Chapter 2: School

The ticking of the clock echoed incessantly. In the classroom, Zhang Yu was earnestly working on the test paper in front of him.

But the test paper seemed endless; no matter how he worked on it or filled it out, there was never a moment of completion.

The seat he occupied was also moving further and further away from his classmates. Gradually, he could no longer see the figures in front of him, as if he were being swallowed bit by bit by the darkness behind him.

Cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and panic surged in his heart. His writing hand began to go limp, losing its strength.

It wasn't until he fell into that bottomless darkness along with countless books and test papers that Zhang Yu jolted awake from his bed.

"Was I dreaming?"

"It seems they 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, shifting unpredictably.

Although the current Zhang Yu had already taken control of this body, he had not yet fully integrated the original memories. Many details required focused recollection to be recalled.

Especially regarding the bizarre ritual from yesterday; as soon as Zhang Yu tried to recall it, he felt a wave of dizziness and couldn't remember what had actually happened.

He checked his phone and saw it was only five in the morning. He wanted to fall back asleep, but found that this body simply couldn't drift off again.

It was as if waking up at five every day for school had become an instinct for this body.

"Why do I feel a sense of guilt if I keep lying here?"

Zhang Yu sat up, thinking that this must be the influence of the original owner's memories.

Touching his somewhat empty stomach, Zhang Yu simply stood up and thought, "Forget it, I might as well go to school. At least I can get a full meal."

He remembered that Songyang High School provided three meals a day, and this month's meal fees had long been loaded onto his card.

Now, burdened with a massive debt of 700,000 and only fifty-something yuan to his name, he couldn't afford to eat outside.

Leaving the stuffy apartment and passing through an alley filled with sewage, Zhang Yu squeezed onto a bus with a crowd of people.

Crammed into a carriage filled with the mixed odors of sweat and food, the air conditioning might as well have been off. Zhang Yu felt like a piece of takeout that had been squeezed out of shape, being jolted along toward the city center.

After an hour and a half and two transfers, a drenched Zhang Yu finally squeezed off the bus.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Zhang Yu thought, "Come to think of it, why am I a day student?"

"Oh, I remember. It's because I can't afford the dormitory fees."

Unlike where Zhang Yu lived, the area where he got off was in the city center. Everywhere he looked were high-rise buildings and clean, wide roads; even the air was much fresher.

The men and women walking on the street were mostly well-dressed, looking like urban elites.

Walking and stopping along the way, he finally reached the school gate. From afar, Zhang Yu saw the large characters for "Songyang Senior Immortal Dao High School."

On the electronic screen at the school gate, there was even a list of grades, displaying the top ten students from each of the three high school grades for 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 it based on his current recollections, it would be that at Songyang High School, grades were supreme; it was a world where everyone judged by scores.

Studying and taking exams were as natural as breathing here, and almost everyone harbored extreme discrimination based on scores.

"What, your score is so low? No wonder you have to wait so long in the cafeteria line. Your score is so low, you have no right to eat at the same table as us in the cafeteria. What, top students are meant to ruthlessly insult the underachievers..." All of this was considered positive campus energy.

"This is completely a world where scores are supreme, a hell for underachievers."

Zhang Yu looked at the 'Grade 10, Total Score 10th Place: Zhang Yu' on the electronic screen and sighed, "It's a good thing I'm one of the ones with high scores."

"Although my ranking might not live up to its name at the moment, at least it hasn't been exposed yet, so I should be able to live a decent life at school, right?"

Songyang High School's cafeteria provided breakfast, so Zhang Yu followed his memories there.

As he walked, he noticed that although there were many students queuing for food, they were all incredibly quiet. Almost everyone stood in line silently, picked up their meals quietly, and found seats to eat in silence, like gears locked together, operating each step with precision.

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 a meat bun when he noticed someone sitting in the empty seat across from him.

It was a girl with long, jet-black hair and a fair face.

Her name surfaced in Zhang Yu's mind.

"Bai Zhenzhen."

"To be precise, Bai Zhenzhen, the top student in the first year, the woman at the top of the first-year contempt chain."

Looking at the girl drinking porridge in front of him, Zhang Yu thought, "Is she a friend of mine?"

"Because I'm in the top ten? Is this what they call the 'top student circle'?"

Bai Zhenzhen was the type of person who looked like she was sulking if she wasn't smiling. Even with ordinary words, one could feel a sense of alienation that kept people at a distance.

Just like now, sitting in front of Zhang Yu, the fact that she didn't say a word made Zhang Yu wonder if she had some issue with him.

Just as Zhang Yu was focusing on recalling memories related to Bai Zhenzhen to confirm their relationship, he heard the girl speak.

"Come to the small garden after you finish eating. I'll be waiting for you there."

Watching her retreating back, a thoughtful look flashed in Zhang Yu's eyes.

A moment later, once he was full, he stood up and left the cafeteria, heading to the small garden behind the school.

This was a quiet spot behind the dormitory buildings. With the vast majority of students rushing to the teaching buildings at this hour, there was almost no one in sight.

Bai Zhenzhen was standing in front of a flower bed. As soon as she heard Zhang Yu's footsteps, she turned around and walked quickly toward him.

"Daddy!"

With a thud, she knelt on the ground, grabbed Zhang Yu's thigh, and said, "There were too many people in the cafeteria just now, I was embarrassed to say it."

"Lend me some money. My micro-loan is almost a month overdue! I'm kneeling to you..."

Zhang Yu, looking at this scene, cursed inwardly, "What kind of crappy school is this? Both the top student and the tenth-place student are taking out loans to put on airs?"

Zhang Yu had already recalled that he and Bai Zhenzhen didn't know each other because of some "top student circle," but because she was his contact who had pushed micro-loans on him.

To introduce her again: Zhang Yu's classmate, Bai Zhenzhen, was a good buddy who shared information on various lending platforms with him, possessing a solid friendship built on borrowing money everywhere.

Thinking about how she had been thinking about how to borrow money from him beneath that cold poker face in the cafeteria, Zhang Yu shook his head helplessly. "Let go first. How could I have money to lend you?"

Bai Zhenzhen shook her head and said, "You're only tenth in the grade, how much could you spend? The loans you applied for must be much less than mine, right?"

As she spoke, she said with some stiffness and shyness, "As long as you help me pay off my debt, I'll do whatever you want."

Zhang Yu's eyes lit up. Looking at the usually cold Bai Zhenzhen, now with a face as rosy as a peach blossom, he found her to have a unique charm.

He looked her up and down and asked, "Anything at all?"

Bai Zhenzhen bit her lip slightly 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, are you really out of money?"

Zhang Yu took out his phone and showed her his balance and the overdue notifications.

Bai Zhenzhen stood up, patted the dust off her pants, and looked at Zhang Yu in disbelief. "You owe 700,000? Even after graduating from university, it would probably take a long time to pay that off."

"You're only in your first year of high school, how are you spending money so aggressively?"

Bai Zhenzhen shook her head repeatedly. "Zhang Yu, how exactly did you spend this money?"

Zhang Yu rubbed his head and said, "I forgot... wait for me to think about it."

Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu suspiciously. "Did you invest it in something? Were you scammed?"

As Zhang Yu recalled, he also became uncertain. "I... don't think so?"

Bai Zhenzhen's expression turned serious. The more she thought about it, the more she felt there was a problem with how Zhang Yu spent those 700,000. "Give me your phone and let me see."

Zhang Yu understood that she was concerned for him. After all, investment, fraud, gambling, sudden death, and going astray were the top five causes of death in Songyang City, with "going astray" ranking fifth.

Doubts about the original owner also surged in his heart, so he immediately took out his phone. "I was just thinking about reviewing how the money was spent, so let's look at the transactions together."

Their eyes scanned the phone screen, seeing the expenses of the original Zhang Yu one by one.

As Zhang Yu saw these, many details of the related memories flooded into his mind.

Dan Ding Pharmacy - 280.00 Dan Ding Pharmacy - 250.00 Time Waits for No One Quiet Room - 120.00

Zhang Yu said while looking, "This is where I bought pills at the pharmacy and then rented a quiet room to practice breathing..."

The curriculum at Songyang High School, besides general subjects like Chinese, Math, Physics, and History, consisted of courses related to the Immortal Dao.

The so-called Immortal Dao was the path of cultivation for humans to become immortals step by step. This was the most important part of the high school curriculum, carried the highest weight in grades, and was the key to getting into prestigious universities.

Breathing was the most basic skill of the Immortal Dao, gathering the spiritual energy from the atmosphere to accumulate mana within the cultivator's body.

Only with sufficient mana could one drive stronger combat power and climb to higher realms. It could be said that mana was the foundation for all Immortal Dao techniques.

For example, to break through from the Qi Refining realm to the Foundation Establishment realm, the mana requirement was over 60 points, while the maximum mana capacity for the Qi Refining realm was 100 points.

In the system built by the ten major sects, everything was standardized and digitized as much as possible, even mana. For instance, mana testing in school was precise to one decimal place.

Bai Zhenzhen nodded slightly and continued to scroll down.

Shuixiu Catering Service Co., Ltd. - 532.00

Zhang Yu said, "This is for dietary supplements in the cafeteria; it costs quite a bit."

In Immortal Dao cultivation, the strength of the physical body was equally crucial. Consuming large amounts of food rich in spiritual energy and Immortal Dao elements was a part of a cultivator's daily routine, known as dietary supplementation.

Longxiang Education Service Co., Ltd. - 1,500.00 Longxiang Education Service Co., Ltd. - 3,000.00

Zhang Yu recalled and said, "Mm... this is the tuition for tutoring, and the cost of renting a spiritual root."

