No Money to Cultivate Immortality?

No Money to Cultivate Immortality?

“Wiring money?” Zhang Yu asked curiously. “Is that a thing?”

Yu Xinghan sneered, “That old geezer really does give a different price to everyone.”

As he thought this, he was already contacting Li Xuelian through EyeNet.

Yu Xinghan: Senior Sister, I need to run something by you…

Li Xuelian: I figured. What’s your move?

Yu Xinghan: He is my instructor, so it’s not unreasonable to show some respect with a few spirit coins. But his asking price is outrageous. I’ll pay him 0.1 spirit coins tops as a referral fee.

Yu Xinghan: Doesn’t Master have a student working security on a construction site? Could you ask him about his sources?

Li Xuelian: Ever since my father’s incident, those students have been avoiding me like the plague. Doubt they’ll help.

Yu Xinghan: Just asking. My dirtbag instructor is banking on us clueless freshmen not knowing the market rate. As long as I can get another quote, pushing his price down shouldn’t be hard.

After they finished talking, Li Xuelian asked, “So the three-month basic course is done—what’s your rank and Zhang Yu’s?”

Once she heard their results, Li Xuelian allowed herself a rare smile. “Not bad,” she replied. “I’ve got a friend who can help you improve your mana quality.”

Yu Xinghan perked up. “Not through the platform?”

Li Xuelian: Underground trade.

When Yu Xinghan relayed the news, Zhang Yu nodded at once. He knew that buying mana through the official Mana Platform meant safe, legal transactions—each trace of mana verified and guaranteed. But it came with steep transaction fees.

Dealing directly with people, off-platform, could dodge those fees. But it also lacked safeguards. Buyers risked being scammed with low-grade mana disguised as high-grade, or at best, product that was slightly better than advertised.

Worse, underground mana trading was against university policy. Anyone caught would face not just a fine, but a deduction in their overall score—and with it, a drop in rank.

Zhang Yu had thought about making such deals before. But he had no trusted contacts on the second floor, so he’d held back.

But now that Li Xuelian had made the introduction, he nodded. “Worth a shot.”

Zhang Yu thought to himself, “It’s not just about helping Le Mulan’s Dao Seed. If I can boost my mana quality, I’ll power up many of my techniques and cultivate more efficiently.”

So the two followed Li Xuelian’s instructions and arrived at a deserted street on the 85th floor of Wanfa University City.

Yu Xinghan asked, “This is the mortal zone? Why aren’t there any mortals?”

Zhang Yu looked around and shook his head. He often practiced his Techniques below the 100th floor, but even now, he’d never seen a single mortal walking the streets here.

It was as if the mortals never left their homes—never came and went.

The streets below the 100th floor were always this eerily empty, with no trace of life.

Zhang Yu thought, “Still, that makes it perfect for underground deals—no people, no surveillance.”

“With Wanfa University’s capabilities, monitoring these lower levels shouldn’t be hard… so why don’t they?”

Moments later, Li Xuelian appeared before them. “It’s me.”

“This is your first deal, so I’ll walk you through it.”

She led them to the designated meeting point, where a shadowy figure emerged.

The figure was shrouded in dark mist, completely concealing their appearance.

Of course, Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan had done the same. Under Xinghuo Zhenren’s training, they had practiced muscle-control Techniques to alter their appearances. One now looked like Gongshu Jin, the other like Ji Yuanshu.

Li Xuelian had transformed herself into a strange man. No trace of her real appearance remained.

As she exchanged code phrases with the contact, Zhang Yu used an Anti-Detection Ritual to scan the area—no cameras.

Once the code was confirmed, the shadowy figure nodded slightly. “My rules: payment first, mana after.”

Yu Xinghan asked, “How much for 100 mana?”

The other snorted. “Minimum batch is 10,000.”

Yu Xinghan frowned. “We can’t handle that much at once. Do you even have 10,000 mana?”

The figure was clearly used to this. “It’ll be in batches. I can deliver 100 or 200 at a time…”

After negotiating, the final price was 1 spirit coin for 10,000 mana.

