On the bus.
After obtaining the Feather Book, Zhang Yu had originally thought his future life would be: “Feather Book! Let me see what your limits are!”
Who would have known that in the blink of an eye, it had become… Ritual: “Zhang Yu! Let me see what your limits are!”
But things had come to this point. If Zhang Yu wanted to break free from the ritual’s power, the only path he could think of was to make himself stronger.
So at this moment, he could only work hard on his cultivation.
With each breath Zhang Yu took, wisps of spiritual energy from heaven and earth flowed into his body, gathering in his dantian qi sea, being refined drop by drop into magical power, solidifying his immortal dao foundation.
However, thinking about the process of practicing the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms last night, Zhang Yu wanted to follow the same method and see if he could quickly level up his Basic Breathing Technique as well.
The Feather Book unfolded as his mind moved, and then Zhang Yu focused his attention slightly on the ‘Basic Breathing Technique Level 1’ on the book page, immediately dragging the ‘Basic Breathing Technique Level 1’ up.
But just as he was about to drag ‘Basic Breathing Technique Level 1’ toward his character portrait, a trace of enlightenment flowed from the Feather Book.
“Only one skill can be focused on for improvement at a time.”
“After switching once, you must wait one day before switching again.”
Zhang Yu mentally named this function of the Feather Book as “Specialization.”
At this moment, he suddenly understood that specialized skills could be rapidly improved, but only one skill could be specialized at a time, and after switching skills, he had to wait one day before switching again.
“That means if I switch specialization from Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms to Basic Breathing Technique now, then the Basic Breathing Technique can be rapidly improved through practice, but the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms would return to its original normal practice efficiency.”
“Unless after one day, I switch back to Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms…”
Thinking about the situation in PE class, Zhang Yu decided not to switch for now and continue focusing on improving the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms.
Time passed in the blink of an eye, and Zhang Yu maintained his Basic Breathing Technique until the moment before getting off the bus.
…
In the school cafeteria.
Bai Zhenzhen carried her tray and sat down across from Zhang Yu, who looked like a walking corpse. She glanced at him curiously and said indifferently, “Were you ‘guiding’ all night yesterday?”
Zhang Yu swallowed the large meat bun in his hand in one bite and cursed, “I was diligently training until late at night.”
Bai Zhenzhen’s face remained expressionless, but her mouth spoke without restraint: “Sigh, you’re the only one in the whole school who hasn’t had the sterilization surgery. I’ve been telling you not to save those twenty thousand yuan. Look how much time, energy, and protein you’ve wasted!”
Zhang Yu swallowed another egg in one bite and smiled confidently: “Bai Zhenzhen, let me tell you something. My self-discipline and potential right now are so impressive that even I’m shocked. Your position as grade champion won’t be yours for much longer—I’m going to take it from you.”
Hearing this, Bai Zhenzhen quickly rolled her eyes, her delicate little mouth speaking mercilessly: “Yu-zi, saying such overconfident things in front of me is fine, but if outsiders hear it, I’m afraid they’ll laugh so hard they’ll pee themselves.”
“You’re competing for first place in overall grade scores, not first place in grade ‘tube management.’ Your advantage of not being sterilized won’t help you there.”
Zhang Yu shook his head speechlessly, thinking to himself: “This Ah Zhen acts all cold and aloof normally, but privately she dares to say anything.”
Speaking of being the only student in the entire school who hadn’t had sterilization surgery, Zhang Yu was no longer that surprised by it. He had gradually gotten used to the madness of this broken world and broken school.
However, the fact that he wasn’t sterilized was still one of his little secrets. Among his classmates, Zhang Yu had only told Bai Zhenzhen about it.
But thinking about this now, Zhang Yu suddenly felt a doubt arise in his heart: “Why was I able to enroll despite not having sterilization surgery?”
Just then, Zhou Tianyi also carried his tray over and sat down, looking at Zhang Yu with equal curiosity: “You look very tired. Did you study all night last night?”
Zhang Yu shook his head and said, “I practiced the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms for a while and had some insights.”
