The Strongest Vocational College Student!

"Dad, I'm on my knees!"

No one knew how stunned Sijing had been when she received Chen Zhuo's message.

Be honest with me. Did you eat them all yourself?

How did you sell them so fast?

Chen Zhuo could work for one of those big companies as a professional pill salesman!

Come on, man. I can't even refine them fast enough. That was over half a year's stock!

Sijing stared in disbelief, unsure what to say. She seriously suspected Chen Zhuo had bought the pills back just to eat them himself.

At this rate, he'd better not eat himself to death...

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Sijing thought about it and nearly wanted to drop to her knees before Chen Zhuo.

So she immediately sent another message. "Bro, I've still got one Qi Condensation Pill and one Essence-Nourishing Pill. Interested?"

Senior Sister Sijing might have no shame when it came to immortal cultivation, but she was still his senior sister. She couldn't just reply with "Dad."

Didn't a senior sister need to save face?

So Sijing replied with "Bro."

Say no more. Anyone who brings me wealth is family!

"Senior Sister, don't put it like that..."

Chen Zhuo raised a hand at once, signaling that this was a win-win partnership. "The Essence-Nourishing Pill is too potent. I can't move it right now, but I can take the Qi Condensation Pill."

Chen Zhuo couldn't offload another large batch anytime soon. At most, he could quietly sell something like a Qi Condensation Pill, which fetched twenty-odd Spirit Stones in the Ancient Immortal Realm.

A thin stream could run for a long time.

Or he could go sell in a few other Markets.

But those other Markets were some distance from Cloudford Market.

Chen Zhuo had just paid for another three months of lodging. For now, he only wanted to focus on cultivation, not get tangled up in all sorts of distractions.

"I'll think about it after I pass the test and become an outer disciple of the Qiwu Sword Sect."

Once I'm an outer disciple, I can sell pills to the other disciples in the sect. Then I can buy a pill furnace or something and pretend I'm an alchemy genius... Chen Zhuo thought.

Chen Zhuo had made up his mind.

When the time came, he would pose as an Alchemy Practitioner and take orders from the Ancient Immortal Realm.

Then he would start production here in the Immortal Estate.

He would show the Ancient Immortal Realm what technology and ruthless ingenuity could do!

Still...

As long as his strength rose, his position in the Ancient Immortal Realm would be as solid as a fortress of gold.

At that thought, Chen Zhuo asked, "Senior Sister, does Senior Sister Dong have anything really potent?"

Sijing replied, "Junior Brother, have you ever heard of 'Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin'?"

"Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin?!"

Chen Zhuo was struck dumb.

What a domineering name!

For an instant, Chen Zhuo felt as though he stood atop Mount Tai's Jade Emperor Peak, gazing at the Big Dipper Starfield!

Chen Zhuo humbly asked, "Senior Sister, what is Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin?"

"It's nine drugs with 'dragon' in their names."

Sijing answered, "Their effects are so fierce that some cultivators, desperate for results, couldn't withstand the surging medicinal force after injecting them and burst apart on the spot... That's why people in our line of work call the nine drugs 'Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin.'"

Oh, that Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin.

I thought she meant the other one.

Chen Zhuo was a little disappointed.

"Senior Sister Dong is interning at the Immortal Dao Academy's pharmaceutical lab right now. She has a source for Azure Dragon, the entry-level drug in Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin. Its effects are first-rate."

Sijing messaged him, "If you're interested, I'll take you to meet Senior Sister Dong this weekend. I can bring it up then. It might work out."

Sijing's words left Chen Zhuo feeling awed, even if he didn't quite understand.

Azure Dragon!

What a domineering name!

"Got it."

After sending his reply, Chen Zhuo immediately opened Little Jade and looked up Azure Dragon.

Little Jade's classic deadpan voice began its report. "Azure Dragon is an advanced injectable drug developed by Lou Rui, a senior pharmacist at Taiqing Pharmaceutical, for cultivators in the Qi Refinement Realm. It sells for between five hundred and eight hundred Spirit Coins. Its medicinal force is steady..."

Of course, Chen Zhuo didn't take Little Jade's word as gospel.

Little Jade had found its way into every Immortal Estate Cultivator's Spirit Message Jade Slip app, but everyone knew the free version was the most hopelessly unreliable. It made things up all the time.

And what happened when it was wrong?

Little Jade would just apologize.

"Sorry, I got that wrong."

See the problem?

This time, though, Little Jade wasn't lying.

Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin: six Qi Refinement Realm drugs and three Foundation Establishment Realm drugs. Inject all nine, and they can even produce the effects of a Golden Core Elixir worth over a hundred thousand Spirit Coins. The only downside is the tiny, insignificant chance of bursting apart. No wonder so many people rush toward it like ducks...

And if you burst apart, you can't blame anyone else, Chen Zhuo thought. You can only blame your body for being too weak. You didn't inject enough drugs before.

It made perfect sense.

Why hadn't you injected more drugs before?

If your head had been nice and pointy, how could you possibly burst apart?

Chen Zhuo shook his head. He decided to save up some Spirit Stones and buy the first dragon of Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin outright, so he could get used to it in advance.

"Cultivate!"

"Work hard!"

"Push myself!"

"Strive!"

"A small goal: Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin!"

Two days later, in Classroom Four of the Pill Appraisal Department.

Chen Zhuo sat quietly in a corner of the classroom, eyes closed as he rested.

The students with Innate Spiritual Roots, meanwhile, had formed their own little circles.

Come to think of it, this was Chen Zhuo's first time in his class's classroom.

He, Meng Yan, and Liang Ningwan were all cultivators with Acquired Spiritual Roots implanted after birth. Normally, they could only attend classes online; they came to classrooms like this one only for in-person lessons.

It sounded rather humiliating.

Unlike Chen Zhuo and Liang Ningwan, though, Meng Yan was thriving. He fit right into a small circle of students with Innate Spiritual Roots, moving among them like a fish in water. They looked like the best of friends.

Meng Yan had already reached the Qi Refining Third Layer.

His progress was rapid.

But Chen Zhuo had turned down Meng Yan's invitation to join his little circle, so Meng Yan had grown much more distant from him.

Chen Zhuo was happy with that.

At least those idiots wouldn't bother him every day. His persona in class now was that of a rich kid.

As for Liang Ningwan...

She hadn't come today. He didn't know what was going on.

So Chen Zhuo had no little circle to sit with today.

Just then, the classroom door opened, and someone walked in.

The newcomer looked about thirty. His hair was combed without a strand out of place, and he radiated the Spiritual Qi of someone at least at the eleventh or twelfth layer of Qi Refinement!

Counselor Yuan.

Instructor Yuan wasn't some bachelor's degree graduate. He had been vice president of this school's student council and stayed on to work after graduation, which was how he had become the freshmen's counselor. Everyone knew he was raising funds for his attempt at Foundation Establishment.

"Quiet down, everyone."

As soon as Counselor Yuan entered, he swept his gaze over the students, cleared his throat, and said, "I'm Yuan Mingde, counselor for the Pill Appraisal Department. I won't waste your time. I'll get straight to the point."

"On the path of Immortal Dao cultivation, resources matter most. Without enough resources, you'll get half the results for twice the effort, no matter how hard you work."

"So I'm here today with good news for everyone."

Chen Zhuo raised an eyebrow.

What good news?

The other students were surprised too, and whispers spread through the classroom.

Counselor Yuan raised a hand for silence, then took a booklet from his Storage Bag and held it up.

"Our college has recently partnered with Taiqing Bank to launch a new Student Aid Loan program. It provides financial support specifically for talented students with potential who are temporarily short on resources!"

Chen Zhuo froze.

Damn it, this again?

Counselor Yuan grew animated. "Don't think there's anything shameful about taking out a loan! In the Immortal Estate, knowing how to use resources is the real skill! Look at those Foundation Establishment Cultivators and Golden Core True Persons. Which of them isn't buried in debt? Which of them doesn't owe a fortune?"

"The more you owe, the smoother your path to immortality must be! The smoother your path, the more opportunities you'll have to earn Spirit Coins! And the more opportunities you have to earn Spirit Coins, the more certain you are to repay what you owe!"

"Cultivation is an investment!"

"Invest in yourself, and the returns are limitless!"

"All right. If any of you are interested, come see me in my office after class. I'll handle the paperwork myself."

With that, Counselor Yuan moistened his throat and continued, "Next, I have another important announcement."

"The annual Dao Tournament is about to begin. The strongest Junior College student of the new generation in the Taiqing Domain will emerge from among your senior brothers and sisters!"

The strongest Junior College student?!

Chen Zhuo sucked in a cold breath. How terrifying!

There were 143 Junior Colleges in the Taiqing Domain and no fewer than a million Qi Refinement cultivators!

What kind of magnificent figure would stand above a million others?!

Even an ordinary undergraduate would probably feel ashamed of themselves before the strongest Junior College student!

After graduation, wouldn't they earn over ten thousand a month and stride through the Taiqing Domain with no one daring to stop them?