Chapter 586: Chapter 527: Undercurrents Stirring
As the class leader for three consecutive years, Su Yuni always believed she could maintain her rank.
As for Zhang Yu, who transferred from the Civil Engineering Department, she hadn’t given him much thought initially.
However, in the past few months, watching him make a name for himself in the Artifact Refining Department, Su Yuni couldn’t help but compete silently, determined to keep her position as the class leader.
Reviewing, tackling practice questions, experimenting... every time she thought of Zhang Yu closely trailing her, she dared not slack off even a bit.
On the exam day, she pushed herself to the limit, using all her skills.
That September evening, Su Yuni kept refreshing her scorecard on her optical display, wanting to know her results as soon as possible.
"First place!"
Seeing the rankings, Su Yuni breathed a sigh of relief, "I’m still the class leader."
With a bit of pride, she wanted to check the group chat to see if anyone was praising her.
But then she saw Zi Yunzhen saying: Did you guys know? Zhang Yu handed in his paper half an hour early.
Another person said: I was in the same exam room as him, he left the lab an hour early.
Zi Yunzhen: So early? No wonder when I went to the lab that day, he was already there.
Seeing these comments, Su Yuni frowned and immediately checked the rankings and comprehensive scores again.
Zhang Yu was still second in the class, but due to the rise in his comprehensive scores and the graduation of senior students, his department rank jumped from 48th to 39th.
Once Su Yuni calculated the change in his comprehensive scores, she discovered that he had the same increase as her in this final exam.
"I got full marks... he got full marks too?"
But then Su Yuni realized that she had worked so hard to get full marks, while Zhang Yu had left every exam early, clearly not giving his all.
The excitement of maintaining first place in the class cooled down in an instant, and Su Yuni felt like she had punched into cotton; for her, the highly valued final exam was something Zhang Yu approached casually.
"Is all his energy going into his project?"
The light in Su Yuni’s optical display flickered as she opened all the senior year textbooks.
"I need to prepare well for the design competition too."
Although Zhang Yu talked about having a showdown with Jin Jun, Su Yuni naturally didn’t believe Zhang Yu could succeed.
Determined to prepare well for the design competition, Su Yuni thought to herself, "I have to secure a spot in the design competition before Zhang Yu completes his military-level project and get the military-level technique."
When buying the artifact refining materials needed for the experiment, Su Yuni frowned slightly, "Have the raw material prices gone up?"
"Could it be because of the Ten Great Leagues?"
Even though the raw material prices rose, it wasn’t much of a concern for Su Yuni, and she didn’t pay much attention to it.
...
The refresh of the final exam results also marked the arrival of a new school year.
Zhang Yu had now become a fourth-year student.
In the Songyang local community group, students were constantly updating their messages.
Most of those sending messages were the new students coming to the second tier after finishing college entrance exams; they’re the most active since arriving on the second tier. They often discuss the environment, academics, coursework, and dormitories of different schools in the group...
Zhang Yu, watching their conversations, felt like he was looking at himself during his first year.
Yu Xinghan: 90% new second-hand Heavenly Eye Magic Remains, anyone interested?
Yu Xinghan: After entering university, it’s hard to attend classes without a good optical display.
Seeing Yu Xinghan recommending optical displays to the freshmen, Zhang Yu didn’t mind; many people in the group were doing similar things, as part of Songyang City’s tradition of seniors helping juniors.
However, some topics discussed by freshmen caught Zhang Yu’s attention.
"Has Songyang High School already become one of the four great high schools in Songyang City?"
Reading about the newly graduated high school students from Songyang High School in the group, he noticed many were inquiring about him, seemingly particularly interested in him.
"I didn’t expect that years after leaving Songyang High School, my legend would still linger."
Amidst the vitality of the freshmen, occasionally, the graduates would express various sighs.
"Have you found jobs yet?"
"This month’s employment rate data dropped again, seemingly related to the Ten Great Leagues."
"Graduation means unemployment, have to take up odd jobs for now..."
Most students couldn’t relate to the graduates’ sentiments.
Subtle changes in employment data appeared similar to the annual fluctuations in employment rates to most people.
However, the commencement of the Ten Great Leagues attracted a lot of attention and interrupted Zhang Yu’s focused cultivation in the Taiqing Realm.
This year’s Ten Great Leagues were held on a floating island above the sea of clouds.
Apart from various professional competitions, what attracted the most attention in the Ten Great Leagues were the military competitions.
Among them, the Ten Universities Sword Contest garnered much attention, and Zhang Yu knew that Bai Zhenzhen and Wen Wuya would participate in it.
There is also the ten-school competition, and according to Zhang Yu, the artifact refining department’s Yan Qianji, along with his senior disciple Ye Xingli, and several other geniuses from the department will participate.
Because of Ye Xingli’s participation, her experimental project has been put on hold, and her assistant Zi Yunzhen temporarily has no experiment to work on.
Zhang Yu had a decent impression of Zi Yunzhen, stating, "She cleans the materials quite well."
