"A practical combat competition?"

As Li Xiaoshuang made the announcement, an uproar swept through the classroom.

"That’s right. The top three students from each class can participate. It’s not mandatory; it’s entirely voluntary."

Li Xiaoshuang nodded and began to explain the details of the practical combat competition.

It was largely what Chen Che had already mentioned, but this explanation was much more detailed:

"Besides the top three, other students can also volunteer to sign up, but they’ll have to pay a five-thousand-yuan registration fee. The top ten in the city will advance to the provincial competition. Even if you don’t advance, awards will be given out based on each student’s performance."

"The provincial top ten will get bonus points on their college entrance exams."

"And the Immortal Sect’s top ten will earn a direct admission qualification!"

The moment Li Xiaoshuang said this, the entire classroom exploded with excitement.

"Bonus points on the college entrance exams? How many?"

"The top ten in the Immortal Sect get direct admission?"

"Oh my god... Other students can sign up too?"

The classroom was in an uproar.

Even Lin Yi was rubbing his hands together, his face flushed with excitement.

"You want to participate?"

Chen Che couldn’t help but ask when he saw his friend’s expression.

Lin Yi nodded, but he was very self-aware about his own abilities. "I do, but I’m afraid I’ll get knocked out in the first round. That would be so embarrassing! Still, if someone else raises their hand, I’ll raise mine too!"

He wasn’t the only one.

Most of the students felt the same way. They wanted to see what it was like, but they were afraid of embarrassing themselves, so they all just looked around at each other.

"Is anyone else signing up?"

After speaking, Li Xiaoshuang’s gaze swept over the classroom.

He asked three times. Just as he was about to start the lesson, a hand hesitantly rose from the back of the classroom.

"Zong Yudao, you want to participate? Hmm? You’re signing up?"

As Li Xiaoshuang was speaking, he suddenly processed who it was and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

SWISH!

In an instant, all eyes focused on that spot.

Zong Yudao had his head buried in a pile of books, his face hidden, but his hand was raised high like a flag.

"Alright, Zong Yudao has signed up. Commendable courage! Anyone else? Any other students?" Li Xiaoshuang naturally wouldn’t mock him in front of the class by saying, ’You’re at the bottom of the grade rankings, and you have the nerve to join the competition?’

He nodded, wrote down the student’s name, and continued to ask.

Just then, Ying Fuzhen, who was in a corner, also raised her hand.

Then, Qi Fengzhu raised his hand too.

Lin Yi raised his hand as well. Following him, to Li Xiaoshuang’s astonishment, seven or eight more hands went up sporadically around the room.

"Good, good, good! All of you students have commendable courage!"

The corner of Li Xiaoshuang’s eye was twitching. He jotted down each of their names, then said, "For those who signed up, remember to bring the registration fee on Monday. Also, come to school tomorrow, and I’ll take you to familiarize yourselves with the examination site."

After class was over, Li Xiaoshuang grabbed the list and flew out like a gust of wind, so fast that Chen Che couldn’t even catch up.

’Looks like I’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to talk to him,’ Chen Che thought to himself.

Back in the classroom, the students were all discussing the competition.

"Me? A spot in the Immortal Sect’s top ten is possible. At the very least, I can get into the provincial top ten. As for the city-level competition? Child’s play! I could win that with my eyes closed!" Huang Zhongfei boasted to the students behind him, sitting on his desk with the air of a grand strategist.

He had recently reached the Late-stage Fifth Layer and was brimming with confidence.

Ye Youwei was hunched over her desk doing her homework, as if the chatter around her had nothing to do with her.

Seeing Chen Che return, Lin Yi secretly stuffed a copy of *Sword Immortal Ah Bin* into Chen Che’s desk and gave him a wink.

"Old Chen, look out for me during the competition. With your strength, you should be able to protect me for a while. I’m not hoping for the provincial top ten; a city-level award is good enough."

"Me too! I want a city-level award too."

Qi Fengzhu thought for a moment, found he had nothing to offer, and whispered, "I’ll give you a website. Go home tonight and look at it under your blanket."

Chen Che was suddenly speechless. ’Are they treating this competition like a school field trip? And this is the best bribe they can come up with?’

"We’ll see. If I get the chance, I’ll look out for you guys."

