Chapter 179: Zhang Yu's Hard-Earned Money

In Longren's view, powerful families would gradually be swallowed up by even more powerful families—that was the trend for the future of Kunxu's first layer.

Under increasingly fierce competition, batch-production and optimization of offspring like Red Tower's model would inevitably become the breeding pattern for more and more wealthy clans in the future.

"Continuously combine the advantages in bloodlines to produce descendants stronger than the previous generation."

He had always believed that Red Tower held a significant advantage in this regard and could quickly capture the market.

The only pity was that in the past, Red Tower Group had been too immersed in the beast and beast-kin market, lacking enough high-quality human seeds.

In particular, many wealthy clans guarded their excellent genes tightly, making it very troublesome for them to obtain any.

And looking at the Zhang Yu in front of him, Longren felt as if he was seeing a future flagship product.

He thought to himself: "A top genius from Songyang City, with plenty of competition awards. Even before the second year of high school, all his stats have already reached the level of a senior."

"As long as we extract the advantageous elements from his bloodline… no, even directly using his seeds to improve the bloodline and breed excellent offspring should pique the interest of many wealthy people."

"If we can sign an exclusive agreement, the profits will be even higher."

These thoughts flashed through Longren's mind like lightning, and he laughed heartily, "Don't be nervous. If you want, you can call me 'adopted father' right now."

Zhang Yu said nothing.

If it had been his first or second week in Kunxu, when he was poorest and weakest and understood the place too little, he might have already knelt and called him 'father'.

But now, especially after learning many things about Red Tower Animal Husbandry, he dared not casually address him as 'adopted father'.

Zhang Yu understood that terms like 'adopted father' or 'adopted son' were just packaging—behind them, a flood of contracts and agreements were probably all traps.

Longren said, "Oh? Are you unwilling?"

"I can offer you pretty good terms."

"For instance, how about the position of Director of Breeding at Red Tower Animal Husbandry?"

Longren slowly walked over to stand beside Zhang Yu, his tone full of temptation. "Once you become Director of Breeding, you can restrict the personal freedom of any company employee, deprive them of their self-will, and drain everything from them. Don't you want that kind of power?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu was taken aback. "Isn't what you're saying illegal?"

Longren chuckled, snapped his fingers, and said, "Xiong Haoran, work overtime tonight. I want the planning proposal for the next breeding ad on my desk tomorrow morning."

Xiong Haoran's respectful voice came through the communicator: "Understood, I'll get on it right away."

Longren then looked at Zhang Yu and said, "Don't you want to give it a try? If you're willing, there will be countless beast-kin just like that, obeying your every word."

Zhang Yu frowned and said, "Aren't they all your sons? If a biological son's treatment is like that, can an adopted son's treatment really be any better?"

Longren said, "Well, doesn't that depend on the specific details of the contract?"

"I'm not the kind of guy limited by blood or lineage."

"Those who don't sign a contract with me, even if they carry my blood, are not my sons."

"Those who sign a contract, even if they don't have my blood, can still be my sons."

"I can give you a contract with terms good enough to satisfy you."

"Once you sign it, you'll be my adopted son—treated better than my biological sons, with a higher status."

"Who knows, maybe in the future I'll pass on my chairman position to you."

Longren's words were extremely tempting. If it were an ordinary high school student, they would probably already be unable to resist discussing the contract.

But Zhang Yu had experienced all kinds of temptations and pitfalls before. Faced with this Black Dragon chairman's seduction, he dared not agree in the slightest.

Zhang Yu waved his hands repeatedly and said, "Ah, I'd love to sign, but I really can't. You should know I've already signed with Zhang Pianpian. Due to the contract terms, I can't become your adopted son."

"Zhang Pianpian, huh?" Longren shot Zhang Yu a deep glance, somewhat surprised inwardly.

"This kid… I can't detect even the slightest hint of excitement? Is his mind so clear? No… it's not just clarity."

He understood that even many clear-headed people, when faced with a windfall, would still waver at least a little.

And the Zhang Yu before him gave him the same feeling as those old-timers who had been scammed badly.

"Just how badly did Zhang Pianpian screw him over? That his vigilance is this strong?"

Longren then said with an understanding expression, "I can understand that you're constrained by the contract."

"It's okay if you won't be my adopted son, but what about a stud service?"

The dragonman clapped his hands, and immediately beauties of all shapes, sizes, and temperaments appeared around them, including quite a few fox-spirits and cat-spirits among their ranks.

The dragonman said: "Leave your seed inside them. For each one you finish, I'll give you 100,000. How about it? As long as you have the stamina, I'll pay for as many as you can handle."

Watching Zhang Yu breathing heavily, the dragonman thought to himself: "Sure enough, this high schooler's vital energy is strong. Now that his fertility's returned, his resistance to this sort of thing is even worse. And with the price I'm offering..."

Zhang Yu shook his head with difficulty, forcing those hundred-thousand-chen figures out of his mind.

"N-no need. I'll just sell the research rights."

The dragonman's eyes narrowed slightly: "I've shown you plenty of goodwill, haven't I? You're unwilling to call me 'adopted father' and you won't accept my invitation."

"Am I being too easygoing?"

