Chapter 39: Dangerous Radio Gymnastics
Old Antique's identity had always been a mystery. After the day he revealed his true strength in front of Lotus Sun, she had in fact gotten people to secretly investigate his background. What was strange was that they couldn't find anything...
If Lotus Sun with her family background couldn't find anything, it would be even harder for anyone else who wanted to know his true identity.
Of course, if Wang Ling wanted to investigate Old Antique, there were many ways for him to do it; among the Three Thousand Great Spells, the Great Recollection Spell comprised a lot of abilities, such as "memory replacement," "memory erasure" and "memory retrieval."
He had retrieved Old Antique's memories previously, and had found one that had been sealed away. Forcibly retrieving it, however, would cause Old Antique irreversible mental damage.
Therefore, even if Wang Ling was very curious, in the end, he let it go.
Of course, there were other avenues of investigation, such as Headmaster Chen as well as Director Shi. As leaders of No. 60 High School, it was likely they would know everything about Old Antique's history. But since Old Antique had chosen to hide his identity, Wang Ling felt that there was no need to dig it out.
For him, apart from Old Antique's mysterious identity, the man was a foodie who loved gossip and was sometimes silly, sometimes artsy. This was the image of an immortal teacher that he had painstakingly cultivated after teaching for so many years.
Wang Ling had to salute Old Antique for how well he had concealed himself.
...
After the brief teachers' meeting in the morning, Wang Ling had a deeper understanding of Old Antique. It turned out "artsy mode" Old Antique possessed the passive ability to win over older ladies... Wang Ling felt he should write a book and title it The Artsy Youth and the Literary Maiden 1 .
As long as Old Antique wrote down all the golden words that had been hiding under his artsy persona all these years, Wang Ling felt that he could completely conquer all the middle-aged spinsters and feminists in the world.
When it came to love, as long as a tortoise and mung bean made eyes at each other 2 , that was good enough.
But the love between an artsy youth and a literary maiden... Wang Ling had to say, he didn't understand it at all.
Women who made up their own scenarios were indeed terrifying! Whether it was a young maiden or an auntie...
That was what Wang Ling thought.
He wasn't concerned with whether or not springtime had already arrived for Director Xie and Old Antique; more worryingly, the spring radio gymnastics was about to start.
...
In early spring, Songhai city was still a little cold, since it was very close to the Frozen Sea. After getting winter earlier than other cities, they entered spring later during this time every year. Some experts believed that the cold air from the Frozen Sea had an unstable effect on the foundations of cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage.
After taking the students' foundations into consideration, high schools had suspended the radio gymnastics not long after the start of the semester. And of course, Wang Ling had found a way to evade this problem for the time being.
But regretfully, Songhai city had suddenly warmed up today...
After two class periods and the teachers' meeting which Old Antique had attended, the school's radio broadcast came on at half past nine. The students lined up and marched to the sports field, following the lead of the shortest student at the front of the line.
As a team from another school, the five students from No. 60 High School stood in their own separate line in last place on the sports field.
As usual, Wang Ling chose to be at the back of the line.
Radio gymnastics had already evolved over thousands of years since the establishment of Huaxiu nation, and its names were also either incredibly fantastic or down-to-earth.
From the first radio exercise "Brand New Sun" to "Descendants of the Sun"...
From "The Eagle Taking Off" to "The Kunpeng 3 Spreading Its Wings"...
From "Vitality of Youth" to "The Passion for Foundation Establishment"...
From "Dancing Youth" to "Martial Universe"...
Radio gymnastics could be said to have been named after the mass public square trend, but it had gradually and completely evolved into a xuanhuan cultivation trend. Not only did it sing the praises of the flowers of the motherland, it also extolled the great vitality of the younger generation of cultivators.
Some people thought that the names for the radio gymnastics stood for the development and progress of the era.
For instance, the popular two hundred and fiftieth set of radio gymnastics —"Perfect World"!
Just from the name, one could see the boundless hope which Huaxiu nation had for the creation of a marvelous future!
Earlier, Wang Ling had actually damaged No. 59 High School's loudspeakers on purpose, but it had never occurred to him that No. 59 High School would actually have a damn live band!
Several teachers from No. 59 High School's music department were carrying instruments as they banged on gongs and drums, creating a magnificent scene in front of them.
"..." This really was man proposes, God disposes.
Looking at this scene, Wang Ling sucked in a cold breath.
As the magical rhythm rang out, the first round of music for the two hundred and fiftieth set of radio gymnastics came to an end...
Accompanied by the rhythm of the live band's music, the physical education teacher standing on the podium amplified his voice with the Lion's Roar Spell, and shouted out the beat as he moved.
"Everyone follow my rhythm, the warm-up for the two hundred and fiftieth set of radio gymnastics 'Perfect World,' mark the time ~ go! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... two two three four, again..."
While the names for radio gymnastics had changed many times, the overall routine hadn't changed much. The warm-up was followed by stretches and chest expansions... Wang Ling could just about do these physical exercises. While they did require large motions, he basically didn't have to expand very much energy.
It was the kicks and jumps that really made him uneasy.
What was worse, the power of the Dao talisman seal was substantially weaker... whether it was a kick or a jump, if Wang Ling didn't take care to control his strength, there would be irreversible consequences...
Regional earthquakes, tectonic shifts, landslides and floods of debris... all of these could happen.
To avoid these disasters, he had always softened his movements while doing the radio gymnastics, which made him look weak and limp, as he utterly didn't dare to use too much energy... in the words of the physical education teacher, he was spineless and a sissy.
Because of that, the teachers from No. 60 High School's sports department had more than once held him up as a bad example not to be followed. At the regular meeting for the physical education teachers, they had even taken pains to single Wang Ling out for ruthless criticism...
Of course, it wasn't that Wang Ling couldn't understand the teachers' feelings, especially the teachers from the sports department; they naturally wanted to see students walking around spiritedly, heads up and chests out, full of vigor and vitality on the sports field. However, if he got serious, and something out of the ordinary happened, who was going to be able to bear that responsibility?
Braving the teachers' contemptuous looks around him, he completed the entire set of radio gymnastics under pressure.
Very good... all was quiet, nothing unexpected happened, and even better, there weren't any casualties.
Wang Ling was sure that he was the only person nowadays who would get the jitters doing radio gymnastics.
As a child, he had still been very weak, and had been able to still control his strength. But as he gradually got older, the development of his realm and attributes had fluctuated wildly. He really felt that his life was just getting more and more difficult, to the point that he was on edge even when doing radio gymnastics.
Since it had come to this, he felt that he really had to change the current situation...
For example, on the night of the next full moon, he could use the "Great Moon-Reading Spell" to brainwash the entire nation, and overhaul the radio gymnastics system by replacing it with something acceptable to him!
Shadowboxing could be a good choice!
Or... PPAP 4 was, just barely, an acceptable alternative...