"Aren't you afraid that your bodies won't be able to hold up if you keep practicing at this intensity for a long time?"
Phineas Stern was truly worried that these kids would break their own bodies.
However, the student next to him spoke with considerable confidence.
"Teacher, we've calculated it."
He pulled out a small notebook and quickly flipped to a certain page.
"Mental invigoration potion only starts showing side effects after five days of continuous use, and we only use it for two; the clear grass reagent containing silver moon dew is also only used for two days straight; the mixed preparation of calming flower and vitality mushroom is also two days. With a six-day cycle, we completely avoid the drug resistance accumulation period."
"According to our classmates who are proficient in alchemy, this set of formulas indeed won't produce significant side effects."
"Furthermore, Jiang Lin said that this plan was personally tested by hundreds of students in Boulder City over half a semester. If there were any serious problems, something would have happened long ago."
"Hundreds of students..."
Phineas repeated the phrase, finally understanding what was meant by the potion being tested by hundreds of people.
Boulder City was not simple either...
Phineas stood there for a moment, speechless.
He certainly understood how these children felt.
Jiang Lin's existence was like a sword hanging over the heads of all geniuses, constantly reminding them that they were "not enough."
This sense of pressure, this anxiety of wanting to catch up yet finding it impossible, was something every generation of students experienced.
But a freakish fellow like Jiang Lin...
Wasn't someone you could catch up to simply through hard work...
Right then, in the corner of the classroom, a sudden fluctuation of magic essence appeared.
Looking closely, it was none other than Jiang Lin, the one who had stirred up this whole storm.
It seemed he... had broken through?
His aura continued to climb, subsequently rising by a small sub-rank.
The brief exposure of his aura also allowed everyone to perceive his current level.
【Level】: 20→21
They recalled Jiang Lin saying he had only broken through to level 20 a few days ago, right?
He had broken through to level 21 so quickly?
The crowd was somewhat confused, but not overly surprised.
After all, they didn't know that only five days had passed since Jiang Lin broke through to level 20 and began his practice.
Seeing Jiang Lin break through, the sense of urgency in everyone's hearts became even stronger, and their fighting spirit was ignited by him.
This wouldn't do; they had to work even harder!
Seeing the fanatical expressions in the eyes of the students present, Phineas rubbed his brow and decided to report this matter to his superiors.
At the same time, he took a few more glances at Jiang Lin, who had just broken through but had already resumed his cultivation after opening his eyes to scan the classroom.
Phineas turned and walked out of the classroom, intending to find Vice-Principal Keith Howard, who had been responsible for Jiang Lin's admission.
The corridor was dim, and the magic crystal lamps lit up one by one as they automatically sensed his footsteps.
Moonlight spilled in through the windows, casting dappled shadows on the floor.
As Phineas passed the 4th-grade elite class, his footsteps suddenly faltered—through the window, he saw that quite a few students were actually sitting inside as well!!
Anya Castrot, Lina Greenwood, and Frederick were sitting by the window, buried in their books.
Several other students who had come from Boulder City were also scattered throughout the classroom, each practicing.
What shocked Phineas even more was that these students were also in a posture of staying up all night to practice!
What was going on?
How had this trend of staying up all night blown into the fourth grade as well??
Phineas suddenly felt his head throbbing.
What in the world was all this...
He shook his head and headed for Vice-Principal Keith Howard's office.
Eh, he's off duty?
Never mind, I'll go find him tomorrow.
In the end, Phineas did not leave the teaching building.
He planned to stay up all night with these students in the classroom to see exactly how many of them could keep it up.
He went to the faculty lounge on the fourth floor and brewed himself a cup of hot tea—not the refreshing kind, just ordinary black tea.
Carrying his cup, he returned to the back door of the 5th-grade elite class and leaned against the doorframe, quietly watching this group of "demon-possessed" students.
Actually, as a veteran teacher, he had seen many types of "effort."
There were noble scions fighting for family glory, bitter cultivators carrying blood feuds, and madmen purely seeking to climb the peak of power.
But a scene like this, where an entire class and even students across grades spontaneously entered such a state of involution because of one person's existence...
It was the first time he had ever seen it.
The most crucial point was that Jiang Lin wasn't deliberately inciting them or showing off.
He rarely even spoke, just sat there quietly like a lighthouse, using his actions to tell everyone—"I can go without sleep, I can keep getting stronger, what about you?"
This silent pressure was more penetrating than any grand words.
Time slipped away minute by minute.
The light of the magic crystal lamps was gradually diluted by the pale morning sky appearing outside the windows.
At five in the morning, the sky was still a murky grey, but the eastern horizon had already begun to reveal a faint golden edge.
