Running with a one-ton weight is nothing.
But when you start using the equipment, the feeling is noticeably different.
Lifting two cows on the butterfly machine, leg press machine, True Qi rope, leg extension equipment, etc., feels slightly exhilarating.
Zhou Leng's training intensity is the same as before, leaving him drenched in sweat, panting hard.
After finishing the last exercise, Zhou Leng directly sits on the ground, leaning against the equipment, motionless.
A few seniors in the Body Refining Stage see Zhou Leng looking so exhausted and can't help but walk over.
Through the outer garment, the outline of the Gravity Cultivation Armor inside is clearly visible.
"Senior brother, have you started using Gravity Cultivation Armor?"
"Yeah." Zhou Leng groans faintly as if lifeless.
"How heavy?"
"One ton."
"How heavy?"
"Vitality Stage doesn't use one-ton Gravity Cultivation Armor?"
"Even in the True Liquid Period Innate stage, it's rare to do this; usually, you'd need to reach Blood Shock Realm or even Bone Forging Stage."
"This isn't one-ton weightlifting; it's one-ton daily, constantly pressing down on you."
The crowd was in disarray.
Zhou Leng couldn't be bothered to speak, stood up, and slowly walked outside.
The crowd watched Zhou Leng's back, silent for a long time.
"What's pressing on him, isn't Gravity Cultivation Armor, but a family."
"From his back, he seems at least ten years older."
"Truly ruthless; no wonder he can enter the top twenty on the national freshman ranking."
"Ruda's number one macho man!"
"Key is he just left after training, without resting, is there something urgent?"
"Judging by the time, he should be heading to the cafeteria."
"No wonder he's the Martial Saint of the cafeteria..."
Under the Lianxiang Exploration Company.
Shen Jun respectfully reports to Mrs. Xiyang.
"The good news is we didn't anger Chen Fenghu; the bad news is that Wang Boxiong conducted a surprise investigation on Shuangjiao Exploration Company..."
"The specific reason is still unclear..."
"However, it indeed has an unshakeable connection with Zhou Leng; Patrol System Number Two's call was real..."
In the end, Shen Jun whispered, "Madam, should we send someone to eliminate Zhou Leng?"
Unexpectedly, behind the veil, Mrs. Xiyang actually laughed happily.
No wonder he's my child.
Mrs. Xiyang said, "I have high hopes for Zhou Leng, list him as an observation target, prohibit any high-level assassination attempts on him. If you truly want to kill, then dispatch someone not too far from his realm, like Vitality Stage, feel free."
"Ah?" Shen Jun couldn't understand how a human caught Mrs. Xiyang's eye.
"Go on."
"Yes, yes..." Shen Jun slowly walked outside, unable to comprehend.
With the Gravity Cultivation Armor, Zhou Leng's cultivation process gradually had the appearance of the first echelon.
Familiarized for a few days, he was called by Deng Zhijue to go out and raid the Demon Worship Sect forces.
No loud encirclement, no loudspeakers warning, nor flashing police lights and sirens.
In the night, Martial Guards were like fierce wolves, storming into the Demon Worship Sect's strongholds, and began their slaughter.
In just a few minutes, the sounds of battle ceased.
Martial Guards tidied up the scene, took photos, filmed videos, and recorded, letting the nearby Patrol Office handle the final processing.
After finishing everything, the blood-covered Martial Guards got in a car and left.
Throughout the process, except for necessary battle communication, everyone remained silent.
They arrived quietly and left quietly.
Returning to the Martial Arts Hall before dawn.
Two people got out of the car, Deng Zhijue said, "This is the true daily life of Martial Guards, killing like cutting grass silently. What you can see on the news, large-scale arrests, are extremely rare."
"This process... I'm a bit unaccustomed," Zhou Leng said quietly.
Because it was entirely different from what he imagined in the past, and it was indiscriminate slaughter, not leaving a single survivor.
"Such actions require extremely rigorous evidence chains; if there's any issue, the upper level won't approve."
"I know, unfortunately inside there..." Zhou Leng sighed softly.
"There's no choice. You must understand, our relationship with the Demon Worship Sect and Demons isn't internal relations among the people, but life-and-death enemies. This is a war happening on our land," Deng Zhijue said.
Zhou Leng nodded, "I understand too, I have no psychological burden killing Demons, but... just hard to adapt for a moment."
"Normal, many people even eternally can't adapt and have to be transferred away from Martial Guards. You find it cruel, but in reality, this is the only correct way achieved by Martial Guards exchanging innumerable lives. Because the Demon Worship Sect is best at exploiting human weaknesses."
"I've heard about it."
"In the first dozen years, the Demon Worship Sect especially liked using the elderly, weak, women, and children for assassinations, loved recruiting or even enslaving girls and then demonizing them. Back then, many Martial Guards couldn't change their mindset, leading to huge losses. Over time, experiences were accumulated, a process was summarized, not for slaughter but for survival. Martial Guards' lives, are lives too."
"Right!" Zhou Leng's gaze slowly recovered.
Deng Zhijue patted Zhou Leng on the shoulder and said, "We won't take you on any missions for the next three days, get used to it."
"Just as well, I have the Advanced Divine Text exam today."
"Are you confident?"
"Shouldn't be a problem."
"Good. The path of the Divine Text is difficult, but you must persevere."
"Yes."
That morning, Zhou Leng went to the Martial Arts Bureau to take the Advanced Divine Text exam.
After the exam, he resumed cultivation as usual.
