Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Making a Stir

Ouyang Yu’s selection boosted the enthusiasm of the students behind him. Seeing Ouyang Yu become a martial artist, the students behind him performed even harder, and a few of them had quite good potential.

Even the Changfeng Martial Arts Hall recruited a student, but the Gale Martial Arts Hall remained silent.

Only when Meng Dong appeared did the representative of the Gale Martial Arts Hall take the competition seriously.

Obviously, he had done his homework beforehand and specifically came for Meng Dong.

Meng Dong’s performance was astonishing, with a punch speed of 5.7 punches per second and a nerve response of 0.091/s.

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What stood out the most was his punching power, with a left hand punch of 355 kg and a right hand punch of 403 kg, stunning everyone present.

The Mortal Realm of martial artists is divided into three levels: Warrior Level, War General Level, and War God Level. Each stage is divided into nine levels.

For the Warrior Level, the main distinction is based on physical performance in three aspects.

If the total scores of punching power, punching speed, and nerve response exceed a certain standard, one would be considered for promotion. For example, the graduation assessment requires a punching power of 200kg, which is already the standard for a second-level Warrior.

With a punching power of over 400 kg, Meng Dong already met the standard of a third-level Warrior. Although he had not yet met the standard for the other two aspects, once he did, he would undoubtedly be a standout among the third-level Warriors, possessing the ability to fight across levels.

To compete for this talented individual, representatives from Changfeng Martial Arts Hall and the Dragon-slaying Academy almost came to blows, but Meng Dong eventually chose the Gale Martial Arts Hall.

After Meng Dong’s performance, the atmosphere became somewhat dull, and no more astonishing talents appeared.

By the time it was Lin Zhen’s turn, many martial arts hall representatives had already started packing up, planning to take a quick look at the last contestant and leave.

Seeing Lin Zhen take the stage, Ouyang Yu, who was sitting next to the representative of the Dragon-slaying Academy, said, “Brother Li, this guy has some grudges with me. His performance is acceptable, and he qualifies for those small martial arts halls. However, I hope he ends up miserable.”

The representative of Dragon-slaying Academy, surnamed Li, knew that Ouyang Yu’s father was an official of the Base City and took care of Ouyang Yu because of that. He nodded and said, “Alright, this is a trivial matter. It’s just a slightly promising student. There are plenty of them out there. We’ll see which martial arts hall wants to recruit him, and I’ll have a word with them. Generally, they will have to give face to our Dragon-slaying Academy.”

“Done! Thanks, Brother Li. If you have any errands at the martial arts hall in the future, just let me know!”

Ouyang Yu felt smug in his heart, thinking that no matter how Lin Zhen performed, his fate was already decided.

“Lin Zhen, start testing your punching power,” said the examiner. Lin Zhen then stood in front of the punching power test machine.

“After three days of spiritual power training, I can feel my physique has improved to some extent, but I don’t know exactly how much it has improved. Now is the time to find out.”

Before, Lin Zhen’s punches in both hands had exceeded 200. His left hand was a little over 200, and his right hand was over 230.

He took a deep breath, swung his left fist, and threw a powerful punch.

“Buzz!”

The Mercury Pillar shot up abruptly.

By looking at the speed of the rising Mercury Pillar, those martial arts hall representatives who planned to take a casual look at Lin Zhen all let out a simultaneous “huh!”

This kid’s potential is not bad. Judging by the speed, the power of this punch won’t be too low.

The electronic screen displayed the power of Lin Zhen’s punch.

“298 kg!”

“Wow! Another eye-catching one! Even if he’s a left-hander, our Blue Sky Martial Arts Hall is still willing to recruit him!”

The representative of Blue Sky Martial Arts Hall was the first to express his attitude. Generally, if a student was not exceptional, representatives from acquainted martial arts halls would be modest; but for outstanding students, everyone would offer incentives to compete for them.

In his past life, Lin Zhen had joined the Blue Sky Martial Arts Hall, which ranked 9th nationally and was considered mid-tier.

“Hehe, you guys from Blue Sky have already recruited someone, right? I’ve seen Lin Zhen’s information. He’s not a left-hander. We at Changfeng wouldn’t mind recruiting one more person,” declared Changfeng Martial Arts Hall, causing many other martial arts hall representatives to fall silent, knowing they couldn’t compete with Changfeng in terms of strength.

