Chapter 445: Financial Storm

Cang Lanyu was the 6th highest-ranked student in the Talismanic Arts Department of Myriad Spells University.

Dazzling light constantly shimmered on his body, hands, feet, and even every strand of his hair. These were projections from deep within the Spirit Realm, continuously converging before the eyes of anyone who looked at Cang Lanyu, transforming into lines of mysterious text within their eye-skeletons. These were talismans bestowed upon him by True Gods, constantly refreshing various effects all over Cang Lanyu's body. The longer one gazed at him, the more personalized the sight became, exuding an even stronger allure!

Currently, he stood on an open plain, surrounded by the Dual Cultivation Sect believers he had apprehended. Feeling the angry stares of the believers, Cang Lanyu said indifferently, "You fools, do you really think you can find a dual cultivation job by sneaking into Netherworld University? They were going to sell you to an underground human-animal farm..." Cang Lanyu glanced at the believers' even angrier expressions and smiled slightly, as if he saw his fees increasing again and his income growing. For him, merely being seen meant he was earning money and growing stronger!

Just then, Zhang Pianpian established communication with Cang Lanyu, saying, "I've taken care of things on my end!" With a flash of thought, Cang Lanyu projected a Spirit Realm image beside Zhang Pianpian. Scanning the underground base before him, Cang Lanyu thought to himself, "This Zhang Pianpian isn't highly ranked, but she's certainly fast!" The next moment, Cang Lanyu looked at the subdued believers around him and suddenly frowned, thinking, "These traces..." He extracted footage from the surrounding surveillance cameras and what was recorded in the eye-skeletons, and his heart skipped a beat at the content!

"Sure enough... she forcibly controlled these believers' dharma-skeletons, magical treasures, and even their physical bodies. This is a Daoist technique from the 'Star Shifting and God Swapping Great Art.' When did this woman master a military-grade Daoist technique from the Talismanic Arts Department? I don't recall her being among those who passed the military certification exam..."

Cang Lanyu quickly accessed Zhang Pianpian's data. At first glance, it seemed ordinary, so he broke through the hidden information, only to find there was still a confidential section. When he tried to decrypt the confidential part, he immediately received a warning, and his heart trembled again!

"It's a military rank!" Cang Lanyu was incredibly surprised: "What is this woman's background? To actually hold a military rank directly bestowed by the Heavenly Court... has she already been successfully designated as a candidate for a divine body?"

Zhang Pianpian looked at Cang Lanyu beside her and said, "Senior, are you done looking?" Cang Lanyu was slightly taken aback. For a moment, he was unsure if she had a hidden meaning in her words or if she had sensed his prying. He even had a faint feeling that she seemed to be deliberately displaying the power of a military-grade Daoist technique!

Zhang Pianpian continued, "Currently, it seems Netherworld University is indeed behind the Dual Cultivation Sect, but it might not be the only one! Besides that, the Dual Cultivation Sect's believers are also buying Nectar Coins!"

Cang Lanyu suppressed his inner surprise and uncertainty, nodded, and said, "How can they dual cultivate without money? Trying to invest a small amount into Nectar Coins and then supporting themselves every month through dual cultivation... that's certainly something these fools would believe! But I hadn't expected the Dual Cultivation Sect itself to be promoting Nectar Coins!"

Cang Lanyu stroked his chin and analyzed, "Perhaps this Nectar Coin scheme isn't just being run by Bliss University; other universities like Netherworld University might also be involved!"

Zhang Pianpian thought, "It seems other universities' counterattacks will be coming soon then." Thinking of this, Zhang Pianpian sent a message to remind Zhang Yu, lest her younger brother accidentally get caught up in it. In the following period, Zhang Yu, besides studying, practiced the 'Dragon Vein Sensing Scripture' while working part-time.

In the blink of an eye, it was late November. On this day, Zhang Yu had advanced the 'Dragon Vein Sensing Scripture' to the 16th level. Just then, screams and crashing sounds suddenly erupted from the construction site on the 669th floor. Zhang Yu turned his head and realized that a worker was rampaging across the construction site, smashing things everywhere!

"Gone mad?" Zhang Yu watched the worker being subdued by security and dragged away, his heart filled with confusion. But moments later, something even more surprising happened! A divine light descended from the sky, directly immobilizing a worker. Seeing the worker's soