"Gah! This guy actually knocked Boss Xiao down—he's definitely going to humiliate him badly!"
Watching the supposedly "invincible" Xiao Chenyu be slammed to the ground by Chen Ming's crushing shoulder strike, the remaining weaker students immediately began to stir in panic. But despite their commotion, not a single one dared to step forward.
Xiao Chenyu lay curled up on the ground like a prawn, rolling weakly while letting out incoherent groans of pain.
"You just wait… I'm the city lord's son… my father won't let you get away with this…"
"Oh? The city lord's son, is that so?" Chen Ming walked up and looked down at him from above, his gaze indifferent.
"Then tell me—what's your innate Spirit Power level?"
"I… I'm a genius with innate Spirit Power Level Five!"
"You're twelve years old, in sixth grade, and only at Level Eleven Spirit Power. If we subtract the guaranteed level you gained from absorbing your Spirit Ring, that means you've barely improved even one level per year." Chen Ming's tone remained calm as he analyzed him. "So your innate talent is level five… or is it actually 0.5?"
"I…!" Xiao Chenyu froze on the ground. For a moment, even the pain in his stomach seemed irrelevant.
"You're the city lord's son, with innate level five talent, resources, background, everything you could ask for—and yet you still can't even improve one level per year. Then you went and absorbed a ten-year Spirit Ring for your first one?" Chen Ming leaned slightly closer. "Answer me honestly. Do you think you're even his biological son?"
"I… I…" Xiao Chenyu suddenly burst into tears. "I'm just the city lord's youngest son… I'm the useless one without inheritance rights… I'm trash with no Spirit Master talent… my first Spirit Ring isn't even a hundred-year one…"
He sobbed uncontrollably on the ground, completely stripped of his former arrogance as the so-called academy boss.
Chen Ming glanced at him, shook his head slightly, and turned away.
"I can't be bothered to say more. You're not even worth listening to."
Then he looked at the surrounding students and said coldly, "From today onward, anyone who dares to discriminate against work-study students will answer to me one-on-one. Understood?"
"Yes!"
The students, having seen their leader utterly defeated, immediately nodded like obedient extras in a typical villain crowd.
"Also," Xiao Wu suddenly stepped forward, hands on her hips, "from now on, I'm the boss of this academy. Got it?"
The students turned to look at her in confusion. Xiao Wu's cheeks flushed slightly, but she still summoned her Martial Soul and revealed her first Spirit Ring. Seeing the bright yellow ring—and then looking at Xiao Chenyu still crying on the ground—they quickly accepted reality and acknowledged her as the new boss.
"Finally," Xiao Wu added, "from now on, all work-study duties are yours to handle. Got it?"
"Got it! Got it!"
The crowd dispersed soon after.
Xiao Chenyu, still crying, struggled to his feet along with Ling Feng clutching his face and Liu Long holding his shoulder, and the three of them staggered away.
The work-study students also prepared to leave—but at that moment, a figure suddenly appeared, blocking their path.
It was Tang San.
Seeing him, the previously excited work-study students fell silent for a moment, their expressions twisting into something between awkwardness and dislike. Tang San immediately felt a surge of irritation.
"I came here out of goodwill to help you," he said, holding back his frustration.
"But you didn't do anything at all!" Xiao Wu replied seriously without hesitation.
Tang San's good mood after obtaining his first Spirit Ring was instantly ruined. Although he returned to the dormitory with the others, he felt as if the entirety of Room Seven shared an atmosphere that he simply couldn't penetrate.
...
Time passed quietly.
Chen Ming continued studying basic knowledge at the academy while sparring daily with different students. When one-on-one fights no longer provided pressure, he would even challenge multiple opponents at once. Without exception, every single battle ended in his victory.
Occasionally, he would spar with Xiao Wu alone—testing her soft skills and observing her condition. But as Chen Ming became increasingly familiar with her fighting style and physical responses, Xiao Wu—despite being a full level above him—was no longer able to gain any meaningful advantage against him.
As news of Chen Ming's feats spread, even the academy teachers learned that this year's freshmen included an exceptionally capable fighter.
By the fourth month of school, just as the break was approaching, Chen Ming finally broke through to level ten.
From the moment his Martial Soul awakened, he had raised his strength by three levels in just seven months. That speed was already astonishingly fast—especially without any external resources. To ordinary Spirit Masters, his progress was nothing short of enough to bring tears to their eyes.
After learning that Chen Ming's cultivation had reached level ten, the academy's teachers were indeed surprised—but not to the point of shock.
After all, innate Spirit Power labeled as "level seven" didn't necessarily mean exactly seven. It could just as easily be seven and a half, or even close to eight. Calculated that way, reaching level ten in seven months was merely "quite fast," not something impossible…
Probably.
In general, as long as a Spirit Master reached level ten during their studies at a Spirit Master academy, the institution would be required to help them obtain their first Spirit Ring. It was a mandatory responsibility.
Under normal circumstances, for the sake of convenience and efficiency, most primary academies would simply send students to obtain a ten-year Spirit Ring as a perfunctory solution.
However, because of Chen Ming's outstanding cultivation talent—and his equally impressive combat ability—the principal of Nuoding Academy took a special interest in him and decided to offer a better opportunity.
He arranged for Director Su, the head of discipline, to personally lead another teacher as an assistant to help Chen Ming obtain a hundred-year Spirit Ring from a powerful beast.
Yet, for reasons unknown, Yu Xiaogang—who had not spoken a single word to Chen Ming since the day he enrolled—suddenly appeared before the end of the semester and offered to assist him in obtaining his first Spirit Ring. The only condition was that the ring's age and type must be chosen according to his own judgment.
No matter which option he chose, Chen Ming would be guaranteed a hundred-year yellow Spirit Ring.
After careful consideration, however, Chen Ming firmly rejected Yu Xiaogang's offer as well as the principal's goodwill. He politely declined both and chose instead to obtain a Spirit Ring that suited himself.
And the place he chose was not the conventional Soul Hunting Forest, but the Star Dou Great Forest—the largest gathering place of Spirit Beasts on the entire Douluo Continent.
With Chen Ming's current strength, it was of course impossible for him to directly confront hundred-year Spirit Beasts head-on. But as a transmigrator, he naturally had his own plans.
On his way out of Nuoding City toward the Star Dou Great Forest, Chen Ming used his savings to gradually purchase sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal from the towns he passed through, buying them in batches along the way. At the same time, he even began manually refining white sugar from brown sugar.
In his previous life, Chen Ming had more than once come across precise gunpowder ratios while reading books, and had also watched countless military and history videos explaining how to refine powder further, how to pack it efficiently, and how to maximize explosive power.
Back then, none of that knowledge had been useful to him, and it had simply slipped out of his mind after watching. But with his AI-like way of thinking, Chen Ming successfully reconstructed one of humanity's greatest inventions in this world—the gunpowder of his previous life—and even improved its granularity and density.
After commissioning a blacksmith shop to forge a specially designed iron barrel and crafting steel pellets and iron shrapnel pieces, Chen Ming ultimately assembled a large-caliber old-style firearm along with several fragmentation grenades.
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