Chapter 18

Wu Zhihao and his friends said their goodbyes as they did not have classes in the morning .

Seeing that it was still early, Fang Ping did not have much of a mood to go to school early, thus he started walking in the direction of Lakeview Gardens .

On his way back, Fang Ping thought about what Wang Jinyang said .

Fang Ping had heard about the so-called technique that Wu Zhihao and the rest cared so much about, but he did not pay much attention to them . What was more important to him were the other things .

Though Wang Jinyang was just a freshman, it was obvious that he was much more mature compared to the other Year 3 Seniors .

From the things he innocently said, one could tell that being a martial artist was not all it was cracked up to be .

In modern society, a martial artist may look like a normal person in a sea of people, but it was not the case . In fact, they had their own realities that most normal people would never understand .

These days the news spread fast on the internet, but lest one forgets — In this country, if the web seems like it has gotten more liberal, it is only because the government allowed it .

The information that they did not wish for normal people to know about would never appear on the internet .

“A martial artist…”

Fang Ping muttered, “So how big are the differences really, between a martial artist and a normal person? Is it just as simple as having the ability to fight?”

A few days ago, Fang Ping was not in the state of mind to think about these things .

However, after meeting a real martial artist like Wang Jinyang, he could not help but put more thought into it .

“I guess I’m still not there yet…”

Fang Ping shook his head . His standing in society caused him to receive less information and understanding .

Some things, just like what Wang Jinyang said, were better left in the dark .

When he becomes a martial artist, then all these alien and unknown things would slowly be revealed to him . For the time being, he did not need to worry too much about it yet .

After walking for a bit, Fang Ping pondered and finally decided it was better to just convert the leftover 10,000 Wealth points .

This year’s examination was obviously way harder than last year’s . Even Wu Zhihao with his 115cal Vitality, Vitality pill on hand, and having also learned the technique for Emotional Outburst, it was still no guarantee for him .

This indicated that this year’s competition would be extra stressful .

Fang Ping did not even have 110cal Vitality himself . If he still did not level up and the unreliable system suddenly malfunctioned, He would be in deep trouble .

After making up his mind, Fang Ping started to focus on raising his Vitality .

Swiftly, he could see the stats change:

Wealth: 0

Vitality: 1 . 2

Mentality: 1 . 1

…

Just as Fang Ping was getting ready to receive the same incredible feeling he got when he received his first Vitality upgrade, he suddenly started to moan softly in pain .

His exposed arms, neck, and the back of his hands…

In these places, his veins popped up and bulged . The veins were visibly prominent and were especially horrifying .

Fang Ping grit his teeth as he leaned against the walls of the shops on the street . He clenched both his fists tightly and endured the pain while stopping himself from crying out loud .

After God knows how long, Fang Ping’s face was drenched in sweat .

“Phew!”

After exhaling the air from his mouth, without hesitation, Fang Ping cursed under his breath, “F*ck, did I just get scammed?”

The first time was a breeze!

However this time around, the pain nearly had him rolling on the ground .

The moment his Vitality leveled up, he thought his blood vessels were going to burst .

Luckily it came quick but left just as fast as well . If it lasted just a little longer, Fang Ping was not sure if he would even be flailing around on the street .

With the memories of it still lingering in his mind, Fang Ping rubbed his arm and furrowed his brows saying, “Was my body unable to keep up with it?”

The first time he leveled up his Vitality, he was not really bothered by it .

However, this time Fang Ping felt it as clear as day . It might be due to his blood vessels being too weak and leveling up resulted in him almost bursting his vessels .

This was just the second time leveling up, which led Fang Ping to wonder what would happen if he did it once more . He was worried that next time, he might become a human-shaped fountain spurting out blood from within .

“Only with strong body strength, will someone then be able to sustain a Vitality level-up…

“Seems like I should include working out into my daily routine now . ”

Another thing to add to his already long list of responsibilities .

Nevertheless, improving one’s body fitness was still a necessity even if it was not for increasing one’s Vitality, having a strong physique was important for the practical test too .

At this moment, Fang Ping was no more different than the losers that Wang Jinyang had described as “those who grew up dependent on pills” .

