"Liu Yuan, it's your turn to answer this question."
Anyone who's been frequently punished by standing near the podium—or, more accurately, played around it after class—knows that the area around the podium is slightly elevated.
From that vantage point, you can see every little move the students make below.
Some teachers just can't be bothered to call them out, though.
Hearing Old Li's voice, Liu Yuan quickly stuffed her phone into the desk drawer and stood up.
She glanced up at Old Li, who was watching her with an amused smirk, clearly having noticed her antics all along.
"This question… I think the most important thing is 'mindset.'"
"Mindset?" Old Li raised an eyebrow. "I don’t recall giving that as an option."
"Then why don’t you explain why mindset is the most important?"
Liu Yuan racked her brain, replaying the conversation she’d just had with her brother.
[Sleepyhead: I think they’re all important, but not that important.]
[Sleepyhead: If I had to pick, maybe mindset is the key.]
"Among the known twelfth-tier powerhouses in Great Xia, 70% had no special talents. And among that 70%, 30% were just like us—barely reaching the third or fourth tier before the Martial Exam."
"If they had given up back then, convinced they were inferior, they’d never have become twelfth-tier powerhouses."
"Or think about humanity’s darkest hour, when ordinary people had to face the thousand-meter dragons whose wings blotted out the sky."
"If everyone had believed that talent, effort, or lineage were useless against those dragons… there’d be no Pathseekers today. No us."
"Great Xia has never lacked those who threw themselves into the unknown, defied their own mediocrity, and lit the torch of courage for those who came after."
The classroom fell silent. Everyone was staring at Liu Yuan, visibly moved by her answer.
Even Xu Kun, who usually loved showing off, stayed uncharacteristically quiet, lost in thought.
Old Li himself was taken aback.
Frankly, this lesson was just another dose of bitter motivation.
Their previous teachers had probably already given them the same pep talk before the special training.
But what else could he do?
Even in the peaceful era of the old civilization, they couldn’t escape the pre-exam rally.
And this year’s sudden policy change for the Origin Realm trials? It felt like the higher-ups had made the decision on a drunken whim.
Which left people like him scrambling to pick up the pieces.
No matter how hard they tried, some problems couldn’t be fixed.
Educational resources were limited. So were the slots for the Origin Realm trials.
No matter how they divided them, nearly half the class would miss out on pre-exam training.
What then?
Watch helplessly as their classmates got a head start while they were left behind?
Resentment? Despair?
Or worse—hatred toward the school, their peers?
"Why him and not me?"
"Why does he get all the resources?"
"Stab you, stab you, stab you!"
This wasn’t exaggeration.
Human nature abhors inequality more than scarcity.
And so many antisocial personalities were born from perceived unfairness in their student days.
Sure, manipulating students like this was underhanded. But the world had never been fair.
In the end, it was all for Great Xia. For stability.
The only surprise was Liu Yuan’s answer.
That grand, inspiring rhetoric—the kind that set young hearts ablaze—
From his experience, it didn’t sound like something from a girl of her background.
It sounded more like the words of a seasoned powerhouse.
Add to that her inexplicable strength (completely at odds with her records) and her habit of giggling at her phone in class, her abilities growing more absurd by the day…
Ah.
So she’s net-dating some young master, huh?
Whoever was on the other end of those messages had probably molded her into his perfect little plaything.
At least she’d be one less student for him to worry about in the Origin Realm.
"Well said!"
"As we—"
……
Once seated again, Liu Yuan tuned out Old Li’s rambling.
[Sleepyhead: Show me your legs, little sis.]
[Iris: Brother… I’m in class.]
[Sleepyhead: Oh~ So after class, then?]
[Iris: I didn’t say that! ヽ(≧□≦)ノ]
[Iris: You’re amazing, Brother. The teacher kept praising your points, and my classmates—especially those who didn’t get Origin Realm slots—were all gloomy before. But after I repeated what you said, they’re fired up again.]
[Sleepyhead: Shame I didn’t go into pyramid schemes.]
[Sleepyhead: They can take it as inspiration, but don’t get carried away, little Iris. The Origin Realm is dangerous.]
[Iris: Why? I thought what you said made sense…]
[Sleepyhead: Let me put it this way. If one day I become a powerhouse, and Great Xia faces an unstoppable crisis, and I step up to save it—what would you call me?]
[Iris: You’d be Great Xia’s hero, of course.]
[Sleepyhead: But I wouldn’t see it that way. To them, I might be a hero in that moment. But I’d know the truth—I acted because I was sure I could handle it, because I like my life here and didn’t want to flee. I didn’t do it for anyone. Just myself.]
[Sleepyhead: And the moment I act, some scholar will start spinning tales about my ‘noble sacrifice.’]
[Sleepyhead: To everyone else, I’d be a dazzling hero. Just not to myself.]
[Sleepyhead: Not that real heroes don’t exist.]
[Sleepyhead: But whether it’s them or this hypothetical future me, our paths can’t be replicated.]
[Sleepyhead: Those who adapt survive. Those who imitate perish.]
[Sleepyhead: Listen, little Iris. In the Origin Realm, just remember two things.]
[Sleepyhead: First, we’re human.]
[Sleepyhead: Second, if others die, it’s not our fault. The enemy killed them, not us. If you can’t save them, run. No guilt. No suicidal heroics.]
ver to a world of cultivation and returned invincible. Modern medicine is child's play compared to elixirs; technological might crumbles before true cultivation. My name is Qin Ning, Earth's sole cultivator!
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
