Limitless Cloud Hand

Zhang Yu looked at his phone, where an electronic agreement was displayed.

The agreement's contents were simple: it granted the top ten contestants in this Magical Power Competition the right to use the Limitless Cloud Hand, provided they did not spread it or profit from the method's contents, and so on.

Bai Zhenzhen stood beside Zhang Yu, tilting her head as she read the agreement. She complained, "So stingy. Xianyun Corporation is such a huge company—why are they so miserly with sponsorships? They only give usage rights to the top ten overall? Why not give everyone a copy?"

Zhang Yu shook his head dismissively. "If they gave it to everyone, wouldn't that be unfair to the students who did well in this competition?"

"In my opinion, even giving it to ten people is too many. I feel that anyone ranked below fourth overall didn't really understand the competition questions."

Bai Zhenzhen shot Zhang Yu a sidelong glance.

You bastard...

Listen to that. Unfair to students with good grades? Anyone below fourth place didn't understand the questions? Was that something a human being should say? Zhang Yu, had he forgotten how, a month ago, he had criticized the modern Immortal Dao education system with biting insight? Where had that backbone gone?

Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu's ugly face in disappointment.

Yu Zi! My Yu Zi is already dead. What stands before me now is nothing but a walking corpse controlled by scores!

"Haha, A-Zhen, the prize money came in." Looking at the deposit notification on his phone, Zhang Yu felt that the corners of his mouth were harder to suppress than an AK.

Fourth place in this Magic Competition had earned him a full twenty thousand in cash, bringing his savings to more than sixty-three thousand.

Zhang Yu patted Bai Zhenzhen on the shoulder and swept out a hand grandly. "A-Zhen, I'll treat you to dinner when we get back to school."

"Good boy!" Bai Zhenzhen said happily. "I knew you had roots. You definitely wouldn't forget where you came from."

Before long, the various schools began to disperse.

Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen followed the Songyang High School group out through the venue's main gates.

Just then, a black shadow dropped from the top of the stadium.

"That is..." Zhang Yu's gaze shifted. "A person?"

Someone had fallen?

Just as Zhang Yu registered what was happening, someone at the scene had already moved.

On an ordinary day, this jumper might already have hit the ground with a splat.

But at that moment, there were too many high school students, teachers, coaches, referees, and judges present...

Especially since many of them were from Red Pagoda High School.

Protecting the campus environment was everyone's responsibility.

The instant the figure fell from above, several streams of Astral Qi roared over, forming cushion after cushion beneath the jumper and saving him.

Liang Qin, who had shut his eyes and awaited death, did not meet the agonizing pain he had imagined. Instead, he felt as though he had landed on an incomparably warm bed.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself gently carried down to the ground by a mass of Astral Qi.

"Why did you save me?!"

Liang Qin looked at the scene in anguish, without the slightest joy at having been rescued.

While watching the Magic Competition just now, he had placed bet after bet and finally lost all his money again. His father had even called to ask about the debt collectors... So, as a gambling addict, he had made that choice.

The teacher who had saved him showed no joy either. She said rigidly, "Jumping off buildings is prohibited within this school's campus."

"I've already called the police regarding your situation. Someone will discuss the specific compensation arrangements with you..."

Hearing this, an even deeper despair flashed through Liang Qin's eyes. He hurriedly argued, "I wasn't trying to jump! I just lost my footing..."

The other party said flatly, "Lost your footing? Then it was negligent building-jumping? That still costs money."

Liang Qin was furious, but recalling the other party's Astral Qi from moments ago, he could only force his anger back down.

"When I find an opportunity, I'll switch to another place to jump."

Having calmed down, Liang Qin began considering his next jumping spot. Schools, hospitals, malls, residential compounds... every damn one of them required compensation.

"What a rotten world. It's hard to find even a place where I can jump off a building for free."

Meanwhile, Songyang High School was nearly out of the campus.

Not only the other students—even Zhang Yu was no longer all that surprised by someone jumping off a building. He merely thought that the person wrapped in Astral Qi looked somewhat familiar.

Songyang High School.

Cafeteria.

Bai Zhenzhen shoved a chicken leg into her mouth in one bite. Amid crisp crunching sounds, she swallowed it, meat and bone alike.

Before her sat an entire table laden with chicken, duck, fish, and meat, costing Zhang Yu more than four hundred in total.

With Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen's current cultivation and physical strength, it was enough to let them feast to their hearts' content.

"Ah, the school's pre-made meals still taste the most authentic. One sniff and you can feel that fresh quality of having only just come out of the freezer."

After taking a bite, Bai Zhenzhen sighed. "The boxed meals at Red Pagoda High School taste wrong the moment you eat them. Who knows how much Synthetic Food they put in them."

Though Zhang Yu was eating with gusto as well, he possessed far more culinary memories from his previous life. Hearing this, he said, "A-Zhen, once I have money, I'll treat you to something better."

Bai Zhenzhen said, "You mean the dietary supplementation meals on the second floor?"

Zhang Yu understood that, for Songyang High School... no, for the overwhelming majority of high school students throughout Songyang City, better food meant food that could increase cultivation and raise scores more effectively.

As for pursuing taste itself... that was secondary, or rather, something most high school students in Songyang City lacked the means to pursue. To high school students, flavor was a luxury.

Zhang Yu did not explain. He merely said, "You'll know once I have money."

