The physical training class on Feng Lingtian's second day at the academy took place on the mountain trail behind the academy.
This was the new students' first physical training class, and they would be running cross-country laps back and forth. Under the rules, the senior students were responsible for setting up the obstacle sections. If the new students completed five laps within the allotted time, the first five would receive a share of cultivation resources as a reward, while everyone else who finished would receive other rewards. Conversely, for every new student the senior students managed to stop, they would earn corresponding points, which they could exchange for the cultivation supplies they needed.
The rules were simple, and the new students were all itching to try. Only after they started running did they realize it was anything but easy.
Feng Lingtian ran with the leading group. The speed advantage granted by his Peregrine Falcon kept him from getting particularly winded throughout the run, and he even had enough attention to spare to observe his surroundings. He noticed that Zhong Yue had stayed in the middle of the pack. For someone of Zhong Yue's build, that pace was already quite good.
Feng Lingtian gave Zhong Yue another look. Zhong Yue was about six years old, much sturdier than other children his age, with broad shoulders and a thick waist, like a little calf. His round face had plump cheeks, a rounded nose, and rather thick lips, and his smile revealed a row of slightly crooked teeth. His eyes were small but bright, like two black beans, and when they darted about, they held a cleverness that formed a curious contrast with his honest-looking face. Zhong Yue wore a gray cloth tunic of ordinary material, its sleeves a little too short, exposing his wrists. Those wrists were thick too, with large joints that made his strength apparent at a glance. A few dried mud stains dotted the front of his tunic; there was no telling where he had picked them up.
Feng Lingtian looked away and kept running. Halfway through the second lap, the group ahead suddenly slowed down. Someone was cursing under his breath, while another student took a wide detour and stopped at the side. Only when Feng Lingtian caught up did he see that someone had dug up and loosened a stretch of the trail. The surface looked level, but one step could sink an entire ankle into it. Those two new students had fallen for it and were crouching at the side, rubbing their feet. Feng Lingtian glanced at the edges of the loosened soil and understood. They were too neat to have formed naturally. Someone had deliberately dug it up.
Feng Lingtian went around it. When he looked back, he happened to see Zhong Yue crouch there, grab a handful of loose soil, and squeeze it. Then Zhong Yue stood and stepped across a patch of firm ground beside it. His movements were natural, as though he had merely taken a passing look.
Feng Lingtian looked away and kept running.
On the third lap, a new obstacle appeared. A tripwire had been strung between two trees, its color so close to the trunks that it was hard to notice at speed. The first new student to hit it went tumbling, and those behind him stopped abruptly, clogging up the trail again. Feng Lingtian avoided it in advance. From the corner of his eye, he saw Zhong Yue slow briefly before the tripwire, glance down, then speed up and pass it.
On the fourth lap, more obstacles were added, and this time the difficulty increased. The senior students changed the obstacles to moving ones: thrown sandbags. Several senior students stood beside the trail with sandbags in hand, aiming straight at the new students' feet. The sandbags were small, but a hit to the ankle was enough to make someone stumble. Some students had already nearly fallen after being hit and were swearing as they moved to the outermost edge of the course.
One of the senior boys had very long legs and stood at a bend in the course. While the others threw sandbags at the students' feet, he specifically chose the moment just after a new student had avoided an obstacle, before their footing was steady. Several new students had been hit by him that way.
When Zhong Yue ran past, the long-legged senior sent a sandbag straight at his ankle, timing it perfectly for the instant Zhong Yue had just stepped across some loose soil and had yet to fully regain his balance. Zhong Yue did not dodge. He merely adjusted his stride slightly, letting the sandbag strike his calf. It bounced off without so much as a wobble in his stride. A second sandbag came flying right after it, this time aimed at Zhong Yue's knee. Zhong Yue raised a hand, blocked it with the back of his hand, and kept running.
Feng Lingtian watched it all and thought, It's not that Zhong Yue can't dodge. He just can't be bothered. Rather than waste strength dodging, he might as well tank it. That way of thinking is very Defense System. But that long-legged senior seems to have set his sights on Zhong Yue. Things have just gotten more interesting.
On the fifth lap, Feng Lingtian noticed a detail. Zhong Yue was no longer running silently on his own. He had begun calling out directions to the new students behind him. "Go around to the left!" "Duck!" His voice was quiet but steady, reaching those behind him just before each obstacle. When someone failed to react, Zhong Yue even reached out to pull him along. It was a short boy who nearly caught the tripwire across his neck, until Zhong Yue pressed his head down with one hand.
Feng Lingtian ran ahead, listening to the voices behind him. He had seen those obstacles too, but he had simply gone around them himself, never thinking to warn the people behind him. Zhong Yue had thought of it.
Suddenly, Feng Lingtian felt a little uncomfortable. He silently reminded himself not to do that again next time.
