Chapter 220: A Foundation Establishment Exam… with an Audience?
On the 333rd floor of Songyang City’s Central Tower.
The lower half of Zhou Yang’s body was gone; he was lying on a hospital bed, looking out the window.
He gazed at the Oasis Tower, which was under construction not far away, its height gradually surpassing the Central Tower, and felt as if he were watching the ascendant Oasis Group itself, surpassing all the old, powerful families of Songyang.
Zhou Yang thought, Following synthetic food, even synthetic meat has been commercialized. With this, the food market on Kunxu’s first layer will likely be flooded with related products in the future.
But Zhou Yang knew that technology alone was not enough to monopolize a market.
Just like before, the Oasis Group, despite possessing more advanced synthetic food technology, still had to cooperate with local companies and families to enter the Songyang City market.
Zhou Yang thought of the cooperation the Oasis Group had initiated half a year ago with the three major high schools and their backing corporations on the development of three new body tempering technologies.
“The next step might be the synthesis of human organs.”
“I heard that a prestigious family in the Immortal Capital is already combining their bloodline technology with the human body technology mastered by the Oasis Group.”
“If that’s the case, in the future, not only food, but even the cultivation of the next generation of the major families and their body tempering training will all be inseparable from the Oasis Group.”
But Zhou Yang understood that this didn’t mean the Oasis Group would dominate Kunxu’s first layer alone. Rather, the powerful local families and corporations everywhere would inevitably cooperate with them.
“The current overt and covert struggles between the various companies and families in Songyang City are merely for the sake of securing more shares and greater power in the future cooperation.”
“Some companies and families will gradually weaken in this process and eventually fade into the river of history.”
“But the remaining families and companies, together with the Oasis Group, will become a behemoth spanning the entire first layer of Kunxu, further monopolizing everything from food and cultivation to bloodlines…”
“Facing this tide of the era, for the Zhou family to survive this change, or to go a step further and secure a better position, the best way is to enhance the power of the evil god…”
Zhou Yang could imagine that the struggle in Songyang City would only intensify, and he and the Zhou family would face an even more dangerous situation.
Thinking of this, he felt an ever-increasing sense of urgency.
However, the Zhou family ranked low among the sixteen great families of Songyang City, making it difficult to compete head-on with powerful clans like the Song family or the Le family.
This was especially true after the lockdown of the Myriad Stars Group, which had dealt a blow to both him and the Zhou family.
In comparison…
“Rather than trying to compete with other powerful families, it would be better to deal with Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, two weak individuals, after the Foundation Establishment exam, and capture the evil god behind them.”
Zhou Yang picked up his phone, looked at the message he received, and slowly exhaled. They’ve departed?
“Once the Foundation Establishment exam is over, the righteous gods won’t protect you like they do now.”
“Given the disparity in our wealth and information…”
Whether he acted himself, sent others, or used the leverage he had on the evil god’s believers to control them, in Zhou Yang’s view, once the protection of the Foundation Establishment exam was gone, things would be simple.
“The situation is changing rapidly. As soon as the Foundation Establishment exam ends, I need to take care of these two as quickly as possible.”
Thinking about the current developments, Zhou Yang grew more and more impatient, as if he could already see Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen in his grasp, to be molded and manipulated as he pleased.
On the train heading to the Immortal Capital.
As his phone vibrated, Zhang Yu was about to tap and see who the message was from, but his hand slipped… and a video popped up on the screen instead.
He was about to close the video, but when he tapped the close button, it jumped to a shopping platform.
Looking at the “You Might Like” section displaying kidney-strengthening capsules, Zhang Yu frowned and clicked close, and this time, it finally closed.
Damn… as the corporate wars intensify, these ads and big data are getting more and more outrageous.
“Was that vibration just now a message from Yu Xinghan?”
Seeing the two characters for “Good luck” sent by Yu Xinghan, Zhang Yu smiled slightly, knowing that Yu Xinghan was aware he was on his way to the Foundation Establishment exam and had sent the message for that reason.
Meanwhile, in a classroom at White Dragon High School.
Yu Xinghan looked at the smiling emoji Zhang Yu sent back and thought, Zhang Yu is very impressive, but he’s still a year behind that young master from the Immortal Capital. Judging from the last round of the Foundation Establishment exam, the gap between them is quite large.
But even though he won’t pass this time, his chances of success in the next Foundation Establishment exam are very high.
I’ll be in the same year as him then. I must build a good relationship with this guy and stay out of his way…
While Yu Xinghan was pondering these things, on the train, Zhang Yu thought, From what Yu Xinghan has intentionally and unintentionally revealed during this time…
He doesn’t think I can snatch a Foundation Establishment certificate this time, so he wants to get on good terms with me, so that during next year’s exam, he can reach a tacit understanding with me and Zhen, and we can all secure our certificates together.
As for whether he could defeat his opponent, Ye Lingxiao, in this Foundation Establishment exam, Zhang Yu naturally couldn’t guarantee it with absolute certainty.
After all, he had no idea what kind of progress Ye Lingxiao had made over the past three months.
But he believed that as long as he gave it his all, his chances of success were definitely not small.
