Chapter 320: Twenty years of hard work is not as good as your twenty days of cheating?
When Si Yuan created the breathing method, he wanted to create a basic method that was fair to everyone, so that everyone could start from the same starting line, and then select the geniuses among them based on how fast they progress in practicing the breathing method, trying not to leave out any geniuses.
Therefore, the breathing method reduces the demand for resources to the minimum. It only needs to absorb the spiritual energy that exists in the world. Although the efficiency of absorbing spiritual energy may vary due to different concentrations of spiritual energy, it generally has little impact.
At the very least, there won't be a situation where a genius from an ordinary family relies on his own hard work to practice breathing techniques, but his progress in practice is completely unable to catch up with that of an ordinary person from a wealthy family.
Although the family is better off and has more resources, it is indeed helpful for practicing breathing techniques, but the help is not that great. After all, it is still in the foundation-laying stage. Unless someone is like Si Yuan who extracts the essence from the world's top natural treasures and refines them into mild medicine that does not harm the body, and uses spiritual power to cleanse the child's essence and marrow, it is impossible to force growth.
It can be said that practicing Si Yuan's breathing method puts everyone, regardless of their background, wealth, status, or social class, on the same starting line.
Even a child like Yue Huaixiu, who was sometimes forced to not eat enough, could absorb spiritual energy into his body through practicing breathing techniques and relieve the hunger that the body needed to eat to replenish energy.
The only thing that makes a difference in the progress of practicing breathing techniques is talent. Those with good talent practice quickly, while those with poor talent practice slowly.
Although the teachers in school did not explicitly say this, the students were not fools. They knew that the faster the cultivation speed, the better. This could be seen from the teachers' attitudes towards the students who cultivated the fastest.
A laggard like Yue Huaixiu only received a few questions from the martial arts teacher when he first started practicing, and the teacher basically ignored him after that.
Because at his current speed of training, he is destined to never become a warrior and will just be an ordinary person. When he enters high school and chooses his major, he may voluntarily choose liberal arts.
Nowadays, high schools are divided into liberal arts and martial arts departments starting from the second year of high school. It is voluntary to fill in the application form and the school does not force any choice. In other words, even a last-place student like Yue Huaixiu can request to continue studying martial arts.
However, martial arts courses generally focus on teaching students how to practice. When classmates in the same class have greatly increased their strength and speed, while the students themselves have almost remained the same, they are just punching bags for their classmates during sparring in class due to their lack of strength. Not many students can persist in this kind of life. Almost all students who have no talent in martial arts but are unwilling to give up will soon give up and transfer to the liberal arts class to continue studying liberal arts.
Liberal arts students do not completely stop taking martial arts classes, just like martial arts students do not completely stop taking cultural classes. Liberal arts students simply focus more on cultural knowledge. Liberal arts students still have to take martial arts classes, but the progress will be much slower, and they will teach more self-preservation skills, such as how to escape as soon as possible when attacked by monsters, instead of having to learn how to fight monsters for life and death like martial arts students.
However, these are things that high schools have to consider. Yue Huaixiu and other first-grade kids don't know about this yet, but their teachers know about it. So teachers treat those students who are not practicing fast enough with the attitude of just trying their best to teach them, without demanding too much. It doesn't matter if they don't practice for a few days and rest for two days, because they won't be warriors in the future anyway, they can just be ordinary people and practice breathing techniques to strengthen their bodies.
With this attitude of the teacher, those students who are slow in cultivation will naturally become lazy.
That is to say, Yue Huaixiu's life was difficult, and he realized the benefits of practicing breathing techniques - practicing breathing techniques could prevent hunger and help heal injuries faster after being beaten by his father. Only then was he willing to persist in practicing.
Unfortunately, if you don't have talent, it won't work. For ordinary people, cultivation is like turning on a faucet to release water, for geniuses, cultivation is like opening a dam to release water, and Yue Huaixiu's cultivation is like dripping water drop by drop. It is not easy to expect water to wear away a stone.
Yue Huaixiu himself was a little discouraged. Every time he compared the progress of his classmates' training, he no longer had any hope for the scene he had imagined in his mind when he first came into contact with the breathing method: 'successful training, becoming a powerful warrior, and his father being ecstatic to apologize to him and ask for forgiveness'.
He now insisted on practicing only because he continued with the idea that the breathing method was still of some benefit to him.
When Grandma Yue was cleaning the living room, she glanced at her grandson who was sitting in the corner practicing, and sighed slightly.
