Chapter 97 : Chapter 97

Chapter 97: A Growth-Type Talent Appears

Adjutant Zhang smiled and gave Li Mu a brief explanation.

Li Mu had originally wanted to give Wang Yinhuan a High-Grade Body-Fortifying Pill in return.

But after thinking it over, he decided against it.

He was not exactly rich in pills right now, so he could not afford to be recklessly generous.

Besides, although pill refinement did exist in the High-Martial World, the fewer people who knew about his pills, the better.

If he did not intend to give one to Adjutant Zhang as well, then he should not send it through his hands.

If he was going to let Wang Yinhuan take a pill, then he had to give it to her personally.

And the more discreetly, the better.

Ideally, he would have her close her eyes, open her mouth, and then directly stuff it into her mouth...

The pill, that was.

“Help me thank her. I really like this wine gourd, and it happens to be exactly what I need.”

Li Mu gave the Dragon-Phoenix Gourd a little shake as he spoke.

Adjutant Zhang left with a smile.

Li Mu, meanwhile, took the wine gourd back to his room.

To Li Mu, the quality of a Spirit Treasure was not especially important.

He could modify it with Triumph Points.

But Wang Yinhuan’s thoughtfulness was extremely rare.

During the Mother Crystal mission, Li Mu had drunk wine from a gourd in front of Wang Yinhuan once.

She had realized that his drinking had a combat use, and she had taken it to heart.

Interesting.

Back in his room, Li Mu began absorbing the remaining pills one after another.

By the time he took the third Body-Fortifying Pill, his body had indeed started developing medicinal resistance.

And after Li Mu absorbed the fourth pill, its effect was only half that of the first.

Li Mu felt somewhat conflicted.

Because he did not know whether this medicinal resistance had appeared because he had taken too many in too short a time,

or whether it would remain no matter how long the interval between doses was.

Could medicinal resistance be eliminated?

Those questions would have to wait until the next batch of pills was ready for him to verify.

And in truth, Li Mu also wanted to try a Qi-Gathering Pill.

Something that could speed up his cultivation a bit. Even though he was already cultivating at nearly triple the normal speed at all times,

he still felt it was too slow!

It seemed that improving the effects of the Spiritual Spring and the Blessing Field had become an urgent priority.

The next day.

Morning.

Ironhand City Central Plaza.

The enormous arena had already been set up.

Banners filled the sky, all bearing the same words: Ironhand City Four-District Elite Martial Artist Ranking Tournament.

The surrounding plaza was packed solid with people.

Among the crowd were countless small banners, most likely made by various schools on their own initiative.

Of course, there were also some personal banners.

For example, slogans like “Yanyan Baby Support Squad” and “Yanbao Number One, Goddess Unmatched.”

Li Mu had arrived fairly early.

The entire Blackwater High School section was not yet full.

Li Mu walked to the preparation seating at the very front.

Xiao Lingtong spotted Li Mu from the audience seats and ran over to greet him with a grin.

Li Mu casually asked,

“That Yanyan Baby is that SS-grade martial artist, right?”

“Yeah. You don’t even know her name?” Xiao Lingtong replied with an all-knowing look. “Song Yan, Ironhand City’s only SS-grade martial artist at the moment.”

“She’s already at the peak of the Third Grade now.”

“Not only is she incredibly strong, she’s also unbelievably beautiful.”

“She’s already become the new generation’s goddess for homebound boys. She has countless fans who follow her for her looks alone.”

“She’s even more popular than some celebrities!”

“She studies at Golden Scale High School, which is currently ranked number one in all of Ironhand City.”

“Our Blackwater High School is ranked seventeenth in the whole city.”

Li Mu nodded.

“Do your best, Boss. Blackwater High School is counting on you!”

“I put three thousand on you taking first place! The four champions from the Abyss First Battle are all hot favorites!”

Xiao Lingtong raised a fist at Li Mu in encouragement.

“You even placed a bet?”

Li Mu said irritably.

“Hehe, just a little harmless fun.”

“The school leaders are here. I’m heading back to the audience seats. Good luck!”

As he spoke, Xiao Lingtong spotted some school leaders approaching and immediately slipped back into the audience section.

All of the students participating in this competition were in the preparation seating.

The preparation seating was in front of the leaders’ section. The leaders’ section was in front of the academy audience sections.

The academy audience sections were in front of the general audience sections, and the arrangement spread outward in a fan shape toward the rear.

Several school leaders smiled and nodded at Li Mu in greeting.

Although Li Mu had hardly attended class these past few days,

the school leaders had long since learned that Li Mu had been promoted to Wolf Guard.

Wolf Guard!

At that point, who still cared whether he attended class or not?

If Li Mu were willing, he could come to the school and teach the school leaders a lesson or two instead.

So they had not even bothered requiring leave applications. Yin Changming had directly exempted Li Mu from asking for leave.

