Chapter 172  : Diamond-Level Talent—Review Approved

‘According to what those researchers said, I went through two hours of in-depth electric current development yesterday. I was also electrocuted by the professor overnight. My body has certainly changed drastically.

‘It feels fully charged. I’ll need to examine it.’

Eager to discover the changes in his body, Lin Yao simply sat cross-legged in the room and sank his mind into the Sea of Consciousness to look at the situation of the two sacred trees.

After a breath of time, the situation of the Sea of Consciousness greeted Lin Yao’s eyes. The Celestial Tree was still the same. Although it was the one that had dominated yesterday’s changes, it had not been affected.

In comparison to the Celestial Tree, the Tree of Heaven Punishment had undergone many changes. First, Lin Yao could see that it had grown slightly bigger. Second, the Tree of Heaven Punishment had electric current flowing around its body.

‘I knew this would be the case.’

As his gaze was fixed on the Tree of Heaven Punishment, the interface with Lin Yao’s personal information soon appeared before his eyes.

Lin Yao skipped the unchanged information. He had earlier memorized several unique changes in his heart.

First was the transformation of the Heavenly Thunder talent. The Heavenly Thunder was acquired after the Tree of Heaven Punishment was upgraded once. Due to Lin Yao’s frequent electrocution and his knowledge of the electricity system, the Heavenly Thunder talent had already reached LV2 (15%).

Although it had reached LV2, the progress bar would only increase by 1% each time he was electrocuted. This was not considered slow. After all, his electrocution time was 100 times longer than that of ordinary people. Even if he had poor talent, he would still comprehend something after being electrocuted for such a long time.

However, Lin Yao was startled by the change in his Heavenly Thunder talent this time. After he woke up from his sleep, the LV2 level did not change. Nevertheless, the progress bar in parentheses had increased by 15% and reached LV2 (30%) in one go.

‘It’s a great improvement. Light Adjustment rules.’

Because he didn’t have a high comprehension ability, Lin Yao used to passively receive information during the electrocution. This time, however, Lin Yao hadn’t comprehended anything during the electrocution. Nevertheless, Light Adjustment, a passive ability, had actively changed Lin Yao’s physique by consuming light energy and increasing Lin Yao’s compatibility with thunder electricity. Therefore, he could only exclaim ‘Light Adjustment rules’. At the same time, he thought of something else.

‘According to the description of Light Adjustment, it not only works on electric shock but also on flames, ice, as well as any harm from getting slashed and resisting attacks… My resistance to all these things could be increased by consuming light energy.

‘Although I’ll need to be burned by flames, frozen by ice, slashed by swords, and beaten by sticks…

‘The more I say, the more I feel like crying.’

Despite the sorrow in his heart, Lin Yao decided that he would accept the fate of being burned by fire and slashed by knives when he had the time. In order to improve his strength, he would be going all out.

The tremendous improvement of Heavenly Thunder was one of the changes. The second change, which surprised Lin Yao, was the progress of the Iron Body.

By now, he had already understood why his body would feel that full. It was because the progress of his Iron Body had already exceeded 100%, and he could break through and advance to become a Silver Person at any time.

“I remember the progress of the Iron Body being 82% before I fell asleep… Now, it is… 105%.

‘Psst!’

It had increased from 82% to 105%. After a night of deep sleep, Lin Yao’s physical progress had improved by a total of 23%.

Even Lin Yao gasped upon seeing this improvement. He had guessed that he would receive a huge reward again after the Celestial Tree advanced, but this had still exceeded his expectations.

‘If ordinary people can advance at this rate, martial artists could reach the level of a warlord in just five to six days.’

Feeling stunned, Lin Yao looked a little dazed, and his mouth was gaping. He even activated his thinking speed acceleration to examine his body for problems.

After a round of inspection and calculations, Lin Yao concluded that his body was fine. As his arithmetic ability had increased, he also discovered some reasons.

‘I can’t compare myself to the ordinary Iron Person now. Although I have a human body, I have the intrinsic nature of the Celestial Tree, which is a Gold Person. My current cultivation speed should be calculated according to a potential Gold Person’s cultivation speed.’

With this thought in mind, Lin Yao accepted his rapid improvement with ease. He even felt that it was a little slow.

After all, a physical progress of 23% could only carry 23 vital energy seeds. A golden warlord could certainly get more than 23 vital energy seeds from his one day of training.

He also figured out the reason the intrinsic nature was the same but his speed of improvement was not as fast as a golden warlord’s—his weak body had dragged him down.

‘The intrinsic nature of a Gold Person allows me to advance to become a golden warlord without any obstacles. Strictly speaking, I’m not really elevating my cultivation level. My situation resembles some monsters taking over the body of a host after rebirth. In fact, it’d be strange if my cultivation speed was slow.’

Heavenly Thunder LV2 (30%), Iron Body 105%, 115 Vital Energy Seeds—this had been Lin Yao’s harvest last night.

In addition to these benefits, the growth rate of the Tree of Heaven Punishment had also increased by 3,000 points and become 3,000/100,000.

Lin Yao’s harvest from last night’s electrocution was great. More importantly, even without the blessing of the Body of Light, Lin Yao still had the strength of a potential warlord, albeit the weakest kind.

However, although he had a weak physical body, he had a 210% blessing from the Body of Light. Therefore, Lin Yao was also considered an elite among potential warlords. On this basis, he could unlock the gene lock (First level—unlocking body shackles, second level—thinking speed acceleration) and was not afraid of any potential warlords.

‘I don’t know how the situation will turn out if I deal with warlords in my extreme state.’

At the thought of fighting against the warlords, Lin Yao no longer felt fearful. Instead, he looked forward to fighting with them.

