37: A gravity training room? Isn't this a massage parlor?

The Gravity Training Hall was one of the core buildings of Tianqiong War God Academy.

It resembled a massive, inverted silver egg, constructed entirely from high-strength pressure-resistant alloy.

Even from hundreds of meters away, one could hear the dull roars coming from inside, occasionally punctuated by pig-slaughtering screams.

Those were the sounds of bones grinding and muscles tearing under extreme gravity.

For freshmen, this place was Hell; but for seniors, it was the mandatory path to becoming a powerhouse.

At this moment, the main hall was already packed with people.

A massive electronic screen scrolled through real-time data from various Gravity Pods and the freshmen rankings.

“Wang Long, 1.5x gravity, lasted ten minutes! Currently ranked first!”

“Li Miao, 1.3x gravity, five minutes, eliminated!”

The person responsible for monitoring the data and maintaining order was a bald instructor in a black tank top, with muscles even more exaggerated than Tiger Lei's, named Instructor Tie Shan.

If Tiger Lei was hot-tempered, then Instructor Tie Shan was a pure sadist.

He loved watching the faces of these tender-skinned freshmen contort under the gravity; it gave him a perverted sense of pleasure.

“Did none of you eat? You bunch of weaklings!”

Instructor Tie Shan held an alloy training whip, banging it against the console. “Whining at 1.5x gravity? On the battlefield, the pressure from a Vicious Beast starts at 3x gravity! Are you planning to kneel and beg the beasts not to eat you then?”

The freshmen were all flushed red; some were collapsed on the floor gasping for air, while others gritted their teeth to endure, lacking even the strength to talk back.

Right then, the crowd automatically parted to create a path.

Xiao Fan and Gu Fan walked in, one after the other.

Xiao Fan had a cold expression, each step steady and powerful.

Without even glancing at his collapsed classmates, he walked straight toward an empty Gravity Pod.

“I want to challenge 2x gravity.”

Xiao Fan's voice wasn't loud, yet it was clearly audible in the noisy hall.

The surroundings instantly fell silent.

“2x? Is he crazy? Freshmen Physiques can generally only handle 1.2x!”

“As expected of a special recruit. That ring guy looks cold, but his strength is legit.”

Instructor Tie Shan raised an eyebrow, showing a hint of appreciation.

“Interesting. Go ahead, Pod 3.”

Xiao Fan stepped into the transparent Gravity Pod. As the red light turned on, his body visibly sank and his knees bent slightly, but he quickly straightened his back and even began practicing punches inside.

“Good! That's a real talent!”

Instructor Tie Shan shouted in praise.

Then, he noticed Gu Fan, who was strolling in slowly.

Gu Fan was currently yawning, holding half a bottle of unfinished soy milk, looking like an old man who had just finished browsing a morning market.

“Hey you, are you here for the test too?”

Instructor Tie Shan frowned; he hated this kind of guy who lacked any Martial Artist spirit. “Throw away your soy milk! This is a training hall, not a breakfast shop!”

Gu Fan took a sip of soy milk, swallowed it, and then said leisurely:

“Instructor, don't be so fierce. I saw everyone practicing so hard and decided to come experience life a bit. I heard the massage effect here is pretty good?”

“Massage?”

Two veins popped on Instructor Tie Shan's forehead. “You treat gravity training as a massage? Fine, very good! You're Gu Fan, right? Tiger Lei mentioned you, said you're a troublemaker. Now that you're in my hands, I'll show you what 'education with love' means.”

“Go to Pod 5. Since you talk so big, you'll start at 1.5x!”

Gu Fan shrugged and walked into Pod 5 nonchalantly.

As the pod door closed, Instructor Tie Shan gave a cold laugh and tapped a button on the console.

“Vroom—!”

The indicator light in Pod 5 instantly turned orange.

1.5x gravity descended instantly.

The surrounding freshmen craned their necks, waiting to see Gu Fan make a fool of himself.

In their eyes, this guy who only knew how to sleep in class might be a bit weird, but he would surely collapse instantly before absolute physical laws.

However.

One second passed.

Ten seconds passed.

Gu Fan inside the pod didn't just fail to collapse; even the hand holding the soy milk didn't tremble once.

