The ticking of the clock echoed incessantly in the classroom.
Zhang Yu was sitting at his desk, focused intently on the exam paper in front of him.
But no matter how hard he tried, the paper seemed endless, and he couldn’t seem to finish it.
The distance between him and his classmates grew larger and larger, until he could no longer see their figures clearly.
It felt as if he was being slowly swallowed by the darkness behind him.
Cold sweat dripped from his forehead, and panic surged in his heart.
His hand, which had been writing non-stop, began to weaken, losing its strength.
Just as he was about to fall into the endless abyss along with countless books and papers, Zhang Yu suddenly woke up in bed.
“Was it a dream?”
“It seems like fragments of Zhang Yu’s past memories.”
He rubbed his head, feeling the broken memories of his original self swirling in his mind, shifting and changing unpredictably.
Although Zhang Yu had now taken control of this body, he hadn’t fully merged with the original memories.
Many details required focused effort to recall.
Especially the memories related to that strange ritual from yesterday.
Whenever Zhang Yu tried to think about it, he felt dizzy and couldn’t remember what had happened.
He glanced at his phone and saw that it was only 5 a.m.
He thought about going back to sleep, but his body refused to cooperate.
It was as if waking up at 5 a.m. to go to school had become an instinct for this body.
“Why do I feel guilty just lying here?”
Zhang Yu sat up, realizing that this was probably an influence from the original owner’s memories.
He touched his slightly empty stomach and decided, “Forget it, I’ll just go to school. At least I can get a meal there.”
He remembered that Songyang High School provided three meals a day, and the meal fees for this month had already been loaded onto his card.
With a debt of 700,000 yuan and only fifty-some yuan in his pocket, Zhang Yu couldn’t afford to eat outside.
Leaving his stuffy apartment, he walked through a narrow alley filled with dirty water and squeezed onto a crowded bus with a group of people.
The bus was filled with the smell of sweat and food, and even with the air conditioning on, it felt like it wasn’t working at all.
Zhang Yu felt like a squashed takeout box, being jostled and bumped as the bus headed toward the city center.
After an hour and a half and two bus transfers, Zhang Yu finally got off the bus, drenched in sweat.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and thought, “Why did I choose to commute again?”
“Oh, right, because I couldn’t afford the dorm fees.”
Unlike the area where Zhang Yu lived, the place where he got off the bus was in the city center.
Tall buildings and clean, wide streets stretched out before him, and the air was much fresher.
The people walking on the streets were well-dressed, looking like urban elites.
After walking for a while, Zhang Yu finally arrived at the school gate.
From a distance, he could see the large sign that read “Songyang Advanced Immortal Dao High School.” On the electronic screen at the entrance, there was a list of the top ten students from each grade based on last month’s exam results.
This alone showed how much Songyang High School valued academic performance.
If Zhang Yu had to summarize it based on his memories, Songyang High School was a place where grades were everything.
It was a world where everyone judged others based on their scores.
Studying and taking exams were as natural as breathing here, and almost everyone had an extreme bias toward high scores.
Comments like “Your score is so low, no wonder it takes you so long to queue in the cafeteria,” or “You’re so low-ranked, you don’t deserve to sit with us at the same table,” or “Top students should humiliate the bottom feeders” were all considered positive energy in this school.
“This is a world where grades are king, a hell for low achievers.”
Zhang Yu looked at the electronic screen and saw his name listed as the 10th highest scorer in the first grade.
He sighed inwardly, “At least I’m one of the high scorers.”
“Even though my current ranking might not be entirely deserved, as long as I’m not exposed, I should still be able to live a decent life at school, right?”
Songyang High School’s cafeteria served breakfast, so Zhang Yu followed his memories and headed there.
As he walked in, he noticed that although there were many students lining up for food, the cafeteria was eerily quiet.
Everyone queued silently, picked up their meals quietly, and found a seat to eat in silence, like perfectly synchronized gears in a machine.
Some students even read books while eating, making use of every minute to study.
Zhang Yu found a seat and took a bite of his meat bun when a girl with long black hair and fair skin sat down across from him.
Her name popped into Zhang Yu’s mind.
“Bai Zhenzhen.”
“To be precise, Bai Zhenzhen, the top scorer in the first grade, the queen at the top of the first-grade hierarchy.”
As he watched the girl sipping her porridge, Zhang Yu wondered, “Are we friends?”
“Is it because I’m in the top ten? Is this what they call the top student circle?”
Bai Zhenzhen had a naturally cold demeanor.
Even when she wasn’t smiling, she seemed like she was sulking.
Even her ordinary words carried a sense of aloofness, as if she was keeping everyone at arm’s length.
Just sitting across from Zhang Yu without saying a word made him feel like she had some issue with him.
As Zhang Yu tried to recall his memories of Bai Zhenzhen to figure out their relationship, the girl suddenly spoke.
“Meet me in the small garden after breakfast. I’ll be waiting for you there.”