In fact, she was also practicing breathing techniques, but her aptitude was also not very good. Her progress in practice was very touching. It could only be said that it relieved the pain from her old cold leg rheumatism that she had suffered for many years, making her more comfortable and allowing her to survive longer under the beatings from her son.
She knew clearly that her own aptitude for cultivation was not good, and neither was Yue Rong's. Like a dragon, like a phoenix, like a phoenix; like a mouse's son, he will dig holes. Yue Huaixiu must have inherited their aptitude for cultivation, but his cultivation speed was not very good.
The examples of those genius children who were valued by the country and changed their families because of their extremely fast breathing skills were too far away from the Yue family.
Time just flies by like a white horse passing by.
In the blink of an eye, the cub grew a lot.
Yan Huaixiu is about to take the high school entrance examination.
This year's high school entrance examination is a nationwide unified examination. Not only are the cultural subjects examinations unified, but even the martial arts subjects have a similar examination process - a ring battle.
The test questions for cultural subjects are of course kept extremely confidential and will not be leaked, but the test questions for martial arts are public - fighting against growing monsters in the ring.
The test results are based on the candidates' on-the-spot performance and the examiners' evaluations. The entire process is recorded and videotaped to ensure relative fairness.
As for why it is relative fairness rather than absolute fairness, it is because there is no such thing as absolute fairness in the world.
For example, the strength of monsters in their growth stage varies. Even if the people responsible for capturing monsters will try their best to choose monsters of similar strength as test questions for students, it is impossible to fix the strength of all monsters within the same limit.
Furthermore, the number of monsters is not so large that they can be wasted at will, so every candidate faces a new monster. A monster will only be replaced if it is injured and its strength is affected.
Therefore, the candidates who take the exam first will face monsters that are in peak state of energy and spirit. The candidates who take the exam later will have much better luck because the monsters will have their energy consumed by the candidates in front of them, and they will have a greater hope of passing the exam.
Of course, the examiners will take the status of the monster into consideration when evaluating the scores, but the candidates who appear later still have an advantage.
Yan Huaixiu faced such a problem when he took the high school entrance examination at that time.
Because this is the first time that a martial arts exam is included in the high school entrance examination, and there is precedent for the cultural subject exams, which have been completed early, but this is the first time that a martial arts exam has been included.
Although spiritual energy has been revived for more than ten years, the students trained before were of relatively ordinary strength and were no match for the growing monsters. Not to mention the middle school entrance examination, it was impossible for them to be tested with monsters in the college entrance examination.
The cabinet had been arguing for so many years, and finally this year Si Yuan made the final decision and finalized the martial arts test questions for this year's high school entrance examination.
The reason is very simple, Yan Huaixiu is going to take the high school entrance examination this year.
Si Yuan wouldn't want the kid he raised to just take a test on the basics of martial arts. Of course, he would have to fight with real guns and swords to make his years of teaching worthwhile.
Since Si Yuan, the Martial Ancestor, had made the final decision, no one in the cabinet dared to object, so the matter was carried out smoothly.
In order to prepare everyone, the official has warmed up early and informed parents what the martial arts test questions will be for this year's high school entrance examination. Of course, they also made a guarantee that there will be martial arts examiners on duty during the martial arts exam to ensure that your children will not die under the claws of monsters.
Monsters in their growth stage are actually half-grown children, and their strength is definitely not as good as that of warriors. With the strength of warriors, they are able to fully guarantee the safety of every student.
However, once a student needs the rescue of the martial arts examiner, it means that the exam time for this student is over.
After this news was announced, the entire Internet was in an uproar.
There are many supporters and opponents.
Supporters believe that the world has changed now, and there are monsters everywhere after the spiritual energy has been revived. The city is not particularly safe, and rat-like monsters often rush out of the sewers to hurt people. Even if there are police patrolling to protect everyone, it is far better to rely on yourself than on others. Children should practice more and learn more skills in school so that when they encounter danger, at least they can run away by themselves, or hold on until the police come to rescue.
Opponents believe that children are young seedlings or buds in an ivory tower. How can we let underage children fight a life-and-death battle with such a terrifying monster so early in life? Even if there is no danger to life. They would prefer to continue with the previous safe written exam format.
However, times have changed, and the official decision will not be withdrawn. But the authorities also leave room for opponents - if you really don't want your children to fight a life-and-death battle with monsters, you can choose to give up taking the martial arts exam. But in this way, the children can only attend liberal arts classes in high school, and can only go to an ordinary university, not a martial arts university. After graduation, they can only be ordinary people, and are completely isolated from the circle of martial artists.
