You dare to cultivate without money?!
Chapter 342 - 291 Underground Mana Trading

Chapter 342: Chapter 291 Underground Mana Trading

"Transfer the money?" Zhang Yu asked curiously, "Is this a thing?"

Yu Xinghan sneered, "That old guy, the price he quotes varies from person to person."

Thinking of this, he contacted Li Xuelian through his skeletal communication method.

Yu Xinghan: Senior Sister, there’s something I need to tell you...

Li Xuelian: I know, what do you plan to do?

Yu Xinghan: After all, he’s my lecturer. Offering him a small tribute of spirit coins is fine, but his asking price is too high. I can only give him an introduction fee of 0.1 spirit coins at most.

Yu Xinghan: Doesn’t Master have a disciple working security at a construction site? Can you ask him about the channels?

Li Xuelian: Ever since Dad had his incident, those disciples have been avoiding him like the plague, probably can’t help you.

Yu Xinghan: I’m just asking around. My Mr. Tu seems to think that as a newcomer, I don’t have channels to understand the market. As long as I have more price channels, it shouldn’t be hard to press down his price.

After finishing the conversation with Yu Xinghan, Li Xuelian asked: Now that the three months of basic courses are over, what are your and Zhang Yu’s rankings?

Upon hearing their grades, Li Xuelian revealed a slight smile of satisfaction, responding: Not bad grades, I’ve found a friend who can help you improve your mana quality.

Yu Xinghan was intrigued and said: Not through the platform?

Li Xuelian: Underground transaction.

Upon hearing the news from Li Xuelian, Yu Xinghan informed Zhang Yu, who was beside him.

Zhang Yu knew, transactions conducted through the mana platform are all official and compliant, with every strand of mana inspected and guaranteed by the platform, but they also require a significant handling fee.

However, if you directly engage someone for a private transaction, you can save on fees but lack assurance, and could even encounter mana fraud, such as low-quality mana masquerading as high-quality, or the quality is not as high as claimed.

Besides, underground mana transactions also violate school regulations. If a student gets caught, it results in fines and the deduction of comprehensive scores, causing a ranking drop.

Zhang Yu once considered finding someone to trade with, but due to a lack of connections on the second floor, there was no trusted transaction partner, so he gave up in the end.

Now hearing it was Li Xuelian’s introduction, he immediately nodded and said, "Worth a try."

Zhang Yu thought: "Not only Le Mulan’s Dao Seed requires me to aid her with higher-quality mana."

"The improvement in mana quality itself can also enhance the effectiveness of many cultivation techniques and increase cultivation efficiency."

Thus, the two of them followed Li Xuelian’s guidance and arrived at the deserted streets on the 85th floor of Wanfa University City.

Yu Xinghan said: "Is this the mortal zone? Why is there not a single mortal?"

Zhang Yu looked at the empty street in front of him, shook his head, though he often came to practice cultivation techniques below the 100th floor, but until now... he had never seen a mortal on these streets.

The mortals here seemed to always stay inside their houses, never needing to come out or go in.

The entire street below the 100th floor always remained cold and desolate, with no sign of people.

Zhang Yu thought: "Yet, with no one on the streets, coupled with a lack of surveillance, this area below the 100th floor is quite suitable for underground transactions."

"But actually, with Wanfa University’s ability, monitoring areas below 100 floors thoroughly shouldn’t be difficult, why..."

Moments later, Li Xuelian appeared before them and said, "It’s me."

"Since today is the first transaction, let me guide you once."

Li Xuelian took the two to the agreed location, where a shadowy figure appeared before them.

The opposite’s entire body was shrouded in a black mist, completely concealing their appearance.

Of course, Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan were the same. Under Master Xinghuo’s guidance, they had diligently practiced the technique of controlling muscles to change their appearance. At this moment, one turned into the appearance of Gongshu Jin, while the other became Ji Yuanshu.

Li Xuelian transformed even further into the appearance of a completely unfamiliar man, with no trace of her original self.

Watching Li Xuelian exchange signals with the other party, Zhang Yu used the power of the detection ritual to sense and confirm there were no cameras.

After exchanging codes, the other party slightly nodded and said: "My rule here is money first, techniques later."

Yu Xinghan asked: "How many spirit coins for 100 mana?"

The other party chuckled dismissively and said, "At the very least, it’s sold starting from 10,000."

Yu Xinghan furrowed his brows and said, "We can’t take that much at once, and do you have 10,000 mana?"

The other party seemed accustomed to this and said calmly: "Of course, it’s traded in batches. Giving you 100 or 200 at a time is fine..."

After a final round of negotiations, the other party’s offer was 1 spirit coin for 10,000 mana.

Zhang Yu thought in his heart, sure enough, it’s much cheaper than the platform price.

