Chapter 52: Exchanging Practice Resources
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“And you said there’s something wrong with Xing Jun. But think about it: is it really suspicious that a teacher who saw a mutant attacking students at school would kill the mutant?”

Hearing Zhou Bai’s questions, Christina closed her eyes and fell deep in thought. Finally, she sighed. “Humans are so complicated.”

“All right, my urgent task at hand is to continue training and obtain stronger power more quickly, to have the ability to defend myself. There’s no point in putting any more thought into these matters. I don’t have enough power to change these things.”

He glanced at the clock; it was nearly time for class. Zhou Bai remembered what he needed to do.

Christina needs things like elixirs and runes to proceed in her practice of the Divine Map, he thought. I remember the school prepared these things for me since I said I was practicing the Sword Map.

In the zeroth realm, the school provided for free all the resources required for practicing the zeroth layer of the Divine Map.

After all, students were only getting started at this stage. They had gifts but lacked power, so they needed the school to allow them to grow and realize their potential.

Zhou Bai was thinking of providing Christina with resources, then he remembered his tasks. Currently, his star point and Primordial Spirit Value were all at their bottlenecks. His next problem was Degree of Taoifiction.

Although Primordial Spirit Value could be directly added with the auxiliary system, Zhou Bai didn’t plan on doing that.

“Raise Degree of Taoification…” Zhou Bai said. “Tina, do you know how to do it?”

“Of course I do.”

Zhou Bai’s eyes lit up. “How do you raise it?”

Christina said confidently, “I’ve just forgotten, but I know it.”

Zhou Bai said, “You good-for-nothing.”

He walked in the direction of the academic building and thought to himself, Perhaps I have to ask Old Lu, or should I go borrow Jing Xiu’s notes first and see if they’ve learned how to increase Degree of Taoification yet.

Technically, I can increase Degree of Taoification with Laziness, but raising it is too dangerous. I should try to prepare myself as well as I can.

Recalling the heavy price Sakurako paid to increase Degree of Taoification, Zhou Bai warned himself not to let down his guard. He would have to be extremely alert about this, even if he had the auxiliary system to raise it.

Zhou Bai asked around and finally found the place that provided the materials for practice—the Logistics Department.

When he arrived at the Practice Materials Management Office in the Logistics Department, Zhou Bai took out his student ID to check in. The person responsible for distributing resources was a middle-aged man in a suit.

He glanced at Zhou Bai and said, “Student, I have to let you know, even the practice resources for the zeroth realm can’t be carelessly given to you when you ask, even if we provide them for free.

“Which point have you practiced up to on the Sword Map? Usually, we provide resources depending on which point you’re on according to a list of practice necessities.”

Zhou Bai nodded. That was reasonable. They couldn’t provide everything at once.

Thus Zhou Bai said, “I’ve already finished practicing the first star point, Sword Aura.”

“Oh? It’s only been two weeks since school started. Let me see…you had a 99-point Primordial Spirit Value when you entered school? No wonder.”

The middle-aged man reviewed Zhou Bai’s materials while praising him, “It’s only been two weeks since school started, and you’ve already finished practicing the first star point. Not bad. You’re quite gifted. Keep up the good work.”

Christina yelled in Zhou Bai’s brain, “Five days! It was five days! I finished practicing the first star point in five days! I’m the most gifted person in this entering class.”

Zhou Bai knocked his head, saying with a frown, “Stop shouting. My head hurts.”

The middle-aged man led Zhou Bai to a room. A row of metal stakes neatly lined up there.

“It’s very easy to test the first star point, Sword Aura. Just unleash your sword aura, and cut a metal stake.”

“I understand.” Zhou Bai nodded. He said to Christina in his mind, “Draw your sword.”

A pink sword aura shot out from Zhou Bai’s forehead, lightly revolved around Zhou Bai, then stopped in front of him.

The middle-aged man was a little shocked when he saw this pink sword aura. He gave a strange look to Zhou Bai. He didn’t ask him why his sword aura was pink, but he had his speculations.

“Sword aura is fostered in the cognitive sea. The color of the sword aura has to do with the practitioner’s inner world and personality. This kid…”

The middle-aged man frowned. “…is probably gay. Tsk tsk, Heavenly Tao—how wondrous.”

Zhou Bai looked at the middle-aged man in embarrassment and said, “This sword aura somehow became pink. This path of practicing Tao is certainly everchanging, hahahaha.”

The middle-aged man agreed, “Yes, the Heavenly Tao is wondrous.”

Zhou Bai then pretended to control his sword aura. In a few flashes, the pink sword aura cut the metal stakes in half.

Zhou Bai turned around and asked, “Teacher, is this okay?”

The middle-aged man nodded. “Follow me. The second star point on the Sword Map is Tai White, if I remember correctly.”

As they spoke, Zhou Bai followed the man into a massive basement. Rows of endless shelves appeared before him. They moved continuously, opening and closing with flashing lights.

“Isn’t it magnificent?” the middle-aged man said with a smile. “This is the place where our Donghua Tao Academy stores different material resources—the Genpin Vault. Be careful not to get too close. The protective formation here is the strongest in all of Donghua City. Even practitioners in the eighth and ninth realms can’t break through it.”

The glow of runes glimmered on the middle-aged man’s fingers. Soon, several chests moved in front of Zhou Bai. Then the chest opened, and rations of resources flew in front of the middle-aged man.

“Let me see—Tai White requires thirty detoxication pills, fifteen grams of Tai Gold, thirty grams of refined gold, fifty grams of special alloy steel…and five first-aid runes.

“That’s everything.” The middle-aged man counted and wrapped the materials in front of him, then gave them to Zhou Bai. “All the resources required for practicing Tai White star point are here. See if they’re correct.”

Zhou Bai checked under Christina’s instruction.

Christina said, “The practice of Tai White is to slowly integrate special metals that easily conduct primordial spirit power into the sword aura little by little and turn it into a half-substantial existence. That way, the sword aura gets stronger and sharper and can regurgitate on the body, allowing the body to have a thread of refined gold attribute. It increases strength and improves physique.

“Let me see the metals required…yep, it’s all here.

“And the medicine for preventing metal poisoning, and first-aid runes for emergencies…”

Christina read the resources written on the Taiyi Disc while making Zhou Bai check.

Zhou Bai said, “It’s all here, teacher. Thank you.”

“No need to thank me. It’s what you deserve. Now that you got what you came here for, you should leave.” The middle-aged man led Zhou Bai out.

Zhou Bai then wanted to go to the classroom to find Jing Xiu first, but Christina couldn’t stay in his mind.

“Take me back first! I’m going to practice the next star point!” Christina rolled around in Zhou Bai’s mind, shouting, “I want to go home to practice! I want to go home to practice!”

So Zhou Bai had no choice but to take Christina, who was working hard on practicing, back to his room. The stupid cat opened the packages of resources and was about to start practicing.

“Elsa! Don’t sniff around. This isn’t for you. Get away! This isn’t for you to eat!”

Seeing the cat and dog fight, Zhou Bai shook his head. He headed to the classroom, wanting to ask about the method to increase Degree of Taoification. At the very least, he wanted to find out if Jing Xiu and the rest were learning about it.

Zhou Bai even decided that if all else failed, he’d go to class for a few days.

But once Zhou Bai entered the academic building, he found they were still in class. He thought to himself, “If I go in right now, that would look bad for Old Lu…”

Helplessly, Zhou Bai waited until the class break. Then he walked next to Jing Xiu under everyone’s peculiar gaze.