The moment Zhang Yu finished a full cycle of the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art, images of his training flashed through his mind—countless sessions of working through the nine sets, feeling their intent, absorbing their character.
Then, all at once, nine different intents emerged in his consciousness.
The murderous will to break an army. The fighting spirit that never surrenders. The courage that charges forward without looking back. These intents seemed to have been hammered ten thousand times in his mind before they converged into a single figure.
This was the martial will that Zhang Yu had condensed in his consciousness after reaching Level 1 of the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art.
The silhouette looked something like Zhang Yu, but its face was a blur, radiating a fighting spirit that defied heaven and earth.
"Heavenly Martial Will..."
Zhang Yu moved his mind, and the Heavenly Martial Will in his consciousness began to stir. Under his guidance, it started running through the nine martial forms of the art, one by one.
As the Heavenly Martial Will activated, a new aura emanated from Zhang Yu's body.
In that moment, he felt like a god of war, dueling the sky and the earth, ready to crush everything before him with nothing but brute force.
Blood vessels threaded through his eyes. His blood and mana began to accelerate, just slightly.
Zhang Yu could feel his body adjusting itself, little by little, toward a state more suited for combat.
He exhaled and paused the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art. "The Heavenly Martial Will is this ferocious? It needs a matching mindset... something like a battle-frenzy, doesn't it?"
"That Starfire True Person... an old man who got kicked out of a major sect, and he created this kind of martial heart technique?"
"What the hell... did he get kicked out for beating up his superiors?"
The feeling was hard to describe. It was like finding out that a greasy middle-aged man who got fired from his company was secretly a battle maniac.
"Shouldn't be, logically speaking."
After all, in Kunxu, fighting meant paying up. Beat a passerby to death? Pay damages. Blow up a building? Even more money. The more destructive you were, the more you owed.
What about fighting in the wilderness, in unclaimed territory? Zhang Yu didn't know a single piece of land that hadn't been bought up by some company. At least not anywhere near Songyang City.
For a strong person to fight often, they'd need to pay off the constables if they could beat the opponent. If they couldn't beat the opponent, they'd need to pay the constables to show up faster. Getting hurt meant treatment costs. Staying healthy meant buying insurance just in case. And after buying insurance, didn't all those magical tools and spirit artifacts need annual insurance too?
"The more you can fight, the more you spend. The more you spend, the poorer you get. The poorer you get, the less you can fight."
"So the more you can fight, the less you can fight."
"Starfire True Person getting kicked out? Maybe the old man was just too fond of a brawl."
Zhang Yu sighed. "The path of immortality isn't just about beating people up."
But there was no use dwelling on it. Zhang Yu started training again, aiming to push the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art to Level 2.
Cultivating this art required synchronizing the body's external movements with the inner Heavenly Martial Will, striking out the nine forms in unison. Activating the will in the consciousness alone only triggered the heart art's effects.
And as the Heavenly Martial Will worked again, Zhang Yu felt the art's effects even more deeply.
Only one heart art could run at a time.
So at this moment, the Wild Bull Soul-Suppressing Heart Art was silent. Only the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art was active.
Without the Bull, Zhang Yu's capacity for suffering should have dropped badly.
But under the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art, he felt only soaring fighting spirit. Nothing scared him. Nothing could make him back down.
Powerful enemies? Hardship? All of it could be punched to hell.
Even the suffering of training was crushed beneath that fighting spirit. For the first time without the Bull, Zhang Yu felt just as motivated.
"So fierce! So hot-blooded!"
He could feel his blood and qi accelerating throughout his body. The Heavenly Martial Will didn't just boost his combat ability—it also boosted his cultivation.
A little over two hours later, sweaty and surging with energy, Zhang Yu had run through the technique ten times.
Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art: Level 1 (0/10) → Level 2 (0/20)
In that instant, his mind seemed to leap across days and nights, sinking deep into the intent of the art through repeated practice.
At the same time, the figure formed by the Heavenly Martial Will in his consciousness grew clearer. The faint outline of Zhang Yu's face seemed to emerge on it.
The night passed. With breaks scattered between his efforts, Zhang Yu pushed the art to Level 3 (12/30).
Then he got a call from Wang Hai, telling him that because of the student council, he hadn't made the school's sports competition team.
"An intentional slap in the face, huh?" Zhang Yu thought. "If I refuse to sign again this time, are they going to throw more tricks at me?"
Soon after, he received another invitation from the student council. They wanted to talk about the contract.
---
Songyang High School.
