Chapter 1 - The Heaven Rewards Diligence System
“You have diligently practised the ‘Mountain-Splitting Fist’ and successfully triggered a critical hit, gaining tenfold rewards!”
The notification sounded in Luo Mu’s mind.
A look of surprise and joy appeared on Luo Mu’s face.
It’s real!
Not an illusion!
Just now, the system he’d been waiting for fifteen long years had finally activated. It was called The Heaven Rewards Diligence System. With a bit of effort, there would be an equal amount of reward. And the rewards were always at least tenfold!
For example, the tenfold critical hit just triggered was equivalent to practising ten times over!
As the thought passed through his mind, a flood of insights surged into his brain.
Amidst the images and sensations, it truly felt as though he had practised ten times.
Luo Mu clenched his fists, and the frustrations he’d harboured for so long gradually dissipated.
It had been fifteen years since he’d crossed into this world. Upon discovering the existence of martial arts, he had been incredibly excited.
Day and night, through summer and winter, he had practised diligently. However, martial arts require talent, and in that regard, he was quite ordinary.
He had begun training at the age of eight, and after seven full years, he was still stuck at the sixth level of the Body Tempering Realm, his progress painfully slow.
It wasn’t due to a lack of effort, but his limited talent meant that no amount of hard work could yield results.
If I could always gain tenfold rewards, I could even be considered a genius.
Luo Mu thought to himself.
The biggest difference between geniuses and ordinary people lies in the rate of their gains. What takes a genius one day to achieve would take others ten or even dozens of days.
“Let’s test my cultivation.”
Luo Mu immediately sat down cross-legged in the courtyard, took out a pill, and swallowed it.
He silently recited the cultivation method and began circulating his energy through his meridians.
An hour later…
“You have diligently cultivated, successfully completing one cycle, and have triggered a critical hit, gaining a hundredfold reward!”
The prompt echoed again in his mind.
“What? A hundredfold!”
Luo Mu was shocked.
He had expected tenfold or perhaps a few dozenfold, but to his astonishment, it was a hundredfold!
Boom!
His body trembled, and his vitality surged!
He broke through to the seventh level of the Body Tempering Realm!
“This is…”
Luo Mu looked at his hands, finding it hard to believe.
Although he had already approached the limit of the sixth level, he had estimated that it would still take over ten days of training, even with six hours of cultivation a day and enough pills.
Yet now, in just one hour, he had made the leap!
The most crucial thing is…
Luo Mu discovered another impressive feature of the system—it only required one pill, but the hundredfold critical hit was equivalent to using a hundred pills!
It had saved him ninety-nine pills!
From a certain perspective, I am now truly no different from the geniuses in the inner academy, perhaps even more extraordinary.
A smile curled at Luo Mu’s lips.
What defines a genius?
A genius achieves the greatest progress with the least time and resources.
“Let’s continue cultivating!”
Luo Mu composed himself and did not linger too long in his joy. Now that he had this golden opportunity, how could he slack off?
The next day.
Morning rays of sunlight filled the sky.
Luo Mu opened the door and stepped outside.
In six hours overnight, he had completed six full cycles of cultivation. Unfortunately, he hadn’t triggered another hundredfold critical hit. However, the lowest had still been tenfold, so in total, it nearly added up to a hundredfold. His gains were immense.
At this rate, I’ll be able to break through again in at most half a month!
A satisfied expression appeared on Luo Mu’s face.
This was something he wouldn’t have dared to imagine in the past.
If he could trigger a few more hundredfold critical hits, or even higher, the time required could be drastically reduced!
“I should visit the Martial Arts Pavilion.”
Students of the academy who reached the seventh level of the Body Tempering Realm were allowed a free visit to the Martial Arts Pavilion, where they could choose a personal cultivation method or martial skill. This was one of the academy’s benefits, and one of the reasons so many sought to enter.
Cultivation techniques and martial skills were divided into Entry, Human, Profound, Earth, and Heaven levels.
There were rumours of levels beyond Heaven, but for the vast majority of people, even a Human-level technique was already a high-level method.
Outside the academy, if a Human-level technique appeared, countless martial artists would fight over it.
But here, one could learn it with ease.
And, if one broke through to the Spirit Aperture Realm, there was even a chance to learn a Profound-level technique!
“In two months, the academy’s grand ceremony will be held.”
“I wonder how many of our outer academy students will make it into the rankings this time.”
“I doubt it will be many. This year, the inner academy has recruited several geniuses from noble families. If the outer academy can retain last year’s numbers, it would already be impressive.”
As Luo Mu approached the Martial Arts Pavilion, he overheard the discussions of several students.
“The academy’s grand ceremony, huh?”
Luo Mu raised an eyebrow.
The grand ceremony was held every three years, and anyone who made it into the top 100 received substantial rewards.
Moreover, they would also have the chance to enter the military, paving the way toward titles and nobility.
For many, the academy’s grand ceremony was seen as a turning point that could change their destiny.
The academy was divided into the inner and outer sections.
The inner academy was reserved for true geniuses, most of whom were children of nobles and high-ranking officials.
The outer academy, on the other hand, was mostly made up of commoners, like Luo Mu.
As a result, the top 100 rankings were often dominated by inner academy students, with the outer academy occasionally only managing a handful of students in the rankings.
Previously, Luo Mu hadn’t dared to hope for a place in the top 100 of the grand ceremony, but now, with the system’s help, it was not beyond the realm of possibility.
The academy’s rewards were incredibly generous, offering rare pills, high-level techniques, and more.
Even the simplest of these rewards far surpassed anything his family could provide.
After so many years, it was time to stand on his own two feet.
Clearing his mind, Luo Mu entered the Martial Arts Pavilion.
The pavilion had three floors.
The first floor housed Entry-level martial arts.
The second floor held Human-level techniques.
The third floor contained Profound-level techniques.
It was said that the third floor was protected by a formation, and only by passing through it could one acquire a Profound-level technique.
Thus, not all students who reached the Spirit Aperture Realm could obtain a Profound-level method—it was only an opportunity, not a guarantee.