"Repayment...?"
Chen Nuoyi looked at the boy before her, a hint of suggestion lurking in his tone. Her beautiful eyes flickered as she suddenly remembered meeting Su Yuan yesterday.
It was only natural for people to... No, no. Su Yuan had already explained himself back then. He hadn't meant it that way.
She couldn't let her imagination run wild again.
"Do you want money?"
Chen Nuoyi asked cautiously.
Su Yuan immediately made the husky-pointing meme face.
"Lady, what kind of person do you take me for? Some miser who's obsessed with money? I'm a very generous person, okay!"
Chen Nuoyi sheepishly withdrew her gaze and fell into thought once more.
After a long while, a flash of inspiration lit the girl's beautiful eyes. She straightened her chest and spoke with confidence.
"I've got it! While you teach me how to make money, I can tutor you! Su Yuan, you must have a dream of getting into one of the Top Ten Immortal Dao Academies too, right?"
Su Yuan's eyes lit up as well. The holy first-in-the-grade was going to tutor him? Wouldn't his grades take off?
"Is that really true, godmother?"
Su Yuan asked excitedly.
They were now in Chen Nuoyi's field of expertise, and the balance of power between them had shifted completely!
Chen Nuoyi resumed her cool, aloof demeanor as class monitor and said flatly,
"Of course. In every subject—Spirit Script, general knowledge, cultivation, Physical Education, martial arts, and Dao Heart—my grades rank in the top three in the whole school, and sometimes even first."
"A student like you, with grades around 550, can improve very quickly with just a little tutoring."
Su Yuan: "..."
That's right, I'm a bottom-tier student. My apologies.
Only after saying all that did Chen Nuoyi realize her words had been a little hurtful. She hurriedly cleared her throat.
"Su Yuan, I was just telling the truth. I didn't mean anything by it, so don't take it to heart."
Then Chen Nuoyi saw a whole head of black lines visibly appear over Su Yuan.
The girl panicked a little.
Fortunately, Su Yuan had already figured out that Chen Nuoyi was the type who didn't know how to talk to people, and he didn't take it too seriously. He waved a hand.
"Then it's settled. After school, come with me to deliver some takeout."
"Mm-hm!"
Chen Nuoyi nodded again and again, her eyes full of longing for money.
Just then, a melodious bell rang from the direction of the Teaching Building. It was almost time for class.
The two said no more and hurried toward the Teaching Building.
Before setting off, Su Yuan made a point of packing up the leftover dishes whose spiritual energy he had drained and leaving them in the cafeteria.
The essence in the leftovers had already turned into blue Small Medicinal Pills and been eaten by him, but he couldn't just leave the scraps lying around. He'd find a dumpster and throw them away after school, just in case anyone got suspicious.
Although the way he used Demonic Cultivation Technique · Finger Spirit was rather bizarre, Su Yuan could still tell this was a bona fide Evil Method. If righteous cultivators discovered it, he might well get arrested.
The first class in the afternoon was Physical Education. The two didn't return to the classroom and went straight to the field below the Teaching Building to meet up.
Class Two had already begun lining up under Zhuge Tie's lead. Su Yuan and Chen Nuoyi made it just in time.
"Everyone's running laps around the field this class. Anyone who falls behind gets extra laps!"
At Zhuge Tie's command, Class Two groaned as one, but everyone obediently started running along the track.
The whole class consisted of cultivators. For them, ordinary running—even keeping up a pace of three seconds per hundred meters for two or three hours—was no challenge.
So, to make their training effective, Taihua High School had installed a gravity array on its track. For the senior-year students, the standard was ten times gravity!
Under ten times gravity, even cultivators like Su Yuan found it hard to move. At best, they could maintain a steady pace of ten seconds per hundred meters.
Feeling the crushing pressure, as if he were carrying a mountain on his back, Su Yuan found that he wasn't struggling like he usually did.
On the contrary, he felt unusually fired up. The food he had just eaten was being digested at a terrifying rate, converted into fuel for building muscle.
"Why does ten times gravity feel kind of amazing?"
Su Yuan couldn't help wondering. The blue Small Medicinal Pills hadn't mentioned this side effect.
Even though he could tell something was off with his condition, Su Yuan still sped up almost against his will. His body was actively chasing its own limits!
Gradually, Su Yuan's strides grew longer and his pace faster!
"Su Yuan, why'd you suddenly speed up? Be careful you don't run out of stamina!"
A classmate who usually slacked off with Su Yuan in the middle of the pack called out in surprise.
Su Yuan said nothing. Instead, he sped up even more.
Every increase in speed placed exponentially more strain on his muscles and organs. But at the same time, they were strengthening every second, and explosive power kept surging out of them.
"You're really going all out. You're definitely on something, huh?"
Before he knew it, Su Yuan had caught up with Chu Lanxi.
The cool guy was jogging at the front of the pack as leisurely as if he were strolling through a courtyard. When he saw Su Yuan, he greeted him with a grin.
"I got this far through talent and hard work alone!"
Su Yuan shot back, then kept going.
His heightened spirits and the full-concentration effect of his Pure Devil Heart kept him from noticing the steam rising from his head. His skin had also turned as red as a boiled shrimp.
It was a sign that some of his muscles had been strained and torn. But even as they ripped, they were recovering at astonishing speed.
Before long, only two people remained ahead of Su Yuan: Chen Nuoyi, far out in front, and Wu Xingqi, a dark-skinned bombshell two paces ahead of him.
"Ah-ha! Chief Su, are you really running neck and neck with me now? Are you chasing me? Oh my, I had no idea I was so irresistible!"
The bombshell, who had tied her jacket around her waist, turned back and said in surprise.
Su Yuan: "..."
What an overconfident woman. Such a turn-off.
Seeing Su Yuan's disdainful look, Wu Xingqi didn't get angry. She put her hands on her hips and laughed.
"Still, I am the athletic star of our class. It'd be embarrassing to get caught by a delicate scholar like Chief Su, so I'm going to speed up!"
"If Chief Su can catch me, tonight I'll go with you and... Hehehe!"
As she spoke, the straight, athletic legs beneath the skirt she had cut far too short unleashed unimaginable power. The dark-skinned bombshell immediately picked up speed.
Hey, hey! Could you stop saying such dangerous things?
You're making this perfectly normal race sound indecent!
Su Yuan grumbled helplessly to himself.
But now that things had gone this far, how could he possibly slow down? Besides, he still hadn't reached his physical limit. He could keep speeding up!
Bang, bang, bang—
Amid a series of sharp pops like bursting balloons, the muscles all over Su Yuan's body stretched to near perfection. His speed surged with them, and he clung tightly to Wu Xingqi's heels.
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