Chapter 285

"Wang Yin?"

Gongshu Jin felt that the name Wang Yin was somewhat familiar.

Suddenly he remembered—he must have seen an advertisement for Oasis Group before, and there seemed to be someone named Wang Yin in it.

But he had just skimmed past it at the time and hadn’t formed a deep impression.

And when Li Xiao had told him about the matter earlier, Li himself wasn’t clear on many of the specifics and had spoken vaguely.

Gongshu Jin decided to look into it himself.

A moment later, Gongshu Jin was surprised to find that he couldn’t find anything at all.

"Impossible, I remember seeing that Oasis Group ad..."

Suddenly, it clicked for Gongshu Jin: "Right, I only recently reached Level 2; that ad should have been something I saw when I was on Level 4."

Thinking it over, Gongshu Jin grew more curious about this matter, so he temporarily contacted a company employee on Level 4 using the company’s dedicated line, asking them to help look into it.

Gongshu Jin thought to himself: "It’s a shame my clearance isn’t high enough. Otherwise, why would I need to go through all this trouble? I could just look up upper-level network information directly through the Spirit Realm Network."

After a moment, the other party came back with news.

"There really was that ad, but now almost all of it has been taken down. Even related comments, posts, and videos have been blocked, deleted, or delisted one by one."

"That livestream video you wanted—I had to spend quite a few spirit coins to find it."

The next moment, a video screen popped up in Gongshu Jin’s spirit eye.

It was exactly the scene of Zhang Yu riding on top of Wang Yin, punching him in the face again and again.

Watching this, Gongshu Jin’s eyes flickered, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Seeing Gongshu Jin’s demeanor, Li Xiao knew he must be using his spirit implant to look up information, and quickly added: "President Wang was so kind to Zhang Yu, and yet he was viciously backstabbed. Zhang Yu is nothing but an ungrateful dog..."

"Mm..." Gongshu Jin nodded, but then said: "Tame? Why would you need to tame him? You can just make friends."

As for what Li Xiao said, Gongshu Jin didn’t take it to heart at all.

Li Xiao was a poor wretch from Level 1 with poor grades and a rank far behind him...

In Gongshu Jin’s eyes, could Li Xiao even be considered a person? At most he was a dog barely in human form—a dog companion, not a human friend.

Especially since Li Xiao didn’t even know which level Wang Yin had come from, let alone understand the depths of this matter.

And Gongshu Jin estimated... even on Level 2, probably only those companies that had trade dealings with Level 1, and people who paid close attention to Level 1 news, would know about Zhang Yu defeating Wang Yin.

That Zhang Yu had defeated Wang Yin, who had crippled his own cultivation, showed that even as a newly advanced Foundation Establishment cultivator, Zhang Yu had no small combat strength. But to Gongshu Jin, that wasn’t important.

Watching the video, what caught his attention wasn’t the combat power Zhang Yu displayed, but the final outcome.

In Gongshu Jin’s view, the fact that Zhang Yu could ride on Wang Yin like that, knock him unconscious, and then come strolling into the university Foundation Establishment class like nothing happened proved that his background was extraordinary.

That was true style, true momentum, true charisma—far more impressive than unmatched combat prowess, extraordinary talent, or stunning genius.

Conversely... no matter how strong Zhang Yu’s displayed combat power was or how great his talent, he wouldn’t care. He would only assign a price to the other party in his mind.

"I need to check with the Righteous God. What exactly is Zhang Yu’s background? Beating Wang Yin like that and yet not dying on Level 1?"

Thinking this, Gongshu Jin naturally abandoned his original plan to take Zhang Yu under his wing, and instead considered whether he could make friends with him.

What did “friend” mean? To Gongshu Jin, it meant someone who either had money, had a background, or had exceptionally good grades.

"And this Zhang Yu got his Foundation Establishment qualification in his sophomore year of high school, a full year earlier than me. Yet his stats are 20% lower than mine—clearly his talent is terrible, and it’s all pure background."

Of course, Gongshu Jin couldn’t imagine... that after getting his Foundation Establishment qualification, Zhang Yu had delayed for a long time simply because he didn’t have the money to buy a spirit root.

He thought to himself: "With talent like that, he’ll never catch up to me. In fact, he’ll only fall further behind. He shouldn’t be a threat to my goal of being first in the class."

"On the other hand, his background might actually be useful to me."

Thinking this, Gongshu Jin became increasingly convinced that Zhang Yu was suitable as a friend.

Li Xiao, standing nearby, didn’t know all this, but hearing what Gongshu Jin said, he could sense his goodwill toward Zhang Yu and felt both surprised and jealous.

Gongshu Jin then walked directly over to Zhang Yu, glanced at him and Yu Xinghan, and began his usual strategy for making friends.

No pleasantries, no small talk—Gongshu Jin decided to directly display his wealth.

This was Gongshu Jin’s proven method for making friends, tested without fail since childhood.

Generally speaking, after he displayed his wealth, the rich would accept him, while the poor would try to curry favor with him.

To Gongshu Jin, wealth was like a person’s grades or ranking—an absolutely effective and rational matching mechanism that could filter out useless social interactions for him.

“Hello, you two.”

Gongshu Jin revealed his back, lightly brushing his hands up and down his spine, and said with a light laugh, “What do you think of this Vajra Profound Creation spine dharma skeleton of mine? How much is it worth?”

Zhang Yu was momentarily stunned and thought to himself, “Is this guy here to flaunt his wealth at me?”

Seeing Zhang Yu’s silence, Li Xiao chimed in from the side, “It must be at least 15 spirit coins, right?”

