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Chapter 8 - The Steep Price
Liu Peng was highly efficient in handling tasks. After enlisting the help of a few friends, he managed to spread the word about the special effect qi refining pills across all the senior classes before the evening self-study session began.
Not every senior student knew about it, but at least more than half were aware.
Some students were skeptical: "Special effect qi refining pills? Two to three times better than regular qi refining pills? If such a thing really existed, they would've been sold out on the market by now. How come we’ve never heard of it? It must be a scam! Every year around the cultivation examination, these swindlers appear. All those promises about spiritual pills that supposedly help you meet the required spiritual qi value, and those so-called insider materials for the exam, they are all old tricks! Last year, someone claimed to have connections that could get you directly into a cultivation university, and they conned a lot of money before the police caught them, didn’t they?"
Yet, many others were cautiously hopeful.
A tiny minority of students, upon hearing the news, lit up with excitement and thought to themselves: "If these special effect qi refining pills really are two to three times more effective than the regular ones, my chances of getting into a cultivation university would greatly increase! After the evening self-study, I’ll go to the sports field to check it out. There’s no harm in just looking."
The students in Su Mu's class were divided into three groups as well.
However, compared to other classes, they had the advantage of being closer to the source and could directly ask Su Mu for confirmation.
Faced with the barrage of questions from his classmates, Su Mu smiled and said, "The special effect qi refining pills are certainly real. I understand your skepticism, and that's okay. After school, at the sports field, I will distribute some samples for trial. You can see for yourselves whether their effects are as good as claimed."
One student blurted out, "Why wait until after school? Why not give them to us now?"
This sentiment was echoed by many others who chimed in, "Yeah, give them to us now. By the time we start the evening self-study, we can test their effectiveness."
Su Mu, of course, couldn't comply with their request.
"The trial samples I've prepared are limited. If I give them out now, there won't be enough for students from other classes. Let's wait until after school and draw the trial participants fairly at the sports field. This way, no one can accuse you of being my plants."
This information quickly spread throughout the senior year.
Those who had been hesitant before decided they would check out the sports field after school.
What if they were chosen? Free alchemical pills are not to be missed.
Ding-ling-ling.
The class bell rang.
The class teacher stepped into the classroom with the bell, signaling the start of the evening self-study.
The cultivation exam was only half a month away, and all evening self-study sessions during this period had been adjusted to focus on spiritual practice classes. Even the daytime classes had been largely taken over by spiritual practice. Subjects like language, mathematics, foreign languages, physics, and chemistry would only return to their regular schedule after the cultivation exam was over.
In this world, the cultivation examination was what mattered the most; ordinary universities had to step aside.
The class teacher glanced at the students with dissatisfaction, huffed, and then began to scold them with a stern face.
"What time is it now, and you're still chatting and messing around? Don't you feel any sense of urgency?"
"Stop staring at me! Those of you who need to cultivate should cultivate, and if you've used up all your cultivation sessions for today, then take out your five years of examination for cultivation and three years of simulation materials to review!"
"You show no initiative in your learning at all, truly the worst batch I've ever taught!"
"Look at Class 5, they're much better than you all. If you can't make good use of this last bit of time before the cultivation examination, you'll all be crying once it's over!"
After the class teacher finished scolding, many students put on their headphones and stood up in the aisle to practice the 7th Set of National High School Qi Cultivation Technique.
In order to aid in cultivation, every school classroom was equipped with runes that quickly calmed the mind and allowed students to enter a state of cultivation. There was also ample space ensured so that each student could fully perform their cultivation techniques without feeling restricted or bumping into anything.
It wasn't Su Mu's time to cultivate, so he pulled out a thick book titled "Five Years of Examination for Cultivation and Three Years of Simulation" from the tall stack on his desk and began to read intently.
This guidebook not only covered a lot of knowledge about cultivation but also many topics related to the specialized subject examination.
