22: Chapter 22 Eating is also a form of spiritual practice

The static from the broadcast hadn't even faded before the classroom erupted into chaos.

"Field combat? Great! My broadsword has been thirsty for a long time!"

"I heard there are mutated Wind Wolves in Qingfeng Forest. Those are great mobs that drop 'Wind Spirit Stones'."

Li Shaobai sat in the front row, unhurriedly tidying his cuffs.

Several followers immediately surrounded him.

"Class Monitor, let's team up this time? With your Flying Sword, we'll definitely sweep through Qingfeng Forest."

"Yeah, Class Monitor, please carry us."

Li Shaobai glanced at the corner of the back row and raised his voice slightly.

"Teaming up is fine, but let me be clear: I don't carry dead weight. The field isn't child's play. Certain people who rely on brute force to show off had better pray they don't encounter a real Source Beast."

Everyone knew exactly who those words were directed at.

Lin Qi ignored the comment.

He was currently facing a serious problem—how to stand up without crushing the desk.

The Weighted Clothing on his body felt like countless invisible hands, pulling hard on every single muscle.

1.5 times gravity didn't sound like much, but when applied to daily movements, it was pure torture.

He took a deep breath, his thigh muscles tensing, and slowly stood up.

Crack.

The chair let out a dying groan.

Lin Qi moved out of the classroom with stiff motions, each step taken with extreme caution, as if he were treading on landmines.

At lunchtime, the cafeteria was bustling with noise.

Lin Qi lined up at the very back of the queue, and it was finally his turn.

"Auntie, two portions of braised pork and one serving of rice."

The cafeteria lady's hand shook slightly. Seeing Lin Qi drenched in sweat, she thought the boy had just finished running a marathon.

"Alright, coming right up."

The lady handed over a stainless steel tray piled high with food.

Lin Qi reached out to take it.

The moment his fingers touched the edge of the tray, he subconsciously applied the strength he usually used to lift heavy objects.

Screech—

A piercing sound of metal twisting rang out.

The hard stainless steel tray felt like plasticine in his hands; the edge was instantly pinched into a twisted shape.

Vegetable soup flowed all over the floor along the distorted edge.

The ladle in the lady's hand fell into the bucket with a clang.

"Student... do you have some kind of issue with today's braised pork?"

The surrounding students all stopped their chopsticks and looked over in horror.

Crushing a stainless steel tray with one hand?

What kind of monstrous strength was this?

Lin Qi looked at the deformed tray in his hand, his eyelid twitching.

His strength had gone out of control.

Under the pressure of gravity, his nerves' feedback regarding strength had developed a severe deviation.

"Sorry, my hand slipped."

Lin Qi pulled a crumpled ten-yuan bill from his pocket and placed it on the counter.

"Compensation."

Then he extended two fingers, as if picking up some explosive hazardous material, and gently pinched the undamaged side of the tray.

His movements were excruciatingly slow.

Carrying that wretched-looking tray, he walked with heavy steps to find a corner to sit down.

Eating had turned into a bomb disposal scene.

Every mouthful of food required precise calculation of the force needed to lift his arm and the angle at which to open his mouth.

With the slightest carelessness, the chopsticks would be bitten in half, or the spoon would be bent.

A single meal took half an hour; Lin Qi felt more exhausted than if he had fought a battle.

After eating, he decided to walk to the sports field to digest this damned gravity.

Just as he reached the edge of the soccer field—

"Watch out!"

A soccer ball came whistling through the air, heading straight for his face.

The one who kicked it was a strength-type sports student; the kick was powerful and heavy.

Lin Qi didn't dodge.

Dodging required coordinating all the muscles in his body, and currently, he couldn't be that agile.

He chose the simplest method—trapping the ball.

He lifted his right foot and pressed down.

He had originally just wanted to step on the ball to stop it.

Bang!

A loud explosion rang out, like a firecracker going off on the field.

The moment that poor soccer ball made contact with the sole of Lin Qi's foot, it burst directly into fragments.

The rubber bladder flew several meters away.

Lin Qi's foot sank deep into the grass, leaving a clear pit mark.

