Gao Wu: Oh no! Young Master Zhen is a cultivator!

Upon hearing this, Lin Ran raised an eyebrow: "Young Master Sun, if your hands shake so easily, no one will dare to entrust their back to you on the battlefield!"

"Don't worry, I'll be even more accurate in the future!" Sun Jinghuan said, each word deliberate and pointed.

Lin Ran nodded: "Very good! I look forward to Young Master Sun's future performance!"

The Rat King finally couldn't hold on any longer, his hind legs buckled, and his massive body collapsed to his knees.

All the firepower was concentrated on the Rat King's head at this moment. Wind blades, flame blades, ice spikes, lightning strikes, and rock spikes, all kinds of colorful light engulfed the Rat King's head.

Lin Ran seized the opportunity to deliver a finishing blow, piercing the Rat King's skull.

"Squeak..."

The Rat King let out a final howl and turned into countless specks of light.

With their leader dead, the remaining rats scattered and fled.

Several second-tier clawed rats that were still putting up a fight were killed by Qin Wuyai and Bai Ruolin in the process, while the first-tier rats were all wiped out in the blink of an eye.

"Congratulations to Class 1 of Senior Martial Arts for successfully completing the team battle. Number of survivors: 23."

As the electronic notification sound faded, the scene began to slowly dissipate.

The fluorescent light in the mine tunnel, the moss on the rock walls, and the gravel on the ground all turned into data streams and dissipated into the air.

The holographic capsule doors opened one by one, the white light faded, and the lights of the real world shone in again.

Lin Ran stepped out of the cabin and stretched his neck.

Zhao Meng, who had been eliminated earlier, leaned against a bench with a rather helpless expression.

"This time, they survived to the third wave with zero deaths, which has already broken the record."

When Zhao Meng saw Lin Ran come out, he gave her a thumbs up: "Last time our class played this scene, we were all wiped out by the third wave."

Other students emerged from the holographic capsule one after another.

Zheng Hong subconsciously moved his wrists; the numbness in his arms from the previous injury in the virtual scene hadn't subsided.

"Brother Lin Ran!" Chu Xining walked towards Lin Ran.

Bai Ruolin frowned slightly and followed.

The two approached Lin Ran, but before they could say anything, Qin Hanzhong blew his whistle.

All thirty-seven students lined up in the center of the training hall.

Qin Hanzhong stood at the front of the line, his electronic recorder tucked under his arm, a rather satisfied expression on his scarred face.

"Excellent! Your teamwork in this exercise was outstanding. Zero deaths in the third wave—the best result in our class's history!"

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Zhao Meng and Qin Wuyai: "Unfortunately, some of these students are still too reckless."

Actually, Zhao Meng and Qin Wuyai weren't originally that reckless; they were mainly influenced by Lin Ran.

Seeing how easily second- and third-tier mutants could be cut down by an ordinary person, they couldn't even get past the mental hurdle of trying to be as cautious as possible.

"Reporting to the instructor, I just feel that as someone in the front row, I can't let the students in the back row feel pressured!" Zhao Meng said seriously.

"Oh?" Qin Hanzhong glanced at him. "Having a team spirit is a good thing, but the premise is still ensuring your own survival. Only by staying alive can you kill more enemies!"

As he spoke, he glanced at everyone and said, "I hope you can all make even more progress next time!"

"Understood, instructor," everyone responded in unison.

Qin Hanzhong nodded, glanced at Lin Ran, and ultimately did not ask any further questions.

"Disband."

Every night I meditated, every morning I took a nap, and every afternoon I did practical training. Five days passed quickly.

Even though the absorption efficiency of first-order crystal cores is very slow, more than four hundred crystal cores could not last until the fifth day.

His cultivation level is stuck at the threshold of the mid-stage of the fifth level of Qi Refining. If he wants to slowly improve through the circulation of the cultivation technique, it would probably be difficult to break through in less than ten days to half a month.

So, on the weekend, he went to the abandoned mine again.

The fanged rats in the nests are almost impossible to kill completely. Last time, a few hundred were cleared out, but that's nothing compared to the tens of thousands of rats in the colony.

Unfortunately, only the Claw Rat is relatively common; other mutated beasts are extremely rare.

