Chapter 2: School

The ticking of the clock echoed ceaselessly, within the classroom, Zhang Yu was absorbed in the examination paper before him.

But the paper was like an unending abyss, no matter how he labored, how he filled it, there was never an end in sight.

And the seat he occupied grew further and further from his classmates, until he could no longer make out the figures in front, as if being devoured bit by bit by the darkness behind.

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, panic surged from within, the hand that scribbled incessantly began to weaken, losing its strength.

Until, along with countless books and papers, he plunged into that bottomless darkness, Zhang Yu jolted awake in his bed.

"Was it a dream?"

"It seems to be fragments of Zhang Yu's past."

He rubbed his head, feeling the countless fragmented memories of the original owner of this body rise and fall in his mind, shifting and changing.

Though the current Zhang Yu had taken control of this body, he had yet to fully integrate with the original memories, many details requiring focused recollection to recall.

Especially the memories concerning the bizarre ritual of yesterday, the mere thought of it sent Zhang Yu reeling, unable to recall what had happened.

He checked his phone and found it was only five in the morning. He wanted to fall back asleep, but found that this body was simply unable to rest.

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

"Why do I feel a sense of guilt if I continue to lie here?"

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

Feeling his stomach rumble, Zhang Yu simply stood up, thinking, "Forget it, I'll go to school. At least I can get a decent meal."

He remembered that Songyang High School provided three meals a day, and the monthly food expenses had already been deposited into his card.

And now, burdened with a massive debt of 700,000, possessing only fifty-odd yuan, he had no money to eat outside.

So, leaving the stifling apartment, passing through the sewage-filled alleyways, Zhang Yu squeezed onto the bus with a crowd of people.

Packed into the carriage filled with the odors of sweat and food, the air conditioning felt as if it wasn't even on. Zhang Yu felt like a misshapen delivery, being jostled towards the city center.

After an hour and a half, changing buses twice, Zhang Yu finally squeezed off the bus, soaked in sweat.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Zhang Yu mused, "Why did I choose to be a day student anyway?"

"Oh, right, it's because I couldn't afford the boarding fees."

Unlike the place where Zhang Yu lived, where he got off the bus was located in the city center, filled with towering buildings and clean, wide roads, and even the air felt fresher.

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

Walking and stopping along the way, he finally arrived at the school gate. From afar, Zhang Yu saw the words "Songyang Advanced Immortal Dao High School".

And on the electronic screen at the school gate was a list of exam results, listing the top ten students of each grade for the previous month.

From this, one could see that Songyang High School was a school that placed great emphasis on student performance.

And if Zhang Yu were to summarize the school based on his memories, it would be: Songyang High School, where grades reign supreme, a world where everyone judges solely by scores.

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

"Your score is so low, no wonder you have to queue in the cafeteria for so long," "Your score is so low, you're not even worthy of sitting at the same table as us in the cafeteria," "Acedemics must cruelly humiliate the underachievers..." all considered positive energy on campus.

"This is completely a score-obsessed world, a hell for underachievers."

Zhang Yu glanced at the electronic screen, at the words "Zhang Yu, 10th Place in the First Year". He sighed inwardly, "Thankfully, I'm one of the high scorers."

"Although my ranking might seem somewhat undeserved at the moment, at least I haven't been exposed yet. I should still be able to live a somewhat dignified life at school, right?"

The cafeteria at Songyang High School provided breakfast, so Zhang Yu followed his memories there.

Along the way, he noticed that while there were many students queuing for food in the cafeteria, it was incredibly quiet. Almost everyone queued silently, taking their food quietly, finding a place to eat quietly, like cogs meshing together, precisely executing each step.

Some students even held books while eating, seizing every minute to study.

Finding a random spot to sit, Zhang Yu had just taken a bite of his meat bun when someone sat down in the empty seat in front of him.

This was a girl with raven-black hair and a pale complexion.

The girl's name surfaced in Zhang Yu's mind.

"Bai Zhenzhen."

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

Looking at the girl drinking porridge in front of him, Zhang Yu wondered, "Is she my friend?"

"Because I'm in the top ten? Is this the so-called circle of academic aces?"

Bai Zhenzhen was the type of person who, as long as she didn't smile, gave the impression of sulking. Even ordinary words seemed to carry a sense of aloofness that kept people at arm's length.

Like now, sitting in front of Zhang Yu, the mere 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 the memories in his mind related to Bai Zhenzhen, trying to confirm the exact nature of their relationship,

He heard the girl say, "Go to the small garden after breakfast. I'll be waiting for you there."

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

A moment later, after he had eaten his fill, he also left the cafeteria and headed to the small garden behind the school.

This was a quiet place behind the dormitory building. With most students rushing to the teaching building at this time, there was hardly anyone to be seen.

