31: Chapter 31 Even a Blade Can't Pierce His Defense! The Man Listed as a "Top Taboo" by the Principal

"Tuition?" Instructor Su Qing looked at Lin Qi's profile, her footsteps not pausing. "What do you want?"

"I want thirty percent of the Special Training Class resource quota." Lin Qi casually pushed aside the branches blocking his path. "Additionally, the rights to process this War Boar belong to me; the school is not allowed to interfere."

Instructor Su Qing remained silent for two seconds.

"Thirty percent is too much; the other students will have objections. Twenty percent, that is my limit." Instructor Su Qing said. "As for the War Boar, since you killed it, it naturally belongs to you."

"Deal." Lin Qi agreed readily.

The team continued to travel through the forest.

This time, no one looked at the radar, and no one complained about the difficult path.

Everyone stepped in the footprints Lin Qi left behind, as quiet as a flock of quails.

Li Shaobai walked in the middle of the team, the longsword in his hand already sheathed.

He looked at the figure in front of him, who was carrying dozens of catties of raw meat yet still moving with ease, his gaze complex.

There was no resentment, only a sense of bewilderment after having his perception overturned.

"What was the core of that move just now?" Instructor Su Qing walked beside Lin Qi, unable to hold back from asking. "I watched the replay of your movements; there was no power-charging process. Where did the power come from?"

As a former Shadow Dancer, she was very sensitive to force-generation techniques.

Lin Qi's strike completely contradicted the formulas for force generation.

"Have you ever skipped stones?" Lin Qi retorted.

"What?"

"When a stone skips across the water, it doesn't rely on brute force, but on the angle and the burst of energy at the moment of contact."

Lin Qi pointed at his own wrist. "Most people's power is wasted on the action of 'pushing.' Pushing can only knock someone away; it only injures the skin and flesh."

Lin Qi stopped his footsteps and casually slapped a tree trunk.

The sound was very light, and the tree bark didn't even break.

But after he withdrew his hand, two seconds later, a crisp "crack" sound came from inside the tree trunk.

"Penetrating Force is about penetration."

Lin Qi continued walking forward. "Condense power into a single point, release it all within 0.01 seconds of contact, and shatter the internal structure through the surface. It's like breaking a brick underneath a piece of tofu."

Instructor Su Qing stopped in place, looking at that tree.

She reached out and pressed on the spot Lin Qi had slapped.

The exterior was undamaged, but the wood fibers inside had turned into a mush.

"This isn't scientific." Instructor Su Qing muttered to herself. "No skill cast time, no mana cost, relying purely on muscle control?"

"The body is the greatest treasury." Lin Qi's voice drifted from ahead. "Relying too much on the data panel narrows your path."

Tianhai No. 3 High School, Principal's Office.

The old principal stared at the tactical tablet on the desk, his brows furrowed into a " river" shape.

On the screen was a photo of the mutated Tusk War Boar's corpse, especially the eyeball pierced by a branch, which had been specifically enlarged.

"Instructor Su Qing, are you sure the radar isn't broken?"

The principal took off his glasses and wiped them. "A blank-slate student with no class and no skills, using a broken branch, instantly killed an LV.8 elite monster?"

"I saw it with my own eyes." Instructor Su Qing stood in front of the desk, her posture straight. "And it was without any armor, taking a Savage Charge head-on."

The principal put his glasses back on, his fingers tapping on the desktop.

"This doesn't conform to logic. According to the data model, even for a B-Rank warrior with full strength allocation, that Rank wouldn't be able to withstand this kind of impact force; the internal organs would have shattered long ago."

"His physical constitution is very high, and… he knows a very strange force-deflection technique." Instructor Su Qing paused. "Principal, how should we handle this? According to regulations, killing a monster above one's Rank should be rewarded with a school-wide announcement."

"No." The principal rejected it directly.

He stood up and walked to the window to look at the playground.

"Right now, the outside world is fixated on 'Awakening Rate' and 'Datafication.' A freak who suddenly appears and fights back relying on a mortal body will cause a lot of unnecessary trouble."