When this came to his mind, Fang Ping did not know whether to cry or laugh . Other people were worried about not being able to level up their Vitality stats, but he himself was more concerned about the issue of whether his body was able to cope with a Vitality level up .

With another glance at his stats, Fang Ping wondered, ‘Am I currently in the 120cal tier?’

He thought about going to test himself again at Wu Zhihao’s home . However it had only been a day since he was there and if he were to test himself again today and the stats showed that he was at least 125cal, Wu Zhihao would probably jump off the building .

Of course, there was a high chance that he was going to drag Fang Ping down along with him when he jumped .

…

At 2 o’clock in the afternoon, people were once again flocking the school gate for assembly .

A few of them were carpooling and heading toward Wang Jinyang’s house to fetch him to school .

The area that Wang Jinyang stayed at was like any other . At most, it was slightly better than Fang Ping’s place at Lakeview Gardens .

When the car arrived, Wang Jinyang was already standing at the entrance of his residential area waiting .

Wang Jinyang who was empty-handed in the morning was now carrying his backpack, bulging with who-knows-what .

Nobody asked him because it was not unusual to be bringing some local produce from university back home .

As Wang Jinyang took his backpack and got into the car, he suddenly turned around to look at Fang Ping who was beside him . With a suspicious look in his eyes and slightly furrowed brows, he asked, “Fang Ping, what were you up to this noon?”

“Eh?”

Fang Ping was stunned for a bit and his heart suddenly tensed up . Was it possible that other martial artists could sense if someone had leveled up their Vitality?’

Turns out it was not what he expected . Wang Jinyang, still with his concerned look said, “Although I understand where you guys are coming from, that you guys will do whatever it takes just for the martial sciences examination .

“But, your body is your foundation!

“Some potent pills simply cannot be taken willy-nilly!

“If you aren’t careful, there will be a high chance of a horrific outcome!

“I don’t know what kind of medicine you’ve taken, but if your Vitality increases too quickly, it might cause you a lot of problems .

“During this duration, you should train more so that your Vitality may stabilize . For at least a week, it is important that you do not use any other Blood or Qi-nourishing Pills . ”

After listening to his words, Fang Ping sighed with relief and hurriedly replied, “I got it, thanks, Brother Wang . I didn’t have any experience before and this was just my first time using any sort of pills . In fact, my blood vessels also felt quite swollen from it . ”

“Turns out it was your first time, no wonder…”

Wang Jinyang said softly . As a martial artist, he had very sharp senses .

In the morning earlier, Fang Ping’s Vitality was obviously lower than Wu Zhihao’s . However, Fang Ping was bursting with Vitality now and had Vitality much higher than Wu Zhihao’s .

He did not know what Fang Ping took, but the effects of this medicine were shocking . It was possible that these were banned medicine that had extreme effects on bodies .

This was the first time Fang Ping had taken supplements so he did not have much knowledge about it . Plus, if this was only his first time taking a supplement then his home environment must not be very good .

When this thought crossed his mind, Wang Jinyang did not press him further about what he took . He only reminded him once more . “Next time if you want to buy medicine and don’t know much about the effects of it, just make sure to go to a proper medicine store to ask about it beforehand!

“In society, some people would simply self-prescribe medicine and when that takes effect, it would bring dangerous and harmful effects to the body .

“Not everyone gets lucky every time, some have even died or become permanently disabled because of it . This happens to many people every year .

“But I suppose because this was your first time . Plus, your foundation from before wasn’t too bad although you managed to be just slightly above the requirement . Nevertheless, you can’t always count on your luck, just be aware of that . ”

“Okay, I’ll be sure to take note of that . Thank you, Brother Wang . ”

“Don’t worry about it . ”

Wang Jinyang’s mannerism was friendlier now, he smiled and said, “Having said that, you can still grow from this experience . Wait until your Vitality stabilizes and after spending some time training harder, who knows, maybe this year there’s hope for your martial sciences . ”

The conversation between them was overheard by everyone else .

When the conversation started, it sounded like Fang Ping had taken some kind of Nourishing Pills that noon to boost his Vitality and harmed his body .

