Chapter 100

In the small grove of the school, as soon as Zhang Yun activated the Vermillion Marrow Primordial Qi, waves of spiritual energy immediately rushed through his blood and flesh.

Especially after the Vermillion Marrow Primordial Qi tempered every piece of his flesh, organs, and bones.

The True Spirit Root seemed to adapt to this situation as well, continuously pouring spiritual energy into the various parts Zhang Yun was training, working alongside the Vermillion Marrow Primordial Qi to accelerate the robust growth of his physical body.

Cultivating immortality, in ancient times, was always done by those with spirit roots.

Only now, actually using his spirit root to cultivate, did Zhang Yun deeply feel the difference between the two, sensing the additional boost to physical growth that came from the surging spiritual energy infusing his flesh and blood in coordination with body refinement.

And besides that...

"Hmm?" Zhang Yun sensed the strands of spiritual energy pouring into his spine and the area around it, as if pairs of tiny hands were stimulating and nourishing something.

With the support of the True Spirit Root and the Chaos Origin Pill, Zhang Yun had felt his physical strength improving by leaps and bounds during this period.

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"Punch Song Hailong, stomp Le Mulan, and dominate Songyang together with Yu!"

This Thunder Punishment True Body was the body refinement technique she had spent a full one hundred and twenty thousand to purchase, allowing one to condense lightning with mana to temper the body.

In the small grove of the Dark Study Club campus.

As for the latest top grade, He Dayou? Qian Shen didn't think much of his dead muscles bought with money at all.

"We cultivators take the sky as our blanket and the ground as our mat; we should live under bridges, burrow into groves, squat in unfinished buildings, and put all our limited money into cultivation! I've wanted to do this for a long time!"

Zhang Yun shook his head: "No, I've already quit using the Dao Heart Buffer. If I stay here, I'm afraid I'll get addicted again."

At the same time, the fierce medicinal power of the Chaos Origin Pill continuously nourished Zhang Yun's body, making his Vermillion Marrow Primordial Qi flow more smoothly.

Days passed one after another like this...

Just then, hearing the phone alarm ring, Zhang Yun thought: "Is it time for class?"

Bai Zhenzhen said: "Carry important, commonly used things in your backpack."

"Doesn't that mean one person gets the cultivation effect of two?"

The landlord, dangling a bunch of keys, said impatiently: "Don't you rent the place just to store your stuff? Not to train in. If you want to train, go to a gym or a training hall. The rent can't be lowered either; I still have to support my son through college. He's a college student, you know?"

Zhang Yun had to admit he found some sense in that.

Bai Zhenzhen found the small grove, saw Zhang Yun, and charged over, thinking happily: "My precious spirit root, here I come!"

At the same time, Bai Zhenzhen felt her muscles, organs, and bones being infused with spiritual energy, nourishing her flesh and blood at a special frequency, gradually making her muscles, organs, and bones stronger.

Outside the construction-site room filled with shipping containers, the ground was littered with cigarette butts and liquor bottles.

"But from these ten-plus years of being dead broke... I've learned one thing: the more you want to rent a satisfactory house, the harder you get reamed. If you want to avoid being reamed, there's only one way..."

The next day after school, Bai Zhenzhen started taking Zhang Yun to look for a place.

Continuing to search toward the outskirts of the city, they came to an apartment building.

"Don't have that much money? You can take out a loan. Or you two are from Songyang High School, right? If you're willing to each pawn an arm, that works too."

Continuing toward the suburbs, Zhang Yun and Bai Zhenzhen spotted another decent garage.

"For food... anyway, we can just buy synthetic food from the cafeteria."

"Electricity... we can charge either at the Dark Study Club or at school."

"Spiritual energy is being infused into places I don't usually train..."

"If we switched back and forth like this every day to cultivate, would the cumulative effect from adaptation rise like the tide, getting stronger and stronger?"

"Let's practice and rest here, go to school during the day, and head to the Dark Study Club at night—what do you think?"

