Then came a few photos.
Needless to say.
They showed the current miserable states of Han Shuo and Li Yang.
Due to some tricky angles and the fact that the two men had been posed in rather R-rated positions,
it was very easy for people's minds to wander.
Glancing at the sender, Li Weigong nearly bit through his back teeth.
He reined in his temper over and over before finally starting to type.
"Lou Xueer, cut it out. Delete those right now."
"What you're doing violates their right of portrait."
"As a school newspaper reporter, shouldn't you know better?"
Just seconds after the message went out.
Lou Xueer replied.
"Teacher, their faces aren't showing at all, you know."
Click, crunch...
Li Weigong's teeth finally shattered. No, their faces weren't showing.
How could they show when you shoved both their heads between their thighs?
Yet given how well-known the two of them were in the school, anyone could tell who they were at a glance.
Still, considering Lou Xueer's background, even with the Li Family's vast wealth and power, they wouldn't dare play rough with her.
...
Inside the library, Su Yang walked straight toward the second floor.
Drawing sidelong glances from the students on the first floor.
The students admired Su Yang yesterday only to hold him in utter contempt today.
Those who had been ready to treat Su Yang as an idol yesterday morning had already brushed their teeth several times over by this morning.
They were going back on their word.
Su Yang paid no attention to this and went straight to the second floor.
The first floor mostly held unranked martial techniques, though they made up for quality with sheer quantity.
The martial techniques on the second floor were only a tenth of those on the first floor.
Yet their grade was much higher.
Su Yang even spotted a few middle Huang-tier martial techniques.
However, that price...
Su Yang shook his head repeatedly.
"Tier 1 martial technique Mountain-Opening Palm, lower Huang-tier, 1 million Xia dollars."
"Tier 1 martial technique Rippling Steps, middle Huang-tier, 3 million Xia dollars."
...
Expensive. Far too expensive.
Granted, given these prices on the open market, they could already be considered friendly deals,
yet for Su Yang, whose entire net worth was barely a million, they were undoubtedly still too steep.
That sum might seem like a lot, but once he went out-of-city for trials, a basic set of equipment alone would cost around a million.
Not to mention, once he reached Tier 1,
a Breathing Technique would also be essential.
Though Breathing Techniques could be switched midway, so that wasn't overly urgent.
"Found any martial techniques you like yet?"
As he was hesitating, a female voice sounded from behind him.
Seeing it was Lou Xueer, Su Yang smiled.
"Too expensive, haven't picked one yet."
Lou Xueer thought for a moment.
"Think they're expensive? If price is the issue, I suggest you take a look at Pinduoduo."
"The martial techniques on there aren't necessarily bad, but they definitely aren't pricey."
At these words, Su Yang's eyes lit up.
"Where can I find them?"
Lou Xueer led Su Yang directly over to a large screen.
Turning on the computer, a brightly colored interface appeared.
The characters "Pinduoduo" were quite eye-catching.
Lou Xueer clicked around on the screen a few times, opening a sub-category called Trillion Subsidy.
True to her word, the martial techniques inside were much cheaper and quite comprehensive.
The more Su Yang looked, the more amazed he became. Sure enough, clever minds think alike.
He never expected to find a platform similar to the ones on Earth right here.
He clicked directly on the movement techniques sub-category.
The next second, a full dozen movement martial techniques displayed on the screen.
Su Yang opened the details page for each one, pondering them carefully.
The prices for these martial techniques generally ranged from fifty to one hundred thousand, while their grades ran the gamut from unranked to middle Huang-tier.
On the other hand, the drawbacks were also obvious.
Either pages were missing, characters were smeared, or even worse, two of the martial techniques had only the second half—and only the latter half at that.
What kind of genius would ever buy something like this?
Su Yang gave a low chuckle.
These might be useless to anyone else, but he had a cheat.
In the end, Su Yang's gaze settled on a martial technique called "Cloud Rolling Thousand Illusions Art".
It had only a title, with no grade listed.
This was mainly because the damage to it was so severe that its grade could no longer be calculated from the existing text.
Naturally, the price was also extremely cheap, costing only fifty thousand Xia dollars.
With a deep gaze, Su Yang sank his consciousness into his Consciousness Sea.
