Chapter 126: I Want to Take Part in the Fight!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Xie Feng’s advice filled Meng Chao’s heart with warmth.
This guy might look prideful, but he was worthy of being offered guidance and to become good friends.
Meng Chao was not a person who liked pretending to be weak so that he could show off later.
Before his good friend, hiding his strength and being a wolf in sheep’s clothing was simply poor taste.
“Xie Feng, thanks for the reminder, but you don’t have to worry about me.” Meng Chao repaid honesty with honesty. “In truth, Project 1024 is going very smoothly. While you’re strengthening a few main meridians every day, I have been strengthening my 1,024 branch meridians. It might not show, but my strength has also increased by leaps and bounds compared to a month ago.
“I know about Duan Lian’s newest development as well. He has absorbed a lot of feline-type monsters’ beast souls and can now create seventeen spirit energy magnetic fields. He also knows some sort of very powerful killing move known as Lion Frenzy. It might sound intimidating and domineering, but it’s filled with openings.
“Let’s make a conservative estimate. If I face someone like Duan Lian, I can fight around five of them in an arena. If we were in a real fight with a complicated terrain, I could fight ten of him. Of course, what I’m saying is that this would be the result if I didn’t bring guns to those fights. If I had a gun…” Meng Chao calculated with his fingers carefully. “Welp, I can’t come up with a number.”.
“…” Xie Feng sucked in a deep breath. “Meng Chao, wake up. You have to realize your error. Honestly, Ms. Li regards you highly, so you still have a chance to change your tutor!”
“What, we can switch tutors now?” Meng Chao’s eyes lit up with delight. “Then, hurry up and switch to Mr. Gu! If we stay with Big Brother Bo, we’ll have a bright future ahead!”
“You—” Xie Feng almost fainted. He cradled himself and said, “I treat you as a friend, and you just think of me as entertainment? Ah, fine, let me beat you up then. Instead of letting you benefit Duan Lian and the others with more than ten thousand worth of monster coins, it’d be better if you gave them to me.”
“Yeah, sure.” Meng Chao agreed to it readily. “If I beat you up until your parents can’t recognize you, you have to admit that the Beast Soul Style has a weakness, and even the beast soul fusion technology can’t help you solve the problem of accumulating power, stiffening up, and cooling down. The Ultimate Style that Project 1024 came up with is the one that will determine the direction of the future development of martial arts and is the correct path.”
When he saw how serious Meng Chao was and how he started exercising his limbs, Xie Feng found his exasperation leaking out of him.
“Ah, forget it. I don’t have time going nuts with you today. I have to join a special training program later. In a few days, we’ll have a new student competition between the martial arts course and monster controller course. That’s the most important competition in our first year. After I’m done with all my work, we’ll talk about your matter.”
“New student competition?” Meng Chao asked curiously. “Why don’t I know about this?”
“You’ve been really elusive, you don’t stay in the same dorm as the martial arts course students, and you even have a refresher course lecturer who is marginalized as your tutor, so it’s only natural that you don’t know about it.”
Xie Feng sighed. “The rules of the new student competition are such: the martial arts course and monster controller course will each choose fifty new students to fight in a back-to-back tournament. The candidates will be selected by the ace lecturers. Since you followed Gu Jianbo, it’s only natural that he didn’t mention anything, since he doesn’t have the right to recommend any candidates.
“There’s no need to mention that Sun Ya, Jiang Rui, and I are in. Duan Lian is also joining the competition. Many students who weren’t as great as you during the admission test now have the chance to show up because they’re under the tutelage of rather powerful tutors. This is an important event in our semester, so all the competitors are going to fight with everything they have. Otherwise, why do you think Duan Lian and the others would not be causing you trouble even though the new student protection period is over?”
“I see.” Meng Chao nodded.
“Now, do you understand the benefits of following an ace lecturer? Also, recently, the Red Dragon Army has been frequently going with the Supernatural Tower to the edges of the fog to fight. I heard that they have managed to advance dozens of kilometers to the north of the city and discover another incredibly large composite mine. It’s filled with rare metals and high-purity crystals, which have a high strategic value.
“To explore and defend this strategic piece of land, the city has been hastily mobilizing forces. Many of our upperclassmen have gone to the frontlines, and even the freshmen have chances to go into the fog to fight.
“Ever since the 10-year Expedition ended, Dragon City did not have a lot of chances to launch such large-scale attacks. This is a rare good chance. The effect of fighting in a real battle once is better than cultivating for half a year in the university.
“But the fighting power of freshmen is rather weak, and not everyone has the chance of going to the frontlines. It’s only if we’ll show good results during the tournament between courses that we’ll be chosen to represent Agricultural University and join the battle. But you’re definitely out of it.”
“Something like this happened?!”
Meng Chao’s pupils shrank.
He did not remember all the details about the Monster War, but he knew that after he failed his national college examination, Dragon City experienced a series of devastating losses.
In other words, no matter how many kilometers the Red Dragon Army managed to push forward and if they found a mine with a lot of ores that had a lot of strategic value, there was a high chance that the battle would not end well.
“No, I have to join the battle!” Meng Chao blurted out.
“Isn’t it too late for you to realize that? You don’t even have the right to join the tournament, so how could you be chosen to go to the battlefield in the north?” Xie Feng said, frustrated that Meng Chao had not fought for his chance.
Then, he noticed that Meng Chao was staring at him with a strange look.
“What’s wrong?” Xie Feng felt his heart tremble.
“It’s nothing.” Meng Chao looked away and drew closer to smile sweetly at him. “Xie Feng, you’ll definitely be ranked at the top during the tournament between courses, right?”
“The competition is yet to start, so how would I know?” Xie Feng thought about it. “But based on the current situation, the monster controller course has run into a rare minor year. They don’t have outstanding talents among their new students. I can’t say that I will stay until the end of the tournament, but I have hope in winning against five or more of them.”
