No Money to Cultivate Immortality?

No Money to Cultivate Immortality?

Yu Xinghan kept glancing between Ying Xin as she refined materials, and Gongshu Jin as he worked at the construction site. Occasionally, he'd peer at the actions of the other students nearby.

With the aid of the Three-Eyed Divine Sight, his 360-degree vision allowed him to clearly monitor every student’s movements and condition.

“My construction skills… aren’t exactly top-tier.”

“After all, I’ve spent more time giving massages to workers after they come off the site than working on-site myself.”

Yu Xinghan memorized the other students' techniques, mimicked their movements, and repeated their patterns.

At this moment, Yu Xinghan resembled a master tailor, patching together every classmate’s construction method and stitching them seamlessly into his own project.

But then, he suddenly froze.

“This brat Zhang Yu…”

To his shock, Zhang Yu was sitting cross-legged on the ground, shoveling rebar and cement into his mouth by the handful.

“What’s this guy doing? Mooching snacks in the exam?”

“Is this really the time for that kind of stunt?”

Over at his own construction site, Zhang Yu was calmly monitoring the building materials going down his gullet, thinking to himself, “Ying Xin was right.”

“If we want high-quality materials, we’ll have to upgrade them ourselves.”

Zhang Yu’s entire body surged with mana. His muscles expanded and contracted, radiating an overwhelming elasticity.

Mountain-Moving Sutra – Initiate!

As mana flooded his system, Zhang Yu’s muscles and internal organs swelled like an inflatable raft, instantly ballooning into the form of a towering giant.

Then, he opened his mouth wide and swallowed another huge pile of building materials.

But Zhang Yu had no intention of digesting the materials. He was using his stomach—reforged from Spiritsteel Alloy—to reprocess them, pushing the materials to a whole new level of strength.

As he felt the materials transform within him, Zhang Yu’s gaze remained intense.

“This alone won’t be enough…”

“In this testing ground, others might outmatch me in Law Husk control, wealth, experience, or even in Dao Techniques. If I want to win…”

“Then I’ll need to play to my own strengths. I’ll need to go all in on the purest, most civil-engineering power I have—and make this fortress indestructible!”

With a low shout, Zhang Yu’s qi burst forth, and a group of Formless Golems materialized behind him. They caught the processed building materials he spat out and got to work laying the foundation.

Ji Yuanshu had been keeping a close eye on Zhang Yu, as he was the student closest to his own level in this exam.

Yet seeing Zhang Yu manifest human-shaped constructs out of pure qi, Ji Yuanshu couldn’t help but scoff.

“What a waste of mana.”

As rebar and cement structures rapidly rose into the air, the Formless Golems moved efficiently between them. Zhang Yu’s tiny construction crew soon became obscured behind concrete walls.

Time passed quickly, measured in clangs and thuds echoing across the site.

Every student was going all-out, pouring everything they had learned in their freshman year into this one project.

As bunkers began rising from the ground and students executed their final adjustments, Tu Lishan grew more curious and excited to see the results.

As the three-hour construction period drew to a close, fewer and fewer students were still working.

Most had completed their tasks.

Tu Lishan looked toward the commotion coming from Zhang Yu’s site and muttered, “Did he burn too much mana earlier? Maybe his output dropped and he fell behind?”

When the time limit was officially reached, Zhang Yu’s construction came to a halt as well.

He emerged from the bunker with a hint of regret on his face.

Those watching began to speculate—had he failed to fully complete the bunker’s interior?

At that moment, Tu Lishan’s EyeNet vision flickered, and a figure in an ancient-style robe appeared before him.

It was Director Gao’s Divine Projection.

Director Gao said coldly, “How’s it going?”

Tu Lishan bowed. “Construction just wrapped up. We’re about to start the inspection.”

One by one, assistants and other Civil Engineering Department proctors entered each bunker, carefully checking each site and recording results.

Director Gao gave a casual nod. “I’m here to check the freshmen’s results.”

Tu Lishan could sense the director was in a bad mood, likely due to end-of-term results.

Indeed, Director Gao was dissatisfied with the Civil Engineering Department's overall performance.

Currently, the War Faction had lost the top spot in five grades to the Peace Faction. If Ji Yuanshu took first in the freshman class too, that would make six.

“How likely is it that Zhang Yu or Gongshu Jin wins?” Director Gao asked.

Tu Lishan hesitated. “Hard to say.”

Director Gao frowned. “Then I’ll see for myself.”

Meanwhile, the students had gathered around the sites, nervously awaiting the inspection results—and the ten waves of simulated assault that would follow.

Soon, the inspections concluded. Ying Xin glanced at her 100% completion score and exhaled softly. “Now let’s see how many waves it can survive.”

Around the sites, Divine Projections lit up like barrier fields, flickering with runes and forbidding entry.

With Tu Lishan’s signal, the final phase began—the first wave of assaults had arrived.

Massive pipes emerged from underground.

A moment later, torrents of water crashed forward like enraged dragons, slamming against the bunkers like siege weapons hammering at city walls. The sheer force left students white-knuckled with anxiety.

