Chapter 213: Zhang Yu’s Leaps and Bounds and the Gold Medal Trial Class
Looking at the poster, Zhang Yu said with some skepticism, “This is the hottest market?”
On the other end, Black Crow had already sent another message: The silver-haired economy, tutoring classes for the elderly, is currently the most profitable market in the dark world of tutoring.
Black Crow: Because the techniques you’ve demonstrated before are more suited for students and construction sites, and not really for this market, you probably haven’t had much contact with it.
Black Crow: I’m not clear on your current situation either. Since you asked, I’ll tell you about the most profitable market at the moment, which is also the market where our Dark Learning Gang is fiercely competing with the Golden Class Gang.
Black Crow: The theoretical maximum lifespan for the Qi Refinement stage is 150 years, so there are a large number of elderly people in Songyang City’s tutoring market.
Black Crow: The elderly have some savings, and in order not to be eliminated from the market, they need to constantly cultivate and learn the new versions and updates of cultivation techniques to keep up with the times and maintain their jobs.
Black Crow: So the elderly tutoring market has always been in high demand and is very profitable.
Black Crow: However, the requirements for the elderly tutoring market are also very high. After all, those who can live to old age and continue to work are all at the peak of Qi Refinement for many years. The tutoring they need is definitely not for basic techniques, but for many high-difficulty ones.
Black Crow: Besides the new version techniques required for work, there are also longevity techniques, techniques to metabolize medicinal toxins after years of taking alchemical enhancers, and techniques to repair hidden injuries in the body… these are all big hits.
Black Crow: After all, only by ensuring their health and overcoming the damage from years of taking alchemical enhancers and working overtime can they maintain their competitiveness in the workplace.
Reading the messages from Black Crow, Zhang Yu gained a basic understanding of what was most profitable in the current dark world of tutoring.
He thought to himself, That’s right. As the number of university, college, and high school graduates increases year by year, the number of elderly Qi Refinement cultivators is bound to grow as well. This group of elderly people has more savings than the young, and the techniques they need to learn are more expensive than those for the young. This is indeed a huge market.
Zhang Yu immediately asked again: Spring and Autumn Endless Zen, is there a market for it?
Black Crow: The Immortal Resonance Group’s Spring and Autumn Endless Zen? Haha, of course there’s a market for it. Teacher Ma, you know this top-tier technique?
The Dark Learning Gang was backed by the Deep Sea Education Group. As a rival to the Immortal Resonance Group, they had always loved to crack and pirate the Immortal Resonance Group’s cultivation techniques.
And Spring and Autumn Endless Zen, as a top-tier expert-level body tempering technique that also had the effects of enhancing metabolism and expelling medicinal toxins, made Black Crow’s interest spike like a cat that smelled fish the moment he heard Zhang Yu’s alias, Ma Yunteng, mention it.
Black Crow: In three days, the gang will arrange for several prospective gold medal teachers to hold trial classes. Teacher Ma, if you’re interested, I can arrange it for you.
As Zhang Yu and Black Crow set the appointment for the trial class in three days, Bai Zhenzhen, on the side, frowned and said, “I don’t seem to have any techniques suitable for teaching the elderly.”
Fu Ji said, “Zhen, you have the True Spiritual Root and thunder magic power infused in your dantian’s sea of qi. The most suitable path for you to become stronger is ultimately combat.”
“And right now, the gang war between the Dark Learning Gang and the Golden Class Gang is very suitable for you. Not only can it earn you money, but it can also hone your practical combat skills in preparation for the Foundation Establishment exam in three months.”
“In my opinion, the best arrangement for you two is for Zhang Yu to become a gold medal teacher and teach classes, while you participate in gang battles to hone your strength and earn money at the same time.”
Zhang Yu frowned. “Gang battles… won’t they be dangerous?”
“Nonsense, how can real combat not be dangerous? But compared to battles involving real military-grade forces, compared to corporate wars, and compared to your future fight against the evil god’s followers behind the Zhou family, the intensity of gang battles is definitely quite low.”
“If you don’t even dare to take this much risk in combat, what’s the point of thinking about climbing up?”
Bai Zhenzhen nodded, a trace of determination flashing in her eyes. “Fu Ji is right.”
“This path is indeed suitable for me.”
“Yu-boy, don’t worry. With the True Spiritual Root assisting me, and my speed being so fast, even if I encounter someone I can’t beat, can’t I still run?”
Zhang Yu looked deeply at Bai Zhenzhen, knowing that this was the path she had chosen for herself, her decision, a resolve made to pass the Foundation Establishment certificate exam. As her closest friend, he could only respect her decision.
Thus, Bai Zhenzhen also went on the Kun Shen World, added Black Crow as a friend, and, under her original alias Le Mulan, signed up to participate in the Dark Learning Gang’s battles.
Black Crow: Teacher Le, you’ve come at the right time. The gang is currently in need of an expert like you. As it happens, there’s an operation in four days. I wonder if you’d be interested in participating?
After making their arrangements with Black Crow, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen threw themselves wholeheartedly into their respective cultivation, preparing for the upcoming classes and battles.
In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.
During these three days, with the help of the High School Sacred Body, Zhang Yu first cultivated the Resentful Baleful Art to level 10, forging a complete copper-armored corpse skin.
When this technique reached level 10, with a single exertion of force, his skin would take on a bronze hue, as if he were wearing a layer of armor.
He tried cutting the back of his hand with a small knife and found that he had to use more than 30% of his strength to even draw a trace of blood.
