Astral Apostle
chapter-269

(TL Note: Basically meaning that nothing good comes out of his mouth.)

Superpower Testing Ground.

Zhou Jing was bare-chested, and there were a few sensors stuck to his muscles. He was doing some simple tests under the guidance of the staff.

After a while, messy footsteps sounded. As they got closer, Li Yun and the others rushed over.

“Zhou Jing, you said that your superpower suddenly changed? What happened?”

Li Yun asked curiously.

“It’s like this. Recently, I’ve been practicing the basic tempering methods of the Supers Martial Arts class every day. Gradually, I realized that every time I finish training, my body would feel strange and hot. Last night, I finished one set as usual and suddenly fainted. When I woke up again, I realized that my physical fitness had increased by a notch. I don’t know what happened…”

Zhou Jing’s tone was honest, and a hint of confusion was on his face.

The instructors looked at each other in surprise.

Li Yun suppressed his surprise and instructed, “Test the changes in your superpower first. Let’s see the situation.”

“Alright, Teacher.”

Zhou Jing nodded obediently and tested his body according to the instructions from the team. Soon, he obtained the parameters of his current physical fitness.

Li Yun and the other mentors gathered in front of the test results to take a look. From time to time, they would gasp. As they watched, some of them looked up at Zhou Jing in shock.

“It’s really unbelievable. He actually crossed such a huge stage so easily, and his physical control is almost unaffected…”

Li Yun muttered to himself as he looked over.

Zhou Jing seemed to be nervous, like a patient waiting for a doctor’s diagnosis. He looked uneasy and could not help but ask.

“Um… Do you know what happened to me?”

Hearing this, Li Yun finally came back to his senses. His eyes flickered with excitement as he sized up Zhou Jing, as if he had seen a precious jade.

“I think I understand…”

Li Yun coughed lightly and said seriously.

“In your situation, your superpower should have mutated… No, evolved!”

“Evolved?!”

Zhou Jing was “shocked”.

“Yes!”

Li Yun nodded steadily and explained patiently, “The abilities that are awakened naturally will occasionally mutate, but the results are not always good. The negative mutation is called degeneration, and the positive mutation is called evolution. However, once it evolves, the basic strength of the ability will greatly increase.

“There are usually four ways to achieve evolution. One is purely based on luck. In principle, every superpower can mutate, but the probability is slim. The second is to constantly train your superpower until it reaches a certain level before there is a chance of it happening. The third is to be stimulated by the outside world, such as injecting drugs. The fourth is because of the superpower itself. This means that the superpower also possesses an unfulfilled potential that has an extremely high growth rate.”

Zhou Jing blinked, his face full of curiosity, “Then which one am I?”

“Obviously, the third doesn’t match your situation. It can only be the first, second, and fourth. Therefore, you’re either lucky, or your short-term martial arts cultivation happened to stimulate your superpower, or your awakened ability still has hidden special potential that can’t be tested. If it’s the fourth, then you have the aptitude of a genius!”

Li Yun made a firm judgment.

“I see. Teacher knows so much.”

Zhou Jing seemed to be embarrassed by the praise. He scratched his head and gave a clumsy flattery in return.

The corners of Li Yun’s mouth curled up wryly. It soon morphed into a full smile, “In short, this is a good thing for you. No matter what the situation is, your future growth potential has increased. Although it’s still a Physical Enhancement ability, I think you’re qualified to apply for an evaluation of Class A potential.”

Hearing this, Zhou Jing blinked and suddenly raised his hand to his chest, his palm facing the sky.

“Speaking of which… It seems like it’s not just Physical Enhancement any longer.”

With that, the buzzing sound of a high voltage electric current sounded.

Sizzle — Crackle!

The electricity suddenly lit up and condensed in his palm, illuminating the shocked faces around him.

“He, he can even discharge electricity?”

Everyone’s eyes widened.

Li Yun was also shocked as he muttered, “Is this a new ability produced by a mutation, or is it a natural energy after the physique has greatly increased?”

Everyone hurriedly pulled Zhou Jing along and tested the specific parameters of the discharge ability again. The discharge power, attack range, duration, and so on.