Gongshu Jin said calmly, “It cost me 20 spirit coins.”

“After all, the raw material for this spine comes from a master at Vajra University, crafted from the spine the master cultivated through hard practice.”

“For the same model of spine, even a professional bone-selling cultivator would need a full year to regrow it. In other words, an identical spine dharma skeleton appears at most once a year.”

Zhang Yu cursed inwardly, “Damn rich bastard!”

Seeing Zhang Yu’s unruffled expression, Gongshu Jin thought, “Does he look down on the Vajra Profound Creation too?”

Frowning slightly, Gongshu Jin said, “You two, let’s add each other as friends.”

Although he only wanted to add Zhang Yu, seeing that Yu Xinghan was with him, Gongshu Jin decided to add both at once, while also probing the two of them.

As the friend request was accepted, Gongshu Jin activated the unique ability of his own eye prosthesis, and in his eyes appeared the model of his new friend’s eye prosthesis.

Checking the other’s eye prosthesis model through the friend list was another one of his social tricks.

“Time Remnant Demon Eye? Such a top-tier eye prosthesis?”

“This Zhang Yu… is a friend.”

At that moment, Gongshu Jin knew he hadn’t misjudged—the Zhang Yu before him was definitely no ordinary person.

“But it seems my friend here isn’t much of a talker. He doesn’t even show off his eye prosthesis. Is he the low-key type like Ji Yuanshu?”

“But now that he knows my wealth, he should understand we can be friends.”

“I’ll just add him as a friend for now. There’s plenty of time ahead.”

Thinking this, Gongshu Jin nodded to Zhang Yu, said nothing more, and turned back directly.

Watching Zhang Yu ignore him and Gongshu Jin walk away, Li Xiao chuckled inwardly, “Heh, this Zhang Yu really has a bad temper. Looks like he’s offended Gongshu Jin now, right?”

Just then, Yu Xinghan nodded and said, “Sure, let’s add each other as friends.”

On the other side, Gongshu Jin frowned slightly as he saw the friend request passing through just then. “Extreme Tiger? That model is so outdated.”

“This one is not a friend.”

With a thought, Gongshu Jin silently deleted Yu Xinghan from his friend list.

On the other side, Ji Yuanshu watched coldly from the sidelines and thought to himself, “Based on my recent investigation, the Oasis Group seems to have already made a move on this Zhang Yu.”

“This Zhang Yu might be involved in the conflict between the Myriad Laws and the Netherworld…”

“But anyway, it’s none of my business. Civil engineering students are just passersby to me. As far as I can tell, this Zhang Yu is far behind me in data alone—his ranking poses no threat to me at all.”

“So I don’t need to bother with any of it.”

“I just need to focus on getting first in my class for three years, then transfer to finance in the future and break into the top thirty school-wide.”

“That’s what my master arranged for me.”

…

After class, the people in the classroom quickly dispersed.

Zhang Yu patted Yu Xinghan on the shoulder and asked, “Where are you heading next?”

Yu Xinghan said angrily, “Damn! Why did that Gongshu Jin delete me?”

Zhang Yu recalled Gongshu Jin’s behavior and said, “Probably looks down on us.”

As the crowd dispersed, Yu Xinghan felt his eye prosthesis run much more smoothly and nodded. “People on the fourth level looking down on us on the first is normal. If I were them, I’d look down on me too.”

Yu Xinghan recalled Starfire Elder's warning and said, "In short, work hard to improve your grades and ranking."

"We people from the first stratum have no future in socializing at university."

"Only grades and ranking... are our only support."

"But I need to go exchange this damn eye skeleton first. Where are you going?"

Zhang Yu's eyes moved slightly, and he said, "I want to go check out the Great Library first, and exchange for some techniques to look at."

Zhang Yu used the eye skeleton to check the navigation to the Great Library.

Upon checking, he discovered that the Great Library was not a location but a website.

At the same time, in the Foundation Establishment class group, the teacher, Elder Jiao Lei, sent a message.

Elder Jiao Lei: [Link] This is the latest class ranking, arranged based on everyone's foundational data upon entering the class. The ranking will be continuously updated based on comprehensive scores. Everyone can first take a look at where their current strength stands in the class.

"Class ranking?"

Zhang Yu clicked in and found it was the ranking list for the entire second campus of Wanfa University, from the school-wide list, department lists, to class lists, all included.

And the subpage sent by Elder Jiao Lei was precisely the ranking list for their Foundation Establishment class.

Rank 13, Zhang Yu.

"Not bad." Zhang Yu nodded. "I'll just gradually improve from now on."

The next moment, as Zhang Yu actively connected to the Great Library, after confirming his identity and permissions, Zhang Yu felt a change in light and shadow before his eyes, and countless bookshelves suddenly appeared, occupying every corner of his vision.

Row after row, endless bookshelves were projected before him through the eye skeleton.

This was the Great Library of Wanfa University.

And as Zhang Yu lightly tapped his finger, rows of bookshelves were arranged by category according to his request.

"The techniques I want to find..."

Long before coming to Wanfa University, Zhang Yu had already planned his cultivation plan after entering university.

Especially combining his cultivation experience during high school, Zhang Yu felt that the first thing he should do after entering university... was to confirm whether the Chain Method Diagram contained a university Sacred Body similar to the high school Sacred Body.

"The high school Sacred Body is too suitable for development. If I had obtained it earlier, my cultivation during high school would definitely have been more than two or three times faster."

"I hope university also has a university Sacred Body."

The next moment, as Zhang Yu's mind moved, one after another, basic-level techniques for the Foundation Establishment stage appeared before him.