After acquiring Bai Zhenzhen’s divine spiritual root, Zhang Yu spent a great deal of time cultivating a Level 20 method to nourish the divine spiritual root in his dantian. As he nourished it, his body was continuously strengthened by the divine spiritual root. This strengthening originated from Bai Zhenzhen’s cultivation, a result of the divine spiritual root adapting to her body over a long period. As this strengthening spread throughout Zhang Yu’s body, he felt improvements in his reaction speed, thought processes, mana circulation, and qi mobilization.

However, Zhang Yu knew: “The divine spiritual root has been in my body for too short a time; this improvement is too minor. To truly gain significant enhancement from the divine spiritual root, I must still replicate the Dao Seed. That way, even after Azhen leaves, I can use this Azure Lotus Sword Embryo for an extended period.”

In the past, during his high school years, although Zhang Yu knew how powerful true spiritual roots were, he never really thought much about them. He knew that the spiritual root ultimately belonged to Bai Zhenzhen, and after establishing his foundation, he would need to focus on his own spiritual root. Especially after Bai Zhenzhen was accepted as a disciple by the Seven Emotions Divine Lord, Zhang Yu had even less interest in it. Only now, with the activation of his Dao Seed Atlas, could he replicate Bai Zhenzhen’s Azure Lotus Sword Embryo. Moreover, this divine spiritual root proved to have infinite wondrous uses, even capable of suppressing his qi sea spiritual root and replacing it.

Thus, Zhang Yu made a firm decision. “I must seize the time and successfully replicate the Dao Seed before Azhen leaves Ten Thousand Laws University. Otherwise, who knows how long I’ll have to wait until I see Azhen again.”

To achieve this, besides Zhang Yu cultivating the Level 20 method for 300 hours to nourish the divine spiritual root, the most crucial task was to safely and discreetly return the divine spiritual root to Bai Zhenzhen every time. “It must never be discovered.” With this thought, Zhang Yu intensified his actions, fully reinserting the true spiritual root into Bai Zhenzhen’s dantian.

“Mmm…” Bai Zhenzhen couldn’t help but close her eyes, a long, drawn-out sound escaping her nose. At that moment, she felt a tingling sensation from head to toe. It was the strengthening that occurred after the divine spiritual root adapted within Zhang Yu’s body, and now these enhancements were gradually returning to her. Her physical strength, endurance, bone density, and even various resistances were slowly but steadily increasing. However, the divine spiritual root had not remained in Zhang Yu’s body for long, so the stimulation it brought to Bai Zhenzhen was far less intense than what Zhang Yu experienced.

A moment later, Bai Zhenzhen exhaled. Although still feeling a little uncomfortable, she felt it no longer affected her movements. Zhang Yu said, “Hurry back, Azhen. Don’t let anyone discover you.” Bai Zhenzhen nodded. “Then I’ll go first.” Bai Zhenzhen’s figure flickered, and she vanished completely from Zhang Yu’s sight.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, “Azhen’s stealth ability, empowered by the divine spiritual root, is becoming terrifyingly good.” However, after receiving the divine spiritual root, Zhang Yu had been preoccupied with nourishing it and hadn’t delved into this concealment ability. He thought: “The priority is still to replicate the Dao Seed. As for the divine spiritual root’s various abilities, I’ll have plenty of opportunities to study them later.”

As Zhang Yu stealthily made his way out of the 66th floor, Fuku-hime reminded him, “Zhang Yu, find some time to perform a ritual for Bai Zhenzhen. It will enhance her potential, and while you’re at it, place the new surveillance and anti-surveillance rituals on her.” Zhang Yu nodded and said, “Okay.”

Outside the Heavenly Sword team’s guest room, a young man frowned, a look of confusion in his eyes. “Where did Bai Zhenzhen go?” The young man, Wen Wuya, was a key member of the Heavenly Sword University’s team, an existence from the 10th layer of Kunxu. He had just come to find Bai Zhenzhen to go to the competition arena together but found that she wasn’t in her room at all. He then tried to contact her but only received a response of “be right there.” Wen Wuya tried sending communication requests, but they were rejected repeatedly. Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but sigh softly, “Does Bai Zhenzhen still not trust me?”

Wen Wuya recalled that a year and a half ago, when he first met Bai Zhenzhen, her divine spiritual root and her identity as a disciple of a Soul Transformation Divine Lord deeply attracted him, as well as the divine spiritual root within his own dantian. At that time, he wanted to heavily invest money and cultivate with this girl who possessed a divine spiritual root. Just as Wen Wuya was about to transfer 30 Spirit Coins, then another 1 Spirit Coin for every sentence spoken… the Seven Emotions Divine Lord stopped him. The Divine Lord made an agreement with Wen Wuya: he had to forge a deep connection with Bai Zhenzhen without relying on money to gain the opportunity for dual cultivation.

