I Will Grind My Way To Godhood

In the basement of an unfinished building in the outskirts of the southern city, Jiao Hongyuan sat crouched at the foot of the basement stairs with a somber gaze, his palms overlapping, and his thumbs incessantly circling each other.

Occasionally, the thumbs would briefly touch, producing a metallic clang.

After a while, the entrance to the basement was opened from above.

A young man, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, with medium-length hair and dressed in a sleeveless vest bearing a razor tattoo on his chest, descended.

His frame appeared slightly lean and not particularly muscular, yet upon closer inspection, one would notice that his muscles were tightly coiled under his skin as if filled with steel, exuding an unusual hardness that even suggested a blade's sharpness.

Jiao Hongyuan looked at him and asked, "Bijing, how did it go?"

The leader of the Razor Gang, Su Bijing, stepped in front of Jiao Hongyuan and respectfully replied, "Master, the test subjects have all been relocated."

Jiao Hongyuan nodded, appearing much more at ease, yet he still frowned slightly, "I didn’t expect that the sensitivity of that White Crow group would lead them here. It's fortunate we set up many eyes in advance… Could they have been following some so-called expert's advice, believing this area has frequent boundary quakes and 'weak overlaps' that warranted investigation? Just a coincidence?"

He shook his head.

"By the way, what's the situation in Kaiping?"

Su Bijing nodded and replied, "As per your instructions, he has taken 'Number Nine' to Qing High; we should have news soon."

Jiao Hongyuan grunted in acknowledgment, "Using Number Nine to distract the White Crow’s attention and lead them away enables us to move the Tian Su Bug Queen. Otherwise, this thing is too conspicuous and would be easily exposed."

Su Bijing couldn’t help but complain, "Kangde Company really isn’t helping at all. It's all on us…"

Jiao Hongyuan, expressionless, said, "Those big companies are sharp; they want no ties from start to finish. If the plan succeeds, they reap the benefits; if it fails, they lose nothing. A clever ploy."

"But it's precisely because of that, we get these gigs," Su Bijing remarked worriedly, "Master, if things go well, Kangde won’t turn on us, right?"

Jiao Hongyuan stood up, looking towards the pulsating sky-blue bug nest at the center of the basement. "Do you really think I haven’t thought of that?"

"Contingencies have long been in place… if we're compromised, Kangde won't be unscathed either."

Meanwhile, the playground at Qing High was a buzz of voices.

With almost the entire school—thousands of students and teachers—all gathered, everyone was in comfortable sports attire.

"Mr. Du, any word on whether Xue Jing is coming?"

The elite class students were congregated, and upon seeing Du Shiwei walking over with his phone, Li Ge asked.

Du Shiwei nodded, visibly relieved, "He's on his way, stuck in traffic."

Li Ge exhaled in relief, "That's good." As the class president of the elite class, he cared quite a bit about the class’s honor.

Lately, Xue Jing had been frequently absent, and Li Ge was indeed worried he'd forget about the school sports meet.

"Mr. Du, I'm going to the restroom,"

Li Ge informed Du Shiwei before leaving for the restroom.

The opening ceremony had just concluded, and it was nearing 10 a.m., with the sun fiercely blazing in the clear sky.

“What lovely weather.”

Li Qi shielded his eyes from the sun and glanced at the sky.

“Hmm? Who's that?”

Li Qi looked towards a man not far from the restroom. The man was dressed in a cleaner's uniform, wearing a baseball cap and mask, pushing a trash bin.

“Never seen him before... Is he new here?”

Li Qi didn't give it much thought, just noting that the cleaner seemed well-built, tall and sturdy, none of the hunched-over appearance typical of cleaners from long hours of work.

He turned and went into the restroom to relieve himself.

Just as he entered the restroom, the trash bin the cleaner was pushing suddenly shifted slightly.

When Li Qi emerged from the restroom, the new cleaner was gone, vanished without a trace.

Li Qi walked back to the class assembly area.

“Class rep, where's Xue Jing? He still hasn't shown up?”

A classmate asked.

“Wait a bit, he's on his way, but it seems he's stuck in traffic.”

Li Qi shrugged in response.