Officials said it's entirely voluntary.
But when it really comes down to making a choice, very few of those opponents actually let their children give up martial arts.
It's not just for the broader future of warriors, but also because times have changed, and only by becoming a warrior can you have the opportunity to protect yourself.
With Si Yuan, the Martial Ancestor, in charge of the country and the five great demon kings as allies of humanity, the situation is relatively calm.
But in foreign countries, it can be said that there is chaos everywhere, and there are even waves of beasts attacking human cities, occupying the entire city as a beast's nest, causing countless casualties.
Even if the authorities wanted to ban this news, they could not, and the authorities have no intention of banning it. After all, only by letting everyone know how dangerous it is outside will they cherish their current stable life and be prepared for danger in times of peace.
Therefore, the students who signed up for the martial arts examination in the high school entrance examination basically accounted for more than 99 percent. The remaining ones who did not sign up were purely because they were very sure of their own children's aptitude for cultivation and had given up the path of martial arts from the very beginning. There was no need for them to sign up to be abused in the arena.
Capital No. 1 Middle School.
The cultural subjects examination for Yan Huaixiu and others was disrupted and they were taken at other schools, but the martial arts subjects examination was taken by students of this school at the examination center of this school.
The huge arena occupied half of the school playground. Yan Huaixiu and other students stood around the arena according to their classes. In the surrounding teaching buildings, there were also first and second grade junior high school students lying on the fences and looking down at their martial arts high school entrance exam today.
There was only one examiner, a warrior sent by the Martial Arts Association, a real warrior.
This warrior was tall and strong, and standing there he gave people the feeling of being a mountain, giving people a strong sense of oppression.
Yan Huaixiu was the only one among the students who felt nothing. He had no expectations for today's martial arts high school entrance exam. Not to mention monsters in their growth stage, he had even hunted monsters that were mature enough to be comparable to martial artists with his father.
Now is not the time when spiritual energy has just revived and a martial artist-level monster can be called a monster king. Now that spiritual energy has been revived for more than ten years, martial artist-level monsters can be said to be plentiful. In a herd of monsters, he can only be regarded as a leader elite monster.
Yan Huaixiu knew that he was just going through the motions. His future path had already been decided: the best high school and the best university.
However, seeing that the students around him were somewhat uncomfortable with the examiner's martial artist aura, Yan Huaixiu calmly helped them dispel the examiner's aura so that they would not feel chest tightness and discomfort.
The examiner standing on the stage did not notice his actions at all.
After announcing the start of the exam, the examiner had someone bring up a cage that was four meters high and five meters wide. Inside the cage was a two-meter-tall rat with scarlet eyes and sharp teeth. While the cage was being carried onto the stage, it was still staring grimly at the students below the stage with its terrifying scarlet eyes.
The examiner said, "This is a demonic shadow rat, the most common monster you will encounter in the city. It lives underground, likes to eat carrion, is good at sneak attacks, and is very fast. However, it is still a young rat, so its strength is not very strong. Who of you would like to come up and give it a try?"
The Shadow Rats are the mutated rats living in the city sewers. After the mutation, they still hide underground in human cities and dare not come out casually, but every time they come out of the sewers, they will bring certain troubles.
Because of the existence of Si Yuan and the cooperation of the five demon kings, the East Country was able to keep the beast tides out of the city. Therefore, if ordinary people never leave the city, they will most likely never see the demon beasts living in the wild.
But it’s different with the Shadow Rat. You may just be walking on the road and then encounter a Shadow Rat coming out of the sewer to attack you.
Therefore, the authorities decided to use the Shadow Rats as training consumables for students. Anyway, the authorities would send people to clean up the Shadow Rats every year to prevent them from multiplying too much and damaging the sewer system, or forming a large rat swarm to cause trouble to human cities.
The number of Demon Shadow Rats caught is the largest, so it is not a big deal to consume them.
All the students present had only seen the appearance of the Shadow Rat on TV or in textbooks. When it came to fighting face to face with a two-meter-tall rat in real life, few of them dared to do so.
As a result, the examiner's questioning fell into an awkward silence for a while.
The principal at the side smiled awkwardly and was about to remind the examiner that they had drawn lots through the examination system, and who would be the first to go up had already been drawn, so they just had to call out the name.