On the final straight before the finish, the long-legged senior suddenly tossed his sandbag aside. Just as Zhong Yue was about to cross the finish line, he stepped sideways and stuck one foot out from the edge of the trail, planting it squarely in Zhong Yue's path.
Zhong Yue's body dipped slightly in that instant, then abruptly rose into the air. He did not jump. He flew. The phantom shell of the Wind Armor Black Tortoise flashed behind his back, and he swept over that outstretched foot, landing steadily beyond the finish line.
The long-legged senior froze where he stood, his foot still extended and his expression as ugly as if he had swallowed a fly. Several new students nearby stared for a moment, then burst into cheers. Zhong Yue looked back, gave the long-legged senior a glance, and walked away without a word.
Instructor Qin stood at the finish with a record board in her hand.
"The top five, come collect your tokens." Instructor Qin's voice was quiet, but everyone heard her clearly. "First place, Lu Hanxiao. Second, Feng Lingtian. Third, Zhong Yue. Fourth, Su Mei'er. Fifth, Jiang Lin."
Feng Lingtian turned toward the edge of the crowd. Lu Hanxiao stood there, showing little reaction even when he heard his name. He merely walked over, took a wooden token from Instructor Qin, casually tucked it into the front of his clothes, and returned to his original spot.
From beginning to end, Lu Hanxiao's expression did not change at all.
Zhong Yue, on the other hand, froze briefly and scratched his head, as though he had not expected to make the top five. He went over to collect his token and grinned on his way back.
Instructor Qin added, "Keep your tokens safe. Everyone will collect their resources from the logistics office at the end of the month. If you lose yours, that's your responsibility."
Feng Lingtian turned the wooden token over in his hand and examined it. The character for "two" was carved into it.
On the way back to the dormitory, Feng Lingtian walked beside Zhong Yue. Zhong Yue's head was drenched in sweat, but his breathing had already steadied. Feng Lingtian unhooked his water flask from his waist and offered it to him.
"Thanks." Zhong Yue grinned, took it, and gulped down a large mouthful before wiping his mouth with his sleeve. His other hand still clutched the wooden token, his thumb unconsciously rubbing the grooves on its surface.
Feng Lingtian waited until Zhong Yue finished drinking before asking, "You noticed something was off about those obstacles a long time ago, didn't you?"
Zhong Yue paused, then scratched his head. "You noticed? I just thought those pits were dug too neatly, and the ends of the tripwires were left so long. You could tell at a glance they weren't really trying to hide them. They wanted to make fools of the new students. Who knows what person with too much time on their hands designed them?"
Feng Lingtian said nothing and simply looked at him.
Feng Lingtian's stare made Zhong Yue a little uneasy, and his leisurely head-scratching grew faster and faster. "I just took a look in passing. I didn't really help much."
"You already helped," Feng Lingtian said.
Zhong Yue's hand stopped in midair, then lowered. He did not ask, "Really?" Nor did he modestly deny it. He fell silent for two seconds, then grinned. Unlike his smile amid the cheers at the finish, this one was faint, but his eyes were bright.
Back at the dormitory, Zhong Yue plopped onto his bed and began taking off his shoes. Lu Hanxiao had already returned and was sitting by the window with a book in his hands. Feng Lingtian noticed that the soles of Lu Hanxiao's shoes were clean. Lu Hanxiao should have completed the entire cross-country run too, but somehow, he had not gotten so much as a speck of mud on his shoes.
Zhong Yue kicked his shoes off and flopped onto the bed. "I'm dead tired."
Lu Hanxiao turned a page without looking up.
Zhong Yue turned his head toward Lu Hanxiao. "You came first. How come you haven't reacted at all?"
Lu Hanxiao's page-turning fingers paused, then continued. "What reaction?"
"Be happy. Smile. Say something. You're acting like you didn't even run."
Lu Hanxiao fell silent for a moment. "Finishing was enough."
Zhong Yue opened his mouth, then closed it again and turned toward Feng Lingtian, his eyes saying, What's with this guy? Feng Lingtian did not meet his gaze. He sat down beside his own bed and began undoing his wrist guards. Lu Hanxiao isn't trying to act cool, he thought. He really doesn't think his placing matters. Finishing was enough. It didn't matter what place he came in.
Over the course of today's cross-country run, Feng Lingtian had observed far more than he had expected. Zhong Yue's mind was much quicker than his appearance suggested. As for Lu Hanxiao, he had come first, yet the soles of his shoes were clean. Neither mud nor water had touched them, and even his breathing had never faltered. After returning, he had simply sat by the window and opened a book, as though nothing had happened.
He had come first, yet it was as though he had never run at all.
This person hid his depths well.
As for Su Mei'er, Feng Lingtian only remembered her smiling when she collected her token, as open and poised as always. But making the top five meant that she was not just Control System; her speed was nothing to scoff at either. He would have to take a good look at her tomorrow.
He made a mental note.
And so their first physical training class ended. There would be more training to come. He wondered who else among the remaining students would surprise him.