Not long after the second round of the Foundation Establishnt exam ended.
1.5th Floor of Xiandu City.
Ye Lingxiao stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows of a skyscraper, looking out at Central Cloudsea Park. Speaking into the phone, she said, “Yes, that Dao Heart Buffer Capsule is very interesting.”
“I can’t reveal the full details, but if there’s an opportunity… I’d love to get our lab to analyze it. I’m willing to participate in related research...”
After discussing it with her elder on the other end of the line for over ten minutes, Ye Lingxiao suddenly brought up another matter.
“Uncle, there’s sothing else I’d like you to look into.”
“In other cities on the First Floor of Kunxu, has any company developed technology related to drug tabolism?”
“As for what kind?” Ye Lingxiao thought back to Zhang Yu’s performance in the Foundation Establishnt exam. Choosing her words carefully to avoid disclosing exam-related info, she said, “Basically, anything that can greatly enhance a user’s ability to tabolize dicine.”
“Thanks for your help.”
…
On the train.
Yu Xinghan was ssaging Li Xuelian: Senior Sister.
Li Xuelian replied: Purpose, duration, and how much?
Looking at the funding request she sent back, Yu Xinghan’s fists clenched in frustration. He muttered to himself, “Just wait till we’re back at Red Tower, you’re getting a serious scolding.”
He typed back: I want extra tutoring from Zhang Yu. I think I can learn an incredible amount from him.
Li Xuelian: Zhang Yu? Isn’t he tanking his grades lately? Hanging around him might drag you down too.
Yu Xinghan frowned, montarily at a loss.
He couldn’t ntion the content of the Foundation Establishnt exam. How was he supposed to convince her?
He couldn’t exactly say they were seed-selling buddies and that he knew Zhang Yu inside and out—Yuzi wouldn’t betray him.
Just as he was hesitating, Li Xuelian suddenly ssaged again, more understanding this ti: Fine. If you want to ask him for tutoring, go ahead.
Yu Xinghan’s eyes lit up. “She guessed it? Makes sense—this is exactly when I’d be taking the Foundation Establishnt exam. suddenly bringing this up probably tipped her off that it’s exam-related.”
Yu Xinghan knew these kinds of little leaks—where soone accidentally pieces together confidential info—were sothing even the Righteous Gods couldn’t trace.
That’s why intimidating candidates before and after the contracts was so necessary.
In truth, what really protected examinees wasn’t the contract—it was the force of the Righteous Gods and the determination of the Heavenly Court.
“My Senior Sister really is sharp as a blade.”
He quickly added: Zhang Yu raised his price to 50,000. That’s 50K per hour.
Li Xuelian: That expensive? Wasn’t it just 15K before?
Yu Xinghan: You think it’s the sa situation now?
A long pause. Then finally, Li Xuelian replied: Have him add . I’ll talk to him myself.
Yu Xinghan cursed inwardly: “Did I overquote?”
Thinking quickly, he replied: I begged him. He’s willing to drop it to 30K for .
Once Li Xuelian stopped pushing and started discussing lesson hours, Yu Xinghan finally breathed a little easier.
…
anwhile, on another return train, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen were already seated.
Bai Zhenzhen sighed. “The gap between and those top-tier Xiandu elites is still huge.”
Images of Yun Jing on the arena stage flashed through her mind. Bai Zhenzhen instinctively clenched her fists.
At first, she’d thought Yun Jing was just brute-forcing his way to victory—a kind of artful domination via sheer wealth.
But after analyzing it, she realized it wasn’t that simple.
“He was targeting .”
“Once he realized I specialized in high-speed close combat, he used wide-area power moves to push right off the arena.”
“He leveraged the ring’s environnt—using space and power to completely shut down my speed-based tactics. I couldn’t exploit a single advantage, and was forced to go head-to-head in raw strength.” 𝐑ÄＮ𝖔฿Еș
“This guy isn’t just rich and strong. He knows how to exploit a weakness.”
Her expression darkened further. “If I want to beat him in three months, it’s not just my physical stats that need improving. I’ll need more powerful Techniques to run simulations with too.”
She sighed again. “Whichever way I cut it, I’ll need to burn through several million more.”
Zhang Yu nodded in quiet agreent. Comparing himself to Ye Lingxiao, he thought:
“In the next three months, I need to push my Dao Heart, Mana, and physical strength all to the peak of Qi Refinent.”
“And I need to keep learning more Techniques.”
“I’d best assemble a new Chain Diagram set—one that outclasses the High School Saint Body.”
Zhang Yu knew his Feathered To’s Chain Diagram could only slot ten Techniques, with six needed to activate a full set and ten for maximum effect. That ant only one set could be active at a ti.
