Then Let Me Ask You

Inside the office.

"Ring, ring, ring!"

Jiang Ye had barely left when Chen Zilu's phone rang.

She took out her phone and saw "Zhao Yingluo" on the caller ID.

"Zilu, are you still short on money?"

After Chen Zilu answered, a clear, youthful voice came from the other end:

"Why did you borrow thirty thousand from me earlier? Is that enough?"

At those words, Chen Zilu's previous image as a "big spender" instantly crumbled.

She sighed. "Zhao Yingluo, you think I'm like you? This young lady doesn't even have ten thousand left to her name!"

"Send me another twenty thousand. Hurry up."

The next moment, a cry of surprise came through the phone.

"Oh my god, how have you been getting by? A single cultivation session must cost you more than ten thousand now, doesn't it?"

"It's not for my cultivation," Chen Zilu said. "It's for a student I've got my eye on. I'm investing in him early."

Zhao Yingluo sounded surprised. "A student you've got your eye on? Did you run into someone with Transcendent Talent?"

"What are you thinking?" Chen Zilu said irritably. "Ancheng wouldn't have a student like that."

Zhao Yingluo asked, puzzled, "Then who is it? He must be worth investing in if you're borrowing money for him. You don't even have enough for your own cultivation, do you?"

Chen Zilu smiled. "It's not really an investment. I'm just giving him a helping hand."

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"A boy."

"Oh?" Zhao Yingluo's tone turned a little suggestive. "Is he handsome? What's his personality like?"

Chen Zilu rolled her eyes. "Why are you asking?"

"I'm curious."

Zhao Yingluo giggled. "You're a big name at our White Dragon Martial Arts University. If people found out you borrowed money to help some boy, what a juicy scandal that would be!"

"..."

Chen Zilu was speechless. "Give it a rest. I haven't been back to school in almost half a year."

"You'll be a third-year student next year. Hurry back. There's still a ton of stuff at school waiting for you to handle."

As Zhao Yingluo spoke, her curiosity got the better of her again. "By the way, who is that boy, really? Why are you so good to him? Don't tell me..."

"See you next year. I'll pay you back then."

Chen Zilu decisively hung up.

Then she gazed out the window, lost in thought.

Was she treating Jiang Ye differently? She hadn't gone out of her way to do that.

It was just that she had seen a little of herself in him, so she had lent him a hand.

Because—

No one understood better than she did just how much Jiang Ye needed help at this point in his life.

Chen Zilu rested her snow-white cheek on her hand, a hint of remembrance appearing in her clear, dark eyes.

"Your daughter's illness is extraordinarily rare."

In a cozy room, the doctor looked at the little girl lying on the bed and sighed over and over.

"With this illness, she'd be fine as long as she didn't cultivate. But the moment she does, she'll suffer the agony of ten thousand poisons gnawing at her bones every second. Even a Starry Sky Martial Artist couldn't endure it!"

"In her case, the best thing to do is give up cultivation and not set foot on the path of Starry Sky Martial Arts."

The little girl on the bed had snow-white skin and long eyelashes. Though her features hadn't fully developed yet, she was already delicate and beautiful, like a doll carved from powder and jade.

It was easy to imagine that, once grown, she would become a peerless beauty capable of outshining all others.

A man and a woman stood beside the bed.

The man had a steady air about him and wore dignified, refined clothes. He was clearly someone in a high position, and his eyes and brows bore some resemblance to the girl's.

The woman beside him, on the other hand, looked nothing like the little girl. She was simply alluring and stunningly beautiful.

After hearing the doctor's words, disappointment filled the man's face. He turned and left.

A moment later.

A stern male voice drifted faintly from outside the room. "What a pity. Such a fine talent, wasted."

It was followed by a bewitching female voice. "Let her live an ordinary life. Just like her mother. After all, we have other children we can train."

The little girl on the bed trembled slightly, her fists clenching without a sound.

"I will become a Martial Arts Expert."

Chen Zilu came back to herself, her gaze growing calmer.

Elsewhere.

Jiang Ye walked along the road, lost in thought as well.

Just now, he had seen Chen Zilu's talent through his panel.

