Chapter 94 - Is Talent Important?

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Realizing that Lin Jiansheng did not want to return the Rebirth Pills and had left, Grand Master Qingying was both angry and annoyed. She waved her tail vigorously and scolded angrily, “Short-lived old ghost, don’t let me see you again!”

Yu Huang heard Grand Master Qingying’s words. She grabbed Lin Jiansheng’s clothes and asked loudly, “Mentor, is that Grand Master Qingying interested in you? I see that she has been standing on the spot and staring at you. Is she feeling reluctant to part with you?”

Upon hearing this, Lin Jiansheng sped up.

What a joke. Was there a reason to take out the treasures stored in his interspatial ring and return them?

Don’t even think about it!

Lin Jiansheng pulled Yu Huang and flew to the top of the pier of the Lou Lan island in one go. After confirming that Grand Master Qingying did not chase after them, he landed in front of the ticketing hall on his sword.

Lin Jiansheng threw the bag of spirit stones and money to Yu Huang and ordered, “Go and buy two first-class tickets.”

Yu Huang obediently bought the tickets and boarded the first class cabin with Lin Jiansheng. The environment of the first class cabin was much more luxurious than the economy cabin on the second floor. Their seats could become a single bed, and they could sit or lie.

There were staff members roasting oysters on the deck outside. When the aroma wafted into the cabin, Lin Jiansheng was about to cry from craving it. “Let’s go and eat the oysters. We have to get the money for the two boat tickets back!”

Yu Huang followed Lin Jiansheng to the deck to eat and drink. After she was full, she returned to her seat to rest.

Yu Huang had spent half a year in Lou Lan Ancient Pavilion. There was only half a month left until the opening of Lou Lan Ancient Pavilion this year, but there were fewer passengers on the ship.

The number of human passengers on the ship could be counted with one’s fingers, most of them were local merfolk of Xixia Sea.

Yu Huang stared at the tails of the merfolk who were under the chairs and couldn’t help but whisper to Lin Jiansheng, “Mentor, they are fish, so why do they still need to take the boat? Isn’t it more convenient to swim over directly?”

Lin Jiansheng rolled his eyes at her and said, “You’re a person. Isn’t it more convenient for you to travel the world barefoot? Why do you still need to take a plane?”

Yu Huang was rendered speechless. She even felt that she was a little stupid.

“Aren’t you too free?” In order to find something for Yu Huang to do, Lin Jiansheng took out a stack of exam papers from his interspatial ring and placed them on the small table in front of Yu Huang. He said, “If you have nothing to do, let’s do the exam papers!”

Yu Huang stared at the pile of exam papers and revealed a pained expression.

She flipped through the exam papers and saw that there were ten stacks per seven sets of exam papers. She asked, “These are the college entrance examination papers from previous years?”

“Yes.” Lin Jiansheng explained, “When I was compiling the scriptures for the college entrance examination for you, I read them a few times.”

Lin Jiansheng picked out a stack of papers from the pile and stuffed it into Yu Huang’s hands. He said, “This is the easiest set, I think. Do this first. After you’re done, I’ll give you a score.”

“… Okay.”

Hence, next, Lin Jiansheng sat on the chair and meditated while Yu Huang did the test papers at the side. She would bite her pen at times and scratch her ears and cheeks at other times. The process was very tortuous.

Finally, Yu Huang threw down the pen and woke Lin Jiansheng up. “Mentor, I’m done.”

Lin Jiansheng picked up the pen. He opened the first exam and began to grade the papers. He finished the seven papers in less than an hour.

Mathematics, 100; language, 72; world language, 73; morality and law, 75; history, 63; biology, 92; chemistry, 98.

When Yu Huang saw this result, she was quite satisfied. However, Lin Jiansheng’s eyes were filled with disdain. “Your grades are so bad that I can’t bear to watch. You’re only as far away from becoming the top scholar as Xixia Ocean’s size.”

Yu Huang immediately felt wronged and deflated.

Lin Jiansheng made a sincere suggestion. He said, “Ah Huang, you should give up on this path. I am a Level 8 Purifying Spirit Master, and you are my only personal disciple. Take my letter of recommendation and report to the Divine Realm Academy. The academy will definitely accept you.”

Yu Huang was somewhat tempted.

However, when she thought about how she had once said those words in front of Xuanyuan Jing and Sheng Xiao and swore that she would pass the college entrance examination and be accepted into Divine Realm Academy, she felt that it would be embarrassing to give up halfway.

“Mentor, I still want to try. If I fail, I’ll use your connections to get in through the back door.”

Seeing that Yu Huang was still unwilling to compromise, Lin Jiansheng admired her stubbornness in resisting pressure, but also felt that she was a blockhead. “Alright then. After you go back, stay in my study room every day to read and write the exam papers.”

After returning to the Prosperous Capital, Yu Huang returned home and informed Yu Donghai that she was safe. The father and daughter gathered together for a meal. The next morning, Lin Jiansheng sent someone to bring them to the Purifying Spirit Academy.

From that day onwards, Yu Huang started studying hard.

In a flash, it was May.

One day, Jiang Shangfeng suddenly sent a message in the class group chat asking who would be going to Jingdu to watch the Beast Tamer Selection.

When she saw this message, Yu Huang was doing an international language test. She put down her pen and asked the class monitor, “Will Anna participate?”

Seeing Yu Huang appear, everyone jumped out and asked her: “Yu Huang, rumor has it that you went to Jingdu’s cram school. Is that true?”

[Yu Huang, you will come back on time to participate in the college entrance examination, right? You will participate in our graduation party, right?!]