He even lifted his foot in confusion, checked the sole of his shoe, and hopped twice.

“Instructor, is it broken?”

Gu Fan's voice came through the microphone, sounding deeply perplexed. “I don't feel anything? Is there a power outage? Why don't you try slapping the machine a few times?”

The entire room was stunned.

Instructor Tie Shan's face instantly turned dark.

No feeling?

No feeling at 1.5x gravity?

How was that possible!

Unless this guy's Physical Body strength had already reached the level of a veteran Martial Artist!

“Acting tough, are we? Let's see how long you can keep it up!”

Instructor Tie Shan snorted coldly and slid his finger again. “2x!”

The red light in the pod grew brighter.

Xiao Fan in the next pod was now drenched in sweat, his movements becoming sluggish; clearly, 2x gravity was a massive burden for him too.

But Gu Fan... he actually stretched inside the pod, letting out the kind of groan one only makes when extremely comfortable.

“Mmm... I'm starting to feel a little something now.”

Gu Fan cracked his neck, making popping sounds. “It's like wearing a thin veil, light as a feather. Instructor, is this your highest setting? Is there a setting that lets one feel 'heavy fatherly love'? This level of intensity is too light even for a spa treatment.”

“Pfft—”

A girl watching from the crowd couldn't help but laugh out loud.

This taunt was dialed to the max!

What the heck was a spa treatment!

Instructor Tie Shan felt his authority being challenged like never before.

As an instructor known for strength and severity, he absolutely would not allow a freshman to be so arrogant on his turf, even comparing his proud gravity System to a service at a bathhouse.

He was instantly consumed by rage.

“Too light, huh? Want fatherly love, huh? I'll give it to you!”

Instructor Tie Shan was beyond furious.

He had originally just wanted to teach Gu Fan a lesson, but now, he only wanted to see Gu Fan crawling on the ground like a dog, begging for mercy.

His hand slammed toward the red forbidden zone on the console.

That was the limit setting—only usable by instructors and upper-class elites.

“Turn it on! 5x! No... 10x gravity!!!”

“Boom—!!!”

Following Instructor Tie Shan's operation, the entire Pod 5 emitted an overburdened alarm. The lights inside instantly turned a terrifying blood-red, as if warning of an impending disaster.

10x gravity!

That meant a hundred-pound person would instantly have a thousand pounds of weight pressing down on every inch of skin, organ, and bone.

An ordinary person would die from ruptured internal organs the moment they entered!

“Instructor! Stop!”

The assistant instructor nearby turned pale with fright, but it was too late to stop him.

The surrounding students gasped; they could already envision the tragic sight of Gu Fan being turned into meat paste.

However.

In the split second before that terrifying gravity was about to descend upon Gu Fan.

In Gu Fan's mind, the System notification that had been silent for half a day rang out like heavenly music.

【Ding!】

【Detected malice from Instructor ‘Tie Shan’: ‘Humiliation-induced Rage and Intentional Harm’.】

【Nature of Malice: Abuse of authority, violation of regulations, attempting to destroy the host's dignity through extreme physical means.】

【Malice Rank: A-Rank (A pure, tyrannical desire to see someone kneel).】

【Backlash triggered! Multiplier: 80x!】

【Random effect generating... Environment detected as ‘Gravity Control Field’, and the core of malice is ‘Oppression’.】

【Congratulations on selecting: Newton's Wrath (Gravity Transfer · Kneel While You Talk Edition).】

【Effect Description: Since the instructor enjoys using gravity to oppress others so much, please let the instructor experience for himself what ‘unbearable weight’ feels like. The host's area will automatically be exempt from gravity, and the original multiplier will be inversely stacked onto the perpetrator.】

The next moment.

Then, a bizarre scene occurred.

Inside Pod 5, Gu Fan, who should have been crushed into a meat patty, suddenly felt his body become light; even the original gravity had vanished.

He actually floated up slightly, like an astronaut walking on the moon.

“Huh? Weightlessness?”

Gu Fan looked delighted, taking the opportunity to perform a perfect breaststroke in the air followed by a mid-air somersault.

Meanwhile.

