23: Distribution

On the peak of Jade Void Peak.

Li Heng sat high on a protruding cliff boulder, overlooking the bustling construction site below.

No, describing it as a “construction site” was no longer accurate.

The main structure of the entire Academy had already been rushed to completion.

Now, the top-tier construction team from Dragon Country, sent by Zhang Tianwang, was carrying out the interior finishing and facility installation.

Every engineer and every worker had a look of almost pilgrimage-like reverence on their faces.

They had personally witnessed a “miracle.”

The equipment that appeared on the mountaintop overnight, and the flattened foundation, completely overturned everything they had learned in their lives.

Now, contributing to this “Immortal Academy” had become the greatest honor of their lives.

Work enthusiasm?

There was no need for mobilization; everyone was as pumped as if they had been injected with stimulants, working twenty-four hours a day in three shifts, practically wanting to sleep on the construction site.

Li Heng was very satisfied with this effect.

He took out his phone and opened the official website of the Kunlun Cultivation Academy, which he had personally designed.

On the homepage, the real-time scrolling crowdfunding amount had already reached a terrifying figure.

“Nine point two three four billion!”

Only less than eight hundred million remained to reach the ten billion target.

Although the online buzz had subsided somewhat after half a month of fermentation, a steady stream of funds continued to flow in daily.

It seemed the ten billion target would soon be achieved.

“The time is almost right,” Li Heng murmured, putting away his phone.

He decided it was time to send out the admission notices for the first batch of students.

The start date was set for September 1st.

This timing not only aligned with the usual start of secular universities but also made it convenient for students to explain things to their families.

You couldn’t expect people to receive a notice in August and then pack up their belongings the next day to come to Kunlun Mountain for Immortal Cultivation, could you?

“System, retrieve the ‘Kunlun Golden Jade’ from the Earth’s core of the Kunlun Mountains, use my spiritual Qi as ink, and refine two hundred admission notices.”

“Ding! Instruction received, executing…”

Li Heng extended his right hand, palm upward.

A dazzling golden spiritual Qi gathered in his palm, and then, pieces of warm, translucent jade, shimmering with a faint golden glow, emerged from the Void Realm and hovered before him.

He joined his fingers like a sword, using his abundant spiritual Qi as a carving knife, and began to personally write on the golden jade… In a luxurious private room of a five-star hotel in Jiangcheng.

A high school classmate reunion was underway.

Fang Yuan sat in a corner, silently drinking the cola in his cup, out of place with the boisterous atmosphere around him.

Failing the college entrance exam.

This label, like a branding iron, was deeply imprinted on him.

It had already spread throughout the class group chat; he had become a failure and a laughingstock in everyone’s eyes.

“Oh, Class Monitor is awesome! Jinghua University! Our class’s top scorer!”

“Of course, Class Monitor has been a top student since freshman year. What’s this called? This is called well-deserved!”

“Come, come, let’s all raise a glass to Class Monitor! Don’t forget us old classmates when you make it big!”

A group of people surrounded a boy with gold-rimmed glasses and a beaming face, showering him with endless flattery.

Wang Hao, holding his wine glass, enjoyed the adulation, a modest smile on his face.

His gaze inadvertently swept over Fang Yuan in the corner, a hint of undetectable disdain curving his lips.

After three rounds of drinks, the conversation finally turned to Fang Yuan.

A boy with dyed yellow hair, holding a wine glass, swayed over to Fang Yuan and patted his shoulder.

“Fang Yuan, don’t just drink cola, come, have some wine!”

“I heard you… didn’t do so well on the exam?”

He deliberately drew out the words “didn’t do so well” slowly and loudly.

The entire private room instantly fell silent.

Everyone’s expressions became playful.

Pity, sympathy, but more often, the schadenfreude of superiority.

Fang Yuan’s fingers, gripping the cola cup, tightened slightly.

He didn’t speak, just shook his head.

“Hey, don’t be too discouraged,” another girl “kindly” advised, “Three hundred-something points, while not enough for a bachelor’s degree, is still fine for a decent vocational college. Or just go to work in a factory earlier, learn a skill, that’s also pretty good, better than staying at home.”

“Exactly, exactly, all roads lead to Rome!”

