176: Chapter 176: Brother, you're really going all out!

Yun Zhuo's hand slid naturally along Sister Su's thigh, while his other hand rubbed his chin. "That sounds plausible enough, but does 'The Scripture of Pure Spirit Refinement' not have any other drawbacks?"

Sister Su's face flushed red. She gripped the hem of her clothes tightly with both hands, her voice dropping a few decibels. "Other drawbacks… perhaps it's just that it's hard to practice. Reaching Entry Level is very difficult.

I heard that after this Cultivation Technique appeared, only one person succeeded in mastering it, and that was the person who discovered it.

But your Comprehension Ability is so good, it shouldn't be too hard for you."

"Anything else?"

"Also, this Cultivation Technique has very strong compatibility. It is said that it won't conflict with any other Cultivation Technique."

"Compatibility? What does that mean?"

"Compatibility means that for Cultivation Techniques of the same type, if they are compatible, the lower-tier one will be overwritten by the higher-tier one.

For instance, a Cultivation Technique with a +2 boost will overwrite one with a +1 boost. If you learn both, the boost isn't +3, but rather just +2.

If they are incompatible, a backlash will occur.

At best, your boost will be reduced; at worst, your Rank will drop, and it might even affect your innate talent.

Of course, there are exceptions. Some experienced teachers will tailor Cultivation Techniques based on a student's specific situation, allowing the boosts to stack.

But even then, you can only learn a maximum of five Cultivation Techniques. Any more, and backlash will occur.

Ordinary people without the guidance of a master, for the sake of safety, can only inject a technique-cleansing potion to wash away their previous Cultivation Techniques."

Speaking of this, she suddenly grabbed Yun Zhuo's mischievous hand. "Um, Xiao Zhuo…"

"What is it?"

"My stockings have a snag."

"How were you so careless? Where did you snag them? Did you hurt your leg?"

Sister Su kept her head down and didn't speak.

At this moment, Teacher Su, with a piece of apple in her mouth and a plate of sliced apples in her hands, arrived in front of the two and gave them a look.

She used a toothpick to spear a piece and handed it to Yun Zhuo. "Here."

"Didn't we just eat?" Yun Zhuo said, biting into the piece of apple.

"Hmph." Teacher Su pulled her hand back. "Stop picking at it. If you keep picking, you'll snag the stockings."

Her words instantly made the tips of Sister Su's ears burn. Flustered, she covered her skirt, stood up abruptly, and rushed upstairs with her head down.

She didn't even acknowledge Yun Zhuo calling for her to slow down behind her.

Once she left, Teacher Su plopped down into the seat she had just vacated. She watched her sister rush upstairs in a panic, stumbling on the last step and even losing a slipper.

"She really is thin-skinned."

Teacher Su said, chewing on an apple.

Yun Zhuo was thick-skinned and never took being caught in the act to heart.

He calmly reached out to pick up a toothpick from the plate to spear another piece of apple for himself, but Teacher Su, who had suddenly turned back, grabbed his hand.

She leaned in and sniffed his hand.

She immediately furrowed her brows and said, "Go wash your hands, quickly."

"Why wash my hands?"

"Why wash your hands? Where did you just have your fingers? Do you think I'm blind?"

...

The next morning, Yun Zhuo had Teacher Su take Sister Su to work.

Su Zixing wouldn't be back until the afternoon, so she still had to cover for at least the morning.

There was no need to go to the mission management office, because Sister Su had already accepted all the missions according to the plan—six A-Rank missions a day, totaling 30,000 academic credits in five days.

Added to the 20,000 academic credits earned previously from Du Biao and Luo Sen, it was just enough to exchange for 'The Scripture of Pure Spirit Refinement'.

Passing by the mission management office, coincidentally, he ran into Yang Jing again.

The kid was running over from the direction of the playground, and the moment he saw Yun Zhuo, he turned and walked away.

But Yun Zhuo chased him down on his motorcycle and stopped in front of him with a drift.

"Yo, isn't this classmate Yang Jing? What guilty thing did you do? Why run the moment you see me?"

"No, no. I just happened to remember I had something to do."

"Let me ask you something."

"I don't know."

