Chapter 30

"Sun, Teacher Sun, what are you doing?" Li Yao, flustered, hurried forward to help Sun Biao up, but to his surprise, the old man remained bent over, as if made of iron, and he couldn't straighten him no matter how hard he tried.

Sun Biao, still bent over, said solemnly, "The school is a place to discover and nurture talent. Although your absolute combat strength is not outstanding, you possess a keen combat awareness like a beast and rich combat experience, making you a promising seed worth cultivating. However, our school failed to discover you from the regular class earlier, causing you to waste your precious youth. This is a dereliction of duty by all the faculty and staff. Therefore, I want to apologize to you on behalf of the school—truly, I am very sorry, Li Yao."

Li Yao's mouth opened wide, not knowing what to say, and a strange sense of emotion welled up in his heart.

"Is this what a true 'teacher' is like?"

Li Yao had never seen a teacher like Sun Biao before. No wonder he was the one who discovered 'Devil Blade Peng Hai'!

"Then—" Sun Biao finally straightened up, a playful expression reappearing on his face, but his eyes burned with intense passion. "Kid, have you heard of the 'Federation Youth Extreme Challenge'?"

Li Yao's pupils suddenly constricted, and he nodded subconsciously, his heart rate accelerating.

Of course, he had heard of it. The Federation Youth Extreme Challenge, co-hosted by the Federation Army and the nine elite universities, is a large-scale competition specifically designed to discover cultivation geniuses. It takes place about two months before the college entrance exam, with hundreds of competition zones set up across the country, making it the oldest and most prestigious youth cultivation competition in the Federation.

According to legend, each competition zone is set up as an inescapable 'island.' The military releases countless ferocious demon beasts into the island, and participants must survive for five days without any weapons. Besides fighting the demon beasts, they must also complete a series of extremely difficult tasks, known as '100% realistic combat simulation,' with absolute hellish difficulty.

Participants must push their bodies and wills to the limit to stand out among the many talented youths.

If they win, they might be noticed by the observers from the 'Nine Elite Universities' and be specially recruited on the spot, bypassing the college entrance exam.

Even if they are not that outstanding, as long as they show a special talent in some area, they might receive a 'reduced score admission' offer from the Nine, which could easily eliminate thousands of competitors with a reduction of ten or twenty points!

Because of these benefits, all senior high school students are eager to participate in the Extreme Challenge, and Li Yao is no exception.

However, such an important competition is not open to just anyone.

Every year, the organizing committee sends invitations to the major high schools in the Federation, distributing a certain number of 'admission tickets' based on the school's strength.

This year, Chixiao No. 2 High School received ten admission tickets!

The competition will take place in forty days. Chixiao No. 2 High School's 0571 competition zone includes three thousand elite students from Foguo City and the surrounding thirteen cities, all gathered to compete!

One month later, Chixiao No. 2 High School will hold a large-scale competition, where all senior high school students are eligible to participate, and the ten admission tickets will be decided in the fairest way possible!

Seeing Li Yao's eager expression, Sun Biao said, "Kid, I know you've gotten into some trouble at school, but the strong are never punished! As long as you can secure an admission ticket in the school-wide competition and prove your strength, even Helian Lie can't do anything to you!"

Li Yao thought for a moment and asked, "There are over a thousand students in the senior grade, and only ten admission tickets. Does that mean I need to be in the top ten of the grade?"

Sun Biao shook his head. "The school-wide competition has a certain element of luck. Based on past experience, if you can reach the top twenty in the grade, you have a chance to secure an admission ticket."

Li Yao recalled that the top twenty in the grade were all cultivation geniuses with a spirit root development rate of 65%.

His spirit root development rate was only 58%. When he faced Zhao Liang, the last student in the advanced class with a 60% spirit root development rate, he didn't have a sure win and had to rely on underhanded tactics.

The footage of his fight with Zhao Liang would surely spread throughout the school immediately, and everyone would be on guard, leaving him no chance to succeed again.

In just one month, could he defeat a high-level expert with a spirit root development rate over 65% in a fair fight?

His hesitation was clearly written on his face. Sun Biao smiled faintly and said, "Kid, with your current strength, you wouldn't even make the top fifty in the school, let alone the top twenty. But if you undergo a month of special training with me, that might change!"

"What?" Li Yao's eyes sparkled, and he jumped up excitedly. "Teacher Sun, you're willing to teach me personally?"

The man who discovered Devil Blade Peng Hai was offering to train him. If he could reach even a fraction of Peng Hai's strength, he would be invincible at Chixiao No. 2 High School!

Sun Biao laughed heartily, revealing his missing front tooth. "The old man has been cooped up in the warehouse for so many years, and my bones are almost rusted. It's a rare find to discover a somewhat interesting 'toy.' I have nothing better to do, so I'll play with it a bit! But don't get too excited yet. The old man's special training program isn't something just anyone can handle. Come, kid, take a look at the old man's hellish intensive training program."

Sun Biao waved his arm, and a light screen projected from the mini-crystal brain, displaying a detailed training plan.

"Day 1, 4:00 AM: 20,000 meters of interval running to warm up."

"5:15 AM: Ten sets of 500 kg squats, ten reps each, to be completed within half an hour."

"6:00 AM: Breakfast, while learning the military version of the 'Thirteen Beast Forms'—this is specifically for special forces in the military, removing flashy moves and adding lethal techniques, completely different from the simplified version for high school students."

"7:00 AM: Frog jumps for 5,000 meters with a 100 kg weight."

"8:00 AM: ..."

"9:00 PM: Day 1 training complete!"

"Day 2: ..."

Sun Biao grinned wickedly. "How about it? If you can't handle it, say so now. It's not embarrassing. Back in the day, countless cultivation geniuses were reduced to dead dogs by the old man's training program and had to drop out. Over the years, only a few have managed to last a month!"

Li Yao skimmed through the plan quickly and said, somewhat puzzled, "It looks ordinary and unremarkable, nothing special..."

In his dream, as a 'low-level miscellaneous servant' of the Hundred Refinements Sect, he had endured training that was a hundred times more brutal, a true torment and destruction, breaking him down and rebuilding him over and over again, hundreds of times, before he could advance from 'low-level miscellaneous servant' to 'blacksmith miscellaneous servant.'

Sun Biao's seemingly brutal training program, in Li Yao's eyes, was just at the high school level and didn't seem too extreme.

"Li Yao, you're quite arrogant!" Sun Biao's eyes flashed with sharp needles, his face contorted with a terrifying expression.

This hellish training program was the result of Sun Biao's decades of effort. Many cultivation geniuses had shown horrified expressions when faced with it, but now Li Yao dismissed it as worthless, and his calm demeanor suggested he truly didn't take it seriously.

Sun Biao's eyes narrowed, and his face twisted into a grotesque grin.