Chapter 38: Level 10 Cyclic Qi Gathering Method

Turning her head to look at Zhang Yu, Bai Zhenzhen said in surprise, "Are you sure?"

"Yu Zi, don't make a decision too easily."

"Wanting to take the exam for the Ten Great Schools means going against countless people in Songyang City."

"You wouldn't be saying this just to show off, would you?"

Zhang Yu said angrily, "What the hell... Bro, I'm being serious with you, do you think I'm joking?"

Looking at Zhang Yu's serious expression, Bai Zhenzhen suddenly smiled. "Alright, I'll take it that you also want to take the exam for the Ten Great Schools."

"They gave you a month to think it over, right?"

"The deadline they gave me is also one month."

"In the next two weeks, you should still try your best to improve yourself. During the Mage Competition, I'll take you to meet some people."

"Mage Competition?" Zhang Yu's heart stirred. He remembered that the Mage Competition he had signed up for was starting this month, just two weeks away.

"Meet people at the Mage Competition? What people?"

Bai Zhenzhen said mysteriously, "People who might be able to help us."

Death to riddle-talkers!

Zhang Yu pressed, "Who exactly are they?"

Bai Zhenzhen said, "I'm not sure myself. Anyway, you'll know when the time comes."

Zhang Yu had no choice but to focus all his energy on self-improvement in the time that followed.

Whatever the case, the only thing he could hold onto now was his own strength.

……

In martial arts class.

"Dao arts are useless."

"Only martial arts are of great use."

"When you meet on a narrow path and come head-to-head with an opponent, your exquisite martial skills are the most reliable thing in your hands."

"At that time, there are only two outcomes: either you beat your opponent to death, or you lie down and get beaten to death by your opponent..."

Listening to the martial arts teacher Lei Jun's remarks, He Dayou secretly rolled his eyes, obviously not taking this opinion seriously.

Just then, Lei Jun said, "Alright, next, divide into groups for practical combat practice."

"He Dayou, you're in a group with Zhang Yu."

"What?" He Dayou was stunned, instinctively looking at Lei Jun and pointing at himself.

Lei Jun snorted coldly and said, "What are you looking at? You lost so badly in the monthly exam, your grades are so poor. Have you reflected properly when you went back?"

"Now I'm giving you another chance to learn from Zhang Yu. Don't you want to?"

With the huge banner of poor martial arts practical combat scores in the monthly exam pressing down, even the school board chairman's son like He Dayou couldn't argue.

After all, under the political correctness that even breathing is wrong for poor students, He Dayou couldn't defy this in class.

Damn old martial arts master, bullying the Dao arts top student, right?

He silently walked up to Zhang Yu, thinking to himself, "But now I might not necessarily lose to Zhang Yu."

Having lost three times in a row to Zhang Yu, although He Dayou didn't intend to hold a grudge against him, it didn't mean he wouldn't self-reflect and examine himself.

Not only had he watched the recordings of those three battles over and over, but he had also specially shown them to his private combat tutor.

The analysis concluded: Zhang Yu's free hand skill had reached Level 3. Once he spotted a weakness, it was easy to suffer heavy damage.

But Zhang Yu's weakness was also obvious. From the third practical combat, it could be seen that Zhang Yu was extremely lacking in practical combat experience.

So He Dayou had also tried to practice some countermeasures for this.

For example, at this moment on the stage, he no longer attacked first, but defended with all his strength, waiting for the opponent to become impatient and restless, then looking for an opportunity to use the Little Star Palm to catch him off guard...

With these countermeasures, He Dayou believed that even if he lost, he definitely wouldn't lose badly, and there was even a possibility of winning.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

He Dayou managed to block several of Zhang Yu's moves at first, feeling fine.

But soon he felt the other's fists growing heavier; his hands ached from blocking, and his mana began to churn slightly.

Boom!

Zhang Yu's punch blasted through his blocking hands, and then He Dayou was kicked flying.

He crashed to the ground with a bang. He Dayou felt his mana churning repeatedly, unable to get up for a moment.

"Is Zhang Yu's San Shou stronger than last time?"

"Could he have..."

He Dayou looked at Zhang Yu in disbelief.

On the other side, Lei Jun's figure flickered as he appeared beside Zhang Yu, exclaiming, "Has your San Shou reached level 4?"

