Shuhang found a place where there was nobody, and opened the box.
The small box was filled with stacks of bright-yellow talismans, each of which was painted with metaphysical runes and formation maps with gold-red pigment. There was also a note from ‘Palace Master Seven Lives Talisman’, introducing the functions of these talismans.
There were twenty pieces of talismans in total.
The top five were ‘armor talismans’. Just as the name indicated, it could block one attack of cultivators below Third Stage Realm by activating the energy in the talisman and turning it into a close-fitting armor.
They were very easy to use. One could summon the armor merely by pressing the center of the formation map with a thumb, guiding the spiritual qi in the talisman out with mental energy, and calling out ‘Armor’.
The five talismans all could be used only once. If used properly, they could protect Song Shuhang for five times.
The middle five were ‘sword talismans’, which were used for attacking. The activation method was the same as armor talisman, it could be activated by calling out ‘Sword’.
Once it had been activated, it could launch a sword qi of Third Stage Acquired Combat King level, which could split mountains and hew rocks. If the enemy was a cultivator of Second Stage True Master Realm, without any special means of defense, he would be almost dead under this attack.
The third and the most numerous type of talismans were evil-warding talismans, a total of ten.
According to Palace Master Seven Lives Talisman, as his enemy was an evil ghost cultivator who could manipulate ghosts and evil spirits to attack, it would be hard to defend effectively.
Ghosts and evil spirits were immune to normal physical attacks, and some of them even had special ‘invisibility’ and ‘concealment’ skills, which would be really a headache for the cultivators with insufficient strength.
However, the ten evil-warding talismans could help Shuhang to defeat the ghosts and evil spirits!
Song Shuhang held the box of talismans. By giving him these, Palace Master Seven Lives Talisman was not just sending him charcoal in snowy weather; he was literally sending him a one-package service including clothing, food, house, and vehicles!
‘It’s really a surprise.’ Song Shuhang held the talismans firmly.
With these talismans, he had the confidence to confront the 'Altar Master'. Of course, he wouldn't be so stupid as to engage in a head-on confrontation with him just with these talismans despite his real strength.
He could do anything as long as he could get rid of Altar Master.
He only wanted the result, no matter how the process went like—as long as he could kill the guy!
He carefully put away the talismans. Now everything was ready—except one crucial element...
❄️❄️❄️
It was seven thirty in the morning.
The sport games of Jiangnan College were officially starting.
Before the opening, a school leader would give a lecture—leaders’ speeches were something magical. They always remained unchanged no matter how the technology was developed.
It usually started with the prologue "Now, let me spend a few minutes here" and there would come numerous ‘a few minutes’ in the speech. As the leader enjoyed speaking, the students enduring it would faint and recover consciousness, then faint and recover consciousness for several times before the games were finally started.
At eight forty, the men's five-kilometer race started.
Song Shuhang, escorted by his three roommates and other seven or eight classmates, came to the track.
His roommates and classmates all had a mean smirk on their faces, for they came here not to cheer Song Shuhang on, but to appreciate how Shuhang was exhausted like an old dog on the track—it would be even better if they could see Shuhang vomit with fatigue.
Five-kilometer race was really a painful game.
The track was four hundred meters long, so one needed to run twelve and a half laps.
It was really a dirty job, without the passion from sprinting, or the pleasure from mixed relay. The distance was long and the pace was slow; the audience was few in number, and the girls watching the game were even less numerous.
Without girls’ attention, the boys in the game would lack motivation.
As the other runners picked their positions and stood prepared, Song Shuhang yawned and stood at his position.
"Student Shuhang, cheer up!" a clear voice came over. "Go for the first place!"
The sweet voice sounded quite pleasing.
Song Shuhang looked up and saw that the girl, who liked to be around him recently, was waving at him with a bright smile on her face.
There were four other girls around her, and it looked like they had just watched other games and passed by here.
Was she called Lu Fei?
Song Shuhang laughed and gave her a thumbs-up.
His roommate and classmates immediately took the opportunity to mock Song Shuhang.
Tubo and Gao Moumou spoke with the same cutesy voice and imitated the tone of Lu Fei, "Student Shuhang, cheer up!"
"Go for the first place!" the other guys also imitated her tone with a cutesy voice.
Song Shuhang turned round and gave them two middle fingers. "Go to hell!"
