Chapter 14: Preparation and New Job

The stationery shop at the school gate always stocked all sorts of items students needed.

The stationery shop in front of Songyang High School was no different.

Besides stationery, the enormous display case behind the owner resembled a pharmacy, filled with all kinds of "medicines" high school students required, from sedatives and stimulants to concentration enhancers.

Zhang Yu leaned on the counter, asking, "Boss, do you have neural fillers?"

The owner, engrossed in his phone, didn't even look up. "You want the expensive kind or the cheap kind?"

Zhang Yu: "I'm a student. Can you sell me the expensive kind for a bit cheaper?"

The owner finally raised his head, casting a sidelong glance at Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu, unfazed, declared, "I'm tenth in the grade in Class 1 of the first year, a prominent figure on campus. If your medicine works well for me, my classmates will definitely follow my lead and buy from you."

The owner twitched his lips, reaching into a cabinet and placing a box of medicine in front of Zhang Yu. "Neural fillers from Purple Cloud Corporation. Guaranteed to let you sleep only 20 minutes a day. 500 for a box, I'll sell it to you for 480 this time."

Zhang Yu picked up the box and examined it. "Don't you have anything to throw in?"

The owner frowned, then pulled out a few painkiller tablets. "Here, I'll give you these."

Zhang Yu chuckled, stuffing the painkillers into his pocket. "Thanks, boss. In that case, maybe I don't need the neural fillers."

Seeing the owner's face darken, Zhang Yu scanned the payment code beside him. "Just kidding, I'll scan you right now."

Picking up the neural fillers from the counter, Zhang Yu felt a pang of heartache.

This single box of neural fillers would only last him a week, yet it had cost him 480, instantly reducing his account balance to just over 1700.

But Zhang Yu believed it was all worth it.

After all, having decided to participate in the Dharma Competition, Zhang Yu was prepared to give it his all, planning to stay awake for the entire week, fully focusing on cultivating the Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Technique.

"Heh, my goal isn't just to be in the top ten of the grade."

On the other side, Zhao Tianxing followed Zhang Yu into the stationery shop, watching him buy the medicine and leave. He thought to himself, "Is that really a neural filler?"

He tailed Zhang Yu out of the stationery shop, along the street, until a corner where he suddenly realized Zhang Yu was already standing there waiting for him.

"You... hello, Zhang Yu." Zhao Tianxing said awkwardly, "What a coincidence, you're taking this route too?"

Zhang Yu looked at him, asking, "Why are you following me?"

Zhao Tianxing scratched his head, playing dumb. "Following you? I always take this route after school."

Zhang Yu said impatiently, "Please, take a look at yourself."

"Over two meters tall, more than 300 pounds. I saw you when I came out of the cafeteria."

"What do you want?"

Zhao Tianxing naturally couldn't tell him that it was the physical education teacher, Wang Hai, who had asked him to get close to Zhang Yu and find out where he was getting his supplies.

So Zhao Tianxing scratched his head again, saying a little bashfully, "Zhang Yu, I think you're really outstanding. I want to follow you and learn from you."

Looking at the shy appearance of the sixteen-year-old, 300-plus-pound boy in front of him, Zhang Yu thought, "Seriously... is your social ability still at the elementary school level?"

Zhang Yu thought for a moment and said, "Sure, as long as you treat me to fried chicken, you can follow me from now on."

Sensing the chills emanating from within his body, and the countdown in his mind, Zhang Yu knew he couldn't linger any longer.

So he walked forward helplessly, waving his hand at the same time. "Let's talk as we walk."

Zhao Tianxing followed behind Zhang Yu, full of hesitation. "You want to eat fried chicken? That's a big no-no for body refinement. Teacher Wang told us not to eat it. Can we change it to chicken breast?"

"Don't worry, I'm not asking you to eat it, just treat me to it." Thinking of the taste of fried chicken, Zhang Yu couldn't help but wipe the saliva from the corner of his mouth.

Since coming to this world, he had been eating the poverty-stricken health food in the high school cafeteria three meals a day, and Zhang Yu hadn't eaten anything like fried chicken in a long time.

And the daily hard work kept building up pressure in his mind, with no time to relax, and he didn't dare to spend an extra penny.

At this moment, thinking that he would be able to eat fried chicken later, Zhang Yu felt a lot lighter in his heart, and the pressure seemed to have eased a little.

Zhao Tianxing followed him all the way, taking the subway and getting off the subway. Seeing him come to the entrance of a fried chicken shop, he asked curiously, "To come all this way to this shop, it must be because this shop is especially delicious, right?"

Zhang Yu: "Because it's on the way."

Unfortunately, as soon as Zhang Yu stepped into the fried chicken shop, he heard the damn countdown in his mind ringing again.

He could only say to Zhao Tianxing, "Buy me a fried chicken set meal, I'll wait for you here."

Looking at Zhang Yu sitting down on the spot and starting to meditate, Zhao Tianxing rubbed his head, not understanding what was going on.

After a while, watching Zhang Yu happily chewing on a fried chicken leg on the road, Zhao Tianxing felt even stranger in his heart.

"He's obviously so disciplined that he even uses the time spent in line to practice breathing, but he still wants to eat fried chicken... what a strange person."

And following Zhang Yu next, Zhao Tianxing was even more surprised that he didn't go to a cram school, and didn't buy any more medicine, but came to a square to wait for temporary work.

