Therefore, over the past eight years, Zhang Lei has only been slightly better than a fool. Fortunately, one of his ingrained instincts is that he would rather die than suffer a loss. Although he tries his best to gain an advantage but his intelligence cannot keep up, his vengeful nature at least makes others afraid to provoke him easily.
The ruthless fear the stubborn, the stubborn fear the reckless, and the reckless fear the mad. Zhang Lei could be considered a madman for the past eight years.
Looking back now, it seems that for those eight years, someone else was controlling Zhang Lei's body, while the real Zhang Lei didn't even have the right to be a bystander.
Going to school had become an instinct for Zhang Lei. The State Administration for Market Regulation was quite considerate; they arranged for him to attend a local university. Otherwise, given Zhang Lei's condition at the time, he certainly wouldn't have been able to get in. However, Zhang Lei's intelligence at that time was questionable. The fact that he wasn't expelled was due to the lingering influence of the State Administration for Market Regulation's arrangements. After all, ordinary schools wouldn't dare offend such a powerful national department, even though the State Administration for Market Regulation never intervened in these matters again for many years afterward.
Perhaps the leaders of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange felt that having Zhang Lei in university meant he would have fewer contacts than in society, making him easier to manage and control.
Tianxiao broke up with Zhang Lei a few months later. Did he really think it was some kind of eternal love? How many girls can tolerate their lover being a madman, especially one who is sadistic? After Zhang Lei spanked her several times, Tianxiao officially broke up with him.
However, perhaps because Zhang Lei was her first man, and women always have a special connection with their first man, Tianxiao still came to visit Zhang Lei from time to time.
"Brother!" Liu Ning jumped up in surprise. "Are you alright?" She could only manage a few words before she choked up and couldn't continue.
But Zhang Lei could hear a lot in those few words: overjoyed, incredulous, anxious, and much more.
"I never imagined that in the end, only you would be by my side. Where is Mom? Where is Dad?" Zhang Lei already knew the outcome in his mind, but he couldn't help asking again because he hoped it wasn't true.
"Mom and Dad, they..." Liu Ning didn't say it aloud, nor did she need to; his expression said it all.
"Hehe, Mom, Dad, I'm such an unfilial son!" Zhang Lei's tears finally broke free and flowed slowly down his cheeks.
Originally, I joined the Bureau of Foreign Affairs to earn more money so that my family could live a better life sooner. However, supporting a student in Shanghai from another city was too difficult for ordinary teachers like my parents.
But now, Zhang Lei understands that a large part of this is probably his own fault. What parent wouldn't worry or be anxious if they saw their child become mentally challenged? In that mental state, it's not surprising that they would...
Zhang Lei tries his best to avoid that word; whenever he thinks of it, he feels as if his heart is being torn apart.
It was very fortunate that he was able to regain consciousness this time. Although, given Zhang Lei's continued practice of internal energy cultivation, he may eventually recover, it's hard to say when that recovery will take place.
Over the past three months, the concentration of vital energy on Earth has increased dramatically, accelerating Zhang Lei's brain recovery by several dozen times. Otherwise, it would have taken him at least seven or eight years to fully recover. However, Zhang Lei isn't sure if his lingering subconscious instincts can sustain him for another seven or eight years, as these imprints were already quite weak when he was conscious. If he can't hold on, his practice of the Bitter Vital Energy Technique will inevitably be interrupted, and he might never recover to normal, truly becoming a permanent idiot.
"Alright! I'm all better!" A cold glint flashed in Zhang Lei's eyes. "Everyone who owes me should pay back what they owe me!"
Although Zhang Lei's control over the vortex in his brain was like dancing on a tightrope, with the possibility of falling off or the wire breaking at any moment, he might not necessarily be unable to withstand it. The direct cause of the dramatic change was the bad news about Liu Yun's sister. It goes without saying who the culprit was, not to mention that Zhang Lei at this time needed someone to take responsibility for and someone to vent his anger on.
Moreover, Zhang Lei, after carefully sorting through his memories of this period, suddenly discovered that Kong Liang was dead.
Most boys keep a secret crush from their past, a crush that usually doesn't become a girlfriend. And once she does, all those beautiful fantasies from the past shatter. However, this doesn't mean the boy will cherish that one-sided love as a precious memory. And usually, if that crush needs help, few men can bring themselves to do it.
Kong Liang died two months later; she was raped and murdered!
All the blame seems to be pointing at one person—Li Yang!
"Even the King of Heaven himself can't stop me from killing you, Li Yang!" Zhang Lei's voice was squeezed out through clenched teeth.
"What's wrong, brother?" Liu Ning asked worriedly as she climbed off Zhang Lei's knees, accidentally aggravating her wound, but it didn't diminish her concern for Zhang Lei.
"It's okay, don't worry, I won't be like that again once I'm better!" Zhang Lei lovingly stroked Liu Ning's hair, and Liu Ning, like a kitten, gently rubbed her head against Zhang Lei's palm.
The energy vortex inside the brain is still there, but like the energy vortex in the lower dantian, it can only draw energy from the outside. After countless cycles of extraction and replenishment, the brain's tissues have developed an extremely high ability to adhere to internal energy, and the energy vortex can no longer draw even a trace of energy from it.