It felt less like cutting his own skin and more like cutting a thick, hard layer of callus.
It was clear that after cultivating the Resentful Baleful Art, his skin possessed a resilience and defensive power far beyond what it had before.
And after cultivating this Resentful Baleful Art to level 10, he felt a sense of wanting more.
Fu Ji pointed out from the side, “This Resentful Baleful Art should have subsequent versions.”
“But you only bought the usage rights for the Qi Refinement version.”
“If you want to continue cultivating this technique after Foundation Establishment and push it to level 20, you’ll have to buy the usage rights for the Foundation Establishment version.”
Zhang Yu wasn’t particularly interested in this, as Fu Ji didn’t know that he was cultivating so many techniques to form the Martial Dao Holy Embryo. He hadn’t thought much about what techniques he would cultivate in the Foundation Establishment stage.
And over these three days, besides tempering his skin with the Resentful Baleful Art, Zhang Yu had also borrowed the Profound Thunder Searing Acupuncture Set from Bai Zhenzhen to help him cultivate the expert-level technique he obtained from Songyang High School, the Thunderclap Marrow-Washing Scripture.
This Thunderclap Marrow-Washing Scripture was a top-tier body tempering technique that enhanced bone density by using electric shocks to aid in bone marrow generation and accelerate bone reforging.
And Songyang High School’s set of the Profound Thunder Searing Acupuncture Set could be said to have been acquired by the school specifically to complement this technique.
Zhang Yu had all 999 silver needles inserted all over his body, with bolts of lightning coursing through his bone marrow, reshaping his skeleton with the method of the Thunderclap Marrow-Washing Scripture.
In the process of Zhang Yu pushing the Thunderclap Marrow-Washing Scripture from level 1 to level 9, all the bones in his body except for his skull had been renewed, emitting a silvery-white luster under his flesh.
And at this moment, when Zhang Yu finally pushed the Thunderclap Marrow-Washing Scripture to level 10, his skull, as if having undergone a thousand temperings in an instant, also became a silvery-white.
As the bones throughout his body were renewed, and his bone density and strength surged, Zhang Yu’s weight also increased with the weight of his bones, reaching over 300 kilograms with little change in his body shape.
The level 10 effect of the Thunderclap Marrow-Washing Scripture even allowed him to slowly repair bone damage by circulating the technique.
He patted his chest and felt that the flesh tempered by the Resentful Baleful Art, combined with the ribs tempered by the Thunderclap Marrow-Washing Scripture, was like a double layer of armor protecting his internal organs.
And Zhang Yu’s physical strength had finally crossed the last step, reaching the Qi Refinement limit of level 10 physical strength.
“Although my physical strength only increased by about 0.06 levels.”
“These two protective techniques have made my combat power far exceed what it was before.”
“As expected, after reaching the limits of Dao heart, magic power, and physical strength in the Qi Refinement stage, cultivating more techniques is the best way to increase one’s power.”
Looking at Zhen, who was still cultivating, Zhang Yu said to the Profound Thunder Searing Acupuncture Set, “Artifact spirit, stop the training mode.”
The artifact spirit’s voice came from the needle box: “Stopping training mode. Entering standby, awaiting user command.”
The 999 silver needles flashed with electric light as they shot out from Zhang Yu’s body and returned to the needle box.
Twisting his neck and listening to the crackling sounds from his brand-new bones, Zhang Yu smiled slightly. “Zhen, you continue cultivating. I’m off to the trial class.”
Bai Zhenzhen waved her hand and said, “Good luck, earn a lot.”
The meeting place Zhang Yu had arranged with Black Crow was in an abandoned underground transport station.
Zhang Yu, having altered his appearance, had just arrived at the platform when he saw a young girl standing in front of Black Crow, discussing something with him.
Zhang Yu had no intention of eavesdropping, so he turned his head and was about to walk to the side to wait.
But then he heard the girl say angrily, “Teacher! My grandpa secretly watches porn in class, he just watches porn! The moment I open his phone, it’s all porn. There’s not even space to store the textbooks!”
The girl’s words made Zhang Yu stop in his tracks.
The girl continued, “Because he doesn’t pay attention in class, his cultivation technique progress can’t keep up, and his work performance has been declining for months!”
“My grandpa has never been self-disciplined. My dad told me that when my grandpa was working, he was unwilling to work overtime and hadn’t been promoted even by the age of 50. He couldn’t even afford my dad’s and my tutoring fees.”
“So I’m begging you, please help keep an eye on him, so that he can keep up with his cultivation techniques and earn more money.”
“We won’t spend the money recklessly. We’ll save it all for you and come to your place for tutoring in the future.”
Black Crow said helplessly, “The teachers here are very busy. We generally don’t handle classroom discipline.”
After a long back-and-forth, the class in the nearby classroom finally ended, and the girl had to go pick up her grandpa.
Black Crow finally let out a sigh of relief, looked at Zhang Yu standing to the side, and smiled. “Teacher Ma, you’re here.”
Zhang Yu asked curiously, “That just now…”
Black Crow explained casually, “Oh, that was a student with a low IQ due to long-term alchemical enhancer use. His family members have poor educational backgrounds and low incomes, and they all hope this mentally challenged student can continue to earn money, so they sent him here.”
Black Crow continued, “A reminder for you, today’s trial class is a real class, and you will be facing real elderly clients.”
“I wonder which course you plan to teach?”
Zhang Yu said flatly, “Spring and Autumn Endless Zen.”