Chapter 2
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Chapter 2 School
The ticking of the clock echoed constantly as Zhang Yu focused with deep concentration on the examination paper laid out before him in the classroom.
Yet the paper seemed infinite. No matter how hard he worked or how many answers he filled in, the moment of completion never arrived.
The seat he occupied drifted further and further away from his classmates. Gradually the figures ahead of him blurred until he could no longer see them clearly, as though the darkness behind was swallowing him bit by bit.
Cold sweat broke out on his forehead and panic surged in his heart. His hand, which had been writing nonstop, began to weaken, losing all its strength.
Zhang Yu jolted awake in his bed only when he, along with countless books and exam papers, finally plunged into that bottomless darkness.
“Was I dreaming?”
“It seemed like those were memories from Zhang Yu’s past.”
He rubbed his head, feeling countless shattered memories belonging to the body’s original owner rise and fall, swirling and shifting within his mind.
Although the current Zhang Yu now had control of this body, he had not yet fully integrated the original memories. Many details required dedicated concentration just to bring them to mind.
This was especially true for memories concerning yesterday’s bizarre ritual. The moment Zhang Yu even slightly tried to recall them, a wave of dizziness washed over him, rendering him completely unable to remember what had actually happened.
He glanced at his phone just then and saw it was only five in the morning. He had intended to fall right back to sleep but found that his body simply would not allow it.
It was as if waking up at five every day for school had become an ingrained instinct for this body.
“Why do I feel a sense of guilt just lying here?”
Zhang Yu sat up, thinking this must be the influence of the original owner’s memories affecting him.
Patting his somewhat empty stomach, Zhang Yu decided just to get up, thinking to himself, “Forget it, I might as well 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 food expenses had already been loaded onto his card long ago.
Currently saddled with a massive debt of 700,000 yuan and with only fifty-odd yuan on his entire person, he certainly had no money to eat out.
And so, leaving the sweltering apartment and passing through an alleyway filled with filthy water, Zhang Yu followed a crowd and squeezed himself onto a bus.
Packed into the carriage amid the mingled odours of sweat and food, the air conditioning felt as though it wasn’t even on. Zhang Yu felt just like a piece of squashed takeaway food, being jolted and bounced towards the city centre.
After an hour and a half and two bus transfers, Zhang Yu, covered in sweat, finally managed to squeeze his way off the bus.
Wiping the sweat from his head, Zhang Yu thought, “Speaking of which, why am I a day student?”
“Oh, I remember now. It’s because I couldn’t afford the dormitory fees.”
Unlike the area where Zhang Yu lived, the place where he got off the bus was in the city district. Skyscrapers and clean, wide roads filled his vision and even the air felt much fresher.
The men and women walking on the streets were mostly impeccably dressed, looking the part of urban elites.
After walking and stopping along the way, he finally reached the school gates. From a distance, Zhang Yu saw the large characters spelling out Songyang Senior Immortal Dao High School above the entrance.
On the electronic screen at the school gate, there was actually a list of results, displaying the top ten scores from the previous month for all three high school grades.
From this, one could easily see that Songyang High School was an institution that placed extreme importance on its students’ academic results.
If Zhang Yu were to summarise it based on his recollections, it would be this: at Songyang High School, grades were supreme. It was a world where everyone judged everything solely based on academic performance.
Studying and taking exams were as natural as breathing there, and moreover, almost everyone held extreme prejudices based on scores.
Sentiments like ‘Your score is so low, no wonder it takes you so long to queue in the cafeteria’, or ‘Your score is so low, you have no right to eat at the same table as us in the cafeteria’, or the idea that a Top Student must fiercely humiliate underachieving students, all of this was considered positive school energy.
“This is absolutely a world where scores are paramount, a hell for poor students.”
Zhang Yu looked at the electronic screen showing ‘First Year Total Score 10th Place Zhang Yu’ and sighed inwardly, “Thankfully, I’m one of the ones with a high score.”
“Although my current ranking might seem a little undeserved, at least I haven’t been exposed yet. I should still be able to live with some dignity at school, right?”
The cafeteria at Songyang High School provided breakfast, so Zhang Yu followed his memories and headed there.
Walking in, he noticed that although many students were queuing for food in the cafeteria, they were all incredibly quiet. Nearly everyone queued in silence, collected their meals quietly, and found a place to eat quietly, like individual gears locked together, each one turning with precise, mechanical steps.
