Chapter 441: The Scene of Chen Shu's Graduation Defense

The small courtyard has awakened from its hibernation once again; the previously bare rose bushes have become lush and green, with the climbing varieties looking particularly delightful. The two climbing vines by the swing have grown for several years and have already covered the top of the swing frame, with flower buds everywhere.

The fast-growing ones are already showing color.

This year, the temperature in Yujing is warming up slowly; the east wind is biting and cold, and before one realizes it, spring is already late.

The third day of the third lunar month, cloudy and windy.

It is the day of Chen Shu's thesis defense.

Time: 8:00 AM.

Location: Ancient Cultivation Building 105.

Chen Shu arrived right on time, and Qingqing came with him.

The classroom was already filled with many people.

The first two rows were the judging panel, with a large number of people. When Chen Shu graduated from university in his past life, there were five judges, but here sat over a dozen. Just as Teacher Shi Qian had said, Chen Shu recognized most of the teachers; he had even researched spells with a few of them. After all, there were only so many top-tier spell teachers at Yujing Academy, and they surely had to participate in the two major Magic Research projects that Teacher Shi Qian was running.

That teacher who liked to find amusement was also there.

The Dean of the academy was also presiding.

There were also a few faces Chen Shu was not very familiar with.

One was not a teacher of spell design but a teacher of cultivation courses, and since they hadn't taught his class, Chen Shu naturally wasn't very familiar with them.

One was too senior, likely no longer teaching, and hadn't participated in Teacher Shi Qian's projects, so Chen Shu didn't recognize them either.

There was also one who looked very young, seemingly hired only last year; when Teacher Shi Qian was lecturing last year, he seemed to have come to audit and learn.

The back rows were occupied by the students.

Teacher Shi Qian had many students this year and a heavy workload, so the defenses were divided into four batches—one batch in the morning and one in the afternoon, finishing over two days.

There were also two defense Secretaries, who were teachers, mainly responsible for recording questions, filming the entire process, managing the defense time, and other miscellaneous tasks.

Chen Shu led Qingqing and sat at the very back.

"Is everyone here? Let me take roll."

Teacher Shi Qian stretched his neck, counted the number of people, and then said to the defense Secretaries:

"Begin..."

The Secretary teacher nodded, and one of them turned on the video camera.

"Let me briefly introduce the judges and the judging mechanism to everyone. First is Teacher Lin Jinyu..." Teacher Shi Qian pointed to the male teacher who had once tried to take Chen Shu out to find amusement, introduced the other judges one by one, and finally said, "There are twelve judges. Everyone needs to get over ten votes. If more than two teachers feel you do not pass, it will be a pity."

Everyone looked at each other, though they weren't very nervous.

Teacher Shi Qian was quite impressive; he had tipped them off yesterday, saying that two-thirds of the teachers present were his good colleagues, and they only needed to ensure that among the remaining four teachers, there wouldn't be three who refused to pass them.

"Who will go first?"

Teacher Shi Qian looked at the group.

Everyone looked at each other, but no one volunteered.

Teacher Shi Qian felt a bit awkward for a moment.

Seeing this, Chen Shu raised his hand.

"Alright!"

Teacher Shi Qian called his name: "Chen Shu, you go first to set an example. Present well; the Dean came specifically for your thesis."

What Dean? This is clearly my Spirit Sect elder!

"Flattered..."

Chen Shu walked to the podium modestly, handed a copy of his graduation thesis to each judge, then plugged in the Crystal Disk and opened the presentation.

His thesis title immediately appeared on the Wall Projector.

At the same time, the judges received the thesis, looked down, and the title caught their eyes: "Improvement Method for Tracer Technique Based on Reverse Rune Principle."

The Dean immediately revealed a smile.

Another old professor frowned.

Not just him, several teachers who had interacted with Chen Shu were also stunned.

This topic was too "big."

The young teacher hired last year looked puzzled: Has the level of undergraduates now reached this point? Or could it be that such an obviously impossible thesis could actually be approved by Teacher Shi Qian?

Only Teacher Shi Qian wore a smile, glancing lightly at his colleagues' reactions. He had hidden it for so long, held it in for so long, and finally, it was time for the harvest.

"Hello, judges. My name is Chen Shu, a student of the Spell Principles major at the Traditional Cultivation Academy, student ID 50201011001. This time, I have completed a graduation project; the thesis title is 'Improvement Method for Tracer Technique Based on Reverse Rune Principle.' The results have already been produced. Next, I will introduce my research approach, technical points, and the performance and test data of the improved spell."

Chen Shu pressed the remote for the Wall Projector, and the presentation immediately flipped to the next page.

"Why research improvements for this spell?

"It is because after reaching the Sixth Stage and even the Seventh Stage, I discovered that the Tracer Technique, which originally performed excellently and was frequently used, was limited by a series of reasons such as spell structure, operating principles, and rune performance. Facing increasingly high-quality Spirit Power, its effectiveness became worse and worse, to the point that in high-tier conflicts, the Tracer Technique actually turned from a purely offensive spell into a semi-defensive and semi-functional spell. So I wondered, could I make improvements to it?"

Seventh Stage...

Several teachers showed complex expressions.

The young teacher was the most complex of all.

The other students were stunned.

"But using conventional methods to improve the Tracer Technique is clearly not feasible; with the same spell principles, it has already reached its limit. It just so happened that I had been researching the Great Blazing Sun Art and reverse runes for some time, and suddenly one day, I had an inspiration. I delved into it deeply and finally succeeded in using the Reverse Rune Principle to develop a set of runes with powerful explosive force."

Great Blazing Sun Art...

