Chapter 294

Watching the fleeting glimpse of Dao Seed on Zhang Pianpian, Zhang Yu speculated inwardly, “Is it necessary to gradually understand the other person and see them use more and more methods before one can slowly see their Dao Seed clearly?”

Recalling his interactions with Yu Xinghan and Le Mulan, Zhang Yu thought to himself, “Indeed, Yu Xinghan and I know each other inside out, and I’ve spent a long time with Le Mulan too, having many deep exchanges.”

“So if I want to understand big sister’s Dao Seed, I’ll need to get to know her more as well.”

But thinking that he and his sister now shared a dorm room and would have plenty of time together from now on, it wouldn’t be hard to slowly understand her Dao Seed—just like today when he caught that fleeting flash of the Taiqing Talisman.

After his sister left, Zhang Yu once again opened the platform introduced by Dharma Power teacher Li Mingbo—Dharma Treasure.

“A one-time sale of dharma power requires at least 1,000 units.”

“If you want to sell less than 1,000 units of dharma power, you’ll need to sign a weekly or monthly supply contract and provide dharma power steadily every day.”

Zhang Yu looked at the price for selling 100 units per day of this dharma power with 113% quality.

Staring at the dizzying zeros after the decimal point, he couldn’t help cursing, “This dharma power is way too cheap.”

Fu Ji laughed. “Hehe, of course. The spiritual energy here is so abundant, and the dorm is much cheaper than the first-floor spirit veins—that means a lot of people can sell their low-quality dharma power.”

“With so many people selling it, how could it be expensive?”

“The more the students of the Ten Thousand Dharma University cultivate, the more dharma power they supply; the rich can use cheap dharma power, and the students have to keep cultivating, continuously improving their dharma power and its quality just to sell it at a price.”

Fu Ji sighed, “The students here are like dharma power engines—they keep eating spiritual energy and spitting out dharma power, and they even pay fees willingly.”

Zhang Yu thought to himself, “Low-quality dharma power in small quantities simply can’t fetch a good price.”

“And if I can’t sell dharma power in large quantities after improving it, then it’s better to focus on the physical body first and prepare to earn money on the construction site.”

Zhang Yu understood that with only ten years in university, every step of the plan was crucial to improving his grades and ranking—he had to be careful.

Now, having received Zhang Pianpian’s reminder and after some deliberation, he decided to change his cultivation plan.

“Anyway, now that I have the University Saint Physique, I can cultivate any technique very quickly—whether I focus first on the Dao Heart, dharma power, or the physical body, or some other direction, it doesn’t matter.”

Thinking this, Zhang Yu decided to temporarily abandon the set he had originally intended to collect—Qi Vein Eternal Flow.

“Qi Vein Eternal Flow will have to be put off for now.”

“First, train the physical body, then earn big money on the construction site. Once I have money, I can further improve my cultivation efficiency.”

“At the same time, try to hide my strength as much as possible and not appear too astonishing…”

Still, his previous cultivation wasn’t a total waste—after all, the Primordial Chaos Fetal Breath Sutra allowed him to absorb spiritual energy and refine dharma power at all times. Even if he focused on the physical body, this breathing method would still be necessary.

At that moment, Zhang Yu opened the Great Book Repository within his Eye Skeleton, scanning through one expert-level body-tempering technique after another.

“The only Foundation Establishment body-tempering technique I currently possess is the Spring-Autumn Infinite Zen.”

“Level 10 Spring-Autumn Infinite Zen is part of the Martial Dao Sacred Embryo.”

“And level 20 Spring-Autumn Infinite Zen is part of the Martial Dao Sacred Physique.”

Zhang Yu guessed that the Martial Dao Sacred Physique was probably the Foundation Establishment version of the Martial Dao Sacred Embryo.

“Judging by the effects of the Martial Dao Sacred Embryo, it mainly focuses on durability, self-healing, and enhancing martial arts power.”

“But right now, I need to develop—pursuing high attack, high defense, high HP… isn’t very meaningful.”

