The Gap Between People

The Gap Between People

On the bus.

After obtaining the Feather Scroll, Zhang Yu had thought his future life would be: Feather Scroll! Let me see where your limits lie!

Who knew that in the blink of an eye, it had become... Ritual: Zhang Yu! Let me see where your limits lie!

But since things had come to this, the only way Zhang Yu could think of to dispel the Ritual Power was to make himself stronger.

So at this moment, all he could do was cultivate diligently.

With every breath Zhang Yu took, strands of Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth flowed into his body, gathering in his Dantian Qi Sea. Bit by bit, they were refined into Magical Power, solidifying his Immortal Dao Foundation.

However, when Zhang Yu recalled last night's practice of the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms, he wanted to repeat the same process and see whether he could rapidly raise the level of the Basic Breathing Technique as well.

The Feather Scroll unfolded at a thought. Then, as Zhang Yu focused his attention slightly on "Basic Breathing Technique Level 1" on its pages, he immediately dragged "Basic Breathing Technique Level 1" upward.

But just as he dragged "Basic Breathing Technique Level 1" toward his character portrait, a hint of understanding surged from the Feather Scroll.

"You can only focus on improving one skill at a time."

"After switching once, you must wait one day before switching again."

In his mind, Zhang Yu named this function of the Feather Scroll Specialization.

At that moment, he understood at once. A specialized skill could be improved rapidly, but he could only specialize in one skill for a period of time. After changing skills, he would have to wait a day before switching again.

"In other words, if I switch my Specialization from the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms to the Basic Breathing Technique now, then the Basic Breathing Technique can improve rapidly through practice. But the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms will return to its original normal training efficiency."

"Unless I switch the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms back after a day..."

Thinking of the situation in Physical Education Class, Zhang Yu decided not to switch for now and to continue focusing on improving the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms.

In the blink of an eye, time passed. Zhang Yu maintained the Basic Breathing Technique until the very moment before getting off the bus.

In the school cafeteria.

Carrying her tray, Bai Zhenzhen came over and sat down before Zhang Yu, who looked like a walking corpse. She gave him a curious glance and said flatly, "Were you directing all night yesterday?"

Zhang Yu swallowed the huge meat bun in his hand in one bite and cursed, "I worked out hard until late at night."

Bai Zhenzhen's face remained expressionless, but her words carried no restraint at all. "Sigh, you're the only student in the entire school who hasn't had Sterilization Surgery. I told you long ago not to save those twenty thousand yuan. Look how much time, energy, and protein you've wasted."

Zhang Yu swallowed an egg in one bite as well, then smiled confidently. "Bai Zhenzhen, let me tell you something. Even I'm shocked by my current self-discipline and potential. It won't be long before I take your spot as first in the grade."

Bai Zhenzhen immediately rolled her eyes. Her delicate little mouth showed no mercy. "Yu Zi, it's fine to say such overreaching nonsense in front of me, but if outsiders hear it, I'm afraid they'll laugh so hard they piss themselves."

"What you're competing for is first in total grade score, not first in the grade for sperm extraction. The advantage of not being sterilized won't help you."

Zhang Yu shook his head speechlessly. A-Zhen acts all cold and icy normally, but in private she dares to say anything, huh.

As for being the only student in the school who had not undergone Sterilization Surgery, Zhang Yu was no longer quite so surprised. He had gradually become accustomed to the madness of this damned world and damned school.

Still, not being sterilized remained one of his little secrets. Among his classmates, Zhang Yu had only told Bai Zhenzhen.

But as he thought of this, a question suddenly rose in Zhang Yu's heart. Why was I allowed to enroll without having Sterilization Surgery?

Just then, Zhou Tianyi came over with his tray and sat down. He too looked at Zhang Yu curiously. "You look exhausted. Did you stay up all night studying yesterday?"

Zhang Yu shook his head. "I practiced the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms for a little while. I gained some insights."

While they ate and chatted, Zhang Yu suddenly noticed something. It seemed that after Zhou Tianyi arrived, Bai Zhenzhen spoke much less, as though she had become that aloof, taciturn top student again.

