White Dragon High School.
Among Songyang City's schools, it was called one of the three great schools alongside Purple Cloud High. It had a long history and deep pockets — whether in contest winners each year, students admitted to the Top Ten Elite Universities, or people who jumped off the buildings, it dominated Songyang City. To many of its students, it was the only great school that mattered.
And right now, in White Dragon's cafeteria.
Zhang Pianpian was eating as she flipped through her registry book, studying a new talisman textbook.
Just then, a petite girl sat down across from her and said mysteriously: "Pianpian darling, I heard a fun little piece of news, you know. Buy me lunch and I'll tell you."
Zhang Pianpian didn't even look up: "Not interested."
The girl gave a light laugh: "Your brother made quite the splash at Central Tower last time, but he still wasn't taken on as a Golden Core disciple. Don't you want to know his latest news?"
Zhang Pianpian's brows knit slightly: "Worth a 9-yuan poor-people's meal at most. Any pricier, and I won't listen."
"Enough, enough." The girl grinned: "Getting you to buy me lunch — no one in class would believe it."
Seeing Zhang Pianpian's impatience, the girl went on: "The news came from a friend of mine at Songyang High."
"Your brother came in third in the grade on this month's exam, with a total of 620."
Zhang Pianpian was taken aback: "620? Are you sure that news is real?"
"It's one hundred percent true." The girl said: "That score would crack the top fifteen in our freshman year alone. Impressive, huh.
"Didn't you say your brother had no talent? Doesn't look that way now, does it?"
A flicker of doubt crossed Zhang Pianpian's eyes: *My eye is never wrong. He has no talent for climbing the immortal path. It seems something happened to him this time.*
The girl asked: "The Songyang Student Council is likely to target him now. Aren't you going to help him?"
Zhang Pianpian dropped her gaze, flatly: "It's his choice to make."
"If he's willing to sign with the Student Council, at least he can coast through high school."
"Testing him?" The girl pouted: "Isn't that too harsh? How many students can withstand the Student Council's pressure?"
Zhang Pianpian said coldly: "If he can't withstand it, he walks the path of those who can't. Otherwise, helping him would only ruin him."
"What he's truly made of will be seen in what choices he can make himself."
---
Songyang High School.
Zhang Yu could feel it plainly: the whole atmosphere of the school had changed.
At breaks, classmates he barely knew began greeting him.
"Zhang Yu, your physical strength is improving fast. Are you really doing Natural Body Forging?"
"Zhang Yu, could I borrow your martial-arts theory paper?"
In the hallways, students from other classes pointed and whispered.
"See, that's the Zhang Yu Teacher Lei was talking about."
"Tsk, those monsters in the Elite Class really don't let ordinary people breathe."
In martial-arts class, Teacher Lei Jun kept replaying the video of Zhang Yu's victory over He Dayou.
He even had Zhang Yu explain his battle thinking, and He Dayou's blood surged hotter at every word, growing younger by the moment.
In the cafeteria, students began deliberately circling past Zhang Yu, sneaking peeks at what dish he was eating.
At dinner, Zhang Yu simply called Zhao Tianxing over, dragging him along to eat with him and Bai Zhenzhen.
After all, Zhao Tianxing alone could take up two seats, so the three of them filled the whole table.
That kid Zhou Tianyi, though — no one knew where he'd gone today; the moment class let out he'd left school, not even coming to dinner.
Zhao Tianxing had joined them for several meals during this period and grown closer to both Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen.
Zhang Yu had even noticed Bai Zhenzhen seemed far more at ease in front of Zhao Tianxing than in front of Zhou Tianyi.
Just then they heard Zhao Tianxing grumble: "How much longer is the cafeteria screen going to flash the monthly scores? Now I can't even read the dish prices while I'm getting food."
Zhang Yu took a mouthful of rice and sighed: "Old Zhao, this is where your vision falls short. The school displays the scores to urge everyone to study hard. A few more days on screen wouldn't hurt."
Bai Zhenzhen, at his side, nodded: "Exams are our duty as students. What is displaying scores compared to some pitiful dish price?"
Zhao Tianxing looked at the two of them — Zhang Yu especially — helplessly.
And then it suddenly hit him that Zhang Yu was no longer a student whose ranking matched his own; they were no longer in the same campus class.
The very behaviors that stung other students to the core, crushed them with pressure, and goaded them into infighting — for the Zhang Yu of today, these had become naked showing-off.
*Just a few days ago, Zhang Yu and I were condemning these inhumane school practices together.*
*And look at him now.* He mused: *Does a person really change this fast once his score climbs that high?*
Bai Zhenzhen watched Zhang Yu and smiled: "Yu, you seem to be in a pretty good mood."