Ouyang Yu’s face turned extremely ugly because he saw that Brother Li next to him seemed interested as well.

“Damn it, how did Lin Zhen’s strength improve so much? His punch power actually surpassed mine! He was clearly much worse than me before!”

Lin Zhen completely ignored the noise around him, gathered his strength, and his right fist struck out again.

“368kg!”

Although his strength was not as good as the natural divine power of Meng Dong, this was already the second-highest score in the whole school. Seeing this number, the eyes of the martial arts hall representatives shone brightly.

Some people even took out their phones to contact their own martial arts hall leaders, ready to report Lin Zhen’s situation. If he performs well in the next two tests, they’ll need to consider offering an attractive contract to recruit him.

Even if Changfeng has the strength, they may not necessarily have the determination to recruit him. With a high enough offer, it’s hard to believe Lin Zhen wouldn’t be tempted.

The invigilating tutor was also shocked by Lin Zhen’s results and took a moment before continuing, “Punch strength test is over. Now let’s test punch speed. Lin Zhen, give it your all for one second. Remember not to hold back.”

Lin Zhen nodded, feeling secretly delighted in his heart. The improvement in strength due to spiritual power was no small matter, and the strength wasn’t even the main aspect. The most important part was nerve response, and he was very eager for the upcoming tests.

Taking a deep breath, Lin Zhen threw a lightning-fast punch at the target, first with his left hand, then with his right.

“Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!!!!!”

A continuous series of violent hitting sounds rang out, and a series of numbers soared.

“266kg, 311kg, 251kg, 309kg, 255kg, 320kg, 267kg!!”

“Test is over, 7.6 punches per second, all valid!”

As the invigilator’s words fell, the martial arts hall representatives below became restless.

Although his punching strength was weaker than Meng Dong’s, his punching speed surpassed Meng’s. This showed that Lin Zhen was more focused on agility but also had considerable strength, making him yet another nearly genius-level figure.

Almost all the representatives started contacting their leaders, except for those from Gale Martial Arts Hall and Dragon Slayer.

Brother Li from Dragon Slayer hesitated for a moment. Although he had a relationship with Zhang Huai, finding talent was his job, and he couldn’t ignore it as it involved his own income.

“Let’s wait and see. We’ll make a decision after observing his nerve response,” decided Brother Li, still holding back for now.

The Gale Martial Arts Hall representative had bright eyes, seemingly deep in thought. Beside him, Meng Dong excitedly said, “Big brother Zhao, Lin Zhen is my buddy. Please recruit him to Gale Martial Arts Hall as well. I really enjoy being with him.”

The man surnamed Zhao nodded imperceptibly, his thoughts unknown.

“Lin Zhen, start testing your nerve response speed.”

Lin Zhen stood in the fully enclosed test cabin, with countless infrared lights flashing around him.

He held his breath as the first red light suddenly shot at him.

This test completely simulated the speed of a bullet. As long as the student could make a successful evasive motion, they would pass. Evasion is crucial in a fight against mutated beasts. Only the most agile fighters can live longer, while those who only know how to fight fiercely usually have short lives.

The martial arts hall spends a lot of resources to train martial artists, and they don’t want a short-lived fighter. Therefore, nerve response is crucial.

Lin Zhen had taken this nerve response test before but had been almost unable to make a successful evasion. However, today’s feeling was different.

It seemed he could detect the trajectory of the bullet. Although it was difficult to dodge, it wasn’t impossible.

By a hair’s breadth, Lin Zhen swiftly tilted his head, and the red light grazed past him!

“Swish swish swish swish!”

One by one, red lights appeared like a spider’s web. Lin Zhen tried his best to twist and move, sometimes managing to dodge and sometimes getting hit.

“No! I can’t perform too well in this test, or someone might notice the secret of being a spiritual mind master. It’s best to have some secrets for now.”

Of course, he wouldn’t perform too poorly either. Under Lin Zhen’s deliberate control, a minute quickly passed.

“One minute, sixty bullets; hit thirty-three times; dodged twenty-seven times; valid evasion actions fifty times; nerve response 0.064/s!”

As the invigilator incredulously announced this number, all the representatives were boiling with excitement!

Some of the prepared representatives even waved contracts, rushing over in an instant and surrounded Lin Zhen in the center!