Chapter 26 (continued)

Li Yang had just bent down when she heard a familiar voice.

Zhong Kun was walking in with a companion, who started by buttering him up. "Brother Kun, your physique has to be at least 150 by now, right?"

Zhong Kun chuckled softly. "More or less."

"Awesome! Now you can definitely wipe the floor with that provincial top scorer."

"Don't say that." Zhong Kun cleared his throat. "Li Yang is very talented, and she works extremely hard. She's a formidable opponent both my brother and I acknowledge. But she comes from an ordinary background, after all, and doesn't know enough about the path of Star Wielders. Drawing stars into her body in a short time will still be very difficult for her, but we can't underestimate her because of that. Once she enrolls, I expect she'll catch up in a month or two."

Zhong Kun's companion disagreed. "Who cares what happens later? At the freshman ceremony, you'll be stronger, Brother Kun!"

Zhong Kun smiled and said modestly, "It's nothing to be proud of. I'll only be stronger than her for a little while."

The two had walked away as they talked, never noticing Li Yang bent over.

After taking out the Realm-Breaking Pill, Li Yang silently watched Zhong Kun's retreating figure.

It really was Zhong Kun.

It seemed everyone had been working hard over summer vacation.

Li Yang could see Zhong Kun's Star Apertures. He had opened two, but the second probably hadn't reached 50%.

Li Yang had quite a favorable impression of Zhong Kun. She liked his "clear conscience," especially since he had given her an extra fifty thousand yuan in hush money.

Unfortunately... Li Yang thought, this second-tier Hidden Shadow came a little late.

If she had learned second-tier Hidden Shadow earlier, she could have hidden more of her Star Apertures. But now... too many people knew she had already opened three. No matter how much she hid, she had to leave at least three visible.

Back in her dorm, Li Yang couldn't wait to take out the Realm-Breaking Pill.

The system displayed a line of text: [Low-quality Realm-Breaking Pill detected. Would you like to consume lifespan to purify it?]

Instead of swallowing it right away, Li Yang picked up her phone and searched the forum again.

She didn't need to pay to read the posts; the titles alone gave her a general idea of what she wanted to know.

"Click to pick up an exclusive secret manual! Guaranteed breakthrough on your first try, no need to waste a second Realm-Breaking Pill!"

"Made by the Li family, guaranteed quality! Everyone should buy Old Li's Realm-Breaking Pills. The quality is top-notch, and I succeeded on my first try!"

"Argh, I've been screwed over! This is already my third Realm-Breaking Pill. If I still can't break through, I'm going to hang myself in the pill department!"

Sure enough, even a Realm-Breaking Pill that cost 300,000 yuan wasn't guaranteed to produce a successful breakthrough.

Li Yang had already grown calm about this money-burning world. After a moment's thought, she said, "Consume one year of lifespan to purify the Realm-Breaking Pill."

[With your clumsy pill-refining skills, you fumbled around for a full year and purified the Realm-Breaking Pill to 80%.]

Li Yang's eyes lit up. "It's already at 80%?"

"No." She quickly realized what was going on. "At 300,000 yuan a pill, its quality probably wasn't all that bad to begin with."

Li Yang said, "One more year."

[With your clumsy pill-refining skills, you fumbled around for a full year and purified the Realm-Breaking Pill to 81%.]

Li Yang rolled her eyes. "I knew it."

She knew this black-hearted system well by now. Whenever it used words like "clumsy," "stupid," or "terrible," improving something was most likely very difficult.

The upside was that no matter how hard it was, improvement was possible, and so far it had never damaged an item.

Li Yang had sixteen years of lifespan left. If she poured in fifteen, she could probably purify it to 96%. Although success wouldn't be guaranteed, the chance of failure would be ridiculously small.

Li Yang could also wait until tomorrow to harvest more wheat and save up enough lifespan for a 100% breakthrough...

But there was a risk of exposing her trump card.

The senior students were all at First Grade, but Dean Si had to be at least Third Grade—that was the academy's graduation requirement. He might even be Fourth Grade already.

Breaking through right under his nose would be far too conspicuous.

Hmm... she couldn't be that unlucky, could she?

The success rate was already 96%!

Li Yang hesitated no longer. Rather than invite unnecessary trouble by exposing herself, she would rather take a little risk.

Li Yang poured in fifteen years of lifespan, purified the Realm-Breaking Pill to 96%, and swallowed it in one gulp.

A faint aroma of medicinal herbs filled her nose, followed by a tremendous surge of power that rushed toward her heart.

Thump, thump, thump!

Her heart pounded violently.

Li Yang felt the blood throughout her body flow faster, and an indescribable impact slammed into her consciousness.

Rumble!

As though struck by lightning, Li Yang's heart froze for an instant. Then a sky full of stars spread out before her, and she "saw" her fourth Star Aperture.

Had it worked?

Li Yang was drenched in sweat, as though she had been pulled from the water. She glanced at her phone and saw the time.

Exactly midnight.

Sure enough, breaking through was no simple matter. Luckily, she hadn't tried it in the wheat field. Three or four hours had passed in the blink of an eye; that would have been far too conspicuous.