Better than good.
Zhang Yu felt absolutely fantastic.
Never had Songyang High's scenery seemed so beautiful, its students and teachers so warm.
For someone who had to grind through bitter cultivation day after day, this was the finest sight, a rare comfort, heaven's reward for his diligence.
Zhang Yu waved his hand modestly: "Ah, just useless empty fame."
"Don't know why everyone insists on coming to find me."
"Zhenzhen, you've been first in the grade for so long. Why don't all these people come play with you?"
Bai Zhenzhen curled her lip, utterly disdainful: "Because my first place shows them there's no hope of catching up — all they sense is an unbridgeable gap in talent."
"Your sudden improvement, though, makes imitation feel possible."
"So every one of them wants to be your friend, the better to pry into the secret of your meteoric rise."
Bai Zhenzhen swallowed a whole chicken leg in one gulp and laid bare the cruel reality without mercy.
"In high school, scores are king."
"A chosen problem set, a paid talisman technique, combat experience from a cram school — any one is enough to send high-schoolers flocking, let alone the secret behind raising your score by seventy points in a month."
"These students aren't here to be your friend. They want the secret to your grade explosion, and if they can, hoist that seventy-point leap onto their own heads."
Zhao Tianxing, beside them, wriggled in his seat, the two chairs under him groaning.
He thought to himself: *I came tenth this time. And I deliberately got close to Zhang Yu before too.*
*Is Bai Zhenzhen's speech aimed at me?*
*Though I really do want to learn a bit of study habits from the two of them, and maybe ask Zhang Yu the trick to improving so fast...*
At that thought he wriggled even more, feeling the table's mood turning tense, and shelved the question for the moment.
Not until he'd parted ways with Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen — watching one take the bus, the other the subway — was Zhao Tianxing still chewing over it.
*Was Bai Zhenzhen talking about me, or wasn't she?*
---
On the bus.
No sooner had Zhang Yu boarded, jostled by the crowd, than he felt his phone vibrate.
He took it out to find a message from Bai Zhenzhen.
"In the next few days, the Student Council is likely to come talk to you about a contract."
"No matter what terms they offer, don't agree yet."
"Wait until I've finished negotiating with them, then we'll decide together."
Reading Bai Zhenzhen's message, Zhang Yu's eyes narrowed and he thought: *So the premium contracts are negotiated with the Student Council?*
Zhang Yu had never really understood Songyang's Student Council.
In his mind, a high-school student council? What could it possibly do?
But judging by Bai Zhenzhen's words, the Student Council clearly held the authority to negotiate contracts with students.
*I wonder what terms their contract will hold.*
*Judging by Zhenzhen's meaning, is she looking to fight this out together and jack up the price?*
He mulled it over, got nowhere. The countdown in his head rang again, and Zhang Yu put aside the speculation and started flipping through the textbooks on his phone.
But after a while, whether because of the exam feedback or the contract to come, he found himself restless, unable to concentrate.
He put the phone down and turned his mind to his current path of cultivation.
When it came to this, the Ritual Contract had never forced anything.
After all, contemplating the road ahead aligned perfectly with his wishes — to study hard, cultivate hard, get into a good university, make money, and eventually buy every antique in his cart.
"First, push the Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method to Level 10."
"Next target is the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art. That requires Level 3 Dao Heart, so I'll work on the Basic Heart Refining Method first, raising it to Level 10 while getting my Dao Heart to Level 3. Then I can practice the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art..."
"After that, the only things I can practice are the Basic Breathing Method, Free Fighting, and the High School Basic Sword Technique."
Having confirmed his future schedule, Zhang Yu thought of his savings of over seventy thousand, and the income a contract might bring, and a thought surged up he couldn't contain.
"Should I buy some more powerful techniques?"
Back when Zhang Yu had no money, he'd had no such designs.
But after pocketing Wang Hai's sixty-six thousand today, he couldn't stop turning over how to spend it.
Spiritual Roots, talismans, combat experience... so many things he'd never dared think of before now stirred faintly, waiting only until the contract was settled.
And right now, mulling his future training plans, the urge to buy techniques welled up again.
"Even if I don't buy, I can take a look first."
The phone screen flickered, and Zhang Yu opened the shopping site, signing in to his real-name account.
After a round of facial recognition, he entered the site for buying immortal-path techniques — though with his current standing, he could only see Qi-Refining-stage techniques.
The moment he walked in, a row of recommendations caught his eye — "What your friends are viewing": the Nü Woman's Great Art, male-and-female universal edition; the Great Dream Heart Sutra, cultivate even while you sleep; the Nine Heavens Quickening Eight-Part Talisman Set...