Staying Up Late Is Cultivation

Chapter 3: Staying Up Late Is Cultivation

Night. Inside a dim little room.

Bai Ye braced both hands against the floor, rising and falling as he did push-ups.

1, 2, 3... 30, 31, 32... 50, 51, 52...

After reaching fifty, his pace began to slow. A sour ache gradually spread through his muscles, but he overcame it with sheer willpower, mechanically maintaining proper form as he continued his push-ups.

When he reached sixty-two, Bai Ye finally could not hold on any longer. His arms gave out, and he collapsed onto the floor. As he caught his breath, he opened the panel.

Compared to daytime, the description section now contained over a dozen different kinds of exercise.

Description:

You completed a run with a total distance of 2,024 meters and an average pace of 4 minutes 42 seconds per kilometer...

You completed 89 bodyweight push-ups...

You completed 103 bodyweight squats...

You completed...

Looking at the long list in the description section, Bai Ye smiled in satisfaction. After all, every entry represented the fruits of a day's hard work.

At this rate, if I add up all the different exercises, my stamina should rise to around 1.2 in less than a week. Still feels way too little.

Forget it. No matter what, I'll try working out hard for a year first. Tomorrow, I'll get a gym membership.

For this year, I'll put my studies on hold. If it really doesn't work out, I'll just have to accept that I'm an ordinary person and repeat another year of school.

He sat back up from the floor. Despite his exhaustion, he still started kneading the muscles in his arms. If he did not massage properly after exercising, the muscle soreness the next morning would teach him a lesson.

After a simple massage, Bai Ye glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. It was already ten at night.

After casually washing up, Bai Ye lay back on his bed. Feeling that his stamina had nearly reached its limit, he slowly closed his eyes and was soon about to drift off.

But just before he fell asleep, he suddenly opened his eyes wide. He had thought of a very important question.

If I stay up late, does that count as training my spirit? Whatever. I'll stay up all night first, and I'll know when I check the description section tomorrow.

With that thought, Bai Ye forced his eyes open despite being exhausted to the extreme. By the moonlight spilling in through the window, he rolled out of bed and dragged his weary body into another workout, stubbornly staying awake for five more hours amid his fatigue.

Finally, at four in the morning the next day, Bai Ye could no longer hold on and passed out.

In the instant before he lost consciousness, a new notification appeared in his description section.

Description:

You completed continuous activity lasting 21 hours, 13 minutes, and 12 seconds. Repeated 954 times. Your body has sustained 3.21% long-term damage, which can recover naturally once Constitution reaches 1.5.

Willpower depleted by 96.7%. Willpower limit increased by 32%. Repeat 3 times to increase Spirit limit by 0.1.

At noon the next day, Bai Ye regained consciousness from his deep sleep.

He climbed up from the floor, rubbed his slightly swollen-feeling head, and opened the Stat Panel. The status displayed in the description section immediately stunned him.

This degree of improvement was simply unheard of. No wonder people called staying up late cultivation. Pulling an all-nighter really could make you stronger.

I couldn't handle it after staying awake for only twenty-one hours yesterday? Then I'll try staying up for twenty-five hours today. Bai Ye made up his mind. After washing up, he opened the refrigerator.

If he wanted a healthy body, eating properly was naturally essential alongside exercise.

The refrigerator was filled with all kinds of food. Eating all of it would directly provide every nutrient the human body needed, including proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and vitamins.

Bai Ye had bought all of it after school yesterday.

While ensuring nutritional value, he had also tried to spend more money on food that provided roughly the same nutrition as cheaper options but tasted better.

In his view, enduring the hardship of exercise was for the sake of a better life in the future. But if he suffered simply for the sake of suffering, would that not be putting the cart before the horse?

So, as long as he was not short on money and it did not affect his training efficiency, he naturally would not mistreat himself.

But would eating unpleasant food and often going hungry be more effective for training the spirit? After all, wearing down one's muscles and starving one's body can also temper one's will. Bai Ye slowly chewed the expensive food in his hand as he speculated.

Looking at the food in his hand, perfect in color, aroma, and taste, Bai Ye hesitated slightly before taking another huge bite.

He could accept the pain brought by normal training. But if eating shit also counted as training and could make him stronger, then he would rather not become stronger that way.

After spending a few minutes filling his ravenous stomach, Bai Ye tidied up the room and headed outside. It was time to put the gym on the agenda as well.

Today was Friday, a school day, but he had already asked the school for leave yesterday. Together with Saturday and Sunday, three days should be enough to raise his Spirit attribute to 0.1.

He used his phone to search for nearby gyms. After briefly looking through reviews for more than a dozen gyms within five kilometers, Bai Ye set his sights on one called Meins.

He chose it because it was a fairly well-known chain brand among gyms. It had also been operating locally for seven or eight years and had a good reputation nearby. In theory, the risk of it suddenly shutting down and disappearing with customers' money should not be too high.

After checking the distance and seeing that it was only around 1.8 kilometers away, Bai Ye immediately broke into a full-speed run toward the gym.

On the street, Bai Ye continuously sprinted toward his destination. Then he discovered something surprising: although his muscles still retained some soreness, his steps felt lighter and running felt easier than yesterday.

Although his stride frequency was tighter than yesterday's, his breathing did not start to become disordered until he had run around four hundred meters.

Although the panel's numbers did not reflect it, he could clearly feel that in the span of this short day, his physical condition had changed significantly.

Description:

You completed a run with a total distance of 1,824 meters and an average pace of 4 minutes 17 seconds per kilometer. Repeated 5,670 times. Your body has sustained 0.12% long-term damage, which can recover naturally once Constitution reaches 1.5.

Repeat 94 times to increase Strength limit by 0.1.

Repeat 42 times to increase Constitution limit by 0.1.

Repeat 132 times to increase Spirit limit by 0.1.

When Bai Ye stood before the gym and compared the numbers displayed in yesterday's and today's description sections, a sense of satisfaction from seeing his efforts rewarded welled up within him.

Yesterday, he had run himself ragged for two kilometers, and it would take 365 repetitions to gain 0.1 Spirit. Yet today, running an easier 1.8 kilometers required only 132 repetitions, a reduction of nearly 60%.

This gradual yet obvious process of becoming stronger was beginning to fascinate him.