Chapter 25 – There’s Always Someone Better
“Guess how high her true essence is?”
“I think at least over 130.”
“130? Are you underestimating her or underestimating Guanghua?”
“I said over 130. That includes 140, 150.”
“I think her true essence might be close to 160?”
“No way, that’s insane!”
“Last year Xiuda’s top scorer had 162. I think she should be around there.”
“Makes sense.”
Everyone was discussing it heatedly, including Lu Yuan. Of course he wanted to know where his level of 120 spirit stood among the examinees.
He knew Jia Xuanxuan was just over 120, already top-tier at No.1 High School. He currently still had 1499 merit points, enough to raise his true essence to the cap of 134 spirit.
But if that number still wasn’t safe, Lu Yuan would have to find a way to earn more merit points.
“The number’s out!”
Someone squeezed at the front shouted.
“How much?” the people at the back asked.
The front went silent for a while before reporting a shocking number: “184 spirit!”
“How much?!”
“184!”
“Holy shit!”
The entire hall was filled with gasps.
A study god could actually be this terrifying!
Li Tao came out with her test sheet, seemingly not satisfied.
“Not in great condition…” she muttered, not sure who she was speaking to, her face slightly red—after all, she had just shown off a bit too much, and she knew it herself.
Every examinee looked at her like she was a god. Even a god not in good condition was still a god!
After getting her data, Li Tao didn’t linger and left quickly. For her, this was just a trivial episode in her brilliant life. She would never cross paths with these ordinary people again.
But for many of the examinees present, this would become a topic they’d talk about for a long time.
Lu Yuan sighed softly. The road ahead was long and difficult. The 120 spirit shown in his system had made him a bit smug before—after all, his good friend Zhou Xiyun only had 108.
Now he understood there was always someone stronger.
184 spirit— even using the system to cheat, that would require seven or eight thousand merit points. This girl was not simple at all.
Li Tao was still just a student. Not to mention real cultivators. What Lu Yuan couldn’t forget was Ji Yin’s fight the night before—one punch smashing through a wall, blowing apart the cultist behind it.
How was that any different from Superman? Lu Yuan felt both envy and longing.
Thinking about all this while lining up, about half an hour later it was finally his turn. He entered the examination room and saw an oval machine about the size of a small car, somewhat like an MRI scanner.
“Lie down. Remove any accessories on your body.”
A doctor instructed him to lie on the padded platform.
“No need to take off clothes?” Lu Yuan asked.
“No need.”
Lu Yuan lay down, and then the machine started rotating, scanning him from head to toe. He noticed milky-white spiritual light flickering continuously from the probe, striking his body.
This kind of spiritual light could actually be felt—like a balloon being lightly slapped against the skin.
The whole process took about five minutes. The doctor then called Lu Yuan up and handed him a freshly printed sheet.
Lu Yuan looked at the true essence column: 111 spirit.
It matched the system. The system’s true essence was indeed equal to the medical measurement.
After treating his mother with Xikanuo and completing the test, Lu Yuan’s trip was basically a complete success.
The sun was already setting, and it was time to head home. Xiaobing still had school tomorrow.
Lu Yuan found Xiaobing in the ward. The siblings said their goodbyes to their parents again and again.
“Dabao, study hard. In a few days, Mom will come back and cook for you.” Xu Yongmei was full of confidence in the future. At the very least, she would be able to see her son enter university with her own eyes.
Xiaobing smiled oddly. “Mom, I feel like the job of cooking… probably won’t be yours anymore.”
When Lu Yuan and Xiaobing returned to Ningcheng, it was already around 4 PM. Lu Yuan sent Xiaobing home first—he still needed to go to the market to buy “a little” food.
Naturally, Xiaobing raised both hands in agreement.
Lu Yuan bought a ridiculous amount of food. It was so much that the refrigerator definitely couldn’t hold it, so he even bought a freezer on the way and arranged for it to be installed at home.
Xiaobing was dumbfounded.
Lu Yuan still had quite a bit of money. Although most of it had been spent on his mother’s medical treatment, Jia Shengnan had given him 50,000 yuan at the time, and Lu Yuan made full use of it.
There was another small surprise after getting home—Ji Yin had someone deliver the pot for cooking porridge. Since no one was home at the time, the Internal Affairs Bureau just left it at the door. They didn’t even bother to wrap it in a box. Their work was really rough.
When Xiaobing got home, she moved the pot into the kitchen.
That evening, Lu Yuan cooked Xiaobing a lavish dinner to make up for the simple egg drop soup he had made in the morning.
After dinner, Xiaobing went back to her room to do homework. She hadn’t attended classes today, but homework still had to be done. Being a student was really miserable.
After returning to his room, Lu Yuan opened his review materials and began studying.
His mother’s condition was temporarily stabilized. He should now fully prepare for the upcoming college entrance exam. Only by being admitted to a cultivator university and becoming a cultivator would he have a chance to completely cure his mother’s Twilight Syndrome.
According to the exam guide, Lu Yuan had already figured out the admission process for cultivator universities.
First, before May 15, fill out the application form and pay the fee.
Second, take the written portion of the college entrance exam on June 7 and 8.
Third, on June 9, undergo the unified true essence verification test, with results issued on-site. Those who have not paid or do not intend to apply for cultivator universities do not need to participate.
Fourth, on June 15, written exam scores are released, and candidates fill in their preferences.
Students applying to ordinary universities are evaluated only based on written exam scores.
For those applying to cultivator universities, the final score is a combination of written exam results and true essence. The conversion is somewhat complex: the written score is scaled to 100 points and then multiplied by 0.3.
There is a formula in the guide. Lu Yuan calculated it—if his written score was 500 and his true essence was 120, the final score would be 140.
If his written score was 600 and his true essence was 120, the final score would be 144.
A 100-point difference in written score only resulted in a 4-point difference in the final score. It didn’t seem like much, but improving true essence was extremely difficult. Over the entire high school period, a natural increase of 4–5 points was already remarkable. To improve more required a lot of money, and even then, there was no guarantee of results. Ultimately, it still came down to talent.
But increasing written exam scores by 100 points had many possible methods.
So most cultivator university candidates did not abandon their academic studies.
This admission model had both advantages and disadvantages for Lu Yuan.
The advantage was that improving true essence was relatively easy for him. As long as he had merit points, he could increase it through the system.
With his current 120 spirit, he could safely enter some lower-tier cultivator universities.
The bad news was that cultivator university admissions required at least a passing written score—out of 750 total points, he needed at least 450.
That was troublesome.
Lu Yuan hadn’t touched textbooks for over twenty years. It wasn’t something he could just pick back up easily.
And that wasn’t even the main problem.
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