A spiritual root was a special talent that only a very small number of geniuses possessed, allowing a cultivator's efficiency and combat power to increase significantly.

As the most famous threshold of the Immortal Dao, even Zhang Yu and his mother, back when he was in middle school, knew the various legends about spiritual roots. So much so that when the original Zhang Yu was paying off his tutoring loans, he even used "renting a spiritual root" as an excuse to get his mother to send money.

However, with the development of Immortal Dao technology, ordinary people without spiritual roots like Zhang Yu could now spend money to rent them to improve their cultivation efficiency.

As they continued to scroll, aside from the initial explanations Zhang Yu gave, the subsequent expenses were almost all similar, almost entirely related to Immortal Dao cultivation.

Soon, after finishing the expenses for the last few months, Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu with pity. "You really spent all this on your own Immortal Dao cultivation?"

"And you only reached tenth place after owing over 700,000?"

"It's only been three months since school started, right? What are you going to do now?"

As someone who had only been in this world for one day, Zhang Yu was naturally confused about the road ahead. He shrugged and said, "I'll just muddle through for now and think of a way."

Seeing that it was almost time for class, the two chatted as they walked toward the teaching building.

"How are you, with over 700,000 in debt, looking more relaxed than me, who only owes over 200,000?"

Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu's calm demeanor and reminded him, "You don't have any money to keep pouring into your studies!"

"Do you know the consequences of not having money to study? Do you know how dangerous our situation is right now?"

Zhang Yu: "What consequences?"

Bai Zhenzhen said, "The monthly exam is in three weeks. In three weeks, you won't have money to rent a spiritual root, buy pills, attend tutoring classes, or even buy your daily supplements... while everyone else is improving every second. It would be normal for your grade ranking to drop by dozens of places, and then you'll be kicked straight out of the demonstration class!"

Combined with what Bai Zhenzhen said, many related memories flooded into Zhang Yu's mind.

There were ten classes in the first year, from Class 1 to Class 10, divided according to the monthly exam results.

Based on his ranking, Zhang Yu was naturally assigned to Class 1, which had the best resources and was also known as the demonstration class.

The most important part of the monthly exam, besides the general subjects, was the grade for Immortal Dao cultivation.

After all, general education only accounted for 50 points, while the other Immortal Dao subjects added up to a full 650 points.

Especially since everyone was a first-year student and had only officially started cultivating after school began, the differences in cultivation were actually limited.

Although he seemed to be in tenth place, if he couldn't maintain his previous rate of progress over the next few weeks, it would be very easy to be thrown dozens of places back.

Bai Zhenzhen continued, "If you keep having no money, your ranking will get worse and worse, your resources will get lower and lower. In this vicious cycle, you'll be kicked from Class 1 to Class 10 step by step!"

She said with a grave face, "Without money or grades, you'll become 'combustible trash' in the eyes of teachers, a joke in the mouths of students in the demonstration class, and an object for those extras in the ordinary classes to achieve cheap self-superiority!"

Bai Zhenzhen held her head. "In such a situation, let alone cultivation resources, even your Dao heart will be hard to maintain. Your grades will only get worse, and eventually, you'll fall below the elimination line, only to be kicked out of Songyang High School with a body full of injuries and a mountain of debt."

Seemingly seeing that miserable future in her mind, Bai Zhenzhen looked up at the sky and lamented, "Do you want to live at the bottom of the school's contempt chain, being repeatedly insulted! And eventually become a social piece of trash who dropped out of high school?"

Zhang Yu twitched the corner of his mouth. "Then what do you suggest I do?"

Bai Zhenzhen was silent for a moment, then turned her head. "Brother, to be honest... to only reach tenth place after owing 700,000, 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 go to work. Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll sink deeper and deeper."

Zhang Yu didn't respond, but inwardly he sighed, "The only good thing about this crappy world is that you can cultivate, and yet, on my first day here, I'm told I have no talent for it?"

Not long after returning to the classroom, Zhang Yu picked up his vibrating phone and found that Bai Zhenzhen had transferred 500 yuan to him, along with a message.

Bai Zhenzhen: Pay your water and electricity bills first.

Zhang Yu was slightly stunned. He suddenly smelled his own clothes and immediately understood that Bai Zhenzhen had smelled the scent of him not having bathed for several days.

Although he had gotten used to this smell himself, it must have been quite obvious to others.

Thinking that she had sent him money despite her own poor financial situation, Zhang Yu sighed in his heart. He typed a long paragraph on his phone, deleted it all, and finally replied: Thank you.

After putting his phone away, Zhang Yu looked at his palm and found that the symbol on it had been half-filled with black.

Walking to school and into the classroom, Zhang Yu had already discovered that this symbol on his palm was only visible to him.

He calculated the time and estimated that the symbol would be completely filled with black by tonight. He just didn't know what would happen once it was full.

The new book has started; it's an interesting story. The next update time is 12:00 PM every day. Everyone is welcome to bookmark and follow.

(End of chapter)