No Money to Cultivate Immortality?

As the flying vessel streaked across the sky, it arrived above Immortal Soldier University.

Zhang Yu looked down at the enormous abyss spanning several kilometers in diameter, its bottom nowhere in sight. Faintly, he could make out clusters of glowing orbs flickering at the depths—reportedly the university’s subterranean factories.

All around the abyss, the sheer cliff faces were studded with flashing lights. Countless buildings jutted out from the rock walls, reaching toward the heavens, as if striving to pierce the sky. The entire cavern interior was crammed with architecture embedded in the cliff face.

At that moment, lines of baleful aura contamination forecasts surfaced in Zhang Yu’s ocular system.

Staring at the Nine Hells Abyss below, Zhang Yu thought to himself, This university’s baleful aura contamination is the worst I’ve seen so far.

Once they disembarked, everyone immediately rented artifacts capable of resisting the aura pollution—otherwise, they’d be restricted to only a few designated clean zones on campus.

Leaving the flying vessel platform, a massive ad for Fierce Tiger products loomed before them.

Mo Shangjin sighed. “Immortal Soldier University is the birthplace of Fierce Tiger. Back in the day, it was founded by a group of Nascent Soul disciples. In the beginning, they only recruited the wealthy. Thanks to their money-worshiping company culture, they grew rapidly and became a major enterprise affiliated with the university.”

As they walked along, Zhang Yu noticed that nearly every student they passed wore Fierce Tiger brand ocular husks. Their group stood out like sore thumbs.

Zhang Yu remarked, “Looks like everyone here really does use Fierce Tiger gear.”Mo Shangjin replied, “They say three out of every ten students here work for Fierce Tiger. Even the school’s bulk purchases of law husks are mostly from them.”

“And the price matters too. Check the local husk platform—Fierce Tiger’s stuff is dirt cheap here.”

Zhang Yu browsed casually and found the prices far lower than those at Wanfa University. He was even tempted to buy a batch and resell them back home.

But after calculating the taxes, he gave up on the idea.

He also noticed several high-end models of Fierce Tiger gear—and the more he looked, the more familiar they seemed.

“These advanced models look kind of…” Zhang Yu began.

“Copied,” Mo Shangjin finished. “Fierce Tiger is infamous for its low-end appeal because their mid- to high-end models are all knockoffs. They get sued every year. These models are banned at other universities—you can only find them on Immortal Soldier University’s turf.”

Zhang Yu mused, So Immortal Soldier University’s shielding them on purpose.

Fu Ji chimed in, “What’s so surprising? These days, every company in Kunxu—whether it’s Vajra Forge or Myriad Artisans Sect—got their start by copying others.”

“Universities and sects are no different. How else would the weak catch up with the strong? And the strong? They can’t cover every front. To maintain dominance, they’ve got to absorb resources from all directions—innovating while copying.”

“Copyright laws may bind ordinary folks, but what can they do to real powerhouses with backing? Of course, they still need to show some face to the Heavenly Court, so they’ll usually reverse-engineer the original and tweak it just enough to stay in the clear.”

Zhang Yu thought, Once I’m strong enough to break things down and reconstruct them… I’ll copy to my heart’s content.

At that, he couldn’t help but sigh—his Feathered Tome just wasn’t powerful enough to keep up with his wild imagination.

While they chatted, the group arrived at the site of the Civil Engineering Competition. Zhang Yu glanced at messages from Lord Magneto and Director Gao and realized both his mentors were watching via the Spiritual Realm.

…

High above the arena, in the Spiritual Realm viewing stands.

The projections of Lord Magneto and Director Gao descended together.

Lord Magneto sighed. “Immortal Soldier University… it’s been ages since I last came to this dump.”

Director Gao asked, “You mentioned the championship prize this year—a military-grade battleplate design. How valuable is it, really?”

He was already weighing whether to have Mo Shangjin revive if Zhang Yu couldn’t take down the other side.

Lord Magneto replied, “That battleplate is for the Civil Engineering department, but it originated from the higher realms.”

“They’re giving out a blueprint—costs them nothing—but it’ll ramp up the competition.”

“Even knowing that, people will still jump in.”

He gave a dry laugh. “After all, who wouldn’t want a glimpse at the sects’ future tech?”

“If the blueprint reveals even a fraction of their direction, it’s worth endless benefits.”

“Then again, you might go through all that trouble and find nothing at all—just decoys with no meaningful intel.”

“You’ll only know once you get the blueprint. Its true value is incalculable.”

“At the very least, it’ll help fill our university’s gap in military-grade armor.”

Director Gao gave a subtle nod. He knew most universities updated their Immortal Dao technologies yearly, but it was just patchwork—minor innovations within existing frameworks.

Truly transformative breakthroughs usually came from sects, whose tech spillovers would shake the foundations of entire floors of Kunxu.

To get even a peek at future tech paths and directions… that had immense, intangible value.