After breakfast, the three of them headed toward the classrooms along the edge of the athletic field.

From time to time, Zhang Yu opened his palm and watched the Feather Scroll appear and disappear from it.

So nobody else really can see the Feather Scroll?

Just then, a bang sounded from the direction of the teaching building, followed by waves of shouting and commotion.

A crowd had already gathered before the main entrance of the teaching building.

The people around them were all talking at once.

Those who knew the person involved shared gossip.

"That's Lu Chao from Class 3 of senior year. He used to be in a Demonstration Class. His grades kept dropping, and it looks like he was about to be demoted again, right?"

"Lu Chao? He was still in the top ten of the grade when he was in his second year."

Some people who discriminated against the poor began attacking an entire group.

"So what if he did well in his second year? Poor people are poor people. Look at how many poor students can remain in the Demonstration Classes by senior year. Poor people simply aren't suited for Immortal Cultivation."

Others, deeply prejudiced by grades, began offering their own commentary.

"Hmph, jumping from the sixth floor and still failing to die? As expected of a bad student. If a top student from a senior-year Demonstration Class jumped, I think they'd have to start from at least the tenth floor."

As Bai Zhenzhen passed by and saw the scene, she sighed. "Another senior-year student?"

Zhou Tianyi said, "That's the third case this year, isn't it? Looks like this year's seniors are under a lot of pressure."

Zhang Yu suddenly asked, "Was he poor?"

Bai Zhenzhen glanced at him. It was hard to tell whether she was warning him or merely lamenting as she said coolly, "He probably borrowed a lot of loans. Anyway, anyone who has to borrow money just to attend school definitely isn't rich."

"After students like that enter Songyang High School, their grades are often quite good at first."

"But once they reach senior year, they gradually can't keep up with the rich kids in their class. In the end, they can usually only get into some second- or third-rate university."

"As for the Top Ten, it seems that at Songyang High School, no commoner has gotten into one for more than a decade."

Zhang Yu froze slightly. He knew that the Top Ten referred to the universities directly affiliated with the Ten Great Sects. They were also the ten most elite universities, dream schools for countless students.

But he had not known that no commoner's child had entered the Top Ten from Songyang High School in more than a decade.

Is it because they lack resources and don't have enough money?

Zhang Yu recalled some of the rumors about those wealthy students. It was said that many ace tutors, secret tutoring manuals, high-end cultivation techniques, and laboratory medicines... only circulated within the circles of the rich and were never revealed to poor people.

If my potential hadn't been awakened, I might have ended up walking this same path in the future.

Although the incident stirred up a wave of discussion, for students busy every day with studying and cultivation, it was merely a topic for their breaks. Soon, no one paid attention to it anymore. The students continued devoting themselves to their day-after-day Immortal Dao studies, striving for their future lives.

Though they had only recently become adults, everyone already understood one cruel fact.

Different scores led to different universities.

Different universities determined one's future Sect.

Different Sects determined a person's entire life.

No matter whether the classmates around them got along well or badly, if their grades differed, they would eventually go their separate ways.

In the blink of an eye, it was time for another three consecutive Physical Education Classes.

After rejecting Sports Teacher Wang Hai's sales pitch again, Zhang Yu did not know whether it was just his imagination, but he felt that the way Wang Hai looked at him had changed somewhat.

But there was truly nothing he could do. Whether because of money or health, he could not possibly take injections again.

So Zhang Yu could only pretend not to notice and continue practicing.

Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms Level 2 (1/20)

Including the one session he had trained before the bus stop, Zhang Yu only needed to practice the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms nineteen more times to level up.

This made him especially driven during the training that followed. Again and again, he activated every muscle in his body, continuously draining every inch of his Magical Power.

Even when he wanted to slow down or rest for a while, the reminders from the Ritual Power quickly made him pull himself together and continue practicing diligently.

Amid tearing pain throughout his body, he repeatedly broke through his limits and repeatedly faced threats of death. It was both painful and joyful.

