Web Classes Cost Money Too?

The medicine's power surged through him like a raging tide.

Chen Zhuo was drenched in sweat.

After a long while, sweat still streaming down his face, Chen Zhuo stopped breathing in and out in rhythm. He was panting, but his whole body felt wonderful, as though he had been reborn.

"Phew~"

Chen Zhuo let out a long breath.

That felt good.

He had not stepped straight into the third level of Qi Refinement, but his fists felt strong and his whole body brimmed with energy.

His iron fists seemed to hold the force of a thousand jun. He could slay dragons above and subdue tigers below!

Chen Zhuo felt the path to immortality stretch wide and clear before him. Who said cultivation was hard? It had barely dirtied the hem of his robe.

"The Junior College-to-University Transfer won't be hard for me. I could even get into a civil engineering master's program someday!"

Chen Zhuo clasped his hands behind his back and gazed at the sky, overcome with emotion.

If he could get into a master's program at Taiqing University, Chen Zhuo felt he could already see his Golden Core acceptance letter waving at him.

And if he became a doctoral student, wouldn't he reach Nascent Soul?

Just then, Chen Zhuo sensed a faint trace of killing intent circling him.

Every hair on his body stood on end!

"What is that?!"

The second level of Qi Refinement had strengthened more than his body. His divine sense had grown stronger too.

Using his Divine Sense, Chen Zhuo immediately locked onto a tree a hundred meters away.

High in its dense foliage, a huge Leopard stared coldly at Chen Zhuo. It licked its tongue, watching him like prey.

And Chen Zhuo could sense spiritual energy on the Leopard!

Once it realized he had spotted it, the Leopard leaped down from the tree and stalked toward him with a sinuous gait, staring and occasionally letting out a threatening growl.

The Leopard seemed wary of Chen Zhuo too. Caution glinted in its eyes.

It could sense the violent Spiritual Qi inside Chen Zhuo, stirred up by the injections he had just taken, along with the instability those two doses had caused.

A human at the second level of Qi Refinement should have been a tasty meal, but the aura coming off this one gave it pause.

So the Leopard slowly circled Chen Zhuo, its body lithe and ready.

"Foul beast, how dare you come for me?"

Chen Zhuo gave a cold laugh. "Haven't you heard? Heaven never seals off every road!"

He put on a calm front, but his mind raced. This Leopard has traces of Spiritual Qi. It's probably a low-level Demon Beast, roughly at the first level of Qi Refinement. I've only just taken the injections, and my condition isn't stable. If we fight, I'll probably get hurt.

The Leopard hesitated.

The Spiritual Qi on Chen Zhuo was what made it wary.

Nourished by Spiritual Qi, the Leopard was no ordinary predator. It was in the midst of becoming a demon and could just barely be called a Demon Beast.

The instant the Leopard hesitated, Chen Zhuo seized his chance. He drove the Spiritual Qi in his body into the World-Breaking Pearl in his Sea of Consciousness without holding anything back!

Black light enveloped him in an instant.

The next moment, the light snapped inward, and Chen Zhuo vanished without a trace.

The Leopard froze, then padded over to where he had disappeared and sniffed the ground.

It seemed puzzled.

The Immortal Estate World.

With a flash of black light, Chen Zhuo returned to his Cave Abode.

"Phew~"

Chen Zhuo breathed out. The thin Spiritual Qi of the Immortal Estate felt uncomfortable, especially while the potent medicine in his body was still working. What a waste.

Cultivating Qi Refinement in the Immortal Estate would squander it.

Even so, Chen Zhuo felt a deep thrill.

Since the Immortal Estate had been established, Demon Beasts had had nowhere left to hide. Nearly all of them had been shut away in Zoos where cultivators paid admission to see them. Wild Demon Beasts were extinct.

This was the first time Chen Zhuo had seen one, and it had not even been particularly strong.

It was a novel experience.

More importantly, that Demon Beast had shown him a road straight to the heavens.

"I think I've found a source of Immortal Path Potential."

An idea for making money came to Chen Zhuo. These Demon Beasts haven't formed Demon Cores, but their flesh holds Spiritual Qi. I could kill them, take the meat, roast it into strips, and sell it to students to eat.

Demon Beast breeding was a popular major in the Immortal Estate too.

Quite a few carnivorous Demon Beasts were bred by the Immortal Estate's farming companies specifically to be made into jerky for convenient eating.

For many cultivators, eating Demon Beast flesh was also a way to build strength.

Ancient Cultivators had not valued physical strength and conditioning as much as modern ones did. When ancient and modern cultivators fought, the former could easily be caught and killed in close quarters.

Under the Immortal Estate's rule, cultivators were expected to develop in virtue, intellect, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor alike.

Spells were not enough. Their bodies had to keep up too. Without a solid foundation, how could they cultivate immortality well?

