Experimenting with Authority

After clearing away the dishes, Li Ye returned to his room. Rather than going straight to sleep, he continued practicing the Guiding Method.

As a senior-year high school student training in martial arts, whether Li Ye's breakfast was lavish or not aside, the quantity was certainly substantial.

There were meat sandwiches and bread bought outside, eggs, tofu, milk, a plate of fruit, and a huge bowl of fried rice.

Under normal circumstances, Li Ye could eat his fill. He could now too, but he definitely needed to go out and find something else.

He was full, but his vitality and blood had not risen much.

High-quality ingredients were expensive, but everyday meals were not that costly.

Li Ye still had money on him. He received three hundred yuan in weekly allowance, had little to spend it on normally, and had saved up some.

At six thirty in the morning, Li Ye rode his little electric scooter out of the house. After crossing a street, he first arrived at a beef noodle shop.

The noodle shop was small and stood beside an intersection, but it had plenty of customers.

The owner always hand-pulled the noodles. Ten yuan a bowl, and business was brisk.

"Boss, ten bowls of noodles."

Li Ye entered the shop and called out to the owner behind the counter. "Add fried eggs and sausage. Medium spicy."

The owner, busy pulling noodles, glanced up at him without finding it particularly surprising.

People this age could eat a lot even without martial arts training. With this much food, he was clearly a martial arts student.

Just a few minutes later, the first bowl of noodles was served. Several thin slices of beef floated in the noodle soup sprinkled with chopped scallions, with a fried egg laid on top.

Li Ye picked up his chopsticks and began eating, like a giant whale drawing in water. He swallowed each fried egg in two bites, picked up noodles mixed with beef, and polished off the whole bowl in a few mouthfuls. Then he lifted the bowl and drank every last drop of soup.

His vitality and blood stirred, rising by a tiny amount. If quantified, Li Ye judged it to be 0.002.

As soon as he finished one bowl, another arrived. Li Ye did not pause, simply switching bowls and continuing to eat.

In less than half an hour, he had devoured all ten bowls of noodles.

80.023.

Li Ye pulled out his phone, scanned one hundred yuan, then mounted his little electric scooter and headed for the next shop.

This time, he bought a hundred buns, eating as he rode. By the time he reached school, he had finished them all.

80.045.

The increase in vitality and blood was not much different, but those hundred buns had cost him one hundred and fifty yuan.

He would experiment more after school. There had to be a most economical method.

At seven fifteen, Li Ye arrived in the classroom.

"Brother Ye."

"Morning, Brother Ye."

Li Ye was quite popular in the preparatory class. Aside from his good grades and an "Excellent" martial arts assessment, he was also good at handling people.

Having lived two lives, getting along with a bunch of little brats naturally would not lead to much conflict.

The moment Li Ye sat down, Deng Hao, the chubby boy beside him, called out, "Brother Ye, did a demon show up at your place last night?"

Li Ye looked over and saw Deng Hao grinning. "I saw it while scrolling on my phone. Someone filmed a video last night, and when I looked, it was your home, Brother Ye."

"I saw it too."

Jia Dong, seated in front of Deng Hao, turned around and asked, "Brother Ye, what kind of demon was that?"

Li Ye said, "A Five Plagues Ghost. Nothing worth worrying about. Just pay attention to hygiene normally, and do not let your seasonings or chopsticks grow mold."

"We're not idiots. How could we fail to notice that?" Deng Hao and Jia Dong laughed.

After chatting for a few moments, Deng Hao suddenly said, "Summer vacation is almost here. My family found me a master instructor, and I heard he's extremely experienced. Do you guys want to try it too?"

Jia Dong shook his head. "I'll pass. My family isn't as rich as yours. I can barely keep up with just the martial hall expenses."

His last preparatory assessment had been "Good," which gave him the confidence to coast for another year.

"Brother Ye?"

"No money." Li Ye's answer was even more straightforward. "I even quit Thunderclap Martial Hall."

"Huh?"

That startled the two of them. They had not heard about this at all.

Deng Hao hurriedly asked, "Brother Ye, you're not really switching to the liberal arts, are you?"

"No. I just feel there's no need for it anymore. I'm confident I can step through the Dragon Gate this summer." Li Ye smiled.

Before the authority came, he had switched to the liberal arts. After the authority came, would he still switch to the liberal arts?

Wouldn't that mean the authority had come for nothing?

"Brother Ye is awesome. You're that sure of yourself?"

Deng Hao gave him a thumbs-up, then turned to Jia Dong and said:

"I'll most likely break into the martial path this summer too. Dong, don't disgrace yourself. Training in martial arts, training in martial arts—you can't train until the end only to find it all empty."

"What if it isn't empty? Are you going to use martial arts to defy the law? You know about that fight I had last semester, right? The other guy practiced Flowing Body Palm. One move of Old Ape Seals the Mountain from me cost eight thousand!"