Zhou Jing was quite cooperative and did as he was told.

After the test, the mentor team surrounded his test results and started an intense discussion. Zhou Jing watched from the side, his heart calm as he nodded to himself.

“Looks like the effect is not bad. The mentors really think that my superpower has mutated…”

He had to undergo targeted training every day, so the change in his abilities could not be hidden. He had long thought of a reason to take the initiative to report.

With his identity as a “new student” as a cover and pretending to be confused, his mentor would not suspect him. He gave his acting skills an 80 points and felt that he had performed well.

He did not intend to hide the discharge ability brought about by the four enhancements. He would definitely use it in the future. Instead of thinking of a reason at that time, it was better to stuff it into the excuse of this “mutation”.

Moreover, there was no point in hiding it. Only by telling the mentor team would they be able to specially plan a cultivation plan for him and think of ways to help him increase his discharge ability.

Although his main body did not have an acceleration function in cultivation, and his efficiency was not as good as the Astral Apostles, Zhou Jing did not expect to completely rely on the apostle conversion to increase his strength. After all, there would occasionally be a realm connection severed.

He did not underestimate the training effects of the main world just because he had the Apostle Conversion. The mature superpower development course in the main world had nurtured many Supers, and his main body could also benefit from it.

After a while, Li Yun and the others finally finished their discussion and walked over.

“Zhou Jing, your superpower has changed a lot. You have to train more frequently and practice your control. We will also come up with a new training plan for you, especially your discharge ability. We all agree that your potential is extraordinary.

“In addition, regarding your potential evaluation, we will apply for Class A for you, but we will announce it to you after the new student competition. We will let you continue to maintain Class B for now. This way, you can reduce suspicion and make the opponent make the wrong decision in the lineup.”

“I understand. There’s no problem.”

Zhou Jing nodded. Since the other party’s reason was practical, he would naturally cooperate.

At this moment, Deng Yunjie suddenly spoke with interest.

“I have high hopes for you. I look forward to your performance in the freshman competition.”

“Uh, thank you.”

Zhou Jing replied politely.

Li Yun reminded him again before letting Zhou Jing leave the testing ground. He then returned to the office with many mentors to continue the meeting that he had yet to finish.

Everyone took their seats.

Li Yun looked around and suddenly spoke out,

“I’ve decided. I’ll let Zhou Jing participate in the arena. Just now, I saw his mutated physical fitness parameters. He’s already ranked in the first tier. He’s even one of the best in the first tier. If his control and technique hasn’t changed, he might be a surprise soldier and shine brightly!”

Hearing this, everyone was stunned for a moment before nodding in agreement. No one objected.

Although Zhou Jing’s actual combat skills were astonishing, because his physical fitness was not too strong previously, he could only deal with weaker enemies, and his margin for error was low for powerful ones.

However, no one expected his ability to mutate and his physical strength to increase. This way, the disadvantage of having a low tolerance for mistakes was made up for.

Everyone still felt that Zhou Jing’s combat style was suitable for bullying noobs… However, after his ability evolved, the range of ” noobs” had now expanded!

Li Yun knocked on the table and made a decision, “It depends on the outcome of this internal spar. If his performance is as good as we think, we can also consider him as the core!”

...

Three days later.

There was still half a month before the new student competition. Today was the day of the internal sparring between the faculties. The 50 selected new students of the Crown Faculty would compete with each other to let the instructors understand their strengths and judge the importance of every student in the competition in half a month. They would also provide the idea of arranging the troops.

Crown Faculty Hall, actual combat training ground.

It was a rest day today, and all the students had no classes. The 50 Crown participating students came to the venue early to spar, forming small groups of two or three. They chatted noisily as they waited for their instructors to organize them.

Zhou Jing moved a chair to the side and sat down. He held a bag of dried fruits and ate his snack as he waited.

Tang Liu followed beside him and kept reaching for Zhou Jing’s snacks, chattering non-stop the whole time.

“Hmph, there will only be one main character today, and that is me, Tang Liu! I can defeat all of them!”

Tang Liu chewed on the dried fruit and spoke vaguely, but he did not lower his voice at all. He did not bother to hide his arrogance, causing many new students to glare at him.