Li Xuelian added: "I want to test the goods."

The other party didn’t seem surprised and sent a surge of mana into Li Xuelian’s palm.

Li Xuelian’s eyes lit up: "Such pure mana."

"175% mana quality," the other party said with a smile, "I always offer the best goods. You’ll understand once you use it."

Li Xuelian nodded to Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan, signaling that there was no problem, then messaged: Transfer the money to me, and I’ll handle the transaction with him to lower your exposure risk.

Although they were somewhat worried about being tricked after giving spirit coins all at once, Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan trusted Li Xuelian’s repeated assurances and handed over the money.

Each of them transferred 0.5 spirit coins, totaling 1 spirit coin to Li Xuelian, who then, under the other’s guidance, bought a few books from the second-hand market with 1 spirit coin.

Next, under Li Xuelian’s supervision, the other party extended both hands, respectively touching Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan.

The next moment, Zhang Yu felt an incomparably dense yet non-invasive high-quality mana surging into his body, remaining perfectly still under the other’s control.

Zhang Yu quickly circulated his own mana to impact this high-quality mana.

With each impact, he felt his mana becoming more resilient, while some high-quality mana mixed with his own mana, though it soon diluted and dissipated. The remnants still made Zhang Yu feel his mana had become more solid.

In the blink of an eye, the cluster of mana infused by the other party had completely dissipated.

Feeling the changes in his own mana, Zhang Yu thought to himself: "If I could have such an expert infuse this high-quality mana for me constantly, my mana quality would improve rapidly."

He wished he could enjoy such a service at all times, but he knew how often he could enjoy it depended not on his needs but on his account balance.

Checking his account balance, he noted that in the three months since entering the university, apart from a 2.5 scholarship and the 5 spirit coins transferred by Bai Zhenzhen, he had absolutely no income.

Despite living frugally every day, factoring in monthly rent, internet, communication, transport, and food expenses, as well as the cost of purchasing cultivation techniques and the 0.09 spirit coins used to purchase the high-quality mana this time, Zhang Yu currently had only 11.4 spirit coins left.

"I must ensure I have at least 7 or 8 spirit coins to purchase the Earthwood Sacred Body and Qi Vein Flow cultivation techniques," he thought.

"Plus, the usual expenses..."

Zhang Yu sighed inwardly and ultimately discussed with Yu Xinghan, deciding that each would pay 0.5 spirit coins, purchasing 10,000 mana from the other party at a monthly rate of 1 spirit coin, with the other party infusing them once daily.

Zhang Yu thought to himself that his grades were decent for now, so he could accept a slower pace for mana quality improvement.

The other party, however, said: "Together, each day you two only get infused with around 333 units of mana? Your mana quality will only improve by 2 or 3 percent in a month."

"And the higher your mana quality gets, the less effective it will be, requiring more frequent infusions."

"Given your aptitude, you could be infused more times each day. I think 5 spirit coins a month could significantly accelerate your mana quality improvement."

After refusing the other’s sales pitch and receiving the remaining mana infusion for the day, Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan returned to their dorms, planning to practice and slowly absorb it.

But before entering the dormitory, Yu Xinghan said: "You go back first; I have something to do."

Zhang Yu looked at him curiously and asked: "Aren’t you going back to absorb it quickly? Where are you going?"

Yu Xinghan impatiently replied: "It’s none of your business."

He shot off like an arrow, his mind constantly recalling Li Xuelian’s image from today. Feeling his robust body heat up due to accelerated blood, his mind became restless.

Yu Xinghan thought to himself: "How does Senior Sister seem more and more..."

"I can’t take it anymore, I need to release, or I won’t be able to meditate peacefully."

Thinking of this, Yu Xinghan couldn’t help feeling a sliver of shame.

"This is like unpaid overtime," he thought.

Sometimes he even wanted to kneel and beg himself to stop working for free, but found he could still continue even on his knees.

Shortly after Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan left.

The person in the black mist looked at Li Xuelian and said: "Leader, shouldn’t you give your friends a discount?"

Li Xuelian calmly replied: "Can you give them a discount once and for all? How could you give them a discount for life?"

"Let’s go, it’s time for work."

With a flash, the two of them dashed toward the lower levels of the university city.

...

The scene shifts to the next day.

It’s the first official day of school in September.

Zhang Yu glanced at his schedule and found that the foundational courses - Dao Heart, Mana, and Body Refinement - were essentially the same as always, except the number of courses had decreased.

In contrast, the number of specialized courses had increased significantly, adding many courses related to construction and inspection, aiming to teach them how to effectively apply the various construction skills they had learned over the past three months.

In today’s construction class, Zhang Yu used a basic cultivation technique, Condensed Gang Qi, to perform a technique of using Qi to control mud, pouring a large amount of concrete into a target area several meters away.