The entire class period unfolded in a rather strange atmosphere.
The male students watched To Quyen lecture with infatuated gazes.
For them, at this moment, hearing that gentle voice was better than any number-one trending song on UTube.
Although To Quyen was very annoyed to encounter this stubborn Lam Minh, she still had to maintain a professional demeanor.
She, a distinguished student of class 11A03, was so brilliant that she was often asked by teachers to substitute for them.
There was a rather viral saying at school: "If there's a problem you can't solve, ask To Quyen. And if even she can't solve it, then the problem is wrong."
As brilliant as she was, when faced with Lam Minh, she was at a loss for words against such an arrogant fellow.
As for Lam Minh, he was quite pleased with the success of the plan he had just executed.
"She'll have a hard time forgetting my name," he thought to himself.
Looking at the attribute bubbles dropping from To Quyen as she lectured, Lam Minh really wanted to collect them.
That would mean he wouldn't have to try hard to listen to the lecture and could still grasp the necessary knowledge.
"Having to touch the attribute bubbles to collect them is really inconvenient. It would be so much better if I could collect them from a distance," Lam Minh looked at the bubbles with longing, but he had to endure.
In his heart, he wanted to graduate from high school with perfect scores, in both knowledge and cultivation.
He wanted to become an existence that had never appeared before.
According to Lam Minh's memory, no one had ever achieved that.
You were either good at academics and weak in cultivation, or you were a powerhouse among the students but average in terms of knowledge.
Every year, when the university results were announced, the rankings would be divided into two: the top scorer in knowledge and the top scorer in cultivation nationwide.
He wanted his name to be carved at the number one spot on both lists.
"Mmm, for the knowledge list, second place is fine too. Let To Quyen be number one. Standing below my girlfriend isn't a big deal," Lam Minh grew more and more smug as he thought, involuntarily chuckling to himself.
Le turned to look at Lam Minh with a deeply judgmental gaze. "What the hell are you laughing at? You look so vile. Are you planning to rape a pig in your head?"
Le's question pulled Lam Minh back to reality. Mmm, he shouldn't be too delusional. To win over a beautiful girl, he had to be truly outstanding, but right now, he was still the weakest individual in the school.
Before long, the Math period was over.
To Quyen left amidst the regretful sighs of countless male students in the class.
Before she left, she didn't forget to give Lam Minh one last glare.
"Heh heh, if I could pin that girl down, I'd willingly lose ten years of my life," one of the seven thugs said in a lecherous tone.
His words accidentally reached Lam Minh's ears. He turned to look at them. "You guys just wait. When my blood essence is truly powerful, I'll give you a thorough beating. A toad dreaming of swan meat."
He knew that day would come sooner or later, and he needed to diligently grind for points.
The next two periods of cultivation knowledge were truly boring.
Lam Minh had already lived a life until the age of 26; he had memorized this cultivation knowledge.
It only revolved around the most basic things.
If this subject wanted to be more interesting, it would be best to tell some drama from the Cultivation World, or the secret of some powerhouse, for example.
Ringgg!
The bell signaling break time had arrived.
In high schools in Vietnam, after every three periods, there was a 25-minute break before the final two periods.
As soon as the bell rang, Le Dao Khuc immediately dragged Lam Minh straight down to the canteen.
Break time was always like this; the liveliest place was the school canteen.
All the students flocked here to snack and chat.
…
A corner of the school canteen.
Lam Minh and Le were sitting there.
In front of them were two glasses of iced milk coffee.
Le's eyes were darting everywhere like a scanner; there wasn't a corner in the canteen that he missed.
Le had a rather peculiar hobby: girl-watching.
He liked to sit in a corner and quietly watch the beautiful girls of the school, then make comments about them, like who was pretty, who was ugly, and rate each one's beauty.
So perverted.
Lam Minh sat beside him, bored.
His mind was a mess of thoughts about cultivation.
He had a rather vexing question.
Collecting blood essence was only a matter of time for him, but what about the spiritual root?
Fighting dropped blood essence and martial arts; studying dropped knowledge.
So what did he have to do to collect spiritual root points?
A difficult question.
"Hey Le, does your family have a physical fitness measuring machine?" Lam Minh asked.
Le's eyes widened as he looked at Lam Minh and said, "Are you crazy? You can't just buy that machine with money, you know. You have to be licensed by the state to own one. Possessing it without a license is a crime on par with possessing illegal weapons."
Lam Minh looked at Le in surprise.
A poor person like him really didn't know about this.
In his entire life, he had only used that machine once, during the Combat University entrance exam. And all this time, he had thought that every rich family had one.
The physical fitness measuring machine was a device researched by human scientists from all synthesized knowledge, capable of giving the index of a cultivator's blood essence, mental strength value, and spiritual root level.
"Oh, so is there any other way to measure physical fitness?" Lam Minh asked.
"Yeah, at martial arts dojos. I think it's 500,000 VND (~$20) per measurement," Le said.
