"And that Yang Essence Spiritual Root is also very popular among Heaven Spiritual Roots — after all, everyone at our school is still a virgin. The Yang Essence Spiritual Root can refine the primal yang essence in a virgin's body into mana, and its effect at boosting mana is formidable," Zhao Tianxing said proudly.
"This Heaven Spiritual Root is a tradition at our high school, passed down for nearly twenty years. After being worked over by generations of seniors, it's soaked with the primal yang essence of thousands of students, giving it a special subtlety all its own."
Zhang Yu's brow knit in disgust. Something about the Yang Essence Spiritual Root felt unclean, and besides…
"Didn't everyone get sterilized? How can you still use this virgin Spiritual Root?"
"It's the Yang Essence Spiritual Root," Zhao Tianxing explained. "The sterilization surgery merely removed some organs temporarily. The primal yang essence within our bodies continues to well up endlessly from the kidneys; it just no longer stimulates our emotions and spirits."
"Otherwise, how could those who undergo repair surgery upon growing up and regain their equipment manage it?"
Zhang Yu kept walking, asking more questions. "Among the school's Heaven Spiritual Roots, is there one that helps significantly with raising mana?"
Zhao Tianxing's mind stirred — recalling Zhang Yu's recent behavior, he figured the boy had been unusually attentive to boosting his mana lately.
*Is it for the Dharma Competition?*
Thinking it over, Zhao Tianxing said, "There are many Spiritual Roots that can assist mana growth. The most effective one at our school should be the Sea of Qi Spiritual Root, though it's on the pricier side — but since yours is a free reward, the price doesn't matter…"
The Sea of Qi Spiritual Root — nicknamed the Wall-Piercer. Its biggest advantage was its enormous coverage range. It could pass through all manner of walls, buildings, and even the obstruction of the earth itself, performing large-scale Spiritual Machine gathering to boost the efficiency of mana refinement.
After hearing Zhao Tianxing's introduction, Zhang Yu had already decided to try this Heaven Spiritual Root.
Arriving at the Spiritual Root rental office beside the meditation rooms, Zhang Yu didn't rush to state his goal. Instead, he picked up the introductory manual from the desk and started reading.
The administrator on duty was a doll-faced female teacher.
Seeing Zhang Yu's actions, she seized the chance to ask, "Classmate, are you a member here? Have a preferred Spiritual Root?"
Without looking up, Zhang Yu replied, "No, and no."
The administrator quickly recommended, "We currently have a promotion where new members who top up 10,000 get 1,000 extra. Do you want to give it a try, classmate?"
Zhang Yu: "I'm here for the 0% dropout-rate reward to rent a Heaven Spiritual Root. I'll take only the reward — I'm not interested in anything else, and you don't need to try selling to me."
With a helpless smile, the administrator stepped back. "Well then, if there's anything you need, just let me know."
Listening to him talk, she silently slapped a "cheapskate" label on Zhang Yu and lost all interest in selling to him.
Zhang Yu, however, didn't care what she thought. He lowered his head and scanned the manual quickly, finding that what it said matched Zhao Tianxing's account.
So he told the administrator, "I'd like to rent the Sea of Qi Spiritual Root."
She replied, "Scan your student card."
Zhang Yu took out his student card and handed it to her.
This Songyang High School student card represented his identity as a high school student — an important credential that allowed him to legally cultivate and enjoy the various services related to his path of cultivation.
Before long, the administrator in the office brought a jade box over to him.
"The Sea of Qi Spiritual Root is inside. In a moment, go into Meditation Room 2 over there, open the jade box, and swallow the Spiritual Root."
"Your rental is for one hour, and the time starts counting from the moment you enter the meditation room. If you go over by one minute, it's billed as one hour — keep an eye on the time yourself…"
After reiterating the relevant details, the administrator in charge of rentals told him to head in.
Zhao Tianxing, standing nearby, said, "Well, Zhang Yu, get to it. I'll be on my way too."
Zhang Yu nodded to him. "Thanks."
Watching the boy turn and leave, Zhao Tianxing kept replaying Zhang Yu's expression and tone in his mind. *Our relationship must have grown a bit closer this time, right?*
Meanwhile, inside Meditation Room 2.
It was a room of about twenty square meters. In the center sat a meditation cushion, while the surrounding walls were lined with soundproofing material, covered in large and small twisted talismans.
Supposedly, these talismans could accelerate the gathering of Spiritual Machine, which somewhat improved respiration efficiency.
But from the moment he stepped through the door, Zhang Yu had only one hour of respiration time. He had no time to care about the room's decoration — he sat straight down on the cushion and opened the jade box.
Inside the palm-sized jade box lay a section of crystalline object, translucent and exquisite, faintly emanating hints of green light.
The crystal floated in the center of the box, ringed by wisps of smoke-like particles of light.
This was the Spiritual Root he'd rented this time — a Heaven Spiritual Root known as the Sea of Qi Spiritual Root.
Zhang Yu carefully picked up the Sea of Qi Spiritual Root and had just brought it to his lips when he felt a coolness in his throat — the Heaven Spiritual Root, like a lump of ice water, burrowed into his body, sank in one breath down to his lower abdomen, and dove into his lower dantian.
And the instant the Sea of Qi Spiritual Root entered his dantian, it was as if it had taken root and sprouted, extending segments of crystal-like root threads that pierced into the surrounding mana.
Zhang Yu understood — per the user manual and the administrator's instructions, the Heaven Spiritual Root had now been successfully planted in his dantian.
All he had to do next was breathe in the Spiritual Machine as usual, and the root would naturally take effect.
With that thought, Zhang Yu drew a deep breath and began circulating the Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method.
Boom!
There seemed to be a colossal rumble erupting in his mind.
