Chapter 6: Freedom
"Damn it!"
Bang!
"Damn it!"
Bang!
"Damn it!"
Bang! Bang!
In the dark concrete room, accompanied by a series of low curses and thudding sounds, Zhang Yu finally finished the second round of practicing the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Techniques, enduring the intense pain all over his body.
He suddenly sat down on the ground with a thud, gasping heavily.
Feeling his still trembling hands and feet, Zhang Yu felt that his body had reached its absolute limit. Every inch of flesh and blood in his body didn't want to move anymore.
However, in such a situation, that chill and the voice in his mind came again.
"Please abide by the ritual agreement, strive to fulfill your wish, do not deliberately slack off or procrastinate, 10."
"Shit!" Zhang Yu cursed inwardly: "I'm already at my limit!"
"I really can't practice anymore!"
"I have classes tomorrow!"
No matter how he explained or reasoned, the countdown showed no pause or hesitation.
Seeing the countdown approaching the end, Zhang Yu could only curse and stagger to his feet to continue practicing.
Normally, it's difficult for most people to push themselves to their true limits when exercising alone.
Only when there is supervision and strict requirements from a master, teacher, coach... can people often push themselves to their limits time and time again.
The same was true for Zhang Yu. If it were just him, he might have only practiced the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Techniques once or twice today and then been too tired to move, just resting.
But the power of the ritual was like a devilish coach at this moment, constantly watching him and threatening him with death, urging him not to slack off in his training.
The third round...
The fourth round...
The fifth round...
All the way to the tenth round!
Under the repeated threats of the ritual power, Zhang Yu practiced the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Techniques ten times!
During this period, his flesh and blood went from the pain of tearing to the sharp pain like being pricked by needles, and finally seemed to gradually become numb. He even felt that his hands and feet were about to disappear.
At the same time, every trace of magic power in his body was also forced out and continuously injected into the damaged flesh and blood.
After these ten rounds of training, Zhang Yu felt as if both his flesh and blood and his magic power had been squeezed dry, like a rag that had been wrung thousands or tens of thousands of times, with not a drop left.
At this moment, Zhang Yu just wanted to lie on the ground and not move an inch.
Fortunately, the voice that had been urging him to death did not ring out again. It seemed that it considered him to have truly exhausted all his efforts and reached his limit.
During the training process just now, Zhang Yu also roughly figured out the characteristics of this ritual power.
"This thing is a bit like an artificial idiot. It doesn't have real intelligence but just operates according to certain rules..."
Similar things, Zhang Yu had seen in movies, TV shows, and news from Kunxu.
The powerful magic treasures all contained spiritual souls. These spiritual souls were like artificial intelligences, with a certain amount of intelligence to handle various problems. Even those powerful enough spiritual souls had intelligence no less than that of humans.
At this moment, after confirming that the ritual power no longer forced him to train, Zhang Yu could finally relax his mind and feel the effects of the upgraded Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Techniques.
Yes, after Zhang Yu completed the tenth round of the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Techniques, he could feel that this martial art had been upgraded.
In that instant, his understanding and comprehension of the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Techniques became deeper.
Many details that he had not noticed before or did not understand well suddenly appeared in his mind like a flash of lightning.
On the Feather Book, the original 'Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Techniques Level 1 (0/10)' also changed to 'Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Techniques Level 2 (0/20)'.
"As long as I practice another 20 times, I can upgrade the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Techniques to Level 3?"
"If I keep practicing like this, won't I be able to push the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Techniques to Level 10 soon?"
Zhang Yu knew that in the Qi Refinement Realm, the highest level of martial arts and magic techniques could only be cultivated to Level 10.
"By then, even if I don't get acupuncture or take medicine, the effect of my training won't be inferior to Bai Zhenzhen's... no, it may even be far better."
"In this way, it's not impossible to raise my physical strength to the first place in my grade in the future."
Thinking of this, Zhang Yu was excited and felt that his body didn't hurt as much anymore.
"My potential is so terrifying. Once it's stimulated by the evil god, I'll soar into the sky."
With beautiful imaginations of the future, the physically exhausted Zhang Yu gradually fell asleep and unconsciously slept until five o'clock the next morning, just as he had woken up countless times in the past.
But today, his limbs were sore, and it was extremely difficult to open his eyes.
Although Zhang Yu had woken up at this moment, he didn't want to get up at all and just wanted to sleep a little longer, even though he was on the concrete floor of the unfinished building.
"Just five more minutes... I'll just sleep for five more minutes..."
But just as Zhang Yu wanted to stay in bed, that chilling voice rang out in his heart again.