"The military, corporations, and even those research institutions will swarm over like sharks smelling blood."

The principal turned around, his expression serious.

"Suppress the news. Externally, say that you and Li Shaobai killed it together, and Lin Qi was only responsible for luring the monster."

Instructor Su Qing frowned. "This is unfair to Lin Qi."

"I will compensate him." The principal opened a drawer, took out a document, and signed it.

"Double the resource quota for the Special Training Class, and privately allocate this portion of hidden resources to Lin Qi. Additionally, from now on, for all his actions in the school, as long as he doesn't tear down the teaching building, just turn a blind eye."

Instructor Su Qing took the document, glanced at it, and nodded.

"Understood. Is he a seed?"

"No." The principal narrowed his eyes. "He might be a variable."

Boys' Dormitory, Room 404.

Lin Qi locked the door and drew the curtains.

Those two large, bloody pieces of tenderloin were tossed onto the desk, occupying the space where his textbooks originally were.

The air was filled with a faint scent of blood.

"Need to process this quickly, or it will start to stink."

Lin Qi took out a fruit knife, his movements lightning fast.

With every cut, the meat slices were uniform in thickness, the texture clear.

He sprinkled the pre-prepared medicinal powder onto the meat slices; it was powder ground from low-level herbs exchanged for Origin Crystals, capable of locking in the energy within the meat and preventing it from dissipating.

These few hundred catties of meat were enough for him to eat for a week.

After processing the ingredients, Lin Qi took off his shirt and walked in front of the full-length mirror.

The youth in the mirror had a lean build, his muscle lines as smooth as a work of art.

His skin was bronze-colored, reflecting a faint matte sheen under the light.

That was the sign of Skin Refining Minor Achievement.

His current skin was less like skin and more like a layer of high-toughness biological leather.

Lin Qi picked up the fruit knife he had just used to cut the meat.

The blade was sharp, capable of cutting hair blown against it.

He didn't hesitate at all, backhanding a slash across his left arm.

"Screech—"

The sound was jarring, like a dull knife cutting into old cowhide.

No blood. Not even a white mark was left.

Lin Qi increased the force, veins bulging on the back of his hand, and slashed fiercely.

This time, a shallow white mark was finally left behind, but in less than two seconds, the white mark disappeared.

"Defense meets the standard." Lin Qi threw the knife onto the table. "Ordinary cold weapons can barely break my defense anymore; even the aftershocks of low-level Spells can be withstood head-on without issue."

He clenched his fist, his knuckles popping.

Power, defense, reaction speed—all comprehensively improved.

But this wasn't enough. After Skin Refining came Flesh Refining.

To train the muscles of his entire body to be as hard as steel and iron, this wasn't something that could be solved just by getting beaten up and eating meat.

It required money. A lot of money.

Whether it was purchasing "Dragon-Tiger Ointment" to assist in Flesh Refining, or forging a suitable weapon, it all required real money.

Lin Qi felt his pocket.

That Origin Crystal sold for thirty thousand; twelve thousand was spent on herbs; the remaining money wasn't even enough to buy a bottle of the lowest-level Body Tempering liquid.

"'The scholar is poor, the martial artist is rich'—the ancients truly did not deceive me."

Lin Qi sighed, picked up his phone, and opened Zhang Wei's profile picture.

"[Lin Qi: Fatty, is there any work on the black market? The kind with good pay.]"

The other side replied instantly.

"[Zhang Wei: Brother Qi! You finally figured it out? I thought you were going to turn over a new leaf and focus on being a straight-A student!]"

"[Zhang Wei: There happens to be a big job! An underground laboratory is looking for someone to test data. The pay is generous, but the requirements are twisted; several Strength-type Awakened ones went before but were all rejected.]"

"[Lin Qi: What are the requirements?]"

"[Zhang Wei: It requires pure physical strength, no skills allowed, and you have to be able to take a beating. They say it's to test the physical resistance of some new Materials.]"

Lin Qi looked at the screen and smiled.

Wasn't this tailor-made for him?

"[Lin Qi: I'll take it. Lead the way tomorrow night.]"