There wasn't much time to reflect. Shortly after Zhang Yu returned to the classroom, the math teacher wearing black-framed glasses walked in with a stack of papers.
"Today we'll review the test we took last time."
"Pass out all the papers."
"Look at the mistakes. How many times have I told you to come ask me if you don't understand? Yesterday afternoon I sat in the office for three hours, and not a single person came to ask me questions..."
Just as the math papers were being distributed, the tall and powerfully built physical education teacher arrived in the classroom. Looking at the math teacher, he said, "You're sick."
After sending the sick math teacher away, PE teacher Wang Hai looked at the numerous students and said, "This class has been changed to PE."
"Don't forget to review math on your own. General courses account for fifty points in the college entrance exam, and a single point difference means beating many people."
"Speaking of general courses, let me tell you—I've already spoken with your Chinese teacher, and the next Chinese class is also changed to PE. Combined with the original PE schedule, the entire morning today is my PE class."
The students followed PE teacher Wang Hai to the indoor training hall, where they saw a space as large as a plaza, filled with all manner of exercise equipment.
Wang Hai said, "The Qi Refining realm, as the first realm of immortal cultivation, is crucial for building a strong foundation. How solid the foundation you build during your first year of high school determines how far you can reach in your second and third years..."
As he gazed at these familiar scenes, numerous memory details surged from Zhang Yu's mind.
Since the ten great sects had systematized immortal cultivation, there was now a systematic division of realms and power levels, encompassing all aspects of immortal techniques—an ocean of knowledge.
The most widely known was the Ten Great Realms of Immortal Cultivation.
The key indicators determining which realm a person could reach were Dao Heart level and magical power level.
For high school students, only by crossing the level 10 threshold of Dao Heart and exceeding 60 points of magical power could one break through from the Qi Refining realm to the Foundation Building realm.
The high school PE class before them was designed to train the physical body and forge the will.
After all, a strong body not only increased the efficiency of magical power improvement but also greatly aided the strong will needed for higher Dao Heart levels, while enhancing combat ability in the Qi Refining realm.
If Dao Heart and magical power were the foundation of immortal cultivation, then the physical strength trained in PE class was the foundation of the foundation.
At the same time, waves of light swept across the students' bodies, displaying their physical strength data on a large screen not far away, ranked from highest to lowest.
1st place: Qian Shen - Physical Strength 1.15 2nd place: Bai Zhenzhen - Physical Strength 1.13 3rd place: He Dayou - Physical Strength 1.12 ...
Zhang Yu didn't find his score until he looked at 19th place.
19th place: Zhang Yu - Physical Strength 0.82
The immortal cultivation technology in Kunxu had developed continuously, with all data and indicators becoming increasingly refined.
Physical strength was not only quantified but re-measured every PE class.
This indicator, like Dao Heart, could only reach a maximum of level 10 in the Qi Refining realm.
Although physical strength wasn't the key indicator for breaking through immortal realms, it related to a cultivator's efficiency and combat power—a crucial foundation of immortal cultivation, accounting for 150 points out of the 650 total for immortal subjects.
"Physical strength has dropped to 19th place?"
Zhang Yu looked at his score, recalling how his physical strength improvement had been overtaken by those around him recently.
Meanwhile, his classmates were taking out syringes and injecting themselves with various enhancement supplements.
After these supplements of different brands entered the body, they not only increased muscle and bone strength but also improved training efficiency by several to over ten times, making them essential drugs for first-year high school students.
Here, you could skip training for a day, but you couldn't skip injections. Top students often took eight or more injections daily.
Zhang Yu saw Bai Zhenzhen nearby inject herself with a total of nine shots—in her buttocks, arms, and thighs—in one go.
However, compared to the many muscular figures around them, Bai Zhenzhen appeared much smaller. Zhang Yu remembered this was because their physical training directions differed, resulting in different body shapes.
PE teacher Wang Hai noticed Zhang Yu's hesitation to inject and walked over with a frown. "Zhang Yu, how long has it been since you took a functional enhancement shot?"
Zhang Yu didn't dare say he was out of money. He knew this was as embarrassing as having bad grades at Songyang High School—something he could only admit to friends like Bai Zhenzhen who knew his situation well.
Furthermore, the fragmented memories in his mind told him the original body had already fainted several times from excessive drug use, with internal organs and cardiovascular system under severe strain, threatening his life.
So Zhang Yu hedged, "I want to try training without drugs..."
Wang Hai's frown deepened upon hearing this. His voice boomed like thunder, "Have you been watching those natural bodybuilding promotions by influencers who can't handle the pain of drug enhancement? That's all lies! How can you keep up without drugs?"
"Look how far you've dropped! Keep this up, and you'll be kicked out of the demonstration class after the next monthly exam."
He said with a look of disappointment, "Do you think I'm the one taking the drugs? I don't gain any muscle when you inject!"
