Half an hour later, once the dust had settled, Wang Xian finally came back from home.
As soon as he returned to the shared dormitory, he saw the new dents in the wall and Li Xi's disheveled bed. He couldn't help staring in a daze.
He looked at Zhao Yan. "Did a thief break into our room?"
"What? Ye Li and Li Xi just got into a fight. Ye Li's been sentenced to three days of wall-facing. As for Li Xi... heh, he got beaten fair and square and is lying in the infirmary. He won't be better for a month."
Zhao Yan, who had also arrived late, told him what he'd heard from the other disciples.
Wang Xian hadn't expected things to unfold like this. His hand tightened around his bundle, and he asked, "What about Brother Ye? Where's he facing the wall now?"
"Probably that same grove as usual. You know he doesn't like the noise. Getting punished to face the wall is a good chance for some peace and quiet," Zhao Yan replied.
After getting his answer, Wang Xian headed outside with his bundle.
Neither of them was particularly concerned about Li Xi's injuries.
They'd already been fed up with their roommate, who acted superior all day long. Right now, they were even a little gleeful at his misfortune.
At that moment, in the grove, Ye Li let out a long breath of clear air.
A visible arrow of qi swept past, making the leaves several feet away rustle loudly.
After this period of refining, he had once again calmed the surging blood and qi stirred up by the Body Tempering Pill.
"Mortal (506/862)" "Azure Dragon Force (1426/100)"
Looking at the numbers on the panel, and at the last Body Tempering Pill in his hand, he knew that as long as he spent more than fourteen hours a day training, he was certain to reach the next realm within twenty days.
"Effort? That's just what I'm good at!" Ye Li thought to himself.
Even in his previous life, Ye Li had been an inspirational figure!
Ye Li hadn't done well in high school!
An orphan, he'd realized he had no talent for studying. So he'd accurately spotted the traffic potential of short videos and decisively worked his way across various platforms.
He'd waved his hands on Kuaishou and twisted his waist on Douyin, then finally earned his first pot of gold on Bilibili with an anime-style virtual avatar!
Then he'd used that money to buy traffic, get recommended, and boost donations, building it all up like a snowball!
The last person on the internet to achieve sainthood in the flesh in 2026!
Someone once asked during a livestream how Prison Ye had made it this far.
Ye Li's answer was simple: effort!!!
The protagonists of web novels were just like the hard-core tough guys of Tongliao.
They could be wicked, stupid, or lecherous...
But they absolutely couldn't be lazy!
Powerful execution was the bare minimum!
It took him three years to string together this level of achievement!
Two hours on Qidian!
Two hours on Bilibili!
Then two hours on Xiaohongshu!
And don't forget the most important Weibo and Baidu Tieba!
He scrolled through them all once a day, come rain or shine! Three years without wavering!
Whenever he thought of something outrageous, he had to write it down and say it on stream to stun the launch audience!
He spent all the rest of his time dropping classics!
Reverend Insanity, Genshin, Lord of the Mysteries, Zhihu, Kuaishou, Douyin, Hakimi, Luo Tianyi, Brother Hu, Ma Niu Bi, Nezha, Dingqu...
Every one of them had a signature skill.
Every one of them became fuel for his immortal path—refined in an instant!!!
Eight hours a day searching for classics, eight hours livestreaming and dropping classics, and the final eight hours resting to maintain a stable mental state!
That was the secret to his internet sainthood!
Everyone who knew Ye Li called him Ye the Godly Person.
But those who could understand and get his memes had the makings of a god, too. They'd made it in this life!
So perhaps the next protagonist would be...
Now, Ye Li had merely traded the effort he'd put into livestreaming for training and cultivation!
What was pain? Just a little wind and frost!
He would carry the martial talent of this life all the way to the peak of the world!
"So... train!!!"
A glint of resolve flashed in Ye Li's eyes! But just as he was about to circulate his energy, a crisp chime sounded beside his ear.
"Ding-a-ling—"
"Who's there?" Ye Li looked toward the sound and saw Wang Xian watching him from dozens of meters away.
"A bell..." Wang Xian looked down in surprise at the bell tied to a red string in front of his feet. Ye Li had set it up beforehand.
The Azure Dragon Force he practiced was different from the other disciples' techniques.
To keep anyone from getting close and seeing him train, then noticing something amiss, Ye Li had strung bells around the area dozens of meters away.
The moment anyone approached, they would trigger the bells and warn him!
"Brother Wang, what brings you here?" Ye Li asked, looking puzzled.
Wang Xian walked over step by step, took a foot-long wooden box from his bundle, and held it out to him.
"My father asked me to give this to you!"
Puzzled, Ye Li took the box and opened it carefully. His pupils contracted at what he saw!
Inside the wooden box, nestled in golden silk padding, lay ten milky-white pills.
The ten pills gave off a rich fragrance. Just one sniff made Ye Li feel his blood and qi, which he'd just calmed, begin to surge again.
"Ten Body Tempering Pills!!! What does your father mean by this?" Ye Li looked up at Wang Xian in astonishment.
Wang Xian smiled. "We're buddies. My father heard what you'd done and immediately paid for ten Body Tempering Pills. He said he wanted to support you!"
"These are far too precious!" Ye Li said, touched. "I can't accept them!"
Wang Xian raised a hand to stop Ye Li from returning the wooden box. "Quit fussing and keep them!"
"My dad said he's seen too many geniuses fall by the wayside over the years because they lacked resources. He doesn't want one of his friends to end up the same way!"
"If you really don't want to let us down, break through soon and prove with your results that our judgment was right!"
Handing the wooden box to Ye Li, Wang Xian smiled. "I heard you were sentenced to three days facing the wall, so I won't disturb you."
"These ten Body Tempering Pills will save you a month of hard cultivation. Keep working hard, and try to reach the next realm within two months."
"As for your family, the Li Family is powerful. At the end of the month, your family can register under a business owned by the Wang Family."
"When my family's businesses are out running escort caravans, they can stay away for a few years. Once you break through to the Post-Heaven Realm, you can bring them back."
With that, Wang Xian waved casually and left under Ye Li's gaze.
Holding the wooden box and watching Wang Xian's back gradually disappear into the distance, Ye Li fell silent.
Someone once said that once you made a name for yourself, everyone around you was a good person. It seemed he'd been right!
The Li Family looked powerful and prosperous, and its retaliation seemed to have driven a powerless nobody like him into a dead end.
But in the blink of an eye, the road opened up, and countless choices appeared.
Clutching the wooden box, Ye Li felt a fire kindle inside him!
They weren't investing in who he was now, but in Ye Li's future. He had to turn his potential into strength as quickly as possible!
The greater his potential within their acceptable limits, the more investment he could attract.
Only by getting more and more people to take his side, and making them sink more and more costs into him, could he be safe!
"Break through with everything I've got!!!"
"Ten days! I'll reach the Body Tempering Realm in ten days!"
A burning flame seemed to flicker in Ye Li's eyes!