Undercurrents Surge

Having been ranked first in her class for three consecutive years, Su Yun Ni always believed that she could maintain her ranking.

As for Zhang Yu, who transferred from the Civil Engineering Department, she didn't really care about him.

However, seeing the other party gradually gaining fame in the Artifact Crafting Department in recent months, Su Yun Ni couldn't help but secretly compete with him and made up her mind to keep her position as the top student in the class.

Reviewing, doing practice problems, conducting experiments... Whenever she thought of Zhang Yu closely following behind her, she dared not slack off for a moment.

On the day of the exam, she gave it her all, using every trick in the book.

On this evening in early September, Su Yun Ni kept refreshing the report card in her Eye Remains, eager to know her results as soon as possible.

"First!"

Seeing the rankings, Su Yun Ni breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm still number one in the class."

Just as she was feeling a bit smug and wanted to check the group chat to see if anyone was praising her,

But then Zi Yun Zhen in the group said: Did you guys know? Zhang Yu handed in his paper half an hour early.

Another person said, "I was in the same exam room as him, and he left the lab an hour early."

Zi Yun Zhen: So early? No wonder he was already there when I went to the lab that day.

Upon seeing these words, Su Yun Ni frowned and quickly checked the rankings and Comprehensive Score again.

Zhang Yu was still second in his class, but due to the increase in his Comprehensive Score and the graduation of the 10th-grade students, his Zhang Yu ranking jumped from 48th to 39th.

After calculating the change in the other person's Comprehensive Score, Su Yun Ni discovered that the other person's Comprehensive Score had increased by the same amount as hers in this Final Exam.

"I got a perfect score... and he got a perfect score too?"

But Su Yun Ni suddenly realized that she had worked so hard to get a perfect score, while the other person had left early in every exam, clearly not giving it their all.

The initial excitement of maintaining first place in the class cooled down at this moment. Su Yun Ni felt as if she had punched cotton. The Final Exam she took so seriously had been met with Zhang Yu's casual attitude.

"Is this guy putting all his energy into his own project?"

Su Yun Ni's Eye Remains flickered with light and shadow as she opened the textbooks for the higher grades one by one.

"I need to start preparing for the Design Competition now."

Although Zhang Yu said he wanted to confront Jin Jun head-on, Su Yun Ni naturally didn't believe Zhang Yu could succeed.

Su Yun Ni made up her mind to prepare well for the Design Competition: "I want to win the Design Competition and obtain the Military-grade Cultivation Method before Zhang Yu creates his Military Grade project."

When purchasing the refining materials needed for the experiment, Su Yun Ni frowned slightly. "Have the price of raw materials gone up?"

"Could it be because of the Top Ten League?"

Although the price of raw materials has risen, it doesn't matter to Su Yun Ni, and she doesn't take it to heart.

The updated Final Exam results also signify the arrival of a new school year.

Zhang Yu has also become a senior student.

At this moment, students are constantly updating messages in the Songyang Fellow Villagers Group.

Most of the messages are from freshmen who came to the Second Layer after the Gaokao entrance examination. They were the most active in sending messages after arriving on the Second Layer a while ago, and now they often discuss the environment, academics, homework, and dormitories of different schools in the group chat...

As Zhang Yu read their conversation, he felt as if he were seeing himself during his freshman year of college.

Yu Xinghan: 90% new used Heavenly Eye Magic Skeleton, anyone interested?

Yu Xinghan: Once I got to university, I didn't have any good Eye Remains, and I couldn't even concentrate in class.

Seeing Yu Xinghan recommending Eye Remains to the freshmen again, Zhang Yu didn't think much of it. Many people in the group were doing similar things, which could be considered as experienced people in Songyang City mentoring newcomers.

However, some of the topics the freshmen were discussing still bothered Zhang Yu.

"Has Songyang High School become one of the top four high schools in Songyang City?"

Zhang Yu looked at the newly graduated high school students from Songyang High School in the group and found that many of them were asking about him, seemingly very interested in him.

"I can't believe that even after all these years since I left Songyang High School, my legend still lives on?"

Just as the new students in the group were radiating vitality, the graduating students were also occasionally expressing various laments.

Have you found jobs yet?

"The employment rate has dropped again this month, which seems to be related to the Top Ten League."

"Graduation means unemployment; I can only do odd jobs for now..."

Most students can hardly understand what it feels like to be a graduate.

The subtle changes in employment data are, to most people, only similar to the annual changes in the employment rate.

The start of the Top Ten League attracted a lot of attention and interrupted Zhang Yu's arduous cultivation in the Taiqing Realm.

This year's Top Ten League will be held on a floating island amidst a sea of clouds.

Besides the various professional competitions, the most eye-catching of the Top Ten League are naturally the various Military Competition.

The Ten-Schools Sword Duel, for example, has attracted a lot of attention, and Zhang Yu knows that Bai Zhenzhen and Wen Wuya will also be involved.

There's also the Ten-Schools Treasure Duel. As far as Zhang Yu knows, Yan Qianji from the Artifact Crafting Department, his senior sister Ye Xingli, and several other prodigies from Heavenly Prodigy Artifact Crafting Department will participate.

Because of Ye Xingli's involvement, her experimental project was suspended, and Zi Yun Zhen, as her assistant, also temporarily had no experimental project to work on.

Zhang Yu had a fairly good impression of Zi Yun Zhen: "She washed the materials quite cleanly."

