A rumor swept through the entire Trash Class like a storm.
Black Hand Hungry Tiger Teng Chaoguo had been defeated by an overwhelmingly dominant big brother. This big brother not only put loyalty first and stood up for the class, but also hated evil as though it were his sworn enemy—hardcore to the bone. He had taken on five alone, brought down Teng Chaoguo's whole little clique without a scratch, and then, after leaving the Black Toilet, suddenly decided that a few blows were not enough to soothe public outrage. He turned around, went back in, and shoved Teng Chaoguo into the urine bucket again.
Shoved into the urine bucket, everyone! Wasn't that just too damn hard?
As soon as the third class ended, a huge crowd of students surged toward Class 28's door, all wanting to catch a glimpse of this hardcore big brother's true face.
But they came up empty-handed.
Where was Shi Tiexin, the iron-blooded true man, now? He was in the dormitory district, washing clothes with a splash and a slosh. It could not be helped. The Black Toilet already reeked to high heaven, and later Teng Chaoguo had been flinging his head around and sweeping wildly. The ammonia concentration had been so high it could make someone faint. He sniffed himself—hiss, hiss—he had picked up some of the smell too. Better just wash his clothes.
Besides, the third class had been some geography course he could not understand at all. Shi Tiexin did not care whether he skipped class or not, so he simply wandered back to the dormitory district.
It was a good chance to sort through his belongings and see whether there were any pearls left behind in the vast sea.
The result was both pleasing and worrying.
The pleasing part went without saying. He had all kinds of cultivation manuals. Even the geography and history textbooks, which he had originally thought were useless, turned out to be Basic Natural History cultivation manuals.
Natural History was the study of extensive learning, powerful memory, and broad knowledge of things. Put simply, it meant knowing astronomy above and geography below, understanding ancient times before and the present day after. Put even more simply, it was a course in common knowledge. It was therefore no surprise that the system had identified the geography and history books as "Natural History" manuals.
There was another subject called "politics." The system had identified its textbook as "Rhetoric," but it accounted for far less of Basic Rhetoric than the Chinese language textbook did. Shi Tiexin flipped through it roughly, then nodded in understanding. It truly was a discipline that taught people how to speak, so he did not concern himself with it further.
The number of Auxiliary Cultivation Manuals exceeded even Shi Tiexin's expectations. Great stacks of them were crammed into his luggage, making his eyes swim. He picked one up with his left hand, then another with his right, enjoying himself immensely.
But the same problem remained: these were basically all content for the second and third layers of cultivation techniques, completely unusable to him. It seemed that obtaining elementary school textbooks and workbooks was an urgent matter. He had to find a way to get them as soon as possible.
After washing his clothes, sorting his books, and taking time to scrub himself clean, Shi Tiexin headed out feeling refreshed, ready to return to class.
But when he reached the Key Class dormitory district, something stirred in Shi Tiexin's heart. His feet turned, and he headed straight for his old dorm building. There was no other reason—he had learned from some dissolved memories that the Key Class dormitory district had something he badly needed right now.
Before long, Shi Tiexin entered the first-floor lobby of the dormitory building. The thing stood right in the middle of the lobby for anyone to use. Its base was square and solid, with a dark, non-slip cover plate on top. On one side stood a cylindrical post over a meter tall, topped with a dial as large as a plate.
That was right—an extremely, extremely old-fashioned body weight scale!
Shi Tiexin had never seen such an old-fashioned scale, but he was in no position to be picky now, so he would make do. Another consciousness told him how to use the thing. Shi Tiexin took off his shoes and stepped onto the weighing platform.
Creak. The old scale groaned under his weight, its needle swaying and trembling without any sign of settling anytime soon. Shi Tiexin did something else first, reaching out to pull up a blackened rod beside the weight dial.
Clatter, clatter. The three-section graduated rod extended piece by piece. It was actually an old-fashioned height measure. At the top of the rod was a structure shaped like a duck's bill. When opened, it was theoretically level with the ground. But the height measure wobbled all over the place—how could it possibly be accurate? Its readings varied by two or three centimeters up and down.
Shi Tiexin found it both novel and amusing. After fiddling with it for quite a while, he finally figured out how to use this ancient height measure. He stood straight, and the duck bill touched the top of his head. Shi Tiexin lowered his head to look at the result.
Height: 1.93 meters.
One point nine-three meters... Even allowing for the ruler's inaccuracy and its fluctuations, it was only one point nine-five. Shi Tiexin muttered to himself, unable to stop the words from slipping out. "A little short..."
The dorm supervisor sweeping nearby could not help glancing at Shi Tiexin twice. After sizing him up from top to bottom, he found that this guy was nearly two heads taller than himself, and he still thought he was short?
Then Shi Tiexin looked at the weight dial. After trembling weakly for a long while, the needle finally stabilized and pointed to a number.
Weight: 85 kilograms.
"Too light!"
Rolling his eyes, the dorm supervisor left.
Shi Tiexin paid no attention to the dorm supervisor and kept calculating in his mind. A height of 1.93 meters was barely acceptable, but Shi Tiexin could not accept a weight of only 85 kilograms. At that weight, wasn't he as skinny as a bean sprout? This body was malnourished!
No wonder when I threw that left punch just now, I suddenly felt the force was far lower than I'd expected. That oversized freak should have been sent flying two meters away by a single punch, thoroughly finished off. Instead, I only knocked him over, and he could even get back up afterward. So this was the root of it!
When Shi Tiexin had muttered "so weak" earlier, he had not been referring to Teng Chaoguo. He had been talking about himself.
If he had possessed his original physical conditioning, dealing with those five amateurs among amateurs would not have required such a roundabout effort. One blow each would have left them wailing across the ground. It was precisely because he discovered that his punching power was unexpectedly weak that Shi Tiexin changed tactics. First he crushed them with his bearing, then he leaped into the air—only then did he deal with that fat man.
If that fat man had endured his punch and blocked the doorway, while the others swarmed him all at once, then Teng would not have been drinking urine today.
No, this would not do. This body was far too weak. Even his excellent Basic Fist Arts could not display their full power.
He had to cultivate his roots and nurture his essence, rebuilding this body's foundation in strength arts!
After all, my Basic Essence Cultivation Technique is excellent!
Thank you all for your recommendation ticket support! Shou Shou had been working overtime lately and would even be on duty on New Year's Eve. But even while on duty, I will write the chapters in advance and keep everyone company through a good New Year.
Before you continue