“Forge a deep connection? But without spending money, how can there be a connection?” Wen Wuya found the conditions set by the Seven Emotions Divine Lord difficult to comprehend. In his view, money led to connection, and the more money spent, the stronger the connection. “Hasn’t the Extreme Emotion Sword Dao always relied on spending money to forge connections? A connection without spending money? Does he mean I should return transfers? Take back gifts? Isn’t that fraud?”

In Wen Wuya’s understanding, a master unwilling to invest money in disciples was not a good master, and a disciple unwilling to earn money for their master was not a good disciple. As for families, it went without saying: in family groups with deep bonds, every descendant, from the moment of birth, formed a profound emotional relationship through debt, a relationship strong enough to influence their entire lives.

“Connection is money! And he wants me not to spend money…” Unable to understand, Wen Wuya, under the guidance of the Seven Emotions Divine Lord, consulted ancient texts and information about the poor. Only then did he learn many related things. “In the past, Kunxu’s immortal cultivation technology was not well-developed, its economy was not prosperous, and currency circulation was insufficient. Therefore, many people at that time used various inexpensive methods to deepen connections to maintain their communities. Even now, many poor people, due to lack of funds, still use those outdated methods to maintain connections.”

Wen Wuya mused, “Because ancient Kunxu was barbaric and backward, lacking financial tools and trust between people, there were schemers everywhere trying to get things done without spending money, leading to widespread trickery. And now, instead of focusing on making money, the poor are still resorting to such tricks.”

Although he didn’t know why the Seven Emotions Divine Lord wanted him to do this, Wen Wuya still followed the information from the ancient texts, attempting to improve his connection with Bai Zhenzhen without spending money. For example, he would greet her every day, ask how she was, and what she had eaten. Or he would frequently spend time in the same designated area as her. He also praised her various strengths. Wen Wuya’s summary of Bai Zhenzhen’s strengths included: highly developed divine spiritual root, wealthy master, valuable hair, and a high loan limit… And many other conversational tactics, strategies, and tricks he learned from the materials…

However, after a year and a half of these efforts, Wen Wuya found that he still hadn’t succeeded. After all, Bai Zhenzhen’s replies to his messages rarely exceeded five words, she had never transferred money to him, never spent money on him, and never came within two meters of him. No matter how he looked at it, no emotional connection had developed between them. “Indeed, how could these backward, poor people’s methods possibly succeed on a Soul Transformation disciple like Bai Zhenzhen?”

Just as Wen Wuya was sighing inwardly, a familiar figure suddenly appeared ahead: it was Bai Zhenzhen. “Zhenzhen, you’re back?” Wen Wuya put away his distracting thoughts, a perfect smile gracing his face, and greeted Bai Zhenzhen as usual: “Where did you go? I couldn’t find you anywhere; I was so worried.”

Bai Zhenzhen looked at Wen Wuya before her, but only felt a prickling unease in her heart. She sensed a feeling from him similar to CEO Wang Yin—a non-human sensation. In fact, the non-human sensation from him was even stronger than what Wang Yin gave her. Every time he tried to curry favor with her, Bai Zhenzhen only felt awkward all over. However, there was one difference between him and Wang Yin… “This guy hasn’t even transferred 1 Spirit Coin so far.” “Trash.”

Hearing Wen Wuya’s concerned question, Bai Zhenzhen casually replied, “Just wandering around, warming up.” Suddenly, Bai Zhenzhen frowned, her right hand instinctively reaching for her lower abdomen. A recent unaccustomed pulsation of the divine spiritual root had agitated her dantian and meridians, causing a sharp pain. Seeing Bai Zhenzhen’s movement, Wen Wuya asked with concern, “Zhenzhen, are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?” Bai Zhenzhen, holding her stomach, said, “It’s nothing. I just bumped myself while warming up.” Wen Wuya asked, “Do you want me to get you some pain medication?” Bai Zhenzhen waved her hand. “No need, it’ll be fine in a moment. Let’s go, the competition is about to start.”

At the construction site on the 667th floor, Yu Xinghan noticed Zhang Yu had returned without him realizing it. Seeing Zhang Yu’s refreshed appearance after returning the divine spiritual root, Yu Xinghan felt a sense of familiarity. The next moment, a faint smile played on his lips. “So that’s it, you went to relax, didn’t you?”

Just then, the first match of the Flying Sword Competition officially began, immediately capturing the attention of countless people, including Yu Xinghan. Yu Xinghan, Ying Xin, and Zhang Yu then watched the live broadcast from the magic relic while working overtime at the construction site.

The first match was not held within Ten Thousand Laws University City but was arranged tens of thousands of meters high in the sky. Contestants from various teams stood on cloud platforms floating in strong winds, needing to guide their flying swords to hit targets 80 kilometers away. Ying Xin exclaimed, “For flying swords capable of hitting targets 80 kilometers away, there isn’t a single poor person among the participants in this competition!” Zhang Yu knew that the Heavenly Sword Sect had deployed 84,000 Sky-Patrol Flying Swords on the second layer, establishing a spiritual network that covered the entire second layer of Kunxu, which allowed them to remotely control flying swords for beyond-visual-range strikes. “But how do other sects do it?”