The world had a detailed categorization of knowledge related to cultivation and magic, with popular majors including runes, alchemical cuisine, alchemical pills, and magical artifacts. Other majors like Spiritual Plants, beast taming, body refining, and flying swords had also become increasingly popular over the past few years.
The specialized subject examination allowed examinees to choose one or more cultivation majors they were interested in. A sexy examiner would then teach a basic spell related to the chosen major online, and the examinee had to master and apply it within a set time.
The examiner would score based on the time taken and the effectiveness of the learned spell, which would affect the arrangement of their major and minor subjects. If all scores fell below the passing line, the examinee would be eliminated.
However, students eliminated during the specialized subject examination were often snapped up by training institutions like Lanxiang and New Oriental, which even offered discounts on tuition and fees.
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Although these students didn't meet the requirements of cultivation universities, they were still much more talented than the average person. Even if they couldn't become cultivators, learning some cultivation techniques to become an advanced technician was still very feasible.
Advanced technicians in cultivation were also a high-income group that many envied.
Regrettably, the "Five Years of Examination for Cultivation and Three Years of Simulation" book only briefly mentioned past examination questions and did not provide detailed explanations or teach any spells.
To learn spells before the specialized subject examination, one either had to be born into a cultivation family or spend a lot of money to enroll in a pre-examination training course. It was impossible to learn spells at school or from a guidebook.
Even so, "Five Years of Examination for Cultivation and Three Years of Simulation" was still a must-read.
Time flew by quickly, and before long, it was 9:30 PM, time for the evening self-study session to end.
The class teacher gave his usual lecture before finally announcing the end of school.
Su Mu and Liu Peng, along with other classmates interested in the special effect qi refining pill, headed to the sports field.
People were already waiting there. When Su Mu arrived, they urged him to hurry up and distribute the special effect qi refining pills.
Su Mu didn't listen to them and said with a smile, "Don't rush; some people haven't arrived yet. Let's wait a bit longer."
After waiting for another twenty minutes, several more groups of people trickled in.
Su Mu figured no more people would be coming, so he withdrew his gaze and scanned the crowd on the sports field.
There weren't many, just about a hundred.
His school's senior class had twenty sections, with over a thousand students, and only about one-tenth had shown up.
Even this number had come out because of the free special effect qi refining pills being distributed; otherwise, there would have been even fewer.
"Why have so few people come?" Liu Peng frowned, displaying a mix of dissatisfaction and concern.
Su Mu, however, was quite satisfied.
"It's enough, more than I expected. Our school has just over two hundred students with a spiritual qi value around 900, and half of them are here. Once they've tried the special effect qi refining pills and see the benefits, word will spread. Then, not only the rest of those students will come, but even those with a spiritual qi value above 850 might show up."
"After all, you only get one shot at the examination for cultivation in your lifetime. Even if the chances are slim, many will still throw themselves into it like moths to a flame, not stopping until they're broken and bleeding."
Despite there being over two hundred students with a spiritual qi value around 900 at his school, the number who would actually make it into a cultivation university could probably be counted on one hand.
Cultivation is the dream of countless people.
But for the vast majority, it remains just that—a dream.
Still, they'll give their all until that dream shatters.
After consoling Liu Peng with a few words, Su Mu raised his voice to the crowd: "I won't go on about the effects of the special effect qi refining pill, so you don't think I'm bragging. You'll get to try it soon enough and see for yourselves. Let me tell you the price: a box of twelve for 10,000 yuan, same as regular qi refining pills."
"Damn, how much?"
"10,000 yuan? Did I hear that right?"
"Have you lost your mind wanting money? It's so expensive, why don't you just rob us!"
An uproar spread across the field.
Even Liu Peng's mouth fell open, his look one of shock and disbelief at Su Mu.
He knew the special effect qi refining pills really worked wonders and had guessed they'd be somewhat pricey, but he hadn't expected them to be this expensive.
10,000 yuan, a hundred times the price of ordinary qi refining pills!
Wasn't this extortion?
Selling them at such a high price, would anyone buy them? Could they even sell?
Indeed, the mark of a profiteer!