Chapter 442: Clubhouse Explosion

Inside the quiet room.

Zhang Yu lightly tapped his fingertip, and the clump of metal powder before him drifted back and forth with the fluctuations of his mana, sometimes forming a sphere and other times dispersing into a cloud-like mist.

Pinch Earth into Gold, the sixth of the Seven Ultimate Arts of Earth and Wood, is a martial technique capable of refining metal using mana.

However, for Zhang Yu, training in this technique wasn’t as troublesome as it was for others; as long as he repeatedly manipulated the metal powder before him to complete various transformations, he could steadily increase his practice count.

After several hours, Zhang Yu finally pushed Pinch Earth into Gold to level 10 and let out a light breath.

Just then, a knock sounded at the door, and Xiao Yunji’s voice came from outside.

Xiao Yunji: “Zhang Yu, are you done? We’re about to set off.”

Zhang Yu opened the door and said, “Mm, let’s go.”

Walking beside Zhang Yu, Xiao Yunji suddenly asked, “Zhang Yu… why don’t you use a Dharma Skeleton but instead push the technique with your pure physical body?”

“If it’s inconvenient to answer, you don’t have to.”

Zhang Yu thought for a moment, then casually said, “I want to keep training my physical body, and later use a custom-made Dharma Skeleton. By then, I’ll temper this body of mine, honed through a thousand refinements, into a Dharma Skeleton and a Dharma treasure, and control it freely with my own will—wouldn’t that be even stronger?”

Xiao Yunji said, “But that path… is very expensive.”

Zhang Yu smiled and said, “Take it slow. Earn however much I smelt.”

Xiao Yunji’s expression grew somewhat complicated as she looked at Zhang Yu. Suddenly her brow furrowed slightly as she felt a sharp pain shoot through her nerves, and the medication inside her Dharma Skeleton immediately completed an automatic injection.

Noticing the change in Xiao Yunji’s face, Zhang Yu said, “Still can’t raise the Dharma Skeleton synchronization rate? Have you considered switching to a lighter Dharma Skeleton?”

Xiao Yunji was momentarily stunned—this was the first time she had encountered someone suggesting she switch to a weaker Dharma Skeleton.

Xiao Yunji said, “Then my strength would drop, and so would my scores, rankings, income… everything.”

“True,” Zhang Yu said. “But if you keep going like this, won’t you eventually reach your limit?”

Xiao Yunji gritted her teeth. Originally, if she passed the military certification exam, she could replace the transformation Dharma Skeleton on her body, get more investment, and focus on training the Seven Ultimate Arts of Earth and Wood.

But having failed to obtain the military certification, she needed this transformation Dharma Skeleton even more to boost her strength.

Especially now that she was participating in the inter-school league; she had to seize this opportunity to prove herself to her teachers and her school with outstanding performance.

When Zhang Yu reached the entrance, he found that Su Yanyang still hadn’t shown up. After everyone urged him several times, beams of divine light descended, and several Orthodox Deities actually arrived at the club.

“Why are the Orthodox Deities here?” Zhang Yu wondered. “They couldn’t possibly be raiding this club, could they?”

Moments later, they saw one of the Orthodox Deities approach them and ask, “Is Su Yanyang a classmate of yours?”

Mo Shangjin’s projection spoke up: “He came with us to participate in the competition. Is there some problem?”

The Orthodox Deity said, “Nothing major—just that his dual-cultivation partner suddenly had a Yin Device malfunction.”

“I’m only here to confirm the news with you.”

The Orthodox Deity was quite polite to these students from Wanfa University, and said with a smile, “Don’t worry. Once the investigation upstairs clears him, he’ll be let down soon. It won’t delay you for long.”

…

In the room, Su Yanyang stood off to the side with a gloomy expression, still replaying the scene just now in his head.

“Damn… how could that Yin Device explode in the middle of it?”

“And it seemed like the Soul Cultivator inside the Yin Device did it on purpose, but…”

Su Yanyang frowned slightly. In that exploding Yin Device… he sensed that the Soul Cultivator inside hadn’t retreated to the spirit realm but had instead scattered its soul along with the explosion.

“The Soul Cultivator died directly—this is no ordinary Yin Device malfunction, is it? It can be counted as a Soul Cultivator self-sacrifice incident.”

Su Yanyang had seen many Soul Cultivators in his life, and many dead people too, but a true soul scattering… this was the first time he had witnessed it.

Meanwhile, two Orthodox Deities were still scanning the exploded Yin Device and communicating at high speed through the spirit realm.

The male Orthodox Deity said gravely, “The Yin Device was forcibly overloaded and then detonated.”

The female Orthodox Deity beside him said, “So… the Soul Cultivator did it himself? He detonated the Yin Device he was working in? Why would he do that? Just didn’t want to live anymore?”

The male Orthodox Deity said sternly, “Normally, such a self-sacrifice behavior shouldn’t occur.”

“Check his chat logs to see if he was seduced by something.”

A large amount of text and image information appeared before the male True God.

So tired, so tired, so tired, so tired!

I don't want to live anymore!

The debt can never be paid off!

Why won't you let me die! Why won't you let me die! Why won't you let me die!

Looking at the frenzied content, the male True God frowned even tighter: "Sure enough, his mind has gone wrong—clearly he's been bewitched."

"And most of the chat records have been deleted, not a single word about today's operation."

