Chapter 83: The Senior Joins

Tang Wenjing still refused Chen Meng, because she had to reserve a day over the weekend for other matters.

Afterwards, Chen Meng returned to his class and told Ma Yiqun about his leave of absence, asking him not to wait for him every day to go to and from school anymore.

Once these tasks were done, Chen Meng packed all his textbooks and exam papers for cultural studies into his backpack, then left the school with it slung over his shoulder.

He headed to the martial arts hall, which would now become his place of residence for a long time.

The old man wasn’t there today, so Chen Meng simply used the key to unlock the door. Inside, the martial arts hall was a mess, dirty beyond description.

Helpless, Chen Meng had to clean it up himself, at least superficially.

“Running and bungee jumping, these two methods of breaking through the digestion limit, can be set aside for now. Running is much like climbing stairs, too slow in consuming stamina, and bungee jumping requires a specific venue. The closest bungee site is over forty kilometers away, and even then, there’s no guarantee I could get a spot,” Chen Meng muttered. At this moment, the simplest option for him was extreme yoga.

He had already read his mother’s book, ‘Yoga: From Beginner to Expert,’ and gained a comprehensive understanding of yoga. Plus, having become a divine body lifeform, he was already considered an entry-level practitioner.

But entry-level wasn’t enough; he needed to use yoga to challenge the limits of his body.

“There aren’t many books on extreme yoga, but plenty of videos,” he mused.

Chen Meng searched on his phone. There were many such videos online, but they were scattered and most were useless.

All he needed were some extreme yoga poses.

Thinking it over, he decided to visit an internet café, use a computer to extract these poses from videos, print them out, and assemble them into a booklet—a sort of extreme yoga pictorial.

He acted immediately, as he always did.

With his backpack on, he locked the door and headed straight to an internet café near the school, rented a computer.

Using a computer made things much easier.

On the country’s largest video platforms, he rapidly browsed through extreme yoga videos, capturing any poses that might be helpful.

Busy until nearly six in the evening, he had extracted 129 images of extreme yoga poses.

He wanted to copy these images onto a USB drive, but realized he didn’t have one. So he went to the front desk and found a printer.

“Miss, can I print here?”

Chen Meng thought that printing here would save him the trouble of searching for a print shop elsewhere.

The red-haired attendant glanced at him and nodded, “Color prints, one yuan per sheet.”

“Alright.”

Chen Meng wasn’t in the mood to haggle. After asking about printing procedures, he proceeded.

Ten minutes later, he bound the printed images together and hurried out, as he still had evening tutoring.

...

He bought some food from a roadside vendor and ate as he headed to the Spark Tutoring Center.

Not three minutes after he arrived, Yan Ruoxi walked in.

“Your mock exam papers for cultural studies should have been handed out, right? Let me take a look.”

“Sure.”

Chen Meng had already mentioned the mock exam to Yan Ruoxi, so he wasn’t surprised. He rummaged through his backpack and handed her his papers.

Yan Ruoxi quickly scanned them and said slowly, “The questions are of moderate difficulty, probably similar to the real college entrance exam. But your answers aren’t very good—especially some questions, the grader wasn’t very thorough. Otherwise, you could have lost another ten points.”

Hearing this, Chen Meng was dumbfounded.

Yan Ruoxi thought for a moment. “I won’t explain the paper to you. Your teacher will go over it anyway.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Meng gave a bitter smile, “Senior, to be honest, I’ve taken indefinite leave.”

Yan Ruoxi looked at him in surprise, but didn’t ask why.

Since Chen Meng wouldn’t be returning to school, she alone would have to explain the paper to him. By the end of the tutoring session, Yan Ruoxi had finished going over it.

“Thank you, Senior.”

Chen Meng was grateful; Yan Ruoxi’s one-on-one tutoring was far more efficient than his classroom learning.

Seeing there were still a few minutes left, Chen Meng pondered and asked, “Senior, how is your Azure Potion digestion progressing?”

Last time, he’d heard her mention she was almost done digesting the potion.

For most people, being asked this question would be unpleasant, even offensive, but Yan Ruoxi didn’t mind at all when Chen Meng asked.

“Ninety-three percent!”

Yan Ruoxi replied, and the number didn’t surprise Chen Meng.

Yan Ruoxi had been assigned the divine body potion as soon as she entered university, and nearly nine months had passed. Not fully digesting the Azure Potion by now was actually quite slow.

“It seems you’ve also advanced to a divine body lifeform. Are you having trouble digesting the potion?” Yan Ruoxi asked.

“Yes.” Chen Meng explained the bottleneck in potion digestion.

Yan Ruoxi pondered, then said slowly, “I don’t have any good advice. I’m confused about digesting potions myself; otherwise, I wouldn’t still have the Azure Potion unfinished.”

Chen Meng nodded and told her about his plan to break through the digestion bottleneck using extreme yoga.

“Extreme yoga?”

Yan Ruoxi was stunned; she hadn’t considered this. “If the key to digestion is pushing the limit, then extreme yoga should work. But there are so many poses—which are useful, which aren’t, which combinations are effective, which aren’t—how can you tell?”

Chen Meng smiled, “I have a way.”

Yan Ruoxi looked at him curiously, then after a moment’s thought said, “Could I join your research?”

Chen Meng was surprised.

Yan Ruoxi went on, “I’m at a digestion bottleneck myself—been stuck for a month. I’ve tried many methods, none succeeded.”

“Is that so?” Chen Meng smiled, “If you’re willing to join, that’s ideal. With your wealth of knowledge, you can offer me great help.”

Yan Ruoxi nodded lightly; she wanted to try Chen Meng’s approach to see if it could help her break through.

“Senior, will this interfere with your studies?” Chen Meng asked, considering that Yan Ruoxi was still at Jiangzhou University, and might not have as much freedom as he did.

“It’s not just you who’s on extended leave. I’ve been on leave since last semester. Unless something important comes up, I rarely go to campus now,” Yan Ruoxi said calmly. “University doesn’t have much content, and it leans toward self-study. I finished all first and second-year courses in my first semester, and now I’m studying third-year material.”

Hearing this, Chen Meng was dumbfounded.

He had underestimated Yan Ruoxi—she was a true academic star, while he was merely pretending.