Chapter 12: Vigorous Advancement

A moment later, Zhang Yu, emerging from the Immortal Rhyme Group's office building, appeared pale, hunched over, and utterly drained.

However, once he had left the skyscraper behind and settled into the subway, his complexion gradually returned to normal.

As he circulated the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art, the power within him surged forward like countless streams, instantly coursing through every inch of his flesh and blood.

The originally uncontrolled and leaking power, guided by the rushing torrent, returned to its proper channels, merging into the intricate network within Zhang Yu, naturally circulating without cease.

[Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art Level 1 (0/20)]

Seeing the Dao technique displayed on the Feather Tome, a smile touched Zhang Yu's lips.

"As expected, I can master it."

"If I hadn't managed to cultivate this Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art, it would probably have taken a week or two for this uncontrolled power to dissipate."

The confidence to accept the task of testing the technique stemmed from the Feather Tome.

However, he had not revealed his ability to master the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art while at Immortal Rhyme Group.

"Although this technique is just a breathing method for beginners, once mastered, it can circulate on its own, tirelessly, day and night."

"Even without actively practicing, it has thirty percent of the efficiency of active practice. Once mastered… even if I do nothing all day, it's equivalent to someone else practicing for more than seven hours."

"And that's just the effect at Level 1."

"If this technique is successfully developed, it might immediately become one of the best-selling breathing methods on the market."

Zhang Yu knew that, apart from the techniques taught in school, the techniques of other large corporations and sects were all copyrighted and required money to purchase, containing immense profits.

It was precisely because this Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art was so powerful, and in Zhang Yu's view, definitely a development project highly valued by Immortal Rhyme Group, that he was unwilling to reveal that he had mastered it, to avoid unnecessary complications.

Especially considering how difficult this technique was to cultivate, in Zhang Yu's opinion, without the guiding auxiliary equipment, high school students would not only fail to master it, but wouldn't even be able to complete another full cycle.

This made him even more unwilling to expose his mastery of the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art.

And to master the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art, Zhang Yu had switched the Feather Tome's specialization from the Thirty-Six Styles Body Strengthening to this breathing method.

Although this meant that the Thirty-Six Styles Body Strengthening couldn't be quickly improved for the time being, the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art was now on the fast track.

"Level 3 Thirty-Six Styles Body Strengthening is enough for now."

"In the coming time, I will focus on improving this Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art."

Besides the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art, the biggest gain from this testing job was the reward from Immortal Rhyme Group.

Ten thousand yuan plus the later addition of three thousand, a total of 13,000 yuan.

At this moment, Zhang Yu's savings instantly increased to 13,700 yuan.

Unfortunately, after Zhang Yu took out 10,000 yuan to repay loans on multiple platforms, his savings instantly dropped to 3,700 yuan again.

But fortunately, after repaying this 10,000, the frequency of debt collection had decreased significantly, and there shouldn't be any escalation of tactics in the short term.

Then, the countdown that sounded in his mind quickly interrupted Zhang Yu's reverie, causing him to refocus his attention and circulate the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art.

…

In the blink of an eye, a night passed.

At the entrance of Songyang High School, Zhang Yu was walking and looking at the changes on the Feather Tome.

[Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art Level 1 (0/20) → Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art Level 1 (11/20)]

And his Inner Power, through his original hard work and this effort with the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art, had also been improved.

[Inner Power 7.7 → 7.8]

"So it really does run passively. Before I went to sleep yesterday, I only circulated it five times, counting as five cycles."

"As a result, when I got up in the morning, it had increased to eight cycles, and on the way to school, through my active circulation, it increased to the 11th cycle."

Zhang Yu secretly rejoiced as he calculated this. Compared to the 13,000 yuan, this Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art was the biggest gain yesterday.

He was now determined to push the level of this Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art up.

Including the Feather Tome's specialization, he naturally decided to continue focusing on the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art.

Unfortunately, today there were two consecutive physical education classes in the morning.

Walking towards the training ground, Zhang Yu felt a little regret.

"Sigh, I have to practice the Thirty-Six Styles Body Strengthening again."

"I'm currently specializing in the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art, which is obviously most suitable for cultivating this breathing method."

As soon as Zhang Yu entered the training ground, he saw the small giants, their muscles bulging like marble, were sticking needles into themselves.

Then, accompanied by bursts of crackling sounds, as well as all kinds of beast-like roars and the sounds of equipment colliding, the students in the demonstration class were already training enthusiastically.

Just then, a student looked at Wang Hai in shock: "No… it's impossible, my cousin sold this to me…"

Wang Hai shook his head, crushed the syringe in his hand with a snap, and threw it into the trash can.

"Have you seen any changes in your weight in the past two weeks? Neither your muscles nor your organs have grown at all. In two weeks, your physical strength has only increased by 0.03, looking like a withered state of natural body refining. It's obvious that you bought fake medicine."

Speaking of this, he stopped looking at the distraught student in front of him, and instead amplified his voice and said: "How many times have I told you, you must buy medicine through formal channels, the safest is definitely the supply from the school teachers."

"If you buy fake or expired medicine to save money, it's penny-wise and pound-foolish, wasting your own time."

After reprimanding the students, Wang Hai's gaze swept over Zhang Yu, who was practicing in the corner.

Looking at Zhang Yu, Wang Hai's mind flashed with the other party's physical strength data from today's test: "Level 0.85? In three days, he increased his physical strength by 0.02?"

"Zhang Yu wasn't this fast even when he was injecting medicine every day, right?"

