Chapter Forty-Four: The Elite Class

Lin Yin officially moved into Tianhe Academy.

Principal Gu immediately formed the Elite Class.

As the name suggested, it was a selection of one in ten thousand, picking the finest and most capable soldiers.

There were two main objectives.

First, to elevate the overall highest student capability of Tianhe Academy.

Second, to participate in the Human Race Senior Martial Arts Tournament—the Skypiercing Cup—held three months later.

Every five years, the human race holds a comprehensive senior martial arts tournament. As long as participants are under twenty-five years of age, anyone can enter regardless of their realm.

Securing a spot on the leaderboard of the senior martial arts tournament brings boundless wealth and honor. Winning a place in the top three yields the legendary rewards of heavenly-tier weapons and cultivation techniques!

More importantly, the status and rankings of the eight human kingdoms are also tied to this tournament.

The Elite Class has a total of fifteen members.

Do not think the number is large; some of them are external reinforcements specially brought in by Principal Gu.

"Zhou Li," said a curly-haired girl with exquisite makeup. Apart from her eyes lighting up whenever she looked at Lin Yin, she remained aloof and indifferent to everyone else, even harboring a hint of disdain.

This was completely normal. Zhou Li was an external reinforcement brought by Principal Gu from the Great Zhou Kingdom.

Only twenty years old, she had already reached the fifth realm of Bone Condensation. Furthermore, her background was noble; rumor had it that she was related to the old academy head of Zhougong Academy. Such a proud prodigy naturally carried a sense of arrogance when arriving in Tianhe City.

"Zhang Zhang, we met at the garrison zone. Your saber technique and footwork were truly cool," another girl initiated the handshake, sporting a familiar scar on her face.

"Fan Chou."

"Yang Longhu."

"Chu Qi."

"Wu Liu."

...

After Lin Yin briefly acquainted himself with the fifteen members, the Elite Class was officially established.

Their location was a newly constructed building.

These fifteen individuals were well aware that they were riding on Lin Yin's coattails, as this new building had been built specifically for him.

"Everyone, let us set aside distant matters for now and focus on the immediate ones," Principal Gu clapped his hands to summon everyone closer, speaking with a stern expression: "In three months, the Human Race Senior Martial Arts Tournament will commence. I hear that human nations from overseas will also come to the Eastern Lands to participate this time. The time is too short, and I know you may not be able to improve yourselves all that much, but I still want to say this: strive for someone to place in the top two hundred! If anyone achieves it, money, honor, fame—name whatever you want, and I will grant it!"

"Now then, everyone, begin your training!"

"Whatever you need, your instructor will report it to me immediately, and I will arrange it at once."

"The storms of the outside world no longer concern you. All you need to do is focus on your cultivation and advance steadily!"

With that, Principal Gu clapped his hands to signal everyone to disperse.

Then, he pulled Lin Yin aside separately, and the two walked to a corner.

"What is it?" Lin Yin asked with a chuckle, in no particular rush, knowing what Principal Gu wanted to say.

Sure enough, after a brief moment of hesitation, Principal Gu finally lowered his head.

"Student Lin Yin! Please do your absolute best to help this batch of the Elite Class!"

"The top two hundred, just the top two hundred will do!"

"I beg of you!"

After smiling silently for a long time, Lin Yin slowly spoke: "What? With your dignity as a school principal, do you harbor such meager ambitions? Would merely reaching the top two hundred satisfy you infinitely?"

Principal Gu shuddered all over, hastily raising his head with an expression of immense surprise and anticipation.

"In any case, since I am participating, I will not hold anything back. I will unleash my full strength."

Lin Yin did not make any promises regarding a specific ranking.

Principal Gu immediately grew somewhat worried and cautioned: "You must be careful! The tournament limits age but not realm, which means you might encounter opponents in the Qi Blood Realm, opponents in the Bone Condensation Realm, and possibly even prodigy disciples hailing from royal lineages. Furthermore, all the major royal academies have competitors specifically trained for this tournament; they do not participate in wars and focus solely on raising their realm. With their sects wildly feeding them resources, their realms are unpredictable. Even encountering an opponent in the Pulse Forging Realm is not outside the realm of possibility."

"No matter who the opponent is, I will give it my all."

"Sigh, very well! Safety must be your top priority above all else. If anything happens to you, this old man's spine will probably be poked through by the monarchs of the other nations," Principal Gu joked half-heartedly.

After concluding the conversation, Lin Yin turned around and returned to the cultivation building.

The members of the Elite Class had already begun their daily high-intensity training.

However, after observing silently for a long time, Lin Yin noticed two problems.

