Chapter 214: The Most Profitable Direction in the Dark Tutoring World

Chapter 214: The Most Profitable Direction in the Dark Tutoring World

Zhang Yu stared at the newly purchased Resentment Demon Art on his phone, flipping through the contents of the technique repeatedly.

This top-tier expert-level technique, due to its requirement of resentment energy for cultivation, had seen its price plummet, allowing Zhang Yu to acquire it for 500,000.

After carefully reviewing it, he decided to follow the method described to refine his body through practice.

He touched the work badge hanging on his chest, which bore the words "Frontline Employee" in large characters, constantly absorbing the resentment energy surging through the air.

This badge-like object was the external spiritual root—the Resentment Spiritual Root—sent by Zhou Chechen.

Its shape was designed as a work badge, reportedly to store resentment energy more easily.

As Zhang Yu channeled his mana into the Resentment Spiritual Root, the world in his perception underwent a dramatic transformation.

Songyang High School, which had just seemed peaceful and serene, now appeared to him as a place where strands of black energy soared into the sky, filled with twisted, struggling faces, emitting howls like ghosts and wolves.

"Is this resentment energy?" Zhang Yu mused.

He knew that resentment energy was a residue of negative human emotions, commonly found in Kunxu’s cemeteries, schools, and companies.

However, because schools and companies had more living people, constantly generating resentment, their quantity far exceeded that of cemeteries.

But cemeteries had the advantage of purer resentment, aged over years, with quality far surpassing that of schools and companies. Thus, resentment from the dead had broader uses and fetched higher prices.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "According to Fuji, if your family has enough ancestors buried and they’ve been there long enough, just renting out the cemetery as a cultivation site each month could earn a lot."

"Ah, truly, having an elder at home is like having a treasure. But unfortunately, Zhang Yu’s original family couldn’t even afford a cemetery; the money they saved barely covered corpse disposal fees."

He controlled the Resentment Spiritual Root to take a deep breath, feeling strands of resentment energy flow into his mouth and nose.

Instantly, waves of intense anger, humiliation, regret, and despair... crashed into Zhang Yu’s mind, making him experience the powerful negative emotions of countless struggling students facing low rankings, declining grades, and insults.

Zhang Yu quickly activated the Residual Ox Body Mind Technique to resist the onslaught of these emotions and, following the methods of the Resentment Demon Art, began to refine the resentment energy.

According to the cultivation method of the Resentment Demon Art, one must absorb resentment energy, purify it of specific emotions, leaving behind pure baleful energy, and then mimic corpse-refining techniques to temper one’s own flesh and skin, ultimately forging a body impervious to blades—a Copper Corpse Skin.

After several minutes, Zhang Yu stumbled through his first cycle of cultivation, feeling a faint coolness on a palm-sized patch of skin on his chest.

He thought to himself, "If I follow the standard path, this technique would take at least a year or two to achieve any results."

"Fortunately, with my efforts, the Feather Book can help me master this technique quickly."

Zhang Yu looked up and saw that the Resentment Demon Art on the Feather Book had changed from Level 0 (0/1) to Level 1 (2/10).

The ultimate effect of the High School Saint Body allowed Zhang Yu to gain three times the effect from a single cultivation session for any Qi Refining stage technique.

This was precisely why he was confident in frantically cultivating techniques over the next three months, gradually making up for the deficiencies of his Martial Dao Sacred Fetus.

After more than ten minutes, as he completed cycle after cycle of the Resentment Demon Art, a thunderclap seemed to flash through Zhang Yu’s mind, and scenes of refining his chest skin with resentment energy flickered past.

At the same time, he felt something alive growing fiercely beneath the skin of his chest, wrapping tightly around it like a membrane.

"Level 1 of the Resentment Demon Art is complete."

Zhang Yu slowly recalled the cultivation memories in his mind, sensing the changes in his body, and thought, "Each level of the Resentment Demon Art tempers the flesh and skin of a different part of the body. At Level 10, I’ll have a full Copper Corpse Skin, like a close-fitting inner armor, greatly enhancing my physical defense."

After feeling this for a moment, Zhang Yu resumed his cultivation, determined to push the Resentment Demon Art to Level 10 as quickly as possible.

Time flew by as Zhang Yu cultivated, and soon it was time to leave school, as night fell.

Under the night sky, 999 silver needles shimmered with electric light, piercing into various points on Bai Zhenzhen’s body from top to bottom.

As Bai Zhenzhen activated her Thunderbolt True Body, the electric light danced back and forth on the needles, continuously stimulating her nerves and muscles.

Bai Zhenzhen could feel that, besides the increase in physical strength, her nerves—which had long stopped growing—were now, under the effect of the Mystic Thunder Electric Moxibustion Needle Set, sprouting anew like withered trees in spring, helping her control her body more deeply, finely, and swiftly.

If the original Thunderbolt True Body was merely a second-rate expert-level body refinement technique, then after the deduction of the True Spiritual Root, the enhancement of Thunder Mana, and the assistance of the Mystic Thunder Electric Moxibustion Needle Set, it now had the effect of a top-tier expert-level body refinement technique.

Suddenly, the electric light began to weaken.

A voice came from the needle box: "Low battery. Please charge in time."

Bai Zhenzhen temporarily withdrew the 999 silver needles and looked at Zhang Yu, saying, "Yu, ready to head to the Dark Study Gang?"

Zhang Yu, who had been cultivating the Resentment Demon Art nearby, slowly opened his eyes, a trace of baleful energy flashing through them.

After a full day of cultivation, he had pushed the Resentment Demon Art to Level 8 (15/90).

Now, Zhang Yu could feel that, except for his face, a thin membrane had formed under the skin all over his body. Normally, this membrane didn’t affect movement, but whenever he exerted force, it protected his body like a layer of iron armor.

Fuji, sensing the changes in Zhang Yu—especially the faint, dense patterns on the skin of his exposed arms—marveled inwardly, "This guy’s progress with the Resentment Demon Art is terrifying!"

"I feel like in just one day, he’s almost mastered this technique."

"Indeed, after his potential was stimulated again last time, Zhang Yu’s talent has become even more monstrous."

"Hehehe, good, good. Once he passes the high school foundation-building exam and ascends to the second level, the sky will be his limit, and the sea his expanse."

Zhang Yu slowly stood up, twisting his somewhat dry and stiff skin, and nodded. "Let’s go."

But before leaving, Bai Zhenzhen returned the Mystic Thunder Electric Moxibustion Needle Set to charge.

Outside the school gate, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen moved swiftly, each using their techniques to find a place to change their appearance and disguise their faces before speeding toward the Dark Study Gang’s base.

...

When Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen arrived outside the campus in their identities as tutoring teachers Ma Yunteng and Le Mulan, they were surprised to find the brightly lit campus bustling with security personnel from the Xianyun Group, assisted by constables, escorting Dark Study Gang members out one by one.

One of the gang teachers, disheveled and bruised, cried out, "This is my first time coming here to tutor! Really, it’s my first time!"

A constable beside him snorted coldly, "Does your family know you’re here doing illegal things?"

The teacher wailed, "It has nothing to do with my family. They trust me; they don’t know I’d do something like this."

"I was momentarily blinded by greed, wanting to make quick money. I thought one or two sessions wouldn’t matter."

"I truly know I was wrong. I let my parents down. They didn’t raise me to illegally tutor people."

"Please let me go. I really have no money to pay..."

Another veteran constable reminded, "These people in the dark tutoring world make up their names, identities, and motives. Not a word they say is true. Don’t believe a thing they say. You’ll learn this after seeing more cases."

In the distance, hiding in the shadows, Zhang Yu exclaimed, "The Dark Study Gang has been wiped out?"

Bai Zhenzhen sighed helplessly, "What do we do now? Find another gang and start over?"

Fuji reminded, "Don’t you have that middleman from the Dark Study Gang, the one called Black Crow? Contact him and see."

"The Dark Study Gang is no small outfit. Just because one campus was taken down doesn’t mean the gang is gone."

Zhang Yu remembered. He had added a friend in the Kun God World and could contact the middleman named Black Crow.

So Zhang Yu opened the Kun God World on his phone and soon got in touch with Black Crow.

After some exchange, Zhang Yu learned that the dark tutoring world in Songyang City was currently in turmoil.

In particular, the clashes between the Dark Study Gang and the Gold Course Gang were escalating, with incidents of stolen syllabi, burned textbooks, assassinations of star teachers, and reports of tutoring spots becoming commonplace.

And as Zhang Yu knew, behind these two gangs were the Deep Sea Education Group and the Xianyun Education Group.

Zhang Yu thought, "If the Dark Study Gang and the Gold Course Gang are fighting so fiercely, does it mean the conflict between the behemoths behind them—Deep Sea Group and Xianyun Group—has also escalated?"

For some reason, Zhang Yu felt that since the start of this year, all companies in Songyang City seemed to exude a sense of urgency, an ever-intensifying competition.

Suppressing his speculation about the situation in Songyang, Zhang Yu focused back on the Dark Study Gang.

Zhang Yu said, "According to Black Crow, with the gang clashes, quite a few gold-tier teachers in the Dark Study Sect have fallen. So they've been recruiting experts to give lectures or join gang battles."

Bai Zhenzhen replied, "Lectures, huh? What kind of classes make money now? Can the techniques I know earn big bucks?"

"Just tutoring high school students or construction workers doesn't seem fast enough."

Zhang Yu asked Black Crow, who sent over a dynamic poster.

On the poster, a group of white-haired elders were diligently studying and cultivating. One vigorous old man declared, "At ninety, with parents above and children below, this is the age to strive and fight."

"I want to take my 130-year-old parents out for pre-made meals, sign up my 60-year-old son for cram school, rent a sewer room by the subway for my 30-year-old grandson, and get my 5-year-old great-granddaughter into a top kindergarten. How can I stop learning? How can I let the workplace eliminate me?"

"In ancient times, a 100-year-old prime minister reclaimed lost lands, a 500-year-old demon refined into human form, and a 1,000-year-old crone married an immortal."

The old man on the poster clenched his fist and roared with fighting spirit, "Strive! It's never too late, no matter how old!"

Thanks to 'Gabriel' for giving Bai Zhenzhen eight pairs of external spirit root socks.

(End of chapter)