Chapter 279: Terrible Talent, Backed by Connections

No Money to Cultivate Immortality?

“Wang Yin, huh?”

Gongshu Jin felt the name sounded vaguely familiar.

Then it struck him—he must’ve seen it in an Oasis Group commercial. Someone named Wang Yin was definitely in it.

He’d only glanced at it back then, though, so it hadn’t left much of an impression.

Plus, when Li Xiao had been talking just now, most of the details were so fuzzy even he didn’t really seem to know what was going on.

Gongshu Jin decided to look into it himself.

Moments later, he was shocked to find—nothing. No results whatsoever.

“That’s impossible. I

know

I saw that Oasis Group ad…”

Suddenly, Gongshu Jin realized, “Right—I only just got to the second floor. That ad must’ve been one I saw while I was still on the fourth floor.”

The more he thought about it, the more curious he got. He ended up using one of the company’s internal connection slots to get in touch with an employee on the fourth floor and asked them to investigate.

Gongshu Jin muttered to himself, “If only my clearance were higher. Then I wouldn’t have to jump through hoops—I could just browse upper-level networks through the Spiritual Realm Net.”

A short while later, the reply came back.

“There really

was

an ad, but it's been scrubbed from almost everywhere. Even the comments, threads, and videos related to it have been blocked, deleted, or taken down.”

“That livestream video you wanted—I had to spend a few spirit coins to find it.”

The next moment, the video popped up in Gongshu Jin’s ocular husk.

It was Zhang Yu riding on top of Wang Yin, pummeling his face over and over.

Gongshu Jin’s gaze flickered as he watched, deep in thought.

Li Xiao, seeing the look on Gongshu Jin’s face, figured he must be using his ocular husk to do background research. He quickly added, “Director Wang did everything for Zhang Yu, and that dog repaid him with betrayal. Some people just can’t be raised right…”

“Mmm.” Gongshu Jin nodded, but replied, “Raised? Why bother raising him? Just make friends.”

He didn’t care about anything Li Xiao had just said.

Li Xiao was some broke loser from the first floor, ranked far below him…

To Gongshu Jin, calling Li Xiao a person was a stretch—he was more like a vaguely humanoid mutt. At most, a dog-shaped acquaintance, not even close to being friend material.

Especially since Li Xiao didn’t even know which floor Wang Yin had come from, let alone how deep this situation ran.

Gongshu Jin estimated… even on the second floor, only companies with first-floor trade connections—or folks who actively followed first-floor news—would’ve known about Zhang Yu beating Wang Yin.

The fight had ended with Zhang Yu defeating Wang Yin, who’d crippled his own cultivation. That suggested Zhang Yu had strong combat power even as a newcomer to Foundation Establishment. But to Gongshu Jin, that wasn’t the important part.

What mattered was the end result.

Zhang Yu had ridden Wang Yin like a mount, smashed his face into the dirt, and

still

showed up to class at the Foundation Establishment Academy like nothing happened.

That meant he had serious backing.

That

was real presence, real aura, real charisma—infinitely more impressive than any natural talent or combat prowess.

By contrast, no matter how strong someone’s battle power or how amazing their talent, if they didn’t have connections, Gongshu Jin would just mentally assign them a market price.

“I need to ask the Righteous Gods and look into this Zhang Yu guy’s background. How the hell did he not end up dead on the first floor after beating Wang Yin like that?”

With that thought, Gongshu Jin dropped the idea of recruiting Zhang Yu—now he was wondering if they could become friends instead.

To Gongshu Jin, a “friend” was someone rich, well-connected, or academically elite.

“And Zhang Yu got his Foundation License in his second year of high school—a whole year earlier than me. But his stats are

20% lower

than mine. That must mean he has terrible talent and is purely propped up by background.”

It never occurred to Gongshu Jin that Zhang Yu had to delay Foundation Establishment for ages because he couldn’t afford a spirit root.

He thought,

With that kind of talent, there's no way he’ll catch up to me. He’ll just keep falling farther and farther behind. He’s no threat to my bid for top of the class.

“But his connections—those might actually be useful.”

That sealed the deal. Gongshu Jin now felt Zhang Yu was

perfect

friend material.

Li Xiao didn’t know all this, but he could tell from Gongshu Jin’s attitude that he had a favorable impression of Zhang Yu. His heart twisted with a mix of surprise and envy.

Meanwhile, Gongshu Jin walked straight over to Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan, then activated his favorite friendship-initiation method.

No pleasantries. No small talk. He went straight for a wealth flex.

This was a tactic that had never failed him since childhood.

Usually, after he showed off his wealth, the rich would accept him, and the poor would fawn over him.

To Gongshu Jin, money—like grades and rankings—was an efficient and rational filtering tool, keeping out useless social interaction.

“Hey, you two.”

He turned to show his back and lightly ran his hands up and down his spine. With a small chuckle, he said, “Take a guess—how much did this Vajra-Forged Spinal Ocular Husk cost?”

Zhang Yu blinked.

