Chapter 8: Outstanding Senior

Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Outstanding Senior

On the athletic field.

Gu Qing practiced the Red Tassel Spear with Xia Shuran.

They practiced for over an hour.

Unfortunately, the text notification he’d been waiting for never appeared.

Apparently, they weren’t familiar enough with each other to trigger the tag’s mechanism.

"Senior, let’s stop here with the Red Tassel Spear for today."

Xia Shuran wiped a bead of sweat from the tip of her nose and blinked. "I’m going to do some basic strength training next. Want to join?"

"What kind of basic strength training?"

"Core strength exercises. Sit-ups, push-ups, squats, pull-ups, that sort of thing."

"Sure, let’s go together."

Gu Qing was determined to get Xia Shuran’s [Martial Arts Grandmaster] tag, so he had to see this through with her.

Otherwise, all the time he’d invested in her so far would have been for nothing.

Soon, the two of them arrived at the pull-up and parallel bars area on the edge of the field.

Xia Shuran walked over to a pull-up bar, looked at Gu Qing, and asked,

"Senior, do you know what a muscle-up is?"

"I do."

Gu Qing nodded.

A muscle-up is an exercise where you perform a pull-up, but instead of stopping, you continue to pull your entire upper body above the bar and then press up, finishing with your arms locked out.

It’s a very difficult move. Generally, you need the strength to do twenty standard pull-ups in one go just to have a chance at pulling it off.

Xia Shuran jumped lightly, her hands gripping the bar above her firmly. She asked again,

"So, do you think I can do a muscle-up, Senior?"

"Since you’re asking like that, I’d say it’s a hundred percent yes."

"Congratulations, Senior, you’re correct!"

The moment she finished speaking, Xia Shuran pulled her arms in, engaged her back with a powerful burst of strength, and effortlessly pulled her entire upper body up, her hands landing steadily on top of the bar.

"Senior, am I amazing or what?"

Perched high on the bar, the bangs on her forehead fluttered in the breeze. She radiated a youthful, sunny energy.

’Too bad she’s not wearing a skirt, otherwise I could get a nice view...’

Gu Qing praised her, "Honestly, for a girl to be able to do a muscle-up, that’s seriously impressive."

Xia Shuran let go and dropped down from the bar, walking playfully up to Gu Qing.

"Senior, if you want to learn, I can teach you."

"For free."

"You just have to treat me to a meal later."

She was still thinking about the meal Gu Qing had mentioned, so she made a point of reminding him.

Gu Qing walked straight to the bar, jumped lightly to grab it, and asked with a smile,

"Now it’s your turn to guess. Do you think I can do a muscle-up?"

"Probably... not?"

Xia Shuran said after a moment’s hesitation.

The taller you are and the longer your arms, the difficulty of a muscle-up increases exponentially.

Gu Qing was over 180 cm tall, so Xia Shuran figured he probably couldn’t do one.

But just as that thought crossed her mind,

Gu Qing just slightly engaged his back, and in the next second, his entire body flew up.

’So fast!’

’That’s... an explosive muscle-up, a much harder variation!’

Xia Shuran was flabbergasted. "Senior, you can actually do an explosive muscle-up! Are you into calisthenics?"

Gu Qing let go and dropped down. "Nah, I just like doing pull-ups in my spare time. After doing enough of them, I automatically unlocked the explosive muscle-up."

’Am I, a physical education student who’s practiced martial arts since childhood, really going to be outdone by a foreign languages major?’

Xia Shuran’s competitive spirit flared up, and her tone carried a hint of a challenge.

"Senior, there’s one move you definitely can’t do."

"What move?"

"A planche."

Xia Shuran crisply uttered the name.

The planche is an even more difficult move than the muscle-up.

The requirements to perform this move are:

Hands placed on the ground.

Both feet off the ground.

Body held parallel to the ground.

To put it bluntly, it’s a handstand with your body horizontal and your feet never touching the floor.

Just how hard is this move?

Let’s put it this way:

Across all of Hai City University, you could count the number of people who can do a standard planche on two hands.

"Watch carefully, Senior."

After speaking, Xia Shuran took a step back and leaned down, placing her hands on the ground.

Then, she tightened her core, and her straight legs lifted up behind her, her entire body tensing into a straight line, perfectly parallel to the ground.

"Senior, this move, the planche... you definitely can’t do it!"

As she said this, the veins on her forehead bulged, and she looked like she was under immense strain.

This just went to show how incredibly difficult the planche was.

