Chapter 2: The Turtle Shell

"Indeed, the school's benefits are great. A first-class upper-grade cultivation room, where I can use it for free for two hours every day."

Chen Mobai thought about how during the holiday, his mother had gritted her teeth and used merit points to upgrade the family's earth vein to first-class upper-grade. Even so, the qi value was only 7, occasionally fluctuating to 8 and 9.

This Immortal Sect Fifth High School was built on a third-class lower-grade earth vein, with a total of three hundred cultivation rooms.

After all, they were the future of the Immortal Sect and couldn't be neglected.

The three hundred cultivation rooms were divided equally among the first, second, and third years, corresponding to first-class lower, middle, and upper-grade qi.

The third-year students, who worked the hardest, had the cultivation rooms with the highest concentration of qi, which was already at the top of the first-class level.

The cultivation room was extremely simple, square, with only a mat in the center of the green stone floor.

Chen Mobai didn't waste any time. He put his phone away, turned on the auxiliary cultivation recording mode, and sat down on the mat to begin refining qi.

Since he had just broken through to the fifth level of qi cultivation, and it was mainly due to the power of the pills, his realm was not yet stable. For these two hours, he didn't practice the Five Elements Internal Martial Arts but only ran the most basic Qi Nourishing Technique.

Streams of warm currents flowed through his meridians, and the pale white qi in the cultivation room, which was almost like mist, surged into Chen Mobai's mouth and nose, merging with his enhanced qi, slowly blending and transforming into his true strength.

He immediately became engrossed in this feeling, unable to extricate himself.

Time slowly passed.

A "ding" sound!

The soul-stabilizing spell in the cultivation room woke Chen Mobai from his cultivation. Despite his reluctance, he thought of the classmates who had been waiting outside for a long time and had to pick up his phone and slowly walk out of the cultivation room.

As soon as he came out, a female classmate immediately rushed in, swiping her card and closing the door in one smooth motion.

Not just him, the other ninety-nine third-year students also reluctantly left the cultivation rooms.

Among them was Chen Mobai's desk mate, Lu Hongsheng.

"Hey, your luck is pretty good, managing to get the first batch," Lu Hongsheng greeted, but his eyes were somewhat gloomy, and he looked unhappy.

"Do you know what I just saw?"

"What?"

Chen Mobai knew that Lu Hongsheng couldn't keep anything to himself. After a while, he indeed spoke up on his own.

"I saw Song Zheng enter a second-class earth vein cultivation room."

"Second-class earth vein? Isn't that exclusively for teachers? Who gave up their cultivation room for Song Zheng?"

In the school, there were not only cultivation rooms for students but also high-end cultivation rooms exclusively for teachers.

Apart from the third-class cultivation room reserved for the principal, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, the other ten second-class cultivation rooms required teachers to queue up to use them.

For Song Zheng to enter a second-class cultivation room, it meant that a teacher had given up their cultivation resources for him.

"It could only be Old Ding. He failed his Foundation Establishment attempt twice and doesn't have much time left. He is fully focused on his teaching career. Seeing that Song Zheng has a chance to enter one of the Four Great Dao Academies, he gave up his share of the second-class cultivation room for him."

As he spoke, Lu Hongsheng was filled with envy and resentment, wishing he were Song Zheng.

"It's so unfair, the school should do something about it."

While speaking, a few classmates nearby overheard, and one of the boys was indignant.

Although there is no fairness in society, in the school, the upper echelons still maintained a facade of fairness and justice.

A teacher giving their cultivation resources to a student, although it was the teacher's own share, the true ownership of the cultivation room still belonged to the school. For the students, this was already unfair, and if reported to the academic affairs office, it could cause a stir.

"You don't understand. I heard that Song Zheng has officially become a disciple of Teacher Ding during the holiday, registered in the Immortal Sect Education Department's Inheritance Hall. As a master, giving resources to a disciple, even the academic affairs office can't interfere," a female classmate said to the boy who wanted to report it.

Song Zheng had a good appearance and was a young genius, quite popular among the girls.

Chen Mobai was also envious.

If he could cultivate in a second-class earth vein for a semester, he was confident he could reach the sixth level of qi cultivation. At this level, he might not be able to enter the Four Great Dao Academies, but he could still have a chance at a second-level Dao Academy, and a third-level Dao Academy would be a breeze to choose from.

He was also a true spirit root, so why didn't any teacher take a liking to him?

It could only be said that even among true spirit roots, there were differences in quality.

"You guys chat, I'm going home. See you tomorrow."

Chen Mobai still had the drive to improve. Although he felt the unfairness in his heart, he didn't want to get involved in these disputes.

After the free usage time for the school's cultivation room was over, he hurried home. After all, his mother had rarely spent so much to buy a half-year's worth of first-class upper-grade earth vein, just for him to perform well in the college entrance exam.

He couldn't waste it.

When he got home, there was no one around.

His parents were working hard to support the family, especially after renting the earth vein for half a year, which required more overtime. They wouldn't return home until late every day.

Chen Mobai first cooked a pot of spirit rice, then cut large yellow papers into 12cm by 6cm standard small talismans in his mother's studio.

By the time the spirit rice was cooked, Chen Mobai had already cut over a hundred blank talismans.

He counted 12 talismans per set, neatly stacked them, and tied them with special spirit ropes, placing six sets in two stacks in a packaging box.

The cost of these large talismans was 1 merit point each. After cutting and packaging, they could be sold for 2 merit points, which meant he earned about 1 merit point per box in labor costs.

To help with household expenses, Chen Mobai did some work within his capabilities.

He neatly arranged two boxes of packaged talismans on the table, adding to the eight boxes he had previously cut, making a total of ten boxes, filling the entire table.

He took several photos from different angles with his phone, selected the better ones, and uploaded them to the official online trading market of the Immortal Sect.

According to the norm, people would gradually place bids over the course of a week, and Chen Mobai would choose the highest bidder to sell to.

Since he couldn't afford the transmission fees, his items were limited to face-to-face transactions in Danxia City.

The city had a well-developed transportation system, and his student card allowed him to ride for free.

After eating the plump, jade-like spirit rice, Chen Mobai cast a cleaning spell to tidy up the pots and pans, then entered his bedroom.

Although the family had a dedicated cultivation room at the earth vein pipe outlet, Chen Mobai still preferred to practice qi in his own room.

After all, as long as the cultivation room door was open, the first-class upper-grade qi would spread to every room in the house. Even with the windows open, the overall spirit-sealing restriction in the house would firmly lock the earth vein qi in the rooms, preventing any waste.

Of course, because of this, the concentration of qi in the house was not as high as in the school's cultivation room.

But Chen Mobai was already very satisfied.

He resisted the urge to check live streams on his phone and not think about the dancing and singing fairies. He calmed his mind, sat cross-legged on his bed, and prepared to cultivate, suddenly noticing the turtle shell on the bedside table.

"Mom, why did you bring this ominous thing over!"