Chapter Ninety-Five: Commendation

The grand auditorium of First High School was packed to the rafters, seating more than two thousand people. Yan Ru, Han Yang, and the other members of the martial arts team were all in school uniforms, seated in the front rows of the audience.

On the high platform ahead, the principal, Lei Zhen of the Inspection Office, and other leaders stood in a line, with Gao Wu, wearing a silver medal, in the center.

Today Gao Wu wore First High School’s uniform, the two bold words on his chest making him impossible to miss. Standing at the center and being the tallest by far, he had become the unmistakable focus of every gaze.

This was the ceremony in which the Inspection Office would award Gao Wu the Medal of Courage. First High School took it very seriously and had organized for more than two thousand teachers and students to attend.

After all, Gao Wu was still a student of First High School, and the medal he had earned was also a glory for the school.

The Medal of Courage came with a bonus of only twenty thousand yuan, but it was an official state honor, something that would be entered into his personal record and could add twenty points to his college entrance examination score.

On the other hand, Gao Wu had dared to fight the followers of the Demon God, which was highly worthy of praise and encouragement.

With the entire school as a backdrop, the only thing the students had to do was applaud loudly.

Yan Ru, seated in the front row, was feeling a little resentful. She whispered to Han Yang, “That guy has been resting for more than a month, and the moment he comes back, we have to be his backdrop. It’s kind of annoying.”

“Keep your voice down. Don’t let him hear you,” Han Yang murmured as well. “He’s ruthless…”

Yan Ru’s expression changed at once. She had seen the corpses of Wan Cangsong and the others with her own eyes, and knew how fearsome Gao Wu was. This guy had killed the followers of the Demon God not by luck, but because he truly dared to kill!

The matter had even drawn in the martial master Wan Canglong. If not for Chairman Shen of the Hunters’ Association stepping in, Gao Wu would have been finished that time…

Come to think of it, this boy was always smiling, yet he feared nothing and was merciless to boot. Yan Ru did not believe Gao Wu would do anything to her for no reason, but she no longer dared to speak carelessly.

Han Yang had only been teasing her. Seeing her changing expression made him want to laugh. “Don’t worry. We helped Gao Wu before, so we count as friends. He won’t mind something this small.”

Yan Ru pinched Han Yang hard. Glancing at the back of Song Mingyue’s head in the front row, she could not help whispering again, “Song Mingyue also asked for a long leave. Could it be that she’s living with Gao Wu now?”

“Shh, don’t talk nonsense,” Han Yang said, this time serious. If those words spread, it was hard to say how Gao Wu would react.

The Song family was even less easy to provoke. Although Song Mingyue’s relationship with her family was extremely poor, when it came to the Song family’s reputation, everyone in that clan would unite and deal harshly with anyone spreading rumors.

Even if it were true, the Song family would never allow such a thing to be bandied about everywhere.

Yan Ru was not particularly sensitive, but seeing Han Yang’s serious expression, she knew she had misspoken. She pouted. “Why are you so nervous? No one else can hear us anyway…”

Though she said that, she still wisely shut her mouth.

Yet Song Mingyue, seated in the front row, had already keenly heard Yan Ru’s words. Mainly because the other girl had mentioned her name, drawing her attention.

She had slain the Angel of Death and cast off every shackle. Reforging the seed of her mental power had also allowed her to correct the many mistakes she had made in her youth.

With Gao Wu’s help in stirring her spiritual strength and cultivating alongside her, the mental power she had rebuilt was not only more nimble, but also more resilient and full of vitality. Most wondrous of all, it had established a remarkably stable resonance with Gao Wu’s spirit.

After more than a month of recuperation, Song Mingyue’s spiritual mental power had not only fully recovered, but was also about fifty percent stronger than before her injury.

Although Wan Canglong was a martial master, in terms of spiritual mental power she was already far beyond him. It was only that his martial cultivation was too powerful, making any direct fight far too risky.

In any case, someone would deal with Wan Canglong; there was no need for her and Gao Wu to take the risk.

Having reached such a height, how could Song Mingyue care about idle gossip behind her back?

Not to mention her— even gods and sages have people cursing and slandering them. There is nothing in this world and no one in it who can win everyone’s approval.

Such petty talk meant nothing to her. As for Gao Wu, with his thick skin and strong mental resilience, he would care even less.

The only thing Song Mingyue cared about now was Gao Wu’s advancement to the rank of warrior.

Perhaps Gao Wu had not noticed it yet, but she could sense that the source force concentration in the real world was rising rapidly.

The followers of the Demon God were growing more and more rampant, and in truth that was closely tied to changes in the environment. These subtle shifts were also causing more and more young warriors to emerge.

She felt this very likely meant the other world was merging with the real one. Whether that was true or not, as long as the connection between the real world and the other realm remained unbroken, the world would always be filled with immense danger.

In such times, personal strength was the true guarantee of safety.

Looking at Gao Wu, smiling brilliantly on the high platform, Song Mingyue’s mood lightened considerably.

No matter what, she had a friend with whom she could sit and drink tea, a comrade to whom she could entrust life and death, a martial companion with whom she could resonate in spirit. There was nothing more she could ask for.

Gao Wu noticed Song Mingyue’s gaze and, pinching his fingers, formed a heart toward her, his smile growing even brighter…

Song Mingyue, holding up her phone and filming short-video footage for him, gave no response.

Last time, when she responded to Gao Wu beneath the arena, it had mainly been to provoke her father a little. There was no need for such childish interaction now.