As he spoke, Zhang Yu recalled what had happened in the competition arena that day and asked curiously, "A-Zhen, how did you figure out that set of punches you used in the final round?"

Bai Zhenzhen replied casually, "Didn't that Energy Circulation Diagram have six moves?"

Zhang Yu said in surprise, "It did?"

"Yeah." Bai Zhenzhen thought back for a moment. "Couldn't you tell at a glance?"

You turned on cheats, didn't you? Zhang Yu looked at A-Zhen before him, still unable to understand how she could see it at a glance. It seemed students ranked beyond 100 still had merits of their own.

After speaking, Bai Zhenzhen's face filled with unwillingness. "I was forced into it. I just wanted to see whether I could use external martial moves to assist that method of circulating Magical Power."

"Sure enough, it still didn't work."

Thinking of how she had been stymied at every turn throughout the Magic Competition, Bai Zhenzhen made up her mind to properly make up for her Magical Power control from now on.

Then she looked up at Zhang Yu before her. Thinking of how he had stolen the limelight in the competition arena today, she felt even worse.

"Starting tomorrow, I'm going to tutoring!"

I, Bai Zhenzhen, have never been weaker than anyone in my life!

Bai Zhenzhen asked, "Are you going to Teacher Yan's tutoring classes?"

Before they parted today, Teacher Yan had called Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen over and told them that, using their competition results, she would apply to the school for funding to set up Magic Competition tutoring classes. She told them to sign up when the time came.

Zhang Yu nodded at that. "Of course I'm going."

Although he had achieved the excellent result of fourth place today, the competition had also made Zhang Yu feel his own limitations.

If he had not comprehended the Limitless Cloud Hand from Bai Zhenzhen at the critical moment, he likely would not even have made the top ten overall.

He hoped to become stronger in his control of Magical Power, so that when he participated in Magical Power Competitions in the future, he would no longer need to rely on luck to win.

Besides, after the school invested funding, Teacher Yan's competition tutoring might even come with benefits like flying swords and cultivation methods. Zhang Yu found himself looking forward to it.

Seeing Zhang Yu nod, Bai Zhenzhen's lips curved upward as well. "All right, then we'll go find Old Yan for tutoring together."

After returning home.

Zhang Yu did not cultivate the Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra to improve his Dao Heart as he usually did.

After all, his Feather Book Specialization was currently switched to the martial art Limitless Cloud Hand.

So he simply took this opportunity to keep pushing the Limitless Cloud Hand's level upward.

He thought that the Limitless Cloud Hand only had six moves back and forth. Perhaps it would level even faster than Freehand Fighting; maybe it would reach level ten in a single night.

Thus, Zhang Yu headed once more to the Unfinished Building.

Coming here felt like returning home. After all, he had spent night after night practicing martial arts here.

It was quiet, he did not have to worry about making noise, and he could train without restraint.

If he had not already paid the rent at home, and if this Unfinished Building had not lacked internet, electricity, and water, he would have wanted to move a bed here and live in this wonderful free place.

He walked into a bare, gray, dusty hall.

With a thought from Zhang Yu, streams of Magical Power rose from his dantian, passing through seven tremors before transforming into masses of cloud-like mist that surged from his palms.

Having already cultivated the Level 1 Limitless Cloud Hand, the speed and quality with which he converted Magical Power into Martial Dao Gang Qi in a single breath far surpassed any contestant in the arena today.

Feeling the clouds enveloping his hands, Zhang Yu thought, Formless Cloud Gang?

After signing the electronic agreement, Zhang Yu had received the right to use the Limitless Cloud Hand, as well as its Electronic Manual.

The true name of this Martial Dao Gang Qi had also been written in the manual.

Formless Cloud Gang resembled white clouds. It could be hard or soft, excelled at drawing force and borrowing force to strike back, and was a Martial Dao Gang Qi with broad combat applications, capable of both offense and defense.

Next, Zhang Yu began practicing the Limitless Cloud Hand's six external martial moves.

He punched forward, and the white Formless Cloud Gang brought forth surging force like a massive siege hammer, letting out a whistling roar.

This was the Limitless Cloud Hand's fierce and forceful move, made specifically for breaking enemies head-on.

Next, Zhang Yu shifted his hands. The white Formless Cloud Gang circled his body like layer upon layer of clouds and mist, carrying a soft, yielding elasticity.

This was the Limitless Cloud Hand's defensive move. The springy Formless Cloud Gang could not only redirect the force behind an opponent's moves, but even rebound part of that force.

In this way, Zhang Yu finished practicing all six Limitless Cloud Hand moves in a moment, then practiced them all over again.

The Limitless Cloud Hand truly had too few moves—only six in total. Zhang Yu needed just over ten minutes to practice them ten times.

Limitless Cloud Hand Level 1 (0/10) → Level 2 (0/20)

As the Limitless Cloud Hand rose to Level 2, Zhang Yu felt as though he had undergone practice after practice in an instant. Whether it was the process of refining Formless Cloud Gang from Magical Power, his control over Formless Cloud Gang, or even the application of those six external moves, all of it improved tremendously at once.

Zhang Yu looked at his hands.

Originally, wisps of white, smoke-like Gang Qi drifted upward from the Formless Cloud Gang wrapped around his hands, like beacon smoke shooting into the sky. This was also how he had appeared in the competition arena.

But now that the Limitless Cloud Hand had risen to Level 2, far fewer wisps of Gang Qi drifted upward. This precisely reflected the increase in his control over this Gang Qi.