A minute passed, and Fu Hao Xin remained kneeling.
"Xiao Fu?" Di Tou inquired, while slowly stepping out of the doorway to try to see what was going on.
At the moment, Fu Hao Xin had already woken up from his daze. While earlier he had been putting his full attention inwardly, wanting to persevere just a moment longer, when he had seen the door open before him, he was snapped from his trance.
Unfortunately, this also meant that Fu Hao Xin had to face the crippling pain that came from kneeling not five or ten minutes, but a course of four or so hours. After all, he had arrived fairly early in the morning then started kneeling shortly after arriving. Now it was already a bit past noon.
But he had finally made it, the mysterious senior Mu had made it, Fu Hao Xin felt like all the struggle was worth it.
At the moment, he really wanted to thank his father, his mother, God, all the people who supported him on his way to the top.
Ahem, he really wanted to tell Di Tou that he was alright and that it hadn't been much, and he hoped that Senior Mu was doing alright this fine morning (Fu Hao Xin also wasn't aware that it was past morning now), but before he could open his mouth to say something, he was overcome with the pain coming from his entire body.
"I…"
Di Tou frowned, what the hell had happened since he had last seen Xiao Fu? It had only been a bit over a day. Those d*mn bullies were really going to far. Or maybe… Di Tou started feeling a little guilty, could it be his fault? He had scolded that teacher Lin in a moment of impulse, and while he had gotten away scot free, Xiao Fu couldn't just abandon class could he?
Maybe the teacher had vented his frustration by creating difficulties for Xiao Fu. F*ck, what sort of messed up academic system was this! He really had to go and give that crappy teacher another piece of his mind.
Lin Chang Yin who was currently reading a novel in bed: Why do I feel like something bad is about to happen?
While Di Tou had managed to deduce correctly that this was his fault… Let's just say that the process was a bit backward. After all, the main problem was that he had woken up late, and then not paid any mind to the commotion outside.
That being said, it wouldn't be entirely incorrect to say it was his fault for scolding Teacher Lin the day before, as not only did that motivate Xiao Fu to come so early in the morning, as well as contribute in his reverence for Di Tou that let him even have the idea of kneeling, but it also caused Teacher Lin to cancel class for the rest of the week, so Xiao Fu didn't have anything to do at the moment.
Otherwise no matter how much he wanted to respect Di Tou, he would have had to leave when it was class time.
Instead of kneeling for hours straight, he could only prove his commitment through coming day after day until he was accepted.
But atlas, this series of events and coincidences had lead to Fu Hao Xin kneeling for hours on end.
At the moment, Fu Hao Xin had once again turned his attention inward, as he tried to access the damage to his body and what he would need to do to recover.
Things were… much worse than he had expected. Originally he had thought that as a Foundation realm cultivator, at the very worst even if he kneeled for a little long it shouldn't cause any lasting damage, at most it'd be a bit uncomfortable.
But he had chosen to kneel just after facing a minor rejection from trying to knock the door, which meant that his inner energy was in minor disarray. Normally this wouldn't matter much, as you can imagine it like having an upset stomach, over time as long as you aren't doing anything to aggregate it further, it'll fade away until it's ignorable.
But of course, Fu Hao Xin had instead kneeled for hours on end following this accident, which lead to his inner energy remaining in a somewhat upset state, which wasn't all that harmful in and of itself, but decreased his body's ability to adapt and reduce damage, as well as exacerbating the pain he was feeling.
All in all, due to a series of coincidence and oversights, Fu Hao Xin had ended up taking quite a bit of damage from this session. The physical damage was already bad enough as it was as he would likely take a week or two to recover properly if he left it alone, and perhaps a day or two if assisted with proper treatment, but the greater problem was the pain.
In conjunction with the disrupted inner force and the fact that most cultivator's focused on ending fights quickly, even Fu Hao Xin who had been beat up almost every day for the last couple of weeks couldn't get used to the pain that he was feeling at the moment, which caused a momentary paralysis as he tried to adjust to get his words out. "Senior… I… Arrived…"
Di Tou: WTF happened before I got here?
"I see. You should come in."
"I… I can't feel my legs right now. I'm sorry for being so weak. I've disappointed senior."
Di Tou: ????? How long have you been kneeling here that you can't feel your legs?
"Who asked you to kneel? Haven't you heard that a man should only kneel before heaven and his parents?"
Fu Hao Xin: F*ck MY KNEES DIED FOR NOTHING!
"This junior has been blind, seeing senior's magnanimous intentions with the eyes of a thief."
Di Tou: ??? What did I do to make you think you had to kneel?
Raising his hand to his forehead, Di Tou rubbed away at the headache that was threatening to emerge. "Forget it, I acknowledge your perseverance." Your perverse perseverance! Of course, Di Tou omitted the second part. "Let's talk further inside."
"I… I can't get up."
Ah right, that was a problem, what in the world was Di Tou supposed to do?