Director Gao thought, So this design blueprint may be worth far more than just a battleplate. Would Immortal Soldier University’s Artifact Refinement Department be interested too? Add in the lure of the Nascent Soul law husk experiments…

At that moment, a metallic-looking puppet projection appeared in the Spiritual Realm.

“Magneto,” it said. “Been a while.”

Lord Magneto’s eyes glinted. “Thousand-Husk? You came to watch the civil competition?”

Director Gao quickly scanned the newcomer’s info in his ocular system: Thousand-Husk Daoist, director of the Artifact Refinement Department at Immortal Soldier University. Over 2,000 copyright disputes in the past three years—one of the school’s top plagiarists.

Thousand-Husk Daoist smiled faintly. “Heard your Wanfa University folks copied Lord Nectar’s law husk again. I just wanted to see how your plagiarism turned out.”

Lord Magneto snorted. “My team develops everything independently. Don’t slander us.”

Thousand-Husk Daoist waved it off. “Sure, sure. Independent development. Let’s just watch the competition, shall we?”

“Let’s see how your self-developed tech performs.”

…

Meanwhile, the two teams entered the arena.

Wangou Xuan gave Zhang Yu a friendly smile.

“Zhang Yu, your university’s strength is impressive. That Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Might is incredibly destructive.”

“Let’s keep things civil, shall we? No need to incur unnecessary losses over a competition.”

Zhang Yu glanced at him with mild surprise and nodded casually.

To Wangou Xuan, Zhang Yu looked calm on the outside. But internally, his excitement surged.

Endure. Endure. Endure.

He kept repeating to himself: Don’t let Zhang Yu sense anything unusual. Don’t make him wary.

Don’t let him realize… he’s already our prey.

Keep your malice under control. Don’t give him any chance to surrender or escape.

Right now, Zhang Yu looked like a delicate flower in Wangou Xuan’s eyes. He would approach slowly, carefully, and then tear him apart before he could react.

At worst, I’ll shred his body and scatter his materials across the field for the school to collect…

The more exhilarated he felt inside, the calmer his face appeared—utterly unremarkable.

As both teams took their positions, the match officially began. Wangou Xuan and his teammates opened a series of iron coffins.

With each roar, twisted humanoid forms emerged.

These were corpses of factory workers who’d spent years in the underground plants, their bodies steeped in concentrated baleful aura. Their law husks were severely damaged, and their souls were long gone.

The original owners had to abandon these infected bodies, which then continued to decay without maintenance, operated solely by rudimentary artifact spirits that had been cut off from the Spiritual Realm due to unpaid network fees.

These disconnected spirits animated broken shells, wandering in polluted zones—too much trouble for either companies or schools to clean up. They became zombies.

The only thing left in them was a primal desire: to reconnect with the Spiritual Realm. That repeated longing became an obsession.

Now, as Wangou Xuan pointed a finger, a stream of Spiritual Realm data surged into them like a spark in darkness.

With howls, the zombies surged toward Wanfa University’s defenses like ravenous beasts.

Zhang Yu frowned. These zombies weren’t strong, but their baleful aura was a nightmare—just touching them meant reduced lifespan, medical costs, and construction pollution.

He leapt into the air to intercept them.

But in the next instant, divine radiance descended, crushingly oppressive.

Zhang Yu’s hairs stood on end. He instinctively knew that even a brush with that golden light would kill him.

Then a message flashed in everyone’s ocular systems.

Referee: Emergency situation. Match paused. Nobody move.

Zhang Yu was stunned. This was the first time a referee had ever intervened in his matches.

What happened?

The golden light faded. Every zombie’s law husk was now obscured by pixelated blur.

Zhang Yu blinked. Then it hit him.

Dammit… Fierce Tiger must’ve requested the censors—afraid the zombies’ law husks would ruin their brand image.

Referee: Match resumes.

The battlefield stirred once more. Zhang Yu struck with a palm from afar.

The powerful force of his Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Might surged forth like a wall, halting the zombies in their tracks.

Then he swept his arm again, trying to capture and hurl the zombies toward Immortal Soldier University’s construction zone.

But as soon as the zombies were restrained, their husks began to twist violently.

A signal pulsed through the Spiritual Realm network—self-destruction command received.

Their longing for the Spiritual Realm had finally been fulfilled. One by one, they detonated, their deaths echoing across the field like cries of release.

Baleful aura flooded the arena, spreading indiscriminately across both teams.

Zhang Yu narrowed his eyes. So Immortal Soldier University’s plan was to flood the entire battlefield with this stuff? They must be supremely confident in their anti-aura tech.

Wangou Xuan watched calmly.

Wanfa University… you’ve grown up in luxury. You can breathe without filters, attend school without protection.

How could you possibly match our expertise in this domain?

To you, this is hostile terrain.

To us… this is just daily life.

As he thought this, Wangou Xuan silently reminded himself again:

Patience. Suppress him bit by bit. Don’t give him any opening to flee.