After spending more than two class periods on it, Zhang Yu finally collapsed completely onto the ground, no longer wanting to move even a finger.

Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms Level 2 (17/20)

"I've reached my limit."

The Ritual Power did not continue forcing him, evidently agreeing that he had indeed reached his limit.

But Zhang Yu was not discouraged in the slightest. In two days, he had nearly raised a basic martial art from Level 1 to Level 3. This was something the old Zhang Yu would not even have dared dream of.

"If I hadn't added extra training last night, I should've been able to train through all three Physical Education Classes, right?"

"But with this shitty Ritual forcing me to seize every minute and second for training, extra practice at night will probably become the norm. Then I'll be so tired during Physical Education Class that all I can do is rest instead of train..."

Zhang Yu felt that this was like his previous life, when some people crazily attended cram school and studied on their own at night, only to sleep through class during the day. It was obviously not a healthy schedule.

"It's all this Idiot Ritual's fault. It can't tell the time from the occasion at all."

Just then, as Zhang Yu lay on the ground, he suddenly felt his body covered by a shadow, as though a mountain were blocking the sky above his head.

Wang Hai looked down at Zhang Yu and said coldly, "During Physical Education Class, what are you doing?"

Zhang Yu hurriedly replied, "Teacher, I did extra training last night, so I can't really keep going now."

Sensing Wang Hai's unfriendly expression, Zhang Yu added, "My Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms broke through last night. It's already reached Level 2."

He explained because Zhang Yu knew that in this school, where grades were everything, the overwhelming majority of teachers would not make things difficult for students with good grades.

He thought that if Wang Hai knew he had made major progress, he probably would not make things difficult for him.

After vaguely sensing Wang Hai's changed attitude toward him, this was something Zhang Yu had begun considering.

But Zhang Yu was wrong.

There were many kinds of teachers in this world.

For instance, most teachers of core subjects at Songyang High School liked students with good grades. They liked students who were easy to teach and gave them a sense of accomplishment. They were also more tolerant when good students made mistakes.

Some teachers invested more energy into students with poor grades, focusing on raising the grades of bad students because they were easier to improve.

There were also many teachers of minor subjects who did not care how well their students learned. As long as they started class on time and got off work on time, wasting even one extra second on work would count as their loss.

But there was another kind of teacher. Compared to their students' grades, such teachers sometimes cared more about whether students obeyed them and whether they challenged their authority.

In such a teacher's class, he was the absolute authority and accepted no defiance from any student. Even if one merely used a method he had not taught to study, he would mock them openly and covertly, drag them out as an example, and tear them down.

And Wang Hai, who liked selling medicine and physically punishing students, was clearly this kind of teacher.

The Physical Education Classes at Songyang High School were his little kingdom, and the students were the channels through which he dumped his medicines.

Zhang Yu's persistent refusal to buy medicine had already made him dissatisfied.

When he had just seen Zhang Yu lying down to "slack off," his displeasure had grown even greater. He had wanted to use the chance to teach Zhang Yu a lesson, make an example of him, and make the students ashamed of someone who refused injections during class—so that they would not imitate Zhang Yu's Natural Body Refinement.

But the rebuke he had prepared was stopped cold by Zhang Yu's words: "My Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms broke through last night."

To Wang Hai, this was already a challenge to his authority in Physical Education Class.

"So what if your Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms is Level 2?"

Wang Hai pointed at Bai Zhenzhen. "Look at her. Did she stop taking injections after reaching Level 2? Did she slack off during class?"

Zhang Yu said helplessly, "Teacher, that's not what I meant..."

Wang Hai said coldly, "Zhang Yu, I've seen plenty of students like you. You rely on having a little talent and refuse to listen to your teacher's guidance or follow the school's teaching."

"You need to understand that the reason you were able to break through was because you attended class seriously and took injections for the past three months. It was my guidance that gave you such a solid foundation."

"As for self-study or tutoring outside school, those can at most be considered desserts."

"Only classes at school are the most important main course."

"I'll report your problem to your Homeroom Teacher. You'd better behave yourself."