Chapter 98: Yu-boy, I’ve Decided Not to Rent an Apartment!
In a small grove on school grounds, the moment Zhang Yu activated his Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi, waves of spiritual energy immediately began to wash over his flesh and blood.
This was especially true once the Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi began to temper every bit of his flesh, internal organs, and bones.
The True Spiritual Root also seemed to be adapting to the situation, continuously channeling spiritual energy into every part Zhang Yu trained, coordinating with the Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi to accelerate the robust growth of his physical body.
In ancient times, immortal cultivation was a path for those who possessed spiritual roots.
Now that he was truly using a spiritual root to cultivate, Zhang Yu deeply felt the difference between the two states, sensing the extra boost to his physical growth as surging spiritual energy infused his flesh in concert with his body tempering.
And beyond that…
“Hm?” Zhang Yu sensed wisps of spiritual energy pouring into his spine and the surrounding areas, as if countless tiny hands were stimulating and nourishing something.
Is this… my nerves? Is the spiritual energy stimulating and nourishing my nerves?
But my Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi shouldn’t have this nerve-tempering effect, right?
Is it an inherent effect of the True Spiritual Root?
Zhang Yu was naturally delighted to gain an additional body tempering effect while cultivating his Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi.
Even when Zhang Yu was not actively cultivating the Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi, the spiritual root was still constantly infusing his physical body with spiritual energy.
And perhaps because he had used it for a sufficiently long time, when Zhang Yu returned the spiritual root to Bai Zhenzhen after school, he could feel his body continuing to grow at an accelerated rate for some time, just as it had when he used the Muscle-Growth Spiritual Root.
After Bai Zhenzhen took back the spiritual root, she first felt a noticeable discomfort, as if something of a mismatched shape had been stuffed into her stomach.
At the same time, Bai Zhenzhen felt spiritual energy being poured into all her muscles, organs, and bones, nourishing her vital energy according to a special frequency, causing her muscles, organs, and bones to gradually grow stronger.
The spiritual energy is being channeled to places I don’t normally train…
This isn’t my style of body tempering at all; it’s more like the effect of Yu-boy’s Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi.
Just as I thought, the True Spiritual Root adapted to Zhang Yu’s body and underwent a change…
Bai Zhenzhen tried to circulate her own body tempering cultivation technique, the Thunderclap True Body.
For the sake of her Immortal Dao cultivation, besides loan repayments, drugs, and food, Bai Zhenzhen had spent almost all of her money on cultivation techniques.
This Thunderclap True Body was a body tempering cultivation technique she had spent a full one hundred and twenty thousand to acquire, capable of condensing magic power into lightning to temper the body.
It was a body tempering method that, while increasing physical strength, focused on enhancing the cultivator’s nerve response, movement speed, and explosive power.
And now, as Bai Zhenzhen once again circulated the Thunderclap True Body, she felt the True Spiritual Root similarly guiding an infusion of spiritual energy, assisting in the cultivation of her technique.
“It can do this?”
A trace of delighted surprise flashed through Bai Zhenzhen’s eyes.
While adapting to Zhang Yu’s body, the True Spiritual Root is also adapting to mine. Does this mean the spiritual energy infusion phenomenon from when Zhang Yu cultivates his Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi… is being superimposed onto me?
At that moment, Bai Zhenzhen felt that after her body tempering, in addition to the effects of the Thunderclap True Body, her muscles, organs, and bones had all gained an extra layer of enhancement.
Then conversely, if I lend the spiritual root back to Yu-boy, he should be able to superimpose some of my technique’s effects, right?
If we exchange it back and forth like this every day to cultivate, will this adaptive stacking effect build upon itself and grow stronger and stronger?
In that case, wouldn’t it be like one person having the cultivation effect of two?
Then won’t my scores and competition rankings soar?
I’ll thrash Song Hailong and crush Le Mulan, and dominate Songyang High School with Yu-boy!
At this thought, Bai Zhenzhen’s heart began to pound with excitement.
But to do this conveniently, we’ll still have to rent a place together and then go to school and work together every day so we can swap the spiritual root whenever we want.
