Although being recommended for admission surprised Su Bai a bit, he didn't pretend to be modest—it wasn't necessary.

  This was a gesture from the little girl Lin Yanran, and he accepted it openly.

  Without saying too many polite words, he just looked at Lin Yanran seriously.

  Su Bai softly said, "Thank you."

  Even though it was just a simple thank you, it inexplicably made Lin Yanran's heart race, especially with Su Bai's straightforward gaze, which sent a warm current flowing through her entire body.

  ***

  The next day, the students selected from our school for Jiangzhou Martial Academy were waiting at the school gate for the academy's special bus.

  At four in the afternoon, the bus arrived at the gate of Jiangzhou Martial Academy.

  As soon as they got off, the students were awed by the grand and majestic gate.

  The stone gate was over twenty meters long and nine meters wide, entirely pale, with no decorative patterns.

  Beside it stood a stone tablet over three meters high.

  "With my chest, I forge the unyielding Great Wall of Long Nation—Jiangzhou Martial Academy's motto."

  Large seal script characters were engraved on it.

  The originally cheerful students felt a sense of solemnity rising in their hearts and immediately quieted down.

  Over a hundred new students looked seriously at the academy's gate and the stone tablet.

  Scenes from the graduation ceremony, where they clenched their fists and swore with Instructor Zhang, vividly appeared in their minds.

  "I swear!"

  "As a warrior, I will inherit the will of my predecessors and use my flesh and blood to forge a Great Wall to defend the homeland under the sky against the Myriad Races."

  "With my chest, I forge the unyielding Great Wall of Long Nation!"

  The senior welcoming the new students didn't disturb them, accompanying them in feeling this weighty moment.

  Watching the sunlight shine on the faces of the students, this scene was very much like when he first entered the academy.

  After a long time, when the new students snapped out of their reverie, they noticed the senior welcoming them.

  "New students, welcome to Jiangzhou Martial Academy."

  They entered the academy gate.

  Led by the senior, Su Bai and the others briefly toured the campus. The academy covered a vast area, over three thousand acres.

  Due to limited time, they only briefly visited the teaching buildings, training grounds, and common places like the cafeteria.

  Finally, the senior led the students to the dormitory building, completing the orientation task.

  Each person's dormitory had already been assigned; they just needed to register at the dorm management to receive their dorm keys.

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  Su Bai's dorm was on the third floor, room 303. Because he was recommended, his identity as a superpowered individual wasn't exposed, so he was placed in the same dorm as other martial artists.

  The dorm housed four people per room. When Su Bai entered, the other three roommates were already there.

  A young man wearing Armani and a Swiss mechanical watch, with an air of wealth, greeted Su Bai with a smile, as if they were old friends.

  "Brother, I see the name on your bed is Su Bai, right? We're all roommates now. I'm the dorm leader, Han Jiagang. I arrived two days ago. If you have any questions at school, feel free to ask me."

  Yushan County's distance from the provincial capital was relatively remote compared to other areas, so Su Bai and the others were the last batch to arrive at the academy.

  "I'm Tao Jiajun, from Changling District. Let's look out for each other."

  "I'm your upper bunk mate, Fan Chao'an. Welcome to 303!"

  The other two roommates briefly introduced themselves.

  Tao Jiajun, nearly two meters tall, looked extremely strong with his muscular build, like a natural-born warrior.

  Fan Chao'an was the complete opposite, about 1.7 meters tall, with no visible muscles under his clothes, making it hard to imagine how he passed the physical fitness test.

  Su Bai briefly greeted his roommates and began unpacking his luggage.

  Before Su Bai entered, the three roommates seemed to be chatting. The dorm leader continued the previous topic:

  "Brothers, I'm about to reach the mid-tier martial artist level soon. When that happens, I'll help you with any trouble you can't handle!"

  Tao Jiajun, who reached the low-tier level a year ago and saw the mid-tier as a distant goal, clearly didn't believe it.

  "No way, you're kidding, right? Advancing from low-tier to mid-tier isn't that easy."

  Fan Chao'an found it even more unbelievable: "It took me nearly three years just to reach low-tier. Don't tell me you have some extraordinary talent!"

  Seeing everyone's skepticism, the dorm leader lowered his voice mysteriously: "Martial artist cultivation relies heavily on resources in the early stages. I'll tell you, but you mustn't tell anyone else.

  Recently, when my dad was doing business in Yushan County, he accidentally acquired three drops of extremely rare exotic beast blood. He then commissioned the potion master Cao Yidan to use it as the main ingredient, along with dozens of precious herbs, to create three bottles of top-grade Body Tempering Potion for me. This stuff is rare.

