Chapter 191: The Second Round of the Foundation Establishment Examination Begins
Zhang Yu stared at her reply, slightly taken aback. “Why do I get the feeling… she’s a little afraid of me saying more?”
Fu Ji chuckled. “This woman has probably figured out that you and Bai Zhenzhen are participating in the Foundation Establishment examination.”
“After all, the times you’ve left the city aren’t hard to look up.”
“And as Yun Ni is an inspector from a long line of them, it would be perfectly normal for her to know the timing of the Foundation Establishment examination.”
Hearing Fu Ji’s analysis, Zhang Yu’s gaze shifted slightly as a multitude of thoughts suddenly occurred to him.
Early the next morning, with a certificate issued by the inspection team and a personal call from Yun Ni, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen finally received approved leave from school and boarded a train bound for the Immortal Capital.
Seeing that the train carrying Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen was about to depart, Si Zhouyu called again to ask, “Hello? What’s the situation now? Are we still supposed to follow them?”
After a long moment, a voice came through the phone. “Come back. You don’t need to follow them anymore.”
Si Zhouyu frowned. “What did you say? Our entire team has spent so long on these two students, and now you’re telling us not to follow?”
“They must be on an important mission, leaving the city at a time like this!”
“Why aren’t we following them?”
The person on the other end replied coldly, “This is an order from company leadership.”
“An order from leadership is to be executed, whether you understand it or not.”
“Return immediately.”
Si Zhouyu took a deep breath, watching the slowly departing train. After a long while, she shook her head and left the station.
Meanwhile, on the train, after numerous checks over the next several hours, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen confirmed one thing.
Zhang Yu typed on his phone: They didn’t follow.
Bai Zhenzhen: They’re not even following us now? Could they know about the Foundation Establishment examination, and that’s why they don’t dare to investigate further?
Zhang Yu thought of Yun Ni’s reaction the day before and replied: I think so too. For such an abrupt withdrawal, the only reason I can think of is the Foundation Establishment examination.
Bai Zhenzhen: What a pity. I was hoping to bait them into investigating the Foundation Establishment examination.
Just yesterday, after seeing Yun Ni’s reaction and hearing Fu Ji’s analysis of her, he had suddenly realized that through constant waiting and patience, they had found an opportunity to counterattack.
Unfortunately, the other party did not take the bait today.
Zhang Yu: It’s fine. At the very least, this incident has allowed us to confirm one thing.
Zhang Yu: The one who wants to deal with us isn’t Zhou Chechen.
Zhang Yu: Because Zhou Chechen probably doesn’t know about the Foundation Establishment examination.
Fu Ji added, “Indeed. To know information like this, it would have to be someone from the upper echelons of the Zhou family.”
Zhang Yu: So our real opponent isn’t Zhou Chechen, but… the Zhou family.
…
At the same time.
Songyang High School.
Lan Ling looked at Zhou Chechen, bewildered. “How could you approve their leave? Zhang Yu might use this time to cultivate or make money. We shouldn’t give them a single moment to breathe!”
“You should have stood firm against the pressure and not let them go. If they left, you should have given them a demerit and found a chance to expel them…”
Seeing Lan Ling’s dissatisfied expression, Zhou Chechen sighed internally, no longer in the mood to say anything more.
His mind was still replaying the process of Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen’s leave approval.
Yun Ni, the captain of the inspection team? Zhou Chechen thought to himself. Is the inspection team behind them?
That makes sense. Zhang Pianpian used to be in the inspection team. It’s not impossible that she introduced her contacts to Zhang Yu after she left.
And Bai Zhenzhen, she requested leave with Zhang Yu this time. It seems that despite how things appeared at school, her relationship with Zhang Yu is still quite good?
But at least now we’ve found the people backing Zhang Yu. So, what are my uncle and the others planning to do? Surely they don’t intend to keep fighting against the inspection team?
“To think they can even leverage the power of the inspection team.”
“This evil god has some real nerve.”
Lying on a hospital bed on the 333rd floor of the central tower, Zhou Yang read through the various messages from his subordinates. And the timing… it actually coincides with the Foundation Establishment examination?
A coincidence? Or an elaborate feint?
Two choices now appeared before Zhou Yang.
To follow, or not to follow?
Zhou Yang decisively chose not to follow.
After all, in his view, the worst outcome of not following was simply that Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen would flee, and he would lose this lead entirely.
“If this evil god is truly arranging for its followers to flee, it means they’ve already grown suspicious. Following them would be meaningless; at best, we’d only catch this pawn, Zhang Yu.”
But if he did follow, what if they really were participating in the Foundation Establishment examination?
He couldn’t just have his subordinates investigate everything, could he? Especially not when he didn’t know what they might uncover.
What if his subordinates really did uncover something they shouldn’t, like this Foundation Establishment examination… what then?
Especially after seeing the times Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had left the city on the previous two occasions, a cold sweat suddenly broke out on Zhou Yang’s back.
A trace of fear lingered in his thoughts. If this is really a feint, the groundwork was laid far too early. They started leaving the city four months ago? Wasn’t that when registration for the Foundation Establishment examination opened?
So they really are participating in the Foundation Establishment examination?