With that, Bai Zhenzhen made her decision.
“Alright, I’ll go look for an apartment tomorrow!”
The next day after school, Bai Zhenzhen began taking Zhang Yu to look for apartments.
Taking Songyang High School in the city center as their starting point and the Dark Learning Gang campus in the far suburbs as their destination, they began their search along this straight line from the city outwards.
In a basement on the city’s edge, a real estate agent said, “This basement is a hot item. It’s got power, internet, and water. Climb out of the sewer and you’re at the subway. You don’t even have to worry about sunlight interfering with your cultivation. The rent is just a bit steep, twenty thousand a month…”
Continuing toward the suburbs, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen saw another decent-looking garage.
The landlord said, “This is a prime spot. The rent was originally five thousand a month, but seeing as you’re both students, I can waive the rent if you’re serious. You’ll just need to put down a one-million-yuan deposit.”
“Don’t have that much? You can get a loan. Or you’re from Songyang High School, aren’t you? If you’re each willing to put up an arm as collateral, that would work too.”
Continuing their search toward the city’s periphery, they arrived at an apartment building.
The landlord, jingling a large ring of keys, said impatiently, “Aren’t you just renting a place to store your things? It’s not for you to cultivate in. If you want to cultivate, go to a gym or a training ground. The rent is non-negotiable. I have to support my son through university, you know? He’s a university student!”
Outside a construction site hut made of shipping containers, the ground was littered with cigarette butts and empty bottles.
Before they were even close, Zhang Yu smelled the strong odor of Dao heart buffer, a clear sign that the residents here were all heavy users.
Zhang Yu shook his head. “No good. I’ve already kicked the habit. If we lived here, I’m afraid I’d get addicted again.”
As the two walked along an overpass, Bai Zhenzhen suddenly said, “Yu-boy, poor people can’t afford to be careless with money.”
“But from these dozen or so years of being poor… I’ve learned one thing. The more you want a satisfactory place, the more you get ripped off. To avoid being ripped off, there’s only one way…”
Zhang Yu asked curiously, “What way?”
Bai Zhenzhen’s face was set with determination. “Yu-boy! I’ve decided not to rent an apartment!”
Zhang Yu was taken aback. “If we don’t rent, where will we live?”
Bai Zhenzhen pointed to a small stream beneath the overpass ahead.
“Can’t people live under the bridge?”
“Huh?”
“We don’t have to pick this bridge. We can just stay wherever we feel like. I’ve thought it through. Water… we can get it from school and bring it with us. Electricity… we can charge our devices at the Dark Learning Gang or at school. Food… we’re just buying synthetic food from the cafeteria anyway.”
“We don’t need to sleep, and as for bathing, a river next to a bridge like this will do just fine.”
“This overpass in the suburbs has big trucks driving over it all day. It’s loud and noisy, so we won’t have to worry about the commotion from our training bothering anyone.”
“We’ll train and rest here, go to school during the day, and to the Dark Learning Gang at night. What do you think?”
The more Bai Zhenzhen spoke, the more animated she became. “Instead of handing our money over to landlords and agents, we’re better off buying more food. We won’t give those rich people a chance to exploit us.”
“We cultivators should take the sky as our blanket and the earth as our mat! We should live in under the bridges, sleep in forests, and occupy abandoned buildings, investing our limited funds into our cultivation! I’ve wanted to do this for a long time!”
Zhang Yu considered the feasibility of her plan. “But what about our belongings? If we just leave them here, someone might take them, right?”
Bai Zhenzhen said, “We’ll carry our important and frequently used items in our backpacks.”
“The unimportant, less-used things can either be sold or stuffed into a box and left in the classroom. The classrooms have surveillance cameras, anyway. The students at school wouldn’t stoop to stealing.”
Zhang Yu had to admit that after hearing her out, it made a certain amount of sense.
Both he and Bai Zhenzhen were high school students who no longer required sleep, and they possessed very little. They could absolutely cultivate and rest wherever they happened to be.