“Class rep, how about giving him a call? The competition is about to start, and the first event is the hundred-meter dash.”

A short-haired female classmate whispered to Li Qi.

Li Qi scratched his head and sighed, “Alright, I'll call him.”

He took out his phone, scrolled through his contacts, found Xue Jing's name, and called him.

...

Meanwhile, Xue Jing was stuck in a taxi, indeed caught in traffic.

He rolled down the window, looking around as the sound of horns blared incessantly, with every inch of the road packed with vehicles, leaving no room for movement.

“What the heck? Is traffic always this bad today?”

The taxi driver slapped the steering wheel in frustration.

Xue Jing gazed upon the situation, thinking:

‘At this rate, I won't make it in time...’

Just then, his phone rang.

Xue Jing glanced at the caller ID and answered.

Li Qi's voice came through the receiver.

“Hello, hello, Jing, have you arrived yet?”

Xue Jing held the phone out the window so Li Qi could hear the endless honking from the road.

“I'm stuck in traffic.”

Li Qi said, “Your race starts in fifteen minutes, the hundred-meter dash is the first event...”

Xue Jing considered for a moment and replied, “Don't worry, I’ll be there soon.”

He ended the call and addressed the driver up front:

“Master, you can drop me off here. I'll walk the rest of the way myself.”

The driver glanced at Xue Jing through the rearview mirror, handing him the QR code for payment while asking puzzledly, “Walk? It's quite a way from here to Qing Fu Middle School. Even running would take you about half an hour. Why not wait until the road clears?”

After scanning the code for payment, Xue Jing smiled and replied, “No problem, I run a bit faster than most people.”

He opened the car door and got out.

However, instead of taking the road, he turned to face the direction of Qing Fu Middle School.

“The shortest distance between two points is a straight line,”

he muttered to himself.

The driver rolled down the front window and yelled to Xue Jing, “Young man, if you want to run there, I can show you a shortcut…”

Before he could finish his sentence, his eyes widened in shock.

The handsome youth suddenly leapt off the overpass.

“Is he trying to kill himself?!?”

the driver exclaimed.

The bridge was over ten meters high from the ground!

He quickly got out of the car and peered over the spot where Xue Jing had jumped.

All he saw was a lithe figure, unharmed, hopping and dodging every obstacle at incredible speed, heading directly towards Qing Fu.

He watched in silence as the figure scaled a wall effortlessly, leaping over a three-story building as if walking on flat ground.

So this was what that young man meant by… a bit faster.

“The 100-meter race is about to begin, all participating students please take your positions…”

“The 100-meter race is about to begin, all participating students please take your positions…”

The school's loudspeaker repeated several times, while homeroom teacher Du Shiwei anxiously glanced toward the school gate.

“Why isn’t he here yet?”

The athletes from each class were already taking their places on the track.

“Huh? What’s that?”

In the elite class, a sharp-eyed girl pointed in a direction.

Everyone followed her gaze.

In the distance, amidst a few rooftops, a figure was darting agilely from one rooftop to another, rapidly approaching them.

The person moved with such grace that each step spanned several meters, much like the exaggerated martial arts feats in novels.

“That looks like Xue Jing!”

someone exclaimed.

“Wow, that guy finally made it, heroes really do show up last!”

“He’s actually trained in martial arts! Look at him jumping over rooftops!”

“Our class is unbeatable now; we’re definitely scoring first overall. We’ve got those end-of-term bonus points for sure!”

The elite class was buzzing with excitement.

Not far off, Xue Jing had already caught sight of the campus. Instead of using the main gate, he launched himself off the wall of a building, vaulting effortlessly over it and landing on the school field.

Spotting his class's location at once, he dashed towards them with lightning speed.

Du Shiwei let out a sigh of relief as he watched Xue Jing sprint towards them, looking unfazed, and smiled, “You finally made it.”

Xue Jing glanced at the students lining up on the track, raising an eyebrow: “Looks like I arrived just in time?”

“Stop showing off, Master Jing, hurry and change your clothes to get on the field,” Li Ge urged him from the side.

Xue Jing looked at his shorts and t-shirt, then addressed Li Ge, “Give me your jacket.”

