Chapter 40: Physical Exercise

Jiahai collapsed onto his back, taking in gulps of air. He turned to watch Wang Zen, who was still going strong, punching and kicking the air with weights on his arms and legs. He could see Wang Zen struggling as he had to stop for short moments but he would always burst into activity again.

Zen began feeling weak falling back but was caught before he could hit the ground.

“Wow, Wang Zen!” his teacher said. “You’re really working it. You should go on holiday more often!”

Zen managed a weak smile before he fell onto his hands and knees.

“Alright, take a break everyone!” the teacher said before moving on.

“Are you trying to kill yourself?” Jiahai said in between loud breathes. “I mean you’ve been going like this since morning.”

“I just want to work harder at my martial arts,” Wang Zen said. That was partly the reason but the main one was his cultivation base. During his fight with Ye Wuwen he had exerted himself and entered what Lu Daomeng had called survival mode, which ended in him to breakthrough to Intermediary level. He was trying to recapture that by exerting himself during martial arts classes, which also had the effect of impressing his teachers.

He was already feeling his acupoints opening up and his qi pillar swirling in order to absorb more mana from the air and refining it. It was nowhere near the amount he had absorbed and refined when he fought Yu Wuwen and not as much as when his meditation method was working but it still made his growth a little stronger.

-

After class, Jiahai and Zen were planning a hunt for the night, even talking about going deeper and fighting stronger wild beasts. They walked towards Bao when they saw him.

“Bao,” Jiahai said as he and Zen joined the Bao and his group.

Bao laughed as he rubbed his hands together. “This semester, we’re going to get rid of that commoner scum, Chen Jian.”

“How?” someone from the group said.

“We’re going to frame him for a crime,” Bao said. “I’m still planning the rest.”

“Won’t that be dangerous for us and our reputation?” Wang Zen said.

Bao frowned, not used to being questioned. “It will be okay. I will do it in such away that each of us are safe.”

“But wouldn’t it be better if we fought him fairly and won.” Zen said. “That would give us face and expose him of the weakling he is.”

“I make the plans,” Bao thumbed his massive chest. “I say this is the best way and it is.”

Wang Zen kept quiet.

“Now, we’re all in.” Bao placed his hand out nad one by one the group joined his hand in a pact until there was only a single hand missing. Bao looked at Wang Zen expectantly.

Wang Zen took a moment to think before he placed his hand in the pact.

-

Wang Zen sat cross legged, gazing up at the sky. He had been cultivating but had stopped sometime ago, to give time for his thoughts. His mind dwelled on Bao’s plan and his own cultivation, ignoring the the bright lights the cosmos had mapped out before him.

In truth, he wanted to defeat Chen Jian in a duel in order to reverse his humiliating loss but simultaneously, he knew he was too weak to do that. He felt the secret to getting stronger was figuring out a mechanical method to cultivate. Exercising hard seemed to increase his natural cultivation but it seemed to be missing something that would make it a truly formidable cultivation method. He thought of the only other person on campus who was able to figure it out, the muscled martial arts lecturer who taught the Class As, as he was the best martial artist in Goixi Academy.

“Well, I’m not going to find the answers just by sitting here,” Zen said to himself as he rose to his feet. “Hey, Shibi!”

Shibi, who was seated cross legged beside him leapt to his feet and knuckes.

“How about a race across the ground,” Wang Zen said, setting himself up for another activity that would lead him to exerting himself. “Loser buys the winner dinner.”

“Ook!” Shibi said.

“You’re always broke!” he said. “Fine, I’ll buy dinner regardless.”

Wang Zen took his mark and then shot off right before Shibi did the same.