Chapter 88: The Dark World of Tutoring
Faced with Zhang Yu’s aura, brimming with fighting spirit and the will to battle, the doll thought, It’s only been a little over two months since I last saw this Zhang Yu, yet even his willpower and spirit have changed so drastically. What kind of potential did I actually unlock in him?
If it were the doll of the past, she wouldn’t have cared in the slightest about Zhang Yu’s threat; she had countless ways to deal with him.
But now, she was extremely weak, and furthermore, she was consumed by the desire to climb Kunxu once more and reclaim everything that was hers.
The doll sighed inwardly. Sigh, beggars can’t be choosers. There’s no need to get into a life-or-death struggle with a poor kid from this layer. I’ll just use a clever little trick, dangle a carrot in front of him to keep him moving forward.
After a moment’s thought, the doll’s tone shifted, becoming soft and gentle.
“Don’t be so tense, Zhang Yu. I’ve come to you because a heavenly fortune has just fallen into your lap.”
Zhang Yu, however, asked a question that had been on his mind for a long time.
“Was Zhou Tianyi sent by you?”
“Zhou Tianyi? Who’s that? Never heard of him.”
The doll seemed to have no idea who Zhang Yu was talking about, nor did she seem to care, as she continued with her previous topic.
“It was only after I unlocked your potential that you were able to achieve what you have today. Don’t you want to enhance your potential even further?”
Enhance his potential again?
Zhang Yu’s mind immediately flashed to the table of contents in the Feather Book. He had suspected before that the current version of the tome was merely a prologue, implying that there was more to come.
Now, hearing what the doll was saying, his suspicions seemed to be confirmed.
Zhang Yu thought to himself, So my potential really is greater than this. If the Feather Book hadn’t failed to fully unleash my potential, my scores and my performance in the competition would be even higher by now.
Sigh, in the end, I’m still being held back by the Feather Book.
To the doll, Zhang Yu’s slight silence was a clear sign of interest.
So she quickly added, “Let’s cooperate, we can climb Kunxu together. With my assistance, you will surely be able to stand at the very pinnacle of Kunxu in the future, become an immortal, achieve financial freedom, and freedom in your cultivation.”
Zhang Yu was wary of this evil god through and through; he wasn’t so easily swayed by her words.
He was more concerned about the wishes.
“Can the wishes be revoked?”
The doll, of course, immediately said no, but Zhang Yu didn’t believe her.
After a bit of back and forth, with Zhang Yu constantly threatening mutual destruction, he finally said, “This ritual’s power is so rigid and inflexible, like some idiotic program. There’s no way you didn’t leave yourselves a backdoor.”
The evil god let out a quiet sigh. “Then you should also know that if I were to revoke the wishes, I would be completely at your mercy.”
“Do you really think I would agree to that? Stop making such unrealistic demands. We’re in the same boat now, let’s talk about something practical.”
After that last exchange, the doll understood that the current Zhang Yu was not nearly as easy to handle as he once was.
The Zhang Yu of today was no longer that helpless student she could bully at will. Not only was his will as hard as steel and his actions decisive, but he also held the means to perish together with her and possessed more than enough power to carry it out.
The doll understood… under the current circumstances… he had earned the right to negotiate with her. And so, she decided to make some concessions.
The doll said, “How about this. As a sign of my sincerity, I will retract the wish I just made for you to kneel.”
Zhang Yu said, “And the wish to release you.”
The doll replied, “Fine, fine, I’ll retract them both.”
It was unclear what the doll did, but a moment later, when Zhang Yu exited his cultivation state, he indeed found that those two wishes no longer bound him.
The doll then continued, “Now you can put me down so we can have a proper talk, right? Holding me in your hand like this is very disrespectful.”
Zhang Yu chuckled. “Holding you in my hand is the only way I have to threaten you. Do you think it’s appropriate for me to let go?”
The doll sighed internally. He really hasn’t let his guard down one bit.
Zhang Yu continued, “Since you’re unwilling to retract the wishes and still want to use the ritual to control me, then from now on, I’ll just have to carry you with me, to ensure that I can perish with you at any time.”
The doll said, “You…”
In the next moment, she was jolted with shock as she saw streams of Formless Cloud-Astral Qi emerge from Zhang Yu’s body, pouring out from within him like banks of fog.
The doll exclaimed in astonishment, “This is the sign of a level 10 Limitless Cloud Hand! Your Limitless Cloud Hand is at level 10? It’s only been two months, how is that possible?”
Zhang Yu said flatly, “I hope you understand that with this technique, as long as you are near me, I can attack you with the Formless Cloud-Astral Qi at any moment.”
The way the doll looked at Zhang Yu became even more different.
This boy’s potential seems to be even more terrifying than I had originally estimated. But in that case… good. With his help… I might really be able to get to the upper levels and retrieve my things.
If Zhang Yu were still his original, weak and incompetent self, then even if the doll could obtain his absolute loyalty, she wouldn’t have given him a second glance.
But now that Zhang Yu had displayed his strength and potential, even though she couldn’t completely control him, the doll held him in much higher regard.
And so, she proposed her plan of cooperation once more.
“I will help you enhance your potential and climb Kunxu, and all you have to do is take me up with you along the way.”