Zhang Yu felt the Spiritual Machine around him surge in a swarm, pouring violently toward the Heaven Spiritual Root within his body.
"Twice?"
"Three times?"
"Too fast… it's still rising!"
Feeling more and more Spiritual Machine flooding into his body, Zhang Yu hastily steadied himself and drove the Level 6 Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method at full power.
As the mana circulation throughout his body accelerated, thread after thread of Spiritual Machine was refined into mana.
The dantian, which had felt swollen from the surging Spiritual Machine, returned to normal.
But as if sensing how quickly Zhang Yu refined mana, the Sea of Qi Spiritual Root within his dantian contracted and expanded, once again raising the speed at which it gathered Spiritual Machine.
This time, it wasn't just the Spiritual Machine around Zhang Yu that came surging in — even the Spiritual Machine outside the room was drawn over.
The corridor… the window… the sky… even the ground beneath…
Following Zhang Yu's rate of mana refinement, the Sea of Qi Spiritual Root widened its gathering range step by step, ultimately settling at a radius of fifty meters.
Feeling the vast Spiritual Machine flowing into his body like a great river, channeled into his mana circulation throughout his body, and finally refined thread by thread into his own mana — at this moment, Zhang Yu felt a kind of ecstasy at the explosive growth of his mana.
"So this is the true efficiency of the Level 6 Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method?"
At last, Zhang Yu understood that in his daily respiration and mana refinement, he'd never actually unlocked the true power of the Level 6 Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method.
Only with the Sea of Qi Spiritual Root's aid had he truly pushed the method's mana-refinement efficiency to its limit.
Unwilling to waste a single second, Zhang Yu devoted himself wholeheartedly to breathing in the Spiritual Machine and refining mana.
Meanwhile, back in the Spiritual Root rental office, the administrator who'd just served Zhang Yu looked at the computer screen before her, surprised. "Huh? The Spiritual Machine concentration is dropping?"
The meditation rooms the school rented out naturally did more than just provide quiet. The spirit-gathering talismans arrayed within could control the Spiritual Machine concentration in the room, boosting respiration efficiency.
The administrator studied the monitoring parameters closely and found that Meditation Room 2 was clearly experiencing a Spiritual Machine-convergence phenomenon, drawing in large amounts of the surrounding Spiritual Machine — which was causing the concentration in the neighboring rooms to drop.
"Meditation Room 2… that's the first-year student who just came in, isn't it?"
"A convergence of this magnitude, and he's only a first-year?"
The administrator grew increasingly surprised. In her memory, it took at least a second-year student to push the Sea of Qi Spiritual Root to such an effect.
"Zhang Yu?"
Recalling the name and class the student had just registered, the administrator silently took note — and overturned the "cheapskate" label she'd slapped on him moments ago.
"A first-year this impressive — he must have sunk a lot of money into the path of cultivation."
While she activated more spirit-gathering talismans to adjust the Spiritual Machine concentration back, she thought to herself, *I'll add him as a contact later. If he signs on for a Platinum membership with me, I won't have to worry about my performance quota for the next few months.*
She decided to tell no one, to develop this promising client all on her own.
In the blink of an eye, an hour passed.
Immersed in the ecstasy of Spiritual Machine surging toward him, Zhang Yu's mana rose from 9.4 to 9.5 without him noticing — clearly, this one hour was worth half a day of hard cultivation.
Just then, a female voice came through the intercom in the room.
"Student Zhang Yu, your hour is almost up. Would you like to add more time?"
For some reason, Zhang Yu felt the administrator's voice had grown much gentler.
And savoring the satisfaction of the Spiritual Machine surging and the Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method running at full power, Zhang Yu couldn't help asking, "How much to add time?"
The administrator hastily replied, "The Sea of Qi Spiritual Root rents for 5,000 yuan per hour. But we have a promotion going on today — if a new user tops up 100,000 in one go, not only do you get 10,000 free, but there's also an 8.8% discount on the rental fee."
Zhang Yu sighed helplessly to himself and slowly stopped his respiration. "I have things to do today, so I'll pass on adding time."
When he returned the Spiritual Root, Zhang Yu felt the administrator had grown noticeably more courteous — and conveniently, he had a question to ask.
So Zhang Yu took one lingering look at the Sea of Qi Spiritual Root being put back into the jade box and asked, "If sold, how much would this Spiritual Root cost?"
The administrator's gaze flickered, and she smiled. "The Sea of Qi Spiritual Root costs sixty million."
Zhang Yu sucked in a cold breath inwardly, keeping his face unchanged as he remarked, "That expensive?"
The administrator chuckled. "Yes, and honestly, we'd recommend against buying. Renting is far more cost-effective — after all, pairing a Heaven Spiritual Root with the early Qi Refining stage is far too extravagant. Most cultivators only consider buying a Spiritual Root after passing their university entrance exams."
Zhang Yu nodded slightly. He knew that the final barrier between the Qi Refining stage and the Foundation Building stage was planting a Spiritual Root of one's own — and that was indeed something only university students needed to think about.
Whether the root planted was a Heaven Spiritual Root, an Earth Spiritual Root, or a Human Spiritual Root depended entirely on the cultivator's own finances.
As for the higher Divine Spiritual Root and Immortal Spiritual Root, those could only be transplanted after joining a special department or entering a major sect.
"A good Heaven Spiritual Root really… is damn expensive."
Staring deeply at the Spiritual Root being put away, Zhang Yu resolved that one day, he'd buy a Spiritual Root of his own.
Before he left, the administrator proactively added him as a contact. It was only then that Zhang Yu learned her name — Wei Xin.
And Wei Xin silently changed her note for Zhang Yu to: Zhang Yu (Platinum Membership Seed).