Chapter 145: Gradually Taking the Shape of an Insider
Regarding the matter of taking out loans, Zhang Yu had been quite wary when he first arrived in Kunxu.
This was partly due to the influence of his original body’s experiences and memories, and partly due to the caution toward debt from his own past life.
But after being tempered by life in Kunxu for more than half a year and seeing many others take out loans, his mindset had gradually begun to change.
Using alchemical enhancers for body tempering, borrowing money to make money… Zhang Yu lamented inwardly, I am being assimilated by Kunxu more and more, becoming just like a local.
But Zhang Yu didn’t think there was anything wrong with it; a person ultimately had to adapt to their environment. To climb the ladder in Kunxu, one had to adapt to Kunxu’s rules.
Body tempering required enhancers! Immortal cultivation required loans!
In the blink of an eye, Zhang Yu had successively borrowed money from multiple platforms.
Now, Zhang Yu repaid his loans on time every month, his bank transactions surged, and his grades improved dramatically. The various credit lines he could borrow from, when added together, had already increased by another 1 million.
And so, in an instant, 1 million was credited to Zhang Yu’s account.
“Including the original 15,000 per month, I’ll be paying 40,000 in interest each month from now on. By the time I’m a third-year, I’ll have to pay off the 1.7 million in principal from all platforms as well.”
“Adding the 5,000 from the interest-free loan, that’s a total of 45,000 in monthly repayments.”
Staring at the cold balance of over 1.3 million in his account, Zhang Yu slowly exhaled, feeling both the weight of a heavy pressure on his shoulders and a rush of motivation to go back and give it his all.
Beside him, Bai Zhenzhen, who had previously borrowed less than Zhang Yu, had now gone all out, taking out another 900,000 in loans in one go. She too wore an expression of eager determination, just waiting to get back and merge that 900,000 into her own flesh to advance her cultivation.
More than ten hours later, after a series of transfers, the two finally returned to Songyang City and began another charge on the path of the Immortal Dao.
And time flowed by rapidly with their charge.
Inside the apartment.
Zhang Yu took off the weighted clothes he usually wore for exercise and took out the newly purchased ‘training skin’.
It was unknown what kind of Immortal Dao technology was used for this training skin; it looked like a thin layer of human skin, and even the touch felt similar to that of real human skin.
Seeing its lifelike appearance, Zhang Yu said, “This couldn’t have been made from the actual skin of some master, could it?”
With Zhang Yu’s understanding of Kunxu, such a thing was not impossible.
Fu Ji, however, scoffed, “For the pittance you spent, you expect real leather?”
“This is obviously synthetic. It won’t achieve 100% compatibility when you use it, 99% at most.”
But as Zhang Yu put it on, he felt the training skin naturally adhere to his body, as if it had become a new layer of his own skin.
At the same time, this new skin brought a strong sense of restraint to his physical body, forcing him to constantly exert his strength to counteract it, as if he were continuously exercising every muscle and tendon in his body.
He, however, couldn’t feel any lack of compatibility and only felt it was much better to use than his original weighted clothing.
A moment later, Zhang Yu opened his phone, clicked on the training skin’s management software, and chose to turn it off.
The feeling of restraint all over his body vanished abruptly, making it so Zhang Yu couldn’t even feel the presence of the training skin.
“It doesn’t affect my breathing, sweating, or breathing exercises either.”
“Worthy of a 100,000-yuan training skin. This way, I can add another layer of exercise at all times.”
“And I can turn it off whenever I don’t need it.”
The conservation area, incubation room.
The little panda An’an was hugging her large tail, watching Bai Zhenzhen perform her breathing exercises, and thinking to herself that Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had at least doubled their time here these past few days.
I wonder if the time they spend tutoring Wenwu has also doubled?
Although seeing them freeload off the spiritual energy of the Red Pagoda still caused An’an a pang of heartache for the loss of company assets.
But she tried hard not to let it show.
After all, for someone like her who hadn’t even finished elementary school, high school students were already heaven’s favored children.
