School

School

The ticking clock rang on and on as Zhang Yu sat in the classroom, earnestly working through the test paper before him.

Yet the test paper seemed endless. No matter how he answered, no matter how he filled it in, there was never a moment when it was finished.

The seat he occupied also grew farther and farther from his classmates. Gradually, he could no longer make out the figures ahead, as though the darkness behind him were swallowing him inch by inch.

Cold sweat beaded on his head, panic surged in his heart, and the hand that had been writing without pause began to go weak, unable to muster any strength.

Only when he fell together with countless books and test papers into that bottomless darkness did Zhang Yu suddenly wake up from his bed.

"Was that a dream?"

"It seemed to be some of Zhang Yu's past memories."

He rubbed his head, feeling countless fragmented memories belonging to the original owner rise and fall within his mind, shifting unpredictably.

Although Zhang Yu had now taken control of this body, he had not completely fused with its original memories. Many details required deliberate concentration before he could recall them.

Especially the memories related to that strange Ritual yesterday. The moment Zhang Yu tried to think about it, dizziness washed over him, and he could not remember what had happened at all.

He checked his phone and found that it was only five in the morning. He had intended to lie back down and continue sleeping, but discovered that this body simply could not fall asleep.

It was as if getting up at five every day to go to school had become this body's instinct.

"Why do I feel guilty just lying back down?"

Zhang Yu sat up, thinking that this was probably the influence left behind by the original owner's memories.

Rubbing his slightly hollow stomach, Zhang Yu simply got to his feet and thought, Forget it. I should go to school. At least I can fill my stomach there.

He remembered that Songyang High School provided three meals a day, and this month's meal fees had long since been loaded onto his card.

Now that he carried a massive debt of seven hundred thousand and had only a little over fifty yuan to his name, he had no money to eat outside.

So he left the stuffy apartment, passed through an alley full of sewage, and squeezed onto a bus alongside a crowd of people.

Packed into a carriage where the stench of sweat mingled with the smell of food, with the air conditioning feeling no different from being off, Zhang Yu felt like a takeout order crushed out of shape, being jolted all the way toward the city center.

After an hour and a half, and two bus transfers, the sweat-soaked Zhang Yu finally squeezed off the bus.

Wiping the sweat from his head, Zhang Yu thought, Come to think of it, why am I a day student?

Oh, right. Because I can't afford the dorm fees.

Unlike the place where Zhang Yu lived, this stop was in the city proper. High-rises and clean, broad roads filled his view, and even the air was much fresher.

Most of the men and women walking along the streets were also smartly dressed, looking like urban elites.

After walking and stopping along the way, he finally reached the school gate. From afar, Zhang Yu saw the large words: Songyang Advanced Immortal Dao Middle School.

The electronic screen at the gate even displayed a ranking sheet, listing the top ten scores from last month for all three high school grades.

That alone showed how much Songyang High School valued its students' grades.

If Zhang Yu were to summarize things now based on his memories, then Songyang High School worshipped achievement above all else. This was a world where everyone judged others solely by their scores.

Studying and exams were as natural here as breathing, and almost everyone possessed an extreme form of score discrimination.

"What, your score is that low? No wonder you have to queue so long in the cafeteria. Your score is so low that you aren't even qualified to sit at the same cafeteria table as us. Top students ought to viciously humiliate bottom students, fangs bared..." All of that counted as positive campus energy.

"This is completely a world where scores reign supreme—the hell of bottom students."

Zhang Yu looked at the words "10th Overall in First-Year Grade: Zhang Yu" on the electronic screen and sighed inwardly. Good thing I'm one of the high scorers.

"Although this ranking of mine may be a little undeserved at the moment, at least it hasn't been exposed yet. I should still be able to live with a bit of dignity at school, right?"

Songyang High School's cafeteria served breakfast, so Zhang Yu followed his memories there.

As he made his way over, he noticed that although many students were queueing for food in the cafeteria, they were all incredibly quiet. Almost everyone lined up silently, collected their meals quietly, and silently found a place to eat, like interlocking gears operating every step with precision.

