"A very strong student? Is he from our school? A senior?"

"Who is it?"

"Where is he?"

Everyone chattered as they looked around curiously.

After all, any student Chen Che called "very strong" had to be extraordinary.

However, the street was a river of people, and the person in question had long since vanished.

"I’m not sure."

Chen Che shook his head. The guy’s aura was top-tier, even among the seniors.

More importantly, he carried himself differently, like a city kid visiting the countryside—he stood out like a crane among chickens.

"I thought I heard someone call him Ye Zhihan..."

"Ye Zhihan, you say? Let me look him up."

Qi Fengzhu took out his phone and typed in the name.

Seeing this, Lin Yi couldn’t help but smack him on the back of the head. "You idiot. There are so many people with the same name. You think you’ll find him?"

Sure enough, after hitting search, the web page immediately displayed a row of big shots with the same name and accompanying photos:

There was a business elite, a Nascent Soul grandmaster, a men’s health doctor...

...and even some badass who made the news for biting a dog back after it bit him.

"All right, stop searching. Let’s go get some Spirit Tea."

Chen Che shook his head. He was just a random person they’d passed on the street; there was no need for everyone to get so worked up.

Just as the others were losing interest, Qi Fengzhu suddenly gasped in surprise, pointing at a photo on his phone.

"Look, is this him?"

When Chen Che saw the face, he froze for a moment before nodding.

"It really is him?"

Qi Fengzhu seemed astonished and immediately held up his phone to read aloud:

"Ye Zhihan! Second-year student at Zhurong Daoist School Middle School, Earth Spirit Root, Mid-stage Eighth Layer, Vice President of the middle school’s student council, winner of the municipal combat competition, winner of the Array competition, and a student reporter for the Immortal Sect Student Press..."

With every title he read, the group let out a collective gasp.

A person like that was in a league of his own, even in He City, let alone the entire Six Continents.

"Now that’s what you call talent!"

Chen Che sighed in admiration.

Li Xiaoshuang had mentioned before that they would even encounter students in the Foundation Establishment Realm at the Immortal Sect competition.

Back then, he had thought it was an exaggeration. Now, it seemed almost commonplace.

Zhurong Daoist School was one of the Four Top Daoist Schools. That meant among the four affiliated middle schools of the Four Greats, there were likely at least four such students. Beyond that, there were plenty of other top-tier high schools across all the Immortal Sects. This meant there were quite a few students comparable to Ye Zhihan.

"The Immortal Sect competition is a stage for students like them. Ordinary students are just there to make the prodigies look good."

Huang Zhongfei sighed as well.

Losing in the combat competition and failing to advance in the Pill competition had been a significant blow to his confidence.

"What are you talking about? ’Look upon life and death with indifference; if you’re not convinced, then fight!’"

Lin Yi grinned and clapped Chen Che on the shoulder. "...Climbing over prodigies to get ahead—that’s what cultivators of our generation do. We’re here to prove that man can triumph over heaven."

Chen Che grinned back. "Of course!"

After cheerfully finishing their Spirit Tea, Chen Che returned home.

He glanced at his personal database and saw that the data packet had finished downloading.

After unzipping it, hundreds of folders instantly filled the screen. Chen Che took a look and noted that Old Li had been quite thoughtful, dividing the competing students into a "Dangerous Group" and an "Attention Group."

As the names suggested, the "Dangerous Group" consisted of students who could pose a major threat to him. Jiang Jingyuan, whom Li Xiaoshuang had introduced him to earlier, was classified in this group.

Because of what happened in the office, Chen Che made a point to look him up.

Jiang Jingyuan: High Grade Spirit Root, Early-stage Seventh Layer, Initial Awakening of Divine Sense.

There was also a brief family profile. His family owned a furniture city. Chen Che did a quick search and found they had a chain of two or three hundred stores across all the Immortal Sects, making them even richer than Huang Zhongfei’s family.

’Rich family, a good Spiritual Root... no wonder he’s so powerful...’

Chen Che then watched a few video clips and saw that Jiang Jingyuan’s adaptability and on-the-spot reactions were top-notch.

