‘Why doesn't he show any intention of resting at all?’
‘He’s been sitting here for almost a entire day, hasn't he?’
Neil pulled some meat jerky from his spatial ring to settle for dinner.
He decided to see just how long Jiang Lin could stay in the classroom!
He didn’t believe it.
Could the guy actually sleep in the classroom?
Seeing that no one else planned on leaving, the others followed suit.
Even Neil had started mimicking Jiang Lin by chewing on dry rations.
Consequently, they all made up their minds: they wouldn't be the first coward to leave!
In the silence, the few of them competed inwardly.
In truth, if Jiang Lin hadn’t suppressed the crowd with his terrifying strength earlier today, they might not have paid him much attention, let alone imitated him by staying behind to practice.
But now, Jiang Lin had thoroughly defeated them, making them feel the vast chasm between their strength and his.
And now, this person with such power was working even harder than they were.
As people who had always considered themselves geniuses, how could they live with themselves?
The only way was to work even harder than him!!
......
As the night deepened, the clock tower of Saint Brilliance Middle Magic Academy struck ten o'clock.
Only Jiang Lin, Neil, Nora, Elvira, and Rex remained in the classroom.
The other students had left at dinner time and never returned.
The magic crystal lamps in the classroom flickered out, as ten was the designated time to return to the dorms at Saint Brilliance Middle Magic Academy.
However, students had a high degree of freedom regarding whether they actually returned to their dorms.
After all, certain types of magic, like astromancy, required nighttime to be practiced with maximum efficiency.
Therefore, students could choose for themselves whether to go back to the dormitory.
In the gloom, several faint glimmers of light appeared.
Neil took a lighting crystal from his spatial ring, its soft white light dispelling the surrounding darkness.
Nora directly activated the innate night vision of her beastkin bloodline; her pupils constricted slightly in the dark, glowing with a faint golden luster.
A small glowing flower bloomed at Elvira's fingertips, hovering above her desk.
Rex was the most direct—he walked to the wall and, with a loud click, pressed the manual switch for the magic crystal lamp.
The school only turned the lights off automatically; it didn't mean they weren't allowed to be turned back on.
He shot a look at the others as if looking at idiots.
To this, the others remained expressionless, retracting their own lighting methods.
Then, the group shared a look.
They looked back at Jiang Lin, who was still sitting steadily in the corner.
They all saw a certain silent understanding in each other's eyes:
Whoever leaves first today is a loser!
Time slipped by quietly in their focused states.
Outside the window, the night at Saint Brilliance Middle Magic Academy was not silent.
Occasional booms of magic echoed from the distant training grounds, the library windows remained lit, and a few scattered students could be seen walking through the campus.
This was the atmosphere of a top-tier academy; almost everyone was working hard to improve themselves.
Under normal circumstances, however, while everyone worked hard, they would still go back to sleep.
After all, although they had all reached the 1st-rank and wouldn't face life-threatening danger from not sleeping, they would still feel fatigue after a few days.
So, as time passed, the lights in the teaching buildings and the library went out one by one.
Eventually, most places were plunged into darkness as those who stayed late returned to their dorms to rest.
Yet, two classrooms remained brightly lit.
One was the 5th-grade elite class, where Jiang Lin and the others were.
The other was the 4th-grade elite class, the classroom of Anya, Lina, and Frederick.
As individuals who once dominated their respective schools and were rare geniuses, all three had earned the qualification to enter the elite class during the entrance exams.
Furthermore, under Jiang Lin's lead, since the second half of their third year, their level of effort had far exceeded that of their peers.
Combined with their natural talent, they held decent rankings even within the elite class.
Boulder City was not a particularly prominent city in terms of education, so having four students enter the elite classes of Saint Brilliance Middle Magic Academy in the same year was a quite rare occurrence.
Such a track record was enough for the middle schools of Boulder City to use as promotional material.
Of course, by the next year and for years to come, everyone would realize something.
A single year producing four students for the elite classes of Saint Brilliance Middle Magic Academy would be the year Boulder City produced the fewest geniuses...
After entering the elite class today, the three of them felt no pride.
This was because they had seen many more geniuses just like them.