But he didn't expect that before he opened his mouth, a student jumped onto the stage and said, "I'll do it!"
The principal looked at the student who jumped onto the stage in surprise, and saw that it was a handsome young man with short black hair, Yan Huaixiu, who was also the top student in their school and had always been ranked first.
When the principal saw the examiner smile at Yan Huaixiu, he hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not speak.
This martial arts middle school entrance exam is also being held for the first time, and all the rules are still being explored. There is a strong sense of autonomy. So since someone has taken the initiative to be the first to go up to the stage, as the principal, he should not discourage that person's enthusiasm. At most, he can wait until Yan Huaixiu finishes the exam and then call the students up to take the exam in the order of the draw.
The examiner looked at Yan Huaixiu with admiration and said, "You have the courage to be the first to go on stage and face the monster. That's great!"
The examiner actually did not forget the order of drawing lots, he just wanted to test these students. After all, if you want to fight with monsters, you must have the courage to face them actively.
In the past few years, he has seen too many martial artists who are only good at talking about martial arts on paper. They have a good training speed, but they are in a mess when facing monsters. They are completely useless except for holding back their teammates. They don't even have the basic courage to face monsters. It can be said that these students cannot embark on the path of martial arts.
The examiner was very pleased to see a student take the initiative to come to the stage. He asked, "What's your name?"
Yan Huaixiu replied: "My name is Yan Huaixiu."
The examiner quickly recalled the outstanding talent in this middle school that he had previously learned about. Yan Huaizheng was an unparalleled genius who had always been ranked number one in the school.
The examiner looked at Yan Huaixiu expectantly and said, "Then the exam begins!"
The staff on the side used a remote control to open the cage containing the Demon Shadow Rat. After finding that it could go out, the Demon Shadow Rat, which had been staying in the cage obediently, immediately rushed out. It did not rush towards Yan Huaixiu who was standing alone on the ring, but rushed towards the students below the ring.
Although it is not very powerful, it has the IQ of a ten-year-old child and knows how to seek benefits and avoid harm. With the examiner on the ring, it will definitely not be able to defeat him. Only by making the examiner cautious among the group of weak students under the ring, it will have a chance to escape.
However, the Shadow Rat hit the edge of the ring and bounced back.
Everyone looked in shock at the light shield that suddenly appeared at the edge of the arena, covering the entire arena. After the halo flashed a few times and disappeared, the arena returned to its previous ordinary appearance.
But now everyone knows that a light shield has been opened around the arena, and the monsters trapped inside cannot get out.
The students who were originally afraid that the Shadow Rat would rush off the stage suddenly breathed a sigh of relief and could watch the game with peace of mind.
When the Shadow Rat was just bounced away by the protective shield of the arena, Yan Huaixiu immediately drew his sword and stabbed it. He was wearing the standard martial arts school uniform issued by the school, and the sword in his hand was also the school's standard weapon. In this martial arts high school entrance examination, only the school's standard weapons could be used, which were standard weapons with unified standards across the country.
Yan Huaixiu didn't even think of waiting for the Demon Shadow Rat to recover before taking action. Instead, he subconsciously took advantage of its weakness to kill it. He launched a sneak attack on the Demon Shadow Rat before it could stand firmly, and directly cut off one of its thighs.
The most frightening thing about the Demon Shadow Rat is its fast speed, otherwise it would not be named "Demon Shadow".
Yan Huaixiu took the opportunity to cut off one of the Shadow Rat's legs, which was equivalent to erasing the Shadow Rat's most powerful advantage. The Shadow Rat, having lost its speed advantage, became Yan Huaixiu's plaything and he could kill it whenever he wanted.
Yan Huaixiu had no habit of playing with his prey. He had long remembered his father's teachings of 'deal with the opponent as soon as possible to prevent a disaster', so after cutting off the Demon Shadow Rat's thigh, he immediately raised his knife and slashed it, chopping off the Demon Shadow Rat's head very smoothly. Then he retreated at a high speed to avoid the smelly blood of the Demon Shadow Rat that sprayed onto his body.
This happened in just a few seconds. Many students below the ring were thinking, "It turns out there is a protective shield next to the ring. Now we don't have to worry about being affected by the fight on the ring. We can watch the fight up close." As soon as they finished thinking, they saw that the winner had already been decided.
Everyone was stunned. It felt like the finale had arrived in the blink of an eye. How come in just a moment, the terrifying Shadow Rat turned into a corpse lying there covered in blood?
