No Money to Cultivate Immortality?

Within the Heavenly Net of the Righteous Gods.

Huang Zichou looked at the many students selecting their exam Techniques and chuckled. “Choosing your Technique is a crucial part of the exam.”

“If you pick something too difficult and fail to master it, that’s a straight zero.”

“You’re better off picking something a little simpler that you can actually pull off.”

Another minor deity added, “That’s part of the test too—how clearly you understand your own talent, your limits, your potential…”

“But most students who made it this far should be fine picking a five-star Technique.”

“Six stars is where you start to see failures.”

“Seven stars? That’s already pushing it.”

“Eight or nine stars, now you’re playing with fire.”

“As for ten-star difficulty—the hardest of all—I’d say only Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao have the guts to go for that.”Just then, Huang Zichou exclaimed in surprise, “Wait, three people picked ten-star Techniques?”

“And someone else picked a nine-star? Another went for eight?”

He started to laugh. “Looks like we’ve got a bold bunch this year.”

…

Bai Zhenzhen stared at the Infinite Sword Meditation she’d just selected, her nerves beginning to fray.

The Foundation Establishment exam had three rounds. The first was a general assessment, but the next two divided students across four tracks: Dao Heart, Mana, Body, and Martial Technique. Each track would crown one champion—earning a Foundation License.

“Yuzi’s going for the sports track, I’m going Martial.”

“And what I’m missing right now is a strong enough sword Technique.”

Looking at the Infinite Sword Meditation—priced at 1.49 million, rated ten stars in difficulty—Bai Zhenzhen thought to herself, “If I miss this chance… I might not get another shot at learning a sword Technique like this for a very long time.”

After extensive searching, she knew this was not only the most powerful Technique in the selection, but also the one best suited for her.

“On the martial field, I’ll be up against the heirs of the Immortal Capitals… I bet most of them have mastered top-tier, expert-grade Techniques like this one.”

“To beat them, I need to seize this free opportunity. I’ve got two hours to master this.”

Still, her confidence wavered. She had never studied anything this expensive, and had no idea how difficult a ten-star Technique would actually be.

But she had no choice. As someone poor, going up against wealthy students, gambling everything was the only way forward.

Elsewhere, Li Tongyun was trembling from nerves. She had just chosen a nine-star Technique.

She kept repeating to herself, “I have to master it! I must!”

She’d placed outside the top twenty in the first two rounds—especially bombing in the Gluttony Trial of round two, where she puked her way down to the thirties.

So if she wanted a top-twenty overall score, she’d done the math… and this round, she had no choice but to master a nine-star Technique.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yu had picked the eight-star Endless Spring and Autumn Meditation, priced at 1.55 million.

It wasn’t the hardest, but Zhang Yu knew it was among the most powerful Techniques available today.

“Sigh, Titanium Body Technique and Grand Heavenly Dragon Strength are strong, sure—but leveling them up requires expensive alloys and dragon blood.”

“Endless Spring and Autumn Meditation doesn’t need any materials to advance.”

Once he figured that out, his choice was clear.

For someone like him—broke—there weren’t many options. Getting a free shot at cultivating Endless Spring and Autumn Meditation was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Once the ten-minute selection period ended, the exam officially began.

Each student received their chosen Technique’s manual and any required tools.

Zhang Yu received a single physical scroll. Printed on the cover were five large characters: Endless Spring and Autumn Meditation. That was his exam.

He skimmed through the entire manual, then began condensing the Technique’s unique Longevity Mana as instructed.

Only by condensing Longevity Mana, and using it to perform the forty-nine body-tempering moves described, would he be considered to have “entered the door” of this body-refining Technique.

As Zhang Yu cultivated Endless Spring and Autumn Meditation…

The other students were also charging full-speed ahead on their own Techniques.

Yun Jing, while cultivating the Forest of Ten Thousand Forms Palm, used his star-bright eyes to observe every structure within his body—muscles, Mana flow, everything—in crystal clarity. A perfect inner view.

And once he’d memorized the Technique, a projected image of himself practicing the moves overlaid his real body, constantly highlighting mistakes and correcting them. Every second, he adjusted and improved.

That was one of the effects of his Law Husk Eyes: real-time internal viewing, rapid mimicry, and automatic error detection during cultivation.

When Yun Jing glanced at the others training around him, a string of numbers appeared in his vision.

