Chapter 9
“Next, Wang Mumu!”
As soon as Lu Nan finished speaking, a girl with a few freckles on her face stepped forward.
“Bloodline concentration?”
“Seventy percent.”
“Good. A C-rank bloodline. That’s already quite good. It looks like your hard work has paid off! You have the makings of a Battle General.”
“Next, Xiao Huohuo!”
“Sixty-six percent. A B-rank bloodline. Not bad.”
At that moment, Su Jiu clutched one arm and quietly rose onto her toes to watch Xiao Huohuo, six or seven people ahead of her.
Sure enough, both bloodline and concentration mattered. When he awakened, the phantom of a fiery lotus—apparently some kind of plant-type demon beast bloodline—appeared behind him. But unlike Lu Ke’s awakening, it didn’t set the table on fire.
What kind of spectacle would that girl Bai Qianyu make?
“Next, Tang San!”
“Hmm... You haven’t worked hard enough, and your bloodline concentration is too low. Your bloodline isn’t great either. A D-rank Sea Cucumber Grass—the most common kind. I’d guess it won’t give you much of a boost.”
“Aah! How could this happen? I’ve diligently cultivated every day! And isn’t my father’s bloodline a B-rank Azure Sky Python? What the hell is Sea Cucumber Grass!?”
The boy named Tang San immediately let out a shriek loud enough for everyone within a hundred meters to hear.
“Don’t lose heart. If you can reach Battle General rank, you’ll get another chance to awaken your bloodline. You may still be able to strengthen it then.”
Lu Nan’s eyes held a hint of sympathy, though he spoke in a comforting tone. Poor kid. Maybe your father isn’t your father after all.
Tang San had no choice but to return to his place, looking completely dejected. When he noticed people staring at him, he yelled like a madman, “What are you looking at? You trying to die?”
He silently marked them all for death, unaware that someone watching from afar had witnessed the whole scene.
An initial bloodline awakening was very important. A powerful bloodline could give someone a certain degree of combat ability even at the lower Warrior ranks. It would likely give them plenty of advantages in cultivation and battle later on, too.
With a low concentration and a weak bloodline like this, it wouldn’t be of much use early on. But advancing required rare items as catalysts, and they couldn’t obtain those rare items from outside the city on their own. The gap between them would only grow over time.
Heaven rewards diligence, yet there were plenty of people like Tang San—lazy, but still hoping to gain power.
“Next...”
“Next...”
“Next...”
“Liu Lin!”
“Whoosh~~~~~”
A streak of orange flame suddenly sprang up from the Awakening Stone. A piercing bird cry rang through the sky, and a strange, fiery bird appeared behind the girl, circling again and again.
“What’s going on? Isn’t her bloodline the C-rank Blazing Bird? That can’t possibly be a Blazing Bird!”
Everyone in the class stared wide-eyed at the scene. Even those who knew the girl were baffled.
Lu Nan’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he said gravely, “Bloodline Reversion... If I remember correctly, this should be a Chongming Bird, one of the top S-rank bloodlines.”
“B-Bloodline Reversion!!!”
“Damn, and she’s a pretty girl, too! What’s her name?”
The girl undergoing the awakening instantly became the center of attention. The S-rank Chongming Bird was a creature from the Divine Beast Compendium, and in the future, she might even learn the divine skill Rebirth Through Fire.
She’d truly gone from a sparrow to a phoenix.
“Her name’s Liu Lin. I think she’s the security guard’s daughter,” someone said quietly.
“She’s really pretty, too. I should go introduce myself.” Hearing that she was only the security guard’s daughter, some of the boys nearby visibly relaxed and began to look eager.
“You’d better watch out. Liu Lin has a bad temper and is stubborn, just like her security guard dad. I heard fire-type bloodline users are all like that.”
“Then I’ll have to be careful when I flirt with her.”
“Her bloodline concentration must be at least seventy-five percent. That’s really high. Uncle Liu must be thrilled,” Lu Nan said softly, his eyes filled with genuine happiness.
“Thank you, Teacher.”
“Next... Average concentration. D-rank Deep-Sea Sea Cucumber.”
“Next... High concentration. C-rank Iron-Eating Beast.”
