Results

The spacious front yard.

"Sit."

Jiang Ding pointed at the bench opposite him.

Han Lin sat down uneasily.

"Um, is your family a family of herbal gatherers?" Jiang Ding asked.

"Yes, Boss. Ever since my maternal great-grandfather's time, our family has worked for the Seven Profound Sect. Two generations even served as stewards, so we were implicated as well..."

Han Lin spoke in a low voice.

Jiang Ding fell silent.

In this kind of society, there were far too many unfortunate things. This was far from the first time he had seen them.

"Boss, our family was just unlucky."

Han Lin collected himself and forced a lighter tone.

"How much do you know about Blueglow Butterflies?"

"Their wings are tough and can't be torn apart. They glow at night and look very beautiful. The county government buys them for one tael of silver per ten wings." Han Lin answered without hesitation. "I heard they're specially supplied to important people in the capital for making clothes and skirts."

"They're just too nimble—hard to spot and hard to catch."

Jiang Ding made a calculation based on the testing data from the library.

"I need five hundred thousand pairs—five hundred and fifty thousand pairs or even more. I'm willing to pay a premium, even double the price, but I only want them alive. Do you think it can be done?"

Five hundred thousand pairs was the amount needed for one vial of physique prototype enhancement potion. It could increase the formation speed of the physique prototype severalfold—that was, the condensation speed of Fledgling Innate—and the final improvement in aptitude would be greater as well.

The extra tenth was considered the labor fee for refining Bluegold 2413.

This rare potion could not be mass-produced. It had to be extracted by someone at the level of an alchemy master, who would require a great many spirit coins to hire and might not even have the time.

Using rare high-grade materials as payment was a method many alchemy masters were happy to accept.

That was still under the Immortal Sect's system of shared knowledge and technology, where there were many high-level technical talents such as alchemists and array masters, and labor costs had been drastically reduced.

In the cultivation world beyond the realm, inviting such a person to act without offering sky-high spirit stones, spiritual items, and a personal favor was impossible.

Those without sufficient strength might even lose their lives through a single careless mistake.

"It should... be possible."

Han Lin hesitated. "I know many uncles and elders who catch Blueglow Butterflies. If the price can be raised by ten or twenty percent, they'd be very willing to sell them to us."

Should.

Jiang Ding nodded. "Go rest. At this stage, it's best not to practice your punches more than twenty times a day. Also, make sure to eat more meat and vegetables. Don't begrudge spending money on that."

After saying that, he slightly closed his eyes. His internal force circulated, and his aura flickered between obscure and conspicuous.

During breaks from cultivating the Minor Breath-Concealing Technique, Jiang Ding silently recorded the difficulties he encountered on his miniature computer, intending to ask Teacher Zhang Dingjun during class.

"Yes, Boss!"

Han Lin cast a reverent glance inside, then returned outside the shop to practice his punches again. His movements were quieter now, without the loud "hey-ha" cries.

When Jiang Ding arrived at the classroom, he rubbed his sleepy eyes. Sure enough, Li Junhao was doing problems.

He had only slept a little over three hours yesterday, and he still was not used to it.

However, with the Young Eagle Takes Flight Sword Art at the minor mastery stage, he estimated that he would adapt in at most a week. Four hours of sleep a day would be enough.

"What a rare sight. You actually stayed up all night."

As the god of studying through the night, Li Junhao saw Jiang Ding's condition at a glance. His pen never stopped moving as he spoke in surprise.

Ring, ring!

The class bell rang, and homeroom teacher Guo Kui entered the classroom carrying a large stack of test papers.

"Now I'll hand out the midterm score sheets and the ideological and moral education papers."

"Since the principal has something urgent to attend to, everyone's practical combat exam will be counted as seventy-five points, at fifty percent."

Guo Kui looked over the students below and smiled faintly. He seemed to be in a good mood.

"Thirty-first place, Zhou Dong, 627 points."

"Thirtieth..."

"Nineteenth place, Li Junhao, 815 points."