With this thought, Zhang Yu subconsciously glanced at his Feather Book.
The Technique-Chaining Diagram could hold a total of ten cultivation techniques. After he had swapped out eight of them, the original High School Sacred Body had been replaced by the Martial Dao Holy Embryo.
Because it could hold a maximum of ten techniques, and set effects like the High School Sacred Body and the Martial Dao Holy Embryo required six techniques to activate, only one of them could be active at a time.
Primary - Martial Dao Holy Embryo (6/6): Holy Embryo initially formed, durability and external wound self-healing ability skyrocket.
Advanced - Martial Dao Holy Embryo (8/8): Holy Embryo minor accomplishment, physical body’s load-bearing capacity and internal wound self-healing ability skyrocket, body gains an overload ability.
The second-tier effect of the Martial Dao Holy Embryo caused his body’s load-bearing capacity and internal wound self-healing ability to skyrocket.
Zhang Yu mused, The surge in load-bearing capacity allows me to unleash my physical strength beyond its normal limits without worrying about muscle and bone tearing or breaking, increasing the ceiling and endurance of my explosive power.
Coupled with this overload ability… my bursts of power will be even more terrifying.
The surge in my internal wound self-healing, combined with the previous surge in external wound self-healing, gives my health insurance another layer of protection.
Wait, what money do I have for health insurance now?
The reason Zhang Yu couldn’t afford health insurance was not only because he had spent all his money on cultivation techniques, but also because his premiums had become too high.
As his cultivation level and physical strength increased, the cost of treating his injuries also grew, which led the insurance companies to continuously raise his premiums after reassessment, making it even more unaffordable for him.
Zhang Yu had heard from Fu Ji before that some Foundation Establishment or even Golden Core experts in the upper layers were so timid and afraid to speak loudly to anyone simply because they couldn’t afford health insurance.
After all, if a conflict arose, these individuals could neither afford the other party’s medical expenses nor their own.
Such Immortal Dao experts were mockingly called “glass-cannon experts” in the upper layers, meaning they would go bankrupt at the slightest touch, their Immortal Dao foundation being insufficiently solid and incredibly fragile.
But now, with the enhancement of the Martial Dao Holy Embryo, I’m not afraid of most injuries even without health insurance.
If I had to name my biggest weakness right now…
Zhang Yu looked at the data on his Feather Book.
Dao Heart: Level 8 (89.5%)
Although it was a leap from before, compared to his magic power and physical strength, which had already reached the limits of Qi Refinement, his Dao heart was clearly still lacking.
But there was nothing to be done; of the several million he had earned from tutoring recently, the vast majority had been invested in purchasing cultivation techniques, and that had only been enough to assemble the eight techniques for the Martial Dao Holy Embryo.
The additional means of improving his Dao heart relied on the Resentment Spiritual Root and the school’s Spirit Realm quota. Reaching his current level of 8 (89.5%) was already the limit.
However, Zhang Yu understood that he didn’t need to dwell on this. He had made all the preparations he could. All that was left to do… was to perform to the best of his ability in the examination hall.
Speaking of Dao heart level, Bai Zhenzhen, on the other hand, had already raised her Dao heart to level 10, becoming an existence whose Dao heart, magic power, and physical strength had all reached the limits of Qi Refinement.
After all, Zhen doesn’t need to buy as many cultivation techniques as I do to assemble a set effect for the Technique-Chaining Diagram, so she can invest more money into her Dao heart.
But Zhang Yu knew that while Bai Zhenzhen hadn’t mastered as many techniques as he had, having only learned two new ones in the past three months, the deductive ability of her True Spiritual Root granted her techniques even more powerful level-10 effects.
For instance, the Myriad Sword Everlasting Art she learned during the Foundation Establishment exam, after deduction, could now be accelerated by thunder magic power at level 10, with each sword strike faster than the last, breaking the sound barrier on the twelfth strike to unleash a supersonic attack.
Furthermore, the two new techniques she learned, after deduction, were extremely well-suited for arena combat, a preparation Bai Zhenzhen had made specifically to contend for the Foundation Establishment certificate.
Looking at the floating metropolis gradually appearing in his vision, Zhang Yu thought, We’re finally arriving.
The final round of the Foundation Establishment exam.
Thinking about the past year of struggle, the repeated battles, all about to culminate in a final result, Zhang Yu felt the blood coursing through his veins, a sense of excitement and nervousness he had never felt before.
After disembarking at the station in the Immortal Capital.
Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen didn’t dare to go to any restaurants or drink shops.
As for the massage chairs that would emit a piercing alarm if you didn’t pay, those were also out of the question.
They could only find an empty spot in the station to rest for a while, waiting for the start time of the Foundation Establishment exam.
It was the same familiar restroom, the same familiar website. When Zhang Yu clicked to enter, he felt his body drop, and when he came to his senses again, he had appeared in a vast plaza.
What surprised him greatly, however, was that surrounding the plaza, besides the five righteous god proctors, there were now stands filled with spectators, and the figures in those stands were currently looking at him.
“Spectators?!”
Zhang Yu stared in shock at the surrounding stands. The final round of the Foundation Establishment exam… actually has spectators? And so many of them?!
What on earth is going on?