When the final results came out, the monitoring room erupted in uproar. Third place!
This was the score given by the Virtual Martial Arts Tower based on everyone’s live performance, comprehensively evaluating the number of clears, time, and difficulty—there was no possibility of cheating.
That meant Feng Lin had relied entirely on his own genuine ability!
A kid with a life force of 1.5 had actually taken third place in the entire school? Who would believe it? Who could believe it?
But the facts were right there in front of them. The optical brain never made mistakes, leaving them no choice but to accept it.
There were a total of fifty graduating classes at Earth Middle School, and this kid had snatched third place. Except for Duan Yunliu and Jeskelot, everyone else was beneath him.
Even Zhuang Ziming and Fang Yun, whom the principal had singled out for praise, hadn’t made it into the top three.
A dark horse—an absolute dark horse!
“Congratulations on having a genius in your class! Looks like you’ve taught him well,” the principal said to the female homeroom teacher, offering his congratulations.
The other homeroom teachers’ faces darkened. Remembering their earlier comments about Feng Lin, their cheeks burned with shame.
“Thank you, Principal! This is all thanks to your excellent guidance and Feng Lin’s own hard work,” the female homeroom teacher replied modestly, not taking any credit. Despite her words, she couldn’t hide the smile on her face.
No matter what, having a genius suddenly emerge from her class meant she, as the homeroom teacher, had at least some share of the credit—something no one could take away.
Even with her temperament akin to the “Eternal Extinction Nun,” she was now beaming, forgetting how dismissive she had been of Feng Lin before.
It was a huge honor—a massive honor!
The other homeroom teachers wore disdainful expressions, but inwardly they envied the female teacher’s good fortune, their emotions a tangled mess.
Yet the principal’s next words wiped the smile off the female teacher’s face, while the others lit up with joy.
“Although Feng Lin’s combat strength is impressive, his life force is far too low—still under 2. That’s the foundation of cultivation! So from now on, none of us should disturb him. Let’s observe his future development. We’ll know whether he’s a dragon or a worm soon enough!” The principal clapped his hands and made his decision. “If he can break through to 2, we’ll immediately treat him as a key candidate for the college entrance exam and invest heavily in his training!”
“The principal is wise!”
“A life force of 1.5 is indeed too low. Knowing martial arts alone only fuels reckless courage. Elevating the essence of life is the real key!”
“Without becoming a cultivator, it’s all in vain! Without life force, what use is high combat power?”
…
They all nodded in agreement, putting on a show of considering the bigger picture.
In their hearts, though, they breathed a sigh of relief, temporarily unbothered by the threat this kid posed to their own classes’ geniuses.
The female homeroom teacher was furious. They were clearly gloating and kicking someone when they were down.
But there was nothing she could do—the principal had already spoken.
Indeed, life force was the foundation.
Without becoming an interstellar cultivator, everything was meaningless.
No matter how great your talent or how strong your combat power, in the end, it was nothing but a fleeting illusion, empty and void.
What infuriated her was that despite Feng Lin’s outstanding performance, the principal was still acting this way, clearly lacking confidence in him and not believing in his potential.
The principal was well aware that his decision was somewhat unfair to Feng Lin, so he added to the female teacher, “Feng Lin’s performance is indeed incredible. Don’t worry—I’m not ignoring him! It’s just that his previous results were too poor, and this sudden surge might only be a temporary burst, not yet reliable. We don’t know if it’s a true explosion of potential or if he’s stumbled upon some incredible opportunity. So we’ll continue observing. If he can maintain this rapid progress, he’ll definitely become a key candidate for the school’s focused training. So if he has any needs in his cultivation going forward, you can do your best to accommodate him!”
The surrounding homeroom teachers were startled again, never expecting the principal to offer such treatment—it was unprecedented.
Seeing the principal take this stance, the female homeroom teacher grudgingly agreed.
The training hall was dark and silent. After a long while, a faint voice echoed.
“Just third place?” Feng Lin lay on the ground, gasping for breath. He struggled to lift his head and look at the score, lost in thought.
He knew the Martial Arts Tower’s evaluation criteria well. If it were about the number of floors cleared, he would undoubtedly be first.
But his floor levels were too low, so his score wasn’t high.
In the end, he lost to the second-place finisher by a narrow margin of three points, landing in third.
As the Virtual Martial Arts Tower shut down, the optical brain projected a three-dimensional human image in front of Feng Lin, with data cascading down like a waterfall.
“Name: Feng Lin. Identity: Earth Middle School, senior year student. Floors cleared: 20. Age: 17. Life force: 1.5. Gene: Body enhancement type. Strengths: Powerful combat ability, capable of fighting above his level… Weaknesses: Gene potential not fully developed, nutritional deficiency, life force overdrawn…”
This was clearly a human attribute table, similar to a genetic equation but with differences.
It was data scanned by the Martial Arts Tower’s optical brain, still showing a life force of only 1.5—stuck at the previous value, failing to detect that Feng Lin’s life force had already broken through to 1.9.
Moreover, it couldn’t scan genetic attributes, far less accurate than the genetic equation.
“Warning, warning! Student Feng Lin’s gene potential is not fully developed, nutritional deficiency is severe, and life potential is excessively overdrawn. Please replenish nutrients immediately!” At that moment, the optical brain’s warning sounded in Feng Lin’s ear.
Gene potential not fully developed—what did that mean?
His two genes were nearly pushed to their limits, surpassing all predecessors, yet it still showed incomplete development. That didn’t make sense!
Though puzzled, Feng Lin didn’t think the optical brain was wrong.
After all, the Martial Arts Tower’s optical brain was an intelligent system optimized with data from countless powerful interstellar cultivators’ experiences. Its understanding of martial arts cut to the core, and the accuracy of its scanned data reached 99.999999…%, infinitely close to 100%.
There had to be a reason.
The optical brain had intelligence and could communicate like a normal person. Feng Lin began to interact with it.
“Hello, student Feng Lin. The Virtual Martial Arts Tower’s intelligent optical brain is at your service!” A mechanical female voice sounded.
“I want to ask—what’s this about life being overdrawn and gene potential not being fully activated?” Feng Lin inquired.
The optical brain’s voice was cold as it revealed a fact that made Feng Lin’s heart race.
“The optical brain cannot analyze the peculiar changes in your body. All your cells are highly active, as if overstimulated by some factor, yet they lack sufficient nutrients. As a result, the cells have expanded but remain in a prolonged state of starvation. Your recent rapid increase in life force is actually the cells devouring your life potential. Without adequate nutritional supplementation, if this continues, you will soon suffer physical depletion and die from overdrawn life force…”