Travelling through the interstellar world, starting with the real and fake daughter

Instructor Shan mentioned that the mutated trees on Mufei Star contain wood-element energy clusters. This wasn’t a secret, but since such mutated trees are extremely rare on the outskirts of the forest, Mai Dongzi decided not to comment further.

Instructor Shan remarked on how lucky she was to encounter a mutated tree rich in wood-element energy clusters so soon after entering the forest. Mai Dongzi didn’t explain further; she realized that finding this special mutated tree wasn’t purely a matter of luck.

She had first “seen” the mutated tree with her spiritual sense and then discovered an energy cluster beneath its trunk. That’s why she led the group in this direction. Otherwise, following their original route, they would have completely missed it.

However, saying she was lucky wasn’t entirely wrong. In less than an hour of entering the Mufei Star forest, she had stumbled upon a fortuitous encounter, instantly advancing her wood-element abilities by a whole major level.

This gave Mai Dongzi the illusion that the training site chosen by Imperial University this time seemed specifically designed for her benefit.

Not only did her wood-element ability advance to late-stage level four, but Zhuang Huaiya’s wood-element ability also improved by a major level.

If she had relied solely on her own cultivation, it would have taken Mai Dongzi three to four years to reach this level.

With her enhanced wood-element abilities, Mai Dongzi gained a deeper “sense” of the trees in the forest, allowing her to easily distinguish which mutated trees were safe and which were dangerous.

This field survival training had no elimination system, tasks, or specific goals. There was only one requirement: all students had to survive in the Mufei Star forest for a month.

Any student who encountered a life-threatening situation and was rescued would be treated and sent back to their team to continue the training.

By the time they finally emerged from the forest, everyone would practically look like wild people.

However, there is no doubt that harsh environments are the best for honing one’s skills. Everyone’s cultivation improved to some extent, and wood-element ability users saw particularly significant progress.

Afterward, Mai Dongzi never found another mutated tree with wood-element energy clusters. To advance her wood-element ability to early stage level five, she used only her wood-element energy whenever possible in the forest. Coupled with the forest’s abundant wood-element energy, which greatly supported her cultivation, her abilities finally reached early stage level five a few days ago.

Zhuang Huaiya also tried to follow his cousin’s example. However, whether due to lack of effort or lower potential in wood-element cultivation, his abilities remained stuck at late stage level two. That said, he had achieved near perfection at that stage. With some focused training, he should be able to advance to level three soon.

After returning to school, the campus team competition resumed.

This time, the Phantom Team did not stop at the quarterfinals as they had last year. Instead, they made it to the final round and won the championship.

According to last year’s schedule, the team competition was followed by the final exams and then a four-month-long holiday.

However, after this year’s final exams, the school suddenly announced that the long holiday would be shortened to just one month. All students were required to return early for special training.

This news naturally caused widespread dissatisfaction among the students. However, the decision was not made solely by Imperial University but was a directive from all schools in the Blue-Black Empire. More importantly, the supervisory agencies refused to handle any complaints from students, leaving them no choice but to comply.

Neither Mai Dongzi nor Mai Zixuan expressed much about this matter, as the main focus of their studies was on the post-apocalyptic crisis, and the preliminary details were not covered in depth.

“The school has maintained a four-month holiday every academic year for hundreds of years. This sudden change must mean the higher-ups are aware of the apocalyptic crisis. By keeping students on campus, they can reduce risks and give them more training to improve their combat abilities,” Mai Zixuan speculated.

Mai Dongzi agreed with his reasoning. After all, this change applied to all schools in the Blue-Black Empire, not just Imperial Star.

Even if the long holiday had remained, Mai Dongzi doubted Admiral Su would have let her train with the Third Army this year.

Although Admiral Su hadn’t explicitly explained their current situation, Mai Dongzi had deduced from various clues that the military was already on high alert and preparing for emergencies.

As it turned out, on the very day the school announced the shortened one-month holiday, Mai Dongzi received a notification from the Special Talent Training Center that same evening.

During this short holiday, a level-nine cultivator would conduct special training for them at the center, and all members of the Special Talent Training Center were required to arrive on time.

That night, Zhuang Huaiya also received a notice about a training session from the National Special Training Camp, which filled him with overwhelming joy.

Originally, the Special Training Camp only accepted young talents with S-level cultivation potential, whereas Zhuang Huaiya’s potential was only rated at 3A.

However, the notice he received explained that although his potential didn’t meet the standard, his cultivation speed was nearly on par with that of S-level cultivators. After an investigation, the camp’s instructors deemed him barely qualified, granting him the opportunity to join the training.

“It was Wang Liming who recommended me. He said there was no harm in giving it a try,” Zhuang Huaiya happily shared this news with his cousin before excitedly messaging Wang Liming to thank him.

Since Mai Dongzi had to stay at the Special Talent Training Center for the entire month, she couldn’t spare much attention for Zhuang Huaiya. However, considering his current cultivation level, his progress would have been slow if he continued training on his own.

Just as she was thinking about finding him a coach, she received the good news, which set her mind at ease.

Zhuang Huaiya’s acceptance into the Special Training Camp would not only improve his cultivation but also expand his social network.

Mai Zixuan also received a notification from the Special Talent Training Center.

After his cultivation potential was reassessed and raised to double S-level, Mai Dongzi, as his recommender, submitted an application for him to join the center. It was approved in less than a day.

After the holiday began, the siblings, along with Lin Qingzhou, traveled together to the Special Talent Training Center.

At the center, Mai Dongzi reunited with Ye Zhengyan and Booker, whom she hadn’t seen in a year.

Over the past year, both of their cultivation levels had advanced to late-stage level six, achieving near perfection.

“This is your cousin? He looks a bit like you. If no one told me otherwise, I would’ve thought he was your younger brother—especially with how extraordinary he is,” Ye Zhengyan said.

The siblings simply smiled without responding. Over the past year, they had noticed that they were beginning to resemble their appearances from their past lives more and more. In their previous lives, their resemblance was at least 60%.

By evening, a total of 24 people had gathered at the Special Talent Training Center. These were all young geniuses with double S-level potential from various parts of the Blue-Black Empire.

Some of them had received their training notifications over a month ago and had already made their way to Imperial Star early. Reportedly, a few others were still en route and were expected to arrive in the next day or two.