After finishing lunch and returning to South Glory University, Qin Siyang first went to the God Hunting Building.
He planned to fight the Sacrificial Giant Vine to help digest his meal.
More importantly, changing habits was something that accumulated over time. It couldn't be accomplished overnight.
He had to keep fighting to push himself.
The Sacrificial Giant Vine Qin Siyang had configured in the Divine Arena was even stronger than the original one. He felt that under this version's relentless attacks, the Hu Chan who had stolen the Vine Heart back then would never have made it out alive.
But Qin Siyang had never lowered the difficulty. He always held himself to the highest standards.
The Sacrificial Giant Vine attacked with overwhelming force, vines appearing one after another. Every strike swept in like raging waves. Qin Siyang's figure darted left and right through the countless afterimages of the vines.
Because he was deliberately suppressing his instincts, every dodge seemed stiff and awkward. He might not even have performed better than he had when he was only Sequence Level 3.
He could feel his body constantly trying to react on instinct, but he restrained the impulse, forcing himself back to the most basic state.
After dying over a hundred times and suppressing his subconscious reactions countless times, Qin Siyang finally reached the point where he no longer had to split his attention to stop himself from falling into habitual movements.
After being completely overwhelmed by the Sacrificial Giant Vine for over an hour, Qin Siyang's movements and reactions gradually returned to a state close to having no combat experience at all.
Naturally, the amount of time he could last against the Sacrificial Giant Vine also grew shorter and shorter.
But he wasn't worried at all, because during the process he experienced a state of "returning to simplicity."
His fighting techniques became simple. There were no flashy combos and no complicated movements.
Every punch and every kick was plain and straightforward, yet pure to the extreme.
When another vine whip came at him, he didn't rush to use Origin Violence to evade. Instead, he stood where he was and watched the violent force crash toward him. Trying to feel the changes in the power within his body.
Only when the attack was about to hit him did he dodge.
At the edge between life and death, he felt himself getting closer and closer to a certain special sensation.
Although he had never successfully dodged the vine's attack at the very last moment, Qin Siyang now had confidence.
As time passed, his dodges became more and more precise.
He no longer relied on combat instinct. Instead, he relied entirely on judging the Sacrificial Giant Vine's attack patterns, observing the trajectory of its movements, even sensing the flow of air stirred up by the swinging vines.
Every movement came after predicting most of the possible attack directions and determining the location of the safe spot.
He was no longer a warrior who relied on combat experience to react instantly. He had completely become an observer within the battle.
His body gradually shook off its clumsiness. Although he still wasn't as good as he had been before, the improvement was obvious.
When Qin Siyang stepped out of the Divine Arena, his clothes were soaked with sweat, but his eyes were filled with the confidence of a true prodigy.
He had a feeling he was moving in the right direction.
Professor Lu's successful debt repayment, together with his own gains in combat training, put him in an excellent mood all day, and he had a wonderful night's sleep.
———
Wednesday morning's class was once again Harrison's Introduction to Post-Apocalyptic Geography.
Harrison went into detail about statistical data on the distribution of gods outside the exits of different safe zones.
Qin Siyang noticed something interesting, the lower-numbered safe zones had more Sequence ability users, and they had killed more gods, but there were also far more gods there, so many that they simply couldn't be wiped out.
It wasn't like Exit 38324 back then, where a few principals and deans had swept through once, killing nearly every god until almost none remained.
Qin Siyang simply couldn't figure out what caused the gods to gather in the first place.
In the afternoon, Qin Siyang attended an elective course called Divine Mechanics.
The instructor was an associate professor who wasn't particularly well known. However, after watching recordings of previous lectures, Qin Siyang felt the course might help him predict the attack patterns of gods, so he attended in person.
During class, the professor analyzed footage of battles against gods from the perspective of physics and mechanics to predict their next attacks.
Qin Siyang's eyes lit up.
This completely new way of analyzing combat caught his full attention, and he listened with great care, planning to put it into practice the next time he fought.
After class, he received a message from Wen Shu inviting him to dinner.
In a good mood, Qin Siyang was about to head over.
Just then, he received another message from Zhao Longfei.
[Come to my office immediately.]
Qin Siyang frowned. He couldn't think of anything serious enough for Zhao Longfei to sound like this.
He headed to the principal's office. When he pushed the door open, he found it packed with people.
Not only were Zhao Longfei, Li Tianming, Zhang Kuang, Hao Liang, Wu Yu, and Chang Tianxiang present, but also Lu Daoxing, staring blankly into space.
Qin Siyang immediately realized something was wrong.
"What happened?"
Li Tianming sighed, "Old Lu failed to repay his debt."
"Failed? Professor Lu, hadn't you already prepared all the god-hunting equipment? How did the repayment fail?"
Lu Daoxing continued staring blankly at the floor, his voice hoarse.
"I repaid it."
"You did? Then how did it fail?"
Li Tianming explained, "He accompanied his wife, Yang Dan, to the United Government's Department of Economic Affairs to repay the futures debt. But since Yang Dan, not Old Lu, was the one who had signed the debt agreement, only she could go in and submit the god-hunting equipment. After she came out, she told him the debt had been successfully repaid."
Qin Siyang anxiously asked, "Then what happened?"
"Then, around noon, Yang Dan received another collection call from the United Government's Department of Economic Affairs, telling her to submit twenty Tier 3 god-hunting equipment as soon as possible."
"What? How is that possible?"
Lu Daoxing said, "My wife and I hurried back to the Department of Economic Affairs. They pulled up the surveillance footage. It showed that my wife only went into the restroom inside the department and then came back out the same way. She never submitted any god-hunting equipment."
Qin Siyang froze.
"Then... where's the god-hunting equipment?"
Li Tianming shook his head, "It's gone... No one knows where it is."
"Gone?"
"It's not gone! She handed it over! She handed it to someone at the Department of Economic Affairs!", Lu Daoxing argued loudly, "She definitely handed it over!"
Li Tianming was silent for a moment before asking, "Did you use a lie detector on her?"
"I trust that she would never lie to me."
"I used to trust Ye Hongqing the same way."
"She's different from Ye Hongqing! She saved my life!"
Zhao Longfei stubbed out his cigarette and said, "Professor Lu, I think you'd better ask your wife to come here. If she really handed the god-hunting equipment over to the Department of Economic Affairs, then we need to determine at what point someone there tampered with things."
"You mean..."
Zhao Longfei frowned.
"An illusion, memory alteration, forged surveillance footage? Since your wife was deceived inside the Department of Economic Affairs, there should be some trace left behind."
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