Results

The spacious front courtyard.

"Sit."

Jiang Ding pointed to the bench opposite him.

Han Lin sat down uneasily.

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

"Yes, Boss. Since the time of my maternal great-grandfather, our family had begun working for the Seven Profound Sect. Two generations even served as stewards, so we were implicated as well..."

Han Lin's tone was low.

Jiang Ding fell silent.

In this kind of social environment, there were far too many unfortunate things. This was not the first time he had seen them.

"Boss, our family was just unlucky."

Han Lin collected himself and pretended to sound cheerful.

"How much do you know about Blueglow Butterflies?"

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

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

Jiang Ding calculated based on the inspection data from the library.

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

Five hundred thousand pairs was the amount needed for one bottle of Dao Body Prototype Enhancement Potion. It could increase the growth speed of the Dao Body prototype—meaning the condensation speed of Fledgling Eagle Innate—by several times, while also increasing the final aptitude even further.

The extra tenth was considered the processing fee for extracting '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 need to be hired with a great deal of spirit currency 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 only because Immortal Sect knowledge and technology were shared, 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, it would have been impossible to hire such a person without offering astronomical amounts of spirit stones, spiritual materials, and personal favors.

If one lacked sufficient strength, a single misstep could even cost one's life.

"It should... be possible."

Han Lin hesitated. "I know many uncles who catch Blueglow Butterflies. If we can offer another ten or twenty percent, they'll be very willing to sell them to us."

Should.

Jiang Ding nodded. "Go get some rest. At this stage, it's best not to practice boxing more than twenty times a day. Also, make sure to eat more meat and vegetables. Don't skimp on that expense."

After saying that, he slightly closed his eyes. His inner force circulated, and his aura flickered between dim 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 about them in class.

"Yes, Boss!"

Han Lin cast a reverent glance at the place before returning outside the shop to practice his boxing again, though he lowered his voice and no longer shouted hey-ha.

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

He had only slept for a little over three hours yesterday, so he was not used to it yet.

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

"What a rarity. You actually stayed up all night."

As a god of studying late into the night, Li Junhao immediately saw Jiang Ding's condition. 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.

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

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

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. The improvement was enormous, nearly a hundred points.

"Congratulations," Jiang Ding said quietly, happy for him. Li Junhao was widely acknowledged as the hardest-working person in the class.

"Thank you."

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. There was hope for cultivation now.

But he quickly calmed down.

"There's a lot of water in this score. I couldn't get seventy-five points on the practical combat assessment. I usually come in at the bottom with five points."

"Eighteenth place..."

"Fourteenth place, Zhou Xiyuan, 834 points."

The crowd stirred, including many Qi Refinement students. Quite a few could not help looking toward Jiang Ding's seat.

His name had still not been called.

People often said that a mortal's academic score could surpass that of a cultivator. Had it finally happened in Class One today?

"Thirteenth place, Zhao Yuanye, 857 points."

"Twelfth place..."

One name after another was called, yet Jiang Ding's name had not appeared even by tenth place. Many people suspected that Guo Kui had gone senile, that even his ninth-layer Qi Refinement 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 at your papers for the other subjects as well. 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 set by the school itself. Don't think that a little achievement means you can relax or look down on the college entrance examination."

"The more achievements you have, the harder you must work to improve yourself."

He had a favorable impression 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.

In the eyes of 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 exam papers. He did not seem particularly excited.

As his comprehension improved, and with inner force as a tangible point of reference, it had been expected that his language, mathematics, geography, and other subjects would all improve.

Guo Kui nodded at his steady demeanor.

Little did he know that the shy young boy before him had dared to kill enemies in another plane. Naturally, he would not become smug over some improvement in his grades.

"Fuck! 892 points!"

"How many points did he get last time? Six hundred something?"

"Damn it, he jumped more than two hundred points at once. Is this the explosive growth teachers talked about among senior-year martial artists?"

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 Inner Qi Realm does give a slight boost to academic subjects, but this kind of explosive growth is way too absurd!"

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

"Sixty points."

Sun Xiao's face darkened. His increase had already been considerable, but it looked pathetic by comparison.

"Quiet!"

Guo Kui slammed a hand on the desk, forcefully bringing the room under control.

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

"Seventh place..."

"First place, Hua Bing, seventh layer of Qi Refinement, 1,292 points. The Twelve Universities are within reach!"

Eighth through second place were more or less the same as usual, but when it came to Hua Bing, the gap suddenly widened by nearly a hundred points. He was only a little over a hundred points away from the perfect score of 1,400!

Everyone froze.

"Insane!"

"Seventh layer of Qi Refinement, a minor 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 near 1,300 meant he was on track for one of the Twelve Dao Palaces—a Golden Core seed, a true favored child of heaven.

Guo Kui watched the scene with a broad smile and did not stop them.

Being able to teach a Golden Core seed brought him honor as well. If Hua Bing achieved the Golden Core in the future, perhaps even several generations of his descendants would receive a share of that legacy after his death.