Watching her leave, Zhang Yu’s eyes flashed with thoughtfulness.
After finishing his meal, Zhang Yu left the cafeteria and headed to the small garden behind the school.
It was a quiet spot behind the dormitory, and at this time, when most students were rushing to the classrooms, there was almost no one around.
Bai Zhenzhen was standing in front of a flower bed.
As soon as she heard Zhang Yu’s footsteps, she turned around and quickly walked up to him.
“Dad!”
With a thud, Bai Zhenzhen knelt on the ground and hugged Zhang Yu’s leg. “There were too many people in the cafeteria earlier, so I couldn’t say it.”
“Please lend me some money! My small loan is almost a month overdue! I’ll kneel for you…”
Zhang Yu cursed inwardly, “What kind of messed-up school is this? The top scorer and the tenth-ranked student are both borrowing money to show off?”
He then remembered that he and Bai Zhenzhen hadn’t become acquainted because of any top student circle.
Instead, she was his “upper line,” the one who had introduced him to small loans.
Let’s reintroduce Bai Zhenzhen, Zhang Yu’s classmate.
She was his good buddy, someone who shared information about various loan platforms with him.
They had a solid friendship built on borrowing money together.
Thinking about how Bai Zhenzhen’s cold poker face in the cafeteria had been masking her desperation to borrow money from him, Zhang Yu shook his head helplessly. “Let go of me first. I don’t have any money to lend you.”
Bai Zhenzhen shook her head. “You’re only ranked tenth. How much could you have spent? Your loans must be much smaller than mine, right?”
Then, with a stiff and shy expression, she said, “If you help me pay off my debt, I’ll do anything you want.”
Zhang Yu’s eyes lit up as he looked at Bai Zhenzhen, who usually had a cold demeanor but now had a blush on her face.
He found her unexpectedly charming.
He looked her up and down and asked, “Anything?”
Bai Zhenzhen bit her lip and nodded. “Yes.”
Zhang Yu: “Can I use you as collateral?”
Bai Zhenzhen let go of his leg and glared at him. “Yu, are you really broke?”
Zhang Yu showed her his phone, displaying his balance and overdue loan notifications.
Bai Zhenzhen stood up, brushed the dust off her pants, and looked at Zhang Yu in disbelief. “You owe 700,000 yuan? Even after graduating from university, it’ll take you years to pay that off.”
“You’re only in your first year of high school. How did you spend so much money?”
Bai Zhenzhen shook her head repeatedly. “Zhang Yu, how did you even spend that much?”
Zhang Yu rubbed his head. “I can’t remember… Let me think about it.”
Bai Zhenzhen looked at him suspiciously. “Did you invest in something? Were you scammed?”
As Zhang Yu tried to recall, he also began to feel uncertain. “Probably… not?”
Bai Zhenzhen’s expression turned serious.
The more she thought about it, the more she felt there was something wrong with how Zhang Yu had spent over 700,000 yuan. “Let me see your phone.”
Zhang Yu understood that she was concerned for 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 also felt a growing curiosity about the original owner’s spending habits, so he handed over his phone. “I was just thinking about reviewing how the money was spent. Let’s take a look at the transaction history together.”
As their eyes scanned the phone screen, they saw the original owner’s spending records.
At the same time, many related memories began to surface in Zhang Yu’s mind.
Dan Ding Pharmacy - 280.00
Dan Ding Pharmacy - 250.00
Time Waits for No One Meditation Room - 120.00
Zhang Yu explained as he read, “This is me buying pills at the school pharmacy and renting a meditation room for breathing exercises…”
Apart from general subjects like Chinese, math, physics, and history, Songyang High School also offered courses related to Immortal Dao.
Immortal Dao was the path of cultivation that led mortals to become immortals.
It was the most important subject in high school, with the highest score weight, and a key factor in getting into top universities.
Breathing exercises were the most basic skill in Immortal Dao.
By practicing breathing techniques, cultivators could gather spiritual energy from the atmosphere and accumulate it as internal spiritual power.
Only with sufficient spiritual power could one advance to higher levels of cultivation and unlock greater combat abilities.
Spiritual power was the foundation of all Immortal Dao techniques.
For example, to break through from the Qi Refining stage to the Foundation Building stage, one needed at least 60 points of spiritual power, with the upper limit for Qi Refining being 100 points.
In the system established by the ten major sects, everything was standardized and quantified, including spiritual power.
Even the spiritual power tests at school were precise to one decimal place.
Bai Zhenzhen nodded slightly and continued scrolling.
Shui Xiu Catering Services Co., Ltd. - 532.00
Zhang Yu said, “This was for supplementary meals in the cafeteria. It cost quite a bit.”
In Immortal Dao cultivation, physical strength was also crucial.
Consuming large amounts of food rich in spiritual energy and Immortal Dao elements was a daily part of a cultivator’s routine, known as dietary supplementation.
