Chapter 527: Undercurrents Stirring
As the top student in her class for three consecutive years, Su Yunni had always believed she could maintain her position indefinitely.
She had initially dismissed Zhang Yu, who had transferred from the Civil Engineering Department, as no real competition.
However, over the past few months, as Zhang Yu’s reputation in the Artifact Refinement Department steadily grew, Su Yunni couldn’t help but feel a competitive edge. She resolved to defend her hard-earned position as the class’s top student at all costs.
Reviewing notes, grinding practice problems, conducting experiments… the thought of Zhang Yu breathing down her neck kept her from even a moment’s complacency.
On the day of the exam, she poured every ounce of effort into it, pulling out all the stops.
On that early September evening, Su Yunni frantically refreshed the results page in her Bionic Eye, eager to see her score as soon as it was released.
“First!”
Seeing her ranking, Su Yunni breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m still the top student in the class.”
Just as Su Yunni was feeling a smug sense of satisfaction and preparing to check the group chat for praise, she saw Zi Yunzhen’s message: “Did you guys know? Zhang Yu finished his exam half an hour early.”
Another member replied: “I was in the same examination field as him. He left the laboratory an hour early.”
Zi Yunzhen: “That early? No wonder he was already there when I went to the lab the other day.”
Su Yunni frowned at these messages and quickly checked the rankings and overall scores again.
Zhang Yu remained second in the class, but due to his increased overall score and the graduation of the Ten Greats students, his department ranking had jumped from 48th to 39th.
After calculating Zhang Yu’s change in overall score, Su Yunni realized he had gained the same number of points as she had in the final exams.
“I got a perfect score… and so did he?”
But then Su Yunni remembered how she had worked tirelessly to achieve her perfect score, while Zhang Yu had left every exam early, clearly not exerting his full effort.
The excitement of maintaining her top rank in the class instantly cooled. Su Yunni felt like she had thrown a punch into cotton, her meticulously prepared final exams met with Zhang Yu’s casual indifference.
“Is all his energy focused on his projects?”
The light flickered in Su Yunni’s Bionic Eye as she opened her senior-year textbooks one by one.
“I need to start preparing seriously for the Design Competition too.”
Despite Zhang Yu’s claim of facing Jin Jun head-on, Su Yunni naturally doubted his chances of success.
Determined to excel in the Design Competition, Su Yunni resolved, “I’ll secure a top ranking and claim the military-grade cultivation technique before Zhang Yu can even complete a military-grade project.”
While purchasing artifact refinement materials for her experiments, Su Yunni’s brow furrowed slightly. “Have raw materials gone up in price?”
“Could it be because of the Ten Greats League?”
Although the raw material prices had increased somewhat, it was a minor concern for Su Yunni, and she quickly dismissed it.
The release of final exam results also marked the arrival of the new academic year.
Zhang Yu had now become a fourth year university student.
In the Songyang Hometown Group chat, students were constantly refreshing the feed.
Most of the messages came from freshmen who had just arrived at the second-tier universities after the national college entrance exam. They had been the most active posters when they first joined the group, and now they frequently discussed the environments, academics, coursework, and dormitories of their respective schools.
As Zhang Yu read their conversations, he felt like he was seeing a reflection of his own freshman self.
Yu Xinghan: “90% new used Heavenly Eye Bionic. Anyone interested?”
Yu Xinghan: “You can’t even attend classes properly without a good Bionic Eye in college.”
Seeing Yu Xinghan recommending Bionic Eyes to the freshmen again, Zhang Yu wasn’t surprised. Many others in the group did similar things, a sort of “old-timers guiding the newcomers” tradition in Songyang City.
However, some of the freshmen’s discussions caught Zhang Yu’s attention.
“Has Songyang High School really become one of the top four high schools in Songyang City?”
Zhang Yu noticed that many of the newly graduated Songyang High School students in the group were asking about him, seemingly particularly interested in him.
“I can’t believe my legend still lingers at Songyang High School, even after I’ve been gone for years.”
As the freshmen in the group buzzed with youthful energy, the graduating seniors occasionally chimed in with their own lamentations.
“Have you guys found jobs yet?”
“This month’s employment rate dropped again. I heard it’s related to the Ten Greats League.”
“Graduation means unemployment… I guess I’ll have to take odd jobs for now.”
Most students still struggled to grasp the graduates’ anxieties.
The slight fluctuations in employment data seemed to most like just the usual annual variations.
The launch of the Ten Greats League, however, captured widespread attention, even interrupting Zhang Yu’s secluded cultivation in the Supreme Clarity Realm.
This year’s Ten Greats League was being held on a floating island amidst a sea of clouds.
Beyond the various academic competitions, the military competitions naturally drew the most attention.
The Ten Universities Sword Tournament, in particular, had many eyes on it, with Zhang Yu knowing that Bai Zhenzhen and Wen Wuya would be participating.
There was also the Ten Universities Magical Artifact Competition, which Zhang Yu knew would feature Yan Qianji from the Artifact Refinement Department, his senior sister Ye Xingli, and several other Heavenly Chosen from the department.
Ye Xingli’s participation meant her experimental project was temporarily suspended, leaving her assistant, Zi Yunzhen, without any research tasks for the time being.
Zhang Yu had a decent impression of Zi Yunzhen. “She cleans materials very thoroughly,” he thought.
