Chapter 193: Second Round of Foundation Establishment Exams Begins

Chapter 193: The Second Round of Foundation Establishment Exam Begins

Zhang Yu was slightly taken aback by the other party's reply: "How does it feel... like she's afraid I'll keep talking?"

Fuji chuckled: "This woman might have guessed that you and Bai Zhenzhen are taking the Foundation Establishment exam."

"After all, it's not hard to check the times you've left the city."

"And since Yun Ni, as a hereditary inspector, knows the timing of the Foundation Establishment exam, it's only natural."

Hearing Fuji's analysis, Zhang Yu's eyes flickered, and many thoughts rushed through his mind.

...

The next morning, armed with the patrol team's certification and a personal call from Yun Ni, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen finally obtained the school-approved leave slips and boarded the train to the Immortal Capital.

Watching Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen's train about to depart, Si Zhouyu called again: "Hey? What's the situation now? Do we still follow?"

After a long pause, a voice came through the phone: "Come back. No need to follow."

Si Zhouyu frowned: "What did you say? A whole bunch of us have been wasting time on these two students, and now you say no need to follow?"

"Their leaving the city this time must be for something important!"

"Why not follow?"

The other replied coldly: "It's an order from the company's leadership."

"The leadership's orders—understand them and execute, or don't understand and still execute."

"Come back immediately."

Si Zhouyu took a deep breath, watching the train slowly start, and after a long moment, shook his head and left the station.

On the other side, aboard the train, after several attempts over the next few hours, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen confirmed one thing.

Zhang Yu typed on his phone: "They didn't follow."

Bai Zhenzhen: They didn't follow even this? Could it be they know about the Foundation Establishment exam and dare not investigate further?

Zhang Yu recalled Yun Ni's reaction yesterday and replied: I think so too. The only reason I can think of for such an abrupt withdrawal is the Foundation Establishment exam.

Bai Zhenzhen: Too bad. I was hoping to lure these guys into investigating the exam.

Yesterday, when Zhang Yu saw Yun Ni's reaction and heard Fuji's analysis of her, he suddenly realized that amid the waiting and endurance, they had found a chance to counterattack.

But today, the other side didn't take the bait.

Zhang Yu: It's okay. At least through this, we can confirm one thing.

Zhang Yu: The one trying to target us isn't Zhou Chechen.

Zhang Yu: Because Zhou Chechen probably doesn't know about the Foundation Establishment exam.

Fuji said: "Indeed, only someone at the upper echelons of the Zhou family would know about something like the Foundation Establishment exam."

Zhang Yu: So our real opponent isn't Zhou Chechen, but... the Zhou family.

...

Meanwhile.

Songyang High School.

Lan Ling looked at Zhou Chechen in confusion: "How could you approve their leave? Zhang Yu might be using this time to train or make money—we shouldn't give them any breathing room!"

"We should have held firm, not let them go. If they left, we'd give them a demerit and find a way to expel them..."

Seeing Lan Ling's displeasure, Zhou Chechen sighed inwardly, no longer in the mood to say much.

His mind was still replaying the process of approving Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen's leave.

"Patrol team captain Yun Ni?" Zhou Chechen thought to himself. "So their backing is the patrol team?"

"Right, Zhang Pianpian used to be in the patrol team. After she left, she might have introduced her connections to Zhang Yu—it's not impossible."

"And Bai Zhenzhen, taking leave with Zhang Yu this time—seems like she hasn't really distanced herself from him as she appeared to at school. Their relationship is still decent, huh?"

"But now that I've finally found out who's behind Zhang Yu, what are my uncle and the others planning? Surely they won't keep fighting the patrol team?"

...

"So they even managed to leverage the patrol team's power."

"This evil god has some nerve."

On the 333rd floor of the Central Tower, lying in a hospital bed, Zhou Yang looked at the various reports from his subordinates and thought: "And this timing... coincides with the Foundation Establishment exam?"

"Coincidence? Or a deliberate diversion?"

Two choices now lay before Zhou Yang: follow or not?

He decisively chose not to follow.

After all, in his view, the worst outcome of not following was simply that Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen would flee, losing this lead entirely.

"If this evil god really arranged for his followers to run, it means he's already suspicious. Following would be pointless—at best, I'd catch Zhang Yu, a mere pawn."

But if he did follow, what if they were actually going to the Foundation Establishment exam?

He couldn't have his men investigate everything, especially without knowing what they might uncover.

What if his men stumbled onto something they shouldn't, like this Foundation Establishment exam? What then?

Especially after recalling the times Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had left the city before, Zhou Yang broke out in a cold sweat.

He thought with a shiver: "If this is really a diversion, the setup was far too early—four months ago they started leaving the city? That's around the time for registering for the Foundation Establishment exam, isn't it?"