"Please abide by the ritual agreement, strive to fulfill your wish, do not deliberately slack off or procrastinate, 10."
"Damn it!" Zhang Yu suddenly opened his eyes, listened carefully to the voice continuing, and after repeatedly confirming that this was not an illusion, he could only curse and sit up.
At this moment, Zhang Yu suddenly realized that things might be more serious than he had originally imagined.
"From now on, as long as it's related to learning, training, going to college, working, that is, related to fulfilling the second wish by learning, training, working, and making money... I can't slack off at all?"
"24-hour supervisor, huh?"
Carrying a tired and exhausted body, Zhang Yu hurried back to his rented apartment.
Feeling the grease and sweat all over him, he hurriedly paid 323.4 yuan for water and took a five-minute shower before rushing to the bus stop.
Looking up at the display screen on the platform, Zhang Yu thought: "Will the next bus arrive in ten minutes?"
Leaning against a pole, he thought to himself: "Take a rest. Fortunately, that broken thing didn't ask me to practice hard during these few minutes."
Just as he thought of this, Zhang Yu regretted it.
Because a chill surged from his heart, and that nightmare-like voice rang out again.
"Please abide by the ritual agreement, strive to fulfill your wish, do not deliberately slack off or procrastinate, 10."
"I'll be damned..." Zhang Yu cursed inwardly: "Is this thing constantly monitoring my thoughts in my head? As long as I think of a way to work hard and don't do it... it will kill me?"
So, under the countdown, Zhang Yu could only start practicing the Thirty-Six Body Strengthening Techniques under the surprised, puzzled, appreciative, or indifferent gazes of the people around him.
Hoo!
Bang!
With the last punch thrown, Zhang Yu, sweating all over, sat down on the ground again.
Looking at the approaching bus in the distance, he was overjoyed: "Finally here."
And today, Zhang Yu even found a seat on the bus, which made him happy again.
"Finally, I can rest well."
"Just close my eyes for a while. You can't force me to practice in the bus, can you? Unless it's breathing exercises..."
Just as he thought of the words "breathing exercises," Zhang Yu felt something was wrong.
"Please abide by the ritual agreement, strive to fulfill your wish, do not deliberately slack off or procrastinate, 10."
Sure enough, the countdown rang again, forcing Zhang Yu to run the Basic Breathing Method while sitting in the bus.
Breathing exercises while sitting in the bus sounds simple and cost-effective, but even the previous Zhang Yu had given up after trying it a few times.
First, the environment on the bus was too noisy, making it difficult to concentrate.
Secondly, and most importantly, Zhang Yu, who got up early every day, was too tired.
He just wanted to close his eyes for a while when he finally got a seat and didn't have the energy to practice breathing exercises.
The few times he tried, he often started to feel sleepy while practicing breathing exercises.
But now, under the coercion of the ritual power, Zhang Yu could only try hard to practice breathing exercises. While constantly fighting against sleepiness, he tried to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth through breathing in and out.
At this moment, he fully understood that things were much more serious than he had thought before.
"This is not an ordinary 24-hour supervisor. It's pushing me to death all the time."
"As long as this thing is still on me, all slacking off, idling, entertainment, relaxation... will be gone from me."
"There will be no more weekends, let alone holidays. My life will have no fun. Every minute and every second will be dedicated to learning, dedicated to training, dedicated to work... until the second wish is fulfilled."
Zhang Yu unconsciously hugged his head: "I will become a complete study machine, a work ox, with no leisure time at all, and be a 'rolling king' all my life... until I am completely crushed by this pressure!"
He sighed in his heart: "If this is how my life will be, then even if I succeed in cultivating immortality and live for a few hundred more years, what's the use? The more years I live, the more suffering I endure."
"Heaven!"
The passengers around looked at Zhang Yu, who was holding his head in pain.
But Zhang Yu couldn't care about them anymore. Accompanied by the countdown of "Please abide by the ritual agreement...", he had already sat up straight again, suppressed the sorrow in his heart, and continued to run the Basic Breathing Method.
At the same time, a determination gradually emerged in Zhang Yu's heart.
In fact, until this morning, Zhang Yu, who came to this world, was somewhat confused.
Although he wanted to get into a prestigious university, join a major sect, and cultivate immortality successfully, it was hard to say how much of it was influenced by the original body's memory and was a choice following the inertia of life.
Until this moment, Zhang Yu finally had a goal, a goal that he was determined to achieve no matter what difficulties he faced.
That was to become strong enough to completely remove the ritual power that coerced him.
Zhang Yu wanted... freedom!