“Shit!”
Bang!
“Shit!”
Bang!
“Shit!”
Bang! Bang!
In the pitch-black cement room, accompanied by bursts of low shouts and impact sounds, Zhang Yu finally endured the intense pain constantly spreading throughout his body and completed the second round of the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms.
He collapsed to the ground with a thud, his entire body already gasping for breath.
Feeling his still slightly trembling hands and feet, Zhang Yu felt that this body had completely reached its limit, and every inch of flesh and blood throughout his body didn’t want to move anymore.
But just in this state, that cold feeling and the voice in his mind came again.
“Please abide by the ritual agreement, work hard to fulfill your wish, don’t deliberately slack off and delay, 10.”
“Damn it!” Zhang Yu cursed inwardly: “I’ve already reached my limit!”
“I really can’t practice anymore!”
“I still have to go to class tomorrow!”
But no matter how he spoke or explained, the countdown showed no pause or hesitation.
Watching the countdown step by step approaching the end, Zhang Yu could only curse and stumble to get up again to practice.
Under normal circumstances, when most people exercise alone, it’s very difficult to push themselves to their true limits.
Only when there’s a master, teacher, coach… only when there’s supervision and strict requirements, can people often train to their limits again and again.
The same was true for Zhang Yu. If it were just him alone, he probably would have practiced the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms once or twice today, gotten tired and not wanted to move, and directly rested.
But the power of the ritual at this moment was like a demonic coach, watching him every moment, threatening him with death, urging him not to slack off in the slightest during his training.
The third round…
The fourth round…
The fifth round…
All the way to the tenth round!
Under the repeated threats of the ritual’s power, Zhang Yu practiced the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms a full ten times!
During this period, the flesh and blood throughout his body went from tearing pain, to needle-like agony, and finally seemed to gradually become numb. He even felt like his hands and feet were disappearing.
At the same time, every trace of magical power in his body was forced out, continuously injected into those damaged flesh and blood.
After completing these ten rounds of training, Zhang Yu felt that both his flesh and blood and the magical power in his body were like they had been wrung dry, like a cloth that had been twisted thousands and tens of thousands of times, not a single drop could be wrung out anymore.
At this moment, Zhang Yu just wanted to lie on the ground like this, too lazy to move even a tiny bit.
What made him grateful was that the voice that had been urging him like a death reminder didn’t sound again this time, as if it recognized that he had truly given his all and truly reached his limit.
And during the training just now, Zhang Yu also roughly figured out the characteristics of this ritual power.
“This thing is a bit like artificial intelligence, it doesn’t have real wisdom, it just operates according to certain rules…”
Zhang Yu had seen similar things in movies, TV shows, and news from Kunxu.
Those powerful magical treasures all contained weapon spirits, and these weapon spirits were all like artificial intelligence, having certain wisdom to handle various problems. Even those sufficiently powerful weapon spirits had intelligence no less than humans.
At this moment, after confirming that the ritual power hadn’t come out again to force him to train, Zhang Yu could finally relax his spirit a bit and feel the effects of the upgraded Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms.
Yes, just as Zhang Yu completed the tenth round of the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms, he could feel that this martial art had leveled up.
In that instant, his cognition and understanding of the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms became deeper.
Many details that he originally hadn’t noticed or didn’t understand enough, in that moment, appeared in his mind like a flash of lightning.
And on the Feather Book, the original ‘Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms Level 1 (0/10)’ had also changed to ‘Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms Level 2 (0/20)’.
“Just need to practice 20 more times to raise the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms to Level 3?”
“If I keep practicing like this, wouldn’t I be able to push the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms to Level 10 very quickly?”
Zhang Yu knew that in the Qi Refinement realm, martial arts and techniques could only be cultivated to a maximum of Level 10.
“By then, even if I don’t use acupuncture or take medicine, the training effect won’t be inferior to Bai Zhenzhen and the others… no, it might even far exceed them.”
“If this continues, becoming first in the grade in physical strength in the future isn’t impossible.”
Thinking of this, Zhang Yu felt invigorated, feeling that his whole body didn’t hurt so much anymore.
“Terrifying, my potential is really too terrifying. Once it’s stimulated by the evil god, I’m simply going to soar to the sky.”
With beautiful fantasies about the future, Zhang Yu, whose body had been trained to the limit, gradually fell into drowsiness and unknowingly fell asleep.
He slept until five o’clock the next morning, when Zhang Yu instinctively woke up, just like he had woken up at five o’clock countless times before.
But today, his limbs were completely sore and soft, and even opening his eyes was extremely difficult.
At this moment, although Zhang Yu had awakened, he didn’t want to get up at all, only wanting to continue sleeping for a while, even if this was on the cement floor of an unfinished building.
“Five minutes… just sleep for five more minutes…”
But just as Zhang Yu wanted to stay in bed, a voice that made him feel cold again rang out from the bottom of his heart.
