Chapter 202: Zhang Yu Devises a Plan, a Righteous God’s Secret
Shortly after the second round of the Foundation Establishment examination ended.
On the 1.5th layer of the Immortal Capital.
Ye Lingxiao stood before the floor-to-ceiling window of a skyscraper, looking out at the central sea of clouds park. He spoke into his phone, “Yes, that Dao-Dissolving Sustained-Release Capsule is very interesting.”
“I can’t reveal the specific details, but if there’s a chance… I think we could try to have the lab analyze it. I’m willing to participate in the relevant research…”
After discussing with a clan elder on the phone for more than ten minutes, Ye Lingxiao suddenly brought up another matter.
“Uncle, there’s something else I need you to look into for me.”
“Are there any companies in the other cities on Kunxu’s first layer that have developed technology related to drug metabolism?”
“As for its characteristics…” Ye Lingxiao recalled Zhang Yu’s performance in the examination and chose his words carefully to avoid revealing any classified information. “In short, it can significantly enhance the user’s drug metabolism.”
“Thank you for your trouble.”
On the train.
Yu Xinghan was sending a message to Li Xuelian: Senior Sister.
Li Xuelian: Purpose, time, how much?
Looking at the expense request form she sent over, Yu Xinghan felt his fists clenching again. I’ll teach you a lesson when I get back to the Red Pagoda, he thought.
He typed on his phone: I want to get some more tutoring from Zhang Yu. I feel like I can learn a great, great deal from him.
Li Xuelian: Zhang Yu? Isn’t his performance declining sharply? If you get too close to him, won’t he drag you down?
Yu Xinghan frowned, momentarily at a loss.
He couldn’t mention the contents of the Foundation Establishment examination. How could he convince Li Xuelian?
He couldn’t just say that he and Zhang Yu were comrades in selling seeds, that they knew each other inside and out, and that Yu-boy would never harm him.
But just as Yu Xinghan was hesitating, Li Xuelian suddenly replied with surprising understanding: Fine, if you want him to tutor you, then go ahead.
Yu Xinghan’s eyes lit up. Did Senior Sister guess? That makes sense. This is right around the time I would be taking the Foundation Establishment examination. My sudden request must have made her guess it was related to the exam.
Yu Xinghan knew that it was impossible for the righteous gods to detect instances where examination information was accidentally guessed through such indirect means.
That was why a show of force was necessary before and after signing the contract.
It could be said that the real guarantee of the candidates’ safety was not the contract, but the military might of the righteous gods and the resolve of the Heavenly Court.
Senior Sister is truly sharp as a tack.
Yu Xinghan quickly replied: Zhang Yu raised his price to 50,000. 50,000 per hour.
Li Xuelian: That expensive? Wasn’t it only 15,000 before?
Yu Xinghan: How can now be the same as before?
After a long pause, Li Xuelian finally replied: Have him add me. I’ll talk to him myself.
Yu Xinghan cursed inwardly, Oh no, did I quote too high?
After thinking for a moment, he quickly replied: I talked him down. For my sake, he’s willing to lower it to 30,000 an hour.
Seeing that Li Xuelian finally dropped the matter and began discussing the number of sessions with him, Yu Xinghan let out a small sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, on another train, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen were also on their way back.
Bai Zhenzhen sighed, “There’s still a big gap between me and the top-tier young masters of the Immortal Capital.”
As she replayed Yun Jing’s display of power in her mind, she subconsciously clenched her fists.
At first, she thought he was just mindlessly overpowering his opponents, a beautiful display of crushing someone with money.
But after careful analysis, Bai Zhenzhen realized it might not be that simple.
He was targeting me.
After discovering that I specialize in high-speed close combat, he used a large-scale power-based move to literally push me off the arena.
He used the arena’s environment, space, and power to completely suppress my high-speed fighting style, preventing me from using any of my advantages and forcing me into a contest of pure strength with him.
That guy isn’t just powerful and rich; he also fights by targeting his opponent’s weaknesses.
At this thought, Bai Zhenzhen’s expression grew even more solemn. “To beat that guy in three months, not only do my stats need to improve, but I also need to learn and deduce a few more powerful cultivation techniques.”
Bai Zhenzhen lamented, “All in all, I feel like I’ll need to spend another few million in the coming months.”
Beside her, Zhang Yu nodded in deep agreement. Comparing himself to Ye Lingxiao, he thought, In the remaining three months, I not only have to push my Dao heart, magic power, and physical strength all to the limit of Qi Refinement.
I also need to continue learning new cultivation techniques.
Ideally, I’d assemble another Technique-Chaining Diagram set, one that’s even more powerful than the High School Sacred Body.
Zhang Yu knew that the Feather Book’s Technique-Chaining Diagram could only hold ten cultivation techniques. A set required six techniques to activate its initial effect and ten to reach its ultimate effect, meaning only one set could be active at a time.
Therefore, unless a new set was stronger than the High School Sacred Body, it would be meaningless for him.
