Chapter 23
From Li Yao’s perspective, the events that had transpired tonight were all part of an inconceivable and fantastic trip.
All he remembered was himself being beaten black and blue by the smiling clown and that he had shamefully fainted and passed out. Then, he felt like someone put him in a piping hot sauna. He felt himself bobbing up and down in broiling hot magma.
He had been steeped for a full five hours before he awakened. Li Yao had never felt an ecstasy as pleasurable as this his entire life thus far!
This sense of satisfaction was hard to describe with words and was absolutely impossible to describe using pen and ink. It can barely be described in the following way. It was as if from head to toe in his body every single muscle visible, every single strand of vein, and every single cell had enjoyed an incomparably fine banquet, soaked in a very comfortable bath, and lastly received a meticulous whole body massage for three hours. The pleasure simply carried him beyond the highest clouds!
The only thing was… A dark expression on the bald tattooed gym owner’s face. The owner glared at Li Yao with a bad complexion. It was as if Li Yao had cheated the owner of 900,000 credits!
It was only after the 30 second interval where Li Yao snorted down two large bowls of corn congee, swallowed down four giant sausages that were as large as arms, all while engulfing twenty meat buns, that the owner’s complexion turned a bit better.
“Have you served in the army?” the owner asked him abruptly.
Li Yao stared blankly and shook his head.
“The way you eat is very similar to some special forces soldiers in the army. True special forces soldiers who survived through the malevolent battlefield of slaughter know how to do this. They know how to consume the greatest amount of energy in the shortest amount of time. This is an extremely important skill that raises your survival rate by leaps and bounds! From the way you eat, you must have received special training. If you haven’t served in the army, that means one of your family elders must have been ex-military. Probably someone with an extraordinarily high ranking in the secret forces!” the bald tattooed man explained as he looked attentively at Li Yao’s expression and became completely cordial.
He didn’t continue nagging Li Yao about his background. He just straightforwardly fished out a brand new contract.
“That member you sparred with a while ago was utterly pleased with your performance. He wants to sign a month’s contract with you acting as his sparring partner. Are you interested?”
……
And just like that, on the early morning on the second day, at the same time when Li Yao appeared in front of Crimson Nimbus Second’s school gate with vigor and valiance, his bank account increased by a whole 11,000 credits. An invaluable contract lay in his pocket. His veins rushed and bubbled with a strength that was on the verge of eruption. It was as if his chest was stuffed deeply full with crystal explosives. Each time his heart beated, it was like an earth shattering explosion had detonated!
“There’s still 97 Days, 18 hours, 33 minutes, and 45 seconds until the University Entrance Exams!”
Li Yao stood fixed beneath the front of the University Exam Countdown sign. The flickering digits reflected deep in his irises, becoming two fiendish fanatical flames. He waved his fist with aggression, wishing he could let out a whistle and fly up to fiercely kick the countdown sign into pieces!
“Little Devil, where did you go yesterday? You didn’t even respond to my E-crane message. What happened?” His bro for life Meng Jiang’s voice came from behind his body.
Li Yao did not look back. He tossed the oily paper bag he had in his hand behind his body. The bag landed perfectly in Meng Jiang’s embrace. “I got a fever all of a sudden yesterday, so I stayed at home to rest for the day. Here’s an egg pancake from the Fire Cloud Palm Vender!”
Meng Jiang cried with “wa wa” as he got scalded by the hot bag. He opened the oily bag to look. Eyes brightened as he said, “Wow, you’re rich! You actually gave me an ten entire pancakes. How can I eat all of this?”
“Eat five of them and toss the rest!” Li Yao laughed heartily as he hooked his arm around his best friend’s neck. The two chatted bantered as they walked to the classroom.
“Hey, Little Devil. Did you hear the rumors? Some earth-shattering and explosively shocking news emerged last night about our school!” Meng Jiang said, winking his eyes.