“If worst comes to worst, you can retake it for a year, but looking at your scores, I doubt retaking would help much.”

These seemingly comforting words, to Fang Yuan’s ears, were like sharp knives, piercing his heart.

He lowered his head, not saying a word.

At this moment, someone steered the conversation towards the girl sitting next to the Class Monitor.

That was Lin Xue, the school beauty of their class, and Fang Yuan’s crush for three years.

“Lin Xue, what do you think of Fang Yuan? Weren’t you two quite close before?”

Lin Xue looked up and glanced at Fang Yuan, her expression as indifferent as if she were looking at a stranger.

She merely said faintly.

“What a pity.”

After speaking, she turned her head and continued to chat happily with Wang Hao, the Class Monitor, next to her, her face wreathed in smiles.

These three words, like the last straw, completely crushed Fang Yuan.

He could no longer sit still.

He suddenly stood up, pulled back his chair, and, under everyone’s surprised gazes, walked out of the private room without a word.

“Hey, why did he leave?”

“His psychological resilience is too poor, he can’t handle a few words.”

“Forget it, forget it, let’s ignore him and continue drinking!”

He could no longer hear the discussions behind him.

Fang Yuan walked alone on the riverside promenade.

The night wind made him feel a bit cold.

He looked at the myriad lights on the opposite bank, the brilliant neon, feeling as if the whole world had nothing to do with him.

An unprecedented sense of loneliness and despair enveloped him tightly.

He even began to doubt how foolish his original decision had been.

To invest his entire savings of three thousand yuan into an unknown “online scammer” for a vague dream of “Immortal Cultivation”?

What a huge fool.

He laughed self-deprecatingly, took out his phone, and prepared to delete the Kunlun Cultivation Academy website, along with that unrealistic dream.

Just as his finger was about to tap the delete button.

An anomaly suddenly occurred!

A dazzling golden glow, without warning, tore through the night sky!

It was like a meteor falling from the sky, hovering precisely in front of him at an incredible speed.

The golden glow dispersed.

An ancient and elegant scroll, entirely made of unknown jade, floated quietly in mid-air.

The scroll shimmered with light, and on its surface, four shocking characters were written in an ancient seal script he had never seen before.

“Admission Notice!”

At this moment, time seemed to stand still.

And at the same time, in all directions of Dragon Country.

In a smoky internet cafe in Gusu Province, Han Li, who was live-streaming a game, suddenly saw his screen go black, and then, an identical jade scroll “drilled” directly out of the monitor, scaring him so much that he fell off his chair.

In the ancient books section of Jiangcheng’s top library, Xie Wangsheng was intently consulting a tattered Daoist classic. Golden characters appeared out of thin air on the pages before him, eventually forming the shape of an admission notice.

In the Zhang family manor, Zhang Qiqi, who was lying in bed idly scrolling through dramas, saw the bedside lamp suddenly explode, and a golden light shot out from it, materializing in front of her.

And in that ordinary residential building, Li Qingyuan, who had locked herself in her room, desperately praying at her computer screen… All the chosen ones, at this moment, received this “Immortal destiny” from Kunlun in various unbelievable ways.

In the internet cafe.

Han Li looked at the floating notice in front of him, tears of excitement welling up in his eyes.

He carefully reached out to touch it, and the scroll automatically unfurled.

“Admission List”

“199. Han Li”

Although he was at the very end, just a tail-ender!

His name was really on it!

“Holy crap! I’m going to Cultivate Immortality!”

Han Li let out a wolf-like howl, so excited he almost knelt before the scroll.

On the admission notice, besides the name and start date, there was also a line of small text at the bottom.

“On the day of enrollment, with this token, you will be guided.”

This line of text made all the students who received the notice immensely curious and expectant about “how to get to Kunlun.”

By the river.

Fang Yuan tremblingly reached out and took the admission notice floating before him.

The scroll felt warm and smooth like jade in his hand.

A warm current instantly surged from his palm, flowing through his limbs and bones, washing away all his fatigue, humiliation, and disappointment.

He slowly unfurled the scroll and saw at the very top, the name engraved in golden ancient seal script.

“Admission List”

“1. Fang Yuan”

He looked at his name and smiled.

As he smiled, tears, against his will, began to stream down.