Some students even read while eating, seizing every minute to study.

He casually found a seat and sat down. The moment Zhang Yu bit into a meat bun, he noticed someone sit in the empty seat across from him.

She was a girl with long black hair and fair skin.

Her name surfaced in Zhang Yu's mind.

"Bai Zhenzhen."

"More precisely, Bai Zhenzhen, the first-place student in overall first-year scores—the woman at the top of the first-year contempt chain."

Watching the girl sitting across from him and drinking porridge, Zhang Yu thought, She and I are friends?

"Because I'm in the top ten of the grade? Is this the so-called top student circle?"

Bai Zhenzhen was the sort of person who, as long as she was not smiling, looked as if she were sulking. Even ordinary words coming from her carried a distant air that kept people a thousand miles away.

Just like now, as she sat across from Zhang Yu, saying nothing at all made him feel as though she had some grievance against him.

Just as Zhang Yu focused on recalling memories related to Bai Zhenzhen, trying to confirm what exactly their relationship was—

The girl spoke. "Come to the little garden after you finish eating. I'll wait for you there."

Watching her departing back, a thoughtful glint flashed through Zhang Yu's eyes.

A moment later, once he had eaten and drunk his fill, he also left the cafeteria and headed to the little garden behind the school.

This was a quiet spot behind the dormitory buildings. With most students rushing to the teaching building at this time, there was practically no one in sight.

Bai Zhenzhen stood before a flowerbed. The instant she heard Zhang Yu's footsteps, she turned around and quickly walked over to him.

"Dad!"

With a bang, Bai Zhenzhen dropped to her knees and hugged Zhang Yu's thigh. "There were too many people in the cafeteria just now, so I was embarrassed to say it."

"Lend me some money. My microloan has been overdue for almost a month! I'll kneel for you..."

Watching this scene, Zhang Yu cursed inwardly, What kind of garbage school is this? The first and tenth in the grade are both borrowing money to keep up appearances?

By now, Zhang Yu had recalled that he and Bai Zhenzhen had not met through any top student circle. It was because she had been his upline, the one who had pitched microloans to him.

Allow another grand introduction: Zhang Yu's classmate Bai Zhenzhen was Zhang Yu's good brother in sharing borrowing information from every major platform, bound by the steadfast friendship of borrowing money everywhere together.

Thinking of how, beneath her icy poker face in the cafeteria, she had been constantly figuring out how to borrow money from him, Zhang Yu helplessly shook his head. "Let go of me first. Where would I get money to lend you?"

Bai Zhenzhen shook her head. "You're only tenth in the grade. How much could you possibly spend? You must have applied for far fewer loans than I have, right?"

As she spoke, she said stiffly and shyly, "As long as you help me repay my debt, you can do anything you want."

Zhang Yu's eyes lit up. Looking at the normally icy Bai Zhenzhen, whose face was now like peach blossoms, he felt that she possessed a special charm.

He looked Bai Zhenzhen up and down and asked, "Anything?"

Bai Zhenzhen lightly bit her lip and nodded. "Mm."

Zhang Yu said, "Then can I use you as collateral?" Bai Zhenzhen released him and glared at Zhang Yu. "Yu Zi, are you really out of money?"

Zhang Yu took out his phone and showed her his balance and overdue notices.

Bai Zhenzhen stood up and patted the dust off her trouser legs, then looked at Zhang Yu in disbelief. "You owe seven hundred thousand? Even after graduating from university, you'd probably have to work for a long time to pay that off."

"You're only in your first year of high school, and you spend money this wildly?"

Bai Zhenzhen shook her head again and again. "Zhang Yu, how exactly did you spend all this money?"

Zhang Yu rubbed his head. "I forgot... Let me think."

Bai Zhenzhen looked at him suspiciously. "You didn't invest it in something, did you? Were you scammed?"

As Zhang Yu searched his memories, he too became uncertain. "Probably... not?"

But Bai Zhenzhen's expression suddenly turned serious. The more she thought about it, the more she felt there was something wrong with how Zhang Yu had spent more than seven hundred thousand. "Give me your phone."