After all, in Zhang Yu’s view, what’s the use of being strong at the start of Foundation Establishment? Being able to earn money is more important.

Zhang Yu’s eyes scanned the descriptions of one expert-level technique after another in the Great Book Repository, and through reading these introductions, he saw one link-method set after another.

“Volcanic Bone Smelting, Kunpeng Infant Embryo, Blood-Burning Self-Immolation…”

Zhang Yu pursed his lips. Although he could see the names of the sets through the expert-level techniques, if he didn’t actually practice them, even he wouldn’t know their specific effects.

“I can only guess from the names.”

After a frenzy of reading and picking, Zhang Yu finally selected one set—Earthwood Saint Physique.

Although the other sets all seemed quite good, for Zhang Yu it still came down to that saying…

“What’s the use of being strong? For us college students, the comparison is who has more money.”

And after listing the prices of the body-tempering techniques under Earthwood Saint Physique from lowest to highest, Zhang Yu first chose the cheapest expert-level technique at the Foundation Establishment stage, called the Earth-Eating Divine Art.

This Earth-Eating Divine Art involved condensing a strand of Gluttony Dharma Power, then breaking down ingested materials to temper the physical body and increase its strength.

And as the technique advanced, the materials consumed ranged from the lowest-grade soil to cement, then concrete, and even rebar, alloys... it could be said that the stronger the material being decomposed, the greater the effect on tempering the body.

Of course, this foundation-building technique's method of strengthening the body by consuming materials was still different from actual eating. For example, relying solely on eating rebar and cement could strengthen the body, but one could not survive that way—one still had to eat regular meals.

However, as Zhang Yu just skimmed through the technique's introduction, he saw a crimson warning line below.

"This technique is a legitimate body-tempering method and does not encourage any theft from construction sites. Practitioners are advised to purchase training materials through proper channels."

Zhang Yu paused for a moment, then looked further down and saw a series of news articles about construction site theft—things like eating cables, eating rebar, eating concrete, eating demon-kin...

"This is meant to warn practitioners of this technique not to steal things from construction sites to eat, right?"

After spending 0.3 spirit coins, Zhang Yu obtained the digital version of this technique.

After a rough read-through, he remembered Zhang Pianpian's reminder. Instead of cultivating at the dormitory entrance this time, he headed to the area below the 100th floor of the Wanfa University City.

Stepping through the magnetic tunnel and arriving at the 99th floor, Zhang Yu's first sensation was... silence.

No human figures could be seen on the streets, only the gray cement ground.

There were no advertisements, projections, or signs in the air...

The entire 99th floor, whether observed with the naked eye or with the eye-skeleton, was eerily quiet, as if no one was on this floor at all.

Glancing at the houses on both sides of the street, Zhang Yu noticed that most windows were dark.

He thought to himself, "Is it because there are very few people on this floor?"

Although it felt somewhat strange, Zhang Yu had no interest in investigating what was going on right now. Activating the power of the detection ritual within his body, he sensed that there were indeed far fewer surveillance cameras on this floor.

Continuing down to the 95th floor, Zhang Yu found a corner without any surveillance cameras.

Along the way, from the 99th floor to the 95th floor, everything was silent, and Zhang Yu didn't even encounter a single person.

"Could it be that all the mortals are concentrated on the lower floors? Are these floors just sparsely populated?"

Shaking his head and suppressing his doubts, Zhang Yu refocused his attention on cultivation.

He swallowed a piece of cement he had prepared earlier, then condensed his Gluttonous Dharma power and began cultivating the Earth-Eating Divine Art.

During the cultivation of this technique, Zhang Yu felt his stomach and intestines suddenly erupt with an incomparably astonishing power. In an instant, with the decomposition power of the Gluttonous Dharma, the cement was ground into dust.

Startled by this, Zhang Yu thought to himself, "The University Saint Body... has granted me the digestive ability of a Foundation Establishment peak cultivator."

"Under these circumstances, the power my stomach and intestines can unleash is probably far stronger than the power my hands can."

Thinking this, Zhang Yu suddenly realized that the digestive power granted by the University Saint Body matched quite well with the Earth-Eating Divine Art.