And when faced with competition-level students from a key high school like Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, especially after learning about their grades, An’an felt a sense of inferiority, a feeling of unworthiness, every time she stood before them.
Because she understood deeply that compared to Bai Zhenzhen and Zhang Yu, she was a complete illiterate.
Bai Zhenzhen’s perpetually cold demeanor in particular made An’an feel that she probably looked down on her quite a bit.
However, when Bai Zhenzhen was leaving this time, An’an still quickly waved her short limbs, hopping over to block Bai Zhenzhen’s path.
“This is for you.”
Bai Zhenzhen looked at the piece of demonic beast meat tied with a ribbon and asked curiously, “For me?”
An’an said, “Thank you for tutoring Xiong Wenwu.”
Seeing An’an’s slightly nervous gaze, Bai Zhenzhen accepted the demonic beast meat and said, “You often have leftover demonic beast meat here that you can’t sell, right?”
“Why don’t you sell it to me privately for a cheaper price? It just so happens I’m planning to purchase more demonic beast meat for a dietary supplement recently.”
An’an said anxiously, “You want me to sell out the company’s interests?”
Bai Zhenzhen chuckled and rubbed An’an’s ears. “You don’t want Xiong Wenwu’s grades to slip, do you? Just sell it to me for a little cheaper.”
“If you don’t feel right using the money you earn, you can subsidize Xiong Wenwu with it.”
An’an sighed internally, feeling that she was gradually transforming from the best employee into a company mole, unworthy of her 2,000-yuan salary.
Inside the apartment.
As Zhang Yu switched on the newly bought spotlights one by one, the entire room went from bright to incandescent white, until finally it was so bright that almost nothing could be seen, and even Zhang Yu’s figure was completely swallowed.
Feeling the frantic passive operation of his Great Sun Qi Sea and the Great Sun magic power churning violently like magma inside him, Zhang Yu cultivated the Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi in this environment.
Late June.
Inside the apartment.
In a cardboard box placed in a corner of the room were all sorts of potions that Le Mulan had brought for Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen.
Le Mulan casually tossed her tattered clothes into a nearby trash can.
Because she had sweated so much today, her skin had become a little dry.
As she changed her clothes, she said, “You’ve gotten much stronger recently.”
Zhang Yu smiled. “I have your alchemical enhancers to thank. I’m always full of energy after using them.”
Le Mulan’s gaze swept over slightly. Seeing Zhang Yu staring at the potion on the floor, she reminded him, “The Bone and Muscle Enhancement Agent is most effective when taken orally.”
Ultimately, Zhang Yu couldn’t bring himself to do such a thing. He shot to his feet and seized the time to absorb the potion and cultivate the Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi.
A trace of surprise flashed through Le Mulan’s eyes. As she walked out of the room, she couldn’t help but say, “Next time, you can tell me in advance what alchemical enhancer you want me to use before I come.”
After returning to Purple Cloud High School, Le Mulan drank several glasses of water in a row because she had just sweated so profusely.
Having just finished another glass, Le Mulan spoke to Lian Tianji who was beside her, “Go get me another glass of water.”
“Next time, before I leave the school, remember to prepare a bucket of water for me too.”
Lian Tianji nodded slightly, thinking to himself, What kind of combat training could possibly cause so much sweating?
Songyang High School.
The office for renting spiritual roots.
The administrator, Wei Xin, looked at Zhang Yu in astonishment and said, “How long did you say you want to rent it for?”
Zhang Yu said heroically, “If I get a monthly package, what kind of discount can you give me?”
Although he could take turns using Bai Zhenzhen’s True Spiritual Root, and even though the True Spiritual Root had some residual effects, it was still being shared between two people.
With a huge sum of money on hand, Zhang Yu’s first thought was to rent a Muscle-Growth Spiritual Root. While Bai Zhenzhen was using her spiritual root, he would use the Muscle-Growth Spiritual Root, allowing both of them to use a spiritual root for cultivation 24 hours a day.
The administrator, Wei Xin, nodded repeatedly, her eyes shining.