Lam Minh almost spat out a mouthful of coffee.
He only had 50,000 VND in his pocket. Treating Le to coffee cost him 30,000, leaving him with only 20,000.
Measure with what, faith?
In the current age of cultivation, martial arts dojos had opened up in large numbers everywhere.
They were established by human powerhouses, the first-generation cultivators with glorious achievements on the otherworldly battlefields.
They were specially trusted by the state, with high military ranks and positions.
No one knew if opening the dojos was the state's idea or their own, but the common goal was to develop humanity.
But then again, Lam Minh didn't really need to use a machine. The system told him everything already.
He was just curious and wanted to know Le's current physical fitness so he could help his friend.
"How much blood essence do you have right now?" Lam Minh asked Le.
"377," Le answered curtly.
Lam Minh immediately shut his mouth.
His blood essence is higher than mine.
But a level of 377 wasn't that high either.
It was currently October 2025. The Combat University entrance exam for his cohort would be in July 2027.
Counting on his fingers, there were about 22 months left. If this guy worked hard enough, he would probably be able to break through to the first layer of Body Tempering in time. Lam Minh realized he had to set a shining example to motivate Le to cultivate.
Ringgg!
The bell for class rang, signaling the start of the two fiery periods.
The school's announcement speaker blared: "Attention all students! Anyone from blocks A05 to A16 who wishes to participate in the combat assessment sparring, please proceed to the arena immediately. Students from the cultural and knowledge blocks may go home."
Participation in the combat assessment was completely voluntary. If you wanted to get into a special class for training, you should confidently participate; otherwise, you could go home.
Lam Minh looked at Le and asked, "Are you participating?"
"No way, you're crazy! The ones defending the platforms today are from class 11A01. Their blood essence is all around 700, some even have 800. You want to go up there and get beaten into a pulp? I'm going home," Le said, then casually slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out of the canteen.
Lam Minh immediately grabbed Le's arm. "If you're not participating, then go and cheer for me."
Le's eyes widened at Lam Minh again. "You're really strange today, not like your usual self at all. But if you want to participate, I'll cheer for you with all my might. What a pain. But who told you to be my brother."
Lam Minh just chuckled. This guy really had no dreams of becoming a powerhouse.
In his previous life, he had never participated in these sparring sessions because he had the same thought as Le did now: go up there to get beaten into a pulp?
But now it was different. He needed attribute points.
He would do anything to get stronger.
Heaven had given him a chance, and he would never let himself have regrets again.
Lam Minh and Le headed straight for the school's arena.
It was called an arena, but it was not small. It was a vast indoor plaza, surrounded by stands like a football stadium.
In the middle of the plaza were eight platforms, each 50 square meters, extremely spacious.
When Lam Minh and Le entered, the stands were already packed with supporters. A glance revealed several banners cheering for the platform defenders from class 11A01.
Fan clubs, huh.
Lam Minh looked to another spot and saw that To Quyen was also sitting there watching.
She turned and saw Lam Minh, her expression showing a hint of surprise at his presence here.
A little surprising, but this also made him feel a bit more excited.
The rest were students who didn't want to challenge but still came to cheer for those who dared to challenge the top students of the school.
Le went straight to the stands and chose a seat, while Lam Minh split off and went to the registration area.
He took a piece of paper from a teacher and wrote his name on it: "Lam Minh, Class 11A10." Then he dropped it into a cardboard box.
After registering, he chose a chair in the student area and sat down to observe.
Before long, the school stopped accepting registrations. The format of the sparring session was actually very simple.
Each session would have a maximum of 100 students registered; first come, first served. But the number varied each time; sometimes there were only 10 students.
In reality, not everyone was confident enough to challenge students from classes A01 and A02.
They were the children of prestigious families, nurtured from a very young age, with powerful blood essence and martial arts.
Those who dared to register to challenge were mostly also children of well-off or rich families who also wanted to get into the special training classes.
Each session, the school would select the eight students with the worst physical fitness test results from classes A01 and A02 to defend the platforms.
If they were defeated by a student from a regular class, they would have to switch places with their defeater.
A very harsh system.
But when you were selected for a special class, you would be provided with a rich nutritional regime (a completely free three-meal buffet per day), and you could either stay in the cultural classes or immerse yourself in the school's martial arts training ground at your leisure.
There would always be Body Tempering realm cultivators there to train you.
With such good conditions, if you were still defeated, wasn't it because you were too weak and didn't deserve further nurturing?
In fact, the number of successful challenges had always been very small.
In this session, the number had suddenly surged, reaching 21 students.
Kenggg!
A resounding bell rang.
"Welcome, students, to the combat sparring session! The challenge, OFFICIALLY BEGINS!!!" The teacher's voice boomed through the microphone, like a real MC.
At this moment, the eight powerhouse students from class 11A01 also stepped onto the eight platforms as a grand entrance.