In the Age of Gods and Demons, I evolved into the final boss.

Chapter 11 Runic Ethereal Charm

"Plundered 6 points of Elixir Essence"

"Plundered 7 points of elixir essence".

"Cultivation progress: Level 4 → Level 5 Martial Artist [5%] [Thirteen Forms of the Serpent Tendon, Second Rebirth → Third Rebirth 5%]"

"Basic punching power +55 kg"

Huff! Chen Zheng exhaled a long breath of hot air, feeling his whole body filled with power.

The first realm of martial arts is called body refinement. Therefore, breaking through from level four to level five not only increases punching power by tens of kilograms, but also tempers the entire body with qi and blood.

Bones are stronger, muscles are more resilient, and even the internal organs beat more powerfully.

However, this stage mainly focuses on tempering the fascia, so these are all incidental tempering. The biggest improvement after the breakthrough is in the whole body's fascial network.

Before Chen Zheng could even feel "happy", a new row of notifications appeared in front of him.

"Warning: The essence of the elixir absorbed this time contains trace amounts of abyssal energy, which carries a certain risk of contamination."

"pollute……?"

Chen Zheng glanced at the prompt but didn't pay it any mind. Ever since the Abyss Rift appeared a hundred years ago, this world and many resources from other planes have contained a certain amount of Abyss energy, including free-floating energy in the world.

When cultivators practice martial arts and temper their bodies with qi and blood, they will also refine these trace amounts of abyssal energy along with them.

Of course, this kind of refining is because the spiritual herbs and spiritual energy contain very little abyssal energy, not because the abyss is not dangerous.

It was already 1:30 pm. Chen Zheng took a quick shower, changed into a short-sleeved T-shirt and gray trousers, and went out.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, he saw Jiang Mo leaning against the elevator, looking completely drained, while Li Tang, standing to the side, was full of energy, holding a notebook in her hand.

Chen Zheng glanced at Jiang Mo, then at Li Tang: "...Don't you two have any self-control in broad daylight?"

Li Tang said frankly, "It's alright, Jiang Mo lasted for more than an hour this time."

Jiang Mo quickly stood up straight: "It's not what you think. I just didn't take a nap because she dragged me to review the morning's lessons."

Li Tang said confidently, "Competition in today's society is getting bigger and bigger. We liberal arts students already have fewer resources than those in martial arts departments, so we have to start working hard from our freshman year."

"Only by improving your professional skills can you be competitive after graduation."

Jiang Mo sighed, "This is so hard for me."

As the elevator descended, Chen Zheng asked curiously, "It can't be that 'tired,' can it? You just didn't take a nap. After all, you're a level six martial artist."

"One hour." Jiang Mo held up one finger: "Continuous studying, and they wouldn't even let me drink water."

"Drinking water interrupts your concentration," Li Tang said matter-of-factly. "Besides, you spend three minutes scrolling through your device every time you drink water, don't think I don't know."

Jiang Mo coughed and turned his head away guiltily.

The elevator stopped on the first floor, and the three of them walked out of the dormitory building. The afternoon sun shone through the canopy of the hemlock trees, casting dappled shadows on the ground.

Li Tang walked ahead, followed by Chen Zheng and Jiang Mo, who walked slowly side by side. Li Tang lowered her voice and said, "You don't seem to want to study at noon. Why don't you just tell her?"

Jiang Mo paused for a moment, then said, "It's not that I don't want to learn."

As he spoke, he looked at Li Tang's retreating figure ahead and said, "I just feel... there's no need to push myself so hard."

"What do you mean?"

Jiang Mo put his hands in his pockets and said casually, "I think life is only a hundred years long. Even if you cultivate to the Earth Realm, you'll only live a few decades longer. In the end, you'll still be a pile of yellow earth."

"It's good as it is now. I can get into the top three in the class by just casually listening to rune lessons, and I can roughly draw an energy circuit by just a glance. There's no need to push myself so hard. Good enough is good enough."

Chen Zheng didn't speak. He remembered that when the teacher explained new runes on stage, most people were taking notes, but this guy was often just spacing out.

He initially thought the guy had grasped something, but it turned out he was just daydreaming.

Just then, Li Tang suddenly stopped and turned around. Jiang Mo subconsciously took half a step back: "Jiang Mo, didn't you just say 'that's good enough' again?"

"……No."

"Every time you say those four words, your right hand is in your pocket." Jiang Mo looked down at his hand in his pocket and silently pulled it out.

Li Tang walked back a few steps and came to Jiang Mo.

The girl was clearly half a head shorter than Jiang Mo, but her aura was completely reversed.

"I know you feel that life is only a few decades long and there is no need to work so hard. I also know that you feel that you have enough talent and can easily get into the top three with some study."

Li Tang's voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear.

"But have you ever thought about it? You're living off your talent now, but talent has an expiration date."

Jiang Mo opened his mouth.

"You can easily rank in the top three of your grade now because the material in the first year is still easy."

