Three Days of Hell

"Huh…?"

Bang!

Wraith's head rocked back from the recoil of Ye Qing's kick, and he couldn't help but stumble back a step.

Thud!

Ye Qing landed heavily on the ground, the impact wrung his body to the core. The constant beating inevitably increased Ye Qing's muscle memory and improved his reflexes, however, even if he wanted to react, he lacked the necessary energy to do so.

His body was dry of both internal force and external force, while the faith energy he just received was like a refreshing dose of water in a parched desert. It was enough for a burst of energy, a surprise attack, but that was the extent of it.

Ye Qing knew that if he had the chance to rest, the painful experience combined with his previous, meticulous observations, would allow him to grasp the fundamentals of these close-quarters combat techniques.

Wraith stood there, dumbfounded, even as he touched his bruised cheek. He was caught absolutely off guard, and this sense of shame suddenly morphed into a twisted, malevolent, promise of violence.

"You've got guts, kid!"

Wraith spat on the floor.

This arena floor that used to be soaked in the sweat and blood of Ye Qing suddenly had a trace of Wraith's blood in the mix. The man didn't utilize his internal force the least, otherwise, he wouldn't have been injured even if by a scratch from that roundhouse kick.

This drop of his blood on the floor was a mark of humiliation for him, and he planned to reap the debt a hundred folds. As for Ye Qing, he was long entranced with the promise of rest since he had won the bet— the instant he relaxed, yet another prompt for safe mode popped up.

Ye Qing was about to accept when he saw Wraith walking over with a dark face.

Wraith chuckled. "Don't give me that look; who said I was going to keep my word, anyway? We still have about 48 minutes left."

"I said you will keep your word," a light voice spoke from the side. Wraith froze in place, rigidly looking over to the stadium's entrance where a woman in a military uniform stood imposingly.

No one had noticed her presence up to this point, and they all reacted in one way or another. Well, with the exception of Lethality, who seemed busy inspecting his black leather shoes even as his hands never left his pockets.

"Leader?!" Wraith was shocked. "When did you get here?"

The woman ignored Wraith as she locked eyes with the seemingly muddled, dark eyes of Ye Qing. For some reason, she felt as though he could clearly pry into her hazel optics, a taunting smile in the depths of his gaze.

However, that gaze was quickly concealed behind a pair of bruised, blue eyelids as Ye Qing finally drifted to sleep.

"You lost this bet," the woman said to Wraith. "The least you could do is be a man of your word; don't be so disgusting in my presence."

After she finished talking, she turned around and left without sparing anyone a word. Wraith trembled in anger and humiliation, his cold eyes locked onto the unconscious mess of a human being.

"This concludes today," Frostbite spoke from the side. "If you as much as lay a hand on him outside the schedule, you'll be charged with assaulting a student under the academy's protection; not even the leader can save you if it came to that."

It was unknown whether Frostbite spoke in favor of Wraith or in favor of Ye Qing. However, what he said was nevertheless the truth— blunt, straightforward truth.

Wraith glared at Frostbite, while the latter glared back.

Demo, Waveflow, and Sting took their leave one after the other, not bothered the least by these two. One follows the rules to the letter while the other is nothing but a polar extreme.

"Hmph!" Wraith snorted, tucked his hands away, and left the stadium. Frostbite didn't show any particular expression, but he followed in the latter's footsteps.

Frostbite paused for a bit, looked back at Lethality, shook his head, and continued to leave the stadium.

Only two people were left inside.

Lethality seemed too lazy to even bother with leaving the stadium only to come back tomorrow. In his opinion, since they would only stick here for three days, he could survive without eating or sleeping, and leaving the stadium would prove redundant.

As for Ye Qing, the safe mode was running furiously, assimilating the recent 8 hours into Ye Qing's mind even as the solution coating his body in the real world began to boil over. Inspecting closely, his muscles were trembling incessantly, and his vital signals were off the charts.

The ventilation units of the immersive cabinet functioned like crazy, hot steam discharging like thick plumes of white mist.

Even in his half-conscious state during his safe mode of sleep, Ye Qing began to recite the Book of Changes sutra. This might as well be his one and only chance at recovering his energy— as he wasn't unconscious per se.

…

Lying in a pool of blood, Ye Qing remained silent for a while. Actually, an hour had already passed, then two hours, and three…

To the side, Lethality was staring absentmindedly into space, but he suddenly picked up on an odd airflow.

He turned his head about, and as expected, Ye Qing's bloodied robes were fluttering gently. Lethality could inspect the situation by infusing the tiniest bit of internal force into his eyes, but he merely blinked once and continued to stare absently.

Another three hours later, Ye Qing's finger twitched.

He gasped, then began to cough violently as his body convulsed, bones cackled, and muscles felt sore to the extreme.

Almost subconsciously, Ye Qing used his Book of Imprints skill to burn the remnant vestiges of faith energy and a minimum portion of internal force and external force, a translucent golden lesser healing talisman taking shape on his palm. Then, Ye Qing proceeded to use the talisman on him.

Whoosh! Even fiercer wind picked up, and Ye Qing could feel his torn tissues and shattered bones healing at a rapid pace. Finally, he could relax and slowly sit up.

The moment he turned around, he froze. "L-lethality?"

Ye Qing was worried that his use of the Book of Imprints was exposed, as there was no precedent of a talisman master ever embarking on an evolution path, let alone grasping a passive skill.

Ye Qing's face immediately went pale, heart throbbed quickly. However, moments later, he noticed how Lethality didn't even look this way, as though Ye Qing's presence was no different from the air in the room.

Ye Qing didn't feel insulted in the least by this. In fact, he felt a wave of relief wash over him.

After confirming that Lethality wasn't paying attention to whatever he did, Ye Qing started to silently meditate, though not by utilizing the sutra, but rather the standard method of meditation for recuperation.

Meanwhile, he reviewed the earlier recordings of the chaotic battle while focusing on Lethality's movements and body language. Just like that, both Ye Qing and Lethality sat in a room overflowing with pungent blood, but neither of them cared about that.

Even as Ye Qing's black and blue face regained its former complexion, he continued to replay the battle recording from multiple angles and at multiple playback speeds.

He was devouring information at this point, especially after a session of rest and meditation on the Book of Changes sutra, his senses felt refreshed and sharper.

One thing Frostbite said was correct, this was an opportunity!

Ye Qing and Lethality spent the following three days in the stadium. If they weren't absentmindedly seated while minding their own business, they would be engaged in the Mandatory Combat Course.

Of course, one of them was routinely going through the motions reluctantly while the other was always left in a pool of blood, barely alive.

Despite his high focus and incredible learning ability, Ye Qing overlooked one aspect— this body of his was a virtual host tailored with mage capabilities in mind.

There was no way for him to adapt his muscle memory or improve his physique's spontaneous reactions through combat alone, he needed to improve the quality of his body with treasures, inscriptions, or higher achievements in cultivating internal force— none of which was plausible within the span of three days.

Moreover, Wraith had become even more ruthless in his actions, not leaving Ye Qing with a single bone intact at the end of every day. Luckily, three days quickly passed, and the moment the flying vessel landed near the City of Storms, Ye Qing immediately logged out from the game.

Even if the flying vessel left this location, Ye Qing's avatar would appear in-game based on the recent geological positioning regardless of the environment.

…

The immersive cabinet discharged an unbelievable amount of steam as the transparent lids opened, revealing Ye Qing's soaked body. The temperature of the solution was rather high, albeit bearable, and Ye Qing understood why.

Checking the time, it was almost 11AM.

"I'm late for school," Ye Qing murmured, feeling dizzy.