The next day, Chen Chu arrived at the classroom, and had just sat down when Xia Youhui approached from the front.
"Ah Chu, do you know? An Fuqing, the one who's ranked first, completed her foundation yesterday afternoon. She's already in Building C cultivating true martial arts."
"So fast~!" Chen Chu was a bit surprised.
Completing one's foundation in just two days required extraordinary talent, even if there was money and resources provided by the family. This was evident from the situation of their class monitor, Lin Xue.
Xia Youhui nodded in envy. "Not just her, I found out that the top ten in the ranking list will all complete their foundations in just a few days.
"That includes our class monitor. I heard that she's visualized up to the tenth petal and achieved eight cycles of vitality circulation in half an hour. She'll probably finish Foundation Building the day after tomorrow at the latest."
Curious, Chen Chu asked, "What about you, Old Xia? How far have you progressed in your cultivation?"
"I'm doing fine, I'm doing fine." Xia Youhui chuckled, and then complained, "Ah Chu, can you stop calling me Old Xia? I'm too handsome to be called old. Call me Ah Hui instead, will you?"
Chen Chu nodded. "Sure, Old Xia."
"Ah Hui. It's Ah Hui."
"Yes, I know. Old Xia."
"... Ah Chu, I'm breaking up with you for three hours." Seeing that he was relentless, Xia Youhui turned around fiercely and went to talk to the pretty girl in front.
Chen Chu merely smiled at this.
You're just mature and nice, not looking old. Why should I call you Ah Hui just to make you feel young?.
Perhaps due to some students having already finished Foundation Building, Chen Chu found that everyone was particularly diligent and focused during the afternoon cultivation class.
Unfortunately, talent still played a role in the speed of progress. Some people had been cultivating for three days with almost nothing to show for their efforts, while others showed remarkable improvement, such as the martial arts representative, Yi Rui.
Chen Chu didn't know the progress of Yi Rui's meditative visualization, but within half an hour, he finished seven cycles of vitality circulation with little effort.
As for the class rep Lin Xue, her speed went without saying. In less than half an hour, she finished eight cycles of vitality circulation, before finding a place to sit cross-legged to continue meditating.
They had astonishing spiritual force, unlike Chen Chu, who needed half a day to recover after meditating once. Obviously, they must have used some resources to replenish or activate their spirit.
Lost in thought, Chen Chu only finished two cycles of vitality circulation and didn't practice further. Each session took twenty minutes, and he gained +2 proficiency in the technique and +0.1 in the Physique attribute.
His cultivation progress was slow but steady.
As the school bell rang for the end of the school day, Chen Chu, who hadn't sweat as much today, still felt a bit tired as he packed up to leave.
"Ah Chu, wait," Xia Youhui called out.
Xia Youhui ran over, grinning. "It's only four o'clock now. Why are you going home so early? Want to join me in the Floral Tea Club?"
Chen Chu looked at him strangely. "Do you still have time to join clubs? The class monitor is about to finish her Foundation Building."
Although he hadn't asked about Xia Youhui's family, Chen Chu felt that they were probably pretty well off, or at least not lacking money. With such good talent, wasn't now the time to focus on cultivating and Foundation Building?
Xia Youhui brushed it off. "There's no rush. My brother said that the way of cultivation lies in a balance between tension and relaxation. There's no need to force yourself to try and get immediate results.
"It's normal for the class monitor to have good talent and finish Foundation Building a few days earlier than us. There's no point in comparing ourselves with her. Besides..." Xia Youhui suddenly stopped talking and looked behind himself, as if he was afraid that Lin Xue might suddenly appear again. Chen Chu found it amusing.
Facing Chen Chu's peculiar gaze, Xia Youhui changed the subject of discussion. "Ah Chu, don't you find cultivation boring? Looking at beautiful women is more pleasing to the eye, and you can also relax your mind.
"I'll tell you, after my observation and research the past few days, the Floral Tea Club has the highest beauty level in our school. There are tons of beauties in the club. It's not just the senior beauties from the second and third grades, there are also many beautiful girls from our freshman year. Just imagine, sitting with a group of young beauties under the scorching sun, drinking tea and chatting. Doesn't that sound great?"
Xia Youhui seemed to have already started to envision himself surrounded by a sea of beauties, getting lost in his imagination. He couldn't notice Chen Chu's increasingly judging gaze. "Ah Chu, what do you think?"
Chen Chu cleared his throat. "Your suggestion is not bad, but I have something else to do. I have to go home early. You can go alone. By the way, take a look behind you."
Chen Chu tapped Xia Youhui's shoulder and nodded slightly at the girl with her arms crossed behind him, before turning and leaving.
Xia Youhui was startled and quickly turned around. He saw Lin Xue looking at him with an indifferent gaze, before turning around and leaving as well. "Disgusting."
Xia Youhui was a bit confused; he hadn't said anything bad about Lin Xue this time. Why did she find it disgusting?
The next morning, Chen Hu shouted from downstairs. "Bro, I'm going out to play with my friends. I won't be back for lunch."
Chen Chu's voice came from upstairs. "Go ahead."
Today was Saturday and there were no classes, but Zhang Xiaolan had to work overtime so she wasn't home.
In Chen Chu's bedroom, the six-horned salamander, measuring at twenty-eight centimeters long, lay on the desk.
Its head was wide and flat, and its skin was white, with a pinkish hue that made it look tender. Its tail was small, similar to a tadpole's. With its shiny black eyes and three pairs of red feather-shaped antennae behind its gills, it looked silly but cute as it lay there.
Its evolution points had accumulated to 9, and its size was approaching the limit for its species.
The salamander noisily chewed on pieces of fish. On the side, Chen Chu leaned against the chair, elbows on the table, palm supporting his chin, daydreaming while his consciousness was focused on the avatar.
Heat radiated from the salamander's stomach through its whole body as it ate and grew, the fish pieces disappearing in no time.
Half an hour later, two plates of food—equivalent to more than twice the salamander's body weight—had been devoured. The salamander's body length had reached thirty centimeters.
A row of text appeared in front of Chen Chu's eyes.
"Your salamander avatar has gained 1 evolution point through consumption and has reached its growth limit. You have now accumulated 10 evolution points, meeting the evolution requirements. Do you want to initiate evolution?
"Note: The avatar will have lower potential. The evolved avatar will not be strong in combat. You can choose to absorb the genes of another creature during evolution to enhance its potential."
Seeing the note at the end, Chen Chu sat up straight in surprise. "Absorb the genes of another creature to enhance potential!"
He had always been a bit worried about the issue of the avatar being too weak.
Although it could bypass its biological limit by evolution, even if it grew to one meter or ten meters long, what difference would it make? It would still be made out of flesh; could it withstand bullets? And those feeble limbs wouldn't even be able to support its massive body, so running fast or being a fierce fighter was out of the question.