Some students were even reading books while they ate, seizing every single minute to study.
Zhang Yu casually found a seat and sat down. He had just taken a bite of his meat bun when he noticed someone sitting down in the empty seat opposite him.
She was a young girl with long, jet black hair and a fair complexion.
Her name surfaced in Zhang Yu’s mind.
Bai Zhenzhen.
“More precisely, Bai Zhenzhen, the number one scorer in the First Year total rankings, the woman standing at the very top of the First Year pecking order.”
Looking at the girl sitting opposite him drinking porridge, Zhang Yu thought, “Is she my friend?”
“Is it because I’m in the grade’s top ten? Could this be the so-called Top Student circle?”
Bai Zhenzhen was the type of person who, as long as she wasn’t smiling, looked as if she were sulking. Even the most ordinary words from her mouth carried a sense of alienation, a distance that kept people far away.
Just like at this moment, sitting in front of Zhang Yu, her complete silence made him wonder if she had an issue with him.
Just as Zhang Yu was concentrating, recalling the memories in his head related to Bai Zhenzhen, trying to confirm the exact nature of their relationship, he heard the girl speak.
“Come to the small garden after you finish eating. I will wait for you there.”
Watching her retreating figure, a thoughtful look flashed through Zhang Yu’s eyes.
A short while later, once he had eaten and drunk his fill, he too rose and left the cafeteria, making his way to the small garden behind the school.
This was a quiet, tranquil spot behind the dormitory building. With the vast majority of students having already hurried off to the academic buildings at this hour, it was almost completely deserted.
Bai Zhenzhen stood before a flower bed. The moment she heard Zhang Yu’s footsteps she turned around and quickly walked over to him.
“Daddy!”
With a thud, she dropped to her knees on the ground, hugging Zhang Yu’s thigh. “There were too many people in the cafeteria just now,” she said, “I was too embarrassed to speak up.”
「Explanation Note: In modern Chinese internet slang, calling someone 爹 (diē – Dad/Daddy) or 叫爸爸 (jiào bàba – call me daddy) is often used humorously, sarcastically, or, as in this case, desperately. It signifies acknowledging someone as a superior, master, or benefactor, particularly when begging for money or favours, similar to the concept of a ‘sugar daddy’ but often used more broadly and casually between peers to denote extreme pleading or submission, not a literal familial relationship.」
“Please lend me some money. My microloan has been overdue for almost a month! I am begging you.…”
Watching this scene unfold, Zhang Yu cursed inwardly. What kind of lousy school is this? Both the first-ranked student and the tenth-ranked student are taking out loans just to show off, is that it?
Zhang Yu now recalled exactly how he and Bai Zhenzhen knew each other. It was not through any circle of top students but because she had been his upline, promoting microloans to him.
Allow a grand reintroduction. Zhang Yu’s classmate, Bai Zhenzhen, was a good buddy with whom Zhang Yu shared intelligence about borrowing from various platforms. They shared a solid friendship forged by borrowing money from all over the place together.
Thinking about how beneath that ice-cold poker face in the cafeteria earlier, she had constantly been wondering how to ask him for money, Zhang Yu shook his head helplessly. “Let go of me first. Where would I get any money to lend you?”
Bai Zhenzhen shook her head and said “You are only ranked tenth in the class, how much money could you possibly spend? The loan you applied for must be much smaller than mine right?”
As she spoke, she added stiffly and shyly “As long as you help me pay off my debt, you can do whatever you want.”
Zhang Yu’s eyes lit up upon hearing those words. He gazed at Bai Zhenzhen, whose face, usually so ice cold, now resembled a peach blossom. He found her to possess a unique kind of charm.
He looked her body up and down, asking “Really, anything at all?”
Bai Zhenzhen lightly bit her lip and nodded “Mm.”
Zhang Yu asked, “Then can I use you as collateral?”
Bai Zhenzhen released his leg and glared at Zhang Yu saying “Yu Zi, are you really broke?”
Zhang Yu took out his phone, flashing the account balance and the overdue payment notifications.
Bai Zhenzhen stood up, patted the dust from her pant legs, and then looked at Zhang Yu somewhat incredulously. “You owe seven hundred thousand? Even after graduating from university, it would probably take a long time working to pay that all back.”
“You are only in your first year of high school and you’re already spending money so aggressively?”