"Thanks, Old Chen!"

Lin Yi and Qi Fengzhu were thrilled, already discussing which resort they would visit after winning their awards.

Listening to the clamor around him, Chen Che simply closed his eyes.

It wasn’t that he was tired. After condensing his Divine Sense, he found that his Spiritual Power seemed to have grown stronger. Unlike before, when he would get exhausted after two or three days without sleep, he now felt fine. He was currently reviewing the knowledge he had gained about Divine Sense in his mind.

Li Xiaoshuang’s lessons had only covered the three stages of condensing Divine Sense, but Ding Dawei had offered a few simple pointers on how to use it.

Besides its use for exploration, Divine Sense could also be used for attacks.

At a minimum, it could affect an opponent’s five senses. In severe cases, it could even directly shatter their Divine Soul, making it an almost indefensible attack.

However, Magical Combat using Divine Sense was extremely dangerous, with a high risk of backlash.

Of course, the uses of Divine Sense weren’t limited to that. Besides assisting with Cultivation, Chen Che discovered today that ever since his Divine Sense had condensed, he had achieved a truly photographic and eidetic memory.

From a scientific perspective, this should be impossible. Forgetting is a protective mechanism for the brain; an ordinary person might not even remember what they had for dinner a few days ago.

But he could now completely recall everything from today’s classes.

’Now I finally get why the admission score for the Four Greats is 1450!’

A wave of realization washed over Chen Che.

Once Divine Sense was activated, ordinary academic classes were no problem at all.

As for Cultivation efficiency, it would also far exceed what was possible without Divine Sense. He could now even clearly ’see’ the True Essence flowing slowly through the meridians in his entire body. Even the most minute meridians were perfectly visible.

This was something ordinary students couldn’t even imagine.

Of course, he also understood that activating Divine Sense was not that easy. Many students would get stuck at the first stage, the ’Chaos Stage’. It usually took continuous honing of the five senses for anywhere from a dozen days to several months just to form the seed.

Getting that seed to sprout was even more difficult.

In all of First Middle School, at most only about two hundred students could condense their Divine Sense before graduation.

And that was with the Immortal Sect promoting universal Cultivation for all citizens.

After all, while the *Shocking God Song* was a shortcut, not everyone had the perseverance to listen to it, and they didn’t have Concentration Incense to help them either.

After returning home that night, Chen Che continued to explore the functions of his Divine Sense.

「The next morning」

Lin Yi came knocking on his door, yelling for him to come to school to meet up. It was Saturday, so the school was almost empty, save for the students from the second-year classes who were participating in the practical combat competition and preparing to check out the site. They were all lined up on the athletic field.

Ten tour buses were parked on the field.

"Why does their class have so many people?"

"Over a dozen."

"Isn’t that way too many?"

This was because the other classes basically only had their top three students participating.

Some students had even forfeited, believing their skills were inadequate. No one expected Class One to have a full twelve people. Such a large group was extremely conspicuous on the field.

"Haha, Old Li, are you planning on using a human wave tactic?" Yan Jun was teasing Li Xiaoshuang.

"I personally suggest you just bring every student from Class One. When you run into opponents on the competition grounds, your students can just mob them, a hundred against one. Forget the city-level competition, you could sweep the entire Immortal Sect tournament!"

Li Xiaoshuang, holding his thermos, remained silent with a deadpan expression. Once he saw that everyone had arrived, he simply waved his hand.

"Get on the bus!"

The teachers got on one bus, and the students boarded the others.

Seeing no opportunity to talk, Chen Che could only obediently get on the bus.

The location for the practical combat competition was People’s Park. It was the only large park in the city that combined various terrains like lakes, rivers, mountains, and grasslands, perfectly meeting the Immortal Sect’s requirements for a fully realistic combat simulation.

Just as Li Xiaoshuang was leading the Class One students around, constantly explaining the various terrains and points of caution...

Suddenly, a large group of people approached from the opposite direction. They also appeared to be a team of students touring the competition site.

A man who looked like a teacher among them froze for a moment upon seeing Li Xiaoshuang and tried to hide in the crowd.

But Li Xiaoshuang spotted him instantly and called out a greeting.

"Ye Chao, are you also bringing students to see the site?"