The next day, like yesterday, the brother and sister pair hand in hand wearing light blue academy robes as they went to school.
On the jade bridge of Seeking the Dao, Lin Xiaolu's gait was very strange, taking one step resting two steps, painfully twisting his mouth.
Early this morning as soon as he got up his whole body was in pain, senior sister said this was the result of him overexercising last night.
Last night he did horse stance three times, he didn't remember exactly how long each time, only that each time he went until his body couldn't take it and collapsed.
Then gritting through the pain that made his whole body sore, he ran around the small courtyard over thirty laps, until he nearly vomited and fainted from exhaustion.
When Li Miaoxin found him she was scared to death, and quickly took him to the dining hall to feed him a midnight snack, even taking money out of her own pocket to buy him some spiritual food supplements.
"Big brother, how are you feeling?" Little Yuer asked with concern, supporting Lin Xiaolu.
"I'm fine." The boy sucked in a breath from the pain, walking like a penguin from Spirit Beast Valley, swaying left and right as he slowly made his way towards the academy.
Before even crossing the bridge, they saw the chubby Dongfang Dan waddling over, his face lighting up when he saw the siblings, waving his hands calling out: "Brother Lu, over here!"
As he called to them he took out a square green brick from his little bag, engraved with the large character "Virtue".
Of course Lin Xiaolu couldn't lose face in front of his little brother, gritting his teeth to ignore the pain and forcibly putting on an arrogant swaggering appearance.
When he reached Dongfang Dan he took the green brick from him weighing it in his hands, haughtily murmuring approval.
"Hee hee, I engraved it for a long time yesterday!" Dongfang Dan laughed: "Brother Lu, are we going to use this brick to beat people today at the academy?"
"Right, later after we get to the academy each of us will take a turn hitting everyone once as we go through. "
"Ah?" Dongfang Dan's mouth fell open, he hadn't imagined Brother Lu would be so cruel, with over twenty students at the academy having each one hit them once would leave rivers of blood!
He said somewhat fearfully: "Brother Lu, isn't this going a bit too far? The other students haven't offended us...."
Lin Xiaolu looked at him in confusion for a moment, then holding up the imposing "Virtue Brick" loftily declared: "I'm just preventing problems before they happen, preemptively making people submit through virtue!"
"Uh...." Dongfang Dan's little head sweated bullets hearing this, fawningly persuading: "Brother Lu, if we go that far it will cause a huge fuss, the elders of the various branches definitely won't let us off."
Lin Xiaolu also realized this was true, he could only reluctantly give up the idea in his heart, his little face disgruntled: "Then forget it, later if anyone bullies me I'll hit them."
Hearing this Dongfang Dan was speechless inside, lamenting in his heart: Who else dares bully you? Those classmates wetting themselves just seeing you is already impressive.
The three chatted and laughed as they headed to the academy, when Lin Xiaolu swaggered in holding the imposing "Virtue Brick" the previously vibrant sounds of reading instantly quieted, all the children looking at him in terror.
This devil child of the mundane world actually brought a brick to the academy? Was he planning to go on a rampage and start killing people?
Lin Xiaolu swept his gaze across the children in the academy, looking especially at Chen Nianyun's group, immediately scaring their faces pale.
But Lin Xiaolu didn't actually make things hard for them either, just arrogantly snorted, walking with his sister in a manner recognizing no familial ties to their seats, slamming the brick down on the table with a "pa", making the entire class of students shudder, nearly falling out of their chairs from fright.
"You don't need to be afraid." Lin Xiaolu casually leaned back in his chair, his face full of wild arrogance and tyrannical aura, coldly laughing with a gaze looking down on all under heaven: "Chen Nianyun, where's the protection money from you Spirit Sword Branch people?"
Chen Nianyun, Yu Chuchu, and the other disciples from the Spirit Sword Branch were utterly terrified.
Seeing they didn't move, Dongfang Dan directly slammed the table yelling: "Brother Lu asked you a question, what's your answer? Or do you need us to make you submit through virtue?!"
The four words "make you submit through virtue" had tremendous lethal force, hearing them the children quickly took out the things they had brought, obsequiously lining up to present them to Lin Xiaolu.
"Brother Lu, these are my marbles, please accept them with a laugh."
Lin Xiaolu smiled and took them, casually throwing them to his sister to play with, praising: "Not bad, so sensible."
"Brother Lu, this is the lollipop I brought."
Lin Xiaolu benevolently accepted it, even patting the child's arm, saying "Thoughtful", then giving the lollipop to his sister to eat.
"Brother Lu, this is the kite I brought."
"Mm, little guy has promise."
"Brother Lu, this is the candy figurine I brought."
"Brother Lu, this is the pinwheel I brought."
"Brother Lu, this is the...."
Yu Chuchu resentfully brought a shuttlecock, humiliatedly presenting it to Lin Xiaolu: "B...Brother Lu, this is my shuttlecock."
Lin Xiaolu smiled at her, casually accepting it and again tossing it to his sister.
At this point, they had all paid their protection fees. Chen Nianyun seeing this had an ugly expression. Finally under Lin Xiaolu's "sharply revealed might" gaze he reluctantly got up, giving him the jeweled wooden box containing his cricket, then turned to leave.
"Wait a moment~" Lin Xiaolu lazily called out, tapping the table with his little hand.
"Seems you've forgotten something."
Chen Nianyun's expression froze, his fists instantly clenching and relaxing, clenching and relaxing, again and again.
After doing so several times he finally called out in immense aggrievement: "Brother Lu!"
"Mm~" Lin Xiaolu nodded in satisfaction, then said to all the children in the academy with a smile: "In the future, pay protection fees every three days. Anyone who doesn't obey~"
He held up the "Virtue Brick" and laughed: "I'll properly make you submit through virtue!"
...
...
This day, the children in the academy spent it in tension and unease, not daring to tell the teacher about Lin Xiaolu bringing a brick, afraid of being retaliated against afterwards.
Only when school let out at the appointed time did they finally relax.
Returning to the courtyard after school, Little Yuer went with Li Miaoxin to continue cultivating, while Lin Xiaolu also began the exercises for the second day.
To be honest, the exercises on the second day were even more painful than the first, because on the second day the exercises had to endure the intense soreness throughout the body.
The horse stance this time was dozens of times more painful than yesterday's, Lin Xiaolu didn't even know how he endured it, because the intense body pain nearly squeezed tears from his eyes several times.
After finishing the horse stance, Lin Xiaolu went running.
Li Mingru said running could exercise his cardio capacity, making his internal organs even more robust, also an indispensable exercise method.
Already familiar with the Pluck Stars Peak environment, Lin Xiaolu ran out of the residence courtyard, starting to run along the mountain paths of Pluck Stars, running for over half a shichen until totally exhausted.
At the you hour, Li Miaoxin brought Little Yuer and Lin Xiaolu together to the dining hall for the evening meal. After the evening meal, Lin Xiaolu continued more exercises.
This time his exercises focused on practicing strength. The practice method was very simple, just using both hands to hold a brick, then doing an exercise called "push-ups" that Li Mingru taught him.
Li Mingru was a cultivator who liked traveling the mountains and rivers. In his early years he traveled around the various nations of Shenzhou, gaining extensive experience. These push-ups were an exercise method he saw practiced in a small country, extremely effective for training strength, now passed down to Lin Xiaolu as well.