Is this guy really here to show off how rich he is?

When Zhang Yu stayed quiet, Li Xiao jumped in to brown-nose. “At least 15 spirit coins, right?”

Gongshu Jin said coolly, “Cost me 20.”

“This spinal segment came from a grandmaster at Vajra University. It’s forged from bones he refined through bitter cultivation.”

“The same model takes even a specialized bone-cultivator a full year to regrow—meaning you only get

one

of these a year.”

Zhang Yu cursed silently,

Rich bastard!

Seeing Zhang Yu's blank expression, Gongshu Jin wondered,

Does even Vajra-Forging not impress him?

Frowning slightly, Gongshu Jin said, “You two—add me as a friend.”

He mostly wanted to add Zhang Yu, but since Yu Xinghan was with him, he figured he might as well grab both and scope them out.

As soon as the friend requests were accepted, Gongshu Jin activated his ocular husk’s special ability. The other party’s ocular husk models floated into view.

Another one of his little tricks.

“Time-Worn Demon Eye? That’s an elite model!”

“This Zhang Yu… definitely friend material.”

In that moment, Gongshu Jin knew he hadn’t misjudged. Zhang Yu was no ordinary student.

Seems like my new friend’s the quiet type—just like Ji Yuanshu. Doesn’t even flash his ocular husk.

But now that he’s seen my wealth, he should realize we can totally be friends.

One step at a time. We’re connected now. The rest can come later.

With that, Gongshu Jin nodded at Zhang Yu, then turned and walked away without another word.

Li Xiao smirked at Zhang Yu’s cold response.

Heh, Zhang Yu’s temper’s as nasty as ever. Bet he just pissed off Gongshu Jin.

Just then, Yu Xinghan said, “Sure, I’ll add you.”

On the other side, Gongshu Jin saw the friend request come through and frowned. “Fierce Tiger model? And such an old version, too?”

“This one’s not friend material.”

Without hesitation, he silently deleted Yu Xinghan from his friend list.

Elsewhere, Ji Yuanshu had been silently observing the whole scene.

Based on my investigation, it looks like Oasis Group already made a move on Zhang Yu.

He might be caught in the crossfire between Wanfa Sect and Netherworld.

But none of that concerns me. He’s from the Civil Engineering Department. Just another passerby. Judging by the data alone, he’s not even close to my level. No threat to my ranking.

So I won’t get involved.

All I need to do is secure first place in class for the next three years, then transfer to Finance and crack the school’s top 30.

That’s what Master planned for me.

…

After class, the students quickly scattered.

Zhang Yu patted Yu Xinghan on the shoulder. “Where you heading?”

Yu Xinghan grumbled, “Damn it! That Gongshu Jin deleted me!”

Zhang Yu thought back to Gongshu Jin’s behavior and said, “Probably just looks down on us.”

As the classroom cleared, Yu Xinghan felt his ocular husk working more smoothly and nodded. “People from the fourth floor looking down on us first-floorers makes sense. I’d probably look down on us too.”

Then he remembered Zhenren Xinghuo’s advice. “Anyway—let’s focus on raising our grades and rankings.”

“Us first-floor people don’t have a future if we try to network.”

“Grades and rankings… that’s our only leverage.”

“But first, I need to swap out this trash ocular husk. What about you?”

Zhang Yu’s eyes flickered. “I want to check out the Grand Archive. See if I can redeem any good Techniques.”

He used his ocular husk to navigate to the Grand Archive.

That’s when he discovered—it wasn’t a physical place, but a website.

At the same time, a message came in the Foundation Establishment class group from Immortal Jiao Lei.

Immortal Jiao Lei

: [Link] This is the latest class ranking, based on everyone’s initial data when they enrolled. The rankings will be updated based on future performance. Feel free to check where you currently stand.

“Class rankings?”

Zhang Yu tapped the link. It opened a leaderboard for the entire second-floor campus of Wanfa University—complete with rankings by school, department, and class.

The link Jiao Lei sent led to their Foundation Establishment class leaderboard.

Rank 13: Zhang Yu.

“Not bad,” Zhang Yu nodded. “Let’s climb from here.”

Then he activated his connection to the Grand Archive. After verifying his ID and permissions, light and shadow danced across his vision—until endless rows of bookshelves filled every corner of his sight.

Shelf after shelf, stretching into infinity, projected directly into his view via his ocular husk.

This was Wanfa University’s Grand Archive.

Zhang Yu tapped his finger, and the bookshelves instantly rearranged themselves into categories based on his preferences.

“Let’s find those Techniques…”

He had planned his cultivation roadmap well before coming to Wanfa University.

Especially after his high school experience, Zhang Yu knew the first thing he wanted to do—was check if there was a university-level Saint Body equivalent to the High School Saint Body.

“The High School Saint Body was perfect for growth. If I’d gotten it earlier, my high school cultivation would’ve been two or three times faster.”

“Hopefully there’s a University Saint Body too.”

At his thought, lists of Foundation Establishment-tier basic Techniques began to materialize before him.