[Physique: Mystic Body (Upper Class A)]

[Endowment: Dao Bone]

"Teacher Chen actually has Dao Bone Talent?!"

Jiang Ye thought to himself, "Dao Bone Talent is only one tier above Nascent Talent, but the gap between them is as vast as a chasm."

Nascent referred to Martial Bone Newborn.

But Dao Bone was far more than just Martial Bone Newborn.

People with Dao Bone Talent had extraordinary Martial Bones from birth. Some were born with divine strength, others with divine eyes, and they possessed abilities ordinary people did not.

Once they stepped onto the path of Martial Arts at fifteen, they could display talent far beyond that of ordinary people. They cultivated at astonishing speed and picked up any martial arts technique or Cultivation Method with ease.

They were born for Martial Arts, perfectly in tune with it.

That was Dao Bone!

It was said that once these people embarked on the path of Martial Arts, breaking through realms was as easy as drinking water, with almost no bottlenecks at all.

Of course, rumors were always prone to exaggeration.

But this alone showed just how powerful this talent was.

"And this Mystic Body. Is it a physique above Mortal Body?"

Jiang Ye recalled the panel.

There was no doubt that Mystic Body ranked above Mortal Body.

If Mystic Body was also divided into four grades—A, B, C, and D—then Chen Zilu's Martial Arts talent was truly terrifying!

After all,

even Zhang Jianwu, the grade-level director of the Martial Arts Class, only had Nascent Talent and a Class A Lower Mortal Body.

But Chen Zilu had an Upper Class A Mystic Body?

Her physique alone was seven whole tiers higher!

"Teacher Chen seems to be only nineteen. She should be in college right now. How did she end up teaching in Ancheng?" Jiang Ye wondered.

Chen Zilu's V-chat ID was her birthday.

September 1, 2306.

It was now June 2325. By that calculation, Chen Zilu wasn't even nineteen yet!

Soon, Jiang Ye shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

"Back home to cultivate. I need to work hard and improve myself."

Other people's lives were their own business.

His next goal was to do everything he could to improve himself over the next month.

Jiang Ye knew very well that Chen Zilu looked out for him because she had seen his talent and how hard he worked.

In just one semester, he had risen from twenty-fifth in the class to second. Chen Zilu had seen all of it.

Without that foundation, none of this would have happened.

The students had all left the Martial Arts classroom.

Jiang Ye packed up his things and, without lingering, hurried toward the door.

Night was falling. Darkness was dangerous for ordinary people.

But as he stepped out of the classroom, Jiang Ye ran into a boy with a pointed head.

"You haven't left yet?"

Jiang Ye was a little surprised.

Li Zhichao looked at him and said quietly, "There's something I want to ask you. Got a minute?"

Jiang Ye looked him over and nodded.

The two went to an empty corner.

"Go ahead. What is it?"

Li Zhichao hesitated, then said, "Jiang Ye, can you tell me what drugs you've been taking?"

Jiang Ye found the question baffling. "I haven't taken any drugs."

"None?"

Li Zhichao's pupils trembled slightly.

"If you haven't taken any, then let me ask you this: how many pills have you taken?"

He pressed on, unwilling to give up.

Jiang Ye was confused. "I haven't taken any pills either."

Li Zhichao's brow furrowed sharply.

As far as he was concerned, Jiang Ye had to have taken a lot of drugs.

Otherwise, there was no way he could have improved so quickly.

Li Zhichao had been taking drugs like crazy lately, yet he still hadn't improved as fast as Jiang Ye.

Although he was still in first place, he had a feeling that at Jiang Ye's current rate of improvement, Jiang Ye would soon surpass him.

Now, Jiang Ye flatly denied it, and Li Zhichao felt a chill in his heart.

Li Zhichao thought, There's no way he hasn't taken any pills. Is he saying this on purpose just to show off?

But with his family's circumstances, he can't afford that many drugs. Making it through one semester would already be the limit.

Over the next month, if he has no drugs to take, his progress will slow down soon enough.

Thinking this, Li Zhichao turned back to Jiang Ye and said in a low voice, "Jiang Ye, when we meet again next month, I hope you're still talking tough!"

With that, he turned and walked away.

Jiang Ye stared at his back, utterly baffled. "Is something wrong with that guy?"