Shi Tiexin was still puzzled when the language teacher on the platform continued to dawdle through the lesson. The clock hands were closing in on dismissal. His ears twitched, and suddenly, sparse yet unusually rapid footsteps echoed through the corridor. They rushed past the windows like ninjas slipping through the hallways, carrying an overwhelming sense of secrecy and speed.
Hearing those footsteps, the guys who had already prepared to sprint clearly grew anxious.
"Uh... mm... time's almost up..." The language teacher spoke rather slowly, stickily preparing to say a few more words. Ding-ding-ding—the dismissal bell rang, and outside, the rustling roar of tidal wave-like running erupted in an instant.
"I'll just finish explaining this one question..."
All the blockheads poised to rise were nearly seeing red. You were never this responsible at any other time—why did you have to get so serious now?!
"Hmm? You don't want to listen anymore? Then..." The language teacher drew out the word "then" for what felt like forever, as if doing it on purpose, before finally waving a hand. "Class dismissed..."
Whoosh—!
The moment the words "class dismissed" left the teacher's mouth, before one could speak of it, many blockheads had already shifted from stillness to motion, rushing out like crazed rabbits, each fighting to be first.
They accelerated. They accelerated tremendously. They quickly charged up to the highest speed of their lives! They were like wild beasts freely chasing one another through the Survival of the Fittest wilderness, sprinting at full speed for food, for survival, for freedom!
This was a contest where they could only win and never lose. No objective conditions mattered; a win was a win, and a loss was a loss. In this race, only seizing the front ranks counted as victory!
And the first step toward victory was to be the first to rush out of Class 28's classroom.
Fast—everyone was fast, but at this moment, geographical position was crucial. Look, that kid seated near the door had a victorious, mocking smile lifting the corners of his mouth. He was the one closest to victory!
But at that moment, someone began challenging his supremacy.
Who was it?
It was Zhou Nan, Zhou Nan! Zhou Nan, whose bruised and swollen face still had not healed; Zhou Nan, who was as light as a swallow and climbed walls to sneak out of school every day—at that moment, he seemed possessed by a flying man and slipped through in a flash!
No one could stop him. His footwork was flashy, as if he had sprouted twin wings beneath his ribs. In a split-second opening, he lowered himself and sprinted, actually dodging the obstruction ahead and becoming the first to charge through the doorway, the first to plunge into the surging sea of people!
"That footwork is truly not bad." Even Shi Tiexin could not help being surprised by Zhou Nan's agility. No wonder he had still found a chance to run away after being surrounded and beaten by four people yesterday. His footwork really was nimble.
But how exactly had this guy trained such footwork?
Shi Tiexin was puzzled, then felt something and turned to look out the window beside him. Looking outside through the glass, Shi Tiexin finally understood how Zhou Nan had developed such lightness skills.
Outside the window was a surging, turbulent torrent!
Shi Tiexin did not understand why these people acted like this. He had not had a chance to join them over the past two days, either. But today, he finally witnessed with his own eyes just how spectacular the crowd rushing toward the cafeteria in a frantic stampede was. It was as though countless vicious dogs were lunging at a single meaty bone.
That made sense. Think about it—think about the food line stretching all the way to the end of sight, think about the cafeteria auntie shaking and shaking the serving ladle again. If they wanted to eat a sufficient lunch on time, they had to yield not an inch and race against every second!
Some passionate shouting seemed to rise from outside the window, as though they were releasing the beastliness in their hearts.
"Woof woof woof Woof—!"
Mm-hmm, that fighting spirit, that attitude—it was far too worthy of approval.
This scene happened twice every day, at noon and at night. Of course, Shi Tiexin, as a big shot capable of squeezing others dry, had no need to be so tense. By the time he arrived at the cafeteria in a relaxed state, Zhou Nan had already joined up with the four great blockheads and claimed a prime piece of territory.
"Tch, class ran late and held back my performance!"
Zhou Nan still seemed indignant that he had failed to seize first place in the entire school—if you really put that drive into studying, would you still be muddling around in the Trash Class?
After eating, Shi Tiexin made his usual three laps around the track.
Actually, from a utilitarian perspective, only his consciousness had descended here; his physical body had not come with him. No matter how well he cultivated his vital energy, he probably would not be able to take it with him when he returned. So rather than cultivate vital energy, it would be better to save the time and devote it to cultivating mind arts.
But Shi Tiexin still completed three laps, gaining another three strands of Primal Vital Energy.
He had his own reasons.
First, he could not cultivate mind arts with high concentration around the clock. His vital energy level and mental energy level restricted his performance. Since he had to rest anyway to recover mental energy, there was nothing wrong with using that time to cultivate strength arts.
Second, accumulating Primal Vital Energy also benefited mind arts cultivation. As his Primal Vital Energy increased, his physical strength would improve, his vigor would become more abundant, and both the duration and effectiveness of maintaining intense concentration would strengthen. Sharpening the knife did not delay chopping wood.
Third... how could Old Tie's body be this useless! Strength arts were a warrior's romance. Since cultivating strength arts here was like drag racing, how could I possibly suppress this warrior soul blazing within me?
A bull warrior never stopped cultivating strength arts.
So train, Old Tie!
Interest truly was the best teacher. This time, a progress bar actually appeared when Shi Tiexin cultivated the Essence Cultivation Technique. One noon later, five stars had appeared, pushing the progress bar from "Outstanding" toward "Profound Mastery" by another five notches with a series of pops. It looked as though it was already nearing halfway.
That speed was not slow!
If he did not lack time right now, Shi Tiexin truly wanted to spend some time training the Basic Essence Cultivation Technique to Profound Mastery, or even beyond, and see whether it would give rise to some miraculous effect.
But for now, he would just keep training like this.
He slept soundly through noon and was full of energy through the afternoon. He yawned endlessly at dinner, slept soundly through the evening, and wrote furiously during night study. By the end of the day, his progress had been extremely gratifying. Sure enough, cultivating properly with complete focus was truly a tremendous pleasure.
Zhou Nan skipped night study and secretly slipped out to get the junior high textbooks Shi the Boss needed. Junior high textbooks were unlike elementary school ones; there were many of them and many subjects. Zhou Nan said that relying on buying them alone would empty his little stash of money. So he asked whether Shi the Boss could use the junior high textbooks he had kept from his own school days. His home was in this city, so he could definitely bring them over in one night.
Shi the Boss asked, "Have they been used?"
If they had been used, the durability of the Auxiliary Cultivation Manual would decrease.
Zhou Nan slapped his chest with loud smacks, his face full of pride and self-satisfaction. "Rest assured, they're guaranteed absolutely brand-new—not a single word has been written in them! Forget reading them, I didn't even write my name on the covers. Where else could you find books as brand-new as mine?"
Who knew what he was so proud of...
Ignoring Zhou Nan, Shi Tiexin had learned his lesson today. The moment the time came, he strode toward the study room. He could not count on the Elite Class study room's security guard being absent every time, so claiming a seat in the ordinary study room was the proper path.
Over the course of the day, he completed exactly two premium exercise books with the "High Difficulty" attribute. Meteor-like bursts rushed in with crackling pops, and the progress bar surged wildly. When Shi Tiexin sat down in the study room, the progress bar happened to burst with a flash of intense light.
Basic Mathematics First Layer cultivation progress increased to Profound Mastery
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