127: Chapter 127 The Game of Real and Fake Rewards

"This glass of wine, I'll finish it."

Lin Qi's voice traveled clearly through the microphone to every corner of the grand auditorium.

The entire auditorium, filled with thousands of students, fell deathly silent.

Countless pairs of eyes—some envious, some jealous, some confused—were all fixed intensely on the crystal bottle in Lin Qi's hand.

Under the spotlights, that bottle of potion shimmered with a dreamlike luster.

The Federation's latest-developed Potential Activation Fluid!

A priceless treasure!

The students below the stage gulped, wishing desperately that they were the ones standing up there.

At the instructors' seating, a layer of frost covered Instructor Su Qing's ice-cold face.

Her right hand had already silently pressed against the weapon at her waist. Her knuckles were slightly white from the force.

If Lin Qi showed even the slightest sign of something being wrong, she would strike immediately.

In the most prominent position in the first row, Li Qingxuan's body had begun to tremble slightly from extreme excitement.

It's coming!

Right now!

He stared fixedly at Lin Qi, his eyes bloodshot, unable to suppress the morbid smile at the corner of his mouth any longer.

Drink it!

Drink it quickly!

Become a waste who can't even walk straight!

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Lin Qi moved.

He tilted his head back and aimed the mouth of the bottle at his own mouth.

Without the slightest hesitation.

Gulp.

The ice-cold liquid slid down his throat; he drank it all in one go.

Instantly, an indescribable, violent heatwave exploded in his esophagus, like a burst dam of lava, ferociously rushing toward his limbs and bones!

It's done!

Seeing this scene, Li Qingxuan's mind went blank. A massive wave of joy clouded his head, and he couldn't even control his own mouth.

"Ha..."

A very light laugh escaped from his throat.

In this deathly silent auditorium, this laugh sounded exceptionally abrupt and piercing.

Almost at the same time, the color on Lin Qi's face on stage turned a deep flush at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Immediately after, that flush faded in an instant, turning into a terrifying, ghastly pale!

His body began to tremble violently, as if he had been thrown into an ice cave dozens of degrees below zero, his teeth even chattering uncontrollably.

"Hmm?"

Beside the podium, the smile on the face of the ruddy-cheeked principal froze slightly.

The students below the stage also sensed that something was wrong.

"What's going much? Senior Lin Qi's face looks terrible!"

"Is the effect of this potion that intense?"

"That's not right; my brother took a similar potion before, and the reaction wasn't this big!"

Commotion, like ripples on water, began to spread through the crowd.

"School doctor! Where is the school doctor!"

A teacher in charge of security was the first to react, shouting at the top of his lungs.

A school doctor carrying a medical kit immediately rushed out from the side, preparing to run onto the podium.

"Stop!"

A shout that wasn't loud but carried unquestionable authority came from the principal's mouth.

The school official who had been bribed by the Li family blocked the school doctor, a somewhat strained smile on his face.

"Everyone, do not panic."

He picked up the microphone, his voice echoing throughout the venue.

"This is a normal reaction to the potion taking effect! The more domineering the medicinal power, the more intense the body's rejection reaction! This precisely proves that the quality of this 'Heavens Gift Potion' far exceeds our imagination!"

These words temporarily calmed the majority of the students who were unaware of the truth.

But Instructor Su Qing's gaze was as cold as a knife.

Normal reaction?

Bullshit normal reaction!

These were typical symptoms of a virulent genetic virus invasion!

She was already prepared to stand up.

But just then, she saw Lin Qi's eyes.

Those eyes, which should have been glazed over in intense pain, were tightly shut at this moment.

And the corner of his mouth, at an angle no one noticed, seemed to... curl upward slightly.

Instructor Su Qing's movement to stand up stopped abruptly.

Lin Qi was indeed trembling.

But it wasn't because of pain, nor was it because of fear.

It was excitement!

It was the extreme excitement of a long-awaited rain after a drought!

In his inner vision, the so-called "Heavens Gift Potion" had turned into billions of microscopic black particles the moment it entered his body.

Gene Collapse!

These black particles, like the most voracious locusts, were crazily biting, destroying, and polluting every cell in his body, attempting to dismantle his life structure from the most fundamental level.

This destructive power was enough to turn any expert below the Third Transformation into a puddle of flesh in despair.

"That's it?"

Lin Qi's heart, however, was complaining wildly.

"Big thunder, small raindrops. Is this all the Li family is capable of?"

The pain was indeed intense.

But for a madman who had once used heavenly lightning to temper his bones, what difference was this little bit of pain from an itch?

The True Qi in his body had already laid out an inescapable net a second before he drank the potion!

If those genetic viruses were bandits rushing into a village...

Then the True Qi vortex in Lin Qi's Dantian was a super meat grinder that had long been hungry and thirsty!

Come on!

All of you, get in here!

Ancient Martial Internal Skill, [Spiral Force: Reversing Heaven and Earth]!

This technique was derived from a Demonic Technique from Lin Qi's previous life in the martial arts era. Its principle was simple and crude: forcibly devour, crush, and transform all foreign energy!

He didn't resist the destruction of those viruses.

On the contrary, he actively opened his Meridians, allowing those black destructive particles to drive straight in!

No destruction, no construction!

If one doesn't become a madman, one cannot become a demon!

He intended to use this destructive power, which was enough to destroy everything, to break through the final Bottleneck of his mortal body!

Those frenzied virus particles were forcibly pulled, compressed, and crushed by the True Qi vortex!

Streams of extremely pure energy, filled with a destructive aura, were forcibly refined and then slammed hard into the True Qi seed deep in his Dantian that he had never been able to break through!

Boom!

In Lin Qi's mind, a loud noise like the creation of the world seemed to ring out!

From the corners of his tightly closed eyes, a trace of blood slowly seeped out.

Then, his nostrils.

His ears.

The corners of his mouth.

Bleeding from the seven orifices!

That originally handsome face now looked as hideous as a malevolent ghost crawling out of Hell!

"Ah—!"

Below the stage, a timid girl saw this scene and could no longer hold back, letting out a piercing scream!

This scream was like a spark thrown into a frying pan, instantly igniting the entire venue!

"Blood! He's bleeding!"

"My God! What's happening! Someone's been poisoned to death!"

"How is this a reward! This is fucking poison!"

"Save him! What is the school doing!"

Panic spread completely!

The entire grand auditorium instantly turned into a chaotic mess!

The school official who had presented the award looked at Lin Qi's miserable state on stage, and the color on his face also drained away instantly.

This wasn't how it was written in the script!

Wasn't it supposed to be undetectable and only be judged as Qi Deviation?

How could it cause such a huge commotion!

The smile on Li Qingxuan's face also completely froze.

He stared fixedly at the figure on stage, trembling and bleeding from his seven orifices, his eyes filled with confusion and a... barely perceptible trace of fear.

Why?

Why hasn't he fallen yet?!

Just as the entire venue was in chaos and everyone thought Lin Qi was doomed...

The blood-covered, ghost-like youth's body suddenly... stopped trembling.

Slowly, very slowly, he raised his head.

Then, he opened those eyes stained with blood.

There was no pain, no despair.

There was only a terrifyingly bright... lightning-like glow that seemed capable of piercing through the human heart!

"Burp—"

A loud burp traveled through the still-open microphone, echoing throughout the dead-silent auditorium.

"Tastes not bad."

Lin Qi licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, revealing a row of white teeth stained red with blood, and smiled.

"It's just that the after-effect is a bit too weak."