Zhang Yu, whose San Shou was already at level 5, smiled awkwardly: "Yeah, I just broke through yesterday."

Originally, Zhang Yu hadn't planned to reveal his improved San Shou; he had been deliberately suppressing its power when sparring with He Dayou.

But ultimately lacking combat experience, after He Dayou switched to full defense, Zhang Yu attacked continuously and accidentally lost control of his San Shou's power, pushing his flesh-blood and mana circulation to level 4.

Lei Jun laughed and said, "Looks like you have quite some talent in martial arts."

"How about it? Want to join next month's Songyang City Martial Combat Competition?"

Zhang Yu's eyes flickered: "Is there a prize?"

Lei Jun said, "Of course. First place in the city gets 50,000, plus access to expert-level martial arts."

Zhang Yu thought to himself: "The magic competition I signed up for earlier had a prize, and this martial combat competition also has a prize..."

He suddenly thought that if he could win more competition placements and prizes, even without the student council's support, he would have enough money for daily expenses and even speed up his cultivation.

Seeing Zhang Yu's tempted expression, Lei Jun continued, "I've told you all that martial arts are very useful. If you perform well in combat, you won't have to worry about making money."

"Then I'll sign you up. I'll take you and Bai Zhenzhen along then."

After Lei Jun left, Zhang Yu looked at He Dayou, who was still lying on the ground, and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. What could happen to me?" He Dayou quickly stood up, gave Zhang Yu a deep look, and suddenly said, "I heard the student council called you in yesterday?"

Seeing Zhang Yu nod, He Dayou slowly calmed the anger in his heart.

"No need to be angry with him. It's all campus assets, and it won't affect my college entrance exam."

While rubbing his chest, he comforted himself in his heart: "It doesn't matter much if you're strong or weak in actual combat in freshman year. Once I lay a solid foundation and start cultivating expert-level techniques, I'll quickly crush people like Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen."

On the other side of the training ground, Bai Zhenzhen said impatiently, "Have you finished looking? Let's continue."

Qian Shen withdrew his gaze from Zhang Yu's direction. Looking at Bai Zhenzhen in front of him, he felt waves of pressure coming at him.

If his opponent were a subhuman with a score of 550, he would be confident to defeat them with overwhelming force. But facing a prodigy with 651 points, Qian Shen felt that every move he made was seen through by her. As soon as he started fighting Bai Zhenzhen, he felt constrained and his combat power dropped sharply.

"I'm so much lower in score than her, how could I be her match? Old Huang is really something; he should have arranged for me to fight Zhang Yu, who is six points lower."

Zhang Yu glanced at He Dayou, Qian Shen, and other rich guys, and suddenly couldn't help thinking: when these seemingly friendly wealthy students learn that he and Bai Zhenzhen plan to take the exam for the top ten universities, what will they become?

Will they also join forces to deal with him and Azhen?

Watching Qian Shen being completely suppressed by Bai Zhenzhen, Zhang Yu thought to himself: "Speaking of which, Qian Shen's severe score-obsessed attitude, as if he doesn't know that poor people have no way to get into the top ten universities—could it be an act?"

Zhang Yu didn't think so. Qian Shen's purity didn't seem like an act.

It couldn't be that kind of drama where "let the young master focus on studying, don't let him know about the dirty affairs of society," right?

Zhang Yu shook his head, unable to be sure.

In Dao Arts class.

The teacher looked at He Dayou with admiration and said, "This health talisman is excellently written. It seems you have a profound understanding of the talismans of the great god of vigorous spring."

He Dayou said humbly, "Teacher flatters me too much. There is still much for me to improve."

!.

The teacher waved his hand and said, "Excessive modesty is just pride."

"Being able to achieve this in your first year of high school, He Dayou, I think you don't need to study the first-year courses at school anymore."

"It's fine if you don't come to this class from now on; I'll mark you as full attendance."

Feeling the envious glances from his classmates around him, He Dayou once again showed humility and refused politely.

But the teacher suddenly turned his head and said, "Zhang Yu, Bai Zhenzhen, you two need to work harder too."

"Being so severely unbalanced in your subjects is not good."

"If you have time, come to me for extra lessons. I'll give you both a twenty percent discount..."

Neither Bai Zhenzhen nor Zhang Yu could do anything but bow their heads and accept the scolding, though their hearts remained unmoved. The cost-effectiveness of extra talisman lessons was far too low; they still planned to spend their money on things with better returns.