A deathly silence fell over the sports field.

Several boys who had run over looked at the remains on the ground, then at the expressionless Lin Qi, their throats going dry.

"That... the ball..."

The lead boy stammered, wanting to ask for compensation but fearing Lin Qi might stomp on him like that.

"Sorry."

Lin Qi sighed and pulled out another twenty yuan.

"Is this enough?"

"Enough... it's enough!"

The boy grabbed the money and ran, not even daring to pick up the ball's skin.

Lin Qi looked at his foot, his brow furrowed.

This wouldn't do.

In this state, let alone killing monsters in the wild, even normal life was a problem.

Having nothing but brute force without the ability to control it made him a sitting duck.

He had to adapt as quickly as possible.

Night fell.

By the sandpit in the corner of the sports field.

Lin Qi squatted on the ground, holding a withered branch in his hand.

He was writing.

It wasn't calligraphy, just the simplest characters: 'One, Two, Three'.

The requirements were simple: the strokes couldn't be broken, the depth had to be consistent, and the branch couldn't snap.

Snap.

The moment the first stroke went down, the branch broke.

The force was too great, and it poked directly deep into the sand.

Lin Qi changed to another branch and continued.

Snap.

It broke again.

In the past, this kind of micro-control was as simple as breathing for him.

But now, gravity interfered with everything.

He had to rebuild the neural connections between his brain and muscles.

Two hours passed.

A pile of broken branches had accumulated by Lin Qi's feet.

But the movements in his hand were becoming steadier and steadier.

On the sand, 'Yong' characters began to take shape, with sharp brushwork and even depth.

Sweat dripped from his chin, creating small pits in the sand.

"Qi-ge? What kind of peerless martial art are you practicing?"

A round figure sneakily approached.

Zhang Wei held a pile of bottles and jars in his arms, looking at the characters all over the ground, impressed though he didn't understand.

"Practicing the heart."

Lin Qi threw away the branch in his hand and patted the dirt off his palms.

"Did you bring the stuff?"

"Of course."

Zhang Wei stuffed everything in his arms into Lin Qi's hands.

"Here's the Hemostatic Powder, Detoxification Pills, and two bottles of Highly Concentrated Nutrient Solution you asked for. They're all the best goods I swiped from my family's shop."

Lin Qi nodded and put the items into his backpack.

"And the intelligence?"

"Right here."

Zhang Wei pulled out a hand-drawn map and spread it out by the moonlight.

"This is information I bought for a high price from some old hunters. Although Qingfeng Forest is a low-level zone, it hasn't been peaceful lately."

The fat boy's finger drew a circle in the northwest corner of the map.

"In this area, someone spotted a mutated 'Wind-Scythe Wolf King'. It's said it might be Elite-tier, or even higher."

Elite-tier.

A light flashed in Lin Qi's eyes.

The essence from ordinary monsters was too thin, a mere drop in the bucket for his bottomless pit of a Physique.

To achieve a Breakthrough to Skin Refining Minor Achievement, he needed high-quality essence.

This Wolf King had come at just the right time.

"Also, I heard that for this assessment, the school has secretly arranged for several observers to specifically record students with outstanding performances."

Zhang Wei lowered his voice.

"Qi-ge, if you can kill that Wolf King, first place this time is definitely guaranteed."

Lin Qi was about to speak when the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood up.

A cold sensation, as if being stared at by a venomous snake, crawled up his spine.

Someone was watching him.

And with killing intent.

Lin Qi whipped his head around, his gaze like lightning, shooting toward the roof of the teaching building several hundred meters away.

It was pitch black there, with only the sound of the wind blowing past the flagpole.

"Qi-ge, what's wrong?"

Zhang Wei was startled by Lin Qi's reaction and turned to look back as well, but saw nothing.

"Nothing."

Lin Qi withdrew his gaze, his eyes slightly cold.

Someone had definitely been there just now.

And it was an expert.

That faint, indistinct aura didn't seem like a student's; it was more like... an assassin's.

It seemed his performance in the assessment had not only attracted Instructor Su Qing's attention but had also drawn in some unsavory characters.