Chapter 161: The Unfathomable Zhang Yu
To the astonishment of many students and the gods present, Zhang Yu abruptly stopped circulating his magic power.
The students had all been going at full tilt, and with the exception of first and second place, everyone’s outputs were clustered closely together.
And so… with Zhang Yu’s pause, the bar on the graph representing him was quickly left in the dust, plummeting toward last place in the blink of an eye.
Watching his rank fall, the fighting spirit in Zhang Yu’s eyes only burned brighter. The crippled ox he visualized in his mind propped itself up on its mangled limbs and roared at the heavens, its broken horn glinting with a cold light.
Come on. Find life in the jaws of death!
Under the pressure Zhang Yu intentionally placed on himself, the enhancement effect of the Crippled Ox Body-Sacrifice Heart Art, which thrived on pressure and desperation, was continuously amplified.
Zhang Yu felt the magic power throughout his body come alive, as if it were oil on a roaring fire, radiating an unprecedented vitality.
His mind began to race, starting to control the magic power to course throughout his entire body.
My magic power control is strong, but I’ve always lacked training in explosive magic power output.
If I want to break through in this exam, I must fully leverage the advantage of my control.
At this thought, a flash of inspiration struck Zhang Yu, and he recalled the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm, a universal martial art that had cost him 200,000.
Just like the Dragonback Mountain Toppler Hand before it, this type of purely physical martial art was called a universal martial art because it could be enhanced by any type of magic power to unleash tremendous power.
The Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm should be my most explosive martial art. If I were to power this technique with magic power…
With a sudden explosive bang, the magic power in Zhang Yu’s body slammed into the detection patch on his palm.
At the same time, he felt a stabbing pain in his meridians.
My meridians still aren’t strong enough…
In that case, I’ll just wrap my meridians with Formless Cloud-Astral Qi and use it as a new channel…
And then, I’ll use the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm to blast all of my damn magic power out!
Strands of Formless Cloud-Astral Qi rose from Zhang Yu’s dantian, instantly transforming into layers of Subcutaneous Astral Qi that enveloped his meridians, constructing a channel leading from his dantian to his palm.
The next moment, a roar erupted from within Zhang Yu’s body as an explosive surge of magic power blasted out through the channel in an incredibly crude manner.
The pressure of a desperate situation, the amplification from the Crippled Ox Body-Sacrifice Heart Art, the Formless Cloud-Astral Qi serving as a conduit, and the magic power being unleashed via the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm—each strike sent a powerful shockwave through the Formless Cloud-Astral Qi in Zhang Yu’s body.
At this moment, Zhang Yu felt as if he had become a great cannon, using the Formless Cloud-Astral Qi as the barrel, the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm as the gunpowder, and his magic power as the cannonball, firing shot after shot from within his own body.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
But through this operation, with such a crude and ferocious push of magic power, his rank also began to accelerate in an instant, charging forward like a madman.
30th place!
28th place!
21st place!
In the blink of an eye, Zhang Yu had not only charged back to 21st place but was now accelerating and closing in on 20th!
At that moment, the student holding the 20th position was named Li Tongyun.
When she saw the bar representing number 55 on the light screen relentlessly catching up to her, Li Tongyun felt an immense pressure.
Damn it… why?
Why am I being pushed to this point?
Recalling her past results in the top five of her grade at Immortal Cloud High, only to have them slide continuously over the past six months to her current state…
A strong sense of unwillingness welled up in Li Tongyun’s heart.
Six months ago, her father had lost a power struggle at his company and became a scapegoat, ultimately being kicked out.
With his severance pay delayed indefinitely, her family faced the pressure of various loans, bills, and cultivation expenses.
At the time, her parents’ savings were only enough to cover one month’s expenses.
To preserve her status among her friends, classmates, and teachers, Li Tongyun dared not reveal any of this, resorting to taking out loans to desperately maintain her wealthy persona.
As the saying goes, when your bank account is empty, your loan account is full.
As of today, Li Tongyun’s bank account was at negative 1.5 million.
Even so, without the support of wealth, her cultivation failed to keep up with her classmates’ constant progress, and she fell behind in an instant.
After all, on the high school path of the Immortal Dao where everyone was rapidly improving, the moment your pace slowed, you would be left far behind.
I can’t lose…
But if it were just that, though the fall was great and she was gradually being abandoned by her original circle of friends, she could at least still get into a university and find a good job in the future.
However, Li Tongyun knew it wasn’t that simple, because she couldn’t afford to lose now.
Back when her family’s annual income was at its peak, when her grades reached the top five at Immortal Cloud High, when she was at the height of her life, proud and certain that getting into one of the Ten Greats was a given.
She and her father had signed a performance-betting agreement with the company.
I must obtain the Foundation Establishment qualification certificate, otherwise… I will become a company asset.
Watching number 55 draw closer and closer, Li Tongyun felt as if he were an abyss of endless despair, advancing step by step beneath her feet, intent on swallowing her whole.
I can’t lose!
With a roar in her heart, Li Tongyun pushed out one hundred and twenty percent of her magic power, blasting it forth amidst the tearing pain in her meridians.