There were many others whose talent surpassed theirs.
Therefore, it was absolutely impossible for them to slack off now!
Those people might be more talented than them.
But they were definitely not as hardworking!
As long as they worked hard enough, they could surpass many geniuses they otherwise could never overtake!!
During the day, everyone was working hard.
So, they had to make good use of this nighttime.
That was how they would surpass the geniuses above them.
......
At this moment, under the same night sky, in Boulder City hundreds of kilometers away, three junior magic academies were brightly lit.
Radiant Junior Magic Academy.
Today was the first day of school. With the proud results of the previous academic year, the leadership of Radiant Junior Magic Academy had decided to make changes.
Director Wills had already passed down Jiang Lin's suggestions.
"Starting this semester, third-grade students at our school are required to stay at school; first and second-grade students may choose for themselves."
"Magic potions used for staying up late will be prepared by professional consultants hired by the school and will be purchased uniformly by the school."
"The school will reimburse half of the costs for the magic potions required this year."
"If you feel unwell, tell a teacher immediately. The medical room teachers and magic potion consultants will examine any students who experience discomfort."
"If your family is in financial difficulty, you can tell your teacher to apply for student financial aid or student loans."
"Additionally, the school will arrange for teachers to be on duty every night."
"To supervise all students..."
Looking at the arrangements of Radiant Junior Magic Academy, this academic year was also an experiment in teaching methods.
Because the graduation results of the previous year were too brilliant, they had directly caught the attention of the Boulder City temple education department.
Ultimately, after an investigation, they decided to allocate funds to Radiant Junior Magic Academy to allow them to test this new set of teaching methods.
And so, this scene appeared.
This so-called brilliance, of course, wasn't just about having four students enter the elite classes of Saint Brilliance Middle Magic Academy.
After all, that could be called rare, but it wasn't impossible.
Every few years, there might be a sudden cluster of geniuses.
However, the overall level of the other graduates from Radiant Junior Magic Academy had significantly improved compared to previous years.
This far exceeded the academy's past performance.
If this year's results remained outstanding, the high-level management of Boulder City might use education as a promotional point to bring development to the city.
And the culprit behind all of this—Jiang Lin.
He would be passed down in the form of a legend among the student body of Boulder City, forever...
As for the students who heard this news, they all put on masks of agony.
As former second-years, they had certainly witnessed the madness of the previous third-year class.
Many people around them had tried to replicate the third-years' study methods and had made considerable progress.
But the price of that progress was the deprivation of their sleep.
Originally, these were personal choices—whether to sacrifice comfort for a potentially brighter future.
But because the previous class of seniors was so outstanding, the school began to think about changing their teaching methods.
They were forcing everyone to trade "comfort" for "the future."
Don't want to trade?
If you don't want to, plenty of others do!
Now, the three best junior middle schools in Boulder City had all begun trying out this teaching style.
If you didn't want to stay up late, you could only go to those ordinary junior middle schools with lower teaching quality.
And even if the students were unwilling to make such a decision, their parents were willing.
For those who currently had no source of income, they could only follow their parents' arrangements.
Moreover, setting aside everything else, staying up late really was beneficial for them.
The changes from staying up late might not be obvious in the short term, but over a longer period, they would become more competitive than peers with the same talent.
Thus, at this age, they could access more and better resources than before, obtaining a brighter future!
And now, the Boulder City where the sun never sets was spreading its light to other cities...
Time flowed quietly. Inside Saint Brilliance Middle Magic Academy in Clearwater City, the lights of the two classrooms had still not gone out.
The small group from Boulder City had gathered in the elite classes.
After all, practicing together provided a better atmosphere, making them more focused and motivated.
So, although the others hadn't made it into the elite class, they came to the 4th-grade elite class to work hard together.
In the other classroom, the mindsets of Neil and the others also began to undergo some changes.
‘Is this Jiang Lin... welded to his seat?’
At the same time, he remembered certain rumors he had heard last semester.
That was, the lights in Jiang Lin's dormitory had never gone out!
When Neil had asked Jiang Lin what was going on, Jiang Lin’s answer was that, as a paladin, he needed to be bathed in light at all times.
