[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-no-money-what-cultivation":3,"chapter-no-money-what-cultivation-no-money-what-cultivation-chapter-48":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","No Money, What Cultivation?",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},163397,323,"Chapter 48: Strive","no-money-what-cultivation-chapter-48",48,"\u003Cp>Inside the venue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the transport of drones, boxes of boxed lunches were brought over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the first and second rounds of the magic competition, it was already noon, time for lunch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the contestants eating their boxed lunches were still discussing the highlights of the previous two matches, occasionally glancing at the score rankings on the big screen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the name that had been in fourth place had vanished; the top ten were now entirely dominated by the three famous schools: White Dragon High, Purple Cloud High, and Red Tower High.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was because, with the complete conclusion of the first two rounds, the top ten displayed on the big screen had been replaced by the total score top ten.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only by entering the top ten in the final total score ranking of the magic competition would one receive prize money, earn a real rank, obtain a grade recognized by universities, and be able to make a difference in university interviews.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that name, which had torn open an opening in the second round and forced its way into fourth place, had now vanished like an illusion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was as if a little bird trying to break through the sky had been swatted back down by the great hand formed by the three famous schools.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Teacher Yan sighed inwardly: \"Ultimately, Zhang Yu’s score in the first flying sword round was too low, which held him back, so his total score couldn’t break into the top ten.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what could be done about it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wealthy had an absolute advantage in wielding flying swords, and Teacher Yan couldn’t blame Zhang Yu’s family for not buying him a magical flying sword.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If there’s anyone to blame, it’s just bad luck, happening to coincide with the flying sword manufacturer’s sponsorship.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the other side, as Zhang Yu looked at the boxed lunch in his hand, he ate while complaining, \"Selling a boxed lunch like this for 80 bucks, why doesn’t Red Tower High just rob people?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as Zhang Yu was grumbling, a box of lunch was shoved in front of him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yu looked up and saw that Teacher Yan had brought over a box of lunch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Teacher Yan said kindly, \"You must be exhausted from the whole morning, I knew you’d be hungry. This one’s for you too.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bai Zhenzhen, standing nearby, silently curled her lips: \"Could you be hungrier than me? Yu Zi took only a minute and a half to neutralize the special mana, but I forced myself through over eight minutes of that ordeal—it nearly killed me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Teacher Yan watched Zhang Yu eat two servings, growing more satisfied with each bite. With such a big appetite, he clearly looked like a good student.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Bai Zhenzhen, Qian Shen, and He Dayou had big appetites too? Hmph, people who eat this much without any chance of getting a rank in a mana competition—aren’t they just gluttons?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Teacher Yan encouraged him, \"You did very well this morning. Just do your best this afternoon and don’t put too much pressure on yourself.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Teacher Yan wished Zhang Yu would concentrate four hundred percent and go all out, she knew that matters of mana circulation couldn’t be rushed. He needed to keep a calm mindset, or it might backfire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, afraid that Zhang Yu, who had earned a rank in the second morning round, might be under too much psychological pressure, she immediately came to comfort him, hoping to help him compete as relaxed as possible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And in her heart, Teacher Yan couldn’t help calculating Zhang Yu’s scores.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Eighty points in the first round, ninety-three in the second, total score one hundred seventy-three.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She looked up at the big screen, scanning from the first place’s one hundred ninety-five points down to the tenth place’s one hundred seventy-six.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If Zhang Yu can catch up by four points in the next round, he can enter the top ten.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Four points might not sound like much, but Teacher Yan knew that in a high-difficulty, high-competition competition like the magic competition, the higher the score, the harder each single point became.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially when all thirty academic elites from the three famous schools were fighting for those top ten spots.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking of that four-point gap, Teacher Yan couldn’t help feeling a little nervous: \"It all depends on what this last round will be.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lunch break quickly ended, and the final round of the afternoon magic competition officially began.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The host walked up and announced, \"To learn martial arts, to learn Dao techniques, come to Xianyun. Three hundred labs, one hundred cultivation masters, dedicated a hundred years to immortal arts education. We thank the Xianyun Education Group for sponsoring this magic competition...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yu still remembered that the Xianyun Group, a company affiliated with the Ten Thousand Methods Sect, was the same large corporation where he had participated in the work trial and obtained the Zhou Tian Qi Absorption Method.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He also remembered meeting the Songyang City director of Xianyun Group at Li Xuelian’s art exhibition.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shortly after, a complex mana circulation diagram was handed to each participating student.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the content of the final round of the magic competition: according to the route in the diagram, convert one’s own mana into special mana.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, the soul-refining students’ cameras had already scanned the entire venue, ready to judge the state of every contestant at any time, and also to facilitate recording the order in which contestants completed the test later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the timer officially started, some students had already begun circulating their mana according to the route on the diagram.