The strong fighting spirit in his heart made Lin Yao clench his fists. At that moment, there was a sudden knock on the door. After opening it, Lin Yao saw Professor Li.

“Professor, sorry to trouble you last night.”

“It was no biggie. It’s my job to take care of you guys. Let’s not talk about this. I’m bringing you good news today.”

“Huh?”

Upon seeing the puzzled look in Lin Yao’s eyes, Professor Li took out a certificate and placed it into Lin Yao’s hand.

“Open it and take a look.”

Unaware of its content, Lin Yao opened the certificate and soon looked pleasantly surprised.

“Thank you, Professor.”

It was no wonder that Lin Yao was surprised. This certificate was very famous. Its name was National Youth Training Qualification Certificate. It seemed ordinary, but it had another name that everyone in the world was familiar with—Diamond Talent Qualification Certificate.

“Don’t thank me. You deserve it.”

In addition to giving him this certificate, Professor Li also told Lin Yao about the corresponding treatment for diamond geniuses. First was the authority. Lin Yao’s information authority had been determined as Level A. Besides some key state officials, it would be difficult for anyone to search for Lin Yao’s information. To clarify, the authority of king-level geniuses was Level S. If one were to gather important and confidential information negligently when one didn’t have the authority to do so, one would easily get in trouble. Furthermore, one would break the law if the information was leaked to opposing countries.

After the authority were the subsidies, which were still categorized into two types—state and city subsidies.

[State Subsidies: 100,000 yuan per month, 100 bottles of low-level nutrition drinks, three bottles of Water of Life, three bottles of Peacebloom Water, 1 king technique, 1 opportunity to apply for diamond resources, and 10,000 grams of attribute crystals per month.]

[City Subsidies: 100,000 yuan per month, 100 bottles of low-level nutrition drinks, 1 diamond combat skill (nationwide), and 10,000 grams of attribute crystals.]

The subsidies had increased accordingly. Professor Li also told Lin Yao that these were the basic subsidies. If he wanted more, he would need to wait until the end of the assessment.

Yes, Professor Li had already told Lin Yao that diamond geniuses needed to be assessed. Thus, his expression didn’t change in the slightest. He had already known this thanks to Qin Ya.

“Don’t relax even after the assessment. Nothing escapes the Skynet. Don’t do anything illegal.”

“I understand.”

After speaking, Lin Yao frowned slightly when he looked at the subsidies provided by the state and the city. Professor Li saw this. “If you’re not satisfied, you’ll have to perform well. The country will make up for your subsidies after you pass the assessment.”

“It’s not that. I just don’t get why the city subsidies are similar to, or even slightly lesser than, those provided by the state.”

“This is because you will no longer be based in the city.”

The city could recruit geniuses with gold talent. Those who were staying in the city would naturally be groomed the most. However, Lin Yao had already surpassed this stage. Since Ninghai City would not be Lin Yao’s first choice, the city could not possibly spend so much grooming Lin Yao, who would not be based in Ninghai City in the future.

Nevertheless, Professor Li quickly told him another piece of good news.

“You can’t stay in the city, but you can go to the prefectural city. Diamond geniuses will receive even dozens of subsidies based on their personal strength. Among them, three basic subsidies are made available to all diamond geniuses. The first one is from the state. As long as you don’t commit treason, you will get it. The second is from your hometown, and third is from the city where you are based. No matter where you decide to live, you will get a settling-in allowance.”

Lin Yao was not surprised that he would be receiving that many subsidies in one go. In the world of his past life, some famous academics also had many titles. Some of these titles were just for show, but some of them would enable the holder to get subsidies.

After talking about the subsidies, Professor Li also warned Lin Yao. “If you take more, you will also have to do more. Take the three shared subsidies as an example. If you accept those benefits, you’ll have to respond to the state’s enlistment. You are also a resident of the prefecture. As for your hometown, when you are staying in the prefecture, you’ll probably be invited to eliminate problems that occur in the city or the surrounding area. Besides, you’ll have to return to the city at least once a year and spend about a week patrolling the city completely. This is an unwritten rule and also the price you need to pay for the subsidies.”

“I understand.”

“If you’re going to stay in a prefectural city, I suggest you choose Xinghai Prefecture, which is located close to Ninghai City. You will have good prospects there too.”

“Let me take some time to consider this.”

In the past, Lin Yao had needed to improve himself as quickly as possible. Therefore, he’d had no choice. But now, Lin Yao had the support of the rich and powerful families of both Tianhai City and Ninghai City. Therefore, he’d experience no shortage of resources in the short run. Since that was the case, he would not sell himself off to the prefectural city for resources.

Of course, families in small places were incomparable to those in the prefectural cities. There was not much difference in terms of ordinary supplies. However, the gap was obvious when it came to real treasure.

Take the king techniques and combat skills, as well as the diamond-level resources, for example. These were difficult for small families to obtain. If he were to join the prefectural city, Lin Yao might immediately get one or two of these. As of now, he had only been awarded one king-level technique by the state.

Lin Yao had his own guess about this king-level technique.

‘I don’t want to be so pessimistic, but the reason I’m able to get these high-level techniques is because the world is facing a crisis.’

After telling Lin Yao all this, Professor Li walked away at a slow pace. Lin Yao didn’t leave the house. He immediately accessed the Intranet of talented people and searched for things related to the thunder spirit essence.

‘I’ve finally gotten diamond-level talent. The sacred trees can have divine beast companions. My Tree of Heaven Punishment has been vacant for too long. I have to find a good one for it. It would be great if I could get the spirit essence of the Leize Dragon God.’