Chapter 10 The Tenth Lap
By the tenth lap, Tang Sui was completely drenched in sweat. Her legs were so weak that she collapsed onto the ground in an ungraceful heap.
The delicate skin on her knees was scraped red by the gravel scattered on the ground, with some areas already showing slightly raised red marks.
"Sui Sui!"
Xiao Wu, who had been following behind, could no longer hold back. She rushed forward, tenderly taking out a handkerchief and wiping the sweat that dripped from Tang Sui's forehead.
In just a few seconds, her clean handkerchief was completely soaked, yet the sweat continued to stream down.
Tang Sui gasped for air, her throat burning like fire, unable to utter a word.
As early as the ninth lap, she had felt her body reaching its limit. Even with Oscar's roasted sausage to replenish her energy, it couldn't keep up with her consumption.
Since Xiao Wu and Tang San were also present, Tang Sui told Oscar to go ahead. With Xiao Wu and Tang San watching her, she felt she would be safe.
Initially, Oscar was reluctant to leave Tang Sui alone, but after Tang Sui calmly stated that her limit might be reaching immobility by the twelfth lap, Oscar relented and continued running ahead.
To her dismay, even before reaching the twelfth lap, Tang Sui felt her legs grow heavy as lead, utterly exhausted, as if they were no longer her own, devoid of strength and unable to take another step.
Tang San had gone back to the dormitory to fetch water for Tang Sui at the start of the tenth lap.
During these ten laps, not only had Tang Sui emptied her own water pouch, but also the water pouches stored in his spirit tool.
Seeing Tang Sui trembling as if she had just emerged from water, Xiao Wu's heart ached. She gritted her teeth and said, "Sui Sui, why don't we stop running? If the Dean asks, we can just tell him we couldn't finish."
Tang Sui opened her mouth, as if to say something.
But as she lifted her head, her vision went black, her consciousness fading into nothingness.
"Sui Sui!"
"Sui Sui!"
Two exclamations, one from Xiao Wu and the other from Tang San who had just returned with the water, rang out.
Tang San's steps quickened. In just two or three seconds, fifty meters were covered, shrinking to less than a meter.
"Swish, swish."
Another dark figure emerged from the eaves and landed beside Xiao Wu and Tang Sui.
Tang San and Xiao Wu tensed, their gazes wary, but upon clearly seeing the face of the figure, their tense shoulders relaxed. "Teacher Li! Quickly, take a look at Sui Sui, she's fainted!"
The figure who landed beside them was none other than Li Yusong, the teacher in charge of the first stage of enrollment at the village entrance.
He squatted down, his two fingers together in a sword-like gesture, and placed them on Tang Sui's wrist, feeling her increasingly weak pulse. His calm expression shifted, and he quickly took Tang Sui from Xiao Wu's embrace and hurried towards Principal Flander's office.
"Hey! Teacher!"
"Xiao Wu, let's follow them!" Tang San's heart sank as he watched Li Yusong's urgent departure. He activated his internal energy and followed with the ethereal steps of the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Steps.
Xiao Wu, whose primary focus was offensive combat, was naturally not slow and quickly followed.
"Bang—!"
Flander, leisurely sipping tea in his office and contemplating the future cultivation paths of Tang San and the others, had his door violently kicked open. Li Yusong, holding Tang Sui as if she had just been pulled from water, rushed in with a worried expression, shouting, "This is bad, Dean! This child's heart pulse is getting weaker and weaker!"
Flander adjusted his glasses, which had been jostled by the loud bang, and frowned as he looked.
But when he saw who Li Yusong was holding, Flander's pupils contracted, and he gasped, "What happened to her?! Who hurt her like this?!"
Given Flander's protective nature, Li Yusong didn't think further and quickly replied, "No one attacked her. She collapsed from exhaustion during the tenth lap. Fearing something might happen to her, I left my observation post to check, and found her heart pulse steadily weakening. We don't have any healing-type soul masters in our academy!"
Hearing that Tang Sui's heart pulse was weakening, Flander's eyes widened. He quickly took out a hundred-year-old ginseng from his private spirit tool storage and used his soul power as a blade to slice off a piece, placing it in Tang Sui's mouth for her to hold and sustain her life.
"Quick, quick, go and get Shao Xin!" Having done this, Flander turned and instructed Li Yusong to quickly summon Shao Xin, the food system soul saint of their academy, whose martial soul was sugar beans.
Although their academy didn't have healing-type soul masters, they did have a food system expert.
Some of Shao Xin's soul skills had recovery effects equivalent to healing.