"Hmph, it's probably been planned in advance."

"Not only did they arrange a suicide, but they also wanted to... incidentally harm the students of Wanfa University?"

Hearing these words from the male True God, the female True God, who was also reviewing the records alongside him, paused and asked, "Senior, it seems you're quite familiar with this matter?" The male True God nodded: "Making someone commit suicide and then vanish into nothingness, leaving no trace of value behind... it's almost certainly the Yuhua Demon Cult again."

The female True God asked curiously: "Yuhua Demon Cult?"

The male True God said: "A group of demon cultists who go around bewitching people, making them commit suicide and then vanish into nothingness."

"Sigh, when the Nectar Coin rises, the number of followers of the Shuangxiu Sect increases; when the Nectar Coin finally falls and the Shuangxiu Sect declines, the numbers of the Yuhua Demon Cult start to grow again."

The male True God lamented: "Alas, with frequent conflicts at the university, these evil sects and demon cults are becoming increasingly restless."

However, the female True God was more concerned about the Yuhua Demon Cult, and said in surprise: "A demon cult that makes people commit suicide and vanish into nothingness? People actually believe in that? Only fools would believe it, right?"

The male True God nodded: "There are always people who can't endure hardship, unwilling to work, unwilling to take responsibility, unwilling to repay their debts, unwilling to contribute to the construction of Kunxu. In the end, they are taken advantage of by this demon cult, which corrupts their minds with demonic methods."

"Every year, this demon cult creates countless bad debts for Kunxu and destroys so many talented people—it's even more insane and sinful than the Shuangxiu Sect or the Wuye Sect..."

The female True God looked at Su Yanyang beside them and asked: "What about him? Could he also have a problem?"

The male True God said: "I checked his records. He's completely focused on self-improvement, works 24/7 without rest, and has never wavered for a moment on the path of immortality. He doesn't seem like those demon cult people."

Having said that, the male True God added: "But I'm worried he might have been influenced."

"The things the Yuhua Demon Cult does are always seductive, easily imitated by others."

"Moreover... it's possible that members of this demon cult will contact this Su Yanyang in the future."

"But what's more important is the owner of this yin artifact—they might also have been brainwashed by the Yuhua Demon Cult. Let's investigate that lead first."

After a brief exchange, the male True God looked at Su Yanyang, who was sitting nearby with a gloomy expression, and said: "Classmate, are you alright?"

Su Yanyang nodded: "Both of you, I still have to participate in the competition. May I know when I can leave?"

The male True God smiled slightly and said: "The details of the matter have been clarified. Once we wrap up here, you can go. Don't worry, it won't take long."

Su Yanyang said: "You've clarified it? This yin artifact exploded on its own, right? How will the owner compensate me?"

The male True God said: "As for compensation, you'll have to negotiate with the other party yourself. If you can't agree, you can take the legal route—that's out of our jurisdiction."

"What I need to talk to you about is information confidentiality."

"You're also a top student at Wanfa University, so you should know that this kind of self-destruction incident should not be made public. Externally, we can only say it was a yin artifact malfunction explosion."

Su Yanyang nodded. He knew that similar incidents in Kunxu were always severely criticized and cracked down upon.

The male True God continued: "To avoid encouraging others to imitate it, the details of this case need to remain confidential. So I'd like to trouble you to sign a confidentiality agreement with us."

Su Yanyang was slightly stunned. The image of the soul cultivator in that yin artifact vanishing into nothingness flashed through his mind. He thought to himself: "Is this because of that?"

Su Yanyang nodded and said: "No problem."

The male True God added: "Also, since it was a malfunction of the dharma relic and you had zero-distance contact with it, if you experience any problems yourself, remember to contact us anytime."

More than ten minutes later.

Zhang Yu, Xiao Qingxuan, and others waiting at the entrance of the club were growing impatient.

Li Zhen said: "Why is it taking so long? If we wait any longer, we'll be late for the competition."

Xiao Yunji said: "Maybe we should go first. Even with just five people, we should be more than enough to beat those from Jinhe University."

Just as they were discussing, a loud bang was heard—it was Su Yanyang jumping directly out of the window and landing steadily in front of them.

Zhang Yu looked at Su Yanyang, who had finally come down, and said, "About time. What took you so long?"

Su Yanyang replied helplessly, "I ran into an opponent whose dharma body malfunctioned and whose yin artifact exploded, and then he wanted to talk about compensation with me."

Zhang Yu exclaimed in shock, "The yin artifact exploded?"

Zhang Yu had originally just asked casually, but now that something this big had happened, he felt he should get a thorough understanding of it.

"Come, come." Zhang Yu said with great interest, "Tell me all about it, what exactly happened."

Su Yanyang: "It's almost time for the competition."

Zhang Yu, wearing an eager-to-learn expression, said, "We can talk on the way there."

So, all the way to the competition venue, Su Yanyang recounted the story he had agreed upon with the true gods.

After finishing the explanation, Su Yanyang summarized, "...In short, it was just a malfunction of the dharma body, nothing special."

Mo Shangjin asked, "Were you hurt?"

Su Yanyang said, "No, I was extremely cautious the whole time, determined not to let anything slip to them or let them earn a single spirit coin from me."

"So when the explosion happened, I pulled back immediately."

"But there's still the compensation matter to discuss."

As they spoke, Zhang Yu, Su Yanyang, and the others had already arrived at the competition venue.