How Many Floors Do You Have to Carry a Bag of Rice Up?

Cloud City No. 1 High School, Grade 12 Class 4.

Ji Ruo sat by the window in the second-to-last row, his left hand covering his right eye as he looked outside.

At the front of the classroom, the teacher was spitting and sputtering about something. Ji Ruo pretended not to care, but in reality, he was listening very carefully.

"Class, the college entrance exam is in three days. I ask nothing of you except that you make it out alive."

Ji Ruo's mouth twitched. Even though he'd been transported to this world two months ago, he still wasn't used to it.

People could actually die during the college entrance exam. That was absurd!

But there was nothing he could do about it. The world was what it was.

In 2025 AD, Secret Realms descended, countless Demon Monsters ran rampant, and foreign races wreaked havoc.

Humanity rose up to resist. But the arrival of the Secret Realms brought with it something they called Spirit Qi, which greatly benefited living beings.

Demonic Beasts possessed all kinds of strange abilities.

Meanwhile, Monster Beasts had hide like iron and extraordinary physical prowess. Ordinary firearms could barely hit them—mainly because they were so hard to aim at.

On top of that, the arrival of the Demon Monsters made mining all kinds of mineral resources extraordinarily difficult.

The early battles had gone reasonably well. But as the fighting dragged on, humanity's stockpiled resources were rapidly depleted, the front lines stretched ever longer, and they lacked the strength to build supply stations... As a result, humanity suffered defeat after defeat in the middle stages of the conflict.

Later, in their desperation, humanity even resorted to nuclear weapons!

The results were certainly striking.

Countless Demon Monsters were killed or wounded, but their numbers were simply too vast.

So humanity began carpet-bombing them with nukes.

However, the radiation from the nuclear blasts caused the Demon Monsters to mutate. Some gradually evolved into silicon-based life forms, or even beings made of pure energy!

The radiation mutated the Demon Monsters and laid waste to the land...

At the time, humanity nearly went extinct.

Fortunately, a peerless grandmaster of Xingyi Fist appeared.

By observing and studying the Demon Monsters, he gradually developed a way to strengthen the body with Spirit Qi—Martial Dao!

A martial artist's Blood Qi Power could effectively harm Demon Monsters.

The grandmaster solemnly told the world, "We must use Spirit Qi to defeat Spirit Qi!"

And so the entire nation took up martial arts.

A thousand years had passed since then.

Technology had developed once more, and it was far more advanced than in the world Ji Ruo had come from.

Of course, what mattered even more was Martial Dao.

In this world, everyone practiced martial arts, and the strong were revered!

So, given the times, all children began studying Martial Dao from a young age. And when the college entrance exam came around, they were sent into a Secret Realm already under humanity's control to undergo a trial!

Though it had long been brought under control, it still meant facing real bloodshed and slaughter. Accidents were bound to happen.

To this day, more than three percent of students still died in the exam each year. Even more failed because they were too afraid to hunt Demon Monsters.

The college entrance exam had two parts: the academic exam and the Martial Exam.

The academic exam had ended back in Grade 11. Ji Ruo hadn't been transported to this world yet, but judging from his memories, he'd done quite well.

At the front of the classroom, the teacher continued reminding them of things to keep in mind during the exam. It was all the same old advice, but not a single student seemed impatient.

"Ding-a-ling~"

The class bell rang. The homeroom teacher looked deeply at the students below, as if trying to imprint each of their faces in his mind.

"Class, you have to make it out alive!"

"This exam is your final assignment in high school. Not a single person can be missing! Do you understand?"

"Understood!"

The students answered in a chorus.

The homeroom teacher waved his hand. "All right, class dismissed. Remember to come hand in your assignment after the exam."

With that, he left the classroom.

The students immediately started chattering among themselves.

Some were worried, others excited, but in the end, not one of them was afraid, and not one planned to give up.

Ji Ruo stood up, his school uniform draped over his shoulders. Still covering his eye, he headed for the door.

"Everyone!"

