Chapter 93: Zhang Yu’s Secret
That night, as he swallowed the Crimson Marrow Primordial Pill, its potent medicinal power once again drilled into his limbs and bones.
Zhang Yu immediately activated his Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi, causing the muscles, organs, and bones throughout his body to exert their full strength, striving to absorb the surging medicinal power.
At moments like these, Zhang Yu could always feel distinctly that the 30,000 he spent on the alchemical enhancer had not vanished, but had instead integrated into his body, ultimately becoming a part of his own vital energy.
A night passed in a flash. Zhang Yu looked at the Feather Book, which displayed a body tempering level of 2.08, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
Two weeks had now passed since the martial arts competition.
There were still two weeks until the confirmation of the top five sports scores, which would determine whether Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen were qualified to join the sports competition team.
There were still six weeks until the start of the sports competition.
And although Zhang Yu had focused his main efforts on his physical strength during this time, with the support of his heart art and passive breathing exercise, his Dao heart and magic power had naturally improved as well.
The Feather Book showed Dao heart level 3 (93%) and magic power 25.5.
“The improvement of my Dao heart and magic power seems to have slowed down just a little, but it’s not a major issue for now. I don’t need to consider changing to a more powerful cultivation technique yet. For now, I’ll keep my attention on my physical strength.”
“With my current income, not only can I maintain a steady supply of Crimson Marrow Primordial Pills, but if my income increases a bit more in the future, I can even add more dietary supplements.”
“If I continue to increase my physical strength with the level 10 Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi like this, then entering the top five in two weeks shouldn’t be a problem, and it might not be impossible to reach level 4.0 or higher for the sports competition in six weeks.”
Thinking of this, Zhang Yu looked at his savings.
During this period, although he had tutored Song Hailong again and taught at the compound, with the arrival of a new month, after deducting 15,000 for loan interest, just under two thousand for rent and utilities, and expenses for Crimson Marrow Primordial Pills, food, and so on, Zhang Yu now had only a little over five thousand left in his account.
“Sigh, I’m still poor. I hope they arrange more classes for me soon.”
The thought flashed through his mind as Zhang Yu hurried to the school.
Upon arriving at the school gate, Zhang Yu saw the results of the monthly exam displayed.
On this day of the monthly exam results, the teachers and students within Songyang High School were in a jubilant mood, cheerfully welcoming the new scores.
And thinking back to the exam two days prior, Zhang Yu sighed slightly, “What a pity. If the monthly exam had been a few days later, after I took this second Crimson Marrow Primordial Pill for body tempering, my score would have been a bit higher.”
“But it’s not a big problem. My sports score should be higher on the next monthly exam.”
After a casual glance at the monthly exam rankings, Zhang Yu headed towards his classroom.
For him, the monthly exam was long since something to pay only slight attention to; the competition was what he truly valued.
He still clearly remembered the words Zhang Pianpian had told him.
Zhang Yu murmured to himself, “If you want to get into a top 10 university, then win all the remaining competitions in your first year and become the strongest first-year student in Songyang City.”
But just as Zhang Yu was about to step into the academic building.
With a loud bang, a figure fell from the sky, plummeting toward the ground.
Zhang Yu instinctively dodged, then reached out to catch the person. As white Formless Cloud-Astral Qi surged forth, it generated a gentle force that caught the figure falling from the sky, deflecting the downward momentum.
Looking at the person he had saved, Zhang Yu was momentarily stunned. “You’re… Shuang Youpeng?”
He still remembered this student, once the top scorer of the first year and now a second-year, being obediently reprimanded by the Student Council vice president, Zhou Chechen, during combat class.
“There’s a fine for jumping off buildings at school. It’s a good thing I saved you.”
“Besides, at your level, a fall from this height wouldn’t kill you, would it? Wouldn’t it be worse to get seriously injured and need treatment?”
But in the next moment, Zhang Yu realized something was wrong.
Although Shuang Youpeng’s face hadn’t changed much, the feeling he gave Zhang Yu was… light, incredibly light.
It was as if more than half of the vital energy beneath his clothes had vanished, not at all like the robust strength a second-year student should possess.
Facing Zhang Yu’s questioning gaze, Shuang Youpeng said nothing. He neither thanked him for the rescue nor blamed him for it; he simply stood up silently and walked toward the academic building.
Zhang Yu opened his mouth, but was at a loss for words.
He sensed a kind of dead-hearted numbness from the other boy.
Finally, Zhang Yu said, “Are you okay?”
Shuang Youpeng’s steps paused, and he said faintly, “I’m fine now. It was a moment of weakness. I still have debts to repay; I won’t jump again. Regarding what happened today, please don’t tell anyone, otherwise the school will fine me.”
At this point, Shuang Youpeng fell silent for a moment before saying, “That sports competition… you’d better give up. It won’t end well for you.”
Inside the classroom of first-year, class one.
Several students were gathered around He Dayou, congratulating him.
“Dayou, you’ve improved so much lately! You actually got first in the year on this monthly exam.”
“662 points! With a score like that, you could probably get into White Dragon High School for a tour for free.”
“General Knowledge 49, Dao Heart 130, Magic power 143, Sports 150, Martial Arts 95, Daoist Arts 95… Only the top students from the three major high schools could match these scores, right?”
He Dayou looked at these sycophants who flocked to whoever had the best scores, a disdainful smile flashing across his lips.
In the martial arts combat exam of this month’s test, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had been assigned to the same group, allowing He Dayou to finally achieve a score befitting his skill level.
“I’ve finally gotten the score I deserve in martial arts.”
As for Daoist arts, that had always been his strong suit, and his sports score, after his recent training with the competition team, had become the highest in the grade.
Just then, his phone vibrated; the information he had asked another student to find had arrived.
It was Zhang Yu’s current body tempering level.
“That kid Zhang Yu, always skipping sports class. In this monthly exam, I can finally see his body tempering level measured on the test field yesterday… 2.05, is it?”
“As expected of Zhang Pianpian’s dog. He must have been fed a lot of things to reach this level.”
“However… it’s still a far cry from my 2.3 body tempering level, and from now on, the gap between us will only grow wider.”
Seeing Zhang Yu’s body tempering level, He Dayou finally let out a breath, feeling that all the effort and money he had poured into the competition team had not been in vain.
“Zhang Yu, from now on, you will experience what it feels like to give your all and still be unable to catch me.”
In contrast to He Dayou’s excitement, Zhao Tianxing felt utterly miserable.
“Have even Yu-boy and Zhen been completely surpassed by He Dayou?”
Although he was somewhat envious of He Dayou and the others, Zhao Tianxing, like Qian Shen, ultimately quit the sports competition team. He watched as another student was brought in to fill the spot, and then that student’s body tempering level skyrocketed, and their monthly exam score surpassed his own.
Zhao Tianxing thought to himself, Qian Shen disdains using money to buy strength, using money to buy points. That’s why he quit the competition team.
After Zhao Tianxing had also quit, he could feel that Qian Shen regarded him with more respect.
But he knew that his situation was completely different from Qian Shen’s, and he possessed none of Qian Shen’s coolness or decisiveness.
He knew that he had chosen to quit the competition team simply because of his own weakness.
He wasn’t confident that he could achieve sufficiently outstanding results after his parents had spent half their life’s savings on him.
“The sponsorship fee to join the competition team would require my mom and dad to sell our house.”
“This is only the first year. What if it costs more money in the future?”
“With my talent, after spending so much money, will I really be able to earn it back in the future?”
Zhao Tianxing had no confidence at all. He was afraid of wasting his parents’ savings, afraid of being saddled with huge debts while accomplishing nothing. In the end, he chose to give up.
I’m such a waste. And I even told Qian Shen that I was like him and didn’t want to buy my score, when the truth is I both want it and am afraid of failure.
In the cafeteria, Zhao Tianxing put down his tray, his face clouded with gloom.
He saw Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, as if in a competition, voraciously devouring the synthetic food before them.
Sigh, Yu-boy and Zhen are always so optimistic. They don’t seem the least bit discouraged even though their rankings were surpassed in this month’s exam. I wish I could be like them.
Bai Zhenzhen, while eating, glanced at the protein milk in Zhang Yu’s hands and thought, Yu-boy has been eating better and better lately. Did he find money? Or did he sell something he shouldn’t have?
Zhang Yu, while eating, looked at the mush on Bai Zhenzhen’s tray and thought, Zhen needs to improve her body tempering too. Money must be pretty tight for her recently, right? I wonder if she’d be interested in the dark world of tutoring.
The doll hanging on Zhang Yu’s chest was also observing Bai Zhenzhen, and after several days of observation, she had come to a conclusion.
So the doll transmitted a message to Zhang Yu’s mind, “Hey, Zhang Yu, do you know there’s something in that woman’s belly?”
“Pfft!”
Zhang Yu felt himself choke, almost spitting out the food in his mouth.
He turned away, lowered his voice to a level only he could hear, and said to the doll, “Zhen’s pregnant?”
On the other side, Bai Zhenzhen looked at the mush Zhang Yu had spat into her bowl, and she was genuinely furious.
“Are you trying to die, Zhang Yu? Using such a low-down trick to steal food? I’m going to piss in your bowl!”
The doll said in Zhang Yu’s mind, “The thing I’m talking about is a spiritual root. There’s a spiritual root in this woman’s belly.”
Zhang Yu rolled his eyes. “No kidding. Zhen rented a spiritual root.”
The doll, however, chuckled. “Really? According to my observations, the spiritual root in that woman’s belly should be her own. It’s just that this spiritual root is extremely good at concealing itself. If you weren’t with her every day, and if she didn’t always use that spiritual root so freely in front of you, I wouldn’t have been able to notice it.”
Zhang Yu looked at Bai Zhenzhen in shock, thinking to himself, A spiritual root is growing in Zhen’s belly?
Bai Zhenzhen said irritably, “What are you muttering about? Hurry up and go buy me a new lunch!”
Zhang Yu’s mind was still on the matter of the spiritual root as he grabbed his student card and ran off to buy Bai Zhenzhen’s meal.
Bai Zhenzhen watched as Zhang Yu’s phone, left on the table, vibrated softly as a message came in.
Lian Tianji: The clothes you’ve worn, sell me one.
When she saw this message, Bai Zhenzhen fell silent. She quietly turned off the screen of Zhang Yu’s phone.
“No wonder I felt like Yu-boy had money recently.”
“So, without me even realizing it, he has already gotten this far ahead?”
Yu-boy! For money, for the Immortal Dao, you’ve already gone to such lengths?