Three o'clock in the morning.
Inside the office at Songyang High School.
Su Haifeng, one eye on the list on his computer screen, spoke into the phone: "Mm... no change in his Dao Heart score."
"His Mana has shot up fast recently. Looks like most of his time and money are going into breathing and absorption — that's what pushed him into the top ten."
"As for physical strength — well, because of the isolation thing, he hasn't been tested for three weeks, but he'd already fallen to 19th place before. And now he's shifted his focus to Mana, so if he even manages to hold on to 19, I'll be thanking heaven."
"Martial arts and Dao arts haven't shown any obvious improvement either. Those two subjects could slip below 30th place in this monthly exam."
Looking at Zhang Yu's recent record of scores, Su Haifeng shook his head: "In any case, I don't hold out much hope that his monthly exam grades will improve by a large margin."
"The school will probably still offer him a Grade D contract."
"I understand. I'll do my best to persuade him to sign."
"Even though I don't know how he earned Li Xuelian's favor, he's taken the exams — he should have a clear picture of his own situation by now."
Hanging up, Su Haifeng casually closed Zhang Yu's score record and moved on to the next file.
To him, Zhang Yu was just one small matter among many. Songyang High had plenty more things, and more important students, that needed his attention.
---
Four in the morning.
In the unfinished building.
Today was the day of Songyang High's monthly exam.
Though after nine days of torment Zhang Yu's strength had once again advanced by leaps and bounds, he was still snatching every moment to practice the Body-Forging 36 Forms, hoping to squeeze out a bit more power before the exam officially began.
And the panel on the prologue of his Feather Book had now become:
Zhang Yu.
Dao Heart Level 1.
Mana 11.7.
Physical Strength 1.05.
Relying on his passive breath absorption mixed with occasional active breathing, his Mana had risen from 10.5 to 11.7.
His Physical Strength, through his frantic forging, had climbed from Level 0.85 to 1.05.
Of course, the biggest progress over these nine days was in the Body-Forging 36 Forms, which had now become Level 9 (89/90).
And with the final punch Zhang Yu threw at this moment, the Body-Forging 36 Forms finally broke through to Level 10, reaching the limit attainable in the Qi Refining realm.
The instant he raised the Body-Forging 36 Forms to Level 10, countless memories seemed to flow through his mind — images of himself practicing the forms again and again, and again, a more profound, more penetrating understanding of his own body.
After countless meticulous refinements, his body finally underwent a qualitative change, beginning to adjust itself in a far more rational way.
A thunderous roar seemed to echo in his mind!
As his heart pumped wave after wave of blood and qi into every limb and bone, Zhang Yu's entire body seemed to undergo a transformation.
His flesh contracted and expanded, his bones and joints gave out a series of sharp cracks, and the whole outline of his body seemed to grow subtly larger.
The distribution of his muscles became better suited for exerting force, his bone structure became more solid and stable, and his entire body seemed to rebalance itself, more evenly and harmoniously.
This was the body structure optimization that should have been completed bit by bit over the course of raising the Body-Forging 36 Forms to Level 10 — yet right now it was finished in an instant.
Physical Strength 1.05 → 1.25.
With the adjustment and optimization of his body structure, Zhang Yu's Physical Strength surged by a full 0.2 levels at once — a 20% jump.
Especially significant to Zhang Yu was that this optimization of his body structure wasn't merely a one-time boost to Physical Strength, but carried a far longer-lasting effect. The now more balanced, more coordinated structure would make his future path of body forging smoother and faster.
Zhang Yu smiled faintly, excitement welling up in his heart: "Raising the Body-Forging 36 Forms to Level 10 can actually actively optimize my body structure once."
"Could it be that raising any skill to Level 10 grants such a big boost?"
This was information the teachers hadn't taught in class.
But Zhang Yu knew without asking — a skill at Level 10... even a fundamental martial art like the Body-Forging 36 Forms was far too distant for first-year high school students. It was only natural the teachers hadn't mentioned it.
"Then next, let's raise the Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method to Level 10 and see what effect that has."
Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method — Level 8 (3/160).
Zhang Yu estimated that at most a week would be enough to raise this breathing method to Level 10 as well.
But even as he thought this, he wasn't in a hurry to switch his Feather Book's Focus to the Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method, because he had other plans for today.
"Please abide by the Ritual Contract, strive to complete your wish, do not deliberately slack or procrastinate. Ten."
Just as Zhang Yu was basking in his surge of morale and quietly lamenting over his progress, that damned countdown chimed in again.
Zhang Yu cursed a few times, but on reflection, since this thing lacked even will and intelligence, cursing at it only left the hollow feeling of a fist pounding cotton.
So he settled cross-legged anyway, taking in and breathing out while resting the body he'd worn through the night, restoring his strength.
Preparing... to face the monthly exam.
---
Songyang High School.
Hastily walking students wore traces of unease on their faces.
Today, the campus seemed tinged with a cold, killing atmosphere.
Zhang Yu looked up. The banner that had read "Live 'til you die, learn 'til you die" had been replaced with an anti-suicide slogan: "One person jumps, the whole family pays."
Even the rooftop perimeter had been fenced with barbed wire, making it harder for students to jump.
Beside him, Bai Zhenzhen mocked: "Looks like those beast-faced school administrators finally learned to care about students. They know monthly exams drive people to jump, so they specially added some precautions."
But when she arrived at the cafeteria for breakfast and saw notices that some food prices had gone up, Bai Zhenzhen couldn't hold back her fury.
"Prices up again? How many times is this since school started?"
