I Have an Immortal Emperor Uncle Who Farms at Home Chapter 25: Risking It All

"Everyone, to your marks—get ready… run!"

As soon as Zhao Longyun gave the command, all 23 boys in the class shot off like wild horses unleashed, sprinting at full speed.

Not long after Ye Fan and the others started running, Zhao Longyun shouted, "Whoever finishes last runs ten extra laps!"

"What? Ten laps?" one boy nearly cried in shock, his heart sinking.

"This is going to kill me!" Chen Zhihao also chimed in miserably.

"Stop whining, just run!" Han Cong, following closely behind Chen Zhihao, reminded him, "Don’t forget, if you finish last, you’re doing ten extra laps."

"What are you so scared of? We’ve got Ye Fan to take the fall for us, hahaha."

As he ran, Chen Zhihao burst into laughter. Just the thought that Ye Fan would come in last made him feel instantly relieved.

"Chen Zhihao, stop laughing! I’ve basically staked my life on this!"

"Bro, even if you don’t trust me, surely you trust Ye Fan, right?"

Brimming with confidence, Chen Zhihao looked back, trying to spot Ye Fan behind him.

"Look, Ye Fan’s still back—"

But after scanning for a while and not seeing Ye Fan anywhere, he frowned in confusion.

"Wait, where is Ye Fan?"

At that moment, some other students on the sidelines, who were also in gym class, suddenly began shouting.

"Hey, who’s that guy up front?"

"He’s running so fast, is he crazy?!"

"That guy looks like Ye Fan! I heard today’s his first day back in class."

"I know, I know!" a girl stepped up excitedly, "Apparently, he didn’t even attend high school until now."

"What? He never went to high school? Then how is he in our senior year?"

The girl’s eyes were full of admiration as she explained, "You don’t understand. On the recent mock exam, he scored 149, ten points higher than our top student, Li Qingyue!"

"No way. He must’ve cheated!"

"Not possible, he took the test in the principal’s office."

Another student interrupted their conversation, pointing and shouting, "Hey, look! He’s still speeding up and this is the 1,000-meter run!"

……

Following the crowd’s reactions, Chen Zhihao looked ahead and sure enough, Ye Fan’s back could be seen ahead of everyone else.

"Han Cong, am I seeing things? Is Ye Fan actually running in first place?"

Han Cong instantly sensed trouble and shouted at Chen Zhihao, "We’re screwed! Chen Zhihao, hurry up and run!"

After all, Han Cong had bet a whole year of free labor on Chen Zhihao. There was no way he could just lose like this.

"Han Cong, dammit, don’t you think running is exhausting?"

"Chen Zhihao, if you beat Ye Fan, I’ll give you my entire allowance for this month!"

The mention of allowance made Chen Zhihao’s eyes light up.

"Two months!"

"Seriously? What about our brotherhood?"

"Even between real brothers, money’s still money."

Looking at the ever-widening gap between them and Ye Fan, Han Cong gritted his teeth.

"Fine! Two months it is!"

"Alright then. Even if it kills me, I’m going to get first place!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Zhihao charged forward like he’d just been injected with adrenaline, breaking through the ‘crowd of runners’ surrounding him.

"Chen Zhihao, you better catch up to that Ye Fan guy!"

Han Cong used up the last of his strength to shout that out before collapsing onto the grass.

He didn’t care anymore about having to run ten extra laps. Right now, what mattered most was whether Chen Zhihao could win.

But Chen Zhihao didn’t say a word. He just kept chasing after Ye Fan with everything he had.

Not long after, both Ye Fan and Chen Zhihao had already disappeared from the crowd’s view and reappeared behind them, they were about to lap the other runners.

"These two… what the hell are they doing? Aren’t they worried they’ll hurt themselves?"

Zhao Longyun, who had been watching the students closely, started to get genuinely concerned.

On Ye Fan’s side, he hadn’t expected Chen Zhihao to run so fast either.

"This guy’s crazy. Doesn’t he care about his life?"

After all, Chen Zhihao was just an ordinary person, his body shouldn’t be able to handle that kind of intense sprinting.

On the other hand, Ye Fan was steadily increasing his speed without showing the slightest sign of exhaustion.

His face was calm, his breathing stable.

Still, Zhao Longyun noticed something odd.