At that moment, class monitor Liang Shixian stood up and said, "I think our class should stick together and work as a team in the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Secret Realm."

He urged everyone to make safety their top priority. If they got the chance, they could try hunting Monster Beasts. If all went well, perhaps by working together, they could all get into a good university.

The students naturally agreed. Teamwork was allowed in the Martial Exam.

It wasn't cheating. Fighting Demon Monsters and foreign races had never been a one-person job.

Ji Ruo agreed too.

There was strength in numbers, after all!

But Liang Shixian noticed that Ji Ruo had been covering his eye the whole time, so he asked,

"Ji Ruo, what happened to your eye?"

Ji Ruo gave a cold snort. "Hmph! None of you would understand. I am the reincarnation of the Evil King. This eye is the Evil King True Eye, and sealed within it is a power capable of destroying the world!"

His classmates: "..."

Liang Shixian's toes curled up inside his shoes.

That was so awkward!

"You—forget it. Just remember to stay with us when the time comes."

"Heh. Don't worry. I'll protect you all!"

Liang Shixian: "..."

But just then, Ji Ruo lowered the hand covering his eye and switched to the other one, covering his other eye instead. "If there's nothing else, I'll be heading home."

One classmate couldn't help asking, "Isn't there power sealed in your eye? Why'd you switch hands?"

Ji Ruo sneered. "My hand got tired. Is that not allowed?"

"..."

They were already used to this.

Lately, Ji Ruo didn't seem quite right in the head.

"Anyway, go home and get ready. The college entrance exam is no small matter," Liang Shixian reminded him.

"Don't worry. I know exactly what I'm doing!"

Ji Ruo kept one hand over his eye as he walked out of school, switching hands whenever his arm got tired.

Suddenly, he sighed, lowered his hand, and said helplessly, "So playing the chuuni isn't enough? Just how am I supposed to trigger this blasted achievement?"

Of course, it might also have something to do with his lousy chuuni act—he'd never been a chuuni in either his past or present life!

Ji Ruo went to the supermarket near his home and bought a bag of rice.

"Xiao Ruo, your Martial Exam is coming up in a few days. Think you've got this?" the cashier auntie asked with a smile. She knew Ji Ruo.

Ji Ruo replied confidently, "Of course. Why else would I buy this bag of rice?"

The cashier auntie froze. "Come to think of it, didn't you buy a bag of rice the day before yesterday? What'd you buy this one for?"

Ji Ruo smiled mysteriously. "Auntie, I'll tell you, but you have to keep it to yourself."

"Mm-hmm!"

She nodded seriously, thinking Ji Ruo really had some secret to tell her.

Ji Ruo lowered his voice. "I'm taking it home to practice Iron Sand Palm."

The auntie: "Mm, mm?"

Ji Ruo chuckled. "To tell you the truth, I overdid it while practicing Iron Sand Palm with the last bag a couple days ago. I've already fried it!"

The auntie: "???"

"Ha, ha. As long as you're having fun, Xiao Ruo."

She was a little confused. This kid had always been pretty normal before! Why had he suddenly gotten so childish?

Ji Ruo smiled and said goodbye, then carried the rice out of the supermarket.

He also stuck one hand straight into the rice.

The feeling of his entire hand being enveloped in rice made Ji Ruo look blissfully comfortable. Behind him, the cashier auntie stared, utterly speechless.

But she couldn't very well say anything.

Carrying the rice, Ji Ruo entered his apartment building. "How many floors do you have to carry a bag of rice up!"

His hand sank into the rice, then pulled back out.

No one but Ji Ruo could hear the voice that kept ringing in his ears—

[Iron Sand Palm proficiency +1]

The boy wasn't being childish!

He was really practicing Iron Sand Palm!

As for why he was using rice to practice—

Who could blame him when his cheat was the 'Child-Oriented Achievement System'?

Unlock an achievement, and you could obtain and upgrade the corresponding skill.

Sticking your hand into a bag of rice—in a child's imagination, wasn't that exactly what practicing Iron Sand Palm looked like?

Recommending a friend's book~