Zhang Yu was considering that if he started refining the Heavenly Sun Brilliant God in the future, he might be able to recruit Zi Yun Zhen as his assistant to do odd jobs and speed up his refining process.

Faced with Zhang Yu's invitation, Zi Yun Zhen only asked: How much is the salary?

Zhang Yu: Young people shouldn't only think about money. Don't you want to participate in military-level projects?

Zhang Yu: Besides, I can repair Law Treasure. If you come to my project team in the future, I can personally help you repair Law Treasure.

Zi Yun Zhen had no interest in Zhang Yu Yu's empty promises and gave a cursory reply before giving up.

Just after replying to the message on her Eye Remains, she noticed that her neighbor's dormitory door was open, and a strong stench was emanating from it.

Speaking of her neighbor, Zi Yun Zhen knew that he was a senior student in the Artifact Crafting Department, but she hadn't seen him for a long time.

I only found out today that the other person committed suicide in their dorm room a few days ago, apparently because of a stock they bought that plummeted in value.

"It seems that several stocks have fallen quite sharply recently."

However, Zi Yun Zhen had seen plenty of cases where stock prices plummeted to the point of suicide, so she glanced at it and didn't pay much attention.

Zi Yun Zhen casually walked into the dormitory and adjusted her Eye Remains.

"Is today the Ten-Schools Sword Duel tournament?"

"Why has the medical insurance for the competition increased so much?"

On the sea of clouds, Bai Zhenzhen looked at the medical insurance contract in front of her and couldn't help but curse, "Are they treating us like fat sheep to be fleeced?"

Wen Wuya, standing to the side, said, "Zhenzhen, aren't all insurance companies like this? If it weren't for the teacher's influence this time, and the need to ensure the fairness of the Top Ten League, they probably wouldn't sell us insurance like usual."

With a soft whoosh, a Sword Qi aura struck Wen Wuya, clashing with her protective Sword Qi.

Wen Wuya didn't care about this, since Bai Zhenzhen's emotions would cause Sword Qi to emerge from the void if he had even the slightest fluctuation.

Fortunately, Bai Zhenzhen's control has improved a lot. Now, she can basically kill anyone above the level of Lower School Student with a single sword strike. Students with strong abilities like Wen Wuya can even act as if nothing happened.

None of the other top students from Heaven Sword University around them were weak, and they didn't care about this at all.

Bai Zhenzhen muttered, "It's still too expensive."

Wen Wuya advised, "I heard that the insurance premiums for participating in the Top Ten League have increased this year, so it's normal for them to be more expensive."

However, the next moment, Bai Zhenzhen's expression suddenly changed, from a gloomy face to a joyful one, and her body swayed as if a tail was wagging.

Upon seeing this, Wen Wuya immediately understood that the other party was communicating with Zhang Yu.

The air crackled with each whoosh as the participating students from Heaven Sword University, including Wen Wuya, moved away from Bai Zhenzhen.

The next moment, a scarlet sword light swept around Bai Zhenzhen, leaving deep sword marks in the air.

Watching this scene, Wen Wuyai thought to himself, "Every time I talk to Zhang Yu, it's truly the most dangerous time for Zhenzhen."

"Did the Seven Emotions Divine Lord arrange for them to speak before the competition to enhance Zhenzhen's combat power?"

"A-Zhen, Zhen!"

After ending the call with Bai Zhenzhen, Zhang Yu received another message from Ying Xin.

"Has the project payment not arrived yet?"

Zhang Yu immediately contacted the person in charge, Gathering Star True Lord, but the reply he received left him feeling helpless.

Gathering Star True Lord: It's not that I don't want to help, it's just that everyone's money is currently tied up, and there's nothing I can do.

Gathering Star True Lord: Many projects may have to be temporarily suspended. Let your staff endure a little longer. Things should be fine once the Top Ten League are over.

Zhang Yu: What does this have to do with the Top Ten League? Why would playing a single match affect our project?

Gathering Star True Lord: Don't ask me, I don't know either.

Seeing the numerous employees in the company eagerly awaiting their paychecks, Zhang Yu had no choice but to take out his own savings again to pay a portion of their salaries, and let Zhao Tianxing find some part-time jobs to do for the time being.

Then Zhang Yu looked at the live stream in his Eye Remains; Bai Zhenzhen's Sword Combat with her opponent had already begun.

The two sides engaged in fierce battles amidst a boundless sea of clouds, traversing a distance of hundreds of kilometers, probing each other's movements while concealing their own.

Amidst the rolling sea of clouds, only fleeting glimpses of sword light could be seen, leaving behind sword streaks hundreds of meters long in the sky.

Thanks to the concealment ability of her Divine Spiritual Root, Bai Zhenzhen remained undetected by her opponent and eventually successfully knocked them down from the clouds.

Zhang Yu discovered that the subsequent Sword Combat were becoming increasingly intense, and casualties were gradually occurring.

Beyond Sword Combat, as the Top Ten League continued, Zhang Yu soon discovered that other Military Competition were equally intense, with more casualties than in previous years, even though the casualties were not as high as in Sword Combat.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Everyone says that the Top Ten Universities are using the results of the Top Ten League to distribute their benefits. Now that the conflicts between the Top Ten Universities are becoming more intense, are the Top Ten League becoming even fiercer?"

When Bai Zhenzhen fiercely battled the Nascent Soul disciples of White Bone University, the intensity of the battle reached a new level.