So if it wasn’t stronger than the High School Saint Body, it wasn’t worth switching to.
“The sets I can see right now—Celestial Martial Battleheart, Great Sage’s Heir, Martial Saint Embryo, and Dragonblood Descendant—all seem stronger than the High School Saint Body.”
“But I haven’t found all ten Techniques for Celestial Martial Battleheart or Great Sage’s Heir yet.”
“So what I can complete are either Martial Saint Embryo or Dragonblood Descendant.”
And thinking of the Techniques required for either, Zhang Yu couldn’t help but sigh.
He wasn’t worried about learning them—his triple-speed training buff from the High School Saint Body ant he could squeeze nine months of cultivation into three.
No, like Bai Zhenzhen, his problem was money.
“To beat Ye Lingxiao in the next three months, I’ll need to spend at least several million. Realistically, ten million for safety.”
For the truly wealthy—people like Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing—that kind of spending was par for the course. Maybe even frugal.
But for broke cultivators like Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, those numbers were utterly unreal.
As if hearing their thoughts, Fu Ji stirred and spoke directly into their minds: “Ordinary part-ti jobs won’t cover your cultivation expenses anymore.”
“You’ve borrowed all you can. Your loan limits are maxed.”
“There’s only one path left—continue hustling in the Dark Tutoring Gang.”
“You’ve both improved quickly in recent days, and with guiding you, even if you get caught in gang turf wars, you should be fine.”
To avoid eavesdroppers on the train, Bai Zhenzhen typed out her reply: “But what if the Zhou Family sends people to tail us again when we get back?”
“If soone keeps watching us 24/7, we can’t do anything in the tutoring underground.”
She rembered her last visit to Zhou Chechen, when she’d been blocked by Zhou Hao.
He was, by all accounts, a university graduate from the 72 Lower Academies and a full-on peak Qi Refinent cultivator.
From her brief delivery-runs and careful probing, she guessed the ones tailing her now were of similar caliber.
Bai Zhenzhen: “These guys are strong and have tracking tools. Losing them won’t be easy—and might even make them more suspicious.”
Zhang Yu typed back: “Exactly. So we can’t just shake them—we need to eliminate them, or at least make the Zhou Family back off temporarily.”
Bai Zhenzhen: “You have a plan?”
Zhang Yu glanced at his newly added friend: Sixth-Class Sifang Wandering God, Deng Bingding.
He realized this Righteous God might be the key to flipping the situation.
The Zhou Family couldn’t possibly know he had ties with such a figure, so leveraging that information gap could be critical.
Still, he didn’t fully understand how Righteous Gods operated. Luckily, they had Fu Ji—a veteran Evil God—right here.
He told Fu Ji and Bai Zhenzhen about his connection to Deng Bingding and suggested they brainstorm how to deal with the Zhou Family’s tails.
Fu Ji chuckled. “Oh? A Sixth-Class Sifang Wandering God?”
“Definitely worth a strategic play.”
“If you can harness that Righteous God’s power, it’d be more than enough to put the Zhou Family in disarray. They’d be too busy to ss with you two.”
Bai Zhenzhen: “But Righteous Gods aren’t easy to manipulate. You thinking of using the exam as bait? From how the Zhou Family acted last ti, they know how deep those waters run—they won’t bite.”
She didn’t ntion the Foundation Establishnt exam by na, but Fu Ji and Zhang Yu knew exactly what she ant.
And given how the Zhou Family didn’t tail them during their last trip outside the city, it was clear they knew about the exam and were wary of getting involved.
Fu Ji chuckled again, transmitting telepathically: “Exactly. So we don’t need to lure them into the exam. We just need to give this Sixth-Class Wandering God a reason to get involved.”
“Do you know why all the Righteous Gods of Kunxu are so obsessed with money?”
Zhang Yu had long wondered that and imdiately asked, “Why?”
Fu Ji replied, “Because if the Eight Divine Officials want to rank up, strengthen their Divine Power, or upgrade their Talismans, they all need money.”
Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen were both stunned. They hadn’t expected that even Righteous Gods needed cash to level up—just like mortals using Talismans?
Fu Ji continued, “Earning money—or rather, extracting wealth from all of Kunxu—is one of the core duties of every Righteous God.”
She sighed. “In that sense, the Ten Major Sects were quite farsighted. They didn’t just pressure you students to climb upward.”
Zhang Yu’s eyes narrowed in thought. Bai Zhenzhen, frowning, asked, “What are you getting at?”
Fu Ji said wistfully, “Back when the Ten Major Sects unified the 36 Floors of Kunxu and wiped out all opposition, they realized how hard it was to manage the realm. So they created the Eight Divine Officials—crafting a force of Righteous Gods to govern the world for them…”
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