He casually pointed at a student in the distance. "Look at Qian Shen—twelve shots of Dragon-Elephant formulation daily for muscle and bone growth, two shots of painkillers to suppress the pain of physical tearing and growth, two shots of Gluttony-Li to accelerate metabolism and absorption of immortal elements in food, eating fifteen jin daily to gain weight..."
"In just three months, his physical strength skyrocketed from 0.13 to the current 1.15 level, becoming the strongest body in first year—equivalent to twenty years of your natural training."
As Wang Hai spoke, Zhang Yu recalled how Qian Shen had transformed from a skinny guy under 170cm three months ago to his current form—over two meters tall and weighing more than three hundred jin.
Wang Hai then pointed to another student. "Look at Zhao Tianxing, who used to be behind you. Two days ago his physical strength also broke through the 1.00 level. Now his blood is truly like lead and mercury, his arterial walls have hardened with collagen, and his heart has tripled in size..."
Just casually pointing at various students, Wang Hai sighed, "Zhang Yu, I'm saying all this because I saw your physical strength used to rank in the top ten. Your talent isn't bad, and your drug tolerance is outstanding..."
Seeing Wang Hai's earnest expression, Zhang Yu felt the other's concern, but whether from lack of money or fear of death, he wasn't willing to take drugs now.
Just as he was thinking of how to explain, Wang Hai pulled a box of medicine from his bag. "They say training is thirty percent, nutrition seventy percent, and the remaining ninety percent depends on how you inject."
"This is the newly released Divine Elephant Power functional enhancement from the Vajra Sect. Big sect quality guaranteed—one shot equals ten."
"Honestly, this stuff was still in the lab. I got it from a good brother. Seeing your talent is good, I'll sell it to you at twenty percent off—ten bottles for 8800..."
Watching Wang Hai push the product, Zhang Yu now fully remembered that over half of the physical enhancement supplements the class used came from Wang Hai.
This was normal at Songyang High School—body and medicine were inseparable. Every PE teacher was both an excellent physical training expert and an excellent pharmaceutical salesperson, often backed by multiple medical channels.
But Zhang Yu couldn't afford these, and his body couldn't handle the drugs. He could only try to deflect.
Seeing Zhang Yu's repeated excuses and evasion, Wang Hai snorted coldly, put the medicine back, and said with disappointment, "Then suit yourself."
Watching the PE teacher turn away to instruct and promote to other students, Zhang Yu sighed helplessly, thinking, "This broken place—PE is this hard?"
Just then, a young man walked up and whispered to Zhang Yu, "Wang Hai was pushing products on you again?"
The student speaking looked handsome, with the appearance of a boy next door.
Memories related to the other surfaced in Zhang Yu's mind.
"He's... Zhou Tianyi."
Zhou Tianyi was Zhang Yu's eating and study buddy since the first day of school.
The two had eaten together for three months, studied together for three months, and built a fragile friendship in the process.
But as the memories flooded in, the first thing Zhang Yu thought of was the other's grade ranking.
"Grade ranking 25, qualified to eat at my table... Huh? How did I start having this kind of grade discrimination?"
Zhang Yu felt that as the memories continued to merge, he was being influenced, becoming increasingly concerned about the school's grade rankings.
Hearing Zhou Tianyi's question, he nodded. "Yeah, trying to sell me Divine Elephant Power."
"You didn't buy it?" Seeing Zhang Yu nod, Zhou Tianyi hissed. "Aren't you afraid Old Wang will make things difficult for you?"
"Make things difficult?" Zhang Yu said. "It's just not buying drugs—shouldn't be that bad."
Zhou Tianyi shook his head repeatedly. "Sigh, want to hear some gossip about Wang Hai?"
"Forget it, I'm not into gossip."
Zhang Yu turned toward the exercise equipment, intending to familiarize himself with his body and PE course content.
Zhou Tianyi continued, "Some teachers complained that Wang Hai was... pleasuring himself in the next office over. The banging cracked the ceiling when he... finished."
Zhang Yu stopped walking. He wasn't a gossipy person, but such terrible gossip... he had to find out what happened.
Zhou Tianyi said, "Wang Hai later explained he didn't do that. The bang bang bang was him disciplining disobedient students."
"Later I asked students from the previous two years, and it turns out Wang Hai has long had a habit of physically punishing underperforming students."
"Especially if grades dropped and you didn't buy his drugs, he'd lead the bullying."
"I heard a few years ago, one student was driven by him to jump off a building."
At the words 'jump off a building,' Zhang Yu's gaze sharpened. "And Wang Hai faced no consequences?"
Zhou Tianyi said nonchalantly, "Wang Hai's teaching results have always been excellent. He's Songyang High School's top PE teacher, having produced three students with the city's highest physical strength scores on the college entrance exam. Some say he has connections to drugs still in lab stages from major sects."
"Even if the school didn't want to use him, most students and parents wouldn't agree. They all rely on Wang Hai for drugs to improve their physical strength."
He then looked at Zhang Yu warningly. "If you never buy drugs and your grades don't improve, he'll probably target you."