[Yu Huang, have your grades improved recently?]

The moment Yu Huang appeared, she was warmly treated by the entire class.

Yu Huang replied their messages one by one. Only then did she see Jiang Shangfeng’s reply: “Anna will be participating. It has been many years since Yong Hui High School had a Beast Tamer. Old Ban hopes that someone from our class can go to the scene to cheer Anna on.”

The Recreation & Culture Committee member, Vivian, also appeared. She said, “Anna is the most timid, and her beast form is a relatively weak ant. I think we should go together to cheer her on and maybe give her some encouragement.”

Jiang Shangfeng asked again: “Who wants to go? Let’s register in the group. When the time comes, we’ll go Dutch and book a bus to the venue to cheer her on.”

One message after another appeared in the class group chat. Yu Huang felt the value of friendship. Anna was the first girl in Class 7 to show her kindness. Yu Huang hoped that Anna could stand out in this competition.

Yu Huang: “Count me in. I’ll go too.”

Yu Huang and Lin Jiansheng took a day off. When Lin Jiansheng found out that she was going to watch the Beast Tamer Selection, he said, “It’s good that you will watch from the side and broaden your horizons. However, they are just a group of children. Most of them don’t even have a decent cultivation technique. It’s boring to watch them compete.”

Yu Huang explained, “A friend of mine is participating in the qualifying competition. I want to go and cheer for her. Do you remember her? She’s the girl who awakened her ant beast form during the beast awakening ceremony last year.”

Upon hearing about the ant beast form, Lin Jiansheng thought of that girl.

Lin Jiansheng had some impression of Anna Tao. After all, useless beasts were rare.

Lin Jiansheng told Yu Huang, “That girl’s beast form is too weak. I’m afraid it will be very difficult for her to stand out in the Beast Tamer Selection Competition. If no high-level Beast Tamer Academy is willing to accept her and no cultivation clan is willing to nurture her, then she will only be a Scholar for the rest of her life.”

Yu Huang felt an inexplicable sense of sorrow. “Are ants in their beast form really that weak?”

Lin Jiansheng knew what Yu Huang was thinking. He told Yu Huang, “Ah Huang, on the path of cultivation, it is indeed precious to be able to withstand hardship, but talent is the key.”

He pointed at himself and said, “Because I didn’t have any talent, it took me three years to form the Psychic Pearl. You only used half a month to break through to the Second Beginner Stage.”

“Don’t you understand yet?” Lin Jiansheng pointed out mercilessly. “The reason why so many Beast Tamers have mediocre cultivation levels is not because they aren’t hardworking, but because they are without talent.”

Because if you don’t have talent, you can’t catch up to other people even if you study hard all night.

After hearing Lin Jiansheng’s words, Yu Huang did not feel smug or happy. Instead, she felt her heart sink.

Was talent really that important?

…

In May, it was the assessment season for the world’s Beast Tamer Selection Competition. This year, there were 40,000 new Beast Tamers participating in the selection competition worldwide.

After these 40,000 Beast Tamers underwent various tests, the Beast Tamers who eventually entered the top 2,000 would be prioritized by the three top Beast Tamers Academy in the world.

Beast Tamers who entered the top 12,000 would be accepted into 10 second-rate Beast Tamer Academies. Beast Tamers who entered the top 25,000 would be accepted into some of the lower-ranking Beast Tamer Academies.

In other words, out of the 40,000 Beast Tamers, only the top 25,000 would have the chance to enter the school. If 15,000 were eliminated, they would lose their right to enter the school.

Since they could not enter school to receive professional lessons, they could only be non-affiliates.

However, the eliminated Beast Tamers could still participate in another test as alternate students three years later. If they could enter the top 10,000 as alternate students, they could still be accepted into a high school.

Every time this happened, the disciples nurtured by the large family clans with all their strength would have an absolute advantage.

For ordinary and weak Beast Tamers like Anna Tao and the others, it was very difficult for them to enter a high-level Beast Tamer Academy to study.

There were 334 countries in the Holy Spirit Continent. This year, there were only 40,000 new Beast Tamers. As the strongest country in the Divine Realm Continent and the four most powerful countries in the world, the Divine Moon Empire had more than 800 new students.

In addition, there were more than two hundred backup students.

Only Beast Tamers who entered the top 280 of the Divine Moon Empire had a high chance of being accepted into the high-level Beast Tamer Academy. And to successfully enter the Divine Realm Academy, one had to rank in the top 50 in the entire country.

The competition was intense.

Anna Tao’s first match was scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Jiang Shangfeng and the others could take the first bus on Saturday morning to Jingdu.

The bus ticket cost 360 yuan. For high school students who had to ask their parents for living expenses, this was not a small sum.

After discussion, class 7 decided to use the entire class’ vote to choose six students who were closest to Anna Tao and represent the entire class to go to Jingdu to cheer for Anna Tao.

They were the class monitor Jiang Shangfeng, Vivian, the Recreation & Culture Committee member, and Anna Tao’s childhood friend, Zhu Nuowen, as well as her roommates Jiang Qiangwei, Julia, and Su Tiantian.

Through autonomous donation, the students of Class 7 gathered 2,200 yuan and bought bus tickets for the six of them. Everyone thought that Yu Huang was studying in Jingdu, so they naturally did not include her bus fare.

Yu Huang had to cover up her lie no matter what.

In order not to be exposed, Yu Huang set off from Prosperous Capital one night early and stayed in Jingdu for one night. The next morning, she went to the bus stop to meet up with Jiang Shangfeng and the others..