Chapter 188: Hidden Fangs, Awaiting the Opportunity
Inside a training ground at Songyang High School.
As Zhou Chechen took a deep breath, the surrounding chill rapidly dissipated; he had slowly withdrawn his Frost Heaven Freezing Qi Field.
Before Zhou Chechen, Lan Ling, his face blue and purple from the cold, shivered. As the qi and blood in his body continued to circulate, surges of heat emerged, and only then did he feel slightly better.
But Lan Ling paid no mind to the frostbite on his body, instead saying with a hint of delight, “President, you’ve finally decided to get serious. You even leveraged the Zhou family’s power, didn’t you?”
In Lan Ling’s view, the fact that Zhou Chechen could mobilize the Zhou family’s power to retaliate against Zhang Yu meant his standing in the family was far higher than Lan Ling had previously estimated.
Lan Ling continued, “Let’s press our advantage and find a way to get both Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen expelled…”
Seeing Lan Ling’s somewhat excited expression, Zhou Chechen thought to himself, Lan Ling, oh Lan Ling, if only my opponent were you… how wonderful would that be?
He certainly couldn’t agree to Lan Ling’s suggestion. After all, according to Zhou Yang’s instructions, what he needed to do was apply pressure to Zhang Yu bit by bit, making it harder and harder for Zhang Yu to breathe without crushing him all at once.
The difficult part of this operation is to step on the opponent without stomping him to death.
“Right now, martial arts class is leading him down the dead end of basic cultivation techniques.”
“Physical education class is getting him gradually addicted to performance-enhancing drugs.”
“Daoist art tutoring is compressing the time he has after school to earn money and cultivate…”
Zhou Chechen could imagine that as Zhang Yu’s time for cultivation and earning money dwindled, his strength and grades would inevitably decline.
After all, even the Immortal Dao was like most skills in the world in this respect; if you didn’t practice enough, not only would you fail to maintain your previous level, you would even begin to regress.
The muscles and bones of the entire body would weaken as exercise decreased, leading to a drop in physical strength.
Magic power would gradually decline with less breathing exercise, even affecting one’s control over it.
The Dao heart, especially, would begin to harbor self-doubt and self-criticism due to insufficient cultivation time, gradually losing control.
“Not to mention, if he has no money, he can’t afford alchemical enhancers.”
“And if he suddenly stops after long-term use… the decline in his cultivation will be even more pronounced.”
Although Zhou Chechen knew Zhang Yu couldn’t get into one of the Ten Greats, there were still huge differences even among the universities outside that prestigious group.
“The 36 upper-tier colleges, the 72 lower-tier colleges, and that pile of unranked vocational schools—the gap between them is not small.”
“What would it feel like to watch your own potential slip from the 36 upper-tier colleges down to the vocational level?”
Zhou Chechen couldn’t imagine it, but he could guess it would certainly not be a pleasant feeling.
After all, he had seen many similar examples. Every year, Songyang High School had no shortage of poor but talented students whose grades plummeted due to bullying.
For students at a key high school, a drop in grades was the easiest way to make them break.
Shuang Youpeng, who had once been the top student in his year, had crumbled after watching his own grades continuously slide in the very same way.
In Zhou Chechen’s eyes, Zhang Yu was more talented and had better grades, but if one disregarded the person behind him, dealing with him would only cost a little more in manpower and money than dealing with Shuang Youpeng.
Furthermore, as his opponent gradually became accustomed to and dependent on the Raging Dragon Preparation, Zhou Chechen could well imagine his despair once the supply of that addictive alchemical enhancer was cut off.
“If that’s still not enough, I’ll lead the guy into gambling, or set up some other kind of scam…”
“And then there’s Bai Zhenzhen. Even if she’s unwilling to sell out Zhang Yu now, as the differential treatment between them becomes apparent, discord is bound to arise…”
Zhou Chechen had witnessed many poor people being played until their minds and bodies broke, finally becoming obedient dogs.
Although those poor people might not have had Zhang Yu’s grades, human nature, as Zhou Chechen saw it, was the same.
“When Zhang Yu’s grades are continuously declining, yet he sees that Bai Zhenzhen isn’t being targeted like he is… what will he think?”
“When the poor are in desperate straits, discovering that their good friends are also unreliable is often another fatal blow.”
Zhou Chechen sighed internally. With the power of the Zhou family, leading a poor student like this into the abyss step by step was, in his opinion, far too simple.
His biggest problem now was actually worrying about the counterattack from the person behind Zhang Yu, and the backlash he himself would have to endure.
After all, according to Zhou Yang, the whole point was to force Zhang Yu to seek help step by step.
I need to figure out a way to protect myself.
Just then, Lan Ling’s voice broke his reverie.
“President? President?”
Lan Ling looked at Zhou Chechen and said, “President, did you hear me? Let’s find a chance to just expel them.”
