Classroom of Class Four.
"Good morning, Class Monitor. Good morning, Sister Nannan."
Seeing Zhu Ziyang enter, the students of Class Four greeted him warmly. Over the past month, Zhu Ziyang had earned high prestige within the class. As for Jiang Nannan, her five victories in the practical lessons had earned her the respect of nearly all the students.
The two responded to each greeting with gentle smiles.
As the bell rang, Xia Yu walked into the classroom.
"A new month begins. I hope those of you still here continue to work hard." He offered his usual opening words, then began the lesson.
This past month, after five rounds of combat evaluations, Class Four had been reduced to just ninety-five students. Four had been expelled by Xia Yu due to complete losses. With students already being dismissed, a sense of urgency now permeated the class.
No one complained about Xia Yu's decisions. Compared to the other class advisors, he was practically a saint. In the other classes, the lowest number of expelled students was seven from Class Two. Class One had expelled seventeen — all in a single day! That shocked the rest of the students badly.
It really was terrifying.
The morning class ended quickly. Zhu Ziyang then went to find Xia Yu.
"So Tang Ya went to obtain her second soul ring? Alright, I won't count her absent then." Xia Yu smiled as he spoke. He handed Zhu Ziyang a sheet of paper and instructed, "This is the group assignment list for the month. Announce it this afternoon. Cross off Tang Ya's name — I already said anyone who breaks through a rank doesn't need to participate in the combat drills."
"Got it." Zhu Ziyang accepted the list and nodded.
"And this is what you asked for." Xia Yu pulled out a soul tool ring and tossed it to him. "Be sure to return the ring to me afterward."
"You got it this fast?!" Zhu Ziyang accepted the ring with pleasant surprise. "Of course, thanks, Brother Yu!"
"Alright, go on now!" Xia Yu chuckled and waved him off. "If you manage to refine some pills, let me see. I'm curious to know whether this 'distraction' of yours is worth anything."
"Hehehe!" Zhu Ziyang grinned and left the office.
"Brother, how did it go? Teacher Xia didn't scold Xiaoya, right?" Jiang Nannan ran over and clung to his arm, asking sweetly.
"No, Brother Yu was pretty understanding." Zhu Ziyang replied.
"Mhm, I thought so too! Teacher Xia is really such a nice person!" Jiang Nannan nodded happily.
If Xia Yu knew such an adorable girl had just called him "a good guy," he'd definitely be overjoyed.
—
Evening.
New student dormitory building.
"Brother, see you tomorrow! I'm going back to cultivate." Jiang Nannan waved and left.
"Alright, go on." Zhu Ziyang nodded.
Over the past month, not only had Tang Ya broken through, but Jiang Nannan had also advanced from level 25 to level 26. As for Zhu Ziyang, due to his higher realm and dual Ultimate Spirits, the soul power he required for each advancement was considerably more. His cultivation speed naturally seemed slower. Thankfully, with the Great Light Mantra aiding him, his soul power had still progressed steadily.
His level remained at 35 — the same level he had reached after the Silver Dragon Wolf sacrificed herself for him.
After Jiang Nannan left, Zhu Ziyang returned to his room.
Inside the dorm, he took out the soul tool ring Xia Yu had given him and began unloading its contents. Aside from the pill ingredients he had asked Xia Yu to help him purchase, there was nothing else inside.
That's right — pill ingredients.
After a full month of preparation, Zhu Ziyang had already mastered all the theoretical knowledge for pill refining. Now he just needed to apply it. Once he found a pill formula that aided cultivation, he didn't hesitate. He headed straight to Shrek City to gather ingredients.
He had done thorough research. In Shrek City, there were more than ten merchant guilds. Aside from the superpower Treasure Pavilion, the rest were dominated by five leading guilds: the Nine Treasure Guild, Heaven Soul Guild, Battle Spirit Guild, Star Luo Guild, and Flowing Cloud Guild. The Nine Treasure Guild was backed by the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. The other three were sponsored by the royal families and nobles of the three great empires. Only the Flowing Cloud Guild seemed to have no backing.
But how could that be? A guild strong enough to compete with the Treasure Pavilion and the empire-backed guilds surely couldn't have emerged without support. As Zhu Ziyang dug deeper, he heard a rumor — that the founder of the Flowing Cloud Guild was an illegitimate child of a former Shrek Academy Headmaster…
Regardless of whether the rumor was true, it was clear the Flowing Cloud Guild had the Academy's support.
Since it was a guild backed by Shrek Academy, Zhu Ziyang, as a student of the academy, had every reason to choose it. Moreover, Flowing Cloud Guild offered the most affordable prices among the five major guilds. That alone made the choice obvious.
While purchasing the pill materials at Flowing Cloud Guild, he ran into Xia Yu by sheer coincidence.
That's right — Xia Yu. His homeroom teacher.
Only then did Zhu Ziyang find out that Xia Yu, aside from being an instructor at Shrek Academy, was also the young master of Flowing Cloud Guild! Incredible. He had always known Xia Yu was rich — just not that rich.
When Xia Yu saw him, he was surprised and asked what he was doing. Zhu Ziyang told him about his plan to refine and sell pills for income. To his astonishment, Xia Yu expressed interest and offered to fund him — entirely for free!
Zhu Ziyang was overjoyed but cautious. After all, free things often come at the highest cost. So he asked for the reason, only to hear Xia Yu say, "I just find it interesting."
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
And just like that, he saved himself a hundred thousand gold soul coins and got a free soul tool pill furnace along with a huge batch of refining materials.
The memory faded. Zhu Ziyang began inspecting the ingredients.
"This is a thousand-year Huiyuan Flower?!" He picked up a pale white flower with yellow specks and gasped. "I asked for the hundred-year variety! The thousand-year one costs at least five thousand gold soul coins each!"
"Thousand-year Jade Ganoderma, Thousand-year Huangqi Grass, Hundred-year Sacred Essence Fruit, Thousand-year Qinghe Beast Blood..." Zhu Ziyang sorted through the ingredients Xia Yu had sent and became increasingly shocked — and delighted.
The quality of these ingredients far surpassed what he had originally planned for. The price had likely multiplied five times over! He had expected to spend around fifty thousand gold soul coins, but this batch was worth at least two hundred and fifty thousand!
"This favor… is a big one…" Zhu Ziyang muttered, eyes glinting as he made mental calculations.
Then, he turned toward the pill furnace, expression calm, eyes steady.
Time to refine pills.
(End of Chapter)
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