While eating and chatting, Zhang Yu suddenly made a discovery. It seemed that after Zhou Tianyi arrived, Bai Zhenzhen spoke much less, as if she had returned to being that cold, taciturn honor student.
After finishing breakfast, the three of them walked along the playground toward the classroom.
Zhang Yu occasionally opened his palm, watching the Feather Book appear and disappear from his palm.
“So nobody can see the Feather Book?”
Just then, a loud bang came from the direction of the teaching building, followed by continuous shouting and commotion.
A crowd had already gathered in front of the main entrance of the teaching building.
The surrounding people were discussing and gossiping.
Some familiar people were sharing relevant gossip.
“This is Lu Chao from Class 3 of Senior Year 3. He used to be in the elite class, but it seems his grades have been declining, and he’s about to be demoted again?”
“Lu Chao? He was in the top ten of the grade during his sophomore year.”
Some poverty discriminators began their area-of-effect attacks.
“So what if he had good grades in sophomore year? Poor people are poor people. Look how many poor people can stay in the elite class by senior year. Poor people just aren’t suited for immortal cultivation.”
There were also those with severe score discrimination who began their commentary.
“Hmph, jumping from the sixth floor wasn’t enough. As expected of a poor student. If it were an honor student from the senior year elite class jumping, I think they’d need at least ten floors to make it count.”
Bai Zhenzhen, passing by and seeing this scene, sighed: “Another senior year student?”
Zhou Tianyi said, “This is the third incident this year. It seems this year’s senior class is under a lot of pressure.”
Zhang Yu suddenly asked, “Is he very poor?”
Bai Zhenzhen glanced at him, not knowing whether it was advice or sentiment, and said indifferently: “He’s borrowed quite a bit of money. Anyone who needs to borrow money to study definitely isn’t wealthy.”
“This type of student often has decent grades when they first enter Songyang High School.”
“But generally, by senior year, they gradually can’t keep up with the rich kids in their class, and in the end, they can only get into second or third-tier universities.”
“As for the Top Ten, I think it’s been over ten years since any commoner from Songyang High School has been accepted into one.”
Hearing this, Zhang Yu was slightly stunned. He knew that the so-called Top Ten referred to the ten universities directly affiliated with the ten major sects—the most prestigious ten universities that were the dream schools of countless students.
But he didn’t know that Songyang High School hadn’t had any commoner students accepted into the Top Ten for over ten years.
He thought to himself: “Is it because of insufficient resources, not enough money?”
Zhang Yu also recalled some legends about those wealthy students. It was said that many ace tutors, study secrets, high-end cultivation methods, and laboratory medicines… all only circulated within the wealthy circles and were never revealed to the poor.
Zhang Yu thought to himself: “If I hadn’t had my potential awakened, I might have ended up on this path in the future.”
Although the incident caused a wave of heated discussion, for students busy with daily study and cultivation, it was just some leisure conversation material. Soon, no one cared about it anymore, and the students continued to throw themselves into their day-to-day immortal dao studies, striving for their future lives.
Although they had only recently come of age, everyone already knew a cruel fact:
Different scores lead to different universities.
Different universities determine future sects.
Different sects determine one’s entire life.
Regardless of whether their relationships were good or bad, if classmates had different grades, they would all go their separate ways.
…
Time flew by again to the PE class with three consecutive periods.
After once again refusing PE teacher Wang Hai’s sales pitch, Zhang Yu didn’t know if it was his imagination, but he felt that the way the teacher looked at him seemed to have changed.
But he really had no choice. Whether it was the money issue or health concerns, he couldn’t possibly get injected with medicine again.
So Zhang Yu could only pretend not to notice and continue his own practice.
Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms Level 2 (1/20)
Including the practice session before the bus stop, Zhang Yu now only needed to practice the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms 19 more times to level up.
This made him particularly motivated during the subsequent training, repeatedly activating his entire body’s muscles and constantly draining every inch of his magical power.
Even when he sometimes wanted to slow down and rest, he would quickly rally under the reminder of the ritual’s power and continue practicing diligently.
