic field. They became a black steel giant.
Meng Chao knew that many of the mighty military men whose existences intimidated Dragon City had heroic spirits that stood as tall as towering deities when they were summoned.
Earlier, he had also seen quite a number of the upperclassmen from the military school. The heroic spirits trailing behind them were all mighty and murderous.
But Chu Feixiong’s heroic spirit… looked kind of friendly?
“Who is this Predecessor?” Meng Chao asked.
Chu Feixiong gritted his teeth and said in exasperation, “He’s a stupid soldier!”