Of the sets I can see, the Heavenly Martial Battle Heart, Great Sage’s Successor, Martial Dao Holy Embryo, and Scion of Dragons seem like they might be stronger than the High School Sacred Body.
However, I haven’t found all ten cultivation techniques for the Heavenly Martial Battle Heart or the Great Sage’s Successor yet.
So the only ones I can complete are the Martial Dao Holy Embryo or the Scion of Dragons.
The thought of the cultivation techniques required for these two sets made Zhang Yu sigh inwardly.
He wasn’t worried about not being able to learn them. With the triple cultivation effect from the High School Sacred Body, he could turn the next three months into nine months of training.
Zhang Yu’s worry was the same as Bai Zhenzhen’s… money.
Over the next three months, I’ll need to spend at least several million to have a chance of surpassing Ye Lingxiao, and maybe even tens of millions to be safe.
A cultivation expenditure of several or tens of millions was nothing to the truly wealthy, like Ye Lingxiao or Yun Jing. It might even be considered frugal.
But for poor cultivators like Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, it was an astronomical sum they could never have imagined in the past.
As if hearing their laments, the awakened Fu Ji spoke in their minds, “Ordinary part-time jobs won’t cover your cultivation expenses.”
“You’ve already borrowed all the money and taken out all the loans you can.”
“The only path left for you now is to continue tilling the fields of the dark world of tutoring.”
“It just so happens that your respective strengths have improved rapidly recently, and with my guidance, the danger of getting caught up in gang disputes is minimal.”
To prevent being overheard on the train, Bai Zhenzhen typed on her phone: But I’m afraid that when we go back, the Zhou family will continue to have people follow us.
If we’re constantly being watched, we won’t be able to do anything in the tutoring world.
Bai Zhenzhen remembered the Zhou Hao who had repelled her when she went to find Zhou Chechen last time.
According to him, this Zhou Hao was a graduate of one of the 72 lower-tier colleges, a peak Qi Refinement expert for sure.
And based on a few subtle probes Bai Zhenzhen had conducted while delivering food, the people who were tracking and monitoring her later were also very strong, likely on the same level as that Zhou Hao.
Bai Zhenzhen: These people are strong and have various tracking methods. Shaking them off won’t be easy and will only make them more suspicious.
Zhang Yu also typed a reply: So it’s not just about shaking them off, but finding a way to deal with them for good, or at least making the Zhou family temporarily give up on their 24-hour surveillance of us.
Bai Zhenzhen: Do you have a plan?
Zhang Yu looked at the new friend he had added, the sixth-rank World Roaming God, Deng Bingding.
Zhang Yu realized that the key to breaking this deadlock might lie with this righteous god.
The Zhou family would never know he had befriended such a righteous god, so how to best use this information asymmetry would be crucial.
However, he was still unclear about many of the ways of the righteous gods. Fortunately, he had Fu Ji, an experienced evil god, right here.
Zhang Yu immediately told them about adding a righteous god as a friend, planning to discuss with Fu Ji and Bai Zhenzhen how to deal with the Zhou family’s surveillance.
Upon hearing this, Fu Ji laughed heartily, “Oh? A sixth-rank World Roaming God?”
“That is indeed something worth planning around.”
“If we can make good use of this righteous god’s power, it will be enough to make the Zhou family suffer a major setback and have no time to deal with you two.”
Bai Zhenzhen: Righteous gods aren’t easy to manipulate, are they? Are we supposed to use this examination incident? But from the Zhou family’s reaction last time, they know the waters are deep and won’t be easily fooled.
Although Bai Zhenzhen didn’t mention the Foundation Establishment examination, Fu Ji and Zhang Yu naturally knew what she meant.
From the fact that the Zhou family hadn’t sent anyone to follow them when they left the city last time, it was clear they had information about the examination and were wary, not easily tricked.
But Fu Ji chuckled and continued to transmit her voice into their minds, “So we don’t need to lure the Zhou family into investigating the Foundation Establishment examination. We just need to give this sixth-rank god a chance to intervene.”
“Do you two know why the gods of Kunxu are so greedy for money?”
Zhang Yu had long been curious about this and immediately asked, “Why?”
Fu Ji said, “Naturally, it’s because the Eight Ministries of Righteous Gods also need money if they want to raise their rank, increase their divine power, and improve their talismans.”
Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen were both surprised to hear this. They never expected that righteous gods also had to spend money to advance. Wasn’t that just like mortals using talismans?
Fu Ji continued, “Making money, or rather, reclaiming wealth from all over Kunxu, is a major mission for all righteous gods.”
Fu Ji sighed, “From this perspective, the Ten Great Sects are truly far-sighted. They’re not just forcing you all to climb upwards.”
A thoughtful look appeared in Zhang Yu’s eyes, while Bai Zhenzhen frowned and asked, “What on earth do you mean?”
Fu Ji lamented, “Back then, after the Ten Great Sects unified the thirty-six layers of Kunxu and eliminated all dissent, they deeply felt the difficulty of managing Kunxu. So they created the Eight Ministries of Righteous Gods, shaping a group of righteous gods to govern the world for them…”