Zhao Tianxing: "You're going to work?"

Zhang Yu patted his belly, found a clean spot on the ground to sit down comfortably, and waved his hand. "One meal of fried chicken doesn't include chat, I'm going to practice while I wait for work, do as you please."

Watching Zhang Yu start breathing on the ground, Zhao Tianxing was stunned again.

"Breathing?" He looked at the sewage not far away, listened to the noisy music coming from the barber shop across the street, and looked at the job seekers around him who were obviously not easy to mess with, and couldn't help but ask again, "Breathing here?"

But Zhang Yu had already started to practice the Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Technique with all his heart, and this time he ignored him again.

Zhao Tianxing squatted beside Zhang Yu, observed carefully for a while, and found that he was really breathing. He couldn't help but feel more doubts in his heart: "Is there any benefit to breathing here?"

"Just to practice while waiting for work?"

After waiting for a while, finding that Zhang Yu had no intention of getting up at all, just when Zhao Tianxing was thinking about whether to leave, his phone vibrated.

Looking at the inquiry message sent by Wang Hai, Zhao Tianxing replied that he was approaching Zhang Yu. After hesitating for a long time, he finally sat down beside him and started breathing as well.

Half an hour later, Zhao Tianxing couldn't help but open his eyes, and found that Zhang Yu was still breathing.

An hour later, Zhao Tianxing couldn't help but stand up and walk around, stretched, and turned his head to see Zhang Yu still breathing.

More than two hours later, Zhao Tianxing had already stopped breathing, and instead began to practice the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Exercises.

And in his occasional observations, Zhang Yu had been motionless from beginning to end, not to mention small movements like scratching his head or butt, even his eyelids hadn't lifted, and the rhythm of his breathing hadn't changed at all.

Zhao Tianxing couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "What a high degree of concentration, no wonder he can have a zero distraction rate for days in a row."

"But here, there is neither spiritual roots nor a high spirit machine environment, and he hasn't taken any medicine... is breathing this inefficient really meaningful?"

And under Zhang Yu's focused practice, the progress of the Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Technique was improved again, reaching level 4 (12/80).

Just then, another van drove into the square. Hearing that they were looking for security guards, Zhang Yu took back his mind again and continued to focus on practicing.

He, a high school student, had no competitiveness in security work compared to the old-timers around him.

But soon he heard that the other party's requirements were to be young, have a good figure, look clean and refreshing, and have a good appearance.

Zhang Yu suddenly opened his eyes, walked towards the van with the stride of a dragon, and raised his hand confidently: "What do you think of me?"

The driver in the van's eyes suddenly lit up, and he walked towards Zhang Yu: "Good, good, I want you."

Zhang Yu chuckled, and was about to shake hands with him, but found that the other party had missed him, grabbed Zhao Tianxing's palm and praised: "Good figure, and a delicate face."

"This chest!"

"This waist!"

"This back!"

The driver patted Zhao Tianxing's body while admiring: "It's simply the perfect proportion. Although the absolute strength is not yet strong, the basic framework has been built very perfectly, like a piece of uncut jade, exuding infinite possibilities."

"To achieve this level, without persistent hard work, an extremely disciplined lifestyle, a famous teacher's guidance, and almost extreme medicine and acupuncture, it is absolutely impossible to achieve."

"It's you, young man. I'll give you 800 an hour, come with me."

At this moment, Zhang Yu on the side was shocked.

He didn't expect that his lean muscle lacing figure, handsome and cold face, and the temperament of a visitor from another world, would actually lose to a muscle monster like Zhao Tianxing.

"Boss, look at me, I can do it too."

The driver glanced at Zhang Yu and shook his head: "No skinny guys."

"There's no sense of security to be a security guard. You'll block half as many flying swords as others."

Zhao Tianxing opened his mouth and wanted to refuse: "Actually, I'm not here to..."

Zhang Yu hurriedly interrupted him: "Boss, we two are brothers, we've sworn that whether it's one person's job or a group of people's job, we'll all go together."

The driver frowned, looked at Zhang Yu, and then at Zhao Tianxing, and finally asked Zhang Yu: "I'll give you 400 an hour, 6 hours in total, will you do it?"

Zhang Yu nodded repeatedly: "Do it! Do it! Do it!"

Zhao Tianxing was pulled by Zhang Yu towards the van.

Zhao Tianxing said to Zhang Yu with an embarrassed face: "I'm not here to work, and my mom will worry if I go back too late, I'll talk to the boss..."

Zhang Yu hurriedly said: "Don't you have something you want to say to me? Let's go work together, you can talk about whatever you want."

Thinking about the task assigned by Wang Hai, Zhao Tianxing could only reluctantly say: "I have to call my mom first."

The van drove the two towards the city center, and the driver introduced their work on the way.

"Ms. Li Xuelian is going to hold an art exhibition in the Cloud Hall on the 999th floor, and there are no security problems."

"However, Ms. Li is not satisfied with the appearance of the internal security, worried that it will affect the painting viewing experience, and asked us to find some young and handsome guys to go over."

"After you two get there, change into the security uniforms, and listen to the security captain's instructions."

"Remember especially, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely don't offend Ms. Li."

Zhang Yu asked curiously: "This Ms. Li must be very rich, right?"

"Heh, rich?" The driver snorted, and said proudly: "More than just rich, Ms. Li is the daughter of a Golden Core True Person!"