Based on Wang Hai's many years of teaching experience, such a rapid increase in physical strength was impossible for Zhang Yu to achieve by not taking medicine or injecting needles, purely naturally, as he said. He must have secretly injected medicine before class.

"Not only is he not naturally refining his body, but the medicine he's injecting must be very potent to achieve this effect, and the damage to his body is probably also very great."

As for Zhang Yu being able to reach the third level of the Thirty-Six Styles Body Strengthening and independently carry out extreme devil training, Wang Hai had never even considered that.

But in any case, the current Zhang Yu increasingly challenged his classroom authority in Wang Hai's eyes.

Especially with a question, where did Zhang Yu buy the medicine from?

Would any students see the good effects on Zhang Yu and also look for this channel to buy medicine?

If so, wouldn't it affect his sales performance?

At the thought of the bloody storms in the body refining medicine market, Wang Hai's alarm nerves instantly tensed up.

"Senior in the second year? Teacher in the third year?"

"Or did an after-school tutoring teacher guide him?"

"Are they trying to come to my territory to sell goods?"

As for Zhang Yu himself, in Wang Hai's view, he was just a pawn. What he wanted to find out the most was the person behind Zhang Yu.

However, the influence in the class still had to be erased.

So, after a moment, Wang Hai instructed a student named Zhao Tianxing a few words.

Then Zhao Tianxing came to Zhang Yu and said, "Zhang Yu, Teacher Wang asked me to ask you, are you sure you won't buy medicine anymore?"

After seeing Zhang Yu nod, Zhao Tianxing scratched his head and said with an embarrassed face: "Well… the teacher asked me to tell you that, in order not to affect other people's training, he wants you to practice alone in the small room next door, is that okay?"

After being instructed by Wang Hai, Zhao Tianxing understood that Wang Hai wanted to further isolate Zhang Yu.

He looked at Zhang Yu with a trace of pity in his eyes, but his movements did not hesitate at all.

As a good student and obedient student in Wang Hai's mouth, Zhao Tianxing had broken through his physical strength to level 1.00 and became one of the top ten students in the class in terms of physical strength step by step precisely because he fully accepted Wang Hai's guidance and purchased all the medicines he recommended, plus his own efforts.

So he had always listened to the physical education teacher, Wang Hai.

But worried that Zhang Yu would have emotions, he spoke very politely, and added after speaking: "Or you can still buy some medicine? Teacher Wang's medicine is of particularly good quality, natural body refining is really not good…"

But to Zhao Tianxing's surprise, Zhang Yu did not hesitate at all and directly agreed to go out to train.

Looking at the other party's departing back, Zhao Tianxing scratched his head and thought to himself: "Alas, classmate Zhang Yu is a bit stubborn, isn't it okay to apologize to the teacher and admit his mistake and continue to attend class properly? Such an impulsive act will ruin his future."

On the other side, Zhang Yu came to the small room, smiled, sat down, and directly practiced the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art.

Strands of spiritual energy poured into the dantian qi sea, and were refined into mana by Zhang Yu little by little.

[Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art Level 1 (11/20) → Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art Level 1 (16/20)]

In the blink of an eye, five cycles were completed, and the two physical education classes had passed.

But in the following language class and math class, Zhang Yu in the classroom was still focused on circulating the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art.

For a long time, breathing in spiritual energy and refining mana was naturally a very boring thing.

The waist and abdomen, and shoulders would be sore, the skin would itch, and the spirit would feel dry.

Even the former Zhang Yu would often relax after breathing in for one or two hours, stand up and walk around, or scratch himself.

But the current Zhang Yu, under the coercion of the ritual power, the encouragement of the changing numbers on the Feather Tome, persevered in cultivation, and finally practiced the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art to the 20th cycle in one breath.

[Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art Level 2 (0/40)]

Countless experiences of practicing the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art bloomed in Zhang Yu's mind. He could feel that the mana circulation in his body had become more complex, more exquisite, and more surging.

When Zhang Yu stopped, the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art was still running continuously, but the speed was a little faster than before.

"At level 1, the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art's passive breathing in is only 30% of the speed of active breathing in."

"But after reaching level 2, the speed of passive breathing in has increased to 35% of active breathing in."

"As for the efficiency of breathing in after actively circulating the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art, it has also improved a lot, much stronger than my original level 1 basic breathing method."

Zhang Yu nodded slightly, feeling slightly satisfied. This was all a long-term, continuous improvement day and night.

So after eating lunch, he continued to work hard and improve the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art.

Even in the following time, he devoted almost all the time he could use to the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art.

High school immortal cultivation learning was both boring and hard. Especially Zhang Yu, who had no time to relax under the coercion of the ritual power, could only watch the numbers after the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art increase little by little, imagining the long-term benefits brought by the passive effect of this technique, which could make his spirit feel a little more comfortable.

The so-called unable to resist, then only enjoy.

So he was practicing the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art during physical education class.

He was practicing the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art in language class.

He was still practicing the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art during lunch break.

In the evening, while waiting for work in the square, he was still practicing the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art. Unfortunately, he had not found a job in these three days.

As for going home to sleep, needless to say, the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art was still running on its own.

In just three days, the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art was raised to level 4 (5/80).

Mana also advanced bravely with Zhang Yu's efforts, from 7.8 to 8.3.

At this moment, the passive breathing speed of the Celestial Cycle Qi Gathering Art had reached 45% of the active breathing speed.