The next moment, he was once again fully focused on his cultivation.

Earth-Eating Divine Art Level 1

Fuji looked around at the environment and thought, "There's not a single person here, and there are dead angles without surveillance. This is quite suitable for setting up a ritual."

"Ever since I advanced to level 2 evil god, I've been inside this Wanfa University City and haven't had a chance to establish a new ritual. This place might be an opportunity..."

After some thought, Fuji decided to observe for a while longer. Once she confirmed that this place was safe enough, she would suggest Zhang Yu prepare the ritual.

In the following days, aside from attending classes, Zhang Yu spent his time below the 100th floor cultivating the Earth-Eating Divine Art.

The Residual Bull Self-Sacrifice Technique and the Primordial Embryo Breathing Scripture were kept running 24/7, and with the assistance of the University Saint Body, they continuously enhanced his Dao heart and Dharma power.

As for his classroom performance and basic data tests, he slightly concealed them with an anti-detection ritual, making his progress seem less astonishing.

Outside the Dharma Skeleton Rental Center.

Li Xiao walked out chatting and laughing with Gongshu Jin, Ying Xin, and others.

"I'll head off now."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

"No problem, don't I have enough spirit coins for that?"

After a round of banter with his classmates, Li Xiao walked cheerfully toward the dormitory. At the same time, his Dharma Skeleton displayed his current class ranking.

Seeing that he was still in 10th place with 295 points, the curve of his smile became more pronounced.

Looking down, he was a bit surprised: "Zhang Yu went from 19th to 18th? 272 points, has he started improving?"

But Li Xiao just shook his head. Half of the three-month basic course had already passed; there was no way the other party could catch up to him now.

A few days later, as soon as it was midnight, Li Xiao opened the class ranking again. He saw himself still in 10th place with 296 points, then looked at Zhang Yu, who had risen to 16th with 275 points, and his brow furrowed slightly.

"Is he gaining points that fast?" Li Xiao thought to himself. "Looks like he's no longer randomly practicing some basic technique like before."

If Zhang Yu had overtaken Li Xiao in one go, with his rank skyrocketing instantly, Li Xiao might have given up on the idea of competing.

But now, watching Zhang Yu climb up one rank at a time over these past few days, Li Xiao only wanted to put in more effort, spend more spirit coins, and firmly suppress Zhang Yu.

Just then, a message from Ying Xin popped up in the Dharma Remnant: "Want to go to the Soul Cloud Sea together today?"

Li Xiao immediately replied: "Yes! Let's train for ten hours today."

In the time that followed, Li Xiao cultivated with increasing diligence and effort. The balance in his account grew smaller, the bills from the lending platform grew larger, and his cultivation base continuously improved day by day.

And the first thing every midnight was to get up and check the rankings of himself and Zhang Yu.

14th, Zhang Yu, 279 points

Li Xiao thought: "How much money did this guy spend?"

12th, Zhang Yu, 284 points

"He's probably borrowed no less than I have."

11th, Zhang Yu, 296 points

10th, Li Xiao, 301 points

"There's only one month until school officially starts. I absolutely cannot lose here…"

Watching Zhang Yu gradually catch up to him day by day, his comprehensive score getting closer and closer, Li Xiao only felt more and more anxious.

"As long as I get into the construction site… Only by getting into the construction site can I repay the loan!"

"The struggle for immortality is all about seizing the initiative! Otherwise, one step behind means every step behind."

"If I can't be the first to enter the construction site, the pressure from the loan alone will severely drag down my cultivation efficiency."

"Zhang Yu… want to compete in immortal potential?"

"Then bring it on!"

"Teacher Tu will definitely take me down to the construction site first!"

Thinking of this, a fierce look flashed across Li Xiao's face as he already opened the mortgage function of the lending platform.

After several consecutive days, Li Xiao opened the ranking list updated at midnight once again.

His eyes stared fixedly at the rankings above.

9th place, Li Xiao, 308 points

8th place, Zhang Yu, 309 points