The next day, Zhou Leng received a call from Zhao Nandi.
"Kid, exactly how much are you hiding?"
"Huh? What's up?" Zhou Leng's heart skipped a beat, had Zhao Nandi discovered some secret?
"Do you know what score you got on the Divine Text exam?"
"The full score on this paper is 150. I felt I could get around 140."
"You scored a full 150! In the history of Advanced Divine Text exams, you're the first to achieve full marks. Moreover, it was a new set of questions. Let's put it this way, even some Divine Text experts couldn't get full marks. The old folks at the Divine Text Bureau have gone wild, inquiring about your background, and they started competing to take you as a disciple even before meeting you. Sorry to say, but you are my disciple..."
On the other end, Zhao Nandi's joy was palpable in her voice.
"I've felt that my Divine Text skills have been growing rapidly lately, but I didn't expect it to be this fast."
Ever since leaving the Dwarf World, Zhou Leng studied Divine Text every day.
The Divine Texts in his mind increased, and so did his understanding of them.
Using Chinese as an example, before entering the Dwarf World, his grasp of Divine Text was at about the level of a three or four-year-old.
Now, it was roughly at a third-grade level in elementary school. Although he still didn't recognize many Divine Texts, with a solid foundation, he could guess the meaning of most, unless they were particularly rare.
Zhou Leng speculated that besides the foundational knowledge imparted by the Little Elf, the greatest reason could be the challenge of the Chaos God's Ode.
The Chaos God's Ode seemed more like the core of Divine Text power, with Divine Texts being an extension of that power.
Zhao Nandi said, "Since the government unveiled those twenty Divine Text pronouncements and three-dimensional characters, everyone's Divine Text skills have noticeably improved, and you might have benefited from that."
"Additionally, a Senior Researcher is different from a Junior or Intermediate one. The exam is just a threshold; to earn the Senior Researcher qualification, you need to meet various other requirements, like publishing papers in core journals with notable Divine Text accomplishments."
"After some time, I'll arrange a special joint evaluation meeting with your teacher's teacher for you."
Zhou Leng asked, "What is a joint evaluation meeting? I recall that the conditions for advancing to Senior Researcher are quite strict and require three years or something."
"That's true in peacetime, but not in wartime. Once you pass the joint evaluation, you can directly become a Senior Researcher and prepare to advance to Divine Text Expert. Hmm..."
Zhao Nandi suddenly paused, feeling a slight sense of crisis; how was such a young disciple already heading straight for Divine Text Expert?
"In my heart, you will always be the most beautiful teacher." Zhou Leng complimented casually.
"Good for you, respecting your teacher. However, I also need to work hard. After the Ancient River Trial concludes, I'll hurry to write a few papers and aim to contribute to 'Divine Text'. So far, I've only published twice in 'Divine Text', and not as the first author."
Zhou Leng knew that 'Divine Text' was the top academic journal in the Divine Text domain, and above it was 'Martial Arts', which influenced the entire field, though very few made it into 'Martial Arts'.
Zhao Nandi added, "In the future, when you're evaluated for titles, you will need to publish papers in core journals."
Zhou Leng said, "It seems that special contributions can replace papers, right?"
"Of course, but those are special contributions, like a Mysterious Master independently deciphering a complete set of inscriptions or contributing unknown Divine Text pronunciations or characters. You need to stay grounded."
"Teacher is right." Zhou Leng smiled.
"Your tone doesn't sound sincere, but it's okay. When you come to the Ancient River Ruins this time, I'll be watching you. I'm writing a paper on the Ancient River Ruins, you can participate, and I'll list you as a second author, preparing for the future."
"Thank you, Zhao… Sister Nandi." Zhou Leng didn't expect Zhao Nandi to go to such lengths to help him, calling her teacher felt a bit too formal.
"Now you know to call me sister? Didn't you stop Qing Jin from calling me sister?"
"Why does she tell you everything?"
"Haha… No more of that. I'm off to work. Don't get conceited, alright?"
"Got it." Zhou Leng played the role of the serious student.
After hanging up, Zhou Leng opened the Divine Text section in Martial Arts City to check various messages.
There were numerous people from the Divine Text domain trying to contact him.
Including Zhao Nandi, that was over a month ago.
Opening the message, Zhao Nandi used a respectful and humble tone to ask questions about the Divine Texts and customs of the Ancient River Ruins.
Zhou Leng carefully reviewed the questions and then searched through the materials. In his mind, the inscriptions on the Ancient River Stele appeared.
The Ancient River Ruins had two steles.
The Ancient River Stele was an ordinary one, heavily worn and incomplete, containing an introduction to the Ancient River Ruins.
The Ancient River Jade Stele bore Martial Arts Traces, half of which had been cut away.
This time, it was the content of the Ancient River Stele that Zhao Nandi had inquired about.
Zhou Leng had previously deciphered the content on the Ancient River Stele.
However, due to severe wear, many texts were missing from the Ancient River Stele.
During the transportation of the Ancient River Jade Stele, Zhou Leng entered the seemingly illusory Ancient River Space.
He saw the complete Ancient River Stele with his own eyes and made a note of it.
Reflecting based on that experience, Zhou Leng decided to supplement the missing inscriptions and offered a new perspective.
After replying with the Divine Text content, Zhou Leng added a note.
"I'll continue to anonymously update the supplemented stele content in a few days after the previous interpretation. You can cite it in advance. Also, don't be arrogant, remember to approach Divine Text with a humble attitude."
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