Bai Zhenzhen stood in front of a flowerbed. As soon as she heard Zhang Yu's footsteps, she turned around and walked quickly towards him.

"Father!"

With a thud, Bai Zhenzhen knelt on the ground, hugging Zhang Yu's leg, saying, "There were too many people in the cafeteria just now, I was too embarrassed to say it."

"Lend me some money, my small loan is overdue for almost a month! I'll kneel to you..."Gazing at the scene before him, Zhang Yu cursed inwardly, "What kind of broken school is this? The top student and the tenth are both flexing with loan money?"

At this moment, Zhang Yu recalled that his acquaintance with Bai Zhenzhen wasn't due to any academic circle but because she was his upline, pushing micro-loans to him.

Let me reintroduce you to Bai Zhenzhen, Zhang Yu's classmate, and his close comrade in sharing loan information from various platforms. They shared a strong bond forged through borrowing money from every corner.

Thinking about the icy poker face she wore in the cafeteria, all the while contemplating how to borrow money from him, Zhang Yu helplessly shook his head. "Let go of me first. Where would I have money to lend you?"

Bai Zhenzhen shook her head, saying, "You're only tenth in the grade. How much can you spend? You must have applied for fewer loans than me, right?"

As she spoke, she said somewhat stiffly and shyly, "As long as you help me pay off my debts, you can do whatever you want."

Hearing this, Zhang Yu's eyes lit up. Looking at Bai Zhenzhen, who was usually cold as ice, now with a face like a peach blossom, he felt a unique charm.

He sized Bai Zhenzhen up and down, asking, "Really, anything?"

Bai Zhenzhen bit her lip and nodded, "Mhm."

Zhang Yu: "Can I mortgage you?"

Bai Zhenzhen released her grip and glared at Zhang Yu, "Yu-zi, do you really have no money left?"

Zhang Yu took out his phone, showing her his balance and overdue payment information.

Bai Zhenzhen stood up, patted the dust off her pants, and then looked at Zhang Yu in disbelief, "You owe seven hundred thousand? Even after graduating from university, you'd probably have to work for a long time to pay it all off."

"You're only in the first year of high school, and you're already spending money so wildly?"

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

Zhang Yu rubbed his head, saying, "I forgot… Give me a moment to think."

Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu quizzically, "You didn't invest in something, did you? Were you scammed?"

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

Bai Zhenzhen's expression immediately turned serious, and the more she thought about it, the more she felt that Zhang Yu's expenditure of over seven hundred thousand had problems, "Let me see your phone."

Zhang Yu understood that she was concerned about him. After all, investment scams, outright fraud, gambling, sudden death, and cultivation deviation were the top five causes of death in Songyang City, with cultivation deviation ranking fifth.

At that moment, he was also filled with doubts about the original owner of the body. He immediately took out his phone, "Perfect timing, I also want to review how this money was spent, let's take a look at the transaction history together."

The two's eyes scanned the phone screen, and they saw the original Zhang Yu's expenses one by one.

As Zhang Yu saw these, many related details of memories constantly surged from his mind.

'Dan Ding Pharmacy -280.00'

'Dan Ding Pharmacy -250.00'

'Time Waits For No One Quiet Room -120.00'

Zhang Yu said as he looked, "This is when I bought elixirs from the school pharmacy and rented a quiet room to circulate Qi..."

The teaching content of Songyang High School, in addition to general courses such as language, mathematics, physics, history, etc., also included courses related to Immortal Dao.

The so-called Immortal Dao is the path of cultivation by which people become immortals step by step. This is the most important teaching content in the entire high school stage, accounting for the highest percentage of the score, and is the key to being admitted to a prestigious university.

Qi circulation is the most basic skill of Immortal Dao. By circulating Qi, one can gather the spiritual energy from the atmosphere, so that one can accumulate the mana in the cultivator's body.

Only with enough mana can one drive stronger combat power and climb to higher realms. It can be said that mana is the foundation of all Immortal Dao techniques.

For example, if one wants to break through from the Qi Refining realm to the Foundation Establishment realm, the requirement for mana is more than 60 points, and the upper limit of mana that can be mastered in the Qi Refining realm is 100 points.

In the system painstakingly built by the Ten Great Sects, everything is standardized and digitized as much as possible, even mana. Currently, the mana tests in schools are all accurate to one decimal place.

Bai Zhenzhen nodded slightly and continued to look down.

'Water Show Catering Service Co., Ltd. -532.00'

Zhang Yu said, "This is for food supplements and extra meals in the cafeteria, which cost more."

In Immortal Dao cultivation, the strength of the physical body is also crucial. Ingesting large amounts of food rich in spiritual energy and Immortal Dao elements is also a daily part of the cultivator's routine, and is called food supplementation.

