"Very well said."

Hua Bo smiled and nodded, "It's rare to see such an outstanding young person like you these days."

Then he slightly looked up, sighed toward the ceiling, and seemed to be in a mood to talk again, "In recent years, there is a trend of more and more geniuses with high-level talents compared to the past few hundred years, yet the number of strong individuals hasn't increased accordingly. Do you know why this is?"

Lin Guang was taken aback and shook his head.

"Because of the social environment and aspiration."

Hua Bo said, "The Spirit Master is an extraordinary system closely linked to the spirit."

"As long as the sharpness is lost, sanded down till smooth, or crushed by reality, contented with the status quo, it's very easy to stagnate; geniuses thus return to mediocrity, unable to reach the peak."

"There are too many examples of geniuses emerging from commoners being suppressed and bought by aristocratic families, ending up living a mundane life, too many for me to count."

"On the contrary, if you always maintain this kind of pride and self-will, never satisfied, then a Blue Talent might not necessarily be worse than a Purple Talent."

"Keep working hard, we shall meet again one day."

"Next comes the award ceremony, you should prepare too."

He stood up to say goodbye, leaving a thoughtful Lin Guang behind.

...

When Lin Guang returned to the arena, the volcanic field had been dismantled, restored to a flat ground, with a not-so-large award stage set up in the center.

The student participants from both sides were gathered in front of the stage, the losing side humiliatedly removed the school badges pinned on their uniforms' chests and handed them over to the victors. The teacher in charge of First Middle School—Liang Xing—had left early—personally handed a solid gold trophy to Liu Feifan, his face looking as if he had been constipated for two weeks.

After all, this trophy had been sitting in First Middle School for two years; they had thought they could achieve a three-peat this year and had a high chance of securing sponsorship from Hua Bo, but unexpectedly, things turned out this way.

After handing over the trophy, First Middle School's team left in disgrace. Throughout the process, except for the two winners, other students couldn't lift their heads, even though the First Middle School spectators tried to cheer them up, they were drowned out by the louder cheers of Experimental Middle School, many of whom were fans of Cool Senior Sister, but even more were shouting Lin Guang's name.

It's not that the efforts of others were unimportant, but Lin Guang's performance was simply extraordinary. Not only did he win against the odds, but he did so in the most straightforward and pure form of force—an undeniable, complete victory!

Clearing his throat, Principal Liu Feifan gave a short, bureaucratic speech, full of encouragement and support. Afterwards, he personally placed a school-customized medal on each student, printed with the school's emblem and the number "37", representing the 37th exchange meeting—the exchange meetings have always only offered honorary rewards, actual rewards are distributed alone by the school and principal based on performance.

When he got to Lin Guang, there was undisguised affection and emotion in Liu Feifan's eyes. He had initially thought this batch of medals would be discarded like the previous two years, but didn't expect such an outstanding talent to appear, winning for Experimental and bringing honor to this competition.

Threads of spiritual power vibrated the air, directly transmitting the voice into Lin Guang's ears, "Lin Guang, well done. Many people may disturb you in the coming days, don't worry about them. Just wait for a while, as your principal I will even shed this flesh to get you the best reward."

Lin Guang was a bit stunned; both the school and Doctor Kaiwen had treated him well. For instance, the two Tier Two Spiritual Artifacts on him, which were supposed to be retrieved, were hardly available on the market, and might sell for three to four million Daxia Coins on the black market, usable for him till at least the second or third year of high school.

So, he hadn't considered changing places, but seeing the resolve on Liu Feifan's face, Lin Guang couldn't say much, and his heart was a bit expectant to see what Liu Feifan might bring forth.

After the awards, a group of people rushed to Lin Guang's side—it was clearly Wang Dawei leading them—lifting him high, cheering, and applauding. He was a little unaccustomed to the fervor, but whether it was homeroom teacher Ouyang Wei or Instructor Yu, they watched with smiles, and even Miaomiao was doing the same, perhaps getting "revenge" for him not bringing the lip balm.

Finally, it was Vishdair who leaped up, saving him with a princess carry.

After the great battle, it was time for the celebration banquet. Principal Liu Feifan had long since booked the nearest five-star hotel, ruining Wang Dawei's notion of "today's entire expenditure will be covered by Young Master Wang."

The principal had clearly gone all out, with delicious dishes made from spirit meats and spirit plants successively served. Although the tiers were not high, they were ingredients only Gourmet Miracle Masters could prepare.

Seeing Vishdair eating the spicy stir-fried lava snails like they were fried beans, devouring them one by one, Lin Guang laughed and asked, "Tastes pretty good, doesn't it?"

Having no time to respond, Vishdair nodded, only recovering a while later to look at Lin Guang, "Why aren't you eating, don't you like this stuff?"

Hearing this, Lin Guang was a bit curious, "Can you even recognize what this is when it's made like this?"

The spicy stir-fried lava snails, after being cooked and processed, didn't look like their original form. If encountered for the first time, one could easily confuse them with something like sea conch.

"Of course I know."

Vishdair leaned slightly back, slumping in the chair, "Kazdail is such a ghostly place it rarely rains a few times a year, but every time it does, these things would crawl all over, I'd see the slightly older mercenaries taking the opportunity to eat some of these, sometimes even sharing a few with me."

"But the taste was far inferior to this, it hardly had any flavor."

"Spices and seasonings are indeed extremely precious luxuries in such turbulent areas," Lin Guang said thoughtfully, nodding again, "It's not that I don't eat snails, I'm just a bit lazy now, not in the mood to move."

He displayed his bandaged right hand to Vishdair—his movement was indeed somewhat inconvenient.

"Tch, lazy dog."

Vishdair rolled her eyes at him, picked up a snail from his plate, scooped it out with a fine spoon, pinched off the tail with her bright red nails, and held it up to Lin Guang: "Open your mouth."

"Tastes good, doesn't it?"

"Hmm, indeed, not bad." Lin Guang squinted slightly, savoring the delicacy; although spicy, it was evidently the very mild version suited for Zhen Sheng baby constitution, with plump, tender, and springy meat.

After swallowing the food, he suddenly remembered something, "Speaking of which, you had such a big reaction to Hua Bo earlier, did you sense something?"

"..."

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