Chapter 107: Bloodline Aptitude

　　The third section tested one’s affinity with the vital energy of heaven and earth!

　　The forcefields in that section affected warriors differently, according to the permeability of their bodies. The greater affinity one had with the vital energy of heaven and earth, the closer their body was to the essence of heaven and earth. Greater permeability allowed the absorption of vital energy of heaven and earth, while exerting as little influence on their environment as possible, which in turn made them less affected by the force fields.

　　Whoosh!

　　Qi Ying was dragged onto the steps by Han Xue, but he only progressed a few steps before toppling over.

　　“Ah! What happened to you?” Han Xue had clearly been given a fright.

　　“Nothing… I can’t match your speed… You should go on without me!” Qi Ying struggled to his feet as he said through gritted teeth.

　　“No, you must have fallen over because I pulled you off-balance. Let’s go up together.” Han Xue insisted on towing Qi Ying up with her, “Huh? You’re so heavy…”

　　“It’s because my aptitude is mediocre, so I’m being more severely affected by the forcefields. You should go on ahead by yourself.”

　　Han Xue glared at him and pouted. “I’ve read a lot of books, so don’t try to fool me! Warriors with exceptional True Energy manipulation skills, must also have great affinity with the vital energy of heaven and earth! Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense… Eh? You’re only at the Fifth Energy Martial Stage? What…”

　　“I’m not from a major family like you; I only have decent aptitude in one section, so of course I’m struggling now that we’re at the third section.” Qi Ying took a deep breath and repeated, “I can’t match your speed. You should go ahead.”

　　“So what if you can’t match my speed? We can still go together! Speed doesn’t affect the final result.”

　　Han Xue pursed her lips and stubbornly walked alongside Qi Ying. “Hey, Qi… Qi Ying, right? Qi Ying, where are you from?”

　　“The Celestial River County?”

　　“Where’s that?”

　　“In the Northwestern region of the kingdom.”

　　“Is it a fun place?”

　　“…”

　　“Are there Cloud Scaling Steps? I love those things!”

　　“…”

　　“Is there anything good to eat there? Our family chef cooks a really good fried dragon liver!”

　　“…”

　　“Hmm? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

　　Han Xue turned to discover that Qi Ying was drenched in sweat, and taking each step seemed to require a lot of effort.

　　It wasn’t that he was ignoring Han Xue; it was simply the case that speaking was too difficult for him!

　　His affinity with heaven and earth was actually quite outstanding, as highlighted by his ability to guide vital energy into his body on his first try. Thus, he possessed at least black aptitude in that aspect, and it should have been a stronger area for him than his basal properties and True Energy manipulation.

　　However, his left hand was holding him back again!

　　Qi Ying was seriously contemplating cutting the damn thing off!

　　Even when he wasn’t using his cultivation method, his left hand absorbed a lot of the vital energy of heaven and earth that his body absorbed. As a result, the effect of the forcefields was weighing down particularly heavily upon him.

　　He took a longer time to complete the third section than the first!

　　Halfway through the third section, Feng Hemu, Sun Changyu, and the others caught up to Qi Ying and Han Xue. All of them were initially quite surprised by the difficulty that Qi Ying was having, before their attention was drawn to Han Xue.

　　“I just met her not long ago.”

　　Qi Ying replied indifferently to everyone’s questions.

　　He had to muster up almost all of his strength to utter that sentence.

　　The third section was extremely arduous, and he was almost unable to complete it, but he finally made it to the end!

　　Some of the disciples with mediocre aptitude in all areas, wouldn’t even be able to complete all five sections within the allotted time limit.

　　Never would Qi Ying have thought that his left hand would weigh so heavily upon him.

　　“White again!”

　　The result was exactly what Qi Ying had expected, and he had two whites and a black on his jade badge. Among the nine people from the Celestial River County, eight of them had at least one red on their badges. In particular, both the second and third segments of Sun Changyu’s badge were red.

　　“Your colors are all so light!”

　　Han Xue showed them her badge, which had three black segments!

　　“F*ck!”

　　“Holy sh*t!”

　　Feng Hemu and the others were flabbergasted.

　　Qi Ying only had one black segment and they were already clambering to earn his favor… Who would have thought that the adorable little girl standing before them would have three? And she had only completed three sections!

　　At that moment, Han Xue suddenly caught sight of someone. “Oh! It’s the big sister from the Wei family… It was nice meeting you, Qi Ying, I’m off now!”

　　“Alright.”

　　Qi Ying nodded nonchalantly.

　　He was more than happy to be rid of noble young mistresses like Han Xue.

　　An Shaoping asked, “Who is she, Young Master Qi?”

　　“I don’t know. She suddenly came up and started talking to me.”

　　Qi Ying replied.

　　…

　　The fourth section came next!

　　That section tested one’s learning ability. In contrast to the previous sections, the fourth section gave everyone a choice. There was a battle technique recorded every five hundred steps, and warriors had to reach the elementary level on one of them as quickly as possible, before they could ascend the steps.

　　In order to ensure fairness and to save time, those battle techniques were brand new ones created by the masters of the academy the day prior. All of them were at the Yellow Tier Low Rank, and they encompassed all areas.

　　At the first stone plaque.

　　“Eighteen Cloud Palms…” Qi Ying quickly scanned through the battle technique, before circulating his True Energy according to the information provided.

　　Several minutes later.

　　Whoosh!

　　Qi Ying charged onto the nine thousand second step.

　　“Holy sh*t, that was fast!”

　　Feng Hemu and the others were astonished. Even though it was only a Yellow Tier Low-Rank battle technique, there were still several dozens of True Energy circulation modules that had to be mastered! How had he done it so quickly?

　　However, there were even faster disciples before him. Some only looked at the first stone plaque for ten seconds before striding away.

　　Qi Ying was pretty satisfied with his performance during that section. After all, his talent had been praised by the battle techniques master, Lu You, and without his left hand weighing him down, it was only expected that he would do quite well.

　　After reaching the fourth platform, Qi Ying looked down at his jade badge.

　　“Green?”

　　Qi Ying’s brows furrowed slightly before he came to terms with that result.

　　His learning ability was only considered to be quite good when compared to normal warriors. His insane rate of progression in battle techniques could mainly be attributed to his talent in True Energy manipulation, but his learning ability was quite ordinary in comparison.

　　“Phew… Next is the fifth section… The bloodline aptitude section…”

　　Qi Ying’s eyes fell upon the final set of three thousand steps.

　　It was the final section.

　　The results he had achieved thus far weren’t all that great. One black, one green, and two whites; Black Class was definitely out of reach. If his bloodline aptitude wasn’t black, then he probably wouldn’t even be able to make it into the Purple Class.

　　‘Just focus on the task at hand!’

　　Qi Ying reminded himself internally before striding onto the twelve thousand and first step.

　　Merry Christmas Eve everyone!!!🥳🎄🎁🎄