Not only were the students stunned, even the warrior-level examiners were extremely shocked.
This silky smooth combo, with its exquisite ability to seize the right opportunity, was difficult to accomplish even for a veteran like him who had once served in the army and hunted monsters.
But in a junior high school, I saw a junior high school student do this.
As for whether Yan Huaixiu's sneak attack when the Demon Shadow Rat was bounced back by the arena's protective shield and had not yet stood firm was unethical... what a joke! Once on the battlefield, it will be a life-and-death fight. Who will care whether you have martial ethics or not? The most important thing is to kill the monsters that are rushing towards you in the beast tide and keep yourself alive.
Is there anything wrong with using the least effort to achieve the greatest results? There's nothing wrong!
Not only will the examiner not think that Yan Huaixiu is opportunistic, but he will also think that Yan Huaixiu is smart and flexible and knows how to seize opportunities.
You have to know that the real test begins from the moment you open the cage of the Shadow Rat.
Yan Huaixiu shook off the blood on his sword, raised his eyes to look at the examiner, and asked, "I think I passed the test, right?"
The examiner finally came back to his senses from his shock. He looked at Yan Huaixiu with complicated eyes and said, "You have indeed passed, but if you want to get a better score, you can choose to continue the challenge."
Yan Huaixiu's eyes lit up. He originally thought that killing a growing Demon Shadow Rat would be a piece of cake. He could easily defeat it without any sense of accomplishment. But if he could continue with the challenge, the monster he would have to deal with later might be even more powerful.
Moreover, as a top student, getting high scores is an instinct ingrained in me.
Yan Huaixiu nodded firmly: "Okay, I choose to continue the challenge."
Yan Huaixiu's words shocked the candidates below the stage.
"As expected of Yan Huaixiu, he would not be satisfied even if he passed the test instantly, and would continue to challenge himself, just like he would write down multiple solutions to a problem every time he took an exam. What a terrifying academic genius!"
"How dare you! How dare you call Boss Yan by his name? This is extremely disrespectful! Besides, our Boss Yan is excellent at everything he does. Isn't this a very normal thing to do? Basic operation, hurry up!"
Because Wang Lili had always been determined to cling to Yan Huaixiu, he went to the same junior high school with Yan Huaixiu after graduating from elementary school. Now, as he looked up at Yan Huaixiu on the ring from below, he felt more and more that his boss had not chosen the wrong person.
Wang Lili, who had finally stopped mentioning "Boss Yan" after Yan Huaixiu's repeated warnings, let "Boss Yan" come back in excitement.
Many of Yan Huaixiu's classmates in junior high school were also his elementary school classmates. They had heard of him being called "Big Brother Yan". In the past, they just thought it was just a childish joke, but now, seeing how Yan Huaixiu could kill monsters in seconds, they were all fascinated and started calling him "Big Brother Yan".
Those junior high school classmates who didn't know about Yan Huaixiu's dark history in elementary school were also inspired to shout.
Originally, the students who took part in the martial arts middle school entrance examination were all junior high school students. After three years of being beaten by Yan Huaixiu, these students were well-known for Yan Huaixiu's name. Now seeing his handsome and powerful demeanor, almost everyone was impressed. They all shouted to Yan Huaixiu on the stage at the same time: "Come on, Boss Yan!"
Yan Huaixiu, who was waiting for the second monster to be carried onto the stage: "..." He tapped the ground with his toes in embarrassment and glared fiercely at his childhood friend Wang Lili.
It must be that bastard Wang Lili who spread his dark nickname of 'Boss Yan'!
As soon as he gets off the stage, I'll beat up this guy who can't control his mouth.
Fortunately, the staff moved quickly and pushed the second monster cage onto the stage.
This time it is still a Demon Shadow Rat, about the same size as the first one, and its strength should be similar as well.
Yan Huaixiu looked a little disappointed, but still prepared to take action when the cage was opened.
However, this second Demon Shadow Rat was much smarter. It had already smelled the blood and breath of death of its own kind on the ring. It also realized that its own kind had tried to escape from the ring before but failed. It also felt the fighting spirit and murderous aura from Yan Huaixiu. The first thing it did was to rush out of the cage, using its speed advantage to fight with Yan Huaixiu.
But no matter how smart it was, it could not make up for the gap in strength. Yan Huaixiu predicted its movement trajectory in advance and beheaded it with one sword. It died faster than the first one. After all, he had gained experience in chopping.
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