Zhang Yu squeezed the doll in his hand and said, “Is there a way for me to carry you around?”
The doll chuckled, and her form began to shrink, and shrink, and shrink again, until the cat-sized rag doll had transformed into a black prayer bead about the size of a thumb.
Zhang Yu found a piece of string, looped the thumb-sized black bead onto it, and hung it around his neck.
He then asked, “You won’t be detected as an evil god, will you?”
The doll laughed heartily.
“Although I am not in my peak state, when it comes to the art of concealment, my skills are not something the riffraff on the first layer can see through.”
Only then did Zhang Yu nod. He then said, “Alright, let’s do it. Enhance my potential.”
The doll gave an awkward laugh. “Well, it’s not something that can be done just by saying so. But it’s not too difficult, either. You just need to help me hunt another evil god on this layer. After I devour its power, I’ll be able to enhance your potential.”
Zhang Yu slapped his palm over the doll. “Are you messing with me? I’m only a first-year, and you want me to deal with another evil god?”
The doll quickly explained, “I’m not asking you to do it right away. You can build up your strength a bit more, and then you can take action when you’re powerful enough.”
But Zhang Yu’s curiosity was piqued. “Where is this evil god? What’s its specific strength? Does it have any followers?”
“There should be one hiding behind Songyang High School, and probably one at White Dragon High School as well.”
“As for their strength, the most powerful evil god kings are all receiving faith on the eighteenth subterranean level. The evil gods that crawl up get stronger the higher they go. The ones lingering on the first layer can’t be that powerful.”
“However, the specific details about the evil gods hiding in those two high schools, like where they’re hiding and who their followers are, that’s something we’ll have to investigate together.”
Zhang Yu rolled his eyes. This evil god opened with a grand promise to enhance his potential, but then she wanted him to deal with another evil god and investigate the situation himself.
This evil god is full of hot air, I really can’t trust her so easily.
And so, Zhang Yu stopped listening to her grandiose talk and instead opened his phone, intending to hurry up and find some work to earn money.
After experiencing the effects of the Crimson Marrow Primordial Pill, Zhang Yu no longer wanted to go back to “bare” cultivation without any supplements.
If I had the money to use Crimson Marrow Primordial Pills every day, the speed of my physical strength improvement would be at least eighty or ninety percent faster than before.
The difference is too great. How could I go back to ascetic training with a clear conscience?
He sighed inwardly.
It truly is difficult to go from a life of luxury back to one of simplicity.
The evil god chattered on for a while before realizing that Zhang Yu was no longer paying attention to her. She simply climbed up onto his shoulder to see what he was doing.
The doll thought, This won’t do. I need to make Zhang Yu rely on me more, to make him realize my importance. Only then can I move forward with the rest of my plan.
After watching for a while, the doll suddenly said, “You want to make money?”
Wasn’t that obvious? Who in all of Kunxu didn’t want to make money? Zhang Yu gave a noncommittal grunt in response.
The doll asked again, “Hehe, do you think it’s so easy to make money through legitimate channels? You’ll just be toyed with by those big corporations, skinned alive, forced to toil your whole life, only to be left with a few scraps at the end.”
“If a poor person wants to get rich, they have to break the rules. They have to walk the dark path.”
Zhang Yu’s brow furrowed. “The dark path?”
His mind filled with all sorts of sordid, violent, and vicious images.
Just as Zhang Yu was about to refuse outright, he heard the doll continue, “I have connections in the dark world of tutoring. Want to give it a try?”
“The dark world of tutoring?”
Zhang Yu hesitated. “How can tutoring be dark? Scamming students? Taking their money and running? Making students take out loans to sign up for packages?”
The doll scoffed at Zhang Yu’s suggestions. “What the hell is that? Is there a single tutoring center that hasn’t done that kind of thing?”
“When I talk about the dark world of tutoring, I’m talking about illegal tutoring!”
“Dammit, they don’t buy the dissemination rights for cultivation techniques! They don’t buy the teaching rights! They don’t buy any rights at all, they just take the money and teach the students directly!”
“Illegal tutoring… even though the price for their classes is much lower than legitimate tutoring centers, because they don’t buy any dissemination or teaching rights… they actually earn more!”
“You have a level 10 Limitless Cloud Hand. In terms of skill, you’re definitely qualified to tutor others in it.”
“But you normally wouldn’t dare to reveal your level 10 Limitless Cloud Hand, right? The dark world of tutoring is perfect for you. You can hide your identity and sell your lessons there.”
But Zhang Yu was no longer the naive newcomer to Kunxu that he had once been; he had a decent understanding of how many things in this world worked.
Hearing this, cold sweat began to bead on his forehead.
“Are you insane? This kind of dark tutoring, without buying the dissemination rights… wouldn’t that mean offending the major tutoring institutions and the cultivation technique development companies? Dammit, even going out and robbing someone would feel as safe as a picnic compared to this.”
The doll, however, sounded completely unconcerned, chuckling as she said, “In Kunxu, if you’re not willing to take risks, how can you ever make big money? Can the profits from mere robbery even compare to illegal tutoring? Or do you want to be a poor laborer for the rest of your life?”
“I’m telling you, among the major players in the dark world of tutoring, there are quite a few who earn over ten million a year.”