A terrifying pressure bore down, as if forcing Zhang Yu to his knees.

Zhang Yu could only force himself to say: "I... I did sign a contract with Zhang Pianpian."

The dragonman frowned, thinking: "The contract Zhang Pianpian signed with him covers this too? That broad a scope?"

At that moment, he looked at Zhang Yu with a hint of pity.

The dragonman recalled a thousand years ago, when slaves and servants were still common, and a master would manage whether a slave could have children, how they had them, and how many.

But later the slave market gradually disappeared, and then a talent market emerged; managing matters of reproduction and offspring became rare. "I never expected Zhang Pianpian to control you so tightly." The dragonman sighed slightly, patting his shoulder: "You've been through a lot."

"Then what if I switched to a man? Would that also breach the contract?"

Just as Zhang Yu felt a jolt of surprise, he saw the dragonman's form shift, their originally androgynous face becoming even more bewitching as numerous female features appeared.

The dragonman laughed and said: "Or if I'm neither male nor female, neither dragon nor human, would that still breach the contract?"

"If you don't like this form, give me ten minutes for a quick operation, and I can change it anytime."

"What do you think?"

Zhang Yu kept backing away, looking troubled: "Really, it won't work. That violates the contract too."

The dragonman gave a faint smile and returned to their original form: "Fine then, research rights it is."

"Go sign the contract."

Watching Zhang Yu leave, the dragonman's gaze abruptly turned cold, deep in thought—as if all the pity and warmth just moments ago had been an illusion.

(This line is garbled/spam: "無一錯一首一發一內一容一在一一看！" Possibly a text corruption. Transliterate as is? Likely "No mistakes, no errors, content is here to see!" but it seems like broken text. I'll translate as: "No mistake, no error, content is here—look!")

A fox-spirit came up to the dragonman, wrapped an arm around them, and whispered: "Director, do you really value this Zhang Yu's seed that much?"

The dragonman said: "Originally, I just thought his bloodline should be decent, so keeping it as material for a sperm bank would make a good profit."

"But if the contract really binds him that tightly, I'm even more curious whether his bloodline holds some secret."

"I just don't know if the kid is telling the truth or not. But either way, he doesn't seem like some pauper who can be easily tricked with a little temptation."

"Have the research team hurry up and study his seed."

"If there really is some mystery there, then... we'll think of something when the time comes."

A few hours later.

Inside the apartment.

As the apartment door opened, Zhang Yu swaggered in with a triumphant air.

Bai Zhenzhen turned her head and, seeing Zhang Yu looking a bit weak, asked curiously: "Done?"

"How much did you sell for?"

Zhang Yu gave a proud smile: "I wasn't prepared enough this time, so the quantity was a bit low. I sold it for 150,000."

"If they still want it next week, I can sell it again then."

"That much?" Bai Zhenzhen said enviously: "That's way too profitable, right?"

At that moment, Bai Zhenzhen could only regret that she couldn't make money as easily as Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu waved his hand grandly and said, "A'zhen, don't worry about money. If you're short, just borrow from me first."

"Dad!" Bai Zhenzhen quickly hugged Zhang Yu and said, "You've worked so hard to earn money."

Zhang Yu nodded with emotion: "It's pretty tiring, consumed a lot."

"Is there anything to eat at home?"

Bai Zhenzhen hurried off to get food: "There's still some leftover medicinal beast meat from last meal. I'll bring it for you."

She brought the food and, while massaging Zhang Yu, encouraged him, "Dad, eat up, get more protein. Next time, try to sell for even more. Our whole family depends on you."

Zhang Yu sighed inwardly, knowing this money wouldn't last, and thought to himself, "I still need to improve my potential quickly."

With that in mind, he immediately contacted Yu Xinghan to arrange a visit to the Spirit World's Dao-Asking Hall.

Inside a quiet room at White Dragon High School.

Yu Xinghan sat cross-legged on the floor, eyes tightly shut, silently breathing in and out the spiritual energy.

But in his mind, Li Xuelian's mature figure kept flashing, unsettling his thoughts.

"Sigh."

"This won't do."

"This disaster root is far too harmful."

"But if I remove it like this, how can I cultivate the Heavenly Gang Qigong? I can't just never practice this martial art forever, can I?"

After pondering for a moment, Yu Xinghan finally contacted Xinghuo Zhenren, deciding to ask his master for advice.

"Hello? Master, I have a friend, um... it's that Zhang Yu, he's run into some problems..."

After more than ten minutes, Yu Xinghan hung up the phone with a furrowed brow.

Xinghuo Zhenren's advice for his friend was simple, just two options.

Either keep the disaster root, temper the will, overcome inner desires, and continue cultivating the Heavenly Gang Qigong. This is the path of the strong, but it will inevitably delay his performance improvement for some time.

Or remove the disaster root and temporarily stop cultivating the Heavenly Gang Qigong. Although this is an escape, it won't affect his performance improvement in the near future. But if he has to cultivate the Heavenly Gang Qigong eventually, then escaping now might make things even harder later.

Each path had its pros and cons, leaving even Yu Xinghan struggling to decide.

Just then, he saw an incoming call from Zhang Yu, and a sudden idea welled up in his mind.