"A pack of vermin can't even run a cafeteria — how can they run a school?"
Zhang Yu consoled her: "Alas, not treating you like a person is standard operating procedure for them. Keep your composure, don't let it affect today's monthly exam."
But a moment later, hearing the new rule from the auntie serving food, Zhang Yu angrily demanded: "Why can a student only get one serving of the 5-yuan meal per day now? Yesterday I could still order ten! Students just want to eat their fill — why won't they allow that!"
"Easy there, Yu." Bai Zhenzhen patted Zhang Yu on the shoulder, comforting him: "Don't rush. A teacher's looking over here. I'll buy you an extra poor-people's meal."
Carrying his food to a seat, Zhang Yu checked his bank balance.
Though he'd once again claimed the 500-yuan reward for maintaining a 0% wandering-off rate, between the exorbitant food bills of these days of intense body forging, the continual use and purchase of Nerve Supplement, and assorted expenses like transportation, his savings had dropped to 6,000.
And time was about to roll into a brand new month, which meant a new loan to repay, new rent and utility bills to pay...
And food costs — ever since he started high-intensity body forging, Zhang Yu found his appetite growing and growing. It was normal to eat ten jin a day; daily food bills ran into the hundreds, and a single month would exceed ten thousand.
Zhang Yu felt more and more that this cultivating immortals business truly cost more the further you went.
"Hope I do well on the monthly exam and land a good contract."
"Otherwise I'll have to go back to part-timing."
Just then, Zhou Tianyi sat down beside him with his food, shaking his head helplessly: "Do you know why the cafeteria prices went up?"
Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen snapped their heads up at once, staring at Zhou Tianyi, waiting for him to go on.
"The city government, to market the synthetic food of the Oasis Corporation, has raised tariffs on food imported from other cities. In the future, probably all food prices throughout Songyang City aside from synthetic food will keep climbing."
"I heard the principal is also considering replacing the cafeteria's pre-cooked meals with synthetic food."
Before his cultivation, the original Zhang Yu had actually eaten quite a bit of synthetic food — after all, it was much cheaper.
Fried insects, plant protein, plus recycled water and oil — its taste could only be described as "even a pig wouldn't eat it."
"Can we actually not get pre-cooked meals anymore?"
Hearing this, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen launched into another round of lamenting, cursing the Oasis Corporation and the city government for not treating people as people.
After breakfast, because today was the monthly exam, the three didn't head back to the classroom like usual but went to their separate exam halls.
The morning held the general-knowledge exam and the theoretical portion of the martial arts course, both written tests — the former worth 50 points total, the latter 20.
The afternoon held the Dao arts exam worth 100 points and the martial combat practical worth 80.
Those 80 practical points plus the 20 points of morning martial theory made exactly the martial arts course's 100 points.
The mornings were all written tests, and the original Zhang Yu had long since memorized such material cold.
So after finishing, Zhang Yu didn't join his classmates in frantic answer-checking. Instead he wolfed down lunch and rushed to the small garden to start training.
Free Fighting — Level 1 (0/10).
Zhang Yu switched his Feather Book's Focus to Free Fighting. This was the very reason he hadn't switched to the Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method earlier.
After driving the Body-Forging 36 Forms to Level 10 yesterday, no matter how he breathed with the Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method, he couldn't gain much more in the remaining time.
But if he used the daytime rest to raise Free Fighting, which was only Level 1, Zhang Yu figured he could at the very least push this martial art to Level 2.
That would surely be no small improvement for the afternoon's martial combat practical.
With that in mind, Zhang Yu trained even more earnestly.
Between his moves, driven by his 1.25 Physical Strength, every muscle and bone in his body rang out, every punch and palm carrying gusts of wind-and-thunder.
At the same time, wisp after wisp of Mana flowed to different parts of his body with each strike he threw, enhancing the strike's power.
Free Fighting was a fundamental combat martial art. It had only fifteen moves in total, but whether punch, palm, kick, or throw, each not only handled different real-combat situations but also had a corresponding Mana circulation route.
Zhang Yu was now practicing these fifteen moves over and over.
As a combat martial art, Free Fighting's training intensity was far lower than the Body-Forging 36 Forms.
Combined with Zhang Yu's current 1.25 Physical Strength, the Level 8 Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method's Mana circulation, and the body optimization brought by the Level 10 Body-Forging 36 Forms, his speed at training Free Fighting's moves was even more explosive. In just over fifty minutes, he'd pushed Free Fighting to Level 2.
Free Fighting Level 1 (0/10) → Level 2 (0/20).
In an instant, Zhang Yu felt the fifteen moves of Free Fighting flickering back and forth in his mind, and in no time they'd become thoroughly his.
But Zhang Yu didn't stop. Though he felt somewhat tired, he decided to keep training this martial art.
"Still two and a half hours before the afternoon exam."
"Let's try to push Free Fighting to Level 3 before it starts."
And so Zhang Yu kept at it, practicing the fifteen moves of Free Fighting with sweat pouring down.
His body grew more and more exhausted, his hands and feet began to go weak and numb, and his movements started to subtly distort.
But whenever Zhang Yu thought of the debts weighing on him, of the ever-heavier expenses, he always gritted his teeth and kept going.
Two hours later, a fist-sized bead of sweat dripped onto the ground with a plop.
Zhang Yu was now steaming all over, his muscles heated to a fierce temperature by more than three hours of high-intensity exertion.
But a smile crept across Zhang Yu's face. He had finally succeeded in pushing this martial art to the third level.