“What kind of news?” Li Yao ate a pancake with each bite. In a flash, he had eaten three scalding hot egg pancakes and looked at Meng Jiang looking stupefied.
Meng Jiang composed himself and said, “Rumor has it that last night outside, out of us mishmash of fish of the Common Class, there was actually a retard who had a conflict with the number one expert of our school, Helian Lie. We don’t know what method he used, but somehow he messed with Helian Lie and made him into a sorry figure. When Helian Lie got home, he was berated by his family elders. It was so bad that he’s grounded in his house for a full week! They forbid him from going out and stirring up trouble!”
“Oh?” Li Yao’s steps slowed and his complexion turned somewhat odd.
Meng Jiang did not notice the change in his good friend. With smiles of delight, he continued speaking, “I heard that this conflict arose due to Si Jiaxue. Alas, we don’t know which one among us Common Class is this heroic and courageous person with this much character. Who made Helian Lie, the tyrant of this school, eat defeat. Nevertheless, this reckless retard will be extremely miserable in their next encounter. I think today there should be a nice show to watch!”
Li Yao asked strangely, “Didn’t you say that Helian Lie’s forbidden to leave his house? That he hasn’t come to school? How can there be any kind of show to watch?”
Meng Jiang shook his head, “Little Devil, normally, you don’t care for the inner politics of our school. That’s why you don’t know about Helian Lie’s influence within the school. It’s not that simple! Let’s not talk about how his father, Helian Ba, is the number one board member of Crimson Nimbus, possessing an enormous amount of influence. Let’s just talk about about Helian Lie himself. He is the president of Crimson Nimbus Second’s Student Council and is also the organizer for several clubs. He possesses a large amount of subordinates with tyrannical strength. No matter what he competes in, there isn’t anyone who can surpass him!”
He paused for a bit. Meng Jia said with a lowered voice somewhat secretively, “Do you still remember? Last year, there was a student in the Ascending Class who somehow offended Helian Lie. Not only was he beaten miserable, but after he was sent to the sick bay, they ‘accidently’ used the wrong medication on him. It took him half a month of lying in bed before he could recover with great difficulty. Then the school actually found an excuse to expel him. Tsk tsk tsk tsk, it truly was a life worse than death!”
Li Yao’s pupils contracted suddenly. “Helian Lie has this much influential power?”
Meng Jiang nodded his head, and with an expression of full of sympathy, he sighed a breath as he said, “You only know just now? If he doesn’t retaliate back, why would everybody have a reason to be so fearful of him? In brief, it doesn’t matter who provoked him last night. That person will need to take the initiative to quit school as soon as possible. At least then they would avoid a round of physical pain. Huh? Little Devil, when did your complexion become this bad?”
“Really, its bad?” Li Yao chewed nonchalantly and burped out loud.
“It’s bad. Who told you to eat six pancakes with a single breath! You fathead. You’re probably stuffed way too full from the last one!” Meng Jian suddenly slapped his back. “Strange, do you have some sort of padding on your back? Why do the muscles on your back feel so hard? It’s like a chunk of rock!” …
Ten minutes later at Gymnasium number 9.
There were a total of nine gymnasiums in Crimson Nimbus Second. The ninth gym was constructed in the oldest decade. Its equipment were the most obsolete, and its conditions were of the poorest quality. It was the primary place for students of the Common Class to practice cultivation.
The gymnasium was somewhat empty. All sorts of cultivation training equipment were set up inside. Over a hundred of Common Class students had already changed into the stretchy training clothes and were engaging in extremely difficult training. The sounds of battle cries, the sounds of strikes landing, and the sounds of iron plates and barbells colliding rang out. All sorts of sounds blended together and resonated under the dilapidated ceiling.
Li Yao squeezed into an examination chamber, getting ready to test out his Spirit Actualization Quotient.
He faintly felt that his Actualization Quotient had increased greatly, as if he had been reborn into a different person!