What they did not expect was that in the end, Wang Jinyang actually said that there was hope for Fang Ping in his martial sciences!

It was known that Wang Jinyang would have never given a comment like this earlier in the morning, not even to Wu Zhihao .

So when he heard this, Wu Zhihao who was in shock could not resist the urge to ask, “Brother Wang, did Fang Ping’s Vitality increase a lot?”

Wang Jinyang chuckled and said, “Well I’m not a Vitality Measuring Machine . I can only roughly tell, but even so, it’s pretty obvious that this kid has definitely leveled up quite a fair bit . ”

Fang Ping quickly smiled and said, “It was just so-so, I bet there wasn’t even much difference from before . ”

“Hahaha…”

Wang Jinyang let out a laugh but did not expose him . He did, however, say to Wu Zhihao, “Now don’t you guys follow in his footsteps . He didn’t understand what he was doing, so it was a pretty risky thing to do .

“Medicine cannot be simply taken, even if they are conventional drugs such as Vitality Pills or Blood and Qi-Replenishing Pills . As for the more radical drugs, those are simply out of the question!

“He just got lucky . If he was just a little bit more unfortunate, his blood vessels would probably have burst by now . To think of what would’ve happened, is unimaginable .

“Ignorance truly is scary!”

Wang Jinyang shook his head . If these students were a more educated bunch, they would definitely never attempt something like this .

Upon hearing about blood vessels exploding, Wu Zhihao and the other three simultaneously shrank in fear .

Wu Zhihao asked in a low voice, “Fang Ping, what kind of medicine have you taken this time?”

Abashed, Fang Ping replied, “After checking our Vitality at your place yesterday, my dad gave me some money to buy some medicine to boost my Vitality so that I would stand a better chance at passing my martial sciences .

“This morning after we split up, I was on my way back when someone on the streets asked me if I wanted any Nourishing Pills . Plus, it was cheap so I bought one… ”

“You!”

Wu Zhihao stared at him with mouth agape as he could not believe what he had heard . Shockingly, he asked, “Are you crazy? Why would you believe some random nut on the streets?”

“It was cheap and he said it was a Vitality Pill for just a few thousand yuan . Didn’t you say that one costs around 30 thousand yesterday?”

“I can’t tell who’s crazier, you or him . How could you buy something worth 30 thousand for just a few thousand?”

Wu Zhihao was completely speechless, while Yang Jian just scratched his head as he said in a stunned voice, “Even I wouldn’t dare to do such a thing . Fang Ping, you really are a crazy guy . ”

Originally, they had wanted to ask what kind of medicine Fang Ping had eaten, but now they had completely lost all interest .

A medicine with mysterious origin like that, if ingested, might send one down a path of unknown ways of death!

Moreover, if the guy really did lie to Fang Ping, he would have probably legged it to god-knows-where by now .

This risky way of leveling up one’s Vitality was akin to gambling with one’s life . Unless one was truly desperate, no high school student would have the guts to take the plunge .

“Ignorance truly is scary!”

This was probably echoing in everyone’s heads at that time . If it were up to them, who would actually carelessly eat some random pills they had bought from the streets?

From what he had gathered, Fang Ping naturally let out a sigh of relief based on the situation and just wrote it off as a mistake .

He did not expect Wang Jinyang to have the ability to sense these kinds of things .

It was apparent to him now that martial artists were much more formidable than what he had imagined them to be . Either that or Wang Jinyang was a lot more powerful than he had initially thought .

Maybe them finding out was not that bad of a thing . In case when they had a physical assessment for Vitality later, Wu Zhihao and the rest would not be too surprised .

Another advantage was that Wang Jinyang seemed to now think that Fang Ping stood a good chance at passing the martial sciences examination as he continued to give Fang Ping more specific tips on the way to school .

The tips were mostly about physical training but in the end, he laughed and said, “Looks like No . 1 High School is in for some surprises this year again . Hopefully, you won’t mess up in the other tests and who knows, in just a few months, maybe we’ll both be schoolmates . ”

When that was said, Wu Zhihao and the rest felt envious and jealous left and right, but if they were asked to go buy some medicine off some street chap and ingest it right now, they probably did not have the guts or the motivation to do so .