Quite a few people looked over in surprise. His improvement was enormous, nearly a hundred points.

"Congratulations."

Jiang Ding whispered, happy for him. Li Junhao was recognized as the hardest-working person in the class.

"Thanks."

There was a glimmer of tears in Li Junhao's eyes. This score was only a few dozen points away from the admission cutoff for the local Qianling University. Cultivation was finally within reach.

But he quickly calmed down.

"This score has a lot of padding. I wouldn't get seventy-five points in the practical assessment. I usually come in last with five points."

"Eighteenth place..."

"Fourteenth place, Zhou Xiyuan, 834 points."

The crowd stirred somewhat. Even many students in the Qi Condensation Realm could not help looking toward Jiang Ding's seat.

His name had still not been called.

People often said that mortals could score higher than cultivators. Had it finally happened in Class One today?

"Thirteenth place, Zhao Yuanye, 857 points."

"Twelfth place..."

One name after another was announced. Even by tenth place, Jiang Ding's name had yet to appear. Many people suspected Guo Kui had gone senile—even his ninth-layer Qi Condensation divine sense had become muddled.

"Ninth place."

Guo Kui paused, repeatedly checking the score sheet.

"Jiang Ding, 892 points."

He glanced at Jiang Ding and said with feeling, "I looked over your papers in the other subjects too. If nothing major goes wrong, you should have a good chance at our local Qianling University."

"But don't get arrogant."

Guo Kui's tone turned stern. "This is only a midterm exam written by the school itself. Don't think that earning a little success means you can slack off and disregard the college entrance examination."

"The more results you achieve, the more you must strive to improve yourself."

He had always thought highly of Jiang Ding. After all, there were not many students in all of Qian Province who could score 141 points in ideological and moral education.

To the Central Array-Spirit Computer, such students represented strong political reliability and would receive preferential treatment in many unseen areas.

"I understand, Teacher."

Jiang Ding nodded and went to the podium to collect his score sheet and papers. He did not show much excitement.

As his comprehension improved, and now that he had internal force as a concrete point of reference, his across-the-board progress in subjects such as language, mathematics, and geography had been expected.

Guo Kui nodded at his composed appearance.

Little did he know that the shy boy before him had dared to kill enemies in another plane. Naturally, he would not become so pleased with himself over a bit of improvement in his grades.

"Damn! 892 points!"

"What did he score last time? Six hundred something?"

"Fuck, he jumped more than two hundred points in one go! Is this the explosive growth teachers talk about when third-year martial artists break through?"

It took the students quite a while to confirm that what they were seeing was real, and they could not help buzzing with discussion.

"Breaking through to the Internal Qi Realm might give a slight boost in academic subjects, but this explosive growth is way too unreasonable!"

"How many academic points did Sun Xiao gain when he broke through again?"

"Sixty points."

Sun Xiao's face darkened. His score increase had already been quite high, but compared to this, it was simply unbearable to look at.

"Quiet!"

Guo Kui slammed the desk, forcibly bringing the class under control.

"Eighth place, Gongsun You, 906 points. Qianling University is within reach."

"Seventh place..."

"First place, Hua Bing, seventh layer of Qi Condensation, 1,292 points. She has a chance at the Twelve Universities!"

Eighth through second place were much the same as usual, with little difference between them. But when it came to Hua Bing, there was suddenly a gap of nearly a hundred points. She was only a little over a hundred points away from the perfect score of 1,400!

Everyone froze.

"Defying the heavens!"

"Seventh layer of Qi Condensation, a minute qualitative transformation in divine sense... Sigh, people really can't be compared."

"Is our class going to produce a Golden Core True Person?"

The classroom erupted. A score close to 1,300 meant she was headed for one of the Twelve Dao Palaces—a Golden Core seed, a true favored child of heaven.

Guo Kui watched this scene with a beaming smile and did not stop them.

Being able to teach a Golden Core seed brought glory to him as well. If Hua Bing achieved Golden Core in the future, then even after his death, perhaps several generations of his descendants could receive a share of her lingering grace.

.