The fact that Li Mu had come to participate in this Elite Tournament today

almost gave people the feeling that he was just here for fun.

Not long afterward, Zhang Zhiwei and Lu Chenfeng also arrived one after the other.

The fangirl group from Blackwater High School kept finding excuses to run over to the competitors’ seating area.

They brought water, flowers, and snacks,

using those opportunities to get close to the three male gods who were usually so hard to see.

Li Mu, Zhang Zhiwei, and Lu Chenfeng each had their own devoted fangirls.

Of course, there were also some who liked two of them at the same time, or even all three.

Naturally, the competitors seated there had become the center of attention for students from the other schools as well.

And in the Blackwater High School section,

Li Mu and Zhang Zhiwei were already tall and handsome to begin with, and with Lu Chenfeng added in,

the three of them standing together radiated overwhelming presence, as though they looked down on everything before them.

Their whole atmosphere felt somewhat different from that of the other competitors’ sections.

People began discussing them.

“I heard the top three from the Eastern District’s First Battle all came from the same school. It’s those guys, right?”

“What ignorance. They’re called the Blackwater Three Towers!”

“That’s right, I’ve heard of them too. Apparently the name first spread from the chuuni fangirls at their school.”

“Even the nearby schools all know it now.”

“Lu Chenfeng is the ‘Unbreaking Tower.’ His defense is so strong that no one can break it.”

“Zhang Zhiwei is the ‘Piercing Gold Tower.’ His golden spear pierces through everything.”

“As for Li Mu, I only know he’s called the ‘Heaven-Reaching Tower.’ As for why, I have no idea.”

Someone gave a smug snort and smiled without saying anything.

Everyone else immediately turned toward him.

“Hey, what are you grinning about? Wait, you’re an Abyss-Suppression Army reservist, aren’t you? Do you know some inside information?”

The reservist student replied smugly,

“Looks like your information really isn’t even as good as the fangirls from Blackwater High School.”

“‘Heaven-Reaching Tower’ means his methods reach the heavens.”

“It’s just a pity that all you’ve seen is Wolf Guard Li using words as law during the Abyss First Battle to immobilize monsters.”

“If you joined the Abyss-Suppression Army, then you’d know what truly heaven-reaching methods look like!”

After saying that, the student folded his arms and struck a deliberately profound pose.

No matter how everyone else pestered him for answers after that, he refused to say another word.

If not for the confidentiality agreement, he really could have enlightened them a little.

He counted as one of the better-informed people in the military district.

The military district kept its confidentiality agreement for the surface world in order to preserve social stability and prevent panic.

But within the military district itself, there were hardly any real secrets.

The video of Li Mu bringing back the Mother Crystal during his mission had been played before the people at the Research Institute.

Li Mu’s Transformation Technique, Duplication Technique, Safe-Haven Method, and other near-miraculous abilities had long since spread through rumor.

Originally, many soldiers had not seen it with their own eyes, so it remained just a rumor.

But the fact that the Cultivation Art Research Bureau had personally sent people over, and that Li Mu had been directly promoted to Wolf Guard, was undeniable. The weight of those rumors instantly became very different.

Some people even felt that the rumors had been too conservative...

Just then,

the giant screen above the arena began to light up with images.

Countless spectators erupted at once, because that meant the competition was about to begin.

The screen showed a points ranking.

The five largest names at the very top were the top five.

They were:

First place: Song Yan, SS-grade talent, points: 9718

Second place: Zhou Yishan, S-grade talent, points: 8715

Third place: Li Mu, D-grade talent, points: 8650

Fourth place: Hua Feng, S-grade talent, points: 8610

Fifth place: Sun Dongdong, S-grade talent, points: 8560

These five names were the largest and most eye-catching.

Below them, in sixth place, was Zhang Zhiwei with 8430 points, trailing extremely closely.

As for Lu Chenfeng, with more than seven thousand points, he was in eighth place.

However, there had always been a saying going around.

People said that the Eastern District had been the unluckiest district in the First Battle, because only they had encountered the Red Zone monster mutation incident.

People had even died, causing their assessment to end one or two hours early.

Otherwise, under normal circumstances, the top three of the Eastern District would have had far more points than they did now.

But what shocked everyone most was not that.

It was Li Mu’s extraordinarily conspicuous D-grade talent!

“What’s going on!? Wasn’t Li Mu’s talent F-grade??”

“Exactly. Is my memory messed up, or did the organizers make a mistake?”

“Li Mu had his S-grade talent stripped away and replaced with F-grade.”

“Half of Ironhand City knows about that mess in the Li Family.”

“Could it be that Li Mu’s talent... mutated??”

In the Saint Dragon Martial Academy section,

when Li Xiaohao in the competitors’ seating saw this scene, his eyes immediately blazed with fury.

What exactly was going on!?