And they even made it to the second round? If that’s the case, Zhang Yu’s hidden strength is quite considerable.
What is this evil god trying to do? How dare it have designs on the Foundation Establishment examination?
Zhou Yang turned it over and over in his mind but couldn’t make sense of it. After all, there was no way that Zhang Yu, or Bai Zhenzhen for that matter, could defeat the chosen prodigies of the Immortal Capital.
In his opinion, participating in some Foundation Establishment examination was a complete waste of time and energy, and they might even have their Dao hearts shattered by the people of the Immortal Capital.
Besides, hadn’t Zhang Yu been thoroughly tormented by Zhou Chechen recently…
Going even when they know they’ll be eliminated? Are they after some kind of intelligence?
Although he couldn’t figure out the evil god’s objective, Zhou Yang’s interest in the entity behind Zhang Yu grew.
To dare make a play for the Foundation Establishment examination, this evil god’s standing must not be low.
And now, I am hidden in the shadows while they know nothing about me, yet I am gathering more and more intelligence on them… There’s a chance.
If Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen return, I can seize this clue and will have a good chance of devouring this evil god’s standing.
But I can’t touch the Foundation Establishment examination. I must be careful not to investigate their participation in it… or rather, I won’t have to worry about this restraint until after the examination is over.
As he pondered, Zhou Yang’s phone vibrated.
He opened his phone to look at a surveillance feed, where he saw a hard drive suddenly begin to throb violently beneath the suppressive ritual formed by countless coils, antiques, and chains.
Watching the constantly throbbing hard drive, Zhou Yang frowned. He lightly tapped his phone, and on the screen, copper wires coiled around the hard drive like great dragons, suppressing it once more.
“Old thing, still haven’t given up?”
The entity suppressed within this hard drive was the very evil god that had been passed down through the Zhou family for generations.
As the most outstanding descendant of the Zhou family in ten generations, upon learning the secret of the evil god and witnessing his clansmen worshiping it, an idea had formed in Zhou Yang’s mind.
Why worship this thing?
People should raise evil gods like demonic beasts, not be enslaved by them.
So, after continuous cultivation, study, and scheming… he had finally suppressed the evil god, turning it into his personal ritual battery.
But for this, he had paid an immense price.
He glanced at his own missing lower half, then snapped his fingers. “A change of clothes. I need to go out.”
A nearby wardrobe slid open, revealing not only coats and shirts but also several complete lower bodies, clad in trousers and shoes, looking perfectly intact.
He casually selected a new lower body and attached it, feeling the flesh and blood connect and the sensation of having feet again, yet he frowned.
“Aren’t these legs a little short?”
After switching to another lower body, he finally nodded in satisfaction.
“That’s more like it.”
As for the pair of legs he had just deemed too short, they instantly dissolved into a pool of blood, which he poured down the drain.
However, looking at the faint livor mortis appearing on his calf, Zhou Yang said helplessly, “Sigh, it should be fine for a day, right?”
While staring at the title of Purple-Gold Merit Master, he thought to himself, Let me think, who in Songyang City has authority over the inspection team?
Ever since suppressing the evil god, Zhou Yang had lost his lower body.
No matter what new flesh he attached, it would quickly rot and necrotize.
But this was hardly a problem for a man of his wealth.
After all, Kunxu lacked many things, but people were not one of them. There were plenty of poor souls willing to sell their legs for money… and then get a pair of prosthetics for themselves.
But whether they were prosthetics or the lower bodies of ordinary people, they were like clothes to Zhou Yang, to be used and discarded. They could neither withstand his use nor assist in his cultivation.
Many cultivation techniques, after all, required a complete body to practice and utilize.
Therefore, he had selected many compatible ‘spare materials,’ placed them in various locations to cultivate, and raised them freely, to be harvested when needed.
I never would have thought… Zhou Yang pictured Zhang Yu’s figure in his mind. That my own lower body would go to participate in the Foundation Establishment examination.
While Zhou Yang was plotting his next move.
Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had once again arrived at the examination venue beneath the Immortal Capital.
Only this time, Zhang Yu did not meet up with Bai Zhenzhen.
Starting from the second round, the Foundation Establishment examination was divided into four distinct tracks: Dao heart, magic power, body tempering, and martial arts, with the top candidate from each track ultimately being awarded a Foundation Establishment qualification certificate.
Zhen must have gone to the Martial Arts Examination.
Zhang Yu looked at the four other candidates before him, knowing they were the opponents he would face in the upcoming body tempering examination.
Among them was the top-tier Immortal Capital scion, Ye Lingxiao, as well as an old acquaintance of Zhang Yu’s, Yu Xinghan.
However, looking at Yu Xinghan’s gaunt appearance, Zhang Yu thought, You son of a bitch… don’t tell me you were working overtime the day before the exam?
Then, Zhang Yu felt Ye Lingxiao’s gaze upon him, a gaze filled with fighting spirit.
Ye Lingxiao: “You’ll be using your full strength this round, won’t you?”
Zhang Yu thought to himself, The me of today and the me of two months ago are worlds apart.
Their gazes clashed in mid-air, a palpable battle intent seeming to surge between them.