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yu frowned slightly as he looked at the route on the diagram.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This thing... seems to be a type of special mana used for combat.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Zhang Yu had a very strong control over his mana thanks to the existence of the Level 10 Full-cycle Qi Gathering Method,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the circulation route in the practical manual he was looking at was extremely different from the mana cycle of the Full-cycle Qi Gathering Method.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the Full-cycle Qi Gathering Method was an internal circulation method for self-improvement,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>then the circulation route in this diagram was a method for applying mana externally in combat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could sense that, in terms of complexity, this circulation route was inferior to the Full-cycle Qi Gathering Method.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But both the route and the techniques involved were vastly different from the Full-cycle Qi Gathering Method he was familiar with.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In particular, there was a technique of oscillating and refining mana that he had never encountered before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This exam has gone way too far beyond the syllabus.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And yet, as it happened…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yu glanced at the Feather Book floating beside him and found no change in it at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Is it not a cultivation method?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then I'll have to force myself to try practicing it.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yu raised the mana in his dantian and carefully began to circulate it according to the diagram.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>at Purple Cloud High School's location,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lian Tianji stared at the not-so-distant Le Mulan, saw how confident she looked, and thought to himself: \"The Sacred Number One will surely achieve a decent score. All I need to do is not hold her back and boost our school's total points…\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Le Mulan looked at the circulation diagram before her, tilted her head slightly, and said: \"I think I've practiced something similar to this problem before.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Let me think… Is this the protective body aura of a martial cultivation method?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She circulated the mana in her body and, with practiced ease, began to convert strands of mana into the special mana indicated on the diagram.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Protective body aura is transformed from mana and is considered a special type of mana belonging to the martial arts system within the immortal cultivation system established by the Ten Great Sects.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Le Mulan remembered that to convert mana into protective body aura, one needed to go through the step of mana oscillation, and the higher the quality of the protective body aura, the more oscillations were required.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Each mana oscillation makes the aura derived from the mana higher in quality, but also harder to control.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"According to the instructions in this diagram, it should require seven mana oscillations, then circulation along the route…\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, her brows furrowed slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing all sorts of muffled groans and cries of pain coming from not far away, she felt a sense of noise. Some students had been injured when dissolving mana in the previous match and had not yet recovered; as soon as they started circulating their mana, it triggered their injuries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Can't these ordinary high school students afford better healing medicine?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Even if they can't afford good healing medicine, can't they at least buy some decent painkillers?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As soon as she thought this, Le Mulan suddenly realized: these poor students from ordinary high schools really might not be able to afford expensive painkillers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the sound of poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It's affecting my exam.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Le Mulan knew that the power of money could block out the sound of poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She reached out, grabbed a pair of noise-cancelling earmuffs worth tens of thousands, and put them on. Feeling the finally quiet environment, a faint smile curled at the corners of her mouth, and she continued with her mana conversion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At White Dragon High School on the other side, Song Hailong stared at the circulation diagram in his hand while his whole body's mana naturally began to circulate, as if moving on its own in accordance with his thoughts, gradually approaching the instructions on the diagram.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having long practiced mana circulation while wearing the Heavenly Spirit Root made him handle mana with such ease now that he had removed it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And as for the problem before him, he had already practiced many similar ones, which made his movements even more skillful and several times faster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Boom!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A clump of mana in his dantian suddenly scattered into a ball under intense oscillation, and then he slowly gathered it back together.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"First mana oscillation, complete!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Simple! Simple! Simple! Too simple!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My parents had the best genes after a rigorous selection process.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I stopped sleeping at the age of five.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now sixteen, for the past eleven years I've had the best performance, highest scores, and strongest physique among my generation in the Song family! I'm also the only one of my generation who has never attempted suicide, never hated school, and never been depressed! I'm the Song family's ace son!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You trash in this arena, what right do you have to compete with me!