Chapter 527: Dark Currents Flowing (Thanks to 'Falling Leaves and Fragrant Flowers' for rewarding the alliance leader)

As the class topper for three consecutive years, Su Yunni had always believed her position would remain secure.

As for Zhang Yu, who had transferred from the Civil Engineering department, she initially paid him no mind.

However, seeing him gradually rise in fame within the Artifact Forging Department over the past few months, Su Yunni couldn't help but feel competitive, resolving to firmly hold onto her top spot.

Studying, practicing problems, conducting experiments... Every time she thought of Zhang Yu hot on her heels, she dared not slack off in the slightest.

On the day of the exam, she pushed herself to the limit, giving it her all.

That evening, in early September, Su Yunni constantly refreshed the scoreboard on her eye display, eager to see her results immediately.

"First!"

Seeing her ranking, Su Yunni breathed a sigh of relief: "I'm still class first."

Just as she was feeling a bit smug, planning to check the group chat to see if anyone was praising her, she saw Zi Yunzhen post: "Did you know? Zhang Yu submitted his exam half an hour early."

Another person replied: "I was in the same exam room as him. He left the lab an hour early."

Zi Yunzhen: "That early? No wonder he was already there when I went to the lab that day."

Upon seeing these messages, Su Yunni frowned and immediately re-checked the rankings and overall scores.

Zhang Yu was still second in the class, but due to an increase in his overall score, as well as the graduation of senior students, his departmental ranking had jumped from 48th to 39th.

After calculating the change in his overall score, Su Yunni discovered that he had increased his score by the same amount as she had in this final exam.

"I got a perfect score... did he also get a perfect score?"

But Su Yunni then realized that she had achieved her perfect score through immense effort, while he had left every exam early, clearly not exerting his full potential.

The excitement of maintaining her class-topping position cooled down instantly. Su Yunni felt as if she had punched cotton – her much-anticipated final exam, which she had taken so seriously, Zhang Yu had treated casually.

"Is this guy focusing all his energy on his projects?"

The lights in Su Yunni's eye display flickered as she opened up the textbooks for higher grades one by one.

"I need to prepare well for the design competition too."

Although Zhang Yu talked about directly competing with Jin Jun, Su Yunni naturally didn't believe he could succeed.

Su Yunni made up her mind to prepare thoroughly for the design competition: "I must win a prize in the design competition and obtain military-grade cultivation techniques before Zhang Yu produces a military-grade project."

When purchasing the artifact forging materials needed for her experiments, Su Yunni frowned slightly: "Have raw materials increased in price?"

"Is it because of the Top Ten League?"

Although the price of raw materials had risen, it was not significant for Su Yunni, nor did she pay it much mind.

The refreshed final exam results also marked the beginning of a new academic year.

Zhang Yu had also become a fourth-year student.

Currently, students in the Songyang Hometown group chat were constantly refreshing messages.

Most of the messages were from freshmen who had arrived on the second level after finishing their college entrance exams. They had been the most active in posting messages after arriving on the second level recently, and now frequently discussed the environments, academics, coursework, and dorms of different schools in the group.

Zhang Yu looked at their conversations and felt as if he was seeing his freshman self.

Yu Xinghan: "90% new second-hand Skyeye optical display, anyone interested?"

Yu Xinghan: "Once you're in college, without a good eye display, even attending classes isn't smooth."

Seeing Yu Xinghan recommending eye displays to freshmen again, Zhang Yu didn't mind; many people in the group were doing similar things, which was considered a form of senior-junior support from Songyang City.

However, some of the freshmen's topics of conversation still caught Zhang Yu's attention.

"Has Songyang High School become one of the four major high schools in Songyang City?"

Zhang Yu looked at the recently graduated Songyang High School students in the group and found that many of them were asking about him, seemingly very interested.

"I didn't expect my legend to still live on, even years after leaving Songyang High School."

While the freshmen in the group were full of vigor, graduating seniors occasionally posted various laments.

"Have you found a job?"

"This month's employment rate data has dropped again, it seems related to the Top Ten League."

"Graduation means unemployment... I guess I'll just have to do odd jobs for now..."

Most students couldn't truly grasp the feeling of being a graduate.

The subtle changes in employment data seemed to most people to be just like the usual annual fluctuations in employment rates.

However, the start of the Top Ten League caught many people's attention and interrupted Zhang Yu's deep cultivation in the Grand Clarity Realm.

This year's Top Ten League took place on a floating island amidst a sea of clouds.

Besides various professional competitions, the most anticipated events in the Top Ten League were naturally the military competitions.

For instance, the Ten School Sword Duel attracted a lot of attention, and Zhang Yu knew that Bai Zhenzhen and Wen Wuya would also participate.

There was also the Ten School Treasure Duel, where, as Zhang Yu knew, Yan Qianji from the Artifact Forging Department, his senior sister Ye Xingli, and several other artifact forging prodigies would participate.

Due to Ye Xingli's participation, her experimental project was paused, and her assistant, Zi Yunzhen, temporarily had no experimental work to do.

Zhang Yu had a good impression of Zi Yunzhen: "She cleans materials very thoroughly."

