The incessant tick-tock of the clock echoed continuously as Zhang Yu sat in the classroom, his face serious as he worked on the test paper before him.
But the test paper seemed endless—no matter how he answered, no matter how he filled in the blanks, there never seemed to be a moment when it would be complete.
The seat he occupied grew farther and farther from his classmates, until he could no longer make out the figures ahead of him, as if he was being gradually swallowed by the darkness behind him.
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, panic welled up in his heart, and his constantly writing hand began to weaken, losing all strength.
It wasn’t until he fell into that bottomless darkness along with countless books and test papers that Zhang Yu suddenly jolted awake from his bed.
“Was I dreaming?”
“It seems like those were all memories from Zhang Yu’s past.”
He rubbed his head, feeling countless fragmented memories belonging to the original owner rising and falling in his mind, constantly shifting and changing.
Although Zhang Yu had already taken control of this body, he still hadn’t completely integrated with the original memories. Many details required focused recollection to remember.
Especially regarding the memories of that bizarre ritual from yesterday—whenever Zhang Yu tried to recall it, he would feel dizzy and couldn’t remember what had actually happened.
He looked at his phone and found it was only 5 AM. He originally wanted to lie back down and continue sleeping, but found that this body simply couldn’t fall asleep anymore.
It was as if waking up at 5 AM for school had become an instinct of this body.
“Why do I feel guilty about continuing to lie here?”
Zhang Yu sat up, thinking that this was probably the influence of the original owner’s memories.
Touching his somewhat empty stomach, Zhang Yu simply stood up, thinking: “Forget it, I’ll just go to school. At least I can get a full meal there.”
He remembered that Songyang High School should provide three meals a day, and this month’s meal fee had already been topped up on his card.
With his current debt of 700,000 yuan and only about fifty yuan to his name, he couldn’t afford to eat out.
So he left the stuffy apartment, walked through the alley filled with sewage, and squeezed onto the bus with a crowd of people.
Crammed in the carriage filled with mixed odors of sweat and food, the air conditioning seemed as good as non-existent. Zhang Yu felt like a deformed takeout package being jostled and transported toward the city center.
After an hour and a half, having transferred between two buses, Zhang Yu finally squeezed off the bus, drenched in sweat.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Zhang Yu thought: “Speaking of which, why am I a day student?”
“Oh, I remember now—it’s because I can’t afford the dormitory fees.”
Unlike where Zhang Yu lived, the place where he got off the bus was in the urban district. Everything he could see consisted of skyscrapers and clean, wide roads, and even the air was much fresher.
The men and women walking on the streets were also mostly well-dressed, looking like urban elites.
Walking and stopping along the way, he finally reached the school gate. Zhang Yu could see the large characters “Songyang Advanced Immortal Dao High School” from far away.
On the electronic screen at the school gate, there was even a grade report displaying the top ten students from each of the three high school grades from the previous month.
From this, one could see that Songyang High School was a school that placed great importance on student grades.
If Zhang Yu were to summarize based on his recollections, it would be: Songyang High School—grades are supreme. This was a world where everyone judged based on grades alone.
Studying and testing were as natural as breathing here, and almost everyone had extreme score discrimination.
Things like “Your scores are so low, no wonder you have to wait so long in the cafeteria line,” “Your scores are so low, you don’t even qualify to eat at the same table as us in the cafeteria,” or “Academic achievers should ruthlessly humiliate academic failures”—all of these were considered positive campus energy.
“This is completely a world where scores are everything—hell for poor students.”
Zhang Yu looked at the electronic screen showing “Grade 10 Overall Ranking 10th Place: Zhang Yu” and sighed inwardly: “At least I’m one of the high-scoring ones.”
“Although my ranking might be somewhat undeserved at the moment, at least it hasn’t been exposed yet, so I should still be able to live somewhat decently at school, right?”
Songyang High School’s cafeteria provided breakfast, so Zhang Yu followed his memories there.
Walking all the way, he discovered that although there were many students queuing for food in the cafeteria, they were all incredibly quiet. Almost everyone silently queued, quietly got their meals, and quietly found seats to eat, like gears meshing together, precisely executing each step.
Some students were even reading books while eating, seizing every minute to study.
Finding a random seat, Zhang Yu had just taken a bite of his meat bun when someone sat down in the empty seat across from him.
This was a girl with jet-black long hair and a pale face.
A name surfaced in Zhang Yu’s mind.
“Bai Zhenzhen.”
“To be precise, Bai Zhenzhen, who ranks first in Grade 10 overall—the woman at the top of the Grade 10 hierarchy.”
Looking at the girl sitting across from him drinking porridge, Zhang Yu thought: “Is she my friend?”
“Because I’m in the top ten of the grade? Could this be the so-called academic achiever circle?”
Bai Zhenzhen was the type of person who, as long as she didn’t smile, seemed to be sulking. Even ordinary words from her mouth carried a sense of alienation that kept people at arm’s length.
Just like now, sitting across from Zhang Yu, as long as she didn’t say a word, Zhang Yu felt like she might have some issue with him.
Just as Zhang Yu was concentrating on recalling memories related to Bai Zhenzhen in his mind, trying to determine what their relationship actually was, he heard the girl speak: “After you finish eating, come to the small garden. I’ll wait for you there.”
Watching her departing figure, Zhang Yu’s eyes flashed with thoughtfulness.
A moment later, after eating his fill, he also left the cafeteria and came to the small garden behind the school.
This was a quiet place behind the dormitory building. With most students currently rushing to the teaching building, there were hardly any people around.
Bai Zhenzhen stood in front of a flower bed. Upon hearing Zhang Yu’s footsteps, she turned around and quickly walked up to him.
“Dad!”
With a thud, she knelt on the ground, hugging Zhang Yu’s thigh and saying: “There were too many people in the cafeteria just now, I was too embarrassed to speak.”
“Please lend me some money. My small loans have been overdue for almost a month! I’m kneeling before you…”
Looking at this scene, Zhang Yu cursed inwardly: “What kind of broken school is this? Both the first place and tenth place students are borrowing money to show off?”
Zhang Yu had now recalled that he and Bai Zhenzhen knew each other not because of any academic achiever circle, but because she was his upline who had recommended small loans to him.
Let me reintroduce: Zhang Yu’s classmate Bai Zhenzhen, a good brother who shared borrowing information from various platforms with Zhang Yu, bound by a solid friendship of borrowing money together everywhere.
Thinking about how under that cold, poker face in the cafeteria, she had been constantly thinking about how to borrow money from him, Zhang Yu shook his head helplessly: “Let go of me first. Where would I get money to lend you?”
Bai Zhenzhen shook her head: “You’re only tenth in the grade, how much could you spend? You must have applied for much fewer loans than me, right?”
As she spoke, she said somewhat stiffly and shyly: “As long as you help me pay off my debts, I’ll do anything.”
Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu’s eyes lit up. Looking at Bai Zhenzhen, who was originally cold as ice but now had a face like a peach blossom, he felt she had a unique charm.
He looked Bai Zhenzhen up and down and asked: “Really anything?”
Bai Zhenzhen bit her lip lightly and nodded: “Mm.”
Zhang Yu: “Then can I use you as collateral?”
Bai Zhenzhen let go of his leg and glared at Zhang Yu: “Yu-zi, you really don’t have money?”
Zhang Yu took out his phone and showed her his balance and overdue information.
Bai Zhenzhen stood up, patted the dust off her pants, then looked at Zhang Yu somewhat incredulously: “You owe 700,000? Even after graduating from college, you’d probably have to work for a long time to pay that back.”
“You’re only in your first year of high school and you’re already spending money this aggressively?”
Bai Zhenzhen shook her head repeatedly: “Zhang Yu, how exactly did you spend this money?”
Zhang Yu rubbed his head: “I forgot… let me think about it.”
Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu suspiciously: “You didn’t invest it in something, did you? Were you scammed?”
While recalling, Zhang Yu also became somewhat uncertain: “Probably… not?”
Bai Zhenzhen’s expression suddenly became serious. The more she thought about it, the more she felt there was something wrong with how Zhang Yu had spent those 700,000: “Let me see your phone.”
Zhang Yu understood that she was concerned about him. After all, investment scams, fraud, gambling, sudden death, and qi deviation were the top five causes of death in Songyang City, with qi deviation ranking fifth.
He was also filled with doubts about the original owner’s actions, so he immediately took out his phone: “I also want to review how this money was spent, so let’s look at the transaction records together.”
The two of them scanned the phone screen and saw each of the original Zhang Yu’s expenses.
As Zhang Yu looked at these, many related memory details continuously surfaced in his mind.
Danding Pharmacy – 280.00
Danding Pharmacy – 250.00
Time Waits for No One Meditation Room – 120.00
Zhang Yu explained as he looked: “This is me buying elixirs at the pharmacy, then renting a meditation room for breath cultivation…”
Songyang High School’s curriculum included not only general subjects like Chinese, mathematics, physics, and history, but also courses related to the Immortal Dao.
The so-called Immortal Dao was the path of cultivation for humans to gradually become immortals. This was also the most important teaching content of the entire high school stage, accounting for the highest proportion of scores, and was key to getting into prestigious universities.
Breath cultivation was the most basic skill in the Immortal Dao. Through breath cultivation, one could gather spiritual energy from the atmosphere to accumulate mana within a cultivator’s body.
Only with sufficient mana could one exert stronger combat power and climb to higher realms. Mana could be said to be the foundation for all Immortal Dao techniques to operate.
For example, to break through from the Qi Refining realm to the Foundation Establishment realm, the mana requirement was 60 points or more, while the upper limit of mana that the Qi Refining realm could master was 100 points.
In the system that the Ten Great Sects had worked hard to build, everything was standardized and digitized as much as possible, including mana. The current mana detection in schools was all accurate to one decimal place.
Bai Zhenzhen nodded slightly and continued scrolling down.
Shuixiu Catering Services Co., Ltd. – 532.00
Zhang Yu said: “This is for dietary supplements and extra meals in the cafeteria, which cost quite a bit.”
In Immortal Dao cultivation, the strength of the physical body was equally important. Consuming large amounts of food rich in spiritual energy and immortal dao elements was also part of a cultivator’s daily routine, called dietary supplementation.
Longxiang Education Services Co., Ltd. – 1500.00
Longxiang Education Services Co., Ltd. – 3000.00
Zhang Yu recalled and said: “Mm… this is for tutoring fees and spiritual root rental costs.”
Spiritual roots were originally a special talent that only a very few geniuses possessed, capable of greatly increasing a cultivator’s cultivation efficiency and combat power.
As the most famous threshold in the Immortal Dao, even Zhang Yu and his mother, who had only attended middle school, knew about the various legends surrounding spiritual roots. When the original Zhang Yu was tutoring and taking loans, he even used renting spiritual roots as an excuse to get his mother to send money.
However, with the advancement of Immortal Dao technology, ordinary people like Zhang Yu who didn’t have spiritual roots could now pay to rent spiritual roots to improve their cultivation efficiency.
Continuing to scroll down, aside from Zhang Yu’s brief explanations at the beginning, the later expenses were almost all similar content, almost entirely related to Immortal Dao cultivation.
After quickly reviewing Zhang Yu’s expenses from the past few months, Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu with eyes full of pity: “You really spent all this money on your own Immortal Dao cultivation?”
“And you still only reached tenth place after owing 700,000?”
“It’s only been three months since school started, right? What are you going to do next?”
As someone who had only been in this alternate world for one day, Zhang Yu was naturally also confused about the road ahead. He shrugged and said: “I’ll just muddle through for now and slowly figure something out.”
Seeing that it was almost class time, the two walked toward the teaching building while chatting.
“How can you look more relaxed than me when you owe 700,000 and I only owe 200,000?”
Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu’s calm demeanor and reminded him: “You have no money left to invest in studying!”
“Do you know what the consequences of not having money for studying are? Do you know how dangerous our current situation is?”
Zhang Yu: “What consequences?”
Bai Zhenzhen said: “There are three weeks until the monthly exam. For three weeks, you won’t have money to rent spiritual roots, buy elixirs, attend tutoring classes, or even buy daily supplements… while everyone else is improving every minute and second. By then, it would be completely normal for your grade ranking to drop dozens of places, and you’d be directly kicked out of the model class!”
Combined with what Bai Zhenzhen said, many related memories surged in Zhang Yu’s mind.
The entire first year had ten classes, from Class 1 to Class 10, divided according to monthly exam results.
Based on Zhang Yu’s ranking, he was naturally assigned to Class 1, which had the best treatment and was also called the model class.
Each month’s exam results not only looked at regular general knowledge tests, but most importantly, the results of Immortal Dao cultivation.
After all, general education only accounted for 50 points, while the remaining Immortal Dao subjects added up to a full 650 points.
Especially since everyone was a first-year student who had only started cultivating immortality after school began, their cultivation levels were actually quite limited.
Although he appeared to be in tenth place, if he couldn’t maintain his previous rate of improvement over the next few weeks, he could easily be left behind and drop to the thirties or beyond.
Bai Zhenzhen continued: “Without money, your ranking gets worse and worse, your treatment gets lower and lower. Under this vicious cycle, you’ll gradually be kicked from Class 1 to Class 10!”
She said with a grave expression: “Without money or grades, you’ll become combustible garbage in the teachers’ eyes, a laughingstock among model class students, and an object for those extras in regular classes to achieve cheap self-superiority!”
Bai Zhenzhen held her head: “In such a situation, forget about cultivation resources—it’ll be hard to maintain a stable dao heart. Your grades will only get worse and worse, and you’ll eventually fall below the elimination line, only to be kicked out of Songyang High School with injuries and debts.”
As if seeing that pitiful future in her mind, Bai Zhenzhen looked up at the sky and lamented: “Do you want to live at the bottom of the entire school’s hierarchy, being repeatedly humiliated! Finally becoming social trash who dropped out of high school?”
Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu twitched his lips: “So what do you think I should do?”
Bai Zhenzhen was silent for a moment, then turned around: “Brother, to tell you the truth… spending 700,000 to only reach tenth place, you might really not be suited for the Immortal Dao.”
“I don’t know how you got into Songyang, but my advice is… drop out and get a job. Otherwise, I’m afraid you’ll sink deeper and deeper.”
Zhang Yu didn’t respond, but sighed inwardly: “The only good thing about this broken world is that you can cultivate immortality, and now after just one day, you’re telling me I don’t have talent for immortal cultivation?”
After returning to the classroom, Zhang Yu picked up his vibrating phone and found that Bai Zhenzhen had transferred him 500 yuan, along with a message.
Bai Zhenzhen: Pay the utilities first
Zhang Yu was slightly stunned, then sniffed his clothes and immediately understood that Bai Zhenzhen had smelled the odor of several days without bathing.
Although he had gotten used to this smell, it must have been quite noticeable to others.
Thinking about how she had sent him money despite her own poor financial situation, Zhang Yu sighed inwardly. After typing a long message on his phone and then deleting it all, he finally replied: Thank you.
After replying to the message, Zhang Yu looked at his palm and found that the symbol on it was now half-filled with black.
Along the way to school and into the classroom, Zhang Yu had already discovered that only he could see the symbol on his palm.
He calculated the time and estimated that this symbol would be completely filled with black tonight. He just didn’t know what would happen after it was completely filled.
