As Zhou Leng walked away, a sophomore Body Refining Stage student whispered, "Is that Zhou Leng, the freshman Martial Arts School Student Zhou Leng?"

"Yes, there's only one Zhou Leng in the whole school."

"But why do you call him senior brother?"

"He saved us, and later during sparring, he always crushed us. We couldn't even defeat Molten Hammer, but Molten Hammer said he couldn't handle Zhou Leng with one hand. After that, we gradually called him senior brother, and it became a habit. In martial arts, the one who excels is the master."

Ji Changnian heard this, opened his mouth, and swallowed back the words "I don't believe it" that kept echoing in his mind.

A senior saw Zhou Leng's silhouette disappear into the Martial Arts Dojo and sighed heavily, saying, "Senior brother Zhou Leng's strength should be close to the Late Stage Vitality."

Ji Changnian's pupils contracted.

"How is that possible? He's not Mountain and River Origin."

"It can't be," some seniors also objected.

That person pointed to the tenth gear of the striker and said, "Haven't you considered, if he were to physically withstand the advanced striker at the tenth gear, what would that mean?"

"He should be at True Qi tenth gear, after all, his skin wasn't even broken."

"If he were at True Qi tenth gear, his skin wouldn't be so heavily bruised. Recall the way he looked when he came out, is that the look of someone who just manipulated Qi? Those bruises hadn't even dispersed; that's the kind of damage only a body without True Qi could receive."

"Right..."

Everyone looked towards the door that had just closed.

"Senior brother Zhou Leng's strength has increased significantly again."

"I heard from the instructor that even an ordinary Innate human can't withstand physical tenth gear, they have to manipulate Qi."

"Ji Changnian, do you know senior brother Zhou Leng?" The one who asked was the child of the leader of Ji Changnian's father's house, the two had met a few times.

Everyone looked at Ji Changnian.

Ji Changnian's heart skipped a beat, he was silent for a second before slowly saying, "We are Celestial Ladder comrades, fighting demons together on the Celestial Tier Battlefield."

"I see." Several seniors looked at Ji Changnian, their gazes changing, nodding slightly, and showing approving looks.

Ji Changnian turned his head, pretending to look at the door, a heart shattered into ice pieces.

He came to Ruda aiming for first place.

But instead, he slipped to fourth.

The martial arts resources between fourth and first are vastly different.

He had no choice but to listen to his father's advice and contact senior students to pave the way for the future.

Walking along this path, he put down his pride, befriended seniors, integrated into the group, and as he walked, he looked up, only to find Zhou Leng at the end of this path.

When he heard the seniors call Zhou Leng senior brother, he was stunned, with the infinite loop of "I don't believe it" running in his mind.

When the senior asked, he originally wanted to say they weren't familiar, but inexplicably blurted out "Celestial Ladder comrades."

Most troubling is, seeing the approving looks from the seniors, he felt he had done the right thing.

Although in theory, they were indeed Celestial Ladder comrades.

"Should I believe it or not..."

Ji Changnian was bewildered.

Outside the Martial Arts Dojo, Zhou Leng walked while manipulating Qi, and the bruises on his body visibly dissipated; five minutes later, all the bruises were gone.

"Withstanding physical tenth gear, although the skin wasn't broken, still hurts a little..."

Zhou Leng checked the time, informed Xu Qingjin to wait for him at a place not far from the cafeteria, then opened his Demonized Watch, searching for hard skills-related innate videos. He quickly found a good one and selected a trial view.

After watching for a while, he found it very useful and bought the entire course.

Before long, Xu Qingjin came over quickly, her ponytail swaying from side to side.

"Zhou Leng," Xu Qingjin came over.

Zhou Leng turned his head, smiled, and nodded slightly. The two of them walked towards the cafeteria together.

After lunch, they found a bench, sat together, and chatted.

Zhou Leng said he would go to a gathering with Xue Chengsong, Rao Mingxian, and Cao Jiajia today, while Xu Qingjin mentioned she would study the online Divine Text class in the evening.

After chatting for a while, they ran out of topics, but neither felt awkward. Zhou Leng naturally took out his Demonized Watch to play popular videos, and they watched together.

Occasionally, Xu Qingjin would laugh so hard she bent forward and backward at a funny moment.

Zhou Leng watched Xu Qingjin, she had always been easily amused since childhood.

When afternoon classes began, Zhou Leng walked Xu Qingjin to the teaching building, then pondered how to spend the afternoon.

He had already exercised in the morning, returning to the Fierce Beast world and coming back for dinner in the evening would just waste time.

Thinking about it, he decided to start running, as it had been many days since he'd done a proper long run.

He could only run outside the school, slowly running outward.

Before long, he reached the red track, but after only a few steps, he slowed down.

He was too fast.

The city's red track had a speed limit of 30 meters per second for Martial Artists, which is 108 kilometers per hour.

Checking the map, he ran towards the opposite bank of the Longyou River.

This side of the Longyou River was a residential area, but the other side was suburban, with fields, wastelands, factories, and railways.

After running for twenty minutes, Zhou Leng reached a wasteland and surveyed the surroundings.

No fields, no roads, the railway was several hundred meters away.

Now, he could use Lightweight Skills without worrying about breaking the ground.

Smoothing his Qi, Zhou Leng began running with Qi Manipulation.

After a while, a high-speed train sped past on the parallel railway to his right, traveling ahead.

Zhou Leng paid it no attention, facing forward, he utilized the Flying Crane Technique, circulating Qi Blood throughout his body, fully executing Lightweight Skill.

He stepped forward with his left foot, and his left leg suddenly grew thicker like a bloated lotus root.

With a boom, the ground within a 3-meter radius collapsed, cracked, and a whirlwind of dust rushed skyward.

