Volume One: Emerging Talents Chapter Sixteen: Admission Policies

As the bell rang, the classroom, which had been lively with chatter, instantly quieted as the students hurried back to their seats. Witnessing this, Wang Jue felt a fleeting sense of nostalgia for his youthful days as a student, his gaze softening with a hint of wistfulness.

The atmosphere in the classroom immediately grew solemn.

Wang Jue glanced around at his classmates, only to find that every one of them stared straight ahead at the podium, their previous easy camaraderie replaced by an almost stoic seriousness. The sudden shift was so stark, Wang Jue nearly doubted his own eyes.

At that moment, a middle-aged man entered through the door, sporting a receding hairline, glasses perched on his nose, and textbooks in both hands. This was Liu Mao, the homeroom teacher for Class Six of Grade Nine.

Liu Mao walked to the podium, set down his books, adjusted his glasses, and addressed the class, "Students, I have both good news and bad news for you today. Which would you like to hear first?"

Wang Jue almost blurted out, "The good news," but managed to swallow the words just in time. He had intended to follow the crowd, but to his surprise, none of his classmates showed any inclination to speak; all maintained a disciplined silence, as if uninterested.

Noticing this unusual silence, Wang Jue decided not to stand out, adhering to the principle of "majority rules" and refrained from speaking.

"Since no one wants to answer, I'll decide myself—let's start with the good news," Liu Mao said, nodding in satisfaction at the quiet. "The good news is, originally you had another half year before graduation, but now there's only one month left. Once your exams are over, you'll graduate. The reason for this is tied to the bad news I'll share next."

"Teacher," Huang Mingliang, the class monitor, raised his hand at the right moment.

Seeing the class monitor interrupt, Liu Mao was not annoyed. Instead, he smiled at Huang Mingliang, "Do you have a question, Monitor?"

"Yes, Teacher." Huang Mingliang stood up, his face full of concern. "We still have so much knowledge left to learn. If the school shortens our graduation time, and there are topics in the exam we haven't studied, won't that affect our grades?"

He knew he was an ordinary student without any cultivation talent, unlike those gifted in martial arts. For people like him, the only hope was to get into a good high school, which depended entirely on academic performance. Now, faced with this sudden reduction in graduation time, even his excellent grades wouldn't be enough to master in one month what should have taken half a year, especially as some teachers hadn't yet covered certain material.

Even prodigies rarely achieve self-taught mastery without guidance. Huang Mingliang was well aware of his own limits; although he ranked near the top of the class, he knew he was not a true academic star.

"I understand your concern. In fact, it relates to the good news I mentioned," Liu Mao gave him a reassuring look, then continued to address the class. "Because this happened so suddenly, as compensation, this year’s entrance exam scores will drop by about one hundred points. That means, as long as you don’t completely mess up, most of you should be able to get into high school."

At these words, the students erupted in excitement.

"Heh, I was worried I wouldn't get into the high school I wanted, but with this lowered benchmark, I'm sure I can make it!"

"That's great, I was short by twenty or thirty points—now I don't have to worry."

"I was prepared to stay home and help out if I failed, but this surprise came so suddenly. Now I can keep studying!"

"..."

Seeing the various expressions among the students, Liu Mao tapped the podium until everyone quieted down, then declared solemnly, "Now for the rest: due to this year's policy change, students without martial cultivation will receive the score reduction, but those who have already become martial artists are excluded."

"All the major safe zones in the world now advocate martial arts. Martial artists are different from ordinary people. Your scores, besides the basic academic subjects, depend mainly on your cultivation level. The higher your cultivation, the greater your chances of entering a martial arts high school; the lower, the more likely you'll end up in an ordinary high school."

Truthfully, under previous policies, those at the third or fourth stage of body refinement could easily get into lower-ranked martial arts schools, and those at the fifth or sixth stage could expect admission to schools ranked between the top twenty and top hundred. But with the new policy, martial artists faced unprecedented disadvantages, almost as if the system was targeting them.