Zhang Yu considered that when he starts refining the Heavenly Sun Divine in the future, he might recruit Zi Yunzhen as an assistant to handle chores and speed up the refining process.
In response to Zhang Yu’s invitation, Zi Yunzhen only asked: How much is the pay?
Zhang Yu replied: Young people shouldn’t just focus on money. Don’t you want to be involved in military-grade projects?
Zhang Yu: Besides, I can repair magic treasures. If you join my project group in the future, I can personally help you repair magic treasures.
Zi Yunzhen showed little interest in Zhang Yu’s grand promises, replying casually before dismissing it.
After sending a reply about the Magic Remains message, she noticed her neighbor’s dorm door was open, with a strong stench emanating from it.
Speaking of her neighbor, Zi Yunzhen knew they were an upper-year student in the artifact refining department, but hadn’t seen them for quite some time.
It was only today she learned the neighbor had committed suicide in the dorm a few days ago, seemingly due to the stocks they bought plummeting.
"Recently, quite a few stocks have tanked severely."
However, people committing suicide over falling stocks wasn’t uncommon for Zi Yunzhen, she glanced briefly and paid little attention.
Casually entering the dorm, Zi Yunzhen adjusted her Magic Remains.
"Today is the ten-school sword competition, right?"
...
"Why did the competition insurance premiums increase so much?"
In the sea of clouds, Bai Zhenzhen looked at the insurance contract in front of her and couldn’t help but curse: "Are they treating us like sheep to be slaughtered?"
Wen Wuya at her side said, "Zhenzhen, aren’t all insurance companies like this? If it weren’t for the teacher’s influence this time, and to ensure the fairness of the ten-school league, they probably wouldn’t even sell us insurance as usual."
In the swishing sound of the breeze, a sword qi struck Wen Wuya’s body, colliding fiercely with her protective sword qi.
Wen Wuya didn’t mind it, after all, Bai Zhenzhen’s emotions would slightly stir and sword qi would emerge from nothingness.
Luckily, Bai Zhenzhen’s control had improved significantly. Students above the lower school level wouldn’t be slain by a single strike, and strong students like Wen Wuya could act as if nothing happened.
None of the other top students from Sky Sword University around were weak, so they paid it no mind.
Bai Zhenzhen grumbled, "Still too expensive."
Wen Wuya advised, "I heard the insurance fees for participating in the ten-school league have all increased, so it’s normal for it to be a bit pricy."
In the next moment, Bai Zhenzhen’s expression suddenly changed from gloomy to delighted, her body twisting as if she had a tail wagging.
Seeing this, Wen Wuya immediately understood that she was communicating with Zhang Yu.
The sound of air ripping was heard, and the participating students from Sky Sword University, including Wen Wuya, quickly distanced themselves from Bai Zhenzhen.
In the next moment, crimson sword light swept around Bai Zhenzhen, leaving deep sword marks in the air.
Wen Wuya thought to herself as she watched: "Whenever she communicates with Zhang Yu, it’s when Zhenzhen is the most dangerous."
"Did the Seven Emotions Divine Monarch deliberately arrange for them to communicate before the competition to enhance Zhenzhen’s combat power?"
...
"Azhen, go for it!"
After ending the call with Bai Zhenzhen, Zhang Yu received another message from Ying Xin.
"Has the project money not arrived yet?"
Zhang Yu quickly contacted the responsible person, Master Juxing, but the reply left him feeling helpless.
Master Juxing: It’s not that I don’t want to help, everyone’s money is stuck right now, I have no way either.
Master Juxing: Many projects might have to temporarily stop, let your people tough it out a little longer, it should resolve after the ten-school league ends.
Zhang Yu: What’s the connection to the ten-school league? Why does a competition affect our projects?
Master Juxing: Don’t ask me, I don’t know either.
Seeing the many employees in the company needing support, Zhang Yu could only take out his savings again, paying part of the salaries, and let Zhao Tianxing and the others find some part-time jobs for now.
Then Zhang Yu turned to the live broadcast in the Magic Remains, where Bai Zhenzhen’s sword fight with the opponent had already begun.
The two sides engaged in fierce battles across miles of endless cloud seas, probing each other’s whereabouts while concealing their presence.
Amid the surging cloud sea, only flashes of sword light could be seen flickering occasionally, leaving sword marks hundreds of meters long in the sky.
With the hidden ability of the divine spirit root, Bai Zhenzhen remained undiscovered and ultimately successfully knocked her opponent down from the sky.
Zhang Yu noticed that the subsequent sword fights grew more intense and began to result in casualties.
It wasn’t just in sword duels, with the progression of the ten-school league, Zhang Yu soon discovered other military competitions were equally fierce, with casualties, though not as high as in sword fights, exceeding those of previous years.
Zhang Yu mused inwardly: "They say the ten great universities are using the league’s victories to allocate benefits, is the conflict between them becoming sharper, and the league battles fiercer as well?"
And when Bai Zhenzhen fiercely battled the divinity transformation disciple from White Bone University, this intensity reached a new peak.