"So they really are going to take the exam?" "And they made it to the second round? If so, Zhang Yu's hidden strength is no small matter."

"What does this evil god want? Daring to meddle with the Foundation Establishment exam?"

Zhou Yang racked his brain but couldn't figure it out. After all, how could Zhang Yu or Bai Zhenzhen possibly surpass the prodigies of the Immortal Capital?

In his view, taking the Foundation Establishment exam was a complete waste of time and energy—they might even have their dao hearts shattered by the Immortal Capital's elites.

Besides, Zhang Yu had been so worn down by Zhou Chechen lately...

"Knowing they'll be eliminated, yet they still go? For some intelligence?"

Though he couldn't grasp the evil god's purpose, Zhou Yang grew more intrigued by the deity behind Zhang Yu.

"Daring to target the Foundation Establishment exam—this evil god's rank must be high."

"And now, hidden in the shadows, with the other side knowing nothing about me while I gather more and more intel... there's an opportunity."

"If Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen return, I can seize this lead and have a good chance of devouring this evil god's rank."

"But I can't touch the Foundation Establishment exam. I must be careful not to investigate their participation in it... or at least wait until after the exam to drop that caution."

As he pondered, Zhou Yang's phone vibrated.

He opened it to a surveillance feed, where under a ritual formation of countless coils, antiques, chains, and other objects, a hard drive suddenly began to thrash violently.

Watching the jerking drive, Zhou Yang frowned and tapped his phone. On the screen, copper wires like dragons bound the hard drive, suppressing it once more.

"Old thing, still not giving up?"

The entity suppressed within this hard drive was none other than the evil god passed down through the Zhou family for generations.

As the most outstanding heir of the Zhou family in ten generations, Zhou Yang, after learning the secret of the evil god and witnessing his clan’s worship of it, conceived an idea in his heart.

“Why worship this thing?”

“It should be like raising a beast—man raising the evil god, not being enslaved by it.”

So he cultivated unceasingly, studied relentlessly, and plotted endlessly… until at last he suppressed the evil god, turning it into his own ritual battery.

But in doing so, he paid a tremendous price.

Glancing at his vanished lower body, Zhou Yang snapped his fingers: “Change my clothes. I need to go out.”

A nearby wardrobe suddenly swung open, and besides coats, shirts, and other garments, there were also pairs of pants, shoes, and seemingly intact lower bodies.

He casually picked one lower body and put it on, feeling the flesh reconnect and the sensation of having feet again, but Zhou Yang frowned: “Aren’t these legs a bit short?”

After swapping to another lower body, he nodded in satisfaction: “That’s more like it.”

As for the one he deemed too short, it instantly dissolved into a pool of blood, which he poured down the drain.

But noticing the faint livid spots emerging on his calves, Zhou Yang sighed helplessly: “Ah, it should be fine for a day, right?”

While staring at the title of Purple-Gold Merit Lord, he thought to himself: “Let me think… which one in Songyang City oversees the patrol squad?”

Ever since suppressing the evil god, Zhou Yang had lost his lower body.

No matter what new flesh he put on, it would quickly rot and turn corpse-like.

But that didn’t trouble a wealthy man like him.

After all, Kunxu lacked everything except people—there were plenty of paupers willing to sell their legs for money… then replace them with prosthetics.

Yet whether prosthetics or ordinary people’s lower bodies, they were like clothes to Zhou Yang—worn and discarded, unable to withstand his use, let alone aid his cultivation.

Since many techniques required a complete body to practice and employ.

So he had selected many compatible spare materials, placed them in various locations for cultivation, raised them scattered about, and retrieved them when needed.

“I never expected…” Zhou Yang’s mind conjured the figure of Zhang Yu: “My lower body actually went to take the foundation-building exam.”

…

While Zhou Yang was scheming about something,

Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had already arrived again at the examination hall beneath Xiandu City.

Only this time, Zhang Yu did not meet Bai Zhenzhen.

Because starting from the second round of the foundation-building exam, the test was divided into four tracks: Dao Heart, Mana, Physical Fitness, and Martial Arts. Ultimately, one candidate from each track would be awarded the foundation-building qualification certificate.

“Zhenzhen went for the martial arts exam, right?”

Zhang Yu looked at the other four candidates before him, knowing these were the opponents he would face in the physical fitness exam.

Among them were the top Xiandu scion, Ye Lingxiao, and Zhang Yu’s old acquaintance, Yu Xinghan.

But seeing Yu Xinghan’s gaunt appearance, Zhang Yu thought: “Damn, man… were you still working overtime the day before the exam?”

Then he felt Ye Lingxiao’s gaze upon him—a gaze full of fighting spirit.

Ye Lingxiao: “This time, will you go all out?”

Zhang Yu thought: “The me now and the me two months ago are worlds apart.”

Their eyes clashed in the air, as if intense battle intent surged between them.

(Chapter End)