Speaking to this point, Bai Zhenzhen shook her head repeatedly. “Zhang Yu, how on earth did you spend all this money?”
Zhang Yu rubbed his head saying “I forgot. Wait, let me think for a moment.”
Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu doubtfully. “You didn’t go and invest it in something, did you? Were you scammed by someone?”
As Zhang Yu tried to remember, he also grew somewhat uncertain “Probably not?”
Bai Zhenzhen’s expression however suddenly turned serious. The more she thought about it, the more she felt there was something wrong with how Zhang Yu had spent over seven hundred thousand. “Let me see your phone.”
Zhang Yu understood that she was concerned about him. After all, investment, fraud, gambling, sudden death, and Qi Deviation were the top five causes of death in Songyang City, with Qi Deviation ranking fifth.
Questions about the body’s original owner also surged in his own heart at that moment. He immediately took out his phone. “It just so happens I also want to review how this money was spent, so let’s look at the transaction history together.”
Their eyes scanned the phone screen, seeing the expenses of the original Zhang Yu item by item.
As Zhang Yu saw these, many details of the related memories continuously surfaced in his mind.
He saw [Dan Ding Pharmacy – 280.00], [Dan Ding Pharmacy – 250.00], and [Time Waits for No One Meditation Room – 120.00]
Zhang Yu explained as he looked “This is from buying Elixirs at the Pharmacy, and then renting a meditation room to practice the Breathing Technique…”
The curriculum at Songyang High School included courses related to the Path to Immortality, alongside general subjects such as Chinese language, mathematics, physics, and history.
This so-called Path to Immortality was the step-by-step Cultivation by which a person could achieve Immortal Ascension step by step. It was the most important subject throughout High School, carrying the highest weight in scoring, and it was the key factor for gaining admission into prestigious Universities.
The Breathing Technique is the most fundamental skill of the Cultivation. Only by gathering the spiritual energy from the atmosphere through the Breathing Technique can an Immortal Cultivator accumulate magic power within their body.
Only by possessing sufficient magic power could one unleash greater combat strength and ascend to higher realms. One could say that magic power is the foundation upon which all immortal cultivation technology operates.
For example, the magic power requirement to break through from the Qi Refining Realm to the Foundation Establishment Realm is 60 points or more, while the upper limit of magic power one can master within the Qi Refining Realm is 100 points.
Within the system the Ten Major Sects strive to build, everything is standardized and digitized as much as possible, and magic power is no exception. The magic power detection currently used in schools, for instance, is precise to one decimal place.
Bai Zhenzhen nodded slightly and continued looking through the list.
Next was Water Harmony Catering Service Co. – 532.00 Yuan.
Zhang Yu said, “That was for dietary supplementation and extra meals at the cafeteria, it cost quite a bit.”
On the path of immortal cultivation, the strength of the physical body is equally crucial. Ingesting large quantities of food rich in spiritual energy and immortal cultivation elements is a part of a cultivator’s daily routine, known as dietary supplementation.
Then came Immortal Dragon Education Service Co. – 1500.00 Yuan and Immortal Dragon Education Service Co. – 3000.00 Yuan.
Zhang Yu recalled for a moment and said “Hmm, that’s for the last session’s tutoring fees, and also the fee for renting a Spirit Root.”
A Spirit Root is a unique talent possessed by only a handful of geniuses. It can dramatically enhance an Immortal Cultivator’s cultivation efficiency and combat strength.
As once the most famous barrier on the Path to Immortality, the knowledge of the legends surrounding Spirit Roots was so widespread that even Zhang Yu and his mother, who had attended Junior High in the past, knew of them. In fact, the original Zhang Yu, while attending Cram School and trying to pay off debts, had even used renting a Spirit Root as an excuse to ask his mother for money.
However, with the steady advancement of immortal cultivation technology, ordinary people like Zhang Yu who lack Spirit Roots can now spend money to rent them to boost their cultivation efficiency.
She continued to scroll down. Aside from Zhang Yu’s brief explanation at the very beginning, the subsequent expense items were almost all variations on the same theme, nearly every one related to cultivation.
After quickly flipping through Zhang Yu’s spending over the recent months, Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu, her eyes now filled with pity. “You kid, did you genuinely spend all that money, every last bit, on your cultivation?”
“And you only managed to reach tenth place after racking up over 700,000 Yuan in debt?”
“It has only been a little over three months since school started, right? What are you going to do now?”