After two trips, he only encountered one second-tier rock thorn centipede and a few armored lizards, but gained nothing from third-tier or higher creatures.

There were still a few mineral crystal toads in the pool, but the last massacre seemed to have terrified them, and they all huddled at the bottom of the water, refusing to come ashore.

Although Lin Ran had mastered the art of water manipulation, it was still too much of a challenge for him to deal with the mineral crystal toad underwater.

Those guys are more than twice as fast in the water as they are on land, and many spells are also limited underwater.

Since they wouldn't come ashore, Lin Ran really didn't have a good solution.

Two trips to the mine yielded over a thousand first-tier crystal cores. After absorbing them all, he barely managed to advance his cultivation to the mid-stage of the fifth level of Qi Refining.

The spiritual power contained in the first-order crystal cores was far too thin. After absorbing more than a thousand, the vortex in my dantian only expanded slightly, and I was still far from reaching the sixth level of Qi Refining.

That evening, as soon as Lin Ran returned to the Lin family villa, Lin Hongbo called him to the study.

On the desk sat a silver briefcase, its surface emblazoned with the Lin's Pharmaceutical logo, which looked quite exquisite.

Lin Hongbo pushed the briefcase in front of Lin Ran: "The first batch of awakening potions has been produced, but there may be some pain during the use of this potion, so you should be mentally prepared."

Lin Ran took the suitcase and nodded: "Thank you."

Seeing Lin Ran carrying medicine out of the study, Song Yishu came out of the kitchen with a bowl of freshly cooked soup in her hand.

"The food is ready. Eat first, then get the injection. The people in the pharmaceutical research department said the awakening process might take more than ten minutes."

"You guys eat first, I'm not hungry." As Lin Ran spoke, he had already reached the corner of the stairs and slowly walked upstairs.

Song Yishu stood at the restaurant entrance with a bowl of soup in her hand. She paused for a moment, sighed, and then turned around and placed the bowl on the table.

Seeing this, Lin Zhiyao got up from the sofa and headed towards the dining room: "Let's eat!"

"Wait a minute!" Song Yishu said irritably, "Wait until your brother eats together."

Lin Zhiyao pouted: "He said he wasn't hungry..."

"He's in a hurry to use the awakening potion; he'll be down in a bit." Song Yishu: "Nobody else is hungry, but you're the hungriest!"

Lin Ran returned to the room, locked the door, drew the curtains, went to the bedside, and opened the suitcase.

The first thing you see is the electronically controlled constant temperature design with shock-absorbing cotton, and a gold injection rod embedded in the middle.

It was a bit thicker than a regular syringe, and the liquid inside the tube flowed slowly, shimmering with a fluorescent glow.

He picked up the syringe, pressed the unlock button, and the trigger device emitted a soft beep, while the indicator light at the end of the syringe lit up green.

"Success or failure hinges on this!"

If he can successfully awaken, he can then live a peaceful life as an Awakened One, quietly cultivating immortality and gradually demonstrating his strength.

If he cannot awaken, he may need to remain disguised as an ordinary person and will not be able to display his powerful strength for a long time.

Until he can surpass most of the awakened people in this world and seize the power of discourse.

He aimed the syringe at his left shoulder and pressed the injection button.

The moment the needle pierces the skin, a stream of cool liquid is pushed into the muscle by high pressure.

Lin Ran pulled out the syringe; the liquid inside the syringe had been drained.

For the first few seconds, I didn't feel anything, only a slight stinging sensation at the needle prick.

A moment later, the icy coldness turned into a ball of fire.

The burning sensation spread outward from the injection site, along the blood vessels and tendons, to the entire left arm, then to the shoulder, chest, and finally the whole body.

His body temperature spiked to the limit of human endurance within seconds and continued to rise.

Then his muscles began to spasm, as if a pair of invisible giant hands were simultaneously pulling at every muscle fiber in his body.

The spasm lasted for about ten minutes, and then the pain began to subside slowly.

After experiencing several waves of pain, the discomfort completely disappeared.

Lin Ran sat up in bed and stretched his shoulders.

My muscles are still a little numb, but my joints are flexible and my meridians are clear.

He looked inward at his dantian and found that the size of the qi vortex had not changed, nor had the total amount of spiritual energy increased.

If it weren't for the slight increase in his strength, he would have even doubted whether he had actually awakened.