Hearing Zhang Pianpian's answer, Zhang Yu asked another question. "Why would Bai Zhenzhen get protected just because I take the assessment?"
Zhang Pianpian rested her chin on one hand, her tone flat. "I can act as your recommender for the divine affairs contractor test. And once you become a contractor, you can bring in one intern of your own."
Zhang Yu got it. Hire a temp worker, who subcontracts an intern of his own. Sure.
"Once you're registered under one of the Eight Great Departments," Zhang Pianpian went on, "I'll take you to Songyang High and talk to the student council on your behalf, shore you two up. For the next half year or so, while I'm still in Songyang and haven't gone to university, they shouldn't dare trouble you two."
Go talk to Songyang High? Shore us up? What standing do you have? What's your score, how much money, can you really hold them off?
Reading the doubt in his face, Zhang Pianpian said nothing more, just answered flatly: "I'm currently the top scorer of the senior year at White Dragon. And the strongest high school student in all of Songyang."
The strongest high school student in Songyang! If it had been the previous Zhang Yu hearing those words, he'd only have thought, oh, nice, pretty impressive. But now, hearing Zhang Pianpian say them, he felt as if the sister before him were radiating blinding light. Anyone who'd ever been a high schooler in Songyang knew what those words were worth. That title could only be earned by selling your soul over and over in self-destructive cultivation, bleeding out buckets of blood and tears, and trampling the corpses of countless students underfoot.
"So what does this divine affairs job actually entail?" Zhang Yu asked.
"Work? No need to do anything specific." Zhang Pianpian tilted her head. "With that identity you just draw your pay on schedule every month."
Zhang Yu understood again. So it was collecting a salary for doing nothing. This kind of good fortune had finally landed on him?
"Then what's actually on the test?" he pressed.
Zhang Pianpian shook her head. "The content is generated randomly. I don't know myself. But from my understanding of the position, the higher your Dao Heart and the stronger your willpower, the better."
"Dao Heart and willpower?" Zhang Yu nodded. "So the venue is in the Spirit Realm?"
"Correct." Zhang Pianpian stood and walked toward the door. "The venue's in the Spirit Realm. I'll send you the registration link shortly. Sign up today, and you should be able to take the test tomorrow. Remember to ask the school for a day off. And I'll have someone deliver a Spirit Realm mask you can borrow for the exam."
She'd reached the doorway. "Lastly," she said, "tell no one that we're siblings. If anyone asks, say I simply admire your talent."
Watching her leave, Zhang Yu thought a moment, then texted Su Haifeng to request a day off. He didn't wait for an answer; he set the phone aside and considered his preparation.
"Dao Heart? Willpower? And the venue's in the Spirit Realm?" Zhang Yu decided to trust Zhang Pianpian and follow her lead. "For raising Dao Heart and willpower, nothing beats the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art. I'll push it hard tonight."
But since this mattered — it concerned both his and Bai Zhenzhen's future — he decided to double down and go all-out, driving the art even harder than usual. He picked up his phone and contacted Wang Hai.
"Teacher Wang, I'd like to buy some medicine."
Wang Hai's heart leapt; he nearly burst out laughing. Finally! Finally this refining genius of his class, this golden-core disciple, was coming to him for drugs! In that moment Wang Hai felt like an old master watching a lost student see the light.
"What do you need?" Wang Hai asked.
"Something that lets me train all night without rest," Zhang Yu said. "Side effects and body damage have to be as small as possible. Good quality — price doesn't matter. I only need it for one night, so don't over-prescribe."
Zhang Yu figured that while the original body had overdone the drugs, he'd rested plenty since and his physique had improved a lot. One round tonight, gambling on tomorrow's exam, shouldn't be a problem.
Wang Hai, meanwhile, was a gold-medal drug salesman who both used and hawked his own product, and he knew his stock perfectly. Though he was a little sorry Zhang Yu only wanted one night, it made him all the keener to show the boy the benefits of doping so he'd keep buying more later. "Hold on..."
He racked his brains, and accounting for Zhang Yu's physique, drew up a list that included a painkiller, a focus agent, a stimulant, and a physical-endurance injection. He sent it over. "All top-grade stock, matching your request for minimal side effects. If you take it, I'll knock ten percent off."