  With these three top-grade potions, my strength will skyrocket, and advancing to mid-tier will be a breeze!"

  Hearing this, the other two roommates were even more curious: "My family bought me Blood Qi Powder, but what's rare exotic beast blood? Is its effect really that strong?"

  Since exotic beast blood rarely circulates in the regular market and is usually crafted into potions by alchemists for wealthy families, ordinary people know little about it.

  Not to mention the rare types of exotic beast blood. The other two roommates, apparently from average backgrounds, had never even heard of it.

  Even Su Bai was clueless at first, only learning a bit from the shopkeeper later.

  Hearing Han Jiagang mention it now, he became interested.

  Seeing everyone listening intently, the dorm leader was thoroughly enjoying the moment.

  After all, he said all this for this moment.

  He took out a white jade bottle from his pocket.

  "Since we're all roommates now, it's okay to tell you. These are martial artist secrets that most people don't know.

  High-grade exotic beast blood is too volatile and is actually poisonous to us ordinary martial artists.

  We can handle potions made from regular exotic beast blood, but unfortunately, it takes a week to digest one potion, and its effects are average, offering little improvement to physical fitness.

  But this rare exotic beast blood is different. It's the essence blood of offspring of high-grade exotic beasts or specially evolved exotic beasts. Though it's just regular exotic beast blood, it has far superior medicinal properties and is relatively mild, allowing us low-tier martial artists to use it.

  The effect is amazing; one potion can provide as much improvement as three portions of regular Blood Qi Powder!

  The remaining two potions are enough for me to advance to mid-tier within half a month. I bet there aren't many mid-tier students among the freshmen at the academy!

  This batch of freshmen, I'm definitely among the strongest. Stick with me, and your futures will be limitless!"

  As Su Bai listened, his hands slowed down in packing, his eyes glancing at the white jade bottle in Han Jiagang's hand, his expression turning peculiar.

  Mid-tier? It seems I'm already there.

  Three drops of rare exotic beast blood? Acquired in Yushan County?

  Could it be the three drops I sold?

  What a coincidence?

  Suddenly, Su Bai had other plans in mind.

  Unaware, Han Jiagang, who was still boasting, had already changed in someone's eyes.

  He was becoming more like a mobile ATM.

  "Such rare exotic beast blood must be worth a lot, right?"

  Su Bai couldn't help but ask the question he was most concerned about.

  Hearing Su Bai's question, Han Jiagang looked at him with a softer gaze, thinking: This new roommate is really on point!

  Perfectly providing him an opportunity to show off!

  "Oh, it's not expensive, just over thirty thousand per drop of rare exotic beast blood. Three drops total less than a hundred thousand, no big deal."

  As Han Jiagang spoke animatedly, the expressions of the other two roommates gradually dimmed. This price was beyond what their families could afford.

  Spending a hundred thousand just to acquire three drops of rare exotic beast blood, not to mention the price of the finished potion.

  Tao Jiajun's family had to work hard for years to afford him a single portion of regular Blood Qi Powder.

  He couldn't help but feel a bit envious of Han Jiagang. If he had a family background like Han Jiagang's, he too could advance to mid-tier and become a standout among the academy's freshmen.

  Fan Chao'an's situation was similar to Tao Jiajun's. The hardships and difficulties of supporting a martial artist from an ordinary family were known only to those who experienced it.

  Martial artist cultivation heavily relies on resources in the early stages, hence the saying "rich in martial arts, poor in literature."

  Su Bai wasn't listening to anything else; his mind was filled with one thought: anger! Fury!

  Extreme fury!

  Damn, I sold it for just three thousand back then, and that shopkeeper turned around and sold it for nearly a hundred thousand. I even thought I made a big profit!

  This was a huge loss, damn those middlemen!

  The more Su Bai thought about it, the angrier he became. He then looked at Han Jiagang with a more amiable and kind gaze.

  Since the benefactor was right in front of him, he must avoid middlemen taking a cut in the future.

  Just as Su Bai was thinking about how to get close to Han Jiagang and take advantage, a commotion came from outside the window.

  "Look, look! There's a super gorgeous girl downstairs at our dorm!"

  "That figure, those long legs, I'm in love!"

  "I'm definitely voting for her in this year's academy beauty pageant!"

  A group of guys crowded at the dorm window, eyes shining, involuntarily swallowing their saliva.

  Even Su Bai's three roommates were drawn to the window, craning their necks to catch a glimpse of the beauty.

  A loud voice boomed from downstairs.

  "Su Bai from 303, someone is looking for you downstairs!"