With a swoosh, Zhou Leng's body disappeared from the original spot, stepping forward with his right foot.

He moved as if riding the wind, the howling wind sounds echoing as he landed his right foot.

His right foot created a larger pit, and he disappeared from the spot before the dust rose, stepping forward in mid-air…

In this way, Zhou Leng covered dozens of meters with each step, racing across the wasteland.

Hundreds of meters away, a white high-speed train rumbled along the tracks, packed with students starting school late, mostly from non-Martial Arts Universities.

In the third-class seats, a few familiar students gathered, chatting about various topics.

"I heard we're preparing for battle again."

"I reckon it's the Demon Worship Sect causing trouble again, Huang Meng Sect and the Hell Knight Order, they've acted up again."

"Heh, the others in the Demon Worship Sect deserve to die, but the more people Huang Meng Sect and the Hell Knight Order kill, the better."

"What does Huang Meng Sect even mean? Huang represents Huang Chao, but Meng? It can't be Sub-Sage Mencius, right? It doesn't make sense."

"It's definitely not Mencius, but who exactly it is, I really don't know..."

Just then, a student caught sight of a figure outside the window from the corner of his eye.

The student turned his head to look and exclaimed softly.

"Look outside the window, a master!"

Everyone turned their heads to look outside, and they saw a blurry figure running forward at a terrifying speed, gradually overtaking the high-speed train.

The people in the left carriage all looked outside, and some children even shouted loudly.

The people in the other side of the carriage also stood up and looked out the windows on this side.

Some people looked at the speed display screen at the front of the carriage.

287 km/h.

"This master's speed has broken 300!"

"Quick, calculate the speed per second at 300 kilometers per hour."

"83.33 meters per second."

"No, his speed is definitely faster than that, he's outpacing the train by a long shot."

"Does anyone know the conductor? We can't let him catch up!"

Everyone continued to watch outside the window as the figure ran faster and faster, even tending to surpass the head of the train.

People had traveled by high-speed train before and seen masters run, but it was the first time they saw someone chase after a high-speed train with their own eyes.

Suddenly, someone shouted, "Look, the train is speeding up! Could it be the conductor increasing the speed?"

Everyone looked at the speed display screen, watching the numbers slowly increase.

"It's probably that the dispatch station had already given orders, speeding up right now is purely coincidental."

"It's getting exciting!"

Suddenly, someone opened the train door, and cheers came from the adjacent carriage.

Everyone on the high-speed train turned their heads to the left windows.

Many people took out their phones to capture the moment.

The two were too far apart and moving too quickly, the footage was just a blur.

The high-speed train got faster and faster.

As the carriage was mostly filled with young students returning to school, they shouted excitedly, some cheering for the running person outside, others for the train.

The whole high-speed train was in a frenzy.

Finally, the numbers on the speed display screen stopped changing.

350 km/h.

Everyone looked outside, and that person was still running, not overtaken by the train.

"That person seems a bit faster than the train."

"I heard, to avoid accidents, the limit for this series of trains is exactly 350 km/h."

"At 350 km/h, the speed per second is 98 meters."

"A regular Vitality Stage person would find it hard to reach this speed, that person could either be a Vitality Stage genius or Innate."

"After so long, he still seems to have reserve strength."

Everyone gazed outside, flesh and blood surpassing the steel train.

After a while, the person running gradually slowed down, never once looking this way.

Only then did the people inside the carriage gradually sit down, discussing the race between the person and the high-speed train.

An elder sighed, "If this were back in my day, who would have dared imagine a person could overtake a train, let alone a high-speed one."

"Dad, I want to be a Martial Artist too, I want to run with the train!" a child shouted, swinging his arms.

The high-speed train disappeared into the distance.

Zhou Leng walked while taking deep breaths, glancing at the speed data on the Demonized Watch.

Maximum speed per second, 99.2 meters.

On the verge of surpassing 100 meters per second.

Once fully absorbing the power of Ancestral Protection, and compressing his body under two meters, he'd be just about there.

Zhou Leng looked back, seeing a line of large pits connected in succession.

Speedy Lightweight Flying Crane Technique has advanced to Great Success.

While regulating his breathing, he walked slowly to recover his strength.

When his True Qi recovered to halfway, he began to run with Qi Manipulation, not using Lightweight Skills.

The speed approached 50 meters per second.

He ran for a while longer, then began to practice his punches and kicks.

Near evening, he changed into a tracksuit and headed to Old Rongji.

In Old Rongji's private room, Rao Mingxian, Xue Chengsong, Cao Jiajia, and Cui Mingcong were already seated, Zhou Leng and Feng Wenhao had yet to arrive.

Xue Chengsong, Cao Jiajia, and Cui Mingcong were all teammates who went to Demon City with Zhou Leng last year.

Cao Jiajia was also from Ruda, already knowing Rao Mingxian.

At the last mining site contest to lend a hand, Cui Mingcong was there too, and had met Rao Mingxian.

The four of them chatted quickly, and soon the topic turned to realms.

"I've always been too lazy to cultivate, still stuck at the Early Period of Blood Transport," Xue Chengsong said.

Cui Mingcong said, "I'm just average, in the Middle Period of Blood Transport."

"I went to the Celestial Ladder, got lucky, and am now in the Late Stage of Blood Transport," Cao Jiajia said.

Cui Mingcong and Xue Chengsong looked at Cao Jiajia with envy, during Demon City, Cui Mingcong's strength was beyond Cao Jiajia's.

Xue Chengsong had more Martial Arts Resources, and should have originally surpassed Cao Jiajia.

But due to the Celestial Ladder, in just half a year, a huge gap had opened.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.