Facing He Dayou’s sudden burst of strength, Zhang Yu simply smiled, already confident in his assessment.

He thought to himself, “The competition team really is something. Just these few days, and they’ve already improved this much? This He Dayou’s physical strength is actually a bit higher than mine. But still…”

Zhang Yu had deliberately chosen a strength contest to test the results of his recent training.

At that moment, as the Crimson Marrow Primordial Energy surged through him, his entire musculature tensed like a rope being twisted taut. Each muscle pressed and levered against the others, unleashing a terrifying burst of power that coursed through his whole body and into his hands.

With the boost of his Level-10 Crimson Marrow Primordial Energy and his masterful muscle control, the raw physical power Zhang Yu could unleash in an instant far exceeded that of an opponent with similar physical stats.

With a thunderous crash—

He Dayou felt an overwhelming force slam into him, irresistible and merciless. It sent him flying backward, landing on the ground with a heavy thud.

That familiar spin of perspective, the hard, icy floor, the full-body pain—everything repeated itself.

He Dayou staggered to his feet, dazed.

This feeling… was all too familiar.

Did he just get one-shot again?

Just like last time when he fought Zhang Yu. Even after his body had been enhanced, he still lost?

He suddenly looked up, eyes wide with disbelief as he stared at Zhang Yu. His thoughts spun: “How the hell is he stronger than me? Did his physical stats already surpass mine?”

Not far away, Qian Shen and Zhao Tianxing were watching too. Their eyes lit up with intrigue as they saw He Dayou flung aside.

Qian Shen murmured, “Zhang Yu’s gains… were even greater than He Dayou’s?”

Zhao Tianxing silently wondered, “How did he do it? Just how much physical strength has Zhang Yu developed in this short time? Could it really be better than the results of the Special Enhancement Program?”

Later that day, after school, He Dayou went to the training hall used by the sports competition team and told Lan Ling what had happened.

Lan Ling frowned and said, “His raw strength shouldn’t be higher than yours.”

“The reason he beat you is probably because his technique is more refined than yours. You…”

He glanced at He Dayou, then casually lifted and gave him a shake. He Dayou instantly felt as though he’d lost all control over his own muscles.

Lan Ling let go and said mildly, “Your control over your muscles—especially the transplanted ones—is too poor. You’re not even utilizing your full power.”

“Continue with the next round of surgeries and training. Once you’ve had more muscle fibers transplanted and can truly wield that new strength… you won’t lose to Zhang Yu again.”

…

At the same time, after school—

Zhang Yu was circulating his Crimson Marrow Primordial Energy as he walked back to his rental apartment.

But just as he opened the door, he froze at the sight on his bed.

There, sitting on the mattress, was a ragged old plushie.

“Evil God?”

It was a tattered Evil God Plushie, its eyes made of mismatched buttons that stared back at him like two pitch-black pits. Who else could it be but the Evil God he had once made a wish to?

And just as Zhang Yu hesitated, the plushie spoke.

“My dear servant, kneel before me. That is my wish.”

As the familiar ceremonial chant echoed in his mind, Zhang Yu’s body dropped to one knee with a thud.

The plushie on the bed burst into laughter. “Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable.”

“In just two or three short months, a pawn I threw out on a whim has actually grown this much.”

“If I hadn’t heard that a student from Songyang High named Zhang Yu had won first place in the Martial Arts Competition, I never would have imagined that brat was you…”

At this point, the gloom in her heart lifted significantly.

The reason she came back to find Zhang Yu—well, his impressive results were one reason. But the bigger issue was… she had no way of returning.

She used to stand at the pinnacle of the Evil Gods, a figure of wealth and cultivation freedom. But after one failed investment in her so-called “retirement,” she had to return to the fray, forced back into frontline work.

Not that she minded. If you can’t stay at the top, just retrace your path!

With her years of experience in the fraud industry, she thought this would be a triumphant tour through the mortal world—an all-powerful Evil God bringing chaos to the corporate world.

But the major sects had upgraded their anti-fraud tech beyond her wildest imagination. Even she, a treasured artifact of the Evil God Realm, suffered heavy losses. Then came betrayal, and now she was stuck on the First Floor of Kunxu, her power bottomed out, with no way to recover.

“Damn it… if I get caught and deported, I’m screwed. Who the hell sold me out?”

“My power’s burning out so fast… my intelligence is dropping again… if this keeps up, I really will turn into a brain-dead toy.”

So now, having found Zhang Yu again, her goal was clear: use this high-potential stock to make her comeback.

“For a broke kid to take first in the Martial Arts Competition? That means I unlocked something incredible in him.”