“That’s good. Don’t worry. At that time, I will definitely cheer for you!”
Meng Chao slapped his good friend’s shoulder.
‘Once Xie Feng shows his glory during the tournament among the new students, I’ll just have to beat him up to show the strength of the Ultimate Style. Then, I’ll be able to prove my worth, right?
‘Oh, that’s right, there’s Duan Lian too. Based on the standards of a normal university student, that person has been doing pretty well with his training lately, so he should be able to show off his might during the tournament.
‘After I beat up Xie Feng, I might as well beat up Duan Lian to the point that his parents can’t recognize him too. There will be a double guarantee that way.’
He was not being ruthless, and neither was he not honoring the bro code.
He was just showing truth and reason. He wanted to use the hard truth to make the students learn the right path for the development of martial arts. He wanted to provide them guidance and contribute to society!
Meng Chao looked over with sparkling eyes. “Xie Feng, do your best. Work hard so that you can defeat a lot of monster controller course students and everyone can cheer for you.
“I’ll also do my final push with every second I have!”
Five days later, the 575th experiment for Project 1024, also known as the Ultimate Style, was launched.
The conditions of the Ultimate Style lab were very good. They no longer used cultivation cabins modified from secondhand medical cabins.
Instead, they had a cultivation cabin that had been specifically designed for the style, and it was three meters long.
The walls of the cabin were made of a transparent material similar to glass, but which was highly durable. It could withstand an impact of nearly one hundred tons.
The benefit of their cultivation cabin being magnified was that even if the cultivator was not completely immersed in gene medicine, they could still move around.
That meant that not only did they have ample space to take up stances or execute force, they could also use their hands as sabers and use the One Hundred Saber Technique, Thunder Rapier, or even stronger killing moves.
Ever since the upgraded version of the cultivation cabin was set up, Meng Chao fell in love with it and cultivated in there for three days and three nights.
The feeling he had this time was completely different.
“575th experiment: We have added a density 35 Silver-chained Snake Venom to the base of Gene Medicine No.99. We modified the components of amphetamine and the antisympa-thicomimetic drugs. We also used nikethamideI and strychnine to stimulate the central nervous system. The subject has already entered the cultivation cabin. All his physiological parameters are normal.”
Gu Jianbo, Ma Hong, and the students all looked at Meng Chao with nervous expressions.
During the past few experiments, Meng Chao’s condition had been getting better. He could now withstand bioelectricity of a stronger voltage, and through his branch meridians, the spirit energy that he could instantly absorb and release increased in amount.
Everyone had a feeling that they were infinitesimally close to success.
And just as they expected, right when the cultivation cabin was activated, Meng Chao felt different.
The pain and difficulty in cultivation from before was all gone. He did not need to do anything for the spirit energy in the gene medicine to enter his branch meridians either.
The intersecting spirit apertures in his branch meridians naturally formed a mysterious suction force that absorbed the spirit energy in endless waves.
His body was originally a dark void that no one could see through, but suddenly, just like dark clouds disappearing, stars that covered the sky appeared. The thousands of spirit apertures sparkled brilliantly.
Among the “stars”, silver threads as fine as hair grew out and intersected with each other. They entangled and surrounded each other to form a crystalline person filled with energy.
‘This is the formula! This is the key to branch meridian cultivation!’
Meng Chao opened his eyes in the light-silver medicinal liquid. They shone with a delighted spark.
‘Increase the voltage!’ He made a gesture to the people outside the cultivation cabin.
Gu Jianbo turned on the switch to increase the density of the gene medicine and the voltage of the bioelectricity.
‘No, that’s not enough! Stronger!’
Gu Jianbo increased it by another degree.
‘No, we can make it stronger. I can sense that the formulae’s nourishment and protective properties are really good. It can maximize our ability to resist the shock from the bioelectricity and reduce the side effects from the pain. It can widen our branch meridians, awaken our cells, and devour more spirit energy!’
Meng Chao was still not satisfied.
In the end, Gu Jianbo increased the bioelectricity over the warning line., but Meng Chao looked like he was enjoying it. His mental strength index and physiological parameters remained stable.
“We’ve clearly increased the amount of medicine, so why is the density of the medicinal liquid still reducing so quickly?”
“Look! The gene medicine is becoming clear. It’s like pure water!”
“The energy contained in it has all been absorbed by Meng Chao!”
Ma Hong and the students cried out in surprise.
Before their voices could fade, Meng Chao moved.
He used Ripple Force, Dragon Snake Force, Reckless Bull Force, the One Hundred Saber Techniques, Thunder Rapier, and the middle-stage fighting techniques he had recently learned in university.
Since he was immersed entirely in thick medicinal liquid, he faced great pressure and resistance. It was much harder for him to train here when compared to when he was surrounded by air.
But he ignored it. He moved effortlessly as if he could tear down everything in his path.
Every time he punched or kicked, he stirred up undercurrents and created waves, which made the walls of the cultivation cabin clang loudly.
The durability of the cultivation cabin was incredibly high. Even if a four-star superhuman like Gu Jianbo hit it, it would be hard for him to break it.
Even so, Meng Chao’s attacks left a deep impression on the group. They felt as if a fierce creature was about to come out of the cage.
The shocking waves lasted for around ten minutes, and the originally thick and light-silver medicinal liquid turned into clear water.
They turned on the drain holes and got rid of the residual liquid. Meng Chao sat down in a meditative pose with his body radiating heat.
It was as if he had not been put into icy cold medicinal liquid, but magma that could melt steel.
“Has… the Ultimate Style been completed?” Gu Jianbo stared at him.
The depths of his eyes sparkled just like Meng Chao’s.