After the darkness!

Xiao Ran bit her lip, tears clinging to her eyelashes, and her body trembled slightly when she heard the punishment.

She looked up at Wei Hong, her Adam's apple bobbing, but ultimately she didn't say anything in rebuttal.

Wei Hong is highly respected in the club; even her father would respectfully address her as "Coach Wei" when he came to visit.

But she dug her fingertips deep into her palms, her nails almost piercing her skin: three days of cleaning... When had she ever done this kind of work in her life?

Lin Yijue stared down at the floor, and when he heard the words "overreacted," his eyes narrowed.

He knew that Wei Hong had definitely seen the whole thing, so this was a case of both sides being equally blamed.

Ultimately, if we're really talking about right and wrong, Xiao Ran's illegal sneak attack was the real trigger.

However, Wei Hong's ability to point out Xiao Ran's problems in public was far better than the bias shown by Lu Qiang and others.

At least in Lin Yijue's previous life, he had seen too many business owners push all the blame onto delivery riders in order to please customers, which was not as good as Wei Hong.

As for why Lu Qiang and the others were biased, he wasn't stupid and naturally guessed the reason.

He is now stronger and more talented than his opponent, yet their treatment is vastly different. There is only one possibility: the other party has connections.

It's estimated that the person behind Xiao Ran is someone that even Lu Qiang and others have to curry favor with.

As Lin Yijue pondered this, he bent down to pick up the boxing gloves from the ground and casually replied, "I agree."

Before you've reached a certain level of skill, trying to gain respect is more like inviting ridicule.

Those who have been beaten down by society in their past lives understand that before reaching a high enough position, fighting for fairness is nothing but a joke.

What he needs is for his fist to be strong enough to set its own rules.

At this moment, Lu Qiang's face turned bright red. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but when he met Wei Hong's cold gaze, he swallowed his words back.

He glared at Lin Yijue, then turned and squatted down next to Xiao Ran, softening his voice: "Xiao Ran, how about I have the team doctor check you again? That fall just now was quite bad—"

Xiao Ran didn't say anything, but glared at Lin Yijue fiercely before walking towards the rest area with her best friend's help, without even touching Lu Qiang's outstretched hand.

Lu Qiang stood frozen in place, scratching the back of his head and forcing a dry laugh.

"Alright, keep practicing. You're all doing this, it's unacceptable!" Wei Hong snorted coldly, put her hands behind her back, and slowly returned to sit down some distance away.

Soon, Li Yan and the others resumed their sparring, shouting commands. The sounds of fists and feet clashing filled the training ground once more.

In the hall, Lin Yijue silently walked to the giant painted oil painting, ignored everyone else, and continued practicing.

Imagine the sandbag in front of you as Xiao Ran and Lu Qiang from before, and keep recalling the scene of their sparring session.

Whether I exerted enough force each time in the fight, whether my dodging timing was right, and whether there is room for improvement in distance control.

He kept replaying the scene in his mind and occasionally tried to throw a punch.

Jab, hook, and uppercut, interspersed with kicks and locks.

Sweat quickly soaked through the clothes.

The essence of Yun Sheng's boxing style is like a burning brand, becoming clearer and clearer with every contraction and relaxation of his muscles, every punch and retraction, every dodge and close-range maneuver.

Wei Hong, holding a teacup in the distance, noticed this and nodded slightly.

Judging solely from his boxing proficiency, this student would indeed rank among the top five in this batch of students.

If we take into account fighting talent, and based on the opponent's performance in the sparring session, the ranking would be even higher.

Even back in the Jiaozhou base city headquarters, someone with such qualifications would have been qualified to be an elite disciple and a potential prospect for the club.

It definitely deserves our close attention.

At this moment, Li Yan's gaze also fell on Lin Yijue in the corner.

She felt somewhat guilty and wanted to find an opportunity to give the other person some pointers as a way of making amends.

However, she discovered that her opponent practiced very smoothly, and judging from their posture and movements alone, they were almost at 80 or 90% of her level, even compared to her and Lu Qiang.

She walked over several times, seemingly wanting to say something but then stopping herself, but the other person acted as if they hadn't seen her at all.

She felt too embarrassed to approach him, so she eventually had to leave.

call!

He took a deep breath.

A feint with a jab, a slight flick of the wrist deflects the "opponent's" gaze; the body spins to avoid the imagined counterattack trajectory, a right hook follows the force of the hip rotation to precisely strike the "ribs"; the final uppercut rises from below, bursting with power from the whole body to aim straight for the "jaw".

Sweat dripped from his chin onto the floor, leaving dark welts at his feet. Lin Yijue, panting, propped himself up on his knees, his gaze fixed on the talent tree visible only to him:

[Yun Sheng Boxing Technique: Minor Achievement (99.6%)]

"Talent Tree: Novice Boxer (Young Tree Stage)"

"Energy collection rate 32.2%, number of evolution attempts: 1, evolutionary stage: insufficient information, unknown."

Talent: [Tree-Talented Boxer (White): ...]

[Ye - Double Strike (White): ...]

[Ye - Exceptional Endurance (White): ...]

Below are the attributes:

Power: 7.94

Agility: 6.1

Physical condition: 5.65

Willpower: 6.9

It's just 0.4% away from achieving great success.

According to his estimation, Da Cheng's boxing skills, judging solely from his proficiency, are at least at the level of Li Yan and Lu Qiang.

No, it's very likely to be even higher.

"It's just that my body is a bit of a burden. With the presence of the 'devouring body,' although my strength and physique are constantly increasing thanks to my high metabolism, the burden on my body increases with prolonged training. Even more ridiculously, I've started to hallucinate."

Lin Yijue frowned slightly, his mind racing.

Recall what just happened.

Just now, when he was about to max out his proficiency in one go and break through from minor to major mastery, the Devouring Body within him suddenly began to stir.

The pain caused by this restlessness is secondary.

After all, he has now developed a certain degree of immunity to that burning pain.

What's truly unacceptable is the hunger and hallucinations it brings now.

Just now, as a violent hunger, strong enough to burn through his stomach, erupted like a volcano, he actually saw a blurry face on the sandbag in front of him.

It was exactly the face of Xiao Ran and Lu Qiang that he had imagined.

The former's eyes were red and brimming with tears, while the latter's eyes were wide with anger, as if they were silently roaring at him as the sandbag swayed.

The eerie sight, accompanied by the sharp buzzing sound of insects biting his ears, forced him to stop and rest.

He wasn't too scared, but there was no doubt that the side effects of the phagocytic were starting to increasingly affect his life and training.

Just now, if it weren't for the existence of the Devouring Body, he probably would have chosen to master the Cloud Rising Boxing Technique in one go.

"According to Wang Mingde, the appearance of this strange phenomenon indicates that the Devourer has officially entered its active phase..."

Lin Yijue went to the side to rest, sweat constantly dripping down his forehead and skin, his mind filled with thoughts.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but recall the monster from the alleyway earlier.

Its limbs were as black as charcoal, and its gaping maw was filled with serrated fangs; it no longer resembled a human at all.

Considering what the other person looked like before the transformation, such a degree of change, even after so much time has passed, still sends chills down one's spine.

And I seem to be growing along the same trajectory.