Seeing Zhang Yu's furrowed brow, Zhou Tianyi asked curiously, "I say... you used to take plenty of shots yourself. Why suddenly stop? Could you be out of money? Want me to lend you some?"
Sensing the other's sincerity, Zhang Yu smiled wryly. "No need."
"Really no need?" Zhou Tianyi: "How about you use mine today?"
Zhang Yu quickly shook his head. He was genuinely afraid a few more shots would kill him on the spot.
According to the memories in his mind, the world had no shortage of people severely injured, disabled, or even killed from excessive drug loads. Even Songyang High School had serious injuries from drug overuse every year.
Yet despite this, students pursuing physical strength through drugs continued in an endless stream.
And the original body had already shown signs of being overwhelmed since last week.
Thinking that the original body not only left him with a debt of 700,000 but also such a battered physique, Zhang Yu sighed inwardly again.
Just as the two were whispering, a cold gaze swept over them. Wang Hai shouted, "Don't whisper during PE class!"
Zhang Yu and Zhou Tianyi immediately stopped talking and began their individual training.
Zhang Yu approached a large iron ball. His muscles tensed all over, and with a sudden exertion of force, he lifted the hundred-kilogram iron ball.
Then, as his muscles contracted and expanded with effort, the large iron ball was moved to various positions around his body as if it were a toy.
As the iron ball flew up and down and spun, Zhang Yu felt his blood and qi surging, with various parts of his body gradually warming up.
"This is the warm-up..."
The entire process was like an instinct etched into his flesh and blood. Zhang Yu completed the warm-up almost without thinking.
In the subsequent training, his mastery of this body deepened, with related memories continuously emerging from his mind.
"The physical training in the Qi Refining stage mainly involves tempering muscles and bones, breaking limits through repeated practice to ultimately increase physical strength level."
"The specific method... the most widely circulated among high school students is the technique known as the Thirty-Six Forms of Body Strengthening."
The Thirty-Six Forms of Body Strengthening was a body-tempering technique created by the ten great sects specifically for high school education. Thirty-six movements combined with different equipment could comprehensively develop the body and effectively increase physical strength.
Within the immortal cultivation framework summarized by the ten great sects, all martial arts and techniques were classified from levels 1 to 100.
Most students at Songyang High School could successfully master the basics after one or two weeks, reaching level 1 in the Thirty-Six Forms of Body Strengthening.
If one could continue raising the level, the training effects of the Thirty-Six Forms would become increasingly powerful and incredible.
But this was clearly not easy. In Zhang Yu's memory, in the three months since school started, only Bai Zhenzhen had raised the Thirty-Six Forms to level 2.
This was precisely why Bai Zhenzhen could maintain second place in the year with just nine shots daily, closely trailing Qian Shen who took sixteen shots a day.
"The level of the Thirty-Six Forms relates to the efficiency of physical strength improvement, but the key that truly determines power and PE grades remains the physical strength itself."
"Speaking of which, with my physical strength at level 0.82, I can casually toss around things weighing hundreds of jin. The maximum physical strength in the Qi Refining realm can reach level 10, and after Foundation Building it can go up to level 20... The gap between people here is enormous."
Zhang Yu initially only wanted to train casually, familiarizing himself with PE course content and his own body.
But as he practiced the Thirty-Six Forms movement by movement, he became increasingly serious and meticulous, as if an instinct within his body was urging him on, encouraging him to persist in his training.
Muscles were constantly torn, bones constantly impacted. Through repeated practice, his body was repeatedly devastated until finally a warm current welled up from within, silently beginning to repair the damage in his flesh and blood.
This was Zhang Yu's magical power. Just like the PE classes of the past few months, the physical body was devastated under intense pressure, then continuously repaired under the influence of magical power, growing stronger each time.
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, two hours had passed. Zhang Yu exhaled deeply, feeling his entire body aching, as if his flesh and blood were about to come apart.
"No wonder they take painkillers..."
He looked up to see Bai Zhenzhen still sweating profusely in the distance, along with other classmates training just as frantically on the other side. A sense of urgency instinctively surged from his heart, as if urging him to continue pushing his body.
"If I trained this frantically in the original world, I'd probably have collapsed and died long ago."
"Only here, with the support of various immortal cultivation drugs and magical power... can one endure and grow even stronger."
Feeling the pain emanating from every part of his body, and that instinct still hungering for training and strength, Zhang Yu couldn't help but marvel at how deep the original Zhang Yu's obsession had been.
Yet as training continued, this instinct hidden deep within the human body seemed to be fading.
The path forward ultimately had to be chosen by Zhang Yu of the present.
When the morning PE class finally ended, Zhang Yu had collapsed on the field, surrounded by a group of classmates still energetic and training frantically.
Zhang Yu reflected that this was the difference between using drugs and not using them.
Suddenly he caught sight of the black patch on his palm, discovering that less than a quarter of the area remained unfillled by the darkness.