“Heh… I thought it was a loss leader. Turns out I bottom-fished a superstar.”

The thought of Zhang Yu still owing her a wish filled the plushie with giddy excitement.

But just then, she suddenly froze.

Zhang Yu… the very same Zhang Yu who should’ve collapsed to his knees the moment she made a wish… was standing up?

“What are you doing?”

“Are you insane? Kneel! Unless you want to die from ritual backlash!”

But Zhang Yu remained still, quietly sensing the changes in the ritual energy flowing through him.

When the wish to make him kneel was issued, the chill of the ritual faded the moment Zhang Yu dropped to one knee.

But just a few seconds later, that idiotic ritual started wailing again.

Zhang Yu blinked, then came to a realization. “Wait... is it urging me to cultivate?”

“But the other wish was to kneel, wasn’t it?”

“A conflict of wishes?”

He grew curious. “So… in a situation like this, which wish takes priority?”

He tried standing up—and immediately, the ritual issued another command, urging him to kneel again.

Zhang Yu could feel the ritual power splitting into two opposing forces: one pressing him to cultivate, the other demanding he kneel.

“So it really is a contradiction.”

But once he activated his Crimson Marrow Primordial Energy and entered a cultivation state, all the wailing stopped.

“So in the end, cultivation takes precedence over kneeling… is that because of the order the wishes were made?”

The Evil God Plushie, at first, thought Zhang Yu had gone mad—was he defying her, trying to get himself killed?

But as she took in his calm demeanor, she realized something was wrong.

Unlike her, Zhang Yu had spent the last two months under constant supervision by the ritual, immersed in its 24/7 presence.

While the plushie remembered issuing two wishes, she hadn’t considered how, under the ritual’s influence, an entire life plan had taken shape in Zhang Yu’s routine—study hard, cultivate well, get into a top academy, join a major sect, make money, and buy the antique items in his shopping cart… all of it woven into his everyday existence.

Although she didn’t fully grasp the intricacies or how they clashed with her "kneel" command, she still sensed something was off—and immediately issued a new wish:

“I command you not to harm me!”

But even as she spoke, a rumble tore through the air—and a large hand, wrapped in layers of white Martial Qi, grabbed her tightly.

“Let go of me!” she shouted.

Zhang Yu loosened his grip slightly, but in the next instant, the Martial Qi surged even more violently, pressing and squeezing the plushie like a training dummy.

As he studied the fluctuations in the ritual’s cold aura, Zhang Yu thought, “Just as I suspected. When wishes conflict, it’s the order that matters.”

“Studying, training, getting into university, joining a major sect… all the activities tied to those earlier wishes seem to override later ones because of their priority.”

“In other words, as long as I stay in a state of cultivation or study, any wishes that contradict that state… can be temporarily suppressed.”

And so, Zhang Yu now used the ragged plushie as a training prop to practice his Formless Cloud Qi. In this condition… he noticed that the ritual wasn’t urging him to kneel or let go.

Looking at the plushie who was still trying to speak, Zhang Yu said flatly, “Shut up.”

As the Formless Cloud Qi pulsed and coiled, it pressed down on the plushie’s surface, threatening to tear it apart at any moment.

At the same time, Zhang Yu’s voice calmly continued.

“What you just said was: I can’t harm… you.”

The plushie could feel the crushing pressure increasing, on the brink of causing actual damage.

“So if I destroy this plushie… that means I can hurt you, right?”

Seeing Zhang Yu’s calm, yet killing-intent-laced eyes—so full of unwavering resolve—the plushie felt a chill crawl through her heart.

“Shit… how is he adapting this fast? No—has my intelligence level dropped again?”

She quickly warned, “Zhang Yu, if you actually hurt me now, the ritual will backlash and you’ll die for sure!”

“You can feel it, right? The ritual’s already watching you.”

Zhang Yu said nothing. But from his earlier experiments, he had already noticed that the moment he even thought about harming the plushie, the ritual would start wailing again.

“So the rule against harming the Evil God… it seems to take priority even over individual wishes,” he thought.

But he knew that this was no time to show weakness. He immediately channeled the Celestial Martial Heart-Forging Technique at full force, radiating an aura of grim resolve—one that screamed he was ready to die if pushed.

If you want a window, you have to act like you’re about to tear the roof off.

So Zhang Yu said coldly, “Then I’d rather die with you. I won’t live as your servant forever. What’s the point of staying alive like that?”

Empowered by his Level-10 Celestial Martial Heart-Forging Technique, the aura of reckless defiance surged out of him.

And in his gaze, the plushie could see it—an unshakable will to fight to the death.