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, he was completely focused, without a single stray thought or distraction, only wanting to master the method in the diagram as quickly as possible, and trample all the top students from the other two prestigious schools underfoot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile, Xiong Bufan of Red Tower High School was lying prone before the cultivation diagram. His eyes were tightly shut, and his fluffy tail twitched slightly, as if he had reached a critical moment in his cultivation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching this, the competition coach thought to himself, \"Back when Bufan and the others were in the breeding base, they were injected with drugs since they were in the womb. By the time they entered high school, he had the best physique of the bunch.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"When the school brought him over from the breeding base in the reserve, his internal meridians were already more than ten times tougher than an ordinary student's. No matter how recklessly he cultivates, he doesn't need to worry about getting hurt.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Ever since he enrolled, I've had him constantly training his mana circulation speed.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"He's also practiced protective Qi many times before.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"He's bound to be the first to master this cultivation diagram.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hmm, I really should have the principal naturalize more monsters... I mean... plan for more monster-blooded students.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How can just one be enough? I think we could easily add four more to the competition team. Those leaders who insist on all-human teams are still too conservative. I heard the neighboring city already has a pure monster... pure monster-blooded team.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yu had to admit that without relevant training and advance preparation, it seemed nearly impossible to achieve a ranking in this stage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The competition was not just about talent and quality, but also about the financial resources, influence, and backing behind each competitor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Damn it!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had his competition journey come to an end?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yu! Were you going to be defeated by money?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not far away, Teacher Yan watched Zhang Yu's troubled expression and sighed inwardly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then she swept her gaze over the other Songyang High School students, seeing them either sweating profusely, pale-faced, or looking like they desperately needed to use the toilet. Teacher Yan shook her head helplessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The students of Songyang High School were already outclassed by the top students of the three elite schools. After failing to achieve results in the magical competition for so long, the school had simply stopped investing in this area.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without the school's investment, the magical competition results grew even worse, so naturally the school was even less willing to invest. It was a vicious cycle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Teacher Yan understood that without the school's full support and lacking relevant teaching and practice, the two sides were simply not on the same starting line.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just then, a student suddenly raised his hand: \"I need to go to the bathroom.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Teacher Yan cursed inwardly, so you really did need to take a dump.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Go quickly!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, Teacher Yan suddenly heard the sound of bones and tendons cracking beside her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She turned her head and found it was Bai Zhenzhen practicing a fist technique.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had she already given up? This was a competition about circulating mana, why was she throwing punches?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yu was also drawn by the sound of the punches. He glanced over and sighed inwardly, \"Alas, Zhen has gone crazy.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hmm?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, Zhang Yu felt that Bai Zhenzhen's punches seemed strangely familiar, as if they could be combined with something.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This set of martial arts was very simple, just six moves repeated over and over. After watching it through, he suddenly realized.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This set of martial arts seemed to match the cultivation diagram?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Staring at the “Infinite Cloud Hands Lv. 0” displayed on his feather book, Zhang Yu felt like picking Bai Zhenzhen up and spinning her around.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Zhen!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You are a sage!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The savior sage of Songyang High School!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The energy circulation diagram shows the method of mana circulation, while what Bai Zhenzhen executed are external techniques.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The combination of the two is the complete combat martial art—Wuji Cloud Hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is an advanced-level martial art technique.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, this technique emphasizes internal technique over external moves. The key lies in the application of mana, in how to convert mana into protective qi barrier. The six external techniques are less like moves and more like six application examples.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, Fa Sai took out the energy circulation diagram from it alone as an exam question.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For ordinary people, whether or not there are external techniques does not affect their learning of the conversion method of protective qi barrier within.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But for Zhang Yu, whether it is a complete technique, whether it can be recorded in the Feather Manual... that is a world of difference.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yu didn't know how Bai Zhenzhen comprehended the external techniques. He could only hurry up and immediately switch the Feather Manual's specialization to Wuji Cloud Hand, then start practicing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wuji Cloud Hand Level 0 (0\u002F1, 15.4\u002F5 mana)\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as he could practice it once! Even with countless mistakes, even with a messy practice, he could still completely master this Wuji Cloud Hand!\u003C\u002Fp>",2627,"2026-05-29T04:54:22.303Z","2026-06-01T04:29:11.989Z",1,"deepseek-v4-flash","014197a185453d8df844ec057bb92cad231cc6dc7923f75caf69b0a8084fa901","no-money-what-cultivation-chapter-49","no-money-what-cultivation-chapter-47",711,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fno-money-what-cultivation-cover.jpg"]