Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Originally, this project is usually carried out in Grade Two, but taking all factors into consideration, we decided to bring this project forward to raise your defensive abilities to some extent.”
Old Antique said, “So this summer, you must combine your spiritual root attribute with spells you’re good at in order to design for yourselves a killing technique for survival.”
Special training in killing techniques was an additional exam in senior high that was compulsory for students to complete. Furthermore, the marks would be added to the overall grade for the college entrance exam, accounting for five percent of the total score. It might seem like a very small portion, but this five percent was often the key element in the cultivation college entrance exam!
What was the saying? Cultivators taking the college entrance exam was like all the king’s horses and all the king’s men crowding a footbridge… There were times when people couldn’t get into the university they idolized because of a few marks.
But Wang Ling didn’t care whether or not he could get into a university he idolized; he just wanted to find a university where he could live a smooth and stable life…
Because killing techniques were linked to the college entrance exam, Old Antique’s expression turned a lot more serious. “You can start conceptualizing your killing technique during the summer camp this time. At your current stage, a killing technique doesn’t necessarily mean a skill with tremendous power. Hence, we will assess your killing techniques this time based on their holistic integration of the three aspects of skill, survival, and power.”
After Old Antique said this, there was instantly a hubbub of discussion in the classroom. Innovating spells was very sophisticated learning, and designing a killing spell for your own use wasn’t an easy task. For now, a killing spell at senior high level permitted students to use the underlying operational theory of other spells as reference.
There were two issues that needed to be taken into account.
One was spiritual root.
How powerful a spell was largely depended on the spiritual root attribute.
For example, those with the fire spiritual root were naturally strong. Those who had the water spiritual root had a strong self-healing and recovery ability, and those with the wood spiritual root had a natural advantage in AP (Attack Power). Those who had the earth spiritual root had a greatly enhanced sense of nature, while the metal spiritual root represented a stable defensive ability.
A lot of people actually did understand this concept.
Thus, the most appropriate approach in choosing spells to learn was to select those that were more compatible with your spiritual root.
Of course, the Three Thousand Great Dao transcended the five elements.
As soon as Old Antique brought this matter up, Wang Ling started to ponder how on earth he was going to design a spell that looked low-key and unassuming, which was an enormously difficult problem for him.
“Since everyone has different spiritual root attributes, the school will arrange for all of you to take a combined test before the summer camp officially begins. You’ll be able to clearly see the distribution of the five elements in your bodies.”
At that moment, Old Antique brought up another point, and that was the distribution of the five spiritual roots.
People with a single spiritual root were naturally more sought after, because they could straightaway focus on one attribute to cultivate. The rest were those with double spiritual roots, three spiritual roots and even four spiritual roots as well as five spiritual roots… If you had only two spiritual roots, that was still alright. The scariest was if you had all five spiritual roots jumbled together, with none being more prominent than the other.
Wang Ling himself had the five spiritual roots, but they weren’t a random mix…
He had five innate and consummate spiritual roots! That meant he could freely adjust the distribution of the five elements in his body to achieve the outcome he wanted.
This was actually an advantage in Wang Ling’s opinion, because it gave him a wide range of spells to choose from.
Generally speaking, the least conspicuous attribute was metal.
This spiritual root had the color symbolic of defense. Most metal-type spells basically emphasized defense.
While Wang Ling was mulling this, Old Antique lifted his hand to send out a stack of pamphlets.
“What’s this?” someone asked.
“Although it isn’t as difficult as designing an original spell, borrowing the operational theory of other spells to design your killing move also isn’t easy. This pamphlet contains your seniors’ design ideas for their killing techniques.”
Old Antique smiled. “The best grade a No. 60 High graduate has ever achieved is S-rank, which is equivalent to nearly two hundred marks.”
“Two hundred? Why so much?” Little Peanut exclaimed.
“Because the design of this killing technique was relatively complete. First was the skill component. This male senior made full use of the properties of his fire spiritual root and combined three fire spells together to create a spell called ‘Dead Sea of Dry Fire.’ He scored very high in terms of skill.
“Next were the survival and power components. In terms of survival, this spell could effectively cut off an enemy attack and turn into thick smoke that could ward against regular sight spells. As for the final power component, after combining three types of fire spells together, plus the fact that this senior himself was a cultivator with a fire spiritual root, he directly obtained full marks.”
Little Peanut added up the marks roughly and then scratched his head. “Teacher, that isn’t right. Even after counting… It can’t be two hundred marks…”
“Of course, the reason why this senior could obtain such a high grade was actually because he had been given additional marks. Because at that time, this senior’s spell design was plagiarized by a student from another school. In the end, the headmaster approved the decision to give this senior additional marks as consolation,” Old Antique explained.
“Someone would actually steal this?” The students were shocked.
“This society is a lot more complicated than you think…”
The corners of Old Antique’s mouth curled up. “The student who plagiarized the design had the surname Li, and was called Li Yuanjie 1 . You should be able to look him up online. Based on your senior’s design idea, this Student Li swapped the order of the three spells used in ‘Dead Sea of Dry Fire’ and designed a spell called ‘Sorrow of Leaving Fire’…”
“…”
“But it was a pity that this Student Li Yuanjie wasn’t a good learner. He didn’t understand the spell’s fundamental principle at all. We ultimately wanted students to design and create spells based on the operational theory of existing spells. But this Student Li Yuanjie just swapped the order of the three original spells, and copied everything else. In the end, this ‘Sorrow of Leaving Fire’ which he designed was neither here nor there, and was full of holes.”
“…”
“So, I want to remind all of you here, you have to use your own brain and hands to design your killing technique. Don’t plagiarize other people’s work, and at the same time, you have to protect your own work. Hm… I heard that this Student Li Yuanjie switched to a foreign name, and is still using this method after graduation to brag and swindle people outside, by claiming that he’s a mage who has original spells.”
“A foreign name?”
“That’s right.”
Old Antique nodded. “His name is Li Ghost Cut 2 Yuanjie…”
“…”
