What’s the point of cultivating immortality if you don’t have money?.

Chapter 337 Competition Team

Upon hearing Zhang Yu's question, Zhang Pianpian paused slightly and replied, "Who in this world doesn't lack money?"

"I am indeed trying to raise some money. Although I am still short, it shouldn't be long before I can raise the rest."

Upon hearing Zhang Pianpian's answer, Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Could it be just a matter of 50 spirit coins?"

However, he was unsure whether the 50 spirit coins reflected in the Dao Seed were related to the money Zhang Pianpian had raised, and he couldn't bring himself to say it, so he could only bury his doubts in his heart for the time being.

At the same time, Zhang Yu also felt that he was running out of spirit coins.

"Sigh, it really is a union of body and soul. I'd better try it myself first, and then spend money if I can't get it to work."

Over the next few days, Zhang Yu and his companions continued their studies, practice, and work as usual, as if nothing had happened.

That day, Zhang Yu was practicing his breathing exercises in the cemetery as usual.

After days of arduous training, he has completed the seventh breathing technique of the Qi Meridian Flowing Method and is now practicing the eighth breathing technique—the Spirit-Guiding Body Tempering Technique.

At this moment, his magical power flowed, and a thick spiritual energy flowed through his meridians, constantly dissipating and silently tempering his entire body.

During his time working and cultivating at the cemetery, Zhang Yu spent more time meditating and practicing breathing exercises every day. Therefore, he specifically chose a breathing method that could temper his muscles and bones, so that his body training progress would not fall too far behind.

But when he was practicing the seventh and eighth breathing techniques, he could feel that his cultivation efficiency was slowing down.

This slowness... was not due to the environment, or any change in his condition, but simply because Zhang Yu's breathing technique was becoming increasingly difficult.

"But there's nothing we can do about it."

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "There are only a dozen or so breathing techniques belonging to the Qi Meridian Flow Set. I have already mastered the simplest ones. The rest are quite complicated. It takes a lot of time to complete one cycle of each set."

"In that case, even for me, it would probably take half a month, or even a month, to raise a breathing technique to level 20."

Zhang Yu knew that if anyone heard his current sentiments, they might want to beat him up.

However, for someone who was already used to rapidly improving his cultivation level, reaching level 20 in a single cultivation technique within a month was indeed a bit lacking.

After a long while, Zhang Yu felt that the effects of the medicine he had taken in the previous meal had been exhausted, so he slowly stopped practicing and took the opportunity to look at the information accumulated in his eye sockets.

First, he replied to the information about medicine-making in the dormitory group, and then he scanned through some homework information in the class group.

Then came all sorts of random messages in various groups.

Ye Xingli, a weapon-refining expert, had pulled him into some weapon-refining group. Two groups were arguing about which brand of leg tendon weapon was better: Vajra Mystic Forging or Heavenly Crafting.

Another piece of bad news came from the Songyang fellow villagers group: a student from Shuizhou Yaoyi Vocational College, in order to save money, did not take medicine and forced himself to stay up all night for many years. He suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and almost died. Now he is borrowing money in the group to buy energy capsules so that he can stay up all night without worry.

Chu Qiuhe from Jin Gang University: Don't lend money in the group. One warning, a second kickout.
Xiong Wenwu from Tianyao University: We're all from the same hometown. He just wanted to borrow some money to stay awake. There's no need to be so strict, is there?

Chu Qiuhe from King Kong University: If you have no money, just go to sleep.

Another student of the demon race jumped out and retorted: "What's the difference between making him sleep every day in college and telling him to die? He's a college student. He just doesn't want to sleep and wants to get up and study. What's wrong with that?"

Chu Qiuhe from Jin Gang University: Who knows if it's a scam? If someone is so poor they can't even afford to stay up all night, what kind of immortality are they trying to cultivate?

After glancing casually at the arguments in the group chat, Zhang Yu looked at the other accumulated information.

Then he discovered that Cong Na from the competition team had sent him a message.

Cong Na: Everyone else on the team has agreed. I'll send you the competition materials and add you to the group chat.
Zhang Yu first accepted the competition materials, glanced at them briefly, and then agreed to the other party's invitation to join the group.

Zhang Yu: Hello everyone, I'm new here, please take good care of me.

Cong Na: Welcome

Ma Xuan: Welcome to the team

Zhang Yu greeted them, but apart from Cong Na and Ma Xuan, no one else came to welcome him, and their chat history was quickly shared online.

Zhang Yu glanced around and saw that there were three other people in the group chatting enthusiastically about Taoist arts, with lines of text rapidly appearing and filling the entire chat window.

Zhang Yu then looked at the profiles of the other five people in the group besides himself.

He discovered that, apart from Cong Na who was only shown as fifth in her class, the others were shown as rankings across the entire department in addition to their class rankings.

Ma Xuan was ranked 35th in the entire department, and the remaining three were all ranked in the 40s or 50s.

A total of six people, including Zhang Yu, make up the number of members in a competition team.

Zhang Yu then looked at their grades and found that they were at most fifth-year university students.

Zhang Yu understood that these individuals were clearly elite students in the Civil Engineering department, capable of entering the top 50 in the entire department at this stage.

"No wonder nobody's paying attention to me."

Zhang Yu completely understood this. After all, it was normal for high-ranking students to humiliate low-ranking students, but ignoring low-ranking students... that was truly very polite.

Just then, one of the students, Bu Ziran, posted a short video showing a lung skeletal remains that had just been unpacked.