“Kids nowadays are really asking for a beating!”

“What are you being so arrogant for? If you get beaten up on stage, don’t cry to your mother.”

Someone snorted.

Tang Liu wiped his neck with his finger and sneered, “Am I arrogant? With me around, you people can only fight for second place. You’re all my stepping stones. There’s only one outcome for you, and that’s to be beaten up by me!”

“F*ck, my hands are itchy!”

“These specially chosen ones are too arrogant!”

Many people were furious.

Zhou Jing couldn’t help but cover his face. He regretted teasing the middle schooler back then. If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have spoken so much and become so close to him.

Right now, he only wanted to sit further away from Tang Liu to avoid being implicated.

After Tang Liu finished speaking, he turned to look at Zhou Jing and patted his chest. “You don’t have to be afraid. If you’re afraid of the pain, just admit defeat. Anyway, I’ll protect you in the future. You’re going to be my little brother. Just watch me show off my might.”

“Ah, right, right.”

Zhou Jing nodded weakly. He grabbed a handful of hard dried fruits and stuffed them into Tang Liu’s mouth, force feeding him and helping him grind his teeth.

Only after his move did the noise pollution beside him cease. Only then did Zhou Jing have the mood to size up everyone present.

Soon, he realized that many of the other 40 freshmen who had been selected were looking at him with ill intentions.

… It could not be said to be malicious. It could only be said to be eager to challenge him.

Zhou Jing pursed his lips, understanding the thoughts of these new students.

Even without Tang Liu’s arrogant statement, most of the new students who were selected later were unwilling to accept it. They all wanted to defeat the ten people in the special selection to prove their strength.

Their mentality was nothing more than the cliched “Why were you specially chosen? How are we inferior?” thoughts. It was not strange for him to have such a way of thinking.

In addition, by defeating those ten people who had been specially selected, they would be able to step on them to climb up the ranks. They might even be able to replace the other party and obtain further focus training from the faculty. Therefore, these new students were filled with motivation. This was a real benefit.

As the only Class B among the specially selected ten, he was naturally seen as the most useless. These people all wanted to squeeze him, the only “soft persimmon” among the ten.

“Sigh, everyone thinks that I’m the easiest to bully. Who asked me to still be a Class B…”

Zhou Jing shook his head calmly, unbothered by their looks.

At this moment, Wu Fan suddenly walked over and looked at Zhou Jing.

“I look forward to fighting you.”

Zhou Jing was stunned for a moment before he nodded in response, “Alright.”

Wu Fan nodded and left without saying anything else.

Tang Liu swallowed the dried fruit and looked at the two of them in confusion.

“Why does he want to fight you? Is he also very lousy?”

“… How funny. In the future, you have to communicate with people in this way. Everyone will definitely like you.”

Zhou Jing gave him a thumbs up.

At this moment, Li Yun and the other mentors finally arrived and organized everyone.

“You’re the contestants for the new student competition in half a month. Today is to test your strength. There aren’t many rules… Let’s skip the pointless chatter. Other than not being able to challenge the same person repeatedly, no matter who wins or loses, as long as you have the strength, you can keep going on stage to challenge others. The more you fight, the better…”

Before Li Yun could finish speaking, a figure that was almost impossible to catch suddenly flashed past.

Whoosh!

In the next moment, Tang Liu used his High Speed Movement and appeared on the stage in the blink of an eye. He raised his hand and pointed at the many students below who had yet to react.

“I, Tang Liu, am standing here. Who dares to fight me?!”

As soon as he finished speaking, there was silence.

One youth with a yin-yang hairdo stood on the stage and arrogantly pointed at the 49 dumbfounded people below the stage. Beside him were his instructor and the referee, who had a look of “What are you doing?” on their faces. The scene was oddly similar to a world famous painting.

(TL Note: Seems like author is describing “The Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo. Let me know in the comments if you have a more accurate depiction!)

The scene was too beautiful. Zhou Jing’s entire body was covered in goosebumps, and his toes were tensed up, almost digging out of his shoes and into the flooring of the hall.