Staring at the five-thousand-eight-hundred price tag, Zhang Yu sighed. "Good medicine really isn't cheap. Good thing I only need it for one night." Between meals, transport, extra sessions on the Heavenly Spiritual Root, and the new month's fifteen-thousand loan, fifteen-hundred rent, and a few hundred in utilities, his savings had dropped to just over forty-five thousand. Subtract the fifty-eight hundred and he had a little under forty thousand. "Damn, I'm poor."
He wired the money to Wang Hai and waited for the delivery. With Songyang's courier speed, it should arrive within the hour. Just then, Zhang Pianpian's message came — she'd sent the application link.
"Patrol Department divine affairs staff recruitment application..." The Patrol Department was one of the Eight Great Divine Departments. Zhang Yu saw requirements, duties, and compensation listed. He met all the requirements. The duties involved patrols and inspections, maintaining public order — vague, lofty stuff he couldn't really pin down. And the compensation...
"Eighteen working hours a week, monthly pay of one thousand?"
Less than fourteen an hour. And a job like that needed an exam? Zhang Yu was glad he'd be the one drawing pay for doing nothing. But from what he knew of Kunxu, a position's standing could be fully measured by its hourly wage. A job identity paying under fourteen an hour... would that really shield him before the student council? The very pay rate reeked of poverty and abjection. Afraid Zhang Pianpian had sent a wrong link, he messaged her with his doubts.
Zhang Pianpian replied only: "No matter how low the standing, it still belongs to the Eight Great Departments. And whether an identity is useful depends on who wields it. The monthly pay is low, but some hidden perks aren't listed in the recruitment notice. For example, once you're hired, you get a free work registry book. And as a contractor, if you study talismans, you get a discount."
Zhang Yu's eyes lit up, deep in thought. With those perks tacked on, the job was truly something special. He submitted the application and wrote Zhang Pianpian's name in the recommender slot. Moments later, notification arrived: assessment tomorrow at nine in the morning.
Doing all this, Zhang Yu couldn't help marveling. The channels, jobs, identities, intel Zhang Pianpian had laid out today — none of it had ever been within reach of his past self. It reminded him of the original Zhang Yu's memories: he'd gone into the high school interview almost completely in the dark, only to discover that beyond wealth, talent, and ability, there was a yawning gap in information and intel between him and the city students — he hadn't even known the right direction to strive.
Shaking off the thought, Zhang Yu sat in meditation, running the Wild Bull Soul-Suppressing Heart Art while he waited for the delivery. The Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art required boxing while cycling its energy, so in his rented room he practiced mostly with the Wild Bull art.
Forty-odd minutes later, both the Spirit Realm mask Zhang Pianpian had sent and the drugs Wang Hai had packed arrived. Zhang Yu grabbed the bundle of medicine and headed for the unfinished building — then, mindful of how precious the mask was, decided to carry it with him.
Inside the unfinished building, he swallowed the painkiller, focus agent, and stimulant Wang Hai had mixed, then jabbed a tube of the physical-endurance injection into his arm. Moments later his whole body began to burn, his blood surging like rolling magma, and he felt his stamina endless, inexhaustible.
With a boom, a single punch, he threw himself into the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art. A full cycle usually took fourteen minutes; now, driven by the drugs, his limbs blurred with afterimages and he tore through all nine forms in six minutes — and throughout, his muscles felt not a hint of soreness, his breath never short.
Training, Zhang Yu had one sensation: potent! Wang Hai's medicine was brutal! Those fifty-eight hundred well spent! Teacher Wang, doping really beats natural tempering!
An hour in, he was still training. Two hours, still at it. Five hours, never stopping. He drilled through the entire night, fierce and tireless, until seven in the morning, when sudden exhaustion slammed into him and he could no longer hold out. He dropped to the floor, his heart hammering as if it would leap out of his chest, a dull ache grinding through his organs. It took over ten minutes to slowly recover.
"The effect wore off." Recalling the pain, he thought: too ferocious. My organs aren't fully healed; this stuff really can't be overdone.
But the night's mad sacrifice had borne rich fruit. His physique rose from 1.33 to 1.35, his Dao Heart to Level 3 (5%), and above all, the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art advanced to Level 6 (3/60). Now, when he called up its battle intent, he felt every fear and hesitation fall away — no matter how brutal the road, he would charge through to the end, tearing open a path with his own hands.
After breakfast, he returned to the apartment and rested until 8:50. He put on the Spirit Realm mask, activated the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art, and connected to the assessment page. When the clock hit nine, a flash of light swept through the darkness, and Zhang Yu found himself in another world.