And so, a few days later, Bai Zhenzhen and Zhang Yu both gave up their rented rooms.
Every day after school, they would bring their synthetic food, fill a few bottles with water, and find a random spot to cultivate until it was time to tutor at the campus at night, before heading to school the next day.
The days passed just like that, one after another…
In the small grove on the Dark Learning Gang campus.
Zhang Yu was cultivating the Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi. Spiritual energy surged toward him in torrents, strengthening his muscles, organs, and bones with each exertion, while also nourishing his nervous system bit by bit.
At the same time, the fierce medicinal power of the Crimson Marrow Primordial Pill continuously nourished Zhang Yu’s physical body, allowing his Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi to circulate with ever-increasing smoothness.
With the aid of the True Spiritual Root and the Crimson Marrow Primordial Pill, Zhang Yu felt his physical strength had been advancing by leaps and bounds during this period.
Just then, his phone alarm rang.
Is it time for class?
To make the most of the True Spiritual Root, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had arranged for the Dark Learning Gang to stagger their class schedules as much as possible, so that while one was teaching, the other could use the spiritual root to cultivate.
At that moment, in a classroom at the Dark Learning Gang, Bai Zhenzhen eagerly walked out the moment her class ended.
Che Nu, seeing her in the hallway, greeted her, “Teacher Le, going to find Teacher Ma again? You two commute together every day. Have you considered buying a car?”
Le Mulan was the alias Bai Zhenzhen used in the dark world of tutoring.
Bai Zhenzhen waved her hand dismissively. “Buy a car? Riding him is fast and saves money. I refuse to be exploited by those corporations!”
Bai Zhenzhen found the small grove and rushed over as soon as she saw Zhang Yu, her heart singing with joy. My precious spiritual root, here I come!
She ran up behind Zhang Yu and gently pressed against his back. Feeling a warmth in her stomach, she knew the True Spiritual Root had transferred into her body, and a wave of comfort washed over her.
Zhang Yu rubbed his now somewhat empty stomach and waved to Bai Zhenzhen, who had already begun her training.
“I’m off to class, then. Seize the time and practice hard.”
Under the bridge.
The moment Bai Zhenzhen dismounted from Zhang Yu (her ride), she eagerly leaped into the nearby river for a bath.
Zhang Yu, meanwhile, took off his clothes and began to pack them up. They were to be shipped to Lian Tianji tomorrow.
Although his income from tutoring was not low, his expenses were even greater, so he still had to hold on to the income from selling clothes to Lian Tianji.
The next day.
Le Mulan opened the safe and looked at the clothes inside. She sniffed lightly, her brow furrowed. “Lately, the clothes always seem to carry the scent of another person.”
In the cafeteria.
Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen were each holding a large bucket, gorging themselves on the mush inside. Following the rapid improvement of their physical strength, their food expenses had also risen sharply.
Nearby, Zhao Tianxing watched the two with a hint of envy. “Zhang Yu and Zhen go to and from school together every day now. I heard they even train together after school, swapping their rented spiritual root. They have such a good relationship. I wish I had a beautiful friend I was that close with.”
Although he had been sterilized, a student like Zhao Tianxing still possessed an appreciation for beauty.
Qian Shen was also watching them with envy. “I’m so jealous of Bai Zhenzhen, getting to cultivate every day with Zhang Yu, who’s first in the martial competition and fourth in the Magic Power Competition. If only I had such an outstanding study partner.”
As for the new top student in their grade, He Dayou? Qian Shen had nothing but disdain for that pile of useless muscle bought with money.
But despite his disdain, Qian Shen had to admit that He Dayou’s current physical strength surpassed that of every other first-year student at Songyang High School.
Even someone like Zhang Yu probably won’t have a chance to catch up until his second year, right?
Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, a month had passed since the martial arts competition, and the day agreed upon by the Songyang High School competition team and Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had arrived—the day to decide the spots for the competition.
After school that day, several physical education teachers, including Wang Hai, and several students from the Student Council’s sports department, including Lan Ling, would gather at the stadium to witness the gap between He Dayou’s group of five and Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen.