Fierce Competition and Level 3 Body Tempering

Fierce Competition and Level 3 Body Tempering

He casually found a spot to sit down. Looking at the crowd on the square, all waiting for work just like him, Zhang Yu felt a wave of exhaustion.

"This damned place is way too hard to survive in. Is there nowhere that isn't so brutally competitive?"

He had only sat on the ground to rest for a moment when a chill rose in Zhang Yu's heart.

"Please abide by the Ritual Agreement. Work hard to fulfill your wish. Do not deliberately slack off or delay. 10."

"Fuck."

Zhang Yu cursed inwardly, but under the coercion of Ritual Power, he could only start grinding again.

However, considering that his body had yet to recover and that the job later might also demand physical stamina, Zhang Yu did not choose to practice the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms. Instead, he used the Basic Breathing Technique to refine Magical Power.

With every breath he took, wisps of Spiritual Energy swiftly surged toward him from heaven and earth, gradually gathering within his Dantian Qi Sea and being refined bit by bit into part of his Magical Power.

Time slowly passed amid Zhang Yu's Breath Circulation, and an hour went by.

During that hour, three groups of people came to recruit workers. Some were hiring temporary security guards, some needed Immortal Cultivators for heavy labor at construction sites, and some courier companies were hiring Immortal Cultivators for sorting work.

Zhang Yu gradually came to understand that most temporary jobs hiring Qi Refining Stage Immortal Cultivators were almost all related to manual labor.

After all, Qi Refining Stage Immortal Cultivators had not opened up any qualitative gap from ordinary people in terms of intelligence or knowledge. Their physical fitness, however, was enough for one person to do the work of a hundred. At construction sites, factories, in security, and countless other jobs, they could shine brilliantly, with productivity far beyond that of ordinary people.

Thus, places that urgently needed more hands would come here to hire Immortal Cultivators.

Though Immortal Cultivators demanded pay far beyond what ordinary people earned, it was still cost-effective when all was said and done.

After all, if one Immortal Cultivator could do the work of thirty ordinary people, they often only had to be paid ten times as much.

And every person waiting in this square was a super beast of burden capable of maintaining a 007 work schedule.

Compared to them, Zhang Yu, who still needed four or five hours of sleep each day, was merely an ordinary first-year high school student who could still sleep.

So, seeing how huge crowds rushed forward to snatch every job opportunity, Zhang Yu maintained his Breath Circulation and did not go compete with the others.

He knew that in his state as a first-year high school student, he could not possibly outcompete those high school students who had already graduated.

He waited for the work Old Wang had mentioned, jobs specifically seeking current high school students.

There were several other high school students like Zhang Yu. Some read books, some practiced Breath Circulation, and some punched and trained. None went forward to compete for jobs; they simply waited in silence.

In the blink of an eye, another hour passed.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Soft bursts rang out through the air.

Feeling that his Physical Body had rested enough, Zhang Yu began training the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms.

The people around him glanced over and then lost interest. Too many people trained while waiting for work, and the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms, as a Basic Cultivation Method, was even less likely to draw anyone's attention.

Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms Level 2 (18/20)

Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms Level 2 (19/20)

After practicing the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms twice, Zhang Yu felt the muscles throughout his body begin to ache and weaken, yet his spirits rose higher and higher. One more round, and he would raise the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms to Level 3.

Even Bai Zhenzhen, who ranked first in total grades for the year, had failed to achieve that.

Yet he could do it in only two days.

Just as Zhang Yu was practicing the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms for the third time, a temporary job requiring high school students finally arrived.

A sedan pulled up in front of the square. The window rolled down, and the driver shouted from inside, "Any first-years or second-years? Hiring two Martial Arts Sparring Partners."

A Martial Arts Sparring Partner was someone hired to train alongside a cultivator according to certain requirements while the cultivator conducted practical combat training in the Martial Dao.

At the driver's words, the high school students who had been quietly waiting on the square all sprang into motion. Afterimages streaked through the air as they charged toward the sedan amid blasts of wind and thunder.

"I'm a second-year!"

"My Physical Strength is Level 2.15!"

Second-year students were far ahead of first-year students in Physical Strength. By the time Zhang Yu rushed over, the space in front of the driver had almost entirely been occupied by one hulking figure after another, leaving him no way to squeeze in.

Zhang Yu thought, There are this many people fighting to get beaten up? Do high school students have no pride at all?

The driver swept his gaze across the many students raising their hands and asked, "Any from Key High Schools?"

More than half of the raised hands immediately dropped.

Zhang Yu hurriedly raised his hand. "I'm from Songyang High School!"

The driver asked again, "Anyone with practical combat martial arts at Level 3 or above?"

Looking at the remaining three people, the driver asked again, "Three hundred an hour. Who wants it?"

A Buzzcut Student said unhappily, "Isn't three hundred too little?"

But another student beside him urgently said, "I'll do it for three hundred!"

Watching the other student get into the car as the sedan sped away, the Buzzcut Student cursed, "Three hundred an hour? They really dare to dream."

"Three hundred and they want someone to spar with them in actual combat? If they can't afford it, why hire a sparring partner?"

Someone else joined in the cursing. "You took three hundred? Traitor! Once that kid gets beaten up, he'll realize three hundred won't even cover the medical bills."