Zhang Yu understood that she was worried about him. After all, investment, fraud, gambling, sudden death, and Qi Deviation ranked among Songyang City's top five causes of death, with Qi Deviation in fifth place.

At the same time, doubts about the original owner surged in his heart. He immediately took out his phone. "I was just thinking of reviewing how this money was spent. Let's look through the transaction history together."

The two of them swept their gazes across the phone screen and saw expenditure after expenditure from the original Zhang Yu.

At the same time Zhang Yu saw them, many details from the relevant memories continuously flooded into his mind.

Pill Cauldron Pharmacy -280.00

Pill Cauldron Pharmacy -250.00

Time Waits For No One Quiet Room -120.00

Zhang Yu explained as he looked. "These were pills I bought from the pharmacy, and then I rented a Quiet Room for Breath Circulation..."

Besides Chinese, mathematics, physics, history, and other General Knowledge courses, Songyang High School's curriculum also included Immortal Dao-related courses.

The so-called Immortal Dao was the path of cultivation by which humans ascended step by step into immortals. It was also the most important subject throughout high school, carried the greatest share of scores, and was the key requirement for getting into prestigious universities.

Breath Circulation was one of the most basic Immortal Dao skills. Only by using Breath Circulation to gather Spiritual Energy from the atmosphere could one accumulate Magical Power within an Immortal Cultivator's body.

Only with sufficient Magical Power could one unleash greater combat strength and climb to higher realms. It could be said that Magical Power was the foundation upon which all Immortal Dao Technique operated.

For example, to break through from the Qi Refining Realm to the Foundation Establishment Realm required more than sixty points of Magical Power, while the upper limit of Magical Power one could command in the Qi Refining Realm was one hundred points.

Within the system painstakingly established by the Ten Great Sects, everything was standardized and digitized as much as possible. Magical Power was no exception; the Magical Power tests currently used in schools were all precise to one decimal place.

Bai Zhenzhen nodded slightly and continued scrolling.

ShuiXiu Catering Service Co., Ltd. -532.00

Zhang Yu said, "This was for extra Dietary Supplementation meals in the cafeteria. It cost rather a lot."

In Immortal Dao cultivation, the strength of the Physical Body was just as crucial. Consuming large amounts of food rich in Spiritual Energy and Immortal Dao Elements was also part of a cultivator's daily routine, known as Dietary Supplementation.

Longxiang Education Service Co., Ltd. -1500.00

Longxiang Education Service Co., Ltd. -3000.00

Zhang Yu thought back for a moment. "Mm... This was the tutoring fee from last time, plus the fee for renting a Spirit Root."

A Spirit Root was originally a special talent possessed by only a tiny number of geniuses. It could greatly increase both an Immortal Cultivator's cultivation efficiency and combat power.

As one of the Immortal Dao's most famous thresholds in the past, even Zhang Yu and his mother, when he had still been in middle school, knew all sorts of legends about Spirit Roots. That was why the original Zhang Yu had used renting a Spirit Root as an excuse to get his mother to send money while he was making up classes and repaying loans.

But as Immortal Dao Technique had grown increasingly advanced, ordinary people without Spirit Roots, like Zhang Yu, could now spend money to rent Spirit Roots and increase their cultivation efficiency.

They continued scrolling. Aside from Zhang Yu's initial explanations, the later spending entries went back and forth through similar items, almost all related to Immortal Dao cultivation.

Very soon, after reviewing Zhang Yu's expenses over the past several months, Bai Zhenzhen's eyes were full of pity as she looked at him. "You really did spend all that money on your own Immortal Dao cultivation?"

"And you only climbed to tenth place after owing more than seven hundred thousand?"

"It's only been a little over three months since school started, right? What are you going to do next?"

As someone who had only arrived in this other world on his first day, Zhang Yu was naturally just as lost about the road ahead. He shrugged. "I'll muddle through for now and slowly think of something."

Seeing that class was about to start, the two of them chatted as they walked toward the teaching building.

"You owe more than seven hundred thousand, so why do you look more relaxed than me, someone who owes over two hundred thousand?"