"But when you get to your sophomore or junior year, when you start working on 3D arrays and independent rune projects, can you still just learn casually and get by?"

"What if people who aren't as talented as you but have been working incredibly hard surpass you one by one? Can you accept that?"

Jiang Mo fell silent.

Li Tang didn't press him any further. She turned around and continued walking forward: "I don't want to force you to work yourself to the bone, but I also don't want to see you regret not trying harder now ten years from now."

The girl gradually walked away, while Jiang Mo stood silently in place.

Chen Zheng did not disturb him.

After a long while, Jiang Mo suddenly spoke up: "You know, she's been like this since she was little."

"Hmm?" Chen Zheng sensed the unease of gossip.

"When I was in elementary school, I would fall asleep in class. After school, she would block me at the classroom door and force me to finish my homework before I could leave."

"When I was in junior high, I skipped class to play games, and she dragged me straight home from the virtual internet cafe."

"In high school, I almost didn't even pass the academic score requirement for martial arts university. She made two copies of her notes, one of which she put in my schoolbag and the other was pasted on my bedside."

Jiang Mo paused for a moment at this point: "Sometimes I find her annoying."

"And then?" Chen Zheng asked curiously.

"And then..." Jiang Mo looked at the departing figure, "and then I realized that without her, I might not even have the right to stand here."

Just then, a cool spring breeze blew by, and the leaves of the hemlock rustled.

Chen Zheng suddenly remembered his younger brother, Chen Ye.

Before being called back to school for intensive training during the Chinese New Year, Chen Ye secretly slipped a bottle of Qi and Blood Pills under his pillow, which he only discovered when he went to sleep that night.

A person who truly cares about you will do things quietly and will never say it aloud.

With the help of that Qi and Blood Pill, he was able to raise his cultivation level from level four to level four [30%] before the start of the semester.

This 30% progress can only be accurately seen after awakening the talent on the data page.

Jiang Mo took a deep breath, pulled his hands out of his pockets, and said confidently, "Let's go. Today is the first day, and I plan to inscribe ten runes to test my skills."

"So confident." Chen Zheng glanced at him.

"That's right, I'm a genius."

The ninth floor of the Rune Foundation Building is the training classroom.

This floor has no walls, only concrete pillars for support, and more than 100 learning devices are placed in the more than 1,000 square meter space.

Authenticate your identity and unlock your device.

Click!

The lid of the workbench opens, revealing a length, width, and thickness of 20 centimeters and a thickness of 1 centimeter. A black inscribed stone slab, freshly extruded and molded, rises up, and an inscription engraving knife pops out from the side.

Get ready to study!

Chen Zheng took a deep breath, gripped the inscription carving knife, and smoothly channeled his qi and blood into the knife. Then, he activated the Myriad Spirits Plunder talent.

hum!

With a resonance of consciousness, Chen Zheng's vision instantly became clear, and the free energy in the air floated slowly in the sunlight like countless tiny specks of light.

The complex energy pathways inside the device were crystal clear to him; energy surged from the bottom of the device, branching into more than a dozen lines, each leading to a different functional module.

With his mind free of external thoughts, Chen Zheng conjured up a simple rune in his mind, named "Wind," which would emit a slight current of air after being successfully inscribed.

After determining the rune pattern to be engraved, the carving knife began to fall. The carving knife, infused with vital energy, sank into the stone slab with just a light press.

It failed...

The stroke was slightly heavier, and the originally weak energy resonance instantly dissipated, with the surrounding free-floating energy of heaven and earth not even fluctuating.

Again.

Seeing the problem, Chen Zheng changed his position and made a new stroke. This stroke was perfect in both depth and the force of the slow downward movement.

Success! In Chen Zheng's eyes, as the marks engraved on the stone slab formed, an invisible resonance emanated, and the surrounding free-floating energy of heaven and earth automatically converged.

A successful rune inscription is like a light slowly illuminating, with internal energy flowing smoothly.

The second cut was successful, and the third cut was the final stroke... *snap*, the light spot dissipated silently, but Chen Zheng's lips curled up slightly. He had seen the reason for the failure.

Beep! Chen Zheng pressed the device restart button, and the stone slab immediately sank, shattered, and was crushed.

In less than a minute, a new inscribed stone tablet rose up again.

This time, the three strokes flowed smoothly, and at the moment the last stroke was completed, the rune marks on the device screen lit up sequentially from the starting point to the end point, like a lit fuse.

Immediately afterwards, a gentle breeze blew across the surface of the stone slab, brushing against his fingers.

It worked!

In the past, runes that required repeated inscriptions dozens of times to gradually verify their success through experience were inscribed only twice this time.

Just as the Sichuan character, named "Wind" but shaped like a wave, lit up, Chen Zheng suddenly paused.

Ok?

He could actually sense a faint fluctuation of spiritual energy emanating from this rune, like a wisp of breeze imprisoned within the engraving.

If you can sense something, you can plunder it!