Bu Ziran: The latest lung-based magical artifact from the Myriad Craftsmen Sect allows one to accumulate and condense lung-golden sword energy simply by breathing.
Bu Ziran: Subscribing to the monthly service of Wan Dao Jiang Zong grants access to 23 different sword energies. Bu Ziran: Bought for 18.88 spirit coins.
When Zhang Yu saw the price, he wanted to say it was too expensive, but then another student named Yang Yan replied: "This price is cheap. Did you get a discount?"
Bu Ziran: I have an uncle who works at Wandao Craftsmanship Clan, and I got this at an internal price.

As Zhang Yu watched the various conversations in the group about magical artifacts, medicines, Taoist arts, and magical treasures, he thought of the flour bricks he had fought so hard to snatch not long ago. He felt increasingly out of place in the group and couldn't participate in these topics even if he wanted to.

Looking at the top students in the fourth and fifth grades in the group, none of them were ranked in the top 20 of the entire department. Zhang Yu sighed inwardly, "That old man Xinghuo Zhenren... he even told me to switch to the weapon crafting department after I entered the civil engineering department. Does he know how difficult it is to switch departments in university these days?"

"It's going to be tough to climb into the top 20 in the entire department before the end of the junior year."

Zhang Yu knew that to surpass middle and high school students in overall scores during his lower grades, he needed to take middle and high school courses in advance.

This requires not only terrifying talent, but also a lot of money.

Ji Yuanshu from their class is a prodigy aiming to transfer to another major.

During this time, Zhang Yu gradually understood the conventional cultivation plans of the geniuses who had switched disciplines.

"During my freshman and sophomore years, I was basically still building my foundation, pushing my basic data to the peak of the foundational stage."

"In my junior year, I started to study ahead of time, using the spirit world to accelerate my learning and complete a large number of senior courses in my department ahead of schedule, and pass the exams."

"Finally, in the junior year, you need to accumulate a lot of comprehensive points and get your ranking into the top 50 so that you can transfer to another major."

"If you switch from the Civil Engineering major to the Weapon Forging major, the requirements are even more stringent; you need to be in the top 20 at the very least."

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Old Deng Xinghuo has probably been away from university for too long."

"My sister thinks... even if she can't do that, she can take the postgraduate entrance exam and switch to weapon crafting later."

“But…” Zhang Yu’s gaze sharpened, and he made a firm decision: “I want to enter the top ten sects, and I need to hurry up… to get into the top ten sects before the entry channels close.”

"And the ten major sects do not accept members of the earth and wood departments."

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "I must join the weapon crafting department as soon as possible and start practicing its contents earlier."

"Taking the postgraduate entrance exam and then switching to weapon crafting... that's too slow, far too slow."

Looking at the rankings of Ma Xuan and the others, Zhang Yu felt a renewed sense of urgency and seized the time to continue his cultivation.

However, the effects of the previous dose of medicine had worn off, and the efficiency of his breathing exercises was much lower at this moment.

Zhang Yu decided to take advantage of this time to try the union of body and spirit before taking the next dose of medicine.

"According to Feng Jiu, the teacher of Dao Xin class, the level of mental cultivation... operating 24 hours a day is just the foundation."

"Beyond this is the state of semi-instinct."

"Beyond semi-instinct lies the state of complete instinctual unity of body and soul."

As Zhang Yu felt the mental techniques circulating in his mind, he recalled the feeling of being in a state of suspended animation when the building collapsed and his body was buried on the first floor.

"At that time, I appeared to be completely unconscious to outsiders, but in reality, I still had a last shred of will to live."

"At that time, I didn't think about anything, I didn't ponder anything, I just felt that I was in a dark world of consciousness, and I was doing my best to maintain the growth of flesh and blood by activating my body."

"This state of maintaining the last bit of clarity in one's mind is almost at a semi-instinctive level."

"The state of unity of spirit and body means that even if one truly loses consciousness and falls into a coma, the mental cultivation technique continues to operate, just like breathing."

Zhang Yu tried to activate the state of feigned death of the Spring and Autumn Endless Zen, constantly erasing the distracting thoughts in his mind.

But no matter how he tries to suppress the many thoughts in his mind, there will always be one last thought that keeps him clear-headed.

"This is really difficult," Zhang Yu thought to himself. "Maintaining the operation of the mental technique even when unconscious... This is something no human can do."

In the time that followed, Zhang Yu would try to achieve a state of unity between spirit and body whenever he had a spare moment during his daily cultivation.

Although I haven't succeeded yet, I can feel that the flow of the mental technique has become slightly smoother.

In particular, the speed at which he entered that state where only the last thought remained in his mind became faster and faster each time.

Time flies, and it's already early June.

More than a month has passed since Zhang Yu first set foot on the cemetery project.

In the past month or so, although Mr. Wang provided financial assistance in the early stages and then stopped, Zhang Yu still made great strides in his magical power thanks to the daily dose of potent medicine and the unique environment of the cemetery, which surged to a level of 661.3.

As the mana quality increases, the efficiency of improvement slows down, but it still reaches 168%.

With the constant operation of the mental cultivation method, the Dao Heart also steadily improved, reaching level 14 (64.8%).

Because I've been focusing on breathing exercises lately, I haven't had much time to train, and my physical strength has only increased to level 15.18.

The Qi conduction rate and maximum conduction distance also steadily increased with the improvement of the basic values, reaching 42% and 44 meters respectively.

On this day, Ma Xuan contacted Zhang Yu again, inviting him to participate in the team's training session.

(End of this chapter)