"Brother."
"Brother! You're back? I've missed you so much." Inside the living room, two voices rang out almost at the same time, the former joyful, the latter even carrying a trace of excitement.
The tall girl in a white school uniform rushed forward and directly jumped up excitedly, throwing her arms around Fang Yu's neck, half-leaning on his back.
"Siyue, I just finished training my fists, and I'm covered in sweat," Fang Yu said with a smile.
"I'll take a bath later too," the girl said with a happy smile. "Xiaolong, bring my schoolbag upstairs too."
The sturdy-looking youth still had a trace of childishness on his face but a sharp, capable air, and he smiled helplessly, seemingly long used to her.
"Xiaolong, listen to your sister: put your things away first, then come down for dinner later," Fang Yu said with a smile.
These were his younger sister and younger brother, a pair of twins.
Younger sister Fang Siyue, second in birth order.
Younger brother Fang Long, third in birth order.
Both were fifteen this year.
"Brother, you actually know how to cook? What delicious thing did you make?" Fang Siyue looked curiously toward the kitchen. There was no sign of stir-frying at all.
"I reheated a high-energy nutritional meal; it's staying warm," Fang Yu said with a smile.
"Ah!" The girl wailed. "I knew it, Brother. After looking forward to it for so long, in vain—I don't eat nutritional meals. I want Grandpa to order takeout for me!!!"
"Takeout isn't healthy. You've both started martial cultivation, so you must pay attention to your diet," Fang Yu said with a smile, affectionately patting her bun.
Martial cultivation.
Before reaching a very high level, one had to endure loneliness and isolation, endure all kinds of hardship, and give up many things—for example—good food!
…
"Eldest brother's fist is like a father."
Under Fang Yu's "patient guidance," Fang Siyue and Fang Long "obediently" finished the high-energy nutritional meals Fang Yu had prepared.
After the meal.
"How did the martial arts talent test go?" Fang Yu asked on his own initiative.
The two exchanged glances and both smiled.
"Brother, with the instrument's help, we both entered deep sleep," Fang Long said with a simple and honest smile. "My sister and I both visualized a star aspect—a python—and made a preliminary attempt at 'drawing star force into the body.'"
"A python?" Fang Yu's eyes lit up.
Before becoming a Primary Martial Artist, ordinary people, limited by weak bodies and insufficient mental strength, found it hard to notice even if they had awakened a Void Star Aspect.
So they had to use special instruments to assist them in entering a deep sleep state to determine whether they had awakened a star aspect.
This was an instrument that had only appeared in the last decade or so, and also the reason genius martial artists of the Blue Moon Alliance kept emerging in recent years.
After all, the earlier the talent was discovered, the earlier they could be cultivated, making perfect use of the prime cultivation years, and the higher the probability of becoming a superpower in the future.
Fang Siyue and Fang Long could both visualize one, which meant they had awakened Void Star Aspects.
There were over ten star aspects related to pythons.
"Did they find out exactly which star aspect it is?" Fang Yu pressed, and in his mind unconsciously appeared the figure with gentle eyes.
"The assessor said it's called Sun-Swallowing," Fang Siyue said, no longer keeping them in suspense. They had been holding back just now because they wanted to give the family a surprise.
Slap~
Fang Yu abruptly stood up, his eyes gleaming, his body trembling slightly with barely contained excitement. "Siyue, confirm?"
Fang Siyue quickly nodded.
Fang Yu's gaze was burning.
"Void Hundred Aspects" records that the Swallowing-Sun Python is one of the Twelve Upper-Rank Star Aspects, possessing the innate divine ability "Sun-Swallowing," capable of absorbing the essence of the sun and the glory of the moon, with its Life Level growing extremely fast.
Each of the Twelve Upper-Rank Star Aspects was special.
Thinking of this.
"Grandpa!" Fang Yu shouted directly upstairs, his voice extremely penetrating.
"Big grandson, what's the matter? If it's nothing, I'm going to keep playing games." Before Fang Zhiyuan arrived, his voice came down from the stairway.
Soon.
Fang Zhiyuan poked his head out and looked down.
"My granddaughter and little grandson are back? How did today's test results turn out?" Fang Zhiyuan looked at Fang Siyue and Fang Long with a smile.