The system displayed another line of text: [Lifespan limit increased to 500 years.]

Li Yang was stunned. "That much!"

She hurriedly brought up the system panel-

Name: Li Yang

Lifespan: 1 year/500 years

Physique: 300

Spirit: 300

Star Apertures: 4 (1%)

Cultivation technique: Basic Star-Wielding Cultivation Technique (100%)

Pills: Star-Attracting Pill (can be improved), Aperture Stabilizing Pill (can be improved)

Star Skills: Fist Burst (100%), Hidden Shadow (tier 2, 1%)

Note 1: Only 1 year of lifespan remains. Please harvest plants as soon as possible to obtain lifespan.

Note 2: The Star-Attracting Pill and Aperture Stabilizing Pill contain too many impurities. Consuming lifespan to purify them is recommended.

Note 3: Proficiency in Star Skill: Hidden Shadow (tier 2) is extremely low. Please consume lifespan to improve proficiency.

This time, she really had gone back to square one overnight.

A hundred years of lifespan had dwindled back to just one in the blink of an eye.

Even so, Li Yang felt reassured. She had opened four Star Apertures, making her at least Grade One High Stage.

There were posts on the forum explaining cultivation realms. First Grade Star Wielders were only just starting out, and the divisions were relatively simple.

After drawing stars into the body and opening the first Star Aperture, one crossed the threshold to becoming a Star Wielder. For ordinary students with a base physique of only seventy or eighty, the next step was to try to fill the first Star Aperture before attempting to open the second.

Opening two Star Apertures meant reaching First Grade Low Stage.

Opening three meant reaching First Grade Middle Stage.

Once the fourth Star Aperture was open, one reached Grade One High Stage.

The rest of the post required payment, so Li Yang didn't read any further.

She might have rushed to Grade One High Stage in the blink of an eye, but advancing to Second Grade wouldn't be so easy.

She couldn't even afford a Realm-Breaking Pill.

There was no rush to reach Second Grade.

Li Yang just wanted to harvest some lives first, save up more lifespan, and later figure out a safe way to make money and stockpile merit points. Only then would she feel reassured.

Li Yang activated Hidden Shadow, concealed her fourth Star Aperture, and got up to take a shower.

The feeling was rather strange.

It was a little like adding a weight to her ankle: running took more effort, but if she removed the weight, she would undoubtedly run more easily and quickly.

It was a roundabout form of weighted training, which was pretty good too.

After her shower, Li Yang fell straight into bed and slept without dreaming.

The next day, in the agronomy department.

Feng Yiqiao woke before six.

A little after seven, Xia Putao woke up too.

Even Lü Shunshun, who slept straight through until after ten, woke at 7:50.

The trio gathered together and gazed into the distance.

"Will she really come?" Xia Putao kept looking.

Yawning, Lü Shunshun said, "She has to come today, at least." After all, she had accepted the task.

After a night's sleep, Feng Yiqiao had calmed down. Pessimistically, he said, "Not necessarily. Even if she abandons the task, she just won't be able to accept another one today. She can take one again tomorrow... She worked all afternoon yesterday, so she must know how hard harvesting wheat is. I bet she couldn't even sleep last night."

They had all done it themselves.

This wasn't ordinary wheat. The stalks were like steel rebar; anyone who wasn't a Star Wielder couldn't cut through them at all.

Even a Star Wielder had to empty all their Star Apertures to swing with enough force. Forget a whole day-after a few hours, their entire body would ache from exhaustion.

Every time they finished harvesting wheat, they were left dizzy and aching, with pain in their chests from emptying their Star Apertures. They couldn't even sleep all night.

That feeling... anyone who had tried it would know.

If it weren't so torturous, the cash-strapped agronomy department would never have been willing to post a task at the task office.

Even so, they could only fool freshmen into doing it. No matter how often they posted the task, the older students never came.

Xia Putao sighed. "She really is strong. If she could work for a couple more days, this batch of wheat would be almost completely harvested..."

Lü Shunshun propped her chin in her hand and said, "Yeah. Once this crop is harvested, the next one will take at least a week to ripen... By then, it'll be senior brother's turn to harvest it..."

Feng Yiqiao snapped, "In your dreams! I'm the one who spent merit points to hire someone this time. When the next crop comes in, you two will still be the ones harvesting it!"

Lü Shunshun and Xia Putao pretended not to hear him. Both stared eagerly into the distance, hoping to see the little freshman with all that brute strength.

Feng Yiqiao couldn't be bothered arguing with them. He sat down with a sigh, and the three fellow disciples waited at the edge of the field, staring until their eyes nearly wore out.

Li Yang was awakened by a knock at the door.

She shot upright and discovered it was already 7:30!

She had slept so comfortably that she had nearly overslept.

Luckily, she had arranged to meet Dean Si at eight. Otherwise, being late on her very first day of work would have made an awful impression.

"Li Yang, are you awake?" It was Fang Chuyun's voice outside.

Li Yang hurriedly got up and dressed. "I'm awake."