Accompanied by tearing pain throughout his body, repeatedly breaking through limits, and repeated life-and-death threats, it was both painful and joyful.
After spending more than two class periods, Zhang Yu finally collapsed completely on the ground, not wanting to move a muscle.
Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms Level 2 (17/20)
“At my limit.”
The ritual’s power didn’t continue to pressure him, apparently also recognizing that he had reached his limit.
But Zhang Yu wasn’t discouraged at all. Going from Level 1 to nearly Level 3 in a basic martial art in just two days was something the previous Zhang Yu wouldn’t have dared to dream of.
“If I hadn’t practiced extra last night, I probably could have practiced for all three PE periods, right?”
“But with this damn ritual pushing me to seize every minute and second for training, I’m afraid that in the future, practicing extra at night will result in being too tired during PE class to train and only being able to rest… will become a constant state.”
Zhang Yu felt this was like in his previous life when people stayed up late cramming and studying, then slept during daytime classes—obviously not a healthy schedule.
“It’s all because of this stupid ritual that can’t distinguish between time and occasion.”
Just then, Zhang Yu, lying on the ground, suddenly felt his body being covered by a shadow, as if a mountain was blocking the sun above him.
Wang Hai looked down at Zhang Yu on the ground and said coldly, “What are you doing during PE class?”
Zhang Yu quickly said, “Teacher, I practiced extra last night and can’t train much now.”
Sensing Wang Hai’s unfriendly expression, Zhang Yu added an explanation: “My Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms broke through last night. It’s already at Level 2.”
The reason for this explanation was that Zhang Yu knew that in this achievement-oriented school, most teachers wouldn’t give high-performing students a hard time.
He thought that if Wang Hai knew he had made significant progress, he wouldn’t give him trouble either.
This was something Zhang Yu had been thinking about after vaguely sensing Wang Hai’s attitude change toward him.
But Zhang Yu was wrong.
There are many types of teachers in this world.
For example, most main subject teachers at Songyang High School like high-performing students, like students who are easy to teach and give them a sense of teaching achievement, and are more tolerant when high-performing students make mistakes.
Some teachers pour more energy into poor-performing students, focusing on improving underachievers’ grades because underachievers are easier to improve.
Many elective subject teachers don’t care how well students learn—they just show up to class on time, leave work on time, and consider it a loss if they waste even one extra second on work.
But there’s another type of teacher who, more than students’ grades, cares about whether students are obedient and whether they challenge his authority.
In this type of teacher’s classroom, he is the absolute authority, accepting no defiance from any student. Even if you just use a method he didn’t teach to study, he will openly mock and sarcastically criticize you, pulling you out as an example for a thorough put-down.
Obviously, Wang Hai, who liked selling medicine and physically punishing students, was this type of teacher.
Songyang High School’s PE class was his little kingdom, and students were his channels for selling medicine.
Zhang Yu’s consistent refusal to buy medicine had already caused his dissatisfaction.
Just now, seeing Zhang Yu lying down to “slack off,” he became even more displeased and wanted to use this opportunity to teach him a lesson, make an example of him, and shame students into not following Zhang Yu’s example of natural body cultivation.
But his planned lecture was blocked by Zhang Yu’s statement that “the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms broke through last night.”
In Wang Hai’s view, this had already challenged his authority in PE class.
“So what if your Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Forms is at Level 2?”
Wang Hai pointed at Bai Zhenzhen and said, “Look at her—after reaching Level 2, does she stop getting injections? Does she slack off in class?”
Zhang Yu said helplessly, “Teacher, that’s not what I meant…”
Wang Hai said coldly, “Zhang Yu, I’ve seen many students like you who rely on having a bit of talent and stop listening to their teacher’s guidance or following the school’s curriculum.”
“You need to understand that your breakthrough is because you’ve been attending class seriously and getting injections for the past three months. It’s because of my guidance that you built such a solid foundation.”
“As for your self-study or tutoring outside, that can at most be considered dessert.”
“Only the classes at school are the most important main course.”
“I’ll report your problem to your homeroom teacher. You’d better behave yourself.”
