The four fell silent. They truly did not dare. If they angered that lord and got tossed into a urine bucket to be made into Urine-Soaked Phoenix Claws, they would not even have a place to weep.
"If you don't dare, then obediently act like grandsons. Keep acting until he gets sick of it, or until certain people are expelled from school." Zhou Nan whistled, his face brimming with schadenfreude. "No telling how long you'll have to keep it up. You'll get your fill in one go."
"Don't you fucking act like this has nothing to do with you! You were the one who got us to deal with him in the first place!"
"Exactly! We'll go tell him. You won't get away either!"
The four began clamoring.
Zhou Nan gave a cold laugh. "What a bunch of idiots. Let your big brother teach you a lesson: did I tell you to deal with him? I only told you that Big Head Zheng was brought in by him. You were the ones who went looking for him, you were the ones who arranged the fight at the Black Toilet, and you were the ones who got beaten in the end. It has nothing to do with me."
"You—!" Rage surged up in the four men, and they were about to attack.
"Enough, idiots. Don't be in such a hurry. Let your big brother teach you another lesson." Zhou Nan remained perfectly composed. "Do you want to get rid of that guy?"
The four exchanged glances. After a long while, they all nodded gloomily. One of them said unwillingly, "Get rid of him? What fucking good idea could you possibly have?"
"You call yourselves not stupid? Think about it. A student gets beaten, extorted, threatened—who should he go to at a time like this?"
The four across from him heard this, and all four pairs of eyes widened at once, as though stunned by Zhou Nan's brilliant scheme.
Zhou Nan smiled like a fox. "That's right. Find that person, and you can get Shi Tiexin out of here."
The four stared at one another. After a long while, the fat one finally opened his mouth cautiously.
"Who do we find?"
"Fuck! You really are all idiots!" Zhou Nan was nearly losing his mind. No wonder these people could not even make it in the underworld—their brains really did not work. He crooked a finger, beckoning the four closer, then quietly spoke a name.
Upon hearing that name, the four were genuinely shocked this time. They immediately began shaking their heads in unison. "No, no! What kind of joke is this? You want us to find him? Isn't that courting death?"
"What are you afraid of? This time, you're the victims, not the perpetrators. What is wrong with protecting your lawful rights? Besides, the former Scholar Stone has now become Five Finger Mountain. You can't beat him, and if you want to call in people, with your popularity, who could you possibly call? Everyone's shouting for you to be beaten, brothers!
"You have no choice. Unless you really plan to stay pinned beneath Five Finger Mountain for five hundred years from now on." Zhou Nan slapped the dining table, making the messy plates and bowls atop it clatter wildly. "Become vegetarian monks and chant Buddha's name from now on."
The four stared at their meal trays and vegetable-rinsing bowls, falling silent together.
In their hearts, they seemed to have made up their minds.
On the other side, Shi Tiexin left the cafeteria without returning to his dormitory. He turned and headed for the sports field instead. The first stage of Essence Nurturing was called Essence Storing, which meant accumulating Primal Vital Energy that had not undergone special refinement. In ancient texts, this stage was called "Hundred Days Foundation Building," because it generally took one hundred days to complete. The entire process was precise and complicated; no mistakes could be made, and one absolutely could not leak vital energy, or all previous efforts would go down the drain and one would have to start over.
However, Shi Tiexin's world had long since ceased to require a hundred days for Foundation Establishment. It was a flourishing age in which Martial Arts manuals constantly cast off the old and brought forth the new. Many people even used scientific methods to deduce Essence Cultivation Arts. Even the most widespread and ordinary Essence Cultivation Technique was vastly more efficient than those in ancient texts.
Depending on one's constitution, food, and mastery of the Essence Cultivation Technique, the time needed for Essence Storing varied. When Shi Tiexin had first stored essence, if no other factors had affected him, it would have taken an estimated seventy days.
But at that time, he had only just begun cultivating the Essence Cultivation Technique, and his mastery had barely reached a passing level. Now that he had trained the Essence Cultivation Technique to an excellent level, its efficiency was far higher than at passing. Added to that, he was already familiar with the process, so he could increase the speed by another thirty percent.
The Essence Cultivation Technique required certain special movements and postures, with still exercises and moving exercises needing careful coordination. Yet after reaching the excellent level, some of the cumbersome procedures had been simplified and were no longer so rigid.
As he slowly walked around the sports field, discreetly performing the corresponding simplified movements, he focused his attention on his lower abdomen. As he circulated the technique, the meat and vegetables filling his stomach were digested and absorbed at a speed beyond that of ordinary people, turning into nutrients that flowed from the small intestine through his blood circulation to every part of his body.
After being transformed by his five viscera and six bowels, the nutrients from water, rice, meat, and eggs became a kind of Primal Vital Energy that could not be understood, yet truly existed. This Primal Vital Energy was like wisps of mist, drifting and circulating throughout his lower abdominal cavity. Every slight increase made his body feel fuller, and his mind more invigorated.
"Hmm?"
After spending half an hour circulating the technique once, Shi Tiexin suddenly noticed a problem.
"The speed... is so fast!"
Shi Tiexin could not help but be surprised. This second round of Essence Storing was progressing even faster than he had expected. Even with his experience, even with an excellent-level Essence Cultivation Technique, it should not have had such an exaggerated effect.
After all, basic was basic. How miraculous could such a common, mass-market technique really be?
Yet once he actually began practicing it, he found that the efficiency of Essence Nurturing was exceptionally high.
Could it be because this body was cultivating for the first time, so the results were better, and it would slow down after a while? Shi Tiexin did not understand, but he decided to continue storing essence.
Lost in the passage of time, Shi Tiexin circulated the technique for another round. Another wisp of Primal Vital Energy mist appeared in his lower abdomen. Shi Tiexin carefully sensed it, and confusion rose in his heart again. By his rough perception, the speed of Essence Storing had not decreased during this second round.
What exactly was going on?
"What a pity my mental arts level is too low..."
If his mental arts level were high enough and his mind-domain filled with sufficient thought energy, a martial artist's control over his own body would be stronger. At that point, he could accurately calculate the degree to which his Primal Vital Energy increased after every round of cultivation.
Shi Tiexin's current mental arts cultivation was far from sufficient, so precise control was impossible. Yet even by his rough estimates, Shi Tiexin had already discovered that this round of Essence Storing was about thirty percent faster than he had predicted.
Thirty percent—this was simply the difference between heaven and earth!
If he could maintain this speed, Shi Tiexin estimated that he would need only around ten days to complete the first stage of Essence Nurturing, Essence Storing.
Completing Essence Storing in ten days would be an absolute record that no one in the Orphanage—no, even in the Star Engineering Federation children's school—could possibly achieve. Shi Tiexin felt exhilarated, then immediately grew puzzled. Where exactly had this thirty-percent bonus come from?
Within the scope of his knowledge, the only thing that could increase the cultivation speed of physical arts was Body Nourishing Essence Food. The more Body Nourishing Essence Food one ate, and the higher its quality, the faster one's Essence Nurturing would be. Shi Tiexin had never eaten any himself, so he did not know exactly how much it could accelerate the process. But this was the only factor before him that could possibly affect his Essence Nurturing speed.
Could it be that the Trash Class set meals he had just eaten in the cafeteria were all the legendary Body Nourishing Essence Food?
Impossible, impossible. Absolutely impossible. Shi Tiexin absolutely refused to believe that such an absurd thing existed in this world.
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