Zhang Yu's curiosity stirred as he stared at the market's recommendations: "My friends are viewing these? What kind of friend is browsing martial arts on this site?"
The trouble was, since he'd logged in under his real name, most of the classmates he knew were his friends on this shopping platform, and there were a lot of them. There was no way to pin down which one was browsing.
"Nine Heavens Quick-Craft Eight-Branch Talisman?"
Remembering his score of sixty on the Dao Arts exam, Zhang Yu clicked in immediately — then was promptly driven back out by the eighty-eight-thousand price tag.
"Talismans have terrible value for money. Forget it for now."
He opened the leaderboard instead, curious to see what was currently the hottest martial art.
"Longevity and Health Art, Deluxe New Revision. Health Maintenance and Disease Dispelling Art. Brick-Moving King's Digging Palm and Crane Claw Explained. Sports Car Legs, Unabridged. Elevator Jumping Practice Guide..."
Seeing these Qi Refining arts for sale, Zhang Yu paused a moment.
The best-sellers were, first of all, arts for extending life, curing disease, and building the body. That he understood entirely — who wouldn't want a few more years? And the disease-curing ones made even more sense. Hospitals were too expensive; when you got sick, it was far better value to push through by cultivating on your own.
But what came next on the list were either power-type arts imitating excavators and cranes, or agility arts modeled on sports cars and elevators... In short, all skills a beast of burden would learn.
Then he mulled it over, and understood.
Compared to high-schoolers like them, the real majority at the Qi Refining stage were wage laborers — the high-income groups on construction sites, in factories, delivery, and security who did the work of dozens of men by themselves. For them, these Digging Palms, Crane Claws, and Sports Car Legs were the tools they used to make a living, the arts by which they staked their claim in Kunxu. Genuinely useful — far more reliable than chasing a realm breakthrough.
Figuring that out, Zhang Yu set the suitable age range to fifteen to eighteen. Instantly the results became the Mana Boost Strategy, the Basic Eight-Branch Talisman Common Dictionary, the Body-Forging 36 Forms, Simplified Edition...
Looking these over, he got the sense that the top-selling arts were far too basic and simple. "Looks like ordinary high-schoolers are the buyers."
So he added another filter — the martial art's grade.
From what he'd learned at school, martial arts were divided into five grades: Basic, Advanced, Expert, Military, and Immortal Sect. Word had it that Immortal Sect grade held finer subdivisions, but exactly what those were, Zhang Yu didn't know. Both Military and Immortal Sect were beyond ordinary people — the former required joining the military or a government department to earn the right, and the latter required joining one of the great sects.
The Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method in his own hands, he estimated, was probably Advanced grade. And the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art, he guessed, would be Expert grade.
"Buzhou Mountain-Moving Sutra, Heart Origin Great Hand Seal, Zhou Tian Star Sword, Radiant Heart Sutra..."
His eyes swept over these Expert-grade arts. His mouth watered, but in the end he could only shake his head. "Expert-grade arts not only have a higher cultivation threshold and more requirements... even the cheapest costs tens of thousands just for the right to use it. I can't afford that."
*Unless the school's contract can really fetch me a hefty price.*
His gaze drifted back to the Advanced-grade arts. *The Advanced ones, though — once the contract's settled, I could consider buying a few.*
*Especially a Heart Method that suits me, one that lets me reach Dao Heart Level 3 faster to start the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art.*
After wandering the platform a while and adding a few decent arts to his cart, he was about to log out when the recommendation bar changed again.
"Your competitor is placing an order: Mana Boost Strategy, Basic Eight-Branch Talisman Common Dictionary, Heavenly Demon Parasitic Art..."
What the hell! "Do you guys just abuse big data like this? Stirring up an arms race to fuel consumer desire? Wait... what in the world is the Heavenly Demon Parasitic Art?"
Who could resist clicking that? Zhang Yu clicked in and saw that the Heavenly Demon Parasitic Art was an Expert-grade martial art bundling flesh self-healing, organ transplantation, devouring flesh and blood, blood-qi adaptation, and parasitizing other human bodies. In short, an art that let you seize another person's body for yourself.
As a paying web-novel reader for twenty years in his past life, Zhang Yu needed only the name and description to reach one conclusion. Could anyone who bought this art possibly be a good person?
"My rival? Which demon is planning to cultivate the Heavenly Demon Parasitic Art?"
"Is there even really a rival? Or is the site just making it up?"
He harbored his doubts. But then he thought about the bizarre powers and heavy-handed ways of doing things in Kunxu, and it didn't seem impossible. He checked the price — a full three hundred thousand for the right to use it. Among everyone he knew who'd even qualify to cultivate it, only a handful came to mind. Add that 'competitor' qualifier...
"Qian Shen?"