“Of course, we can offer a discount. For the Muscle-Growth Spiritual Root, a monthly package can be discounted to 2 million a month.”
For a moment, Zhang Yu fell silent, feeling that he had been a bit presumptuous just now.
“Never mind, let’s just go by the hour. It feels more flexible that way.”
The end of June.
White Dragon High School.
Yu Xinghan and Zhang Yu created a swathe of afterimages as they engaged in a fierce battle.
Sensing the ferocious power in the other’s moves, Yu Xinghan asked, “You’ve learned the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm?”
Zhang Yu’s palm strike was accompanied by the roar of a dragon and the trumpet of an elephant as he shouted, “Because of you, I had to spend a full 200,000 to buy this cultivation technique. Shouldn’t you sponsor some of it?”
Yu Xinghan returned a palm strike of his own, laughing heartily.
“You can only blame your own martial arts talent for being too strong and too expensive.”
Yu Xinghan, who had looked into Zhang Yu’s background… had actually already guessed this point: that when he used a purely physical martial art like the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm, it was very likely to be learned by Zhang Yu.
But this was precisely his goal.
Because when his opponent used the same martial art as him, it was more convenient for him to use his third eye to absorb and replicate Zhang Yu’s physical strength and techniques.
But he didn’t want to explicitly tell Zhang Yu to do so, as Zhang Yu would surely ask him for more money.
Good… good, he learned this technique on his own during our training and then had no choice but to buy it.
Hehe, saved another sum of money.
However, thinking that Zhang Yu had spent 200,000 despite his impoverished state, a flash of embarrassment crossed Yu Xinghan’s heart.
My apologies, Zhang Yu, but in the struggle for the immortal path, if you don’t spend more, I have to.
To go further on the path of the Immortal Dao, I cannot yield a single inch.
I must pass next year’s Foundation Establishment exam! For this goal, I will save—and make—money by any means necessary!
As for Zhang Yu participating in the Foundation Establishment exam, Yu Xinghan paid it no mind at all.
After all, in Yu Xinghan’s view, constrained by his finances, the gap between them would only grow larger next year. He was no competition for him in the exam whatsoever.
On the other side, Zhang Yu, while executing a level 1 Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm, glanced at the Feather Book which showed ‘Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm Level 3 (5/30)’ and felt the new benefits this martial art brought to his techniques.
Because his usual cultivation time was already completely occupied by the Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi, he could only practice other martial arts during combat training.
So Zhang Yu simply bought the usage rights for the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm to practice it while conducting combat training with Yu Xinghan.
He thought to himself, My apologies, Yu Xinghan… for me, the training effect is about the same whether I use a level 1 Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm or my highest-level one.
But I cannot expose my terrifying talent.
I can only practice with you using the level 1 Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm and sacrifice the quality of your training a little.
After all, to pass the Foundation Establishment qualification exam this year, I must seize every opportunity to become stronger, by any means necessary.
Time flowed on as Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen spent money and cultivated like mad.
In a flash, it was already the beginning of July.
There was only a month and a half left until the first round of the Foundation Establishment exam in mid-August.
And on this day, within Songyang High School.
Lan Ling led a group of second-year students toward the first-year campus area.
He thought to himself, Zhang Pianpian has been gone for half a month, and it seems she hasn’t transferred the contracts for Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen to anyone else.
Did she just leave them on the first floor?
Let’s test the waters, see if Zhang Pianpian made any arrangements for these two paupers.
Lan Ling planned to teach the two a little lesson during the combat class, just like he did a few months ago.
And at the thought of their past unruly behavior, how they, as paupers and juniors, had dared to challenge him, a wealthy senior, Lan Ling felt a wave of displeasure.
Of course, his actions this time did not stem solely from his own thoughts.
Lan Ling thought of Zhou Chechen and Purple Cloud’s Le Jingchen, who had contacted him this morning.
Lan Ling mused inwardly, After all, letting two paupers who can’t even get into the Ten Greats occupy spots in the competition… has drawn the ire of many people.