After finishing his discussion with Wang Yanran and securing the payment, Ye Chuan returned to the classroom.
As soon as he sat down, he felt a pair of eyes quietly watching him from the side.
Turning his head, he saw the girl next to him resting her head on the desk, her cheek pressed against her arm. Her beautiful eyes seemed to want to say something, but in the end, they just drooped slightly.
When their gazes met, Luo Xi’s eyelashes fluttered.
"Chuan Chuan," she called out softly, shifting her face slightly closer to his, her expression dimming a little. "What did you two talk about outside? You looked really happy."
"Wang Yanran also wanted to buy my medicine, so we just went out to discuss it," Ye Chuan explained with a smile. Seeing the unusually subdued girl, he reached out and poked her soft cheek.
"What’s wrong? Didn’t I tell you there’s nothing between us? Are you jealous?"
"You’re different from all those other girls."
Hearing his words, Luo Xi’s mood instantly brightened. The corners of her lips curled upward uncontrollably as she buried her face against his arm. "Hmph, no. I’m just a little sleepy."
During class, after the money had come in, Ye Chuan pulled out his phone and started tinkering with the matter of the Core Formation Pills.
Now that he had suddenly come into wealth, he naturally wanted to seize the momentum and push his cultivation to the Core Formation realm. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to continue passively leveling up.
"Within third-grade quality, I won’t ask for more," Ye Chuan muttered to himself. Considering he had no idea about the success rate of refining Core Formation Pills, he figured it was better to be a little conservative.
But then another thought struck him—he had nine million in hand now. Why couldn’t he aim for a first-grade Core Formation Pill?
Spend!
Spend like an immortal!
To cultivate immortality, one must first go mad.
No spending, no success.
Ye Chuan immediately started refining.
After tossing over a million into the process, he stared silently at his inventory—rows of fifth-, sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade Core Formation Pills.
Not a single one was even fourth-grade, let alone within third-grade.
"Is it really this rigged?" Ye Chuan’s lips twitched. This was a million yuan—enough to buy a house—gone without even a splash.
If money weren’t so easy to come by now, his heart would’ve been bleeding.
"Twenty-four thousand a day, seven hundred twenty thousand a month. A million is like a month and a half of rental income," Ye Chuan sighed, then silently consoled himself that this was just pocket change.
He needed to broaden his horizons. With greater strength, wouldn’t he earn even more?
It was just a measly month and a half of spending money!
Gritting his teeth, Ye Chuan dumped two million worth of materials into the refining process.
He was already in this deep. Backing out now would mean pure loss.
As Ye Chuan kept accelerating the cauldron’s refining speed, the interface suddenly flashed with golden light!
It’s here!
[Congratulations! You have obtained a second-grade Core Formation Pill. It has been placed in your inventory.]
Second-grade!
"Second-grade is fine, second-grade is fine." Ye Chuan let out a long exhale. His goal was within third-grade, and getting a second-grade pill from thirty batches of materials could be considered lucky.
Time to step into the Core Formation realm.
Just as Ye Chuan was about to use the second-grade Core Formation Pill, his gaze fell on the dozens of other pills in his inventory, and his hand paused.
You only live once.
What if the next batch hits the jackpot?
With a long lifespan ahead in immortal cultivation, laying the foundation was a one-time opportunity. Once his strength improved, wouldn’t money come easily?
Why not let the money grow?
"..." Ye Chuan fell silent. He glanced at his remaining balance, then back at the cauldron in front of him.
Go big or go home!
Ye Chuan immediately upgraded the cauldron twice.
[Cauldron: Nine-Flame Liyan Cauldron (Supreme-Grade Tier 2)]
[Core Formation Pill Refining: 100% success rate, 0% failure rate, 0% explosion rate, 5% chance of pill quality upgrade (Success rate depends on pill quality, cauldron quality, and refining level.)]
Spend!
Ye Chuan threw in more materials, nearly exhausting the money Wang Yanran had given him.
As the notifications kept popping up, Ye Chuan silently watched the colors flashing on the screen.
The materials dwindled, but not a single second-grade pill appeared.
Ye Chuan’s heart grew colder with each glance.
Had he lost it all?
This was eight million.
"Give me something!"
Finally, in the last few attempts, the cauldron erupted with dazzling golden light!
[Congratulations! You have obtained a first-grade Core Formation Pill. It has been placed in your inventory.]
[Congratulations! Your Nine-Flame Liyan Cauldron has successfully triggered the pill quality upgrade. The first-grade Core Formation Pill has been upgraded to Nine-Flame Core Elixir (Supreme-Grade).]
Huh?
Not only did he get a first-grade pill, but the cauldron’s upgrade chance had also landed on it?!
Ye Chuan nearly jumped out of his seat.
Holy—
"What’s wrong, Chuan Chuan?" Luo Xi asked, confused by his sudden reaction.
"Nothing."
Ye Chuan steadied his breathing and immediately checked the pill in his inventory.
[Item: Nine-Flame Core Elixir (Supreme-Grade)
Using this will allow you to break through to the Core Formation realm and comprehend an additional divine ability.]
[Requirements met. Ready for Core Formation.]
This was it. This was the real deal.
An extra divine ability.
But this wasn’t the right place to break through. Every time Ye Chuan advanced to a major realm, he attracted the heavens’ wrath.
Going back to the high-voltage tower was an option, but Ye Chuan had a better idea.
The Tianxuan Continent!
Death there wasn’t permanent, and after unlocking the full-dive adventure mode, he could attempt his breakthrough there. Even if he couldn’t withstand the heavenly tribulation, he wouldn’t actually die!
"Suddenly, buying the full-dive adventure doesn’t seem like a waste anymore."
Putting down his phone, Ye Chuan felt immensely satisfied.
The eight million didn’t feel like a loss anymore.
"Have I been conditioned too much? Why does this feel like money well spent?" Ye Chuan mused silently. Still, he figured he should invest in some assets and enjoy life a little. Otherwise, the money would just tempt the universe’s money-sucking beasts.
First, a car. A house could wait.
With over a million still left, Ye Chuan decided to upgrade his ride.
That way, Luo Xi wouldn’t have to walk to school anymore.
"Chuan Chuan, what are you thinking about?" Luo Xi asked curiously, noticing his daze.
"Nothing. Just remembering the days when I was broke and borrowed your bike to get to school," Ye Chuan chuckled. Back then, Luo Xi had a bicycle, and she’d let him ride it to carry her to school.
But one day, they accidentally crashed into a stone pillar and wrecked it. Too scared to tell their parents, they spent the next half-year walking to school together.
The memories made him sentimental.
"That Phoenix-brand bicycle? You still remember that?" Luo Xi smiled. It had been years, and she’d even taken the blame back then, afraid her parents would scold Ye Chuan.
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
