Chapter 55: We Are All Ordinary People

November 1st, the day when contribution points were credited every month. Chen Chu had been looking forward to this for a long time; with these points, he could purchase Life Crystals, which he could then convert into attribute points to enhance the progress of his martial arts.

After entering the Second Heavenly Realm, the Dragon Elephant Art had steadily improved, but the Insightful Blade remained at the beginner stage. Despite practicing for so long, he still had not fully entered the Insightful Eye Realm.

And this was with the condition of fixed proficiency from the attribute page. He wasn’t sure if it was because he lacked talent in this particular aspect, or if it was due to his soul being split, causing a deficiency in his spiritual comprehension.

But regardless of the reason, nothing would stop him from forcibly breaking through the realm of saber arts today with the help of the attribute reinforcement.

As soon as Chen Chu arrived at the school, however, he received the message to assemble with all of the freshmen who were in the Second Heavenly Realm. When he found the conference room, he walked in to see many familiar faces already present. Almost all of the top fifty freshmen were here, including the first-ranked An Fuqing.

In the month following the ranked competition, almost everyone in the top fifty had broken through to the Second Heavenly Realm. There had also been some geniuses who were only slightly behind them, such as Xia Youhui and Luo Fei; in the latter half of the month, they had also successively broken through.

The conference room was very spacious, with over seventy students occupying only a small section. Chen Chu went to the circle of Class Three and took a seat, looking at Luo Fei beside him and asking, "Why the sudden assembly? Did something happen?"

The girl whispered, "It might be related to Kyrola."

Chen Chu nodded thoughtfully, thinking about the rumors circulating around the school in the past few days.

After a while, several teachers walked in, with a middle-aged man wearing glasses at the forefront. Following him were Lin Xiong, the homeroom teacher of Class One, along with a few others, including Pang Long.

After the teacher with glasses sat down, he looked around the conference room and nodded in satisfaction, saying, "Not bad. We’ve had so many freshmen breaking through to the Second Heavenly Realm just in this first semester."

He introduced himself. "Hello, everyone. I am Hong Zetian, the dean of martial arts. Because I haven't been at school for a while, this is the first time I'm meeting all of you.

"Now, this gathering is related to the matter in the Kyrola region. Top-tier schools across the country have received a notification from higher authorities, requesting freshmen for an expedition. The minimum requirement is the Second Heavenly Realm.

"After careful consideration, our school is prepared to organize a group of freshmen to participate in this expedition."

An Fuqing in the front row raised her hand. Hong Zetian paused, having gotten a slight impression of this talented newcomer from the first day, and nodded slightly in acknowledgment. “If you have any questions, please go ahead and speak."

The girl stood up, expressing her confusion. "Sir, I have been paying attention to the situation in Kyrola. There are formidable Seventh Heavenly Realm cultivators there who can ignore heavy weapons. Wouldn't a group of Second Heavenly Realm freshmen be ineffective against such cultivators?"

The girl expressed her concerns very tactfully, avoiding explicit mentions of sacrificing oneself.

In response to this question, Hong Zetian smiled faintly, "There's no need to worry about that issue. There are already strong individuals being deployed to deal with those high-level experts. Even if Kyrola is currently in chaos, this is just a minor setback for the Federation.

Your targets will be the ordinary cultists. The demon cults have recruited many low-level followers across Kyrola, most of them in the First or Second Heavenly Realm. While they are relatively weak, they can still create chaos, so there is need for a suitable group to clear them out and provide support to the stationed military soldiers, both before and after the cult is suppressed.

“However, dispatching senior students for cultists with such low levels of power would be somewhat wasteful, as they still have their own responsibilities. It is for this reason that we are considering sending you all for this task.

“There is still a possibility of encountering more powerful cultists, especially ones who will likely go into hiding after getting dispersed. Because of that danger, this expedition is not mandatory. In addition, your targets will not be mutated beasts, but followers of the demon cults. Anyone who volunteers should be prepared for the possibility of taking human lives.

“The departure is scheduled for one week from now. You have three days to consider your choice, and if you decide to join, you will be rewarded with contribution points. Currently, the tentative allocation is 1 point for eliminating a cultist in the First Heavenly Realm, 3 points for one in the Second, and 10 points for one in the Third.”

Right after Hong Zetian finished speaking, the imposing Li Hao raised a question. "Sir, killing a Second Heavenly Realm cultist will only earn 3 points? Isn't that too low?"

Other interested students also shared this doubt. The resources they had spent to reach the Second Heavenly Realm had exceeded 10 points; getting only 3 per cultist seemed a bit too cheap.

Surprisingly, not many people seemed to pay attention to the warning about killing. Cultivation wasn’t child’s play, after all; life-or-death struggles were the norm.

Hong Zetian shook his head slightly. "For Second Heavenly Realm cultivators like you, who have received legitimate education and training, those cultists will be no match. Their strength comes from the demon cults’ secret arts, which means they still have frail physique and insufficient explosive power. They also lack corresponding combat skills. Even calling them Second Heavenly Realm is an overestimation.

"Of course, this is under the assumption of a direct confrontation. Some cultists are more cunning, and have more battle experience than you. It's best not to underestimate them."

Following that, Hong Zetian addressed some more questions from the students before finally announcing the end of the meeting.

As the group from Class Three walked out of the conference building, Xia Youhui asked, "Ah Chu, do you want to participate?"

Chen Chu snapped back to attention, his gaze scanning over the group. "What about you guys?" he asked.

Luo Fei shook her head slightly. "I'm not sure. Participating in an expedition in just the first year of high school, especially with that level of danger involved... I need to go back and discuss it with my family."

Xia Youhui scratched his head. "I also need to go back and ask."

Lin Xue added, "Me too."

Yi Rui smiled slightly, speaking with certainty, "I will go, and I suggest that everyone who can should as well."

Yi Rui's words caused everyone to pause, and they couldn't help but look at him.

"Keep in mind that at this school, we are among the top fifty geniuses. But have any of you considered how many first-tier schools there are in the entire country, or even the entire Federation? How many new students can establish their foundation within a week? Is it a few thousand, or tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands?" Yi Rui asked.

Yi Rui's words made everyone feel an inexplicable pressure loom over them.

Indeed, at Nantian Martial Arts High School, there were over a hundred geniuses who had established their foundation in a week. In East Xia, with dozens of first-tier schools, that would amount to thousands of people.

Add to that the number of new students from second and third-tier schools, and the total would become even more significant... and that was just this semester.

With the spread of the foundational arts and increased resource allocation, the number of cultivators had almost exploded in growth in recent years.

Yi Rui casually continued, "In fact, here, there is only one person who can truly be considered a genius, maybe one and a half."

Although he didn't explicitly say it, everyone knew who he was referring to;

An Fuqing, the first ranked, and Li Hao, who possessed innate divine power.

"In such a situation, if you don't want to be passed over, you must seize every opportunity to improve, surpass yourself, and surpass everything.

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Participating in this expedition will not only allow us to gain a large amount of resources, but also maximize our own potential through the life-or-death pressure of combat. And then, making use of the resources we earn means that the speed of our cultivation will be at least several times faster than it is now.

"When we come back from the expedition, our strength will be significantly ahead of those classmates who didn't go, perhaps even leaving them far behind. This is why you don’t see many second- and third-year students at school. They’re outside, undergoing trials to squeeze out their utmost potential.

"Of course, gains do come with risks. Everyone should consider this carefully before making their decision."