As the employer left, the surrounding students dispersed after a round of grumbling and swearing, returning to their own training and studies. Zhang Yu could only go back and continue practicing the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms.

At this rate, he felt he might not find any work today.

More than ten minutes later, someone else drove over to recruit high school students, specifically requiring first-year students.

But this job involved testing medicine. Supposedly, it was a newly developed laboratory drug intended for beginners of the Immortal Dao.

Considering his physical condition, Zhang Yu simply did not go forward to apply. Instead, he continued with his twentieth round of the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms.

A moment later, amid a crackling burst, Zhang Yu threw the final punch of the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms and successfully raised this Martial Arts technique to Level 3.

Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms Level 3 (0/30)

At that moment, countless memories of practicing the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms flooded violently into Zhang Yu's mind, making him feel as though he had practiced it hundreds or even thousands of times more.

And within those memories were not merely memories of flesh and blood, but also memories of threads of Magical Power circulating through his body on their own.

"Once the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms reaches Level 3, practicing this Martial Arts technique can drive the Magical Power within the body through a full circuit, accelerating the recovery and strengthening of the Physical Body."

If the Level 1 and Level 2 Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms merely damaged flesh and blood during training, forcibly squeezing out the Magical Power within the body to participate in the exercise—

Then the Level 3 Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms used its movements to drive Magical Power back and forth throughout the body, nourishing flesh and blood while training and greatly improving the results of exercise.

At that very moment, as Zhang Yu began another round of the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms, streams of warmth flowed through his limbs and bones with his movements, silently increasing his Physical Strength and carrying him step by step from an ordinary person toward becoming a superhuman.

Nourished by that warmth, the flesh and blood that had begun to ache and weaken seemed to relax considerably, allowing Zhang Yu to persist with his training more easily.

Suddenly, Zhang Yu felt the flesh throughout his body contract and expand.

Physical Strength Level 0.84 → Level 0.85

Glancing at the change in Physical Strength on the Feather Scroll, delight flashed through Zhang Yu's heart.

At that moment, even without Ritual Power forcing him onward, he was invigorated enough to continue training.

Meanwhile, while Zhang Yu practiced the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms, recruitment for medicine testing continued nearby.

However, not many first-year high school students were willing to try a job like testing medicine.

Although the recruiter wanted five students, after shouting for ages, he only recruited two before leaving.

As time passed, night deepened. Fewer and fewer employers came to recruit, and Zhang Yu still had not found an opportunity for work. He could only continue practicing the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms.

Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms Level 3 (6/30)

When Zhang Yu had practiced the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms six times, he felt that he could not keep waiting like this.

Zhang Yu went back into the human resources company and saw Old Wang still sitting behind that desk, as though he had not moved at all in the past few hours.

He took out a pack of cigarettes he had bought, handed it over, and asked, "Brother Wang, is there any work I can do?"

Old Wang glanced at the cigarette Zhang Yu offered and said carelessly, "Didn't I tell you? If there's work, they'll call for people outside."

But Zhang Yu did not give up. "I mean, other than the jobs outside."

"It can't be that every temporary job in all of Songyang City drives here to recruit, right? Isn't there anything else?"

After Zhang Yu pestered him for a while, Old Wang said impatiently, "If you don't believe me, look for yourself. It's not that I won't let you work. Do you think those other temporary jobs are so easy?"

Zhang Yu looked at a screenshot sent to him on Old Wang's phone. It listed row after row of jobs that were recruiting long-term workers.

Some involved signing contracts and participating in long-term medicine testing.

Some involved serving as test subjects in long-term cultivation method research.

Others required going deep underground into Kunxu as hired help for exploration teams.

There were even jobs assisting the police in cracking down on criminals.

Looking through them one by one, Zhang Yu found that they were either too dangerous, or both dangerous and beyond his ability.

"These jobs that can never fill their positions despite recruiting all year long really are pits one after another."

Suddenly, Zhang Yu looked at one listing and asked, "Brother Wang, is participating in cultivation method research dangerous?"

Old Wang said casually, "It means you go be a Technique Testing subject and test the latest cultivation methods developed by those big companies. While you practice, they record what side effects you develop, what injuries you suffer, where you become disabled, and how you eventually die..."

Zhang Yu swallowed. Then his eyes shifted as he looked at another temporary job listing and asked, "What about this entry-level Technique Testing job? Ten thousand per session? Why are they only recruiting first-year students?"

Old Wang thought for a moment, then gave an oh. "That one? It seems Xianyun Corporation developed a Martial Arts technique. It's already gone through cultivation testing, and it doesn't have any side effects or kill people."

"But the entry process is too difficult. If you fail to master it, you can easily suffer internal injuries, so they've been looking for people to test it."

"Because it's a cultivation method meant to be sold to beginners of the Immortal Dao, they specifically recruit first-year high school students to test it..."

At this point, he looked at Zhang Yu, who had been listening intently, and frowned. "You don't want to do this, do you? Last time, a student went and ended up with his Magical Power out of control while practicing. He suffered internal injuries and took two weeks of leave from school, but still hadn't recovered."

"That ten thousand won't be easy to earn."

Zhang Yu shrugged helplessly. "No choice. I need money urgently, so I can only give it a try."

(End of chapter)