Supposedly, powerful cultivators could even take a flying sword head-on with their bare bodies and emerge without a scratch!

There was money to be made here.

More importantly, selling jerky on the side would be simple and convenient. No one would catch him!

Perfect.

The problem now was how to kill a low-level Demon Beast like that without getting hurt...

"So I'll need to put in a few more Spirit Coins and buy a decent Magical Artifact."

Chen Zhuo sighed. A single Spirit Coin could bring a hero to his knees!

For now, though, he set all that aside.

It was time for class.

Chen Zhuo stood and looked around his cave dwelling.

It was small, about thirty square meters, with only a bed, a simple computer desk in front of it, and a bathroom of less than eight square meters beside the entrance.

He sat at the desk, faced the jade screen on it, and reached out to feed in his Divine Sense.

Its official name, of course, was the "Divine Sense Calculation Jade Hub."

Chen Zhuo preferred to call it a computer, and called logging in "entering the jade."

A moment later, his Divine Sense flashed.

The scene before him changed, and a virtual figure appeared.

A cultivator sat cross-legged on either side of Chen Zhuo.

The one on his left looked familiar.

It was Meng Yan, the first-level Qi Refinement cultivator who had recently asked Sijing in public what to do if he had no money.

The cultivator on his right was a cool-looking young woman with long black hair and fair skin.

She had an air that warned strangers to keep their distance.

"Liang Ningwan."

Her name surfaced in Chen Zhuo's mind.

She had been at the same examination site as him, Taiqing City's Fifteenth Examination Site.

She had also ranked first among the city's ordinary humans!

He had ranked third.

Born into a cultivation family. Her father's a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but fate played a cruel trick on her: she had no spiritual root and was left to fend for herself. Still, through her own efforts, she placed first in the ordinary human track, earned the right to have a spiritual root implanted, and enrolled at Taiqing Alchemy Vocational Technology College!

As Chen Zhuo recalled her background, he was surprised to find her studying Pill Appraisal and Rating, just like him.

Quite a coincidence.

Chen Zhuo shook his head. All he could do was envy a classmate born into a cultivation family like Liang Ningwan.

Though she had lacked a spiritual root, her parents probably had not devoted many resources to her. After all, Foundation Establishment cultivators had reproductive permits allowing them three children with innate spiritual roots. Until they reached that quota, they could have as many children without spiritual roots as they liked.

Naturally, their resources went first to children with Spiritual Roots.

Children without Spiritual Roots, like Liang Ningwan, were weeds. If they passed the exam, they got a Spiritual Root implanted and studied on their own. If they failed, too bad.

Even so, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator's knowledge far exceeded what a child like Chen Zhuo, who had never met his parents, had access to.

Chen Zhuo came from an ordinary background. His parents were probably Qi Refinement cultivators too.

Under the Immortal Estate's rule, when Qi Refinement cultivators at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer or below had children without Spiritual Roots, those children were sent to the Immortal Estate Support Bureau to be raised. At sixteen, they all sat a standardized exam. Those who failed were sent down to the lower realm to live quietly as ordinary humans.

Those who passed, like Chen Zhuo, earned the right to have a Spiritual Root implanted and become artificial cultivators.

Cruel.

As Chen Zhuo reflected on that, his vision blurred. a virtual Spirit Body appeared before him.

It took the form of a scholarly-looking middle-aged man in a blue-green robe. "Hello, students!" he said warmly. "I'm Wang Yanqing, your teacher for the Implanted Spiritual Root Class."

"Hello, teacher."

Meng Yan greeted him out of habit.

Liang Ningwan glanced at Meng Yan and reminded him, "This is an online class. The Spirit Body is a recording. It won't answer any of your questions."

Meng Yan scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.

Chen Zhuo, meanwhile, could only feel helpless.

The Implanted Spiritual Root Class really got no respect.

As Liang Ningwan had said, this was just a recording.

The teacher did not stop for the interruption. Still wearing his warm smile, he continued:

"The first lesson for a cultivator concerns the body. Next, I'll explain the Immortal Estate's standard supplementary Body Tempering method for cultivators: the Young Dragon Military Combat Fist, 46th Improved Edition..."

Chen Zhuo's interest stirred, and he listened closely.

This martial technique helped temper the body. It was exceptionally effective for cultivators in the early stages of Qi Refinement, levels one through three, and could strengthen the bodies of those in the middle and late stages too!

But just as Chen Zhuo settled in to listen carefully and study it, a message box abruptly popped up in front of him.

[Greetings, fellow cultivator Chen Zhuo, first-year student of the Implanted Spiritual Root Class. Your free preview has ended. Would you like to pay 5 Spirit Coins to continue watching Volume One of the Young Dragon Military Combat Fist, 46th Improved Edition instructional video?]

Chen Zhuo: ???

What the hell? Wasn't this a school web class?!

They charged for this too?!