Several teachers felt a mix of emotions inside.

The young teacher was the most sour.

The other students blinked their eyes.

"This is a brand-new Rune Group based on the Reverse Rune Principle. I have named it 'Fat Boy.' For now, I have only used it on the Tracer Technique, but in the future, it may have more uses and shine in more spells or weapons and equipment."

A brand-new Rune Group based on the Reverse Rune Principle...

Several teachers scratched their heads and ears.

The young teacher, in particular, scratched the hardest.

The rest of the students had blank expressions on their faces.

"As shown in the diagram, this is one part of it. As for the complete Rune Group, since it has been adopted by the military and involves classified information, it is inconvenient to disclose."

Adopted by the military...

Involves classified information, inconvenient to disclose...

Several teachers took deep breaths and then slowly exhaled.

The young teacher's chest heaved the most violently.

The other students were already numb.

"Through some operations, I successfully used the 'Fat Boy' Rune Group to replace the core Combat Rune Group of the Tracer Technique, and based on the changes, I also made corresponding modifications to other Auxiliary Rune Groups, continuously optimizing them. The process and results are shown in the diagram. At the same time, I also conducted certain actual combat tests on it at last year's global anti-Fear Xixiao Battlefield, and the results were quite good."

Xixiao Battlefield, actual combat tests...

Is this really a student who hasn't graduated yet?

The young teacher's eyes were wide open.

"Let me briefly state my personal test results. When using the improved 'High-level Tracer Spell' at the Seventh Stage, injecting an equal standard of Seventh Stage Spirit Power, and using our country's current military Tracer Technique as a comparison, the explosive power of the improved 'High-level Tracer Spell' is currently increased by over 700%. It can allow the Tracer Technique to return to the actual combat status it possessed at approximately the Fourth or Fifth Stage. Furthermore, the higher the Spirit Power Quality and the higher the cultivation, the more obvious the increase and the greater the gap."

"The disadvantage is that it has high requirements for Spirit Power Quality, requiring at least Seventh Stage Spirit Power Quality."

"The specific performance parameters and test data are as shown in the diagram."

"Currently, it has been registered for a Spell patent, included by the Spirit Sect, and adopted by our country's military, prepared for use in replacing the spell structure of Heavy Spirit Power Cannons."

Over 700%...

"Gulp!"

Several teachers swallowed their saliva.

Just then, a strange sound was heard. Several teachers turned their heads to look and discovered that the young teacher was swallowing his saliva incessantly.

"Teacher Fang? Teacher Fang Duan?"

"Ah? Ah?"

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine..."

"Please provide your guidance, teachers." Chen Shu closed the presentation and looked at everyone.

Guidance? What kind of guidance could there be?

Who understands your Reverse Rune Principle anyway...

Besides, you've done actual combat testing, increased explosive power by over 700%, had it adopted by the military, and included by the Spirit Sect, and it's about to be used to replace the Rune Group for Heavy Spirit Power Cannons—what else is there to guide?

Everyone looked at each other in dismay for a moment, and no one spoke.

The students in the back were even more stunned like wooden chickens.

Only Teacher Shi Qian was smiling with satisfaction.

The classroom was completely silent.

Only the defense Secretary was heard reminding them: "Teachers, do you have any questions?"

The teachers looked at one another.

Finally, only the youngest teacher, Fang Duan, raised his head: "May I ask... student Chen Shu... how long did it take you to research and improve this spell?"

"Just improving the spell itself took less than half a year. However, I had been thinking about and researching the content of the Reverse Spell Principles for a while before that, and this part of the research played a very important role in my development of the 'Fat Boy' Rune Group."

"Mm-hmm, not bad, not bad..."

"Does Teacher Fang have any more questions?"

"There is one more."

"Please go ahead."

"How is your brain grown?"

"Emmm..."

"Ahem!"

Teacher Shi Qian coughed twice: "Since everyone has no questions, let's proceed to the concluding statement and then the critique."

"Very well."

Chen Shu nodded: "The high-level improvement of the Tracer Technique has played a very significant role in advancing my research on the Reverse Rune Principle. At the same time, the actual combat tests in Xixiao have also allowed me to gain a great deal. I am also very honored to be able to contribute to the improvement of the power of our motherland's high-end Spirit Power Cannon weapons. I would also like to thank my mentor, Teacher Shi Qian, for his help during this process; he gave me many suggestions and allowed me to learn a lot."

Speaking to this point, he couldn't help but pause.

Teacher Shi Qian had specifically instructed him a few days ago—

The concluding statement should be divided into two aspects: one is the insights gained during the process of creating the graduation project and thesis, and the other is the gains made during the defense process.

The former was there, but looking at today's defense process, it seemed the teachers hadn't done anything; they just stared at him blankly and said nothing, no different from the students sitting in the back. Chen Shu even suspected they hadn't understood.

"Thank you all for listening."

Chen Shu said as such, bowing slightly to pay his respects.

Several teachers also hurriedly lowered their heads and began to vote.

Without any surprise, it passed with a unanimous vote.

Chen Shu thanked the teachers again, then returned to his seat and asked Qingqing in a low voice:

"Am I handsome?"

Qingqing tugged at his crooked collar:

"Handsome."

The next student went up to the stage.

Faintly, he could hear the Dean and the old professor ahead whispering to each other about how they needed to promote this well, while the student who had just taken the stage cleared their throat, nervously introduced themselves, brought out a somewhat lackluster thesis, and read from the presentation slides with a dry throat.

Chen Shu listened to a few people, then sent a message to teacher Shi Qian and left with Qingqing.

They went to eat sour soup pig trotters.