Zhang Yu thought, that’s way cheaper than the platform rate.

Li Xuelian said, “I need to inspect the goods.”

The seller didn’t object. He sent a stream of mana into her palm.

Li Xuelian’s eyes lit up. “That’s some pure mana.”

“Quality is 175%,” the seller said with a smirk. “My stock is always top-tier. You’ll know once you try it.”

Li Xuelian nodded at Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan to signal the all-clear, then messaged: “Send the money to me. I’ll handle the deal to minimize your exposure.”

Despite some hesitation about giving up spirit coins all at once, Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan ultimately trusted her.

Each transferred 0.5 spirit coins, for a total of 1. Li Xuelian followed the seller’s instructions and used it to buy some books on the secondhand market.

Then, under her supervision, the seller placed his hands on both Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan.

Immediately, Zhang Yu felt a surge of thick, non-invasive high-quality mana pour into him. It sat motionless, carefully controlled.

He quickly activated his own mana, using it to bombard the high-grade infusion.

With each pulse, his mana became more resilient. Some of the high-quality mana blended into his own—most of it diluted and dissipated, but what little remained made his mana feel noticeably more solid.

In a flash, the mana infusion had dissipated entirely.

Zhang Yu could feel the difference. “If I had someone to inject me with this kind of mana every day, my mana quality would skyrocket.”

He wanted to get hooked on this service—but he knew that how often he could afford it wasn’t up to his will. It depended on his account balance.

He checked his account. In the past three months of university, aside from the 2.5 spirit coin scholarship and the 5 from Bai Zhenzhen, he hadn’t earned a thing.

Despite cutting back on everything—rent, internet, comms, transport, food, cultivation costs, and now this 0.5 spirit coin—he was down to just over 11.4 spirit coins.

“If I want to buy Earth-Wood Saint Body and Mana Pulse Flowing Stream, I’ll need at least 7 or 8 left.”

“Add in daily expenses…”

Zhang Yu sighed.

After a quick discussion with Yu Xinghan, they agreed to each pay 0.5 spirit coins monthly to buy 10,000 mana and get daily infusions.

Zhang Yu figured their current performance was decent enough. Slower gains in mana quality were acceptable.

But the seller said, “Both of you getting only 333 mana units a day? You’ll only improve your mana quality by 2–3% per month.”

“The higher your mana quality, the less each infusion does. You’ll need way more down the line.”

“With your constitutions, you could easily handle more sessions a day. Five spirit coins a month would really accelerate your progress.”

Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan ignored the upsell. They took their remaining infusions and headed back to the dorms to absorb them slowly.

But just before they entered, Yu Xinghan said, “You go ahead. I’ve got something to do.”

Zhang Yu gave him a strange look. “Aren’t you going to absorb the mana? Where are you going?”

“None of your business,” Yu Xinghan snapped.

He shot off like a lightning bolt, his mind filled with thoughts of Li Xuelian’s transformation. As his qi and blood surged, his sturdy body grew feverish, his thoughts increasingly chaotic.

“Senior Sister’s really gotten…” he muttered.

“This won’t do. I need to blow off some steam. I can’t even sit in meditation like this.”

Shame flushed through him.

“This is unpaid overtime.”

Sometimes he wanted to kneel and beg himself to stop working for free. But even kneeling didn’t stop him.

Not long after Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan left…

The shadowy figure turned to Li Xuelian and said, “Boss, no discount for your friends?”

Li Xuelian replied coolly, “You give them a discount today, are you planning to give them one for life?”

“Come on. Time to clock in.”

The two vanished, shooting toward the deeper layers of University City.

…

The next day arrived.

It was the first official day of classes in September.

Zhang Yu checked his schedule. The core courses—Dao Heart, Mana, and Body Refining—were mostly the same, though with fewer sessions.

In contrast, the number of major-specific courses had exploded. There were now many new classes focused on construction and inspection—designed to apply the civil engineering skills they’d spent three months learning.

In today’s construction class, Zhang Yu activated a basic Technique called Hunyuan Embryonic Breathing Sutra, using qi to manipulate concrete and guide it precisely into place several meters away.