23 Professor Li

"Well, I don't believe I can do much more for now." Ling Yun sighed and plopped to the ground on his room. He had just returned home from being in the shelter for two weeks straight. His shield had reached sacred-blood grade the day before and was currently in the process of upgrading his wings. Still, since they were primitive ones, it would take a little over two weeks to get them up to standard.

The martial competition started the next day, so he was making a list of all the assets he could use to fight.

"Cultivation-wise, I have the effortless and metal body, which should compensate a bit for my fitness. If not, I could always use Turbo, but I can only use it for five minutes every hour if I don't want to damage my body. Still, a 25% boost in fitness is too good, even if it is only for five minutes. I also have accelerated cognition, which shortens my response time and heavenly eye, so I won't get too blindsided. It will be extremely useful on the group stage, but not so much after that. As for the thirteen heavens scripture, the only one that seems useful in a fight is elemental energy, even when the help isn't that much. All in all, I would say I definitely have what it takes for the shelter championship with these alone." He mused while writing on a notebook. "I should leave turbo as a secret if I can, a trump card is always very useful, and I will be the target for attention after the competition."

"As for beast souls, I probably have the best collection in the shelter and one of the best in the whole sanctuary. Sacred-blood armour, spear, shield, and shapeshifting. Possibly wings for the final, too. I also have a mutant dagger, a bow, and an arrow. Even though they aren't sacred blood, mutant is still a nice grade. I could use it as a surprise attack, though only once. I should keep the Metal Gorilla beast soul as a trump card as well. If I combine the shapeshifting with metal body, I would have an almost impregnable defence, but I should play it safe." He wrote a note next to the metal gorilla on the list, stating the necessity for it to be a trump card.

"And as far as techniques go, I have quite a few. Sonic Shot and Untraceable Shot for archery, Soft Sword and Phantom Strike for the sword, though I won't use them. My sword is only primitive grade, it would be suicide. Triple Threat palm Strike would work amazingly on unarmed combat, but only if I get the chance. It is the only technique I can use with full power once I shapeshift, so it would be a pretty devastating attack. Minute Subtlety is also a very good footwork technique and should be my most used technique of them all. As for spear techniques, Venomous Rattlesnake is mostly out of the question, unless I am not using a shield. The Spear and Shield Form technique, I only just stepped in the middle stages, only at the experienced level. The derived technique, Shield Wall, would allow me to resist practically any strike with minimal damage, so it should be useful as well. The form itself is not as rigid as I originally expected, so I can keep some of the Venomous Rattlesnake attacks. The Drill-Point skill is still my main offensive technique, and it has potential to be lethal." At this point, he just paused. There was one more spear technique he had, but he wasn't even sure if writing it down was a good idea.

"Even though I have practiced it for over six months in total inside the training area, I haven't even reached the middle stage, just standing in the novice level. And even then, only barely." He let out a wry smile.

That spear technique was certainly powerful when executed at it's top, and it was a surprise to see it in the system store. It was, without a doubt, the most powerful spear technique he had witnessed, and could be compared to the falsified-sky sutra and the asura sutra. A strike that never misses. But he was still a long way from that point, which can only be attained at the late stages of the technique. At the early stage, the best it could do was to quintuple its speed and strength, but even that was absolutely horrifying for even a s-class hyper geno art.

"No, I won't use it in the competition. I will only use it in life or death situations, or when I'm sure nobody can see me. The consequences of the alliance knowing that technique are just too much. I can only show it publicly when I become a surpasser or garner enough backing that people can't target me for it."

He sighed once again. Even though he could easily win using that technique, he just couldn't risk it.

"Okay. So, I can use everything, but should only use the Metal Gorilla beast soul as a trump card when things are getting nasty. I can use Turbo, too, but try to keep it a secret. And I definitely, absolutely, cannot use 'that' technique. Not in front of so many people." Ling Yun resolutely said and nodded. With his fitness, it should be enough to guarantee a place in the top 10.

Ling Yun: Not evolved.

Status: None.

Lifespan: 200 years.

Requirements for evolution: 100 geno points.

Geno points gained: 100 ordinary geno points; 100 primitive geno points; 100 mutant geno points; 10 sacred-blood geno points; 0 super geno points.