Jia Dong rolled his eyes and continued, "I'll fight again for one more year next year. If it still doesn't work, I'll repeat a year and switch to the liberal arts."

In the entire preparatory class, including Li Ye's Class One, an estimated seventy percent would switch to the liberal arts after summer vacation. The rest would train for another year in senior year, and if they still failed, they could only give up.

Divine Land did not provide high school students with the option of repeating a year for martial arts studies. Liberal arts students could spend another year trying again if they failed, but preparatory students had no such option.

As for martial arts students, they had already entered the martial path, so there was even less need for them to repeat a year.

At seven twenty, class officially began.

The preparatory class curriculum was half academic and half martial arts. Though the academic instruction was not as detailed as the liberal arts track, it ensured the basics, while leaving half the time for preparatory students to train.

As usual, during class they went to the athletic field first to practice the Guiding Method for an hour, then returned for lessons. Chinese and mathematics were taught that morning. By ten o'clock, it was time to begin laps and climbing.

This was not running for test scores, but simply running laps, then rapidly climbing up and down at designated locations, then running more laps. While draining physical strength, it also made breathing more powerful and stamina more enduring.

What the school taught was an extension based on the Guiding Method. It could not be called particularly powerful.

At eleven forty, school ended for the morning. At that point, Li Ye's vitality and blood had reached 80.055.

The authority's influence meant that not only could he raise his vitality and blood, he could also use it to continue cultivating. He was no longer stuck in the stagnant stage he had been in before.

Not only could eating raise his vitality and blood, he could also use this endless eating to cultivate, achieving twice the result with half the effort.

Preparatory students did not go home at noon. This was also the preparatory students' only school benefit: a dedicated cafeteria provided them with lunch.

The ingredients were somewhat better than ordinary home cooking.

Deng Hao was the first to reach the cafeteria. By the time Li Ye arrived, he had already claimed a table.

Seeing Li Ye, he raised a hand in greeting and called out, "Brother Ye, there's Ironclad Boar today."

Besides being better than ordinary food, the cafeteria's dishes sometimes included higher-quality fare.

For example, Ironclad Boars were also considered demons. They evolved from wild boars and liked living in the mountains. Their hides were hard as iron, while their other habits were the same as ordinary wild boars.

Ningjiang City lay south against the Yangtze River and north beside mountain ranges. Ironclad Boars often came down the mountains to ravage farmland, but their threat was not great. Since they were part of the ecosystem and also counted as a tonic, they were only culled at regular intervals.

Though the meat was poor and extremely tough, like chewing jerky, eating it could strengthen the body, nourish weakness, stabilize one's foundation, and even cure hemorrhoids. The kind that worked the instant you ate it.

"Martial arts students are seriously awesome. I heard only bullets can pierce an Ironclad Boar." Jia Dong revealed an envious look.

Demons like these were opportunities for martial arts students to gain experience. It seemed martial arts students from their school had participated this time.

With someone holding seats, the others naturally went to get their food.

There was a sizzling mixed platter, mostly pork offal paired with some other meats.

The pork bone soup came with meaty pork bones as well.

The grilled Ironclad Boar meat was coated in a layer of special sauce. This stuff would taste good even spread over a shoe sole, so it did not matter how tough the meat was.

Then came a huge bowl of rice. One tray was piled to the brim like a little mound of earth.

Preparatory students all had sizable appetites, and the portions provided exceeded what they could eat. If it was not enough, they could get another serving, though they generally could not finish even one.

"This meat is really hard to chew. Feels like I'm eating leather shoes."

Deng Hao boldly tore off a piece of meat with his hand and chewed for ages before swallowing it. "Not as good as what my family buys."

"Enough already. We know your family is rich. Eat up, we still have training this afternoon."

Jia Dong ate with measured refinement. After great difficulty swallowing a piece of meat and taking a sip of soup, he looked up at Li Ye. "Look at Brother Ye. He doesn't talk while eating. Brother Ye?"

The two looked over, and their movements froze. Their hands holding food stopped in midair as they stared blankly at Li Ye across from them, who was sweeping through the food like a whirlwind scattering clouds.

Li Ye picked up the tough Ironclad Boar meat with his chopsticks and bit down. No one could tell whether he had chewed or not; with one swallow, it went down his throat.

He poured the mixed platter over the rice. Calling it eating would be less accurate than calling it inhaling—the food instantly vanished by half.

Then he bit down on several more pieces of meat, conveniently "sucking" down the rice as well. He picked up the bowl and drained the soup clean. Even the hard bones inside made sounds in his mouth; he had clearly chewed them apart and swallowed them.

"Why are you staring at me? Eat."

Li Ye picked up his tray and walked toward the cafeteria window. "I'm getting another serving."

80.1!

The vitality and blood from this meal was greater than what he gained from demolishing ten bowls of noodles, a hundred buns, and all of that morning's training combined!