Zhang Yun was cultivating the Vermillion Marrow Primordial Qi, seeing billowing spiritual energy surge in; with each flex of his muscles, it continuously strengthened his flesh, organs, and bones, while gradually nourishing his nervous system bit by bit.

Zhang Yun and Bai Zhenzhen each held a large bucket, devouring the paste inside. As their physical strength grew by leaps and bounds, their recent food expenses had also risen rapidly.

"As expected, the True Spirit Root has adapted to Zhang Yun's body and produced a change..."

[]

Zhang Yu patted his slightly empty stomach and waved to Bai Zhenzhen, who was already training, saying, "I'm going to class now; you focus on your practice."

"This is根本不 my body refinement method; it's more like the effect of Yuzi's Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi."

"On this suburban overpass, big trucks pass by every day, making it noisy and chaotic, so we don't have to worry about disturbing others with our cultivation noise."

The landlord said, "This is a prime location. The rent would normally be 5000 a month, but since you're students, if you're sincere about renting, I can waive the rent, but you'd have to put down a one-million deposit."

The next day.

The car woman in the hallway saw her and greeted, "Teacher Le, going to see Teacher Ma again? You two commute together every day—why not consider buying a car?"

"This is… nerves? The spirit mechanism is stimulating and nourishing my nerves?"

Even when Zhang Yu wasn't cultivating Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi, this spirit root was still constantly infusing spirit mechanism into his physical body.

…

At this moment, Bai Zhenzhen felt that after her body refinement, besides the body-refining effect of the Lightning Strike True Body, her muscles, internal organs, and bones had all gained an additional enhancement.

Zhao Tianxing beside them looked at the two with some envy: "Zhang Yu and Azhen now go to and from school together every day; they say they cultivate together after school, and they even swap the rented spirit root between them. Their bond is really strong. I wish I had a beautiful girl friend with such a good relationship too."

Although his tutoring income was now considerable, his expenses were even higher, and he still needed to hold onto the income from selling clothes at Lian Tianji.

Being able to gain an extra body-refining effect while cultivating Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi naturally delighted Zhang Yu.

Le Mulan opened the safe, looked at the clothes inside, sniffed lightly, and frowned slightly: "Recently, these clothes seem to always have another person's scent on them." Bai Zhenzhen pointed at the small stream under the overpass ahead and asked, "Couldn't we live under that bridge?" Zhang Yu: "Huh?"

So a few days later, Bai Zhenzhen and Zhang Yu both gave up their rented rooms.

Bai Zhenzhen's heart surged with excitement at this thought.

They took Songyang High School in the urban area as their starting point and the Dark Studies Gang's campus in the distant suburbs as their endpoint, searching along a straight line from the city center.

Bai Zhenzhen said, "We don't have to pick this bridge; we can just stay wherever looks good."

Bai Zhenzhen grew more spirited as she spoke: "Instead of giving money to landlords and agents, it's better to spend more on food, and not give those rich people a chance to harvest us."

Bai Zhenzhen waved her hand and said, "Buy a car? Riding him is fast and saves money—I won't let the company harvest me!"

Zhang Yu asked curiously, "What method?"

"Then wouldn't my scores and competition rankings skyrocket?"

"But to do that conveniently, we'd still need to rent together, then go to school and work together every day, so we can swap the spirit root anytime."

Le Mulan was Bai Zhenzhen's alias in the underground tutoring world.

"But my Crimson Marrow Primordial Qi shouldn't have this kind of nerve-training effect, right?"

"Conversely, if I lend the spirit root to Yuzi, wouldn't he also be able to stack part of my cultivation effect?"

But despite looking down on him, Qian Shen had to admit that He Dayou's physical strength currently surpassed all the other first-year students at Songyang High School.

"I've thought it through carefully; water… we can drink it at school and also bring some."

He and Bai Zhenzhen were both high school students who didn't need sleep, and they owned nothing of value, so they could cultivate and rest wherever they went.

She gently pressed against Zhang Yu's back, felt a warmth in her belly, and the True Spirit Root had transferred into her body; Bai Zhenzhen immediately felt a wave of comfort throughout her body.