Li Ge handed over his sports jacket skeptically, remarking, “Didn't even prepare clothes, did you forget today was the school sports day and only rushed over after getting a call?”

Xue Jing took the jacket, putting it on calmly, “No way, I washed my clothes yesterday, but with the damp weather, they haven’t dried.”

Li Ge looked up at the bright sun, “Do you even hear yourself?”

Xue Jing dodged the question, patting his shoulder with a smile, “Alright, I’m heading in.”

With that, he turned towards the track.

The encouragements on the track had been loud since the contestants took their places, with each class shouting in unison.

Once Xue Jing stepped onto the track as well, his elite class was about to cheer when the scene unexpectedly erupted.

“Senior!! Xue Jing, go, go!”

“Senior, I want to have your babies!”

These bizarre cheers and screams made Xue Jing's face twitch.

It also left the other contestants feeling slightly put off.

At this moment, the sports teacher, serving as a temporary referee, raised the starting pistol.

“Ready!”

Everyone struck their starting pose.

“Bang!”

The pistol fired, and all the contestants burst forward.

Amidst the eight runners, there was a sudden “whoosh” as everyone watched a figure sprint away, leaving them in the dust.

Xue Jing ran down the track with ease. He wasn't pushing himself to the limit, just a bit more effort than his usual morning jog.

Yet even at this level, his speed was beyond what the other students could fathom.

On the field, Lin Shiyu watched the figure dashing on the track with a complex gaze, sighing softly.

Realizing she no longer stood a chance, her heart felt heavier the longer she watched, and she turned away, unable to look at the captivating figure any longer.

Suddenly, she noticed what seemed like a shadow flash across the wall of a nearby school building.

It moved so quickly that by the time she looked again, there was nothing to be seen.

She wiped at the mist over her eyes and thought she must have imagined it.

“Teacher, I’m not feeling well. Can I go to the infirmary to lie down?”

Lin Shiyu quietly approached her class teacher and asked softly.

...

As Xue Jing crossed the finish line with an overwhelming lead, a sea of cheers and screams erupted, almost drowning out the entire school.

Li Ge rubbed his ears helplessly, feeling that his predictions had come true.

Indeed, letting Jing participate in such a competition was like directly tugging at the heartstrings of the schoolgirls.

“Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful...”

When Xue Jing returned to the class gathering point, Du Shiwei excitedly patted his shoulder, repeating the word "wonderful" three times.

Xue Jing accepted a bottle of mineral water handed to him by a female classmate, thanked her, then twisted open the cap and took a few sips.

“How many events do I have left?” Xue Jing asked as he tightened the cap.

"Today, there's still the 400-meter run and the relay race... oh, and the three-legged race," Du Shiwei responded.

"Three-legged race?" Xue Jing sounded puzzled.

“Didn't you want to dominate all the running events? The three-legged race is somewhat related to running, right?” Du Shiwei explained.

Xue Jing: "..."

Just as he was about to reply, a scream suddenly echoed from the direction of the teaching building.

“Ahhh!!”

This scream was entirely different from the girls' earlier excited screams for Xue Jing; it was full of fear and panic, a stark contrast.

Students turned their heads in confusion toward the source of the scream.

Soon, another terror-filled scream arose from the crowd of students.

Not far from the teaching building, a pretty, slender female student was seen sitting on the ground, panicked, scuttling backward.

And in front of her, by the entrance to the building, was a horrifying creature.

It appeared to be a grotesque fusion of human and cockroach, with six insect limbs, currently holding a piece of a human lower body, tearing and chewing at the flesh with its razor-sharp mandibles.

“Monster, monster!”

“What is that, a cockroach?”

“It's eating someone! Who's being eaten?”

“Run, run away!!”

Most students, in a wave of panic, rushed away from the building, fleeing.

Xue Jing's pupils contracted, his mind shaken.

A cockroach monster!?

After speaking with Bai Ya's team, he had learned about the cockroach monster he had encountered before and knew there wouldn't be just one of them.

He understood all too well the combat strength and ferocity of these creatures.

If not for his unique skills and comprehensive abilities, dealing with a cockroach monster would have been tantamount to delivering oneself on a platter.

How did such a creature manage to get into the school?

...

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