As for why Xia Shuran was so sure Gu Qing couldn’t do it,

it was for the same reason as before.

Gu Qing was too tall.

If the difficulty for Xia Shuran, at only 160 cm tall, to do a planche was a 1,

then for Gu Qing, at 180 cm tall, the difficulty would skyrocket to 100.

She refused to believe Gu Qing could win this time.

Unexpectedly, Gu Qing immediately proved her wrong in the most direct way possible.

The moment she got up from the ground,

Gu Qing instantly leaned down, placed his hands on the ground, lifted his feet, and effortlessly executed an extremely standard planche.

"Wha—"

Xia Shuran was stunned, her mouth slightly agape, her face a mask of disbelief.

However, what came next was even more shocking.

Gu Qing not only held the planche steady, but he also fluidly began doing planche push-ups.

His feet remained suspended the entire time, and his body moved up and down like a pile driver, all while staying perfectly parallel to the ground. He did several in a row before stopping.

"Senior, you..."

Xia Shuran was utterly shocked, wondering if she was dreaming.

She didn’t snap out of it until Gu Qing had already gotten up from the ground.

Then, she came to her senses, whipped out her phone to start recording, and exclaimed with excitement,

"Senior, that was incredible!"

"I’ve never in my life seen someone so tall who could do planche push-ups so easily!"

"Senior, you’re practically a god!"

"Senior, can you do it again, please?"

"I want to record it and post it on Douyin! It’ll definitely blow a lot of people’s minds!"

The constant calls of "Senior" echoed in his ears until he was tired of hearing it.

He leaned over to glance at Xia Shuran’s Douyin account.

She was a minor internet celebrity.

She had tens of thousands of followers.

Her account was filled with videos of her martial arts and workout training, with each post averaging several hundred likes.

After looking at her Douyin account, Gu Qing shook his head and refused.

"Better not. I don’t want to expose myself to the public eye."

"Alright then."

Xia Shuran thought it was a shame, but she chose to respect Gu Qing’s wishes and didn’t try to persuade him.

...

「That evening.」

The academic advisor sent a notification in the class group chat.

An outstanding graduate was coming back to hold a sharing session.

The entire class was required to attend.

Qian Duole and Chen Zijie couldn’t be bothered to go; they wanted to stay in the dorm and play games.

Both of them were jaded third-years, not like the freshmen they once were, who would dumbly run off to fill seats just because the advisor told them to.

Gu Qing and Gao Fei chose to attend.

The former planned to sit in the audience and grind practice questions with a female classmate who was studying for the postgraduate entrance exam, all to farm his Learning Ability Attribute.

The latter had to go because his girlfriend from the External Liaison Department was in charge of the event, and he needed to be there to support her.

...

「Upon arriving at the venue.」

Gu Qing saw the outstanding graduate.

He was an older alumnus who looked to be in his early thirties.

A very conspicuous tag floated above his head:

--[Tycoon]--

Gu Qing gave it a passing glance and paid it no more mind, quietly working on practice questions with his classmate.

Before long, the alumnus on stage began to talk about his entrepreneurial achievements and experiences, claiming he ran overseas online stores with an annual revenue in the tens of millions.

He spoke for over an hour.

And Gu Qing, in the audience, had been studying on and off for over an hour as well.

[You have studied with your classmate Yang Yuntong for over one hour]

[Focus +1]

[Learning Ability +1]

[Accumulate 100 points in Learning Ability to obtain the Attribute -- Extraordinary Comprehension]

[Current Points: 4]

’Not bad. I farmed another point for my learning attribute. I feel like I’ve gotten smarter already.’

Gu Qing glanced at the text notification that popped up, feeling satisfied.

...

Another ten-plus minutes passed.

The torturous sharing session was finally over.

Gu Qing was just about to leave,

when the alumnus who had been giving the presentation suddenly came down from the stage and approached him for some reason.

"Junior, got a minute to talk?"

"About what?"

Gu Qing looked surprised.

He didn’t know this alumnus at all, nor had he interacted with him during the Q&A session.

’Why is he approaching me out of the blue?’

The alumnus smiled. "To talk about making you some money, of course."

"Sorry, Senior, but I’m not looking for a part-time job right now."

Gu Qing refused with a wave of his hand.

The alumnus insisted, "Let’s just talk. It’ll only take a minute or two."

Seeing how insistent he was, Gu Qing’s curiosity was piqued.

Figuring it wouldn’t take much time, he followed him backstage to see what it was about.

...