Episode 4: An Eye for an Eye, a Knife for a Teeth - Chapter 71: Chaos (Part 1)
Zhang Lei sat casually on the large sofa at home. Although he was still a senior at Shanghai XXXX University, he showed no intention of attending classes.
Trying to sort out eight years' worth of events in just a few days is no easy task, especially given Zhang Lei's reservations about using his brain. Although he knows his brain won't be the same as it was eight years ago, that's only in theory. In practice, even slight errors are unbearable.
For the past eight years, Zhang Lei's self-improvement has been like a clock that never stops, with very little error during the process. Moreover, it has been even more consistent than when Zhang Lei was conscious. If we don't count the sudden improvement in the last three months, Zhang Lei's improvement over the past eight years is about 4.3 times.
However, the physical training guided by self-examination was not as effective. Just as initially predicted, the rate of improvement slowed down significantly after reaching a certain point, and even regressed later on. This was unlike physical enhancement, which could be calculated using proportional methods. It can be said that in the past eight years, Zhang Lei in his simple state had trained his body to near its limit. In this simple state, Zhang Lei spent much less time on other things, and even though the results were not significant, he still persisted every day.
Zhang Lei, who was in a daze, didn't pay much attention to what happened three months ago, but he did know about it; after all, it had practically become common knowledge.
The concentration of vital energy on Earth is now about ten times higher than before, but Zhang Lei's daily absorption of internal energy has not increased by that much, only about twice as much. This may be because Zhang Lei's absorption rate was already close to the body's limit at that concentration.
Even so, his absorption speed was much faster than others. Moreover, as far as Zhang Lei knew, no one seemed to absorb ten times the original speed. Even with so much vital energy in the air, their meridians couldn't withstand it.
However, the impact of this change is multifaceted. While many supernatural abilities have become ineffective, many others have gradually found new applications. Most importantly, increasing one's supernatural ability level is no longer as difficult. With the current concentration of vital energy, many people with even a slight mastery of internal energy cultivation can absorb enough vital energy in a day to use their supernatural ability once. Even more importantly, for those who haven't cultivated internal energy cultivation, using supernatural abilities causes virtually no harm to their bodies compared to before.
Now, a nationwide, and perhaps even global, trend of internal energy cultivation has emerged. Zhang Lei was unsure about the state of internal energy cultivation abroad. However, in China, the difficulty of inducing a sense of Qi in internal energy cultivation had decreased by more than a hundredfold, which quickly solidified the beliefs of those newly learning internal energy cultivation.
The above are the positive aspects, or rather, the benign changes. However, there are also many negative changes caused by the rapid increase in vital energy concentration.
For example, even though Zhang Lei didn't attend that meeting, he knew that almost everyone was starting to have superpowers now, and that the Guoyi Bureau was in a predicament. Its very existence had been shaken. However, these people still had an advantage in terms of superpower index. In the next year or two, it would be difficult for newly promoted superpowered individuals to have a superpower index of over 1,000. At that time, the people in the Guoyi Bureau would still be somewhat useful, but their usefulness would gradually decrease.
Especially those original masters of internal energy. The reason why superhumans had an advantage over them was because of their own superhuman abilities. But now they have basically all developed superhuman abilities. Although the effect of these superhuman abilities is not yet great, they already have rich combat experience. After developing superhuman abilities, they can quickly understand the nature of their superhuman abilities. The suppression effect of high-level superhumans on them is only slightly better than nothing.
These are potential risks, and they are mostly concerns for Zhang Lei personally. In fact, Zhang Lei doesn't care much about the work of the Bureau of International Exchanges now. Although a long time has passed, Zhang Lei still has at least three million US dollars in Swiss banks. And after such a long time, even if the interest rate is low, it has still increased.
However, graduating from university still relies on the prestige of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The decline in the State Administration of Foreign Exchange's authority is more evident in this aspect. Zhang Lei himself doesn't know how many credits he still needs to graduate. Graduating from university is one of his parents' last wishes, and Zhang Lei has no habit of giving up halfway. He doesn't intend to set a precedent for himself. Once a precedent is set, there will be others to follow.
If you don't want to become someone who gives up easily, then it's best not to set this precedent.
"Brother, I'm back!" Liu Ning's voice came from outside. "Brother, you haven't been out for days, have you? You have no idea how chaotic it's been outside these past few days!"
Chaos was inevitable; even if Zhang Lei hadn't gone out, he could tell from the news.
We Chinese always need to learn how to watch the news; you need to learn to see things that aren't reported in the news.
Who is most likely to cause trouble? A master of martial arts will tell you that a disciple who is only half-baked and knows nothing is most likely to cause trouble.
Almost everyone in society is in this state now. Superpowers have only recently emerged, and most people have just discovered their own superpowers, especially those that can be used in combat. How many people can resist the urge to go out and test them?
Looking back, even Zhang Lei, when he first learned a new skill, always couldn't help but want to go outside and find a test subject or something.
More importantly, in this world, people's desires often grow as their strength increases. This is the so-called "wanting more after getting what one wants." I won't go into detail about it, lest you accuse me of padding the word count.