At this time, a dark-skinned and strong student beside Song Shuhang sneered at him. "Ahaha, the first place? Hey, toy boy, what makes you believe you can win the 5-kilometer race? Win it with your pretty face?"
As he spoke, he swung his muscular legs—they were muscular because he had been exercising and running for a long time. Look at the skinny arms and legs of that toy boy beside him. He could bet he couldn’t even finish one kilometer, let alone five kilometers.
"Toy boy? Are you talking about me?" Song Shuhang asked, touching his own face. His skin did become tenderer and whiter because of the effect of body tempering liquid.
It turned out handsomeness would cause trouble?
"Are you jealous of my skin?" Shuhang asked, nodding silently.
"...Jealous of your as*shole! I’m jealous of you? A toy boy?!" the dark-skinned student was so angry that the blue veins on his forehead even protruded out.
"Haha, don't mind it, this dark fellow is jealous of you because he doesn’t have a girl cheer him on. By the way, are you forced to compete in the race as well?" asked the student on the other side of Shuhang with a smile. He had chubby cheeks and looked like a computer geek. "My name is Yang Shangfa. I’m from Computer Engineering Department."
"Kind of, no one wanted to take part in five kilometers race, and I happened to be on leave, that’s why I’m here. My name is Song Shuhang," he returned with a smile.
"Same here!" Yang Shangfa's eyes filled with tears.
As they were talking, the teacher in charge of the starting gun shouted. "Everyone, prepare~!"
All the runners posed for running.
"God damned toy boy, let me show you what 5k race is really like! I'm gonna throw you behind by at least one street!" the dark-skinned student gnashed his teeth.
"Throw me behind by one street? A street is at least eight hundred meters long, which would be more than two laps?" Song Shuhang thought for a while, and gave him a very thoughtful advice, "Well, it’s just impossible. You’d better give it up."
"Titter!" the chubby Yang Shangfa could not help snickering.
"..." The dark-skinned student almost crunched his own teeth.
"Bang!"
The signal gun went off.
The dark-skinned student moved his body and started running at the speed of 100-meter sprint. He had good stamina and his level was well above average college students! In a campus competition like this, his stamina was enough for him to start at the speed of 100-meter sprint to keep way ahead of the other runners, and then keep that advantage all the way to the finish line!
‘Snort. Shocked? Toy boy, I was just being polite by saying ‘throw you behind by one street’. If I show my real strength, I'll throw behind a toy boy like you by at least over four laps!’ the dark-skinned student thought triumphantly.
In five-kilometer race, runners needed to keep pace. No one would run at the speed of 100-meter sprint in the beginning. Thus, the dark-skinned student was quickly way ahead of the average runners.
‘How about it, toy boy? Desperate?’ the dark-skinned student turned around with confidence to see how far away the toy boy was behind him—with such a tender and white face, the guy had to be lagging behind and choking on the dust!
However, he turned his head only to find that the toy boy was only about one meter behind him. He followed him closely and steadily!
How dared the toy boy follow him at the speed of sprint?
"Huh? Are you a fool? How dare you closely follow me at a sprinting speed from the very beginning? With your strength, you'll be exhausted after a single lap." The dark-skinned student clenched his teeth.
"Sprint?" Song Shuang paused, and then gently smiled. "No, I just ran at an ordinary speed. Don't worry about me. I didn’t expect that you were so considerate for me even if you looked so silly."
‘Screw you!’ The dark-skinned student was furious.
"Yeah, keep bragging. We’ll see how long you can hold on for! I hope you won’t fall to the ground after a single lap!" clenching his teeth, the dark-skinned student estimated his remaining physical strength and speeded up a little bit.
The toy boy was definitely an amateur to long distance races—however, even so, he definitely wouldn’t allow the guy to outdo him. ‘So, I’ll shake him off, and throw this toy boy far away!’
The dark-skinned student began to sprint again.
After sprinting for nearly a hundred meters, he felt he had almost reached the limit of his physical strength, and it was time for him to slow down a bit.
With such a long distance, he must have thrown the pretty-faced amateur way behind?
Thinking so, he turned to look at him.
Then his eyes bulged with shock—the toy boy who should have been choking on dust behind as he’d imagined was still closely following him, only one meter behind!
It felt like a walk-on who would die soon according to the script was still alive when the movie almost ended!
"How is that possible? Am I hallucinating?" muttered the dark-skinned student.