Going to Fail the Fitness Test? You Can't Handle the Secret in This Water Dispenser!

The early autumn evening breeze carried a hint of chill.

Lin Bei grabbed Ruan Qingwu's wrist and sprinted all the way.

The clamor of the street food stalls fell far behind them.

Only when they reached the old banyan tree below the girls' dormitory did Lin Bei stop.

Ruan Qingwu hadn't eaten much to begin with. After running several streets with him, she was too breathless to speak.

She bent over, bracing both hands on her knees, her chest heaving.

Lin Bei leaned against the tree trunk, looked at her bedraggled state, and couldn't help laughing.

Ruan Qingwu raised her head and glared at him, her cheeks flushed from the strenuous exercise. Under the dim yellow streetlight, the sight inexplicably made Lin Bei's heart skip half a beat.

"What were we running for?" Ruan Qingwu straightened and smoothed her disheveled hair, complaining irritably, "It's not like I dined and dashed. I already paid."

"Were we supposed to wait for those people to gawk at us like monkeys?" Lin Bei put both hands in his pockets. "Besides, didn't you see that owner's eyes turn green? He was one step away from dropping to his knees and begging to become my disciple."

Ruan Qingwu burst out laughing.

With that laugh, the cool, ethereal campus belle instantly gained a touch of sweet guilelessness.

They looked at each other, neither saying another word.

Occasionally, students returning from evening self-study passed by and couldn't resist taking a few extra looks.

Ruan Qingwu lowered her head and looked at her wrist.

The warmth of Lin Bei's palm still lingered there, burning hot.

A little ill at ease, she put her hands behind her back, unconsciously grinding a fallen leaf beneath her toe.

"Well... I'm going upstairs. You... get some rest early when you get back, too."

"Mm." Lin Bei nodded without making any other move. "Go on. I'll leave once I see you go inside."

Ruan Qingwu pressed her lips together, turned, and climbed the steps.

When she reached the dormitory entrance, she suddenly stopped and looked back at Lin Bei, her eyes sparkling.

"Thank you... for tonight."

With that, she darted into the dormitory.

Standing beneath the tree, Lin Bei watched the hem of that aqua-blue dress disappear around the turn of the staircase. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he turned toward the boys' dormitory.

He pushed open the door to Room 502. The dorm room was pitch-black.

Lin Bei had just found the light switch on the wall.

Someone kicked the door open from outside.

Fatty Wang squeezed in, his round belly leading the way as he huffed and puffed.

Liu Chen and Chen Mo followed, equally exhausted, their eyes rolling back.

"Brother Bei! That was low!" Fatty collapsed into a chair and pointed accusingly at Lin Bei. "You ran off with the campus belle and left us there for everyone to gawk at like monkeys! You have no idea how crazy those people were. They even wanted to take the skewers and lick them!"

Liu Chen rubbed his stomach and chimed in, "Exactly. If we hadn't run fast enough, that pack of hungry wolves would've swallowed us alive today."

Chen Mo pushed up his glasses and offered an objective assessment. "Still, Lin Bei, your cooking really was impeccable. In all my life, I've never had barbecue that good."

Lin Bei couldn't be bothered with the three clowns. He grabbed his washbasin and headed to the washroom to wash up.

By the time he returned, Fatty and the others were already sprawled on their beds, their snores shaking the heavens.

Lin Bei locked the door from inside, drew his bed curtains, and sat cross-legged on his bed.

With a thought, he willed it.

A palm-sized, bluish-gray array disc appeared in his hand.

The Miniature Spirit Gathering Array.

It looked unremarkable and felt like neither metal nor wood, giving off an ancient, cool sensation.

Lin Bei turned the array disc over. Sure enough, there was a recessed slot on its back.

He took a Low-Grade Spirit Stone from the system space and placed it inside.

Click.

The moment the spirit stone clicked into the slot, the dull patterns covering the array disc suddenly lit up with a faint blue-green glow, as though electricity had surged through them.

Immediately afterward, Lin Bei heard an extremely faint hum beside his ears.

It sounded like some old machine starting up again.

Almost in the blink of an eye, the air in the dorm room changed.

If Earth's spiritual energy had previously been like a few drops seeping from a dried-up riverbed, Lin Bei now felt as though he were sitting beneath a showerhead.

Within a five-kilometer radius, the pitifully thin, free-floating spiritual energy was forcibly drawn over by the array disc, gathering madly toward Lin Bei's bed.

The concentration of spiritual energy shot straight up.

Twice, three times... all the way to five times!

Lin Bei took a deep breath.

This feels amazing.

That pure spiritual energy rushed through his nose into his lungs. He didn't even need to deliberately capture it; it was like someone was pouring it into his body through a funnel.

The vortex of spiritual power in his dantian, which had just broken through to the qi refining second layer, began greedily devouring the incoming spiritual energy.

Lin Bei closed his eyes, immersing himself completely in this cheat-like cultivation speed.

The night passed without further incident.

Early the next morning.

"Aah-I'm going to die! I'm going to die!"

Lin Bei was awakened by Fatty's screams.

He opened his eyes. The glow of the spirit stone on the array disc had dimmed considerably, but the concentration of spiritual energy was still substantial.