Looking at Zhang Yu's calm expression, Bai Zhenzhen reminded him, "You won't have money to keep throwing at your studies from now on!"

"Do you know what happens when you have no money to study? Do you know how dangerous our situation is right now?"

Zhang Yu asked, "What happens?"

Bai Zhenzhen said, "The Monthly Exam is in three weeks. For three weeks, you'll have no money to rent Spirit Roots, no money to buy pills, no money for tutoring classes, not even money to buy your daily supplements... while everyone else improves every second. By then, it'll be perfectly normal for your ranking to drop dozens of places, and you'll be kicked straight out of the Demonstration Class!"

As Zhang Yu pieced together what Bai Zhenzhen had said, many related memories flooded into his mind.

The entire first-year grade had ten classes, from Class One through Class Ten, with students assigned according to their Monthly Exam scores.

Given Zhang Yu's ranking, he had naturally been assigned to Class One, which received the best treatment and was also called the Demonstration Class.

Besides the usual General Knowledge Exam, the most important component of every Monthly Exam was ultimately one's Immortal Dao cultivation score.

After all, General Education accounted for only fifty points, while the remaining Immortal Dao subjects added up to a full six hundred and fifty points.

Especially since they were all first-year students and had only officially begun Immortal Cultivation after school started, the gap in cultivation between them was actually limited.

Though he appeared to be tenth place, if he could not maintain his previous pace of improvement over the coming weeks, he could easily be thrown beyond the top several dozen.

Bai Zhenzhen continued, "If you keep having no money, your ranking will worsen and worsen, and your treatment will fall lower and lower. In this vicious cycle, you'll be kicked step by step from Class One all the way to Class Ten!"

With a grave expression, she said, "No money and no grades—you'll become combustible trash in the teachers' eyes, a joke in the mouths of Demonstration Class students, and the target upon which those extras in the ordinary classes build their cheap sense of superiority!"

Bai Zhenzhen held her head. "In that situation, forget cultivation resources—even your Dao Heart will be difficult to keep stable. Your grades will only get worse and worse, until you finally fall below the elimination line and can only be kicked out of Songyang High School with injuries and illnesses all over your body and debts piled up to your ass."

As if she could see that miserable future in her mind, Bai Zhenzhen raised her head to the sky and lamented, "Do you want to live at the bottom of the entire school's contempt chain, to be humiliated over and over again? To eventually become social scum who dropped out of high school?"

Zhang Yu tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Then what do you think I should do?"

Bai Zhenzhen fell silent for a moment, then turned her head. "Brother, to be honest... if you only made it to tenth place after owing seven hundred thousand, you might really not be suited for the Immortal Dao."

"I don't know how you got into Songyang, but my advice is... drop out and get a job. Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll sink deeper and deeper."

Zhang Yu did not respond, but inwardly he sighed. The only good thing about this lousy world is that I can cultivate immortality. Yet after only one day here, I'm being told I have no talent for Immortal Cultivation?

Not long after returning to the classroom, Zhang Yu picked up his vibrating phone and found that Bai Zhenzhen had transferred five hundred yuan to him, along with a message.

Bai Zhenzhen: Pay your water and electricity bills first.

Zhang Yu froze slightly. Then he suddenly sniffed his clothes and immediately understood that Bai Zhenzhen had caught the smell of several days without bathing on him.

Though he had already grown used to the smell himself, it must have been quite obvious to others.

Thinking that her financial situation was so poor and she had still sent him money, Zhang Yu sighed inwardly. He typed a long message on his phone, deleted every word of it, and finally replied: Thanks.

After replying, Zhang Yu looked at his palm and found that the symbol there had already been filled halfway with black.

On his way to school and into the classroom, Zhang Yu had already discovered that only he could see this symbol on his palm.

He calculated the time. The symbol would probably be completely filled with black tonight, but he had no idea what would happen once it was full.

A new book had begun. It was an interesting story. Updates from here on would be at noon every day. Everyone was welcome to bookmark it and follow along.

(End of Chapter)