“Please abide by the ritual agreement, work hard to fulfill your wish, don’t deliberately slack off and delay, 10.”
“Damn it!” Zhang Yu suddenly opened his eyes wide, carefully listening to the voice continuing to ring out. After repeatedly confirming that this wasn’t a hallucination, he could only curse and sit up.
At this moment, Zhang Yu suddenly realized that things might be more serious than he originally imagined.
“From now on, as long as it’s related to studying, cultivation, getting into college, work, that is, anything related to studying, cultivation, working, making money to satisfy the second wish… I can’t slack off even a little bit?”
“24-hour supervision, huh.”
With a body full of fatigue and exhaustion, Zhang Yu could only hurriedly rush back to his rental room.
Feeling the grease and sweat all over his body, he quickly topped up 323.4 yuan for water fees, took a five-minute shower, and then hurriedly rushed to the bus station.
Looking up at the display screen on the platform, Zhang Yu thought: “The next bus will arrive in ten minutes?”
Finding a pole to lean against, he thought: “Let me rest for a while, at least that broken thing didn’t tell me to use this time to practice.”
Zhang Yu regretted thinking this as soon as he did.
Because a cold feeling surged from his heart, and that nightmare-like voice rang out again.
“Please abide by the ritual agreement, work hard to fulfill your wish, don’t deliberately slack off and delay, 10.”
“I…” Zhang Yu cursed inwardly: “Is this thing constantly monitoring the thoughts in my head? As long as I think of a way to work hard but don’t do it… it’s going to kill me?”
So amid the countdown, Zhang Yu could only endure his exhaustion and begin practicing the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms under the surprised, puzzled, admiring, or indifferent gazes of the people around him.
“Ha!”
Bang!
With the final punch thrown, Zhang Yu, who had broken out in a sweat again, collapsed to the ground once more from exhaustion.
Looking at the bus approaching in the distance, he felt incredibly relieved: “Finally here.”
And today on the bus, Zhang Yu actually found a seat, which made him happy again.
“Finally can rest properly.”
“Let me take a little nap, surely it won’t force me to practice on the bus, unless it’s breathing exercises…”
As soon as he thought of the words “breathing exercises,” Zhang Yu felt something was wrong.
“Please abide by the ritual agreement, work hard to fulfill your wish, don’t deliberately slack off and delay, 10.”
Sure enough, the countdown started again, forcing Zhang Yu to sit on the bus while operating the Basic Breathing Method.
Doing breathing exercises while riding the bus sounds simple and cost-effective, but even the former Zhang Yu had tried it a few times before giving up.
First, because the environment on the bus was too noisy, making it difficult to concentrate.
Second, and most importantly, Zhang Yu, who got up early every day, was too tired.
When he rarely got a seat, he just wanted to take a little nap and couldn’t muster the energy for breathing exercises.
The few times he tried, he would often start feeling drowsy and wanting to sleep after doing breathing exercises for a while.
But now, under the coercion of the ritual power, Zhang Yu could only work hard on breathing exercises, fighting against sleepiness while trying to absorb the spiritual energy between heaven and earth through each breath.
At this time, he also completely understood that things were much more serious than he had thought before.
“This isn’t ordinary 24-hour supervision, this is pushing me to death every moment.”
“As long as this thing is still on me, then all slacking off, goofing off, entertainment, enjoyment, relaxation… will leave me.”
“No more weekends, no more holidays, my life will have no fun anymore, every minute and second will be dedicated to studying, to cultivation, to work… until I complete the second wish.”
Zhang Yu unconsciously hugged his head: “I will become a complete study machine, a work beast, never having any leisure time again, being a grind king for life… until I’m completely crushed by this pressure!”
He lamented in his heart: “If my whole life is like this, then even if I achieve success in the immortal way and live hundreds of years more, what’s the use? However many more years I live, that’s just however many more years of suffering.”
“Heaven!”
The passengers around all looked at Zhang Yu, who was holding his head with a pained expression.
But Zhang Yu couldn’t care about these things anymore. As the countdown of “Please abide by the ritual agreement…” rang out again, he had already sat up straight again, forcibly suppressing the sorrow in his heart, and continued operating the Basic Breathing Method.
But at the same time, a determination gradually rose in Zhang Yu’s heart.
In fact, until this morning, Zhang Yu, who had come to this world, had been somewhat confused in his heart.
Although he thought about getting into a prestigious university, joining a major sect, and achieving success in the immortal way, it was hard to say how much of this was influenced by his original body’s memories, choices he made following the inertia of life.
Until this moment, Zhang Yu finally had a goal, something he was determined to accomplish no matter what, something he would never give up on.
That was to become strong enough, strong enough to completely remove this ritual power that was coercing him.
Zhang Yu wanted… freedom!