"Teacher, this double standard is so unfair," Liu Mao had barely finished when the faces of several martial artists in Class Six turned grim. Luo Shui, who had been sprawled like a lifeless fish on the desk in front of Wang Jue, immediately protested, "Why do the other students get score reductions, but we don’t?"

They were all students—why should those who had become martial artists be treated differently?

"Luo Shui, don't be anxious. I haven't finished," Liu Mao said with a wry smile. "Martial artists may not have a score reduction, but you do have bonus points. Unlike the one-hundred-point reduction for ordinary students, your bonus depends on your cultivation. The first stage of body refinement gets ten points, and the higher your cultivation, the more bonus points you receive."

In Liu Mao's view, while many students in the class had become martial artists, few were truly hardworking. Most hovered around the third or fourth stage, with the highest at the sixth. With respectable academic performance and cultivation bonuses, their chances of getting into martial arts schools were even higher than before.

"Ten points per stage? Teacher, is that really true?" Luo Shui shot up from her seat, unable to hide her excitement.

It was practically a policy tailored for her. Most martial artists spent the majority of their time training, so their academic scores weren't stellar—at best, average or below. She had worried that her grades might not be enough to get into her preferred martial arts school, but now, with cultivation bonuses, she was seventy to eighty percent confident she could make it.

She was, after all, the only student in Class Six who had reached the sixth stage of body refinement. That alone gave her sixty extra points. If she failed to get into a martial arts school, she might as well give up cultivation altogether.

Everyone knew that in exams, even a single point could mean the difference between thousands, even tens of thousands of candidates. Like the college entrance exams on Earth—someone scored 620, someone else 619. The difference was one point, but sometimes that single point meant not being able to choose your first-choice school, only your second.

This is what they call the difference of a single point—worlds apart.

There were over a thousand middle schools in Peaceful Town, each grade with a hundred classes, each class with a hundred students. So, with a thousand schools, each with a hundred classes of a hundred students, that makes one thousand times one hundred times one hundred—one million students!

About fifteen percent of these are martial artists, meaning one hundred and fifty thousand are competing for spots in the top one hundred martial arts high schools.

But don't forget, each school's annual intake is basically fixed.

There are only one hundred martial arts high schools, their classes and numbers roughly matching middle schools. Even if every school filled all their spots, there would be only one million places, leaving fifty thousand martial artists unable to enter and forced into regular high schools.

In such brutal competition, every extra point matters. The ten-point bonus per stage of cultivation is especially significant.

Of course, for those at the third or fourth stage, this policy is less favorable, but for those at the fifth stage and above, it’s a boon. The higher your cultivation, the more points you gain, opening up opportunities previously out of reach, like the top ten martial arts schools.

If they actually managed to get in—who knew what the future could hold?

This policy excited not only Luo Shui, but the other martial artists in the class as well. Many faces showed excitement or interest, for they spent most of their time training, their grades not outstanding. With the new bonus, they'd be fools not to rejoice.

In contrast, the ordinary students in the class showed little interest. They already benefited from the hundred-point reduction, so why envy the martial artists?

If anyone should be envied, it was the martial artists, for to gain the same hundred points as the ordinary students, they'd need to break through to the Spirit Condensation stage.

Moreover, in this small middle school, even Luo Shui at the sixth stage was among the top three; the highest was the seventh stage, and reaching the Spirit Condensation stage was still a distant goal.

To become a martial artist, one needed talent—and not just talent, but also the financial resources to buy cultivation materials. Without money, no matter how hard you trained, you couldn't keep up with those who had resources.

Many students with talent had to give up martial arts because of family hardship, and resigned themselves to being ordinary.

No one in Class Six was a fool; they were on the cusp of high school and understood well that choosing to remain ordinary meant their only path to success lay in diligent study.

Martial artists in the safe zone enjoyed privileges and benefits that ordinary people coveted, but these were earned at the risk of their lives.

Martial artists frequently ventured into the wilderness to hunt star beasts, gradually reducing the threat of beast tides, while earning enough to buy cultivation resources—their rewards paid for in blood.

If not for the protection of martial artists, whether ordinary people in any small town within the safe zones could live safely as they did now would be a serious question...