Su Qi has reached where he is today entirely thanks to his talent and hard work, okay

The silence of time could be unsettling.

Nearly half a month had passed in the blink of an eye.

Su Qi lay on the bed, his eyes slightly open as his blurred gaze drifted across the ceiling.

He slowly sat up, the blanket slipping off his body.

Reaching under the pillow, he fished out his phone. The screen lit up, displaying several unread messages.

[Iris: Gege, gege, I’m going to the Origin Realm tomorrow… I’m a little nervous…]

[Iris: Ugh… Gege is sleeping in again! No wonder you chose that name!]

[Iris: Angry.jpg]

[Iris: I’ve decided to ignore gege until gege replies to me.]

...

Leaning against the windowsill, Liu Yuan listened to the teacher’s endless lecture when she suddenly felt her phone vibrate.

[IWantToSleep: Do you know which Origin Realm you’re going to?]

She stole a glance at the teacher, making sure he wasn’t paying attention, then quickly typed back.

[Iris: I heard it’s an E-rank Origin Realm north of Jiangxia… about 70 kilometers from the school. We have to gather at six tomorrow morning.]

[IWantToSleep: Doesn’t ring a bell… Are all the sixth-year students going?]

[Iris: I think so. They say the Origin Realm is pretty vast.]

[Iris: Sob… I’ll be separated from gege for almost two months. I don’t want this…]

[IWantToSleep: Don’t be so pessimistic. I’ll give you a gift tomorrow.]

A gift?

Liu Yuan chewed on the word in her mind.

So… what could it be?

A bracelet? A card? Or maybe some little trinket?

If she could look at the gift in the Origin Realm and imagine gege being there with her in spirit…

Maybe it wouldn’t feel so bad.

Truly, gege might seem unreliable at first glance, but he was thoughtful when it mattered—knowing when to be rough and when to be gentle.

Just as Liu Yuan was lost in her thoughts, Old Li suddenly called her name from the podium.

"Xu Kun, answer this question. Liu Yuan, get ready."

Old Li pointed at the PowerPoint slide projected on the screen.

‘Talent’

‘Family’

‘Effort’

‘Martial Exam’

Which do you think is most important?

Xu Kun, who had been called on, still wasn’t wearing the sixth-year uniform—instead, he sported overalls and a middle-parted hairstyle. He stood up with the confidence of someone who had been holding cards for two and a half years.

"I believe family is greater than talent, talent is greater than the Martial Exam, and the Martial Exam is greater than effort."

"As the heavens move with vigor, gentlemen strive unceasingly; as the earth’s condition is receptive, gentlemen support with virtue!"

"First, I must thank my parents for naming me ‘Kun.’"

"But times have changed."

"Some say the Martial Exam is the first truly fair opportunity we’ve had in eighteen years."

"Is that really the case?"

"From what I know… in the past two months alone, over thirty students have transferred into our sixth-year institute… too cowardly to compete with the geniuses in the capital or Demon City, so they come to a second-tier city like ours to show off…"

"That’s the privilege their families afford them. Their parents paved a golden path for them."

"Meanwhile, the one chance we have to rise is just a tool for them to ‘gild’ their reputations."

"If we fail the Martial Exam, it’s like declaring all our efforts over the past eighteen years meaningless."

"But for them…"

"Failure is almost impossible…"

The atmosphere in the classroom grew heavy.

After all, as students of the sixth-year institute…

They were the majority who had been deemed failures in the Martial Exam.

This had been the case for years.

Everyone hated Xu Kun’s words, yet no one could refute him.

Reality was just that cruel.

Card-bearers were indeed the most affected by their family backgrounds.

Many of their parents were just ordinary workers, toiling day and night to secure a future for their children. Even when a single card cost tens of thousands, they gritted their teeth, tightened their belts for months, and bought it without hesitation.

Even Liu Yuan was no exception. Not long ago, she had been agonizing over finding the right card.

Honestly, she knew that without the White Silk Card gege had given her…

She might have been just as lost, struggling alongside her peers in the Martial Exam…

And that was just one card gege had casually handed her.

She couldn’t even imagine what kind of presence gege must have had during his own Martial Exam.

Did he crush his competition effortlessly?

Or was he like Yun Huang—acknowledged as the undisputed top contender before the exam even began, with no one daring to challenge him?

He must have been the top scorer in his city back then…

[Iris: Gege, which do you think is most important—‘talent,’ ‘family,’ ‘effort,’ or the ‘Martial Exam’?]

...

Su Qi raised an eyebrow.

What kind of question was this?

He had gotten to where he was today purely through his own talent and effort.

But… he couldn’t say that outright. It’d be too demoralizing.

After all, little Iris was about to take the Martial Exam. It was normal for her to feel uncertain.

Maybe he should offer her some tough love instead?