Long Xiang Educational Services Co., Ltd. - 1500.00
Long Xiang Educational Services Co., Ltd. - 3000.00
Zhang Yu recalled, “Hmm… This was for tutoring fees and renting a spiritual root.”
Spiritual roots were a rare innate talent that only a few geniuses possessed.
They greatly enhanced a cultivator’s efficiency and combat power.
As one of the most famous thresholds in Immortal Dao, even Zhang Yu and his mother had heard about spiritual roots when he was in middle school.
In fact, the original Zhang Yu had used renting a spiritual root as an excuse to ask his mother for money when he was struggling to repay his loans.
However, with the advancement of Immortal Dao technology, even ordinary people like Zhang Yu, who didn’t have a spiritual root, could now rent one to improve their cultivation efficiency.
As they continued scrolling, apart from the initial explanations, most of the expenses were related to Immortal Dao cultivation.
After quickly reviewing Zhang Yu’s spending over the past few months, Bai Zhenzhen looked at him with pity. “You really spent all that money on your Immortal Dao cultivation?”
“And you’re only ranked tenth after owing 700,000 yuan?”
“It’s only been three months since school started. What are you going to do next?”
As someone who had just crossed into this world a day ago, Zhang Yu was naturally clueless about his future.
He shrugged and said, “I’ll just take it one step at a time and figure things out as I go.”
Seeing that it was almost time for class, the two of them walked toward the classroom while chatting.
“How come you, who owe 700,000 yuan, seem more relaxed than me, who only owe 200,000?”
Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu’s calm demeanor and reminded him, “You won’t have any money to spend on your studies from now on!”
“Do you know what the consequences of not having money for studies are? Do you know how dangerous our situation is?”
Zhang Yu: “What consequences?”
Bai Zhenzhen said, “There’s only three weeks left until the monthly exam. In three weeks, you won’t have money to rent a spiritual root, buy pills, attend tutoring classes, or even buy daily supplements… Meanwhile, everyone else will be improving every second. It’s entirely possible that your rank will drop by dozens of places, and you’ll be kicked out of the advanced class!”
As Bai Zhenzhen spoke, more related memories surfaced in Zhang Yu’s mind.
The first grade was divided into ten classes, from Class 1 to Class 10, based on the monthly exam results.
With his current rank, Zhang Yu was naturally placed in Class 1, also known as the advanced class.
In addition to the general subjects, which accounted for 50 points, the most important part of the monthly exam was the Immortal Dao cultivation results, which made up 650 points.
Since everyone was a first-year student and had only just started cultivating, the differences in cultivation levels were still relatively small.
Although Zhang Yu was currently ranked tenth, if he couldn’t maintain his previous rate of improvement over the next few weeks, he could easily fall dozens of places.
Bai Zhenzhen continued, “If you keep running out of money, your rank will keep dropping, and your treatment will keep getting worse. In this vicious cycle, you’ll be kicked out of Class 1 and sent to Class 10!”
She said with a grave expression, “Without money or good grades, you’ll become disposable trash in the teachers’ eyes, a joke among the advanced class students, and a target for the ordinary class students to feel superior over!”
Bai Zhenzhen held her head in her hands. “In such a situation, forget about cultivation resources—you won’t even be able to maintain a stable Dao heart. Your grades will only get worse, and eventually, you’ll fall below the elimination line. You’ll be kicked out of Songyang High School with a body full of injuries and a mountain of debt.”
As if she could already see that tragic future, Bai Zhenzhen looked up at the sky and sighed, “Do you really want to live at the bottom of the school’s hierarchy, constantly humiliated, and eventually become a high school dropout and social outcast?”
Zhang Yu twitched his lips. “So, what do you suggest I do?”
Bai Zhenzhen was silent for a moment before turning to him. “Bro, to be honest… if you owe 700,000 yuan and are only ranked tenth, you might not be cut out for Immortal Dao.”
“I don’t know how you got into Songyang, but my advice is… drop out and go work. Otherwise, I’m afraid you’ll only sink deeper.”
Zhang Yu didn’t respond, but he sighed inwardly. “The only good thing about this world is that you can cultivate to become an immortal. And now, after just one day, I’m being told I have no talent for it?”
Shortly after returning to the classroom, Zhang Yu felt his phone vibrate.
He saw that Bai Zhenzhen had transferred him 500 yuan and sent him a message.
Bai Zhenzhen: Pay your utility bills first.
Zhang Yu was slightly stunned.
He suddenly sniffed his clothes and realized that Bai Zhenzhen must have noticed the smell of him not having showered for days.
While he had gotten used to it, it was probably quite noticeable to others.
Thinking about how Bai Zhenzhen, despite her own financial struggles, had still sent him money, Zhang Yu sighed.
He typed out a long message but then deleted it all, finally replying: Thanks.
After putting his phone away, Zhang Yu looked at his palm and saw that the symbol on it was now half-filled with black.
Since arriving at school and entering the classroom, he had noticed that only he could see this symbol on his palm.
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 when it was fully filled.
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(End of Chapter)