Chapter 22: Antitoxin Vaccine

Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Antitoxin Vaccine

After testing the toughness of his skin, it was time to test its heat resistance.

Gu Qing pulled out a lighter. The flame shot up, and he placed his palm directly over it.

It wasn’t until over ten seconds had passed that he felt a faint, searing pain in his palm.

’Not bad. My heat resistance is really high, too. If I ever run into a fire, I can just charge straight through the flames.’

Gu Qing muttered to himself.

Next, he took out toilet bowl cleaner to test his skin’s corrosion resistance.

He unscrewed the cap and poured a little of the liquid onto his palm.

A few minutes passed, but his palm was completely fine, as if he had only splashed some clean water on it.

’This level of acidity can’t hurt me anymore. In the future, if someone throws concentrated sulfuric acid on me, as long as I can wipe it off immediately and find a lot of water to rinse it, I might be able to escape unscathed.’

After that, Gu Qing put away the toilet bowl cleaner, his gaze falling on a tree up ahead.

The tree looked about as thick as his thigh and was rooted quite firmly in the ground.

’With my current strength, can I break this tree with one punch?’

Gu Qing was a little curious. He walked up, aimed at the trunk, and threw a punch.

BANG!

The entire tree was uprooted on impact.

It crashed to the ground.

Gu Qing was stunned for a moment. He hadn’t expected to actually topple the entire tree with one punch.

But he quickly figured out what had happened.

The weather had recently alternated between wet and dry, making the soil soft. That was why the tree had been so easily uprooted.

Once he understood, Gu Qing went over and hoisted up the several-meter-tall tree.

Veins bulged on his arms.

His face twisted with effort.

It was extremely difficult.

But in the end, his brute strength prevailed, and he successfully replanted the tree in its hole.

Then he moved several large rocks and placed them around the base to secure the tree, preventing it from being blown over by the wind before its roots could take hold again.

After doing all this, Gu Qing looked at his powerful arms and thought to himself.

’My cumulative Physical Strength is only at +38, but my body’s various attributes are already this strong.’

’If I wait until my Physical Strength maxes out at 100 points and I get the Muscle Knots attribute, just how ridiculous will my power be then?’

...

「In the afternoon.」

Gu Qing showed up at the sports field on time to practice the Red Tassel Spear with Xia Shuran.

Because core strength can’t be trained every day—the muscles need to rest and recover—they only practiced the Red Tassel Spear today.

[Physical Strength +1] x3

[Cumulative Physical Strength +41]

After practicing for three hours straight, a familiar text notification popped up.

Seeing that he had gained the Attribute points, Gu Qing immediately put away his spear and stopped practicing.

As for Xia Shuran next to him, perhaps because she had also been practicing for three hours straight, she seemed to be completely exhausted.

While executing a wide swing of her spear,

she suddenly twisted her ankle. Her body instantly lost its balance, and she started to fall.

Gu Qing reacted in a flash and caught her.

"Are you okay?"

"I think I twisted my ankle..."

Xia Shuran looked down at her right foot.

Gu Qing helped her over to a nearby set of steps to sit down. After a quick check of her ankle, he determined it was a simple sprain and immediately said,

"You sit here for a bit. I’ll go to the residential area to get you some ice for a cold compress."

"Okay."

Xia Shuran nodded obediently.

「A few minutes later.」

Gu Qing, who had sprinted the whole way there and back, returned carrying a bag of ice and two popsicles.

Even though he had run at full speed the entire time, he hadn’t broken a single drop of sweat.

His body was long past the point of being normal; it couldn’t be measured by ordinary standards.

Just a short sprint back and forth wasn’t enough to make him sweat.

"Take off your shoe. I’ll put some ice on it."

Gu Qing said, crouching in front of Xia Shuran with the bag of ice.

Xia Shuran’s cheeks grew slightly hot. She obediently took off her shoe and sock, revealing a fair, clean right foot.

’Even though she’s practiced martial arts for years, this junior’s feet are small and delicate, without a single callus. They feel quite soft in my hand.’

’A Sacred Jade Foot Physique?’

’Pretty impressive.’

Without overthinking it, Gu Qing quickly finished applying the ice pack to Xia Shuran’s sprained ankle.

Afterward, the two of them unwrapped their popsicles and sat on the steps, eating and chatting.

"Senior, I have to go home this weekend, so I can’t practice with you."

"You’ve sprained your ankle. You couldn’t practice even if you wanted to. Go home and get some proper rest."

"It’s fine. I sprain it often, so my body is used to it. As long as it’s not serious, it’ll be better in a day or two."