One of Jade Qilin's abilities was deduction; if he could use this ability to deduce the rest of this martial technique...
His intuition told him this blind box was worth opening.
He glanced at it and felt a slight surprise.
His feedback points were now approaching two hundred; if he added points right now, he could become a Martial Artist immediately.
However, he shook his head the next moment. Becoming a Martial Artist was a major event in his life, so to be safe, it was better to return to the cultivation room to make the breakthrough.
He let out a long breath. Once he became a Martial Artist, he would have a certain level of self-preservation and could finally venture outside the city to hunt monster beasts.
That way, his cultivation funding problems would be greatly eased.
In high spirits, he hesitated no longer and placed an order for the Cloud Rolling Thousand Illusions Art right then and there.
As soon as Lou Xueer turned back, she saw the page confirming Su Yang's successful payment, and her eyes widened in shock.
"No way, I was just messing with you. Didn't you realize?"
Lou Xueer was somewhat speechless.
Everyone in their upper years knew that not a single martial technique here could ever be successfully cultivated.
The only reason she recommended it to Su Yang was to pull a prank.
Surely any normal person wouldn't actually place an order, right?
Never had she imagined she would actually run into someone abnormal.
"Wasn't it your recommendation?"
Su Yang looked completely innocent.
Lou Xueer rolled her eyes at him, but when she saw the specific martial technique Su Yang had ordered, she was so angry her chest heaved.
"You're not saving money here, you're just throwing it away!"
"A fool wouldn't even pick Cloud Rolling Thousand Illusions Art."
"Didn't you look at how damaged it is?"
"Success rate of restoration: 1%."
Lou Xueer tapped fiercely on the cover description.
Su Yang looked closely and indeed, in the bottom right corner of the book cover, there was a line of small print in a color extremely similar to the cover itself.
"Success rate of restoration: 1%."
Suddenly, Su Yang felt a tinge of regret as well.
"Can I get an unconditional refund, then?"
Lou Xueer didn't even have the energy to roll her eyes anymore.
"Refund? What are you dreaming about? A photocopy of that martial technique has probably already been prepared for you."
"Once copied, no returns or exchanges."
Su Yang rubbed his nose.
"Fine, worst comes to worst, I'll just skip three meals a day from now on."
"Doesn't that mean you won't be eating at all?"
"Nope, I eat six meals a day."
Lou Xueer......
Sapping a wave of emotional value from Lou Xueer, Su Yang hurried downstairs to collect his martial technique.
Lou Xueer pulled out her phone and snapped a photo of the large screen.
"Little Ziyin, I've found another stubborn blockhead at our school..."
"Just like you."
With that, Lou Xueer sent the photo over.
There was no reply for half a day, and Lou Xueer curled her lips in a slight pout.
She was used to it by now.
Aside from cultivating, that girl Lin Ziyin did nothing else day in and day out, and she didn't even find it dull.
...
On the other side, after picking up his photocopied booklet, Su Yang hurried back to his cultivation room without stopping.
With everything ready, Su Yang sat cross-legged on the floor.
Looking at the 238 feedback points in his Consciousness Sea, he hesitated slightly.
He had figured out a trick by now: the higher a person's vital blood value, the higher the emotional feedback they provided.
Consequently, the feedback points he obtained were also higher.
"Looks like bullying the weak isn't going to work here after all."
Su Yang muttered to himself.
After thinking it over for a moment, he decided to advance to a Martial Artist first, and then use his remaining feedback points to try and deduce the Cloud Rolling Thousand Illusions Art.
Having made up his mind, Su Yang hesitated no further and directly added 100 feedback points to his vital blood value.
Boom...
In an instant, Su Yang felt the cells throughout his body undergo a rapid, explosive decomposition and mutation.
Then, they fused back together through an arcane combination.
At the same time, within his Consciousness Sea, a second Qilin raised its head and burst forth into the world.
Roar...
With a single roar from the Qilin, an intensely scorching wave of heat instantly radiated from Su Yang's entire body.
Objects close to him melted away in a split second.
Inside his body, those already-mutated cells actually began to boil a second time.
Had he been able to see it, he would have discovered that faint flames were entwined around his limbs, while his internal bones were emitting a faint golden light in the span of a mere second.