Qian Shen also looked at the two with envy: "I really envy Bai Zhenzhen—being able to cultivate every day with Zhang Yu, who's first in martial competition and fourth in academic competition. If only I had such an excellent study partner."

As soon as Bai Zhenzhen dismounted from Zhang Yu (on the bike), she couldn't wait to jump into the nearby river to wash.

For the sake of immortal cultivation, except for loan repayments, medicine, and food, Bai Zhenzhen spent almost all her money on techniques.

!.

Although he had been neutered, students like Zhao Tianxing still had a love for beauty.

In order to make the best use of the True Spirit Root, during this period Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen tried to have the Dark Studies Gang schedule their classes at different times, so that while one was in class, the other could use the spirit root to cultivate.

…

…

Bai Zhenzhen tried to activate her body-refining technique, the Lightning Strike True Body.

"How could this be?"

Every day after school, the two of them would bring synthetic food, fill up a few bottles of water, and find a random place to cultivate until nightfall, when they'd tutor people at the campus area, then go to school during the day.

"If something isn't important or commonly used, either sell it or stuff it into a box and leave it in the classroom—after all, there are surveillance cameras in the classroom, and those people at school won't go as far as stealing things."

It was a body-tempering method that, while enhancing physical strength, focused on improving the cultivator's neural reflexes, movement speed, and explosive power.

Thinking of this, Bai Zhenzhen made up her mind: "Alright, then we'll look for a house tomorrow!"

And now, when Bai Zhenzhen once again activated the Lightning-Scorched True Body, she felt her True Spiritual Root also channeling spiritual energy to assist in the cultivation of the Lightning-Scorched True Body.

Zhang Yu said in surprise, "If we don't rent a place, where are we going to live?"

A flicker of delight flashed in Bai Zhenzhen's eyes: "The True Spiritual Root is adapting to Zhang Yu's physical body while also adapting to mine—it's as if the channeling phenomenon of spiritual energy that happens when Zhang Yu cultivates the Crimson Marrow Primal Qi is… stacking onto me?"

"We don't need sleep anyway, and for bathing we can just use the river by the bridge tunnel."

In a basement on the edge of the city, the real estate agent said, "This basement is a hot commodity—it has electricity, internet, and water, and if you crawl out of the sewer, you're right at the subway. Plus, you don't have to worry about sunlight interfering with cultivation. The only downside is the rent is a bit high—twenty thousand a month…"

Zhang Yu also pondered the feasibility of it: "But what about our stuff? If we leave it here, someone might take it, right?"

"Is it an effect inherent to the True Spiritual Root?"

In the cafeteria.

Under the bridge tunnel.

Before even getting close, Zhang Yu could smell a strong odor of Dao Heart Buffer, clearly indicating that every resident here was taking large doses of Dao Heart Buffer.

The two walked along the elevated highway, when Bai Zhenzhen suddenly said, "Yu-zi, poor people can't spend money recklessly."

Perhaps because this use lasted long enough, when Zhang Yu returned the spirit root to Bai Zhenzhen after school, he could feel that his physical body, just like when he had previously used the muscle-building spirit root, would continue to experience accelerated growth for a period of time.

Zhang Yu, meanwhile, took off his clothes and started packing them aside—this was what he needed to send to Lian Tianji tomorrow.

Bai Zhenzhen said with a determined expression, "Yu-zi! I've decided not to rent a place anymore!"

On Bai Zhenzhen's side, after retrieving the spirit root, she first clearly felt a sense of discomfort, as if something of an unmatched shape had been stuffed into her stomach.

At that moment, in the classroom of the Dark Study Club, Bai Zhenzhen couldn't wait to walk out as soon as class ended.

"Even for Zhang Yu, it would probably take until the second year of high school to have a chance to catch up, right?"

…

Time passed in a flash, and before they knew it, a month had gone by since the martial arts competition, arriving at the time agreed upon between Songyang High School's competition team and Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen—the day to decide the competition slots.

On this day after school, several physical education teachers including Wang Hai, and several Student Council sports department students including Lan Ling, would all witness the gap between He Dayou's group of five and Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen in the sports field.