Chapter 2: Turtle Shell
“The school’s benefits are really good. A first-tier superior-grade spiritual energy cultivation room, and I can use it for free for two hours every day.”
Chen Mobai thought about how, during the holiday, his mother gritted her teeth and used good deeds to raise the home’s spiritual energy vein to the first-tier superior grade just so he could break through. Even so, the spiritual energy value was only 7, occasionally fluctuating to 8 or 9.
Meanwhile, this Fifth High School of Immortal Gate was built upon a third-tier inferior-grade spiritual vein and had a total of three hundred cultivation rooms.
After all, these students were the future of the Immortal Gate, and they could not be neglected.
There were three hundred cultivation rooms, one hundred each for the first, second, and third grades, corresponding to first-tier inferior, middle, and superior-grade spiritual energy, respectively.
Third-year students, who worked the hardest, had access to the highest concentration of first-tier spiritual energy in their cultivation rooms.
The cultivation room was extremely simple: a square room with only a mat in the middle on a bluestone floor.
Chen Mobai did not waste time, put his phone in place, and activated the auxiliary cultivation recording mode before sitting cross-legged on the mat to start purifying spiritual energy.
Since he had just broken through to the fifth layer of Qi Refinement and had relied on the power of a pill, his state was unstable. For these two hours, he did not cultivate the Five Elements internal technique but instead operated the most basic Qi Nourishing Technique.
Streams of warm currents flowed through his meridians. The pale white spiritual energy in the nearly cloud-like cultivation room entered Chen Mobai’s nose and mouth like a long dragon, blended with his increasing spiritual power, and slowly harmonized, turning into his true strength.
He immediately became immersed in this feeling, unable to extricate himself.
Time slowly passed.
A “ding” sound!
The soul-calming spell in the cultivation room woke Chen Mobai from his cultivation. No matter how reluctant he was, thinking of the classmates queuing outside, he could only pick up his phone and slowly walk out of the room.
As soon as he came out, a female classmate from the queue behind immediately rushed in, swiped her card, and closed the door in one smooth motion.
Not only him, but the other ninety-nine third-year students also reluctantly left the cultivation rooms.
Among them was Chen Mobai’s deskmate, Lu Hongsheng.
“Hey, you got lucky and snagged a spot in the first batch.”
After greeting him, he noticed a gloomy look in Lu Hongsheng’s eyes, an expression of unhappiness.
“Do you know what I just saw?”
“What?”
Chen Mobai knew that Lu Hongsheng couldn’t keep things to himself, so he waited for a moment, and sure enough, he spoke up voluntarily.
“I saw Song Zheng enter a second-tier spiritual vein cultivation room.”
“A second-tier spiritual vein? Aren’t those exclusive to the teachers? Who gave their cultivation room to Song Zheng?”
Naturally, in the school, there were not only student cultivation rooms but also high-end cultivation rooms exclusive to teachers.
Besides the third-tier cultivation room exclusive to the principal, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, the other ten second-tier cultivation rooms required even teachers to queue for their turn.
Song Zheng entering a second-tier cultivation room meant that a teacher had given their cultivation resource to him.
“Who else could it be? It’s definitely Old Man Ding. He failed his Foundation Establishment twice and doesn’t have much time left. He’s focused on teaching and saw Song Zheng’s potential to enter the Four Great Dao Academies, so he gave up his second-tier cultivation room slot to him.”
Lu Hongsheng spoke with a tone filled with envy and jealousy.
He wished he were Song Zheng.
“That’s too unfair. The school doesn’t do anything about it?”
While they spoke, a few other classmates overheard, and one male classmate spoke up indignantly.
Although society wasn’t fair, the school maintained an air of fairness and justice openly.
Teachers giving their cultivation resources to students, despite being their own quota, still belonged to the school ultimately. To students, it was already unfair, and reporting it to the Academic Affairs Office could at least cause a stir.
“You don’t understand. I heard that Song Zheng officially became Teacher Ding’s apprentice during the holiday and was registered in the Transmission Hall of the Immortal Gate Education Department, making them teacher and apprentice. Even the Academic Affairs Office wouldn’t interfere with a master giving resources to their apprentice.”
A female classmate explained to the male classmate who wanted to report it.
Song Zheng, being good-looking and a young genius, was quite popular among the girls.
Chen Mobai also felt very envious inside.
If he could cultivate on a second-tier spiritual vein for a semester, he was confident he could reach the sixth layer of Qi Refinement. Students at this level couldn’t get into the Four Great Dao Academies, but the second-tier Dao Academies were still possible, and he could even choose freely among the third-tier Dao Academies.
He was also a true spirit root; why didn’t any teacher take notice of him?
It could only be said that even among true spirit roots, there were high and low distinctions.
“You guys talk, I’m heading home. See you tomorrow.”
Chen Mobai still had a drive to improve, although he also felt the unfairness. He didn’t want to get involved in those disputes.
After using up his free time in the school’s cultivation room, he hurried home. After all, his mother had spent a lot of money renting a first-tier superior-grade spiritual vein for half a year for his high school exams performance.
He couldn’t waste it.
Upon returning home, the house was empty.
His parents were working hard to support the family, especially after leasing the spiritual vein for half a year, resulting in more overtime and only returning home very late every day.
Chen Mobai first cooked a pot of spiritual rice and then went to his mother’s studio to cut large yellow paper into standard-sized talisman paper, 12 cm long and 6 cm wide.
By the time the spiritual rice was cooked, Chen Mobai had already cut more than a hundred sheets of blank talisman paper.
He counted twelve sheets into a bundle, stacked them neatly, and tied them with special spiritual rope. He arranged six bundles into two stacks and placed them in packaging boxes.
This kind of large talisman paper cost 1 good deed to make, and cutting and packaging could sell for 2 good deeds, giving him about 1 good deed of profit for each box.
To help with household expenses, Chen Mobai did some work within his ability.
He neatly arranged the two boxed talisman papers on the table, along with the previous eight boxes he had cut, making a total of ten, filling an entire large table.
He took his phone, changed angles, and took a dozen photos, then selected a few good-looking ones and posted them on the official online market set up by the Immortal Gate.
Usually, within a week, people would gradually bid on it, and by then, Chen Mobai would sell to the highest bidder.
Since he couldn’t afford the transportation cost, his items were restricted to face-to-face transactions within Danxia City.
Transportation in the city was convenient, and his student card allowed free public transportation.
After eating the full, jade-like spiritual rice, Chen Mobai used a Cleansing Technique to clean up the pots and pans, then went into his bedroom.
Although there was a special cultivation room at home near the underground spiritual energy pipeline, Chen Mobai still preferred cultivating in his room.
After all, as long as the door to the cultivation room was open, the first-tier superior-grade spiritual energy would diffuse throughout the house. Even with the windows open, the overall spiritual energy restriction of the house would lock the spiritual energy within, preventing waste.
Of course, because of this, the concentration of spiritual energy in the house wasn’t as high as in the school’s cultivation room.
But Chen Mobai was already very satisfied.
He suppressed the urge to browse his phone and watch live streams, ignoring the dancing and singing little fairies, calmed his mind, and sat cross-legged on his bed to cultivate. Suddenly, he noticed the turtle shell on his bedside table.
“Mom really! Why does she still keep this unlucky thing around?”