"There’s something off about this kid, Ye Fan."

As a retired soldier, Zhao Longyun knew very well: for someone to maintain such a pace over this distance, they must have gone through some kind of special training that pushed their body beyond normal limits.

"Could it be… he’s also a cultivator?"

……

Very soon, Ye Fan and Chen Zhihao were preparing for the final sprint.

Ye Fan could already feel it by now, Chen Zhihao’s body had reached the limits of what an average person could endure. If this kept up, it could turn deadly.

"Chen Zhihao, if you keep going like this, you could die!"

However, Chen Zhihao seemed not to hear Ye Fan at all. His eyes were bloodshot, and sweat was pouring from his body nonstop.

What he didn’t know was that at this moment, his internal organs were already starting to "overheat."

"Screw it."

Ye Fan didn’t hesitate any longer and instantly picked up his pace for the final sprint.

In no time, Ye Fan crossed the finish line at 1 minute and 50 seconds. Right behind him, Chen Zhihao finished at 2 minutes and 1 second.

Zhao Longyun stared at his stopwatch in disbelief.

"This… This is unbelievable. Both of them just broke the school record."

Just as Zhao Longyun was still stunned, a commotion suddenly broke out behind him.

"Mr. Zhao, come quick! Chen Zhihao collapsed!"

A girl who hadn’t participated in the run ran over to Zhao Longyun, panting hard as she spoke.

Snapping out of his daze, Zhao Longyun rushed toward the crowd.

In the middle of the group, Chen Zhihao was lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth. His entire body was soaked with sweat, and his pupils were wide open. It was a terrifying sight.

"Quick, move aside!"

With that, Zhao Longyun picked up Chen Zhihao and ran toward the school infirmary. Ye Fan and the others quickly followed behind.

After Zhao Longyun left, the remaining students still running started realizing something was wrong.

"What happened?" one of the boys asked Han Cong.

"A student just collapsed and was taken to the infirmary," Han Cong replied.

"Thanks."

Not caring how exhausted he was, Han Cong immediately took off running toward the infirmary.

"Ye Fan… Chen Zhihao… it wasn’t you two, was it?"

……

Outside the infirmary

By now, the area was packed with school officials and students from the class, there wasn’t even room to squeeze through.

"Mr. Zhao Longyun, what happened here?"

"Principal Zhang, I…"

Zhao Longyun felt extremely wronged, he had no idea what those two kids were trying to do either.

"Right… and where’s Ye Fan?"

Suddenly, Zhao Longyun remembered and began frantically looking around for any sign of Ye Fan.

"Ye Fan? What about him?" Principal Zhang Jinshan asked anxiously.

"He and that Chen Zhihao kid seemed to be competing at something…"

Zhao Longyun quickly explained everything that had happened earlier to Principal Zhang and the other teachers and administrators, including Yang Lili.

"That… that is reckless! They’re literally risking their lives!"

Principal Zhang was completely panicked now. After all, something like this could easily turn deadly.

But then, what a student said next nearly made everyone go weak in the knees.

"Principal Zhang, I think I saw Ye Fan inside the infirmary."

"What? He… he went in too?"

"But… it looked like he walked in on his own."

"Are you sure?"

Bang…

Before the student could reply, the infirmary door swung open. To everyone’s surprise, out walked Ye Fan, looking completely relaxed and calm.

"Ye Fan, are you alright?"

"Principal Zhang, what could possibly be wrong with me?" Ye Fan paused briefly, then added, "But… you should probably check on Chen Zhihao."

"What happened to Chen Zhihao?"

Ye Fan didn’t say anything else. He just turned silently and walked in the direction of the classrooms.

Sensing something was off, everyone quickly squeezed into the infirmary.

"Chen Zhihao, you…"

To their surprise, Chen Zhihao was casually sitting on a chair, sipping plain water with a calm and cool demeanor.

"Oh, Principal! You all came," Chen Zhihao said as if nothing had happened.

"Chen Zhihao, are you alright?"

"I’m fine! What could possibly be wrong with me?"

"Good, good. As long as you’re okay."

Seeing Chen Zhihao in good shape, Principal Zhang and the others finally relaxed. But Zhao Longyun walked up and grabbed him by the collar.

"Chen Zhihao, next time you run ten extra laps for me!"

"What? Why? I just broke the school record!"