Although he had run through the situation in his mind again in a flash, Zhou Chechen knew he couldn’t tell Lan Ling any of this. Especially since Zhou Yang had demanded he force Zhang Yu to seek help under his own name, how could he possibly discuss it with an outsider?
So after a moment’s thought, Zhou Chechen finally said languidly, “Rather than expelling him and letting him work and earn money freely outside, I think it’s better to keep him in school and play with him slowly.”
Lan Ling’s eyes lit up at his words, and he smiled. “Indeed, you’re the master of this game, President. We’ll take our time tormenting him.”
Looking at Lan Ling, who had taken his words at face value and was now eager to get started, Zhou Chechen lamented internally, Sigh, if all the third-year students in Songyang City… were like you, then I could secure a spot in the Ten Greats with ease.
Meanwhile, at the entrance of Songyang High School.
After a solid four hours of doing test papers, Zhang Yu frowned, his mind constantly analyzing the current situation.
When he saw Bai Zhenzhen, he watched as she lifted her phone and sent him a message.
Bai Zhenzhen: Be careful. Someone is monitoring us.
Zhang Yu’s brow furrowed even tighter, and after activating the power of his detection ritual, he too could feel the presence of cameras.
Zhang Yu texted back: Let’s see if we can shake them.
The next moment, the two of them accelerated, shooting out like bolts of lightning and leaving a series of sonic booms in their wake as they sped into the distance.
But they soon discovered that no matter how they accelerated, how sharply they turned, or how they changed direction, it was difficult to escape the pursuit of the person in the shadows.
Even after darting into the subway, they could detect the camera’s tracking again not long after exiting a station.
Bai Zhenzhen took out her phone and sent a message: They’re very strong. The person following us is on a completely different level.
Bai Zhenzhen recounted her story of looking for Zhou Chechen and being repelled by the guard named Zhou Hao, then sent another message: The person tailing us now is likely an expert just like Zhou Hao, someone who reached the peak of Qi Refinement many years ago.
Bai Zhenzhen: And probably one who specializes in covert photography, tracking, and surveillance.
Zhang Yu understood that if they were continuously tracked, it meant they couldn’t go to the dark world of tutoring to earn money, nor could they go to An’an’s place in the protected area to borrow the spirit vein for cultivation.
Just as Zhang Yu was contemplating a counter-strategy, Fu Ji’s voice spoke in their minds, “Endure it for now.”
Bai Zhenzhen sent a message: Zhou Chechen’s side is squeezing our time for cultivation and earning money step by step. Are we just going to sit here and wait to die?
Fu Ji looked at the message from Bai Zhenzhen on Zhang Yu’s phone screen and continued, “When we dealt with Huoshan and Song Xu, our success was so smooth because we had an information advantage; we possessed intelligence they did not.”
“This time, however, Zhou Chechen and the Zhou family behind him can continuously monitor you, investigate you, and constantly gather information on you. The more you act, the more information you expose.”
“Meanwhile, you know far, far too little about Zhou Chechen and the Zhou family, not even what Zhou Chechen’s ultimate goal is.”
“Furthermore, the resources and power they possess are beyond compare to yours.”
“In my experience, acting blindly or counterattacking rashly in such a situation rarely leads to a good outcome.”
Fu Ji sighed and continued, “So… endure it for now. In life, there are often times when you will encounter an opponent you cannot resist at your current stage. This is when you must learn to lie low.”
“In times like these, it is all the more important to remain calm and composed. In the process of enduring, focus on your own growth, then silently search for weaknesses and wait for an opportunity to strike back.”
“Besides, from the current situation, you have the means to endure.”
“After all, the methods they’ve used so far haven’t truly harmed you. In some ways, they can even be used to your advantage.”
“Your own abilities and potential, as well as the ritual powers I have given you, are the information advantage you hold over them. Only by leveraging this advantage can you persist in this confrontation until you find a chance to win.”
And so, in the days that followed, Zhang Yu seemed to revert to the life of an ordinary top student at a key high school, shuttling between the school and his apartment, his life a straight line between class and home.
During general studies class, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen seized the time to circulate their heart arts and practice their breathing exercises, enhancing their Dao hearts and magic power bit by bit.
During physical education class, under the watchful eye of Teacher Lin Hui, Zhang Yu injected the delivered Raging Dragon Preparation into his body in one go. Feeling the ferocious medicinal power pumping wildly through him, he began to cultivate the Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi.
On the other side, Bai Zhenzhen’s body flickered with electricity. After injecting the Dragon-Elephant Preparation, she used the medicinal power, her thunder magic power, and her True Spiritual Root to furiously advance her Thunderclap True Body.
The thunder magic power she possessed after awakening her potential was especially effective for cultivating the Thunderclap True Body, and when combined with her True Spiritual Root, her progress was a thousand miles a day.
Adding to that the occasional trip to the bathroom to sip from a power bank, her body tempering progress became even more rapid.
Fortunately, arcs of electricity had always appeared when she cultivated the Thunderclap True Body, so the addition of thunder magic power didn’t attract too much attention.