’His strength really is impressive. At his level, he’ll reach Foundation Establishment before the college entrance exams... He’s a shoo-in for the Four Great Daoist Schools,’ Chen Che mused.

He and Xiao Yang were merely considered seed students.

But this guy was a sure thing.

Next, Chen Che looked at the other students in the "Dangerous Group." Most of them were on par with Jiang Jingyuan, numbering just over thirty in total.

As for the remaining "Attention Group," there were well over two hundred people.

Most were either comparable to him in strength or slightly stronger. The majority were at the Late-stage Sixth Layer or had not yet awakened their Divine Sense, and he needed to be wary of them.

This was because there were still nearly four months until the provincial tournament.

These students would definitely be taking extra classes or even undergoing special training during the winter break. By the time the tournament started, there was no telling how much stronger they would have become, which was why they required attention.

Of course, with nearly a thousand students in the provincial tournament, this wasn’t everyone. The rest weren’t included, clearly because in Li Xiaoshuang’s eyes, the skill gap between Chen Che and those unlisted students was too large to be bridged in just four months.

After looking through the files for a while, Chen Che’s thoughts suddenly turned back to Ye Zhihan.

After all, for students from third or fourth-tier cities, prodigies like him were the kind you only ever read about in the news.

’So what if he’s a prodigy? I have a cheat!’

He grinned.

With a flash of light, Chen Che appeared directly in Yunzhou.

As usual, he first refined a batch of Pills and poured them into the bird’s dish. Watching the Little Chick lower its head and gobble them up with loud "CHOMP CHOMP" sounds, Chen Che couldn’t help but frown. The little thing’s appetite was getting bigger and bigger; he felt like he could barely afford to feed it anymore.

However, it seemed to change day by day. Now, standing on the ground, it already reached his calf. From its appearance, it was even starting to vaguely resemble a great eagle.

After finishing his Cultivation, Chen Che made a trip to the Market and gave the Pill Formula for the Leopard Embryo Elixir to Ding Fei, telling him to start gathering the ingredients.

Then, he gave Zhao Deyou a few words of guidance.

「The next day.」

As Chen Che arrived at school with Lin Yi, just like any other day, he suddenly froze.

Because there, standing right outside their classroom, was Ye Zhihan—the very person they had been talking about yesterday. He was leaning against the railing, gazing into the distance. The students from Class One also seemed to know who he was and were whispering about him.

"Did he hit his head on a door or something? Is he planning to transfer to our school?"

Lin Yi couldn’t help but mutter.

"No!"

Huang Zhongfei, who was passing by, shook his head. "He came with his parents. It looks like they’re here to handle Ye Youwei’s school transfer..."

"Ye Youwei is transferring? To where?"

She had been their classmate for a year and a half, not to mention she was the Martial Cultivation Committee Member. She was also beautiful and a focal point of the class. Even Chen Che was a little stunned.

"I don’t know. Probably Zhurong Middle School," Huang Zhongfei guessed.

However, what stunned him even more was that when Ye Youwei walked out with her bag packed, she seemed to want to say something upon seeing him, but in the end, she just turned and walked toward the office.

Ye Zhihan, who had been completely indifferent to everything, suddenly turned his head to ask, his gaze sizing him up.

"You’re Chen Che?"

"Yes."

Chen Che nodded.

The other boy seemed to ponder for a moment, then slowly extended his right hand.

"Let’s get acquainted. I’m Ye Zhihan, Ye Youwei’s older cousin."

Chen Che warily extended his hand, pushing his True Essence to its limits in preparation and tightening his Divine Sense. If this guy tried anything dirty, he planned to strike first and then duck into the office for cover.

But unexpectedly, Ye Zhihan just shook his hand briefly before following Ye Youwei into the office.

’How bizarre!’

The boy’s behavior left Chen Che feeling a little confused.

He returned to his seat, puzzled. Just as he was about to stuff his bag into his desk, Chen Che suddenly froze. From inside the desk cubby, he pulled out a glass bottle filled with stars.

...