'Dragon Soar Educational Services Co., Ltd. -1500.00'

'Dragon Soar Educational Services Co., Ltd. -3000.00'

Zhang Yu recalled and said, "Hmm... this is the tuition fee for the last supplementary class, and the cost of renting a Spiritual Root."

A Spiritual Root is a special talent that only a few geniuses possess, which can greatly increase the cultivation efficiency and combat power of cultivators.

As the most famous threshold of Immortal Dao in the past, even Zhang Yu and his mother, who were in junior high school in the past, knew about the various legends about Spiritual Roots. As a result, when the original Zhang Yu was tutoring and repaying his loans, he used renting a Spiritual Root as an excuse to ask his mother for money.

However, now that Immortal Dao technology is becoming more and more developed, ordinary people without Spiritual Roots like Zhang Yu can also spend money to rent Spiritual Roots to improve their cultivation efficiency.

Continuing to flip through, in addition to Zhang Yu's brief explanation at the beginning, the subsequent expenses were almost all similar, almost all related to Immortal Dao cultivation.

After quickly flipping through Zhang Yu's recent months' expenses, Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu with pity in her eyes, "Did you really spend so much on your own Immortal Dao cultivation?"

"You owe more than seven hundred thousand and you're only tenth place?"

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

As someone who had only transmigrated to this world for the first day, Zhang Yu was naturally confused about the future. At this moment, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Just muddle along for now, and slowly figure it out."

Looking at the time, it was almost time for class, so the two walked towards the teaching building while chatting.

"You owe more than seven hundred thousand, how can you look more relaxed than someone who owes more than two hundred thousand like me?"

Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu's calm appearance and reminded, "You won't have any money to continue investing in learning next!"

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

Zhang Yu: "What consequences?"Bai Zhenzhen said, "There are only three weeks until the monthly exam. In three weeks, you have no money to rent a spirit root, no money to buy elixirs, no money for tutoring, and not even money to buy your daily supplements... While everyone else is improving every second. By then, your grade ranking will likely drop by dozens of places, and you'll be kicked out of the demonstration class!"

Coupled with Bai Zhenzhen's words, many related memories surged into Zhang Yu's mind.

The entire first year of high school has ten classes, from Class One to Class Ten, divided according to the monthly exam scores.

Based on Zhang Yu's ranking, he was naturally assigned to the best-treated Class One, also known as the Demonstration Class.

The most important part of the monthly exam results is ultimately the results of immortal cultivation, in addition to the regular general knowledge exam.

After all, general knowledge education only accounts for 50 points, while the remaining immortal cultivation subjects add up to a full 650 points.

Especially since everyone is a first-year high school student and only officially began cultivating after the start of school, the differences in cultivation are actually limited.

Although he seems to be tenth, if he fails to maintain his previous rate of progress in the next few weeks, he could easily be pushed back dozens of places.

Bai Zhenzhen continued, "If you continue to be broke, your ranking will get worse and worse, and your treatment will become lower and lower. In this vicious cycle, you will be kicked out of Class One and all the way down to Class Ten!"

She said with a solemn face, "With no money and no results, you will become combustible trash in the eyes of the teachers, a joke in the mouths of the demonstration class students, and an object for the extras in the ordinary classes to realize their cheap sense of superiority!"

Bai Zhenzhen hugged her head, "Under these circumstances, not to mention cultivation resources, it will be difficult to maintain a stable Dao heart, and the results will only get worse and worse, eventually falling into the elimination line, and being kicked out of Songyang High School with 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 entire school's hierarchy of contempt, being repeatedly humiliated! And ultimately become a high school dropout, a piece of social scum?"

Zhang Yu twitched the corner of his mouth upon hearing this, "Then what do you say I should do?"

Bai Zhenzhen was silent for a moment, then turned her head, "Brother, to be honest... you owe seven hundred thousand just to get into tenth place, you might really not be suitable for the immortal path."

"I don't know how you got into Songyang, but my suggestion is... drop out and go work, otherwise I'm afraid you'll get deeper and deeper."

Zhang Yu did not respond, but sighed inwardly, "The only good thing about this broken world is that you can cultivate immortality, but I've only been here for a day and you're telling me I don't have the 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 and sent a message.

Bai Zhenzhen: Pay the water and electricity bill first.

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

Although he himself was used to the smell, it should be quite obvious to others.

Thinking that the other party's economic situation was so bad and she still sent him money, Zhang Yu sighed in his heart, typed a long paragraph of text on his phone, then deleted it all, and finally replied: Thank you.

After replying to the message, Zhang Yu looked at the palm of his hand and found that the symbol on it was already half-filled with black.

After arriving at school and walking into the classroom, Zhang Yu had already discovered that only he could see the symbol on his palm.

At this moment, he calculated the time and estimated that the symbol would be completely filled with black tonight. He just didn't know what would happen after it was filled.