But no matter how hard she tried, no matter how desperately she fought, even to the point of bleeding from all seven orifices, she could only watch helplessly as Zhang Yu surpassed her number, pushing her down to 21st place.
The moment he hit 20th, Zhang Yu let out a huge sigh of relief.
“Finally made it.”
As the pressure lessened, Zhang Yu also proactively slowed his magic power output.
After all, his current crude methods were not without harm to his body. While maintaining a top-20 position, he also had to ensure his own physical well-being.
But soon, Zhang Yu discovered that number 21 was still chasing him.
As they drew closer, the pressure mounted, and Zhang Yu had no choice but to increase his magic power output again, putting in the effort to shake them off once more.
Even with the protection of the Formless Cloud-Astral Qi, such a crude bombardment of magic power gradually began to injure his body from the shock.
Damn it, is this person really that persistent?
Zhang Yu rubbed his slightly aching stomach and glanced at number 21, who was still in pursuit… he made a mental note of their number: 36.
Bleeding from her orifices, her meridians feeling as if they were being torn apart, Li Tongyun was also staring intently at number 55 on the light screen.
Every time she got close, number 55 would accelerate again, leaving her far behind.
But after pulling away, he would slow down slightly, as if waiting for her to catch up again.
Li Tongyun thought resentfully, Number 55, is that the super-rich outsider?
Is he deliberately toying with me? Is he doing this to mock me?
She could almost see him watching her with a malicious smile, observing her as she struggled repeatedly, yet never managed to catch up.
Meanwhile, Dai Xingzhi had also been observing number 55’s performance.
When he saw number 55 deliberately stop his magic power circulation and drop all the way to last place, he was utterly perplexed.
When he saw number 55 accelerate all the way back to 20th place, he thought he was about to make a run for the top three.
But when he saw number 55 just stop at 20th place, he was once again confused.
It wasn’t until he watched number 55 remain fixed at 20th place, with number 36 repeatedly catching up only to be shaken off again, that…
A flash of understanding crossed Dai Xingzhi’s eyes. He’s… just playing around, isn’t he?
Seeing the other person steadily maintain the 20th rank until the end of the round, Dai Xingzhi became even more certain of his conclusion.
Deliberately staying in 20th place, not surpassing the person ahead, yet controlling it so that no one can surpass him.
He’s intentionally manipulating his rank in the Foundation Establishment exam?
That’s something only someone with absolute confidence in themselves would do.
Dai Xingzhi looked in Zhang Yu’s direction and thought to himself, This guy… just how rich is he?
And he wasn’t the only one on site who thought this way.
Yun Jing, who ultimately took second place, after staring at Ye Lingxiao for a long time, turned his head to glance at Zhang Yu.
“Hmph, so he’s hiding in the back playing these kinds of tricks. Is he showing off his control? Or deliberately hiding his strength?”
After taking first place, Ye Lingxiao had a helpless look on his face, thinking to himself, To think I got a little provoked and couldn’t stop myself from going for first.
It seems I’m still a bit too impatient.
He looked toward Zhang Yu and thought, This fellow, on the other hand, actually has the playful mentality to do something like that in the middle of the exam.
At that moment, Zhang Yu became even more unfathomable in Ye Lingxiao’s eyes.
Especially since, in Ye Lingxiao’s view, Zhang Yu had definitely been holding back his strength this round.
An opponent of unknown depth made him feel an even greater threat.
This guy might be more dangerous than Yun Jing.
With that, Ye Lingxiao called out a greeting to Zhang Yu, “Nice game.”
“Huh?” Zhang Yu heard the greeting and looked back with a perplexed expression. What game was nice?
Is this kid trying to provoke me?
Is he laughing at me for struggling on the brink at 20th place?
How to describe this feeling… Zhang Yu decided that when he got back, he would never again praise Zhao Tianxing’s boxing during class.
Damn, so this is how unpleasant those words sound. They’re just dripping with sarcasm.
Beside him, Bai Zhenzhen offered some comfort. “Yu-boy, there are advantages to being looked down upon. It makes it all the more impressive when you surpass them later.”
“Surpassing these rich people is a privilege reserved for us poor folk! These top-tier sons of the Immortal Capital have never had an experience like that in their entire lives!”
Clearly, in Bai Zhenzhen’s view, Ye Lingxiao’s words and actions were also filled with provocation, mockery, disdain, and contempt.
But Zhang Yu didn’t feel comforted at all by Bai Zhenzhen’s words.
Damn it, there are still two more parts to this exam. Is that guy going to keep taking sarcastic shots at me?
Isn’t it just because I criticized him for carelessly throwing around red envelopes? Does he really need to hold such a grudge?
With the conclusion of the magic power exam, the students then faced the physical fitness exam.
Deng Bingding announced, “A person’s level of body tempering can be reflected in many ways.”
“But there is one aspect that a person cannot live without daily, nor can they fake it.”
“And that is their appetite.”
“The stronger a person is, the more they eat, and the more a person eats, the stronger they become. Appetite is one of the signs of a person’s body tempering strength, testing an individual’s overall metabolism, digestion, and gastrointestinal recruitment capacity.”
“Today’s second exam is the Battle of Gluttony!”