Zhang Yu considered that if he were to start refining the Blazing Sun God later, he might also recruit Zi Yunzhen as his assistant for miscellaneous tasks to speed up his refining progress.

Facing Zhang Yu's invitation, Zi Yunzhen only asked: "How much is the pay?"

Zhang Yu: "Young people shouldn't only think about money. Don't you want to participate in military-grade projects?"

Zhang Yu: "Besides, I can repair magical artifacts. If you join my project team later, I can personally help you repair your magical artifacts."

Zi Yunzhen had no interest in the "pie in the sky" Zhang Yu was offering, replied casually, and then didn't bother looking at it again.

Right after she finished replying to the message on her eye display, she noticed her neighbor's dorm room door was open, and a strong foul odor was emanating from it.

Speaking of her neighbor, Zi Yunzhen knew they were a senior student in the Artifact Forging Department but hadn't seen them for a long time.

Today, she learned that the person had committed suicide in their dorm room a few days ago, seemingly due to the plummeting value of stocks they had purchased.

"It seems several stocks have fallen quite drastically recently."

However, Zi Yunzhen was no stranger to people committing suicide due to stock crashes, so she glanced at it twice and didn't pay it much attention.

She casually walked into the dorm room, adjusting her eye display.

"It's the Ten School Sword Duel today, isn't it?"

"Why has the medical insurance for the competition increased so much?"

On the sea of clouds, Bai Zhenzhen looked at the medical insurance contract in front of her and couldn't help but curse: "They're treating us like lambs to be slaughtered!"

Wen Wuya, standing beside her, said: "Zhenzhen, aren't insurance companies all like this? If it weren't for our teacher's connections this time, and the need to ensure fairness in the Top Ten League, they probably wouldn't even sell us insurance, just like usual."

With a whoosh, a sword qi strike landed on Wen Wuya, clashing with her protective sword qi.

Wen Wuya didn't mind this, as Bai Zhenzhen's sword qi would emerge from nothingness whenever her emotions fluctuated slightly.

Fortunately, Bai Zhenzhen's control had significantly improved; students of a certain cultivation level or higher were generally not instantly killed by her sword, and powerful students like Wen Wuya could treat it as if nothing had happened.

The other top students from Heavenly Sword University around them were also not weak, and paid even less attention to it.

Bai Zhenzhen grumbled: "It's still too expensive."

Wen Wuya advised: "I heard the insurance fees for this Top Ten League have all gone up, so it's normal for it to be more expensive."

However, in the next moment, Bai Zhenzhen's expression suddenly changed from gloomy to delighted, and her body swayed as if she had a tail wagging.

Upon seeing this, Wen Wuya immediately understood that Bai Zhenzhen was communicating with Zhang Yu.

Whooshing sounds filled the air as the Heavenly Sword University participants, including Wen Wuya, swiftly moved away from Bai Zhenzhen.

The next moment, crimson sword light swept around Bai Zhenzhen, leaving deep sword marks in the air.

Watching this, Wen Wuya thought to herself: "Every time she talks to Zhang Yu is when Zhenzhen is most dangerous."

"Did the Seven Emotions Divine Monarch specifically arrange for them to talk before the match to enhance Zhenzhen's combat power?"

"A-Zhen, you got this!"

After ending the call with Bai Zhenzhen, Zhang Yu received a message from Ying Xin.

"The construction funds haven't arrived yet?"

Zhang Yu immediately contacted the person in charge, Gathered Stars True Lord, but the reply left him feeling helpless.

Gathered Stars True Lord: "It's not that I'm not helping, but everyone's money is currently tied up, and there's nothing I can do."

Gathered Stars True Lord: "Many projects might have to be temporarily halted. Tell your people to bear with it for a bit longer; it should be fine after the Top Ten League ends."

Zhang Yu: "What does it have to do with the Top Ten League? Why would a competition affect our projects?"

Gathered Stars True Lord: "Don't ask me, I don't know either."

Looking at the many employees waiting for their pay in the company, Zhang Yu could only take out his savings again to distribute a portion of their salaries, telling Zhao Tianxing and the others to find part-time jobs for now.

Then Zhang Yu looked at the live broadcast on his eye display; Bai Zhenzhen's duel with her opponent had already begun.

The two fiercely battled across the boundless sea of clouds, covering hundreds of kilometers, simultaneously detecting each other's movements and concealing their own.

In the rolling cloud sea, only occasional flashes of sword light could be seen, leaving behind hundreds of meters long sword marks in the sky.

Thanks to the divine root's concealment ability, Bai Zhenzhen remained undetected by her opponent and ultimately succeeded in striking them down from the cloud-filled sky.

Zhang Yu noticed that the subsequent sword duels became increasingly intense, and casualties gradually began to appear.

Not just the sword duels, but as the Top Ten League continued, Zhang Yu soon discovered that other military competitions were equally fierce, and although the casualties were not as high as in the sword duels, they were still more numerous than in previous years.

Zhang Yu mused: "They say the ten major universities use the victories and losses in the Top Ten League to distribute benefits. Is it that the conflicts between the ten universities are intensifying, leading to even fiercer fighting in the Top Ten League?"

And when Bai Zhenzhen battled the Soul Transformation disciple from White Bone University, this intensity escalated to a new level.