Xia Shuran licked her popsicle in small bites, a hint of a martial artist’s stubbornness in her eyes.

As they chatted,

they started talking about their families.

It was only then that Gu Qing learned that Xia Shuran was also a Hai City local.

And their homes weren’t far apart, only an hour’s drive from each other.

"Senior, you should come visit my family’s martial arts hall sometime when you’re free. Or I could come visit you."

"Don’t you have a sister in her third year of high school?"

"I started school a year early, so I’m the same age as her. Maybe we could become best friends."

Xia Shuran’s eyes sparkled, her tone filled with anticipation.

Gu Qing smiled. "Sure, we’ll see."

After finishing their popsicles and resting for a little longer, they decided to go to the cafeteria to eat together.

Gu Qing supported Xia Shuran on the way to the cafeteria.

Seeing her limp, he offered, "Do you want me to carry you on my back?"

Xia Shuran’s heart instantly started pounding.

’Being carried by Gu Qing, with my chest against his back... it would be so intimate.’

She really wanted to say yes.

But the thought of all the people coming and going on the path, of being watched by so many, was just too embarrassing.

After hesitating again and again, she finally shook her head and said, "No, thank you, Senior. It doesn’t feel that serious. It’s enough for you to just help me walk."

"Alright then."

Gu Qing didn’t insist. He just held Xia Shuran’s forearm steadily and slowed his pace to a crawl.

After they finished eating, he walked Xia Shuran all the way back to the entrance of the women’s dormitory and had her roommate help her upstairs.

...

「The next day.」

「Saturday.」

Gu Qing lay in bed, staring at his Attribute data.

[Cumulative Learning Ability +38]

[Cumulative Physical Strength +41]

’I’ve been grinding these two Attributes for so long, and they’re not even halfway there.’

’Progress was already slow enough, but when it rains, it pours. I can’t grind at all this weekend.’

’Because everyone’s gone.’

Xia Shuran went home.

Gao Fei went on a date with his girlfriend at the beach.

Even the top student, Yang Yuntong, who was studying for her grad school exams, said she was busy this weekend and couldn’t go to the library to grind practice questions.

Gu Qing knew that Yang Yuntong was probably still a little embarrassed after he turned down her movie invitation and was just making an excuse.

Just as he was wondering how to kill time,

the "Biochemical Madman," Zhou Yuan, suddenly ambushed him on WeChat.

[Zhou Yuan: Junior, wanna game?]

[Gu Qing: I’m in. My ID is Miracle Walker.]

He replied instantly, without a shred of hesitation.

Afterward, Gu Qing felt a little surprised.

He never would have thought that when no one else was free to help him grind Attributes, it would be the PhD student who was busy with research all day who’d step up.

’He’d clearly said before that he was only free on weekend nights.’

Before long,

the two had added each other as friends in the game.

Gu Qing called over Chen Zijie and Qian Duole, and the four of them immediately started a party.

When they first started playing, they weren’t very familiar with each other, and Zhou Yuan was still a bit reserved and couldn’t let loose.

After they won a few games in a row,

the atmosphere gradually warmed up.

He started talking more, too.

When he got a solo kill on an opponent, he would shout in excitement, getting extremely worked up.

Gu Qing and his roommates hyped him up, showering him with cries of "Brother Yuan, you’re a beast!" and making him feel on top of the world.

Seeing that the time was right,

Gu Qing started beating around the bush, pretending to be curious as he asked about Zhou Yuan’s lab.

Finally, he asked with feigned casualty, "Brother Yuan, you mentioned before that you inject yourself with a lot of stuff. Are you working on some kind of amazing experiment?"

Just like last time, Zhou Yuan was an open book. "Back when I was an undergrad, I was bitten by a venomous snake while hiking and almost died in the mountains."

"Then, during my master’s, I had a lab accident and was exposed to a dangerous reagent. Almost died again."

"From then on, I’ve felt that the human body is just too fragile. I want to develop a universal anti-toxin vaccine to make humans Immune to Hundred Poisons."

’Hmm, sounds pretty noble, but your research experiment looks more like you’re trying to create a supervirus that could accidentally trigger a global zombie apocalypse...’

Gu Qing couldn’t help but roast him internally, but his tone was filled with admiration and respect as he tentatively asked:

"Brother Yuan, that research of yours is really something. I’m very interested. If you get the chance, could you take me to your lab to check it out? I’d love to see it for myself."

...

PS: My bowl is out! Please toss in some monthly and recommendation tickets!