“Teacher, I’m going to the rooftop. Don’t try to stop me,” said the student who had awakened a Deep-Sea Sea Cucumber bloodline.
“Next... Awakening failed.”
“Sea Cucumber, wait for me! Let’s team up.”
...
At last, nearly the whole class had awakened. Su Jiu clutched her number 51 card, her teeth chattering uncontrollably. Her body was so cold it had gone numb, and an intense longing for the Awakening Stone kept rising within her.
She kept asking herself: Could the A-rank Ice Chi bloodline really cause this? Why had Lu Ke seemed so composed?
Could she actually fail to awaken in this state?
“The last one... Su Jiu!”
“Tsk, tsk. Are you scared before you’ve even awakened? Your teeth are chattering.” Lu Ke looked at Su Jiu disdainfully.
“I heard the young lady’s father, the mayor, even prepared a blood-condensing item to help her break the fifty-percent mark. Sigh, we commoners aren’t as lucky as Miss. We don’t have a divine treasure to push our bloodline concentration past fifty percent.”
Lu Ke’s sidekick spoke with nothing but mockery, as if she thought that after today, Su Jiu would become someone even she could bully.
“Shut up!”
Su Jiu took a deep breath and shouted. Then, struggling against the piercing pain in her back, she slowly made her way forward through the crowd, ignoring everyone pointing and whispering about her.
“That’s her? I heard she wanders around during class all day, doing nothing.”
“Who’s that? She’s so cute.” A little girl blinked and asked in an adorable voice.
“She’s a terrible student. I used to be in the class next to hers. Don’t be fooled by her looks—just look at how she dresses. She’s totally improper,” said a loudmouthed girl with a mushroom haircut.
“Oh, I see. Then she probably won’t awaken anything good.”
“Pfft. Look how haggard she is. It’s questionable whether she’ll even awaken successfully.”
“Hey, you students who were planning to go to the rooftop, wait for Su Jiu too. She might fail to awaken as well. After all, that girl hardly ever shows up for exams, and she never comes to group training.”
At that moment, Lu Ke’s sidekick loudly joined in the mockery, and Lu Ke gave a slight nod.
The students who had awakened Deep-Sea Sea Cucumber bloodlines perked up at the suggestion. Maybe having a pretty girl fail to awaken alongside them wouldn’t feel so bad.
“Quiet!” Lu Nan glared at the troublemaking sidekick.
Lu Ke’s lips curled into a faint smile. This was exactly what she wanted: for Su Jiu to make a fool of herself in public. That girl was trash to begin with. What was there to fear about her living in the top-student dorm? Why wouldn’t she follow Lu Ke’s arrangements?
“Two clowns...”
Su Jiu glanced at Lu Ke and held back the urge to hit her. Dragging her heavy body along, she walked up to Lu Nan.
“Su Jiu, you don’t seem to be feeling well. Would you like to come back another day...?”
Lu Nan noticed at once that something was wrong with Su Jiu. Her face was flushed as if she’d been drinking, and she seemed to be in pain.
He wasn’t sure if she was pretending to be sick to delay the nationally scheduled awakening, but he still asked with concern.
“No... I’m fine.” Su Jiu forced a smile and looked up to answer him.
“Then put your hand here.” Lu Nan spoke in an even tone.
As her homeroom teacher, Lu Nan understood this student better than anyone...
Thinking back over everything, Lu Nan secretly shook his head. There was nothing for it—he’d just have to accept his bad luck. Hopefully the girl wouldn’t actually fail to awaken, or he’d become a laughingstock among his colleagues.
Su Jiu’s hand kept trembling. She was so cold that she felt as if every organ in her body were about to freeze solid.
“Steady. Don’t shake,” Lu Nan said, pushing up his glasses.
Su Jiu gripped her right hand with her left, then leaned almost her whole petite body against the stone. Only then did she manage to place her palm on the Awakening Stone.
Perhaps because the previous student had awakened a fire-type bloodline, there was a warm feeling during the awakening...
The chill in her body seemed to have eased a little. What was going on?
“Close your eyes and immerse yourself in the depths of your bloodline!” Seeing this, Lu Nan immediately barked the instruction.
What a problem student. She didn’t even know the basic procedure.