"Grandpa." The two also hurriedly stood up and called out.
"Grandpa." But Fang Yu said quite solemnly, "Xiaolong and Siyue both say they've awakened Upper-Rank Star Aspects—the Swallowing-Sun Python."
At the words "Swallowing-Sun Python,"
the usually unrestrained and lively Fang Zhiyuan was stunned, his expression rarely turning serious, his voice somewhat low. "Really? Confirm?"
Although Fang Siyue and Fang Long were only fifteen,
they weren't stupid.
When they saw that neither Big Brother nor Grandpa was simply happy, both realized that awakening the Swallowing-Sun Python was apparently not that simple.
"Grandpa, this is our 'assessment certificate,'" Fang Siyue said, quickly taking out a piece of paper.
"I have one too," Fang Long chimed in. "Our assessment results have already been entered into the overall score sheet, and they should have been sent back to the school by now."
Fang Zhiyuan and Fang Yu understood.
There shouldn't be any mistake.
The martial arts talent test was one of the important tasks of the Martial Hall and the Juvenile Martial Division, an important criterion for selecting students for key high schools, very strict, second only to the College Entrance Exam.
"Xiaoyu, tell your dad." Fang Zhiyuan, for once, didn't call him "Big Grandson."
Fang Yu immediately made a call.
No answer; the prompt said "Connecting."
Fang Yu left a message.
Within seconds, he received a reply from his father Fang Ping'an: "I already know Xiaolong and Siyue's assessment results. Wuling First High School and Star Radiance Group have both contacted me. I'll be home in half an hour. Tell Xiaolong and Siyue to stay home and not go anywhere."
Fang Yu put down the communicator.
He understood his father's meaning.
Wuling First High School was the most powerful public high school in Wuling City.
And Star Radiance Group was one of the Eight Great Martial Artist Groups, founded by "Ye Xinghe," civilization's first powerhouse. Xia Country, as Ye Xinghe's home country, was naturally a key operating region of Star Radiance Group, which had established private middle schools everywhere.
Upper-Rank Star Aspects were rare.
In all of Wuling City, at most dozens of students or martial artists awakened Upper-Rank Star Aspects each year. Compared with nearly one hundred thousand test-takers each year, one could imagine how low the probability was.
Even awakening an Upper-Rank Star Aspect, the probability of getting into New Moon Martial University was still low.
But the hope of getting into one of New Moon's ten key martial universities was still not small… Even if their technical talent was poor, at worst they were sure to get into a Martial Undergraduate.
A universally acknowledged saying:
As long as they weren't pigs, once they awakened an Upper-Rank Star Aspect, they could at least become Advanced Martial Artists… Advanced Martial Artists earned annual salaries of over a million easily; if they took risks and dared to fight and struggle, earning ten million a year was possible.
Advanced Martial Artist.
That was what most parents expected for their children, after all, because the probability of going further—to Earth Martial Artist or Sky-Patrolling Martial Artist—was simply too low.
However.
For the Fang family, Fang Siyue and Fang Long awakening Upper-Rank Star Aspects was more than that… what mattered most was that they had awakened the "Swallowing-Sun Python."
"The expectations of three generations."
"Will they really come true?" Fang Yu thought silently. He knew how long his father had waited for this day.
…
Night fell. On the elevated expressway, a black car with "self-driving" activated was speeding along.
Inside the car.
The driver, a burly man, was making a phone call.
"Old Gao! It's me, Fang Ping'an." The driver was very handsome, smiling as he said, "That payment from last time—I urgently need the money now. Can you send it to me first?"
"Don't worry, it's not that the supermarket is having cash-flow problems…"
He hung up.
He let out a breath. Fang Ping'an frowned slightly. "Xiaolong and Siyue want to lay the best martial foundation. It's best they take some foundation-building treasures now. The best are Myriad Transformations Fruits."
"One fruit costs two million; two fruits are four million. It's best to take one per year, continuously for three years until they're eighteen."
"Star Radiance Group, even if they signed now, couldn't give that much money."
"I need to figure something out." Fang Ping'an furrowed his brow.
Chapter 9