One by one, students in the classroom began to lift their heads, rubbing their aching eyes and stretching their stiff necks.
No one spoke, but there was a strange tacit understanding in the air—everyone was waiting.
Waiting for the person who would be the first to stand up.
Finally, Jiang Lin opened his eyes.
He slowly exhaled a long breath, which condensed into a faint white mist in the air before dissipating.
As he stood up and walked toward the classroom door, his gaze met Phineas's.
"Good morning, Teacher."
Jiang Lin nodded politely, his tone as calm as if he had just spent an ordinary night.
"Morning."
Phineas responded subconsciously, watching Jiang Lin's departing back as his simple academy uniform cut a tall silhouette in the morning light.
Only after Jiang Lin left did the atmosphere in the classroom relax.
Some began to converse in low voices, some packed their books, and some collapsed on their desks to catch up on sleep.
Meanwhile, Phineas stared blankly at Jiang Lin's distant back, seemingly deep in thought.
Neil Kohlst stretched, his bones making a light cracking sound.
He glanced at the sky brightening outside the window, then at Nora, who was still sitting upright beside him transcribing runes, and couldn't help but smile bitterly.
"Do you think... Jiang Lin's schedule is really something a human can endure?"
Nora's pen didn't stop as she replied flatly,
"I don't know, I'm a beastkin."
Neil Kohlst fell silent, packed his things, and stood up.
Before heading to the cafeteria, he took a detour to the training grounds—sure enough, Rex was still there.
The five-thousand-kilogram stone locks had been set down, and Rex was currently shirtless, swinging an unsharpened training greatsword under the pressure of a gravity array.
Every swing was heavy and slow, his muscles bulging, and sweat had long since soaked the waistband of his trousers.
"Hey, don't tell me you didn't sleep all night either?"
Neil Kohlst shouted over the fence of the training grounds.
Rex stopped his movements, wiped the sweat from his face, and said while huffing for breath,
"Of course."
Neil Kohlst opened his mouth, but in the end, he just gave a thumbs-up.
It seemed the competitive spirit of these geniuses had been completely ignited by Jiang Lin.
In the morning, the cafeteria began serving breakfast.
Jiang Lin had already collected his rank-2 medicinal food for the day and was munching on dry rations while flipping through the skill catalog available for borrowing at the school library.
He felt that his skills were due for an upgrade.
With the system's help, as long as he could become initiated, he could practice them directly to perfection.
He ate very quickly.
By the time Neil Kohlst sat down opposite him with a tray, Jiang Lin had already finished his dry rations and was getting up to return to the classroom.
"...Are you really not sleepy?"
Neil Kohlst still couldn't help but ask in a low voice.
He still found it hard to believe that Jiang Lin, who had just entered the second rank, could elevate a rank-2 breathing technique to such a level.
Jiang Lin was somewhat puzzled; he remembered having answered the other's question before.
"When a breathing technique is practiced to a high tier, it can substitute for sleep."
"But, you just broke through to the second rank, didn't you? It was only yesterday you reached level 21..."
The implication was that Jiang Lin hadn't been in the second rank for long and didn't have that much time to practice the breathing technique.
"I am exceptionally gifted."
Jiang Lin's golden eyes looked at Neil Kohlst calmly.
"If you're envious, you can try practicing your rank-2 breathing technique to the limit."
Neil Kohlst fell silent.
He then silently tucked his medicinal food into his spatial ring and lowered his head to shovel rice.
Fine, no use comparing oneself to a monster.
The morning lecture was still Advanced Principles of Magic Arrays.
The serious middle-aged female teacher clearly noticed the weird atmosphere in the class today—more than half the students had herbal tea or small vials of potions for refreshing themselves on their desks, and a few had faint dark circles under their eyes, but their gaze was terrifyingly bright.
Meanwhile, the golden-haired youth's breathing remained steady as he ignored the lecture.
And more and more students were starting to follow the example of those first few and stopped listening...
In the row by the window, four students were buried in a book as thick as a brick titled Composite Magic Array Energy Topology, their fingertips occasionally tracing lines in the air; in the back corner, three students closed their eyes in meditation, magic essence flowing around them; even Elvira, who was always active in asking questions last semester, was now keeping her head down, rapidly calculating something in her notebook.
On the podium, the middle-aged female teacher paused for a full three seconds.
The course she taught was one of the core subjects for the 5th-grade elite class. Usually, while these geniuses might occasionally self-study, most of the time they would listen attentively, or at least look up at the rune structure diagrams she drew.
But today...
She glanced at the timetable on the wall to confirm she hadn't walked into the wrong classroom.