Noon.
The student council office.
A cold snort filled the room, and the temperature seemed to plummet. Even the burly Lan Ling couldn't help but shiver.
But the next moment, the warmth returned as if it had all been a hallucination.
Lan Ling knew it wasn't. Zhou Chechen's mood had soured.
Minutes earlier, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had both refused to sign again, using the excuse that the top three universities could offer better terms.
Lan Ling set down the dumbbell in his hand and looked at the vice president on the sofa. "President, what do we do?"
Zhou Chechen muttered, "Haven't I shown them enough respect?"
"Haven't I given them the best terms I can?"
"I don't understand. This benefits them and the school. It's a win-win. Why won't they agree?"
Lan Ling said, "Maybe Zhang Yu's fourth-place finish in the mana competition gave him ambitions he shouldn't have. And Bai Zhenzhen is following him."
Zhou Chechen sighed. "Does he think the top three universities will actually sign them if we don't let them go? They want a price hike? Do they even think they're worth that?"
"These poor people. If you're too harsh with them, they hold a grudge and curse you, and they won't work well."
"If you give them a little face, they climb all over you, start thinking about things they shouldn't, and always end up making a mess."
He waved a hand dismissively. "Do whatever you want."
"Just make sure I see both of their signed contracts within seven days."
---
Inside the model freshman classroom.
Zhang Yu was maintaining the Wild Bull Soul-Suppressing Heart Art, studying while keeping the technique active.
Ever since he started the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art, he'd been switching between the two heart arts.
When he trained the martial heart art, he'd move through the external forms while keeping it active. During other times—rest, class—he'd switch to the Bull.
But in the process, he felt a conflict in his thoughts. And it was affecting the efficiency of both arts.
"One wants to fight, fight, fight. Smash everything. The other wants to endure, work hard, and accumulate in silence."
"Switching between these two... tch."
He scratched his head, and the ideological conflict between the two arts tied back to the choice before him.
"Your thoughts you can choose. But in reality—there's no 'fight, fight, fight' option."
Just then, his phone buzzed.
It was a message from Teacher Yan, the mana instructor.
"Zhang Yu, have you offended the student council? I'm refunding the money for the tutoring. You can't participate in the mana competition anymore."
"Fix your relationship with the council as soon as possible."
Zhang Yu's eyes narrowed. Another round of pressure from the council.
Then Bai Zhenzhen's voice sounded beside him. "Old Yan kicked me out too. You got dropped from the mana competition team too?"
Zhang Yu nodded.
"Those bastards in the council," Bai Zhenzhen cursed. "They're going to keep coming after us."
"Can you hold out?"
Zhang Yu nodded. "I can hold out. But how long is this going to last?"
"We hold out until we're strong enough," Bai Zhenzhen said. "Until we learn how to get into the top universities."
"And in the meantime, the council's pressure is only going to get worse."
"Rich people are like that. Once you touch their interests—no, even if you just make them earn a little less—they tear off their hypocritical masks and start coming at you with everything they've got."
She clutched her head, grimacing. "They'll keep pushing us down. Keep isolating us."
"They'll get the teachers or upperclassmen to beat us up in combat class. They'll use the Dao Heart class to torture us in the Spirit Realm. They'll bribe teachers to give us low scores. They'll take away every benefit and opportunity we have."
"All their little dogs will come out one by one and use every dirty trick they've got. Glue on our chairs. Dump cold water on us in the bathroom. Steal our homework notebooks. All that petty, rotten stuff."
"In short, they'll use every means they can to screw us."
Her eyes seemed to see a high school life of terrible darkness already unfolding.
"We'll slowly become hated by everyone in school. We'll sink to the bottom of the food chain. Those rich kids will humiliate us over and over until we can't even eat lunch with anyone."
She grabbed her head again. "Tch. Damn it."
"And it won't get any better. It'll only get worse. Until we graduate from high school, get into college... or get down on our knees and sign their slave contract."
Zhang Yu rolled his eyes. "How do you know so much?"
"A senior girl told me. Before she killed herself."
She turned to look at him. "If you can't take it, you can still get a decent price now. Sign early."
Zhang Yu curled his lip. "I'm not signing."
"I'm going to get into the Ten. I'd rather die than sign."
Seeing his determined face, Bai Zhenzhen smiled. "Then we hold out together."
"But don't worry. I'm not the type to sit around and wait."
"I'm about to find the Boss of the anti-rich alliance. I'm going to get the method from him—how to get into a university without signing."