"I haven't even asked yet." Yun Zhuo directly used Gravity Manipulation to pin him to the ground.

Seeing he couldn't escape, Yang Jing had no choice but to say with a mournful face, "I, I say, Big Brother, I'm not familiar with you, please don't harm me."

"How did I harm you?"

"Young Master Chen explicitly named you to be killed. Will he let anyone associated with you off?"

"Rest assured, I'll tell him that I'm not familiar with you, and ask him not to make things difficult for you."

"Big Brother, you're doing this on purpose, right?"

"Do you want to get rich?"

"No."

"You motherf..."

Seeing Yun Zhuo raise his hand, Yang Jing quickly changed his tone. "No, no, no, I do. Big Brother, you have a way to make money?"

"The matter of Chen Qi wanting to kill me in the exam venue—a lot of people are paying attention to it, right?"

"You want to use public opinion to save your life? Big Brother, you're already a college student; you don't still not know what the Twelve Families mean, do you?

It's impossible for anyone in school to speak up for you.

Do you know? The year before last, Young Master Chen tortured his War Princess to death. That Hu Lili was from the Hu Family, a first-rate Family, and yet he only received a symbolic one-year suspension.

Do you think you can compare to that Hu Lili?"

"Can you please listen to me finish?"

"Ah? Big Brother, go ahead."

"Opening a betting pool on the matter between me and Chen Qi—don't you think that's a business opportunity?"

"I don't think so."

"Why?"

"Because everyone knows you're a dead man. It's a foregone conclusion; what's there to bet on?"

"You!"

Yun Zhuo had been curious yesterday about why no one had opened a betting pool, and now he knew the answer, though this answer truly caught him off guard.

"Then bet on the method of death," Yun Zhuo said irritably.

"Ah? You can bet like that? No, Big Brother, you're joking, right? Where in the world is there someone so willing to go all out as to bet on how they will die?"

"Just tell me if this can be bet on or not?"

"This… it seems it is possible, but Big Brother, do you really hate having a long life that much?"

"Since it can be bet on, hurry up and open the betting pool. Offer a few more methods of death; are you still afraid you won't make money?"

Yang Jing thought for a moment, then his eyes suddenly lit up. "Big Brother, are you trying to buy personal accident insurance for your Family? Insurance fraud?"

"If that's what you want to think, it doesn't matter." Yun Zhuo couldn't be bothered to explain.

"Then Big Brother, how do you want to die? I'll follow your lead and bet a little."

"You open the betting pool first and list out the methods of death. I'll tell you when the time comes."

"I can't open this kind of betting pool, but I know someone who can."

"Then hurry up and tell him to open it. The exam starts in a few days." At this point, Yun Zhuo suddenly thought of something. "The person you're talking about isn't one of Chen Qi's lackeys, is it?"

"How is that possible? They are also contestants. Since when do contestants open betting pools? Isn't that cheating?"

"That's good. Hurry up and get someone to open the betting pool, and when the time comes, I'll tell you how I'll die."

After saying this, Yun Zhuo still had to hurry out of the city to do his missions.

A-Rank missions are different from b-rank missions; this type of mission has high difficulty, few people usually do them, and there is a large surplus.

Sister Su also had great patience; combining Yun Zhuo's strengths, she carefully selected thirty missions from thousands of A-Rank missions that could be completed within five days.

They were basically all outside the Imperial Capital, and she had even calculated the order and routes—leaving the city from the east, finishing all thirty in one go, and returning from the west.

At this moment, in a lakeside park at the school, Piao Xiuying and her two daughters had invited the Thirteen Protectors under Chen Qi—that is, the thirteen lackeys Yang Jing mentioned earlier, Gong Lei, Wu Huan, and Du Mingxing—to a social gathering here.

Nowadays, under the fermentation of public opinion, these thirteen lackeys were called the Thirteen Protectors; nobody knew who coined the name.

However, when Du Mingxing, Gong Lei, and the others heard about it, they weren't angry in the slightest; on the contrary, they were quite smug.

But before they could be smug for long, the person who had named them the Thirteen Protectors created a ranking for them.

As a result, the thirteen of them started bickering over the rankings.