Inside the quiet room.

The administrator Wei Xin's voice came over.

"Student Zhang Yu, time is almost up. Would you like to add more time?"

Zhang Yu, who had once again achieved the lowest distraction rate this week, hesitated for a moment and said, "Add one more hour."

Thinking that the magic competition was getting closer, Zhang Yu decided to appropriately increase his rate of magical cultivation.

He took a deep breath, felt the qi sea and spiritual root in his dantian tremble, and spiritual energy surged from all directions of heaven and earth, being refined into magic power strand by strand.

An hour later, watching Zhang Yu's retreating figure, Wei Xin sighed, "As expected of a Golden Core disciple, the rate of improvement in his breathing and refining efficiency is so fast."

"If only he would buy a Platinum membership sometime."

After school.

On the school rooftop.

Amid the sounds of thumping collisions,

Two figures continuously clashed at high speed, erupting with sounds of wind and thunder.

They were none other than Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen engaged in practical sparring.

Compared to their practice matches in combat class, their private sparring allowed them to go all out without worrying about exposing their trump cards, which was even more effective for improving their real combat experience.

During their exchanges of fists and legs, Zhang Yu's freehand techniques were more powerful, but his physical strength was slightly inferior to Bai Zhenzhen's.

And although Bai Zhenzhen's freehand techniques were not as advanced as Zhang Yu's, she also mastered a basic high school swordsmanship technique, occasionally interweaving it with sword fingers, forcing the less experienced Zhang Yu into a fluster.

"Yu, don't look at my hands; you need to watch my waist, hips, and shoulders to predict my movements."

"Don't always rely on your familiarity with freehand techniques to judge..."

In the stationery shop at the school gate.

The shop owner pointed at this year's first-year rankings and said, "Zhang Yu, ranked third in his year, improved by 70 points in one month, all because he bought my calming agents, painkillers, fillers, muscle supplements..."

As he spoke, he took out a bag of medicine bottles and recommended them to the Songyang students in front of him, "Zhang Yu's original training package, now on sale at a 10% discount."

Zhang Yu, who had come to restock, stood at the door and watched the adult behind the counter tirelessly peddling his wares for money, once again feeling the ugliness of the adult world.

After that group of students left, Zhang Yu walked up and said, "See? Last time I told you, I'm a campus celebrity, my product endorsement works great."

"Shouldn't you pay me more?"

The shop owner grumbled, "I haven't even recouped the cost of those nerve fillers I gave you."

He pointed at the gift bag area and said, "See? Only one set sold today."

Zhang Yu muttered inwardly: "Everything you sell is common stuff, not cheaper than online. Where can't people buy it?"

The boss added: "Also, about the body-tempering medicines—many students say you temper your body naturally, without using any medicines."

Zhang Yu quickly changed the subject: "It's still because I've taken too few of your medicines at school. Give me two more bottles of Nerve Filler, and I'll take them every day at school—only then will the promotional effect be good."

…

Reading, attending class, cultivating, breathing exercises, combat training…

In five days, Zhang Yu poured all his energy into cultivation.

One evening, while performing breathing exercises on his bed, he couldn't help the corners of his mouth lifting into a smile.

After completing the final cycle of breathing, his Heavenly Cycle Qi Gathering Method was finally upgraded to level 10.

Instantly, the mana circulation within Zhang Yu's body surged and roiled, flowing endlessly like a great river, so intense that a roaring phantom sound seemed to fill his ears.

After a long while, when the turbulence in his mana circulation gradually calmed, Zhang Yu felt his passive breathing become stronger and more agile.

"Once the Heavenly Cycle Qi Gathering Method reaches level 10, passive breathing has the same efficiency as active breathing."

The smile on Zhang Yu's face grew wider—meaning from now on, even if he stopped actively performing the breathing exercises, it would be as if he were constantly running the Heavenly Cycle Qi Gathering Method to absorb spiritual energy, and his internal mana would be increasing all the time.

Moreover, after this period of hard training, his mana had also improved significantly, rising to 13.3, making him second in the entire grade.

Thinking of this, a strange expression appeared on Zhang Yu's face: "With my astonishing potential and unparalleled self-discipline, it's no surprise I'm improving this fast."

"But why does it feel like A Zhen's progress rate has been getting faster and faster lately?"

"Has she also unlocked something?"