Before the console, Instructor Tie Shan, who had been waiting for the show with a twisted expression, suddenly had a massive change in countenance.

An indescribably terrifying force slammed directly onto his shoulders without any warning.

That wasn't just 10x gravity; that was the backlash force boosted by the System!

“Crack!”

A crisp sound of bone fracturing.

Instructor Tie Shan didn't even have time to groan before his two-meter-tall burly frame was slapped down like he'd been hit by an invisible giant's hand.

“Thud—!!!”

A loud bang shook the floor of the entire hall three times.

Instructor Tie Shan's knees slammed heavily into the ground. The specialized alloy floor was instantly dented into two deep pits by his knees, with countless spiderweb-like cracks spreading outward.

It wasn't over yet.

Because the gravity was too intense, he couldn't even maintain a kneeling posture. He immediately collapsed flat on his face, his head slammed against the cold floor. His face was pressed out of shape, his mouth twisted, and he could only let out muffled “wuu wuu” sounds.

The entire hall was deathly silent.

Only the hum of distant machinery could be heard.

Everyone remained in their original positions as if frozen by a spell.

They looked at Gu Fan, who was happily swimming around in the Gravity Pod and even starting to do the tenth set of radio calisthenics.

Then they looked at the demon instructor outside, who was kneeling on the ground as if performing a full prostration toward the Gravity Pod.

An absurd, chaotic emotion—one where they wanted to laugh but didn't dare to—welled up in everyone's hearts.

“What... what's going on?”

“Why did the instructor kneel? Could he have been deterred by Gu Fan's dominance?”

“Dominance my ass! This is clearly a machine malfunction that put the gravity on the instructor instead!”

Xiao Fan in the adjacent pod was also forced to stop his cultivation because the commotion was too great.

Through the glass, he watched Gu Fan floating in the air like a balloon, and his mindset completely collapsed.

“I'm fighting for my life at 2x gravity...”

“He's playing at zero-G in 10x gravity?”

“Are we even practicing the same Martial Dao?! Does this world still have basic laws?!”

Xiao Fan felt his Dao Heart shattering into dust.

The Old Man in the Ring simply chose to block out external perceptions; out of sight, out of mind.

Just then, Gu Fan seemed to have had enough fun.

Through the thick explosion-proof glass, he looked at the kneeling Instructor Tie Shan with an expression of being overwhelmed by favor.

He quickly pressed against the glass and shouted into the microphone:

“Instructor! You mustn't, Instructor!”

“This is just a normal teaching spar; you don't need to perform such a grand gesture!”

“Quick, get up! So many people are watching, it's embarrassing! I know you're impressed by my talent, but we can just keep that in our hearts. There's no need to kowtow!”

Hearing this, Instructor Tie Shan was overcome with rage, and a mouthful of blood sprayed directly onto the floor.

【Ding! Detected Instructor ‘Tie Shan’s’ extreme shame and indignation, along with physical trauma. malice points +800!】

【Detected the shock of ‘worldview collapsing’ from the surrounding crowd. malice points +500!】

Gu Fan looked at the surging malice points and nodded with satisfaction.

“System, release him. Don't actually crush the instructor to death; I'll need him to give me special treatment later, after all.”

With a thought from Gu Fan, that terrifying gravity vanished instantly.

Instructor Tie Shan lay limp on the ground as if he'd been fished out of water, gasping for air with empty, dazed eyes.

As he looked at Gu Fan walking out of the pod with a bright, sunny smile, his body involuntarily shuddered.

In that moment, he seemed to see a malevolent god grinning behind the youth.

“Instructor, today's massage was very comfortable.”

As Gu Fan passed by Instructor Tie Shan, he lightly patted his trembling shoulder and thoughtfully stuffed a tissue into his hand. “Next time, remember to adjust the intensity more evenly. Don't just focus on your own pleasure; it's easy to hurt your back.”

Having said that, Gu Fan swaggered out of the training hall under gazes filled with awe that bordered on idiocy.

Leaving behind only a legend that continued to spread.

It was the ridiculous legend of “Gu Fan stomps his foot, the instructor kneels in fear,” which quickly spread throughout the entire Tianqiong War God Academy within the next half-day.