Both Principal Yang An and Lei Zhen noticed Gao Wu’s little gesture, and the two middle-aged men, usually so stern, merely smiled at it.

If it had been some youth with poor grades, this would have been called mischievous and immature. But with Gao Wu, it became energy and good psychological resilience; they had only praise.

The award ceremony concluded smoothly, with the school broadcast station providing live audio coverage throughout. The school’s public account also released a video of the ceremony.

Local newspapers and television stations in Dongjiang City likewise reported on it.

When Shen Yue received the video material, he was overjoyed. After a month, Gao Wu finally had a new video. During that month, he had only been able to post some behind-the-scenes clips from the Snow Tide Cup, and even then he could not sustain the popularity.

The matter of Gao Wu killing the Demon God cultists had happened several months ago. Bringing it up again this time helped attract some new fans and raised the data for his short videos.

Especially since the authorities had offered commendation, giving the affair an official stamp of approval, its significance was different now.

It was not that Gao Wu did not care about short videos. It was simply that, after one thing after another, he no longer dared to make them.

Compared with the fans and merit gained from videos, his life was more important.

Once the long leave ended, Gao Wu had to attend classes with Song Mingyue every day, then train with the martial arts team in the afternoons.

Song Yunhui was an excellent coach. Her attitude was gentle, yet her standards were strict.

As a high-level warrior, she was only in her thirties. She had a keen eye for martial cultivation and could give advice with meticulous precision.

As a coach, Song Yunhui was far better than Huang Hai.

Every day Gao Wu injected flying-squirrel serum, which required intense physical stimulation. During martial arts team training, he was lifting absurdly heavy weights, causing even Song Yunhui to frown.

Fortunately, Song Yunhui did not directly stop him. She only monitored his bodily data every day.

After a week of training, she found no damage to Gao Wu’s body. Most importantly, his body was full of vitality and life, clearly meaning that this kind of training was beneficial rather than harmful to him.

In this regard, Song Yunhui could only conclude that Gao Wu possessed a special physical talent.

As humans learned to harness source force and consumed exotic beasts, human genes had also been continuously evolving over the past century.

There are always some extraordinary talents especially suited for martial training. For someone like Gao Wu, whose talent in martial cultivation was mediocre but whose body was special and could endure extreme training, tremendous potential could still be unleashed.

At the very least, among those who fought with their bodies, Gao Wu was nearly invincible.

Realizing this, Song Yunhui instructed Gao Wu in some methods of extreme physical training, allowing him to build his body more efficiently.

Gao Wu benefited greatly as well. He had to admit that Song Yunhui was a professional in this area. Although Song Mingyue and Tie Dalong each had their own methods of training, neither was as complete or efficient as Song Yunhui’s “extreme body-refinement art.”

After ten doses of flying-squirrel serum had been injected, along with a large amount of nutritional serum and food supplementation, plus extreme training, Gao Wu’s agility finally reached ten points.

Overall, it had only risen by 0.3, but it made up for his greatest weakness. It also brought his punching power to 2,800 kilograms.

For the next twenty doses of diamond serum, Gao Wu had to inject three doses a day. His body had already developed resistance to the serum, and only large quantities would still have an effect.

Those twenty high-grade doses of diamond serum increased his strength attribute by 0.4, bringing the total to 11.4. Converted, his strength had risen by roughly twenty percent.

For an effect like that to appear, Gao Wu felt it was still his super-strong constitution being further tapped for potential, not because the serum itself was especially miraculous.

The main reason was that every aspect of his body was already too strong. For him, basic-grade serums no longer had much effect.

After the enhancement from the diamond serum, Gao Wu’s punching power could now stably reach three thousand kilograms, placing him in no way inferior to an initial-stage warrior, and perhaps even above one.

His bodily toughness also improved accordingly. This could not be represented precisely by numbers, but by Gao Wu’s own sense, his physical durability had increased by about thirty percent.

The only difference was that he still could not command source force.

Source force could be transformed into a source-force field, offsetting various forms of kinetic external force. Of course, there was a limit to what it could withstand.

A continuous barrage of three-thousand-kilogram punches would make an initial-stage warrior’s source-force field hard-pressed to last ten seconds. Of course, the opponent would not simply stand there and take it.

The destructive power transformed from source force was not merely raw strength, but also included various penetrating and tearing effects enhanced by martial secret arts, producing complex variations and formidable might.

Gao Wu had once taken a palm strike from Wan Cangsong and nearly been killed on the spot. Fortunately, with his strength, agility, and other basic attributes improving, the potential of his physique had been further released.

Add to that a thirty-percent increase in bodily toughness—seemingly not much, yet in reality an internal and external strengthening at every level.

The same palm strike, if the force could not penetrate into his body, would pose him only half as much threat.

Coupled with his exceptionally strong mental power, if he faced someone like Wan Cangsong again, his odds of victory would be extremely high.

If it were a life-or-death battle, and with his Yin Spirit wielding the Sword of Fate, he could completely crush an initial-stage warrior!

Another advantage of the Sword of Fate refined by the Yin Spirit was that it was perfectly attuned to Gao Wu’s will, truly achieving unity of sword and self.

As his Azure Dragon Sword also reached the small-success stage, merely holding the Sword of Fate would force his swordsmanship up to the great-success stage.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that swordsmanship at this level was enough to overpower all martial artists of the same age.

On April 25th, a group of fifteen from First High School’s martial arts team boarded the high-speed train bound for Anjing…