Must Call Her Adept Dong

In the end, Chen Zhuo decided to take out a loan.

The bank was a legitimate lending platform, after all. Though the occasional temporary worker privately transferred away Spirit Coins and caused an ugly scandal, it was still fairly trustworthy overall.

Once those five thousand Spirit Coins hit his account, Chen Zhuo would immediately try the first few dragons of Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin and see what it was all about.

Chen Zhuo did not sit idle in the meantime.

After chatting with Yu Xia and learning that things were much the same at the Talisman-Making College, he finally put his mind at ease. Then he casually mentioned that he had inherited a 370-year-old Purple Spirit Bamboo.

What happened next came as no surprise. Yu Xia transferred him 300 Spirit Coins on the spot and said she would take it.

"Buying and reselling Spirit Bamboo isn't a bad gig..."

Chen Zhuo sighed.

The Ancient Immortal Realm truly was his Grotto-Heaven Blessed Land. Its resources were endless; he could earn Spirit Coins with ease.

Methods, wealth, companions, and land.

Methods came first, naturally. Without a cultivation method, even a fortune at his waist would have nowhere to show its strength.

And wealth came second!

With the World-Breaking Pearl, Chen Zhuo's wealth already stood head and shoulders above everyone at Junior College! "Next..."

"Next..."

Chen Zhuo pondered for a moment. Looking at the funds in his account, he used those 300 Spirit Coins to pay off his 300-Spirit-Coin loan from Xiuxiu Tong without hesitation!

First, Chen Zhuo wanted to make something clear.

He was not a deadbeat. He could never borrow money and refuse to repay it.

He would simply delay repayment whenever he could, preferably until the twenty-year term ended after graduation.

So why wasn't he waiting twenty years to repay this one?

Because Chen Zhuo planned to borrow from Xiuxiu Tong again.

If he did not pay off this loan, he could not take out the next one!

Someone in Early Qi Refinement could borrow 300 Spirit Coins, but someone in Middle Qi Refinement could borrow 500!

Pay back 300, then borrow 500!

[You have applied for a small loan of 500 Spirit Coins.]

[Your credit is in good standing. Application approved!]

Nothing more needed to be said. Immortal Dao Potential, come to me!

Chen Zhuo glanced down at his Spirit Message Jade Slip.

[You have received a loan of 500 Spirit Coins from Xiuxiu Tong. Current balance: 645.3 Spirit Coins.]

That felt good.

Watching his balance grow, Chen Zhuo felt that his Immortal Dao Potential had reached an unprecedented height!

Besides, the Storage Bag he had hidden away contained more than ninety physical Spirit Stones!

Ah.

Such potential!

With loans and Spirit Stones in hand, even a Nascent Soul True Lord could not measure up to him!

After savoring the moment, Chen Zhuo spent 0.2 Spirit Coins to send the Purple Spirit Bamboo, which was already over three hundred years old when he had obtained it, to Yu Xia at the Talisman-Making College by Paper Crane courier. Then he set off for the place he had agreed to meet Sijing.

They were meeting in an open square on the South Campus, not far from his Cave Abode.

Students usually gathered there to practice Spells, but today was different.

Around twenty people stood scattered across the square. Most were students from the Alchemy Department, and judging by their auras, most were in Late Qi Refinement, above the Qi Refining Seventh Layer. They were probably seniors in the second or third stage of their college studies.

What caught Chen Zhuo's attention most, though, was that over half of those seniors had brought someone with them.

More precisely, each had brought an underling whose cultivation looked relatively low.

Most of these underlings were in Middle Qi Refinement, and a few were even in Early Qi Refinement. They stood somewhat stiffly behind their respective seniors, not daring to ask questions.

Among them, Chen Zhuo spotted a familiar face.

Liang Ningwan!

Oh, she was here too?

Chen Zhuo was a little surprised. Liang Ningwan stood beside a tall senior who was over two meters in height. She yawned, looking rather bored.

Liang Ningwan noticed Chen Zhuo as well. Their eyes met, and she gave him a slight nod in greeting, but made no move to chat.

Chen Zhuo nodded back.

This really was not the place for a conversation.

Still, he had begun to understand what was going on.

Most of the people here were probably the drug-selling underlings of those seniors.

Much like his relationship with Sijing.

He got it. The people selling drugs on the same block had come to meet their chief distributor.

"Quite a turnout."

Chen Zhuo gave a faint nod.

As he surveyed the square, a familiar figure came rushing over from the distance.

"Junior Chen! Sorry, something came up at the last minute, so I'm late."

Sijing darted up to Chen Zhuo.

She was short, only about a meter and a half tall. Wearing a slightly oversized protective alchemy suit with her hair tied in a high ponytail, she looked hurried, as if she had just come out of an alchemy room.

When the other seniors saw Sijing explain herself to Chen Zhuo without being asked, they all stared at her in surprise.

What the hell?

Since when did Sijing apologize first?

Did the kid she had brought come from some extraordinary family?

No, that made no sense. How remarkable could his family be if he had ended up at Junior College like theirs?

Could he be the descendant of some Golden Core True Person who had "lost faith in cultivation and betrayed the Immortal Estate's mission" and been arrested by the Immortal Estate?

Then it would make sense to curry favor with him. That person might be locked up, but his connections were still on the outside.

Sijing could not be bothered to explain Chen Zhuo's drug-selling speed to those fools. Instead, she grabbed his sleeve and pulled him into a quiet corner.

"Listen, Junior. When we meet Senior Sister Dong, there's one thing you absolutely must remember."

Sijing lowered her voice and said with utmost seriousness, "Do not call her Senior Dong. Understand? Call her Adept Dong!"

"Huh?"

Chen Zhuo froze. "Why?"

"Senior Dong transferred into a bachelor's program over half a year ago. Her juniors now are the incoming students at Qingwu Immortal Dao Academy. We've been cut off, get what I mean?" Sijing said. "Those of us who go back with her and have been helping her sell medicine can call her that in private. You shouldn't."

Chen Zhuo: ...

The discrimination over academic credentials here was no joke.

Were students at Junior College like them really that worthless?!

Chen Zhuo clenched his fists... He forgot the rest, but anyway, thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river!

Puzzled, Chen Zhuo asked, "Then why call her 'Adept'? And who are the seniors here today? Who's that big, burly one?"

He was referring, of course, to the man over two meters tall standing beside Liang Ningwan.

"Him? Liang Ninghong. He's from the Body Cultivation Department, and his father is Deputy Director Liang of the Investigation Bureau under the Taiqing City Law Enforcement Bureau. The girl beside him should be his younger sister. What was her name again? I forget. You know her, right? I remember seeing her when I gave that talk on Artificial Spiritual Roots."

As Sijing spoke, a stir suddenly swept through the square.

Senior Sister Si Jing immediately fell silent and looked toward the square with Chen Zhuo.

Everyone there had struck a "\O/" pose.

Chen Zhuo: ?

The next moment, a voice drifted down from the sky.

"Everyone, it's been a long time."

"Since I became an undergraduate and went to Qingwu Immortal Academy, our One Heart Society hasn't gathered like this in ages. Time really does fly."

Hold on a second.

What society?!