"First, the intensity is insufficient."

"Second, the training content is not well-suited to their individual traits."

"Does Student Lin Yin have a solution?" the Elite Class instructor asked very modestly.

"How about this? I will formulate their training programs and provide them by evening."

"Agreed!" The instructor, named Liu Zhensong, was a former military king of the Jiayuguan Great Wall, possessing terrifyingly invincible combat skills and techniques. Yet, facing Lin Yin, he chose to trust him without the slightest hesitation.

He knew that regardless of the fact that Lin Yin's current realm was only the ninth realm of Qi Blood, when it came to martial arts comprehension, he himself might still fall short of this eighteen-year-old youth.

The instructor had no objections, and the students of the Elite Class had even less.

They might occasionally refuse to submit to one another, but they held absolute reverence for Lin Yin.

They broke into cheerful cheers.

To receive guidance from a ninth-grade martial arts genius—outsiders would die of envy.

As the saying goes, when you are slightly stronger than others, they will challenge you.

However, when you are as brilliantly radiant as the blazing sun hanging high in the sky, others will only feel it a great fortune to be illuminated by your light.

Evening.

Jiang Zixun also received her new training program.

"Practicing the saber?" Jiang Zixun looked at Lin Yin, who was distributing the training plans to everyone, and blinked her eyes. "Little brother, how did you know I like practicing the saber?"

Lin Yin could not help but twitch the corner of his mouth. *Do you take me for a blind man? Every time I practice the saber on the balcony, your eyes look like they want to press right against the floor-to-ceiling window.*

"Your previous saber training program had some deviations. You shouldn't waste your time and energy on footwork and saber techniques; you should specialize exclusively in saber stances."

A saber stance refers to the fundamental postures employed when wielding the blade.

"Footwork and saber techniques form a complete set and need to be integrated with one another."

"Saber stances are different. You don't need to learn many; learning just one is enough."

With that, Lin Yin reached out and took Jiang Zixun's Seven-Star Silver Steel-Slicing Saber. He lowered his posture, pressing his right hand holding the saber against his waist and abdomen while gripping the scabbard tightly with his left hand, his entire body resembling a taut bowstring.

On the other side, the members of the Elite Class felt a shock in their hearts and exchanged glances.

"Jiang Zixun is willing to let someone else use her saber?"

"Didn't she always say her silver saber was never lent out to outsiders?"

Zhang Zhang leaned closer and said, "Tch! Can't you tell? Lin Yin is Zixun's exception."

At that moment, Lin Yin suddenly drew his saber. The blade flashed forth violently before him, and his body shot forward in tandem. To the naked eye, only a dark shadow accompanied by a trace of a waning moon swept across the ground.

Lin Yin landed and glanced back; he was already about twelve meters away from his original position.

"Such a fast saber! Such fast footwork! Is this a saber stance?" Jiang Zixun watched with shining eyes.

"The Draw Slash, one of the saber stances."

"It has no footwork requirements and no saber technique requirements, only requirements for drawing speed and ground-scraping sprint speed."

Handing the silver saber back to Jiang Zixun, Lin Yin casually said, "When you can instantly strike a target twenty meters away in a single flash, you will pass."

"Ah? Tch! You only slashed about ten meters yourself."

"I was merely demonstrating, not unleashing my full strength."

Lin Yin turned around and clapped his hands. "An assessment every three days. Everyone train according to the new program, and I guarantee that each of you will gain something from it."

Before he knew it, he had practically replaced Liu Zhensong as the instructor of the Elite Class.

Yet, instructor Liu Zhensong and all the students of the Elite Class were more than happy about it.

Training began.

Lin Yin slipped into the training room as usual, circulating the [Physical Body Crowning] technique to temper his Qi Blood value.

At noon, he halted his movements and checked his status; his Qi Blood value had risen to 1,210.

After having a simple lunch and nutritional supplements, Lin Yin declined the massage therapist maidens who had come to relax his muscles and tendons, and buried his head back into the training room.

With no other cumbersome matters to distract him now, in a state of single-minded focus, the growth rate of his Qi Blood value was nothing short of terrifying.

At four in the afternoon, stepping out of the training room, Lin Yin's Qi Blood value had risen once more to 1,280.

An increase of nearly 100 points in a single day left the members of the Elite Class dumbfounded.

Although in the near future, they would grow accustomed to and even numb to this phenomenon.

At this very moment, witnessing Lin Yin's cultivation speed with their own eyes for the first time, even the mysteriously-backed Zhou Li could not help but sigh repeatedly.

"Truly favored by the heavenly Dao, bestowing such a monstrous talent upon the human race."