As a newcomer on the first day of his life in this world, Zhang Yu was, of course, totally disoriented about the road ahead. Shrugging, he said, “Let’s just muddle through for now and slowly figure things out.”
Glancing at the time, they realized class was about to start. They continued their conversation as they walked toward the teaching building.
“How can you, owing over 700,000, look even more relaxed than me when I only owe over 200,000?” Bai Zhenzhen asked, observing Zhang Yu’s calm appearance and reminding him, “You have no money left to spend on your studies!”
“Do you even know what the consequences are when you cannot afford to study? Do you understand how dangerous our situation is right now?”
Zhang Yu asked, “What consequences?”
Bai Zhenzhen explained, “The Monthly Exam is just three weeks away. For these three weeks, you will have no money to rent a Spirit Root, no money to buy Elixirs, no money to attend Cram School, not even enough money for your daily supplements. Meanwhile, everyone else will be improving every single moment. By then, it would be perfectly normal for your year ranking to drop by dozens of places. Then you will be kicked straight out of the Demonstration Class!”
As Bai Zhenzhen spoke those words, a flood of related memories surged through Zhang Yu’s mind.
There were ten classes in total in the First-Year, numbered from Class One to Class Ten, with students sorted based on their monthly exam results.
Given Zhang Yu’s ranking, he was naturally placed in Class One, the class with the best resources and treatment, also known as the Demonstration Class.
The monthly exam results considered not only the standard general knowledge subjects but, most importantly, the scores in the Cultivation assessment.
After all, general knowledge education accounted for only 50 points, while the immortal cultivation subjects combined for a staggering 650 points.
Especially since all the students were First-Year students who had only officially begun cultivating after the start of the school year, their cultivation levels were actually quite similar.
Though Zhang Yu appeared to be in tenth place, if he failed to maintain his previous rate of progress in the coming weeks, he could easily fall dozens of places.
Bai Zhenzhen continued, “If you continue having no money, your ranking will get worse and worse and your resources and treatment will become poorer and poorer. This vicious cycle will see you kicked step by step all the way from Class One down to Class Ten!”
Her expression grew grave as she added, “Without money and without results, you will become worthless trash in the eyes of the teachers, a laughingstock to the Demonstration Class students, and a target for those extras in the ordinary classes to gain a cheap sense of self superiority!”
Bai Zhenzhen clutched her head. “In a situation like this, let alone cultivation resources, it is hard enough just to maintain a stable Dao Heart. Your grades will only get worse and worse, and eventually you will fall below the elimination line. You will end up with a body full of injuries and ailments and a mountain of debt, only to be summarily kicked out of Songyang High School.”
As if she could see that tragic future unfolding in her mind, Bai Zhenzhen looked up at the sky and sighed mournfully. “Do you really want to live at the bottom of the entire school’s pecking order, constantly humiliated by others? Do you want to ultimately end up as a high school dropout, the very scum of society?”
Hearing this, the corner of Zhang Yu’s mouth twitched. “Then what do you suggest I do?”
Bai Zhenzhen fell silent for a moment, then turned her head. “Brother, to tell you the truth, owing 700,000 just to reach tenth place suggests you might really not be cut out for the path of immortality.”
“I do not know how you got into Songyang, but my advice is you should drop out and get a job. Otherwise, I fear you will only sink deeper and deeper.”
Zhang Yu did not respond, but inwardly he lamented. The only good thing about this wretched world was the ability to cultivate, yet after just one day here, he was being told he had no talent for it?
Shortly after returning to the classroom, Zhang Yu picked up his vibrating phone and saw that Bai Zhenzhen had transferred him 500. She had also sent a message.
[Pay the utility bills first.]
Zhang Yu was slightly stunned. He suddenly sniffed his own clothes and immediately realized that Bai Zhenzhen must have caught the smell from him as he had gone several days without showering. While he had grown accustomed to the smell, it must have been quite noticeable to others. Thinking that she was sending him money despite her own dire financial situation, Zhang Yu sighed inwardly. He typed out a long message on his phone, then deleted it all, finally replying simply, Thank you.
After replying, Zhang Yu looked at his palm and saw that the symbol there was now half filled with black. On his way to school and into the classroom, Zhang Yu had already discovered that only he could see this symbol on his palm. He calculated the time now, estimating that the symbol would be completely filled with black by tonight. He just did not know what exactly would happen once it was completely filled.