Considering starting to refine the Heavenly Sun Radiance God soon, Zhang Yu wondered if he could recruit Zi Yunzhen as his assistant for miscellaneous tasks, speeding up his refinement progress.
When Zhang Yu extended the invitation, Zi Yunzhen simply asked, “What’s the salary?”
Zhang Yu replied, “Young people shouldn’t focus solely on money. Don’t you want to participate in a military-grade project?”
“Besides,” Zhang Yu added, “I can repair magical artifacts. If you join my project team, I’ll personally help you fix yours.”
Zi Yunzhen showed little interest in Zhang Yu’s empty promises, offering a perfunctory reply before losing interest.
Just after replying to the message on her Bionic Eye, she noticed her neighbor’s dormitory door was ajar, a pungent stench wafting from within.
She knew her neighbor was a senior student in the Artifact Refinement Department, but hadn’t seen him in ages.
Today, she learned he had committed suicide in his dorm several days ago, apparently due to a catastrophic stock market crash.
“Several stocks have been plummeting lately,” she mused.
However, Zi Yunzhen had seen plenty of cases of people killing themselves over stock market losses, so she glanced at the scene briefly before dismissing it.
Casually entering the dorm, Zi Yunzhen adjusted her Bionic Eye.
“Isn’t today the Ten Universities Sword Tournament?”
“Why has the competition’s medical insurance gone up so much?”
Above the sea of clouds, Bai Zhenzhen stared at the insurance contract and couldn’t help but curse, “Are they treating us like fat sheep to fleece?”
Wen Wuya, standing beside her, said, “Zhenzhen, aren’t all insurance companies like this? If it weren’t for Teacher’s influence and the need to ensure fairness in the Ten Greats League, they probably wouldn’t even sell us insurance at all.”
With a soft whoosh, a sword qi struck Wen Wuya, clashing briefly with her Body-Protecting Qi.
Wen Wuya paid it no mind; after all, Bai Zhenzhen’s sword qi now materialized from thin air with even the slightest emotional fluctuation.
Fortunately, Bai Zhenzhen’s control had improved significantly. Students at the Lower College level or higher could generally survive her sword strikes, and powerful students like Wen Wuya could simply ignore them.
The other academic overachievers from Heavenly Sword University nearby were equally unfazed, none of them being weaklings.
Bai Zhenzhen muttered, “Still too expensive.”
Wen Wuya reassured her, “I heard the insurance fees for the Ten Greats League have increased this year. It’s normal for them to be higher.”
But in the next moment, Bai Zhenzhen’s expression abruptly shifted from gloomy to radiant joy, her body swaying as if she had a tail wagging.
Seeing this, Wen Wuya immediately understood she was communicating with Zhang Yu.
The whooshing sound of blades slicing through the air erupted as the Heavenly Sword University students, including Wen Wuya, swiftly moved away from Bai Zhenzhen.
A crimson sword light swept around her, leaving deep, glowing sword marks in the air.
Watching this, Wen Wuya thought to himself, “Every time Zhenzhen talks to Zhang Yu, it’s her most dangerous moment.”
“Did Divine Monarch Seven Emotions deliberately arrange this pre-match call to boost Zhenzhen’s combat power?”
“A-Zhen, hang in there!”
After ending the call with Bai Zhenzhen, Zhang Yu received a message from Ying Xin.
“Has the project payment arrived yet?”
Zhang Yu immediately contacted True Person Gathering Star, the project manager, but the response left him feeling helpless.
True Person Gathering Star: “It’s not that I don’t want to help, but everyone’s funds are currently frozen. There’s nothing I can do.”
True Person Gathering Star: “Many upcoming projects may have to be temporarily suspended. Tell your team to hang in there a bit longer. Things should be resolved after the Ten Greats League concludes.”
Zhang Yu: “What does the Ten Greats League have to do with this? How can a competition affect our projects?”
True Person Gathering Star: “Don’t ask me. I have no idea either.”
Looking at his employees, who were eagerly awaiting their paychecks, Zhang Yu had no choice but to dip into his personal savings again to issue partial salaries. He also advised Zhao Tianxing and the others to find temporary part-time jobs to tide them over.
Then, Zhang Yu turned his attention to the live broadcast in his Bionic Eye. Bai Zhenzhen’s sword duel against her opponent had already begun.
The two combatants clashed repeatedly amidst the boundless sea of clouds, covering hundreds of kilometers as they probed each other’s movements while concealing their own.
Amidst the churning clouds, only flashes of sword light occasionally pierced through, leaving trails of sword marks hundreds of meters long across the sky.
Leveraging the concealment abilities of her Divine Spirit Root, Bai Zhenzhen remained undetected by her opponent and ultimately succeeded in knocking them out of the cloud void.
Zhang Yu observed that each subsequent sword duel grew increasingly fierce, with casualties gradually mounting.
Beyond the sword duels, as the Ten Greats League progressed, Zhang Yu quickly noticed that other military competitions were equally intense. While casualties weren’t as high as in the sword duels, they still surpassed previous years’ figures.
Zhang Yu mused inwardly, “They say the Ten Great Universities use the Ten Greats League results to allocate resources. Could the intensifying conflicts between the universities be driving this increased ferocity in the league?”
When Bai Zhenzhen clashed with a Spirit Transformation disciple from White Bone University, the intensity reached a new peak.