He casually put the array disc back into his space and stretched, feeling refreshed.

His cultivation at the qi refining second layer had fully stabilized, and even his senses were a notch sharper than yesterday.

On the lower bunk, Fatty sat pinching the three spare tires around his stomach, his face filled with despair.

"What's with all the soul-summoning this early in the morning?" Liu Chen emerged from his blankets with hair like a bird's nest.

On the verge of tears but unable to cry, Fatty pointed at a notice in the group chat on his phone.

"The fitness test! Military training ends this morning, and they're going straight into the fitness test!"

"A three-kilometer cross-country run, plus pull-ups!" Fatty wailed and collapsed onto his bed. "Aren't they trying to kill Lord Fatty here? With this physique, forget three kilometers-I'd need an ambulance after three hundred meters!"

Liu Chen's face went pale at that.

He was a bona fide gaming shut-in whose most strenuous daily exercise was typing. Three kilometers was practically hell difficulty for him.

Sitting at his desk, Chen Mo calmly twisted the knife.

"Based on previous years, failing the military training fitness test means losing two credits outright. And the retest is extremely strict. If you fail, you're automatically disqualified from consideration for freshman scholarships."

Now Liu Chen couldn't stay lying down either. He clawed irritably at his hair.

Fatty, however, suddenly remembered something. He sprang up from his bed and grabbed the railing of Lin Bei's bunk.

"Brother Bei! My own dear brother! You definitely have a way, don't you?"

Fatty looked at Lin Bei pleadingly. "You could send Zhang Liang flying with one flick of your finger. You must know some internal cultivation art! Hurry up and teach me a couple of moves so I can get through today!"

Lin Bei yawned and climbed out of bed.

"Teach you, my ass. You have to practice internal cultivation arts from childhood. Start now, and by the time you can finish three kilometers, you'll have graduated."

Hearing that, Fatty completely deflated and slumped straight into his chair.

Just then.

Deep in Lin Bei's mind, that mechanical voice suddenly rang out.

"Ding!"

"Current scenario detected. Mission triggered: [Brothers' Glory]!"

"Mission objective: help your three roommates earn excellent marks in every event of today's fitness test, and deliver a resounding face-slapping to the mockers waiting to laugh at them."

"Mission rewards: one storage ring! One Floating Formation Plate!"

Lin Bei stopped in his tracks.

A storage ring? A Floating Formation Plate?

Good grief, has the system decided to blow the household budget today?

A storage ring was an essential divine item in the cultivation world, whether for murder and plunder or home life and travel.

The system's built-in space was convenient, but it could only store system rewards. Nothing from the real world could be put inside.

With a storage ring, things would be far more convenient.

And that Floating Formation Plate—just its name told him it was a powerful tool for showing off.

I'm taking this mission!

Lin Bei's mind began racing.

Help these three weaklings get excellent marks across the board?

Directly channel spiritual power into them to cleanse their meridians and marrow?

No, too much effort.

He'd only managed to scrape together a little spiritual power. If he spent it all on them, how the hell was he supposed to cultivate?

Besides, those three knew nothing. If the spiritual power ran wild inside their bodies, they would surely explode and die.

I need something that saves time and effort and produces results the moment the pole casts its shadow.

Lin Bei swept his gaze around the dorm room, finally settling on the water dispenser behind the door.

They had replaced its jug of purified water just yesterday. It was filled to the brim.

A smile curled at the corner of Lin Bei's mouth.

Got it.

"You three, hurry up and wash. It's almost time to assemble," Lin Bei urged.

Once Fatty and the other two dragged their heavy feet into the washroom, Lin Bei reached back and closed the dorm room door.

He walked up to the water dispenser and turned his wrist. The Miniature Spirit Gathering Array Disk appeared in his palm again.

Rather than putting the array disc on the floor, Lin Bei pressed it directly against the plastic casing on the back of the water dispenser.

His intent stirred slightly.

A thread of spiritual power reached out from his dantian, forcibly changing the array disc's absorption path.

Lin Bei forcibly compressed the spiritual energy vortex that had originally spread outward, locking all of it inside the jug of purified water.

Gurgle, gurgle-

A stream of tiny bubbles rose through the previously still water.

Before his very eyes, the water grew clearer, even taking on a faint blue-green sheen.

Lin Bei picked up his cup, filled it halfway, tilted his head back, and drank.

The water entered his throat with a hint of sweetness and chill, sliding down his esophagus into his stomach.

Lin Bei carefully assessed the sensation.

For a cultivator at the qi refining second layer like him, this bit of spiritual energy was truly insignificant-not even enough to fill the gaps between his teeth. At most, it quenched his thirst.

But for an ordinary person like Fatty, the spiritual energy in this water was definitely a potent medicine.

They wouldn't need much. Two large cups each, and forget three kilometers-even if they were made to run a marathon today, these guys probably wouldn't take a single heavy breath.

Not only could it instantly unleash their physical stamina, it could also silently repair the hidden injuries and fatigue in their bodies.

Lin Bei put away the array disc and looked at the jug of spirit water, which still shimmered faintly, then clapped his hands in satisfaction.