She took a deep breath and continued her explanation.
Soon, the morning classes ended, leading into the familiar dry ration munching session.
At that moment, a familiar aura appeared at the back door of the classroom.
Jiang Lin turned his head and saw that it was actually Vice-Principal Keith Howard.
Why would Vice-Principal Keith come here?
Why is he walking toward me?
Does he have business with me?
Wait, it couldn't be that someone snitched on me to him!
As Vice-Principal Keith Howard stepped into the classroom, his gaze first swept over the students munching on dry rations, and he nodded thoughtfully.
Finally, his gaze fixed on Jiang Lin by the window.
"Student Jiang Lin."
Keith's voice was gentle yet carried an undeniable authority, interrupting the sounds of chewing and page-flipping in the classroom.
"Principal Keith."
Jiang Lin stood up, still omitting the word "Vice."
"Come to my office for a moment."
Keith gave no further explanation and turned to walk out of the classroom.
Jiang Lin followed, munching on the half-piece of dried meat in his hand.
In the corridor, the footsteps of the two echoed within the empty teaching building.
The morning sunlight filtered through the stained-glass windows, casting colorful patterns on the floor.
"I heard that in yesterday's practical combat class, you fought to a draw with Groot?"
Keith didn't look back, his tone as calm as if he were discussing the weather.
"Correct,"
Jiang Lin replied.
Keith suddenly stopped his pace and turned around, his deep eyes looking directly at Jiang Lin.
"Jiang Lin, do you know what kind of consequences such a performance will cause?"
Jiang Lin was stunned for a moment.
Keith sighed and continued walking forward.
"A student who just promoted to the second year frontally forced a 4th-rank combat teacher to a draw."
"When word of this gets out, how many people do you think will be watching you?"
"Although Saint Brilliance Magic Academy is a top-tier institution in the kingdom, it is not an absolutely safe place."
"Envy, greed, curiosity... all sorts of eyes will gather on you."
The two arrived at the vice-principal's office door.
Keith pushed the door open and signaled Jiang Lin to enter.
The office decor was simple, with a wall of bookshelves occupying most of the space, filled with various ancient texts and documents.
A large mahogany desk sat in front of the window, with several files spread across it.
Keith sat in the chair behind the desk and pointed to the chair opposite him.
"Sit."
Jiang Lin sat as instructed.
"First is about your all-nighter cultivation."
Keith got straight to the point.
"Teacher Phineas Stern reported to me that many students in your class—and even other grades—have started imitating your schedule, using potions to force themselves to stay awake for practice."
Jiang Lin waited quietly for the rest, silently stashing the dried meat into his storage space.
Keith's fingers tapped twice on the desk, his tone turning serious.
"Jiang Lin, as a teacher, I respect your personal effort and choices."
"But I must remind you. This kind of high-intensity cultivation that compresses sleep and relies on potions is hazardous for the vast majority of students."
"Long-term overdrawing of body and spirit is not applicable to everyone."
"Furthermore, if this trend spreads throughout the academy, not all students possess your physical foundation and resolve. The risk of injury or chronic damage due to blind imitation will also increase significantly."
Jiang Lin thought for a moment.
"Vice-Principal, I never forced anyone to imitate me."
"The potion cycle plan I displayed is a proven safe method."
"As for the choice of cultivation method..."
"Isn't it common sense that everyone is responsible for their own decisions?"
"Theoretically, yes."
Keith pulled a document from a drawer and pushed it toward Jiang Lin.
"But this is an academy. As educators, we must be responsible for the safety of our students."
"This morning, I received four inquiry letters from parents, all concerning the 'all-nighter cultivation potion.'"
The documents contained copies of several letters, politely worded but hiding deep concern.
Some parents worried about their children's physical exhaustion, some noble elders asked if the potion sources were reliable, and one viscount even directly questioned whether this "extreme cultivation method" would affect the students' long-term potential.
Jiang Lin quickly scanned the letters, his brow furrowing slightly.
"So what does the Vice-Principal want me to do?"
Keith sighed.
"I want you to formally explain this method to interested classmates in a systematic way."
"Including its principles, risks, target audience, and most importantly, under what circumstances one must stop."
Jiang Lin nodded.
Then, Keith changed his previous stern tone and said,
"Jiang Lin, your talent is quite outstanding, to be able to defeat a 4th-rank powerhouse at the early second rank. I think your future is absolutely bright."
"Although you may have life-saving items given by your family, I will still add an extra layer of insurance for you."
"Take this ultra-long-distance random teleportation scroll. This scroll will give you the possibility to flee and escape at any time when in danger..."
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