Everyone’s guess back then was that Jiang Lin might be afraid of the dark.
As it turned out now, Neil had a much more terrifying theory.
Could it be that this guy, Jiang Lin, had been pulling all-nighters every single day from the very start!
That would explain why even though he joined halfway through, he only needed a month to raise his theory class grades to the average level of the elite class...
The more he thought about it, the more terrified Neil felt.
So, it wasn't that something had gone wrong at home.
It was that he had always been such a hardworking person!!
A person hardworking to a terrifying degree!!!
Time flowed once more. When Jiang Lin opened his eyes, the dawn had torn through the curtain of night, and the sky had turned fish-belly white.
The four people who had attempted an all-nighter for the first time felt a surge of excitement as they sensed their own progress.
Though they were mentally exhausted, the progress was substantial.
Therefore, as long as they solved the fatigue caused by staying up late, they could completely stop sleeping to improve themselves!!
Jiang Lin’s gaze swept across the classroom, finding that Neil, Nora, Elvira, and Rex were all still in their seats.
At the same time, there was a familiar hint of excitement in their eyes!
It seemed these classmates had also chosen to pull an all-nighter last night.
Jiang Lin’s lips curled up slightly.
Not bad. The students in the elite class of Saint Brilliance Middle Magic Academy truly were diligent people.
He headed to the cafeteria to pick up today’s medicinal food.
And looked after the ants along the way.
The campus in the early morning was very quiet, with only a few early-rising students doing morning exercises on the field.
In the cafeteria, the auntie saw Jiang Lin arriving so early for his medicinal food and was no longer surprised.
"2nd-rank medicinal food again today?"
"Yes, thank you."
When Jiang Lin returned to the classroom with the medicinal food, Neil and the others had already adjusted their states, ready to face a new day of classes.
"Jiang Lin, did you... not sleep last night?" Neil finally couldn't help but ask.
Jiang Lin nodded. "Yeah. I usually practice my breathing technique at night."
"Every day?"
"Of course."
Hearing this, the pupils of Neil and the others in the classroom dilated in shock.
"So you’ve been practicing your breathing technique every day this summer? You haven't slept at all?"
After thinking for a moment, Jiang Lin replied, "Not exactly. I was out for six days for some business. But I indeed haven't slept."
Hearing Jiang Lin's final answer, the people in the classroom were shocked once again.
"Then aren't you sleepy during the day?"
Jiang Lin said strangely, "Once a breathing technique reaches a certain level of proficiency, it can replace rest. Don't you know that?"
At this, Neil was speechless.
It was true that if a breathing technique was practiced to the highest level, it did have such an effect.
But the problem was, his level would hit the cap long before his breathing technique reached its max rank!!
Because practicing a breathing technique required running and operating it.
Under normal circumstances, operating a breathing technique would cause magic essence to gather in the body, refining the user's magic quality and raising their life level.
So even if Neil put all his effort into practicing the breathing technique to raise its level, the proficiency would increase too slowly. By the time it reached the highest rank, he would have already hit the level cap for his current stage...
And at that point, because he reached the cap for the current stage, he would need to switch to a different breathing technique.
Then he would have to start over.
Unless one continued to use a low-level breathing technique at a high rank.
But unless something was wrong with one's head, no one would continue using a less efficient low-level breathing technique when a higher-tier one was available.
So, hearing Jiang Lin's words, everyone fell into silence.
For him to be able to push a breathing technique to its peak just after entering the 2nd-rank, there was only one possibility.
That was, Jiang Lin's talent was simply too high!
High enough to make them only able to sigh in despair!
The proficiency he gained from one practice session might be ten, dozens, or even hundreds of times theirs!!
So... was staying up late to practice really not suited for people like them...
A sense of frustration rose in their hearts.
However, unexpectedly, Jiang Lin spoke up then: "However, I do know a certain potion combination that can allow you to stay awake for a long time and still have quite high energy to practice the next day."
Hearing this, everyone crowded around. Obviously, Jiang Lin was about to impart some secret technique to them.
Neil felt some doubt. "Using magic potions to stay up late... is that really okay?"
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