He had barely maxed out on mutant geno points and finally got the last primitive one, and with ten sacred-blood geno points, he now had a fitness of eleven. It was more than Han Sen's when he was at the tournament, and definitely enough for him to get admitted into a military school. He was a little more than a month away from enrolment, and he hadn't yet decided his department, or even his school for that matter. After thinking about it for a few minutes, he finally gave up.

"Arghh, forget about it. I know I have the fitness to enter Blackhawk, and their research department is top ten, even if Blackhawk is only a top 50 school. I also know they have a Hand of God club, so that´s decided then." He smiled and ordered Anne to send his registration form for the exam. He then opened his comlink to take a look at his banking account but got distracted by a mail sitting there in his inbox.

It read: "I have reviewed your project "Wakandan Shield" and found it of an acceptable standard. A little subpar for a developer, but well above average for an amateur. I would like to talk to you further, so please give me a call. Li Singhua." It then had the number written on it.

Ling Yun became excited and immediately called him. It was only a couple of seconds before the voice of a man sounded in his ear.

"Who is it? I am busy right now." He said gruffly.

"Professor Li? I just read your mail and called you immediately. I am the person who sent you the Wakandan Shield project." Ling Yun said.

"You just saw it? What were you doing that got you busy for almost two weeks? My time is valuable, young man. If you aren't committed I can't do much for you."

"I'm sorry, professor. I was travelling in the sanctuary. I couldn't leave until today."

"Oh? Is that so? Well, that's acceptable. I wanted to tell you that I am intrigued by your project and would very much like to meet you in person so we could talk a bit more. To be honest, I would like to offer you a position on my team here at the Saint Hall." Li Singhua was certain Ling Yun would jump right in and accept the offer.

After all, if he had sent him his project he would surely want a spot on Saint Hall, right? To his complete surprise, Ling Yun refused.

"This… I'm sorry, professor Li, but I can't join Saint Hall now or in the near future"

"What? Why? What job do you have that is best than this one? Someone with your abilities should work here. We have the best resources available and the pay isn't low, either."

"I'm sorry, professor, but you misunderstand. I don't have any work, it is just that I applied for military school and classes start in about two months. I wouldn't be able to join you until after I graduate. And even then, it is unknown whether the mainframe would accept my request to work for Saint Hall." Ling Yun answered, but the professor was just stunned into silence.

'Military school?' He thought. 'If he is just applying to military school, then how old is he? And how in the world was he able to develop that?'

"Military school? You know, I just realized, I don't know your name and age. I don't know anything about you, for that matter. Why don't you introduce yourself?" He said. He would have to run his data to find out everything he could about this potentially genius young man.

"Yes, right, I forgot. Sorry, professor. My name is Ling Yun, I am sixteen years old, living on Pala Planet." He said dutifully.

"Pala Planet? Isn't that a seventh-tier commercial planet?" The professor was surprised.

'No wonder he said he didn't have any access to a laboratory.

"Yes, it is. Professor, I'm honoured for you to take your time talking to me, but I need to go. Please don't hesitate to call me anytime you need to, I will make my best to accommodate you." Ling Yun said.

"Yes, yes, of course. Have a nice day."

After hanging up, professor Li used his high clearance level to search information on this young man.

"Ling Yun, sixteen. Deceased father and a mother currently working as a hunter in the first sanctuary. Sister four years younger. Graduated third of his class from compulsory education. But why aren't the aptitude tests here?" He wondered.

The aptitude tests were an IQ, EQ, combat awareness, and work ethic assessments. They were usually performed only to students in the last year of basic education a month before the final exams, which was why Ling Yun's was not present. He never took it.

It worked better for him that way, though. He didn't need any attention until he could gain some type of backing. He would have to repeat those tests once he entered military school, but he could wait. And by then, he would be protected by the military, if only slightly.

Still, by that point he would have enough money to move his family to at least a tier 2 planet, so they would be safe. All in all, life would be good, if slightly stressful, from that point onwards.

Meanwhile, professor Li was thinking that he could wait a bit for the military aptitude test results. They would be more accurate anyways. But in the meantime, he really needed to complete his research on Wakandan Shield. It was a very interesting technique, after all.