“500k… 450k… 700k…”

Those were the market prices of the Techniques they were practicing, automatically identified by his Law Husk Eyes.

By comparing their prices, he instantly built a mental map of everyone’s strength levels.

Ye Lingxiao, on the other hand, glanced at the Infinite Sword Meditation once and didn’t start practicing with his sword. He just sat down and began simulating the whole thing in his mind.

For someone who could fully control his body and Mana, mental simulations were enough. If it worked in his head, it would work in real life.

And since simulations ran faster than physical practice, Ye Lingxiao usually read a manual, ran it once in his mind, and then mastered it on the spot.

…

For Bai Zhenzhen, who also picked Infinite Sword Meditation, things weren’t so easy.

Sword in hand, her figure flashed with arcs of lightning as she executed move after move from the manual.

This Technique, at the very peak of expert-grade Martial Techniques, was said to encompass every possible sword move at the Qi Refining Realm—pushing swordplay to its absolute limit.

After all, at Qi Refining level, you had no magical powers—just raw strength, speed, and Mana-powered attacks.

Still, this Technique was said to contain over ten thousand sword forms.

Bai Zhenzhen kept flipping through the thousand-page manual while practicing, but the more she trained, the more off it felt.

“This isn’t going to work.”

“At this pace, how could I possibly learn all this in two hours?”

Stopping her blind training, she began re-reading the Technique’s preface and thinking deeply.

“Practice a sword move ten thousand times, and its essence will reveal itself.”

“Normally, you’d go through the moves one by one, learn all the variations, and eventually condense sword intent—allowing you to shatter any opponent’s Techniques with a single strike.”

“But I obviously don’t have that kind of time.”

“Still, if the Righteous Gods put this here, it must be theoretically possible to master in two hours.”

As time ticked on, Bai Zhenzhen grew more and more focused, analyzing the Technique’s secrets.

“Is there some pattern, some principle that links all these moves? If I figure that out, could I master it instantly?”

Just then, she noticed Ye Lingxiao sitting motionless, eyes closed in contemplation.

She didn’t know what he was doing—but it sparked an idea.

“I can’t physically practice ten thousand sword forms in two hours.”

“But what if I simulate them in my head?”

She closed her eyes and began mentally rehearsing each move—but it still didn’t feel right.

“No, visualizing alone isn’t enough. It’s not the same as actually drawing the sword.”

“But this Technique is about condensing sword intent… Does the form have to be perfect?”

She remembered when Zhang Yu had trained in the Celestial Martial Heart-Forging Technique—even his sloppy moves had worked out.

Inspired, she closed her eyes again. This time, as she simulated the moves, she added a new twist:

“What if I imagine an opponent?”

The first image that came to mind—naturally—was Zhang Yu.

He was her most frequent sparring partner, the one she knew best. Her memory was filled with how he fought in actual combat.

In her mind’s eye, Zhang Yu’s attacks formed a dense mist, flawlessly defensive. No matter what move she tried, she couldn’t break through.

“Yuzi is really tough…”

But during these mental duels, she began noticing the flaws in her own moves.

She’d always looked for gaps in her opponents’ Techniques. But now, through this simulated combat, she was uncovering the weaknesses in her own swordplay.

At that moment, Bai Zhenzhen knew she was on the right track.

“Yes… The Infinite Sword Meditation reaches the pinnacle of variation. But why vary? To break through an opponent’s guard.”

“Practicing thousands of times is rote. But understanding how to counter moves—that’s how you grasp sword intent.”

From then on, she flipped through the manual while mentally sparring with Zhang Yu. Through this battle-forged refinement, she felt like a bolt of lightning piercing fog—her heart swelling with the rising tide of sword intent.

Meanwhile, the rest of the students were leveling up fast.

Yu Xinghan emerged from a makeshift surgical room with a grim face, his Third Eye open and burning with vengeance—skyrocketing his cultivation.

Yun Jing’s pace grew faster and more precise with every pass—he was almost done.

Ye Lingxiao was practically flying ahead, with hundreds of mental versions of himself drilling different moves simultaneously, driving his mastery forward at full speed.

And just as Ye Lingxiao thought he’d secured first place—

“Proctor, I’m done.”

Ye Lingxiao snapped his eyes open.

Zhang Yu had raised his hand.

“I’ve mastered it.”