"Or He Dayou?"
He immediately felt He Dayou was the likelier suspect — Teacher Lei Jun had replayed his fight video with He Dayou over and over, and Zhang Yu remembered well the extremely hostile look He Dayou had shot him.
*Either way, I'd better be careful of the rich people around me.*
*Cultivating the Heavenly Demon Parasitic Art, of all things. A wolf in sheep's clothing.*
But he soon spotted, in the recommendation bar below the purchase page... "People viewing this art also view: Anti-Parasitic Art, Purging Divine Art, Slaying the Heavenly Demon..."
Seeing these names so pointedly aimed at one another, Zhang Yu immediately began doubting his judgment. "Could the platform really be pulling my leg, trying to tempt me into an order?"
Knowing Kunxu as he did, he was certain the corporations of this world were perfectly capable of exactly that sort of stunt. He had no choice but to file the matter away. But before logging out, he added the Anti-Parasitic Art, the Purging Divine Art, the Scroll of Slaying the Heavenly Demon, and such to his favorites — and, a moment later, the Heavenly Demon Parasitic Art as well.
"Heh. Hope whoever placed that order gets to see your rival checking out all of those too."
Another night slipped past in the blink of an eye. Zhang Yu's Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method rose to Level 8 (95/160), and after a day of hard cultivation his Mana swelled to 12.1.
...
The next day.
On the grounds of Songyang High School, Zhang Yu received a friend request whose avatar was a barbell.
"Hello, Zhang Yu. I'm Lan Ling from the second-year Elite Class, and also the sports minister of the student council. There's something I'd like to discuss with you."
After he accepted, the other party quickly sent another message, all but oozing courtesy: "In order to advance the development of social immortal cultivation and help our students scale new heights on the immortal path, we are honored to invite you to negotiate regarding a signing contract..."
The other party arranged a meeting that day at noon in the student council office.
"It's finally come?"
So at noon, Zhang Yu washed his face, combed his hair, straightened his clothes, and made his way to the office door. The moment he knocked, the door opened to reveal... someone who looked a great deal like a door.
A student with the build of a door plank opened the door, stepping backward as he smiled: "You're student Zhang Yu?"
Zhang Yu glanced at the dumbbells the door-plank-shaped person still held: "Lan Ling?"
As they exchanged greetings, laughter sounded from behind, followed by the thudding drum of running footsteps. "Is that Zhang Yu here?"
A young man who hadn't even taken the time to put on his shoes leaped off the sofa, jogged up to Zhang Yu, and seized both his hands excitedly: "Hahaha, I heard yesterday that Songyang High had produced one more peerless genius, and today I finally waited you out."
With that, he dragged Zhang Yu inside by the hand. Lan Ling stepped up to introduce: "Student Zhang Yu, this is our student council's vice-chairman, Zhou Chechen."
Zhang Yu remembered — this man was the top scorer of his grade, a name printed all over the school after the monthly exam.
Zhou Chechen pulled him to the sofa, and the two sat down together. Feeling the hand clamped around his, and those eyes brimming with appreciation, excitement, and thrill, Zhang Yu tensed inwardly. *What the hell, is he a fencing guy?*
Zhou Chechen, meanwhile, stretched out a hand and made a grab at the air. A stack of documents flew over from the desk into his grip. "I looked at your grades and immediately had your records pulled."
"Only then did I discover there were debt-collection calls about you reaching the school."
Zhang Yu's heart sank. *He's going to use my debts to drive down the price?*
But Zhou Chechen waved the papers and laughed: "When I heard, I had someone buy out your debts right away."
"Across a dozen platforms, a total of seven hundred thousand in debt, all here."
"How could one of our chosen prodigies be crushed under a mountain of debt? If word got out, other schools would think Songyang High was too poor to even invest in its own students."
As he spoke, a thread of Mana shot from his hand, reducing every debt document to ash. In Zhang Yu's stunned gaze, he continued: "From now on you don't have to pay off any debts each month. This seven hundred thousand goes on my tab for now — no interest, no rush. You just study and cultivate in peace, and once you graduate university and enter a great sect, you can pay me back slowly with the money you earn."
Zhang Yu stared at him, dumbfounded. He hadn't expected this vice-chairman, with a single move, to temporarily relieve his most pressing loan problem.
Then Zhou Chechen picked up another file and went on: "This is the Grade A contract I've set up for you after consulting with the chairman."
"Fifty thousand in cultivation expenses every month, twenty percent off everything the school has to offer — Spiritual Roots, meditation rooms, the Spirit Realm, talismans, the cafeteria, reagents... And we've prepared a single room in the dorms for you..."
Listening to the succession of benefits being reeled off, Zhang Yu's heart couldn't help but race, a powerful urge rising to scribble his signature on the document at once.