Ten minutes later, the floodwaters receded.

Tu Lishan nodded slightly and initiated the second wave.

With a thunderous rumble, the simulated site’s terrain began to tremble, bucking like a ship in a storm. It was as if a magnitude 7 or 8 earthquake had erupted beneath them.

When it ended, not a single bunker had collapsed.

In the third wave, explosions shook the air. Shockwaves visibly rippled through the bunkers.

This time, walls began to cave in.

By the end of the fourth wave, only four bunkers remained intact.

But one already had cracked outer walls and visible bloodstains.

Tu Lishan raised an eyebrow. “Ying Xin survived this far?”

Noticing the blood in the walls, he asked, “Was that a blood sacrifice?”

Director Gao’s EyeNet brought up her file. He nodded. “She used her own blood—and the family bone ash she carries—to complete a blood sacrifice during material reforging.”

A faint smile appeared on his face, as if seeing the long line of ancestors in Ying Xin’s bloodline.

“A six-generation civil engineer, and already mastering blood sacrifice techniques in her first year.”

In the fifth wave, enormous fireballs engulfed the bunkers.

Ying Xin’s bunker was mostly destroyed. Gongshu Jin’s structure cracked open, revealing a spinal section embedded in the wall.

That spine was laced with blood vessels and nerves that spread into the wall, pulsing with energy as if it were the heart of the building.

Tu Lishan muttered, “He implanted his Vajra-Forged Spinal Ocular Husk into the array node?”

Director Gao nodded in approval. “Oh? That’s a foundation stake technique. That’s second-year construction work. Impressive that he’s already mastered it and can implant his Law Husk.”

In the sixth wave, lightning struck.

Thunder and explosions reduced the battlefield to ash and rubble.

Watching his spine vanish into the blast, Gongshu Jin’s heart ached as he screamed internally, “My Vajra Forge!”

And to think he only placed third, even after using his own spine as a foundation stake.

Furious, he turned to glare at the two remaining bunkers, desperate to figure out what techniques allowed them to hold out.

Tu Lishan’s EyeNet brought up Ji Yuanshu’s inspection records.

Even having seen it once, Tu Lishan felt a new wave of shock.

In the record, Ji Yuanshu’s corpse sat cross-legged in the bunker’s basement.

“He buried himself within to anchor the flow of fate—gathering spiritual essence and pushing the array’s power to its absolute limit.”

“No… that wasn’t all.”

“He began preparing this from the start—when he was drawing spirit veins, he was already constructing a burial mound.”

Each time a bunker collapsed, Ji Yuanshu’s absorbed more spiritual essence.

“That’s the essence of the Finance Department’s Way of Fortune: with every bit of capital, you leverage even more, snowballing resources until you shift the entire market…”

By now, Ji Yuanshu’s bunker had claimed over 90% of the simulation’s spiritual essence.

Tu Lishan glanced toward Ji Yuanshu’s figure outside the field.

The real Ji Yuanshu’s spirit was safe within the spiritual realm. The one present was merely a Divine Projection—yet most students hadn’t even noticed.

Meanwhile, Tu Lishan could already sense emergency medics waiting outside.

…

One young medic asked, “Captain, how long do we wait?”

The lead doctor replied calmly, “Once the exam ends, we go in and save whoever’s left.”

The young one blinked. “But these are the rich kids, right? How do they die in an exam?”

The captain shrugged. “Rich people die all the time. It’s not like the poor—who can’t even afford to die. Rule of thumb: don’t ask how they died. Just patch up the meat and send the invoice.”

…

Director Gao stared coldly at Ji Yuanshu’s bunker, sensing its nigh-indestructible structure under the weight of gathered fortune.

Then a voice called out smugly, “Old Gao, how do you like my student’s grasp of the Way of Fortune?”

A Divine Projection appeared—Ji Yuanshu’s mentor, and the Peace Faction’s leader in the Civil Engineering Department, Director Lin.

Director Gao narrowed his eyes. “This isn’t the true path of civil engineering.”

Director Lin sighed. “And what is the ‘true path’? You can have perfect craftsmanship, flawless materials, elegant design… but how does that stand against fate? Can it defy the will of heaven?”

“Think back—throughout history, what fortress truly fell to brute force? They all collapsed from within.”

“You can build all you want, but if you don’t partner with finance, if you ignore fate, you’ll just be someone else’s stepping stone.”

Director Gao sneered. “The Finance Department turns the world into one big casino. If everyone’s gambling, who’s actually building Kunxu? We need builders. That’s the tide we must follow.”

Director Lin snorted. “You? A builder of Kunxu? Don’t make me laugh. Whoever holds the money holds the tide.”

“I have more outstanding disciples, more projects, more bank loans. If the tide isn’t with me, who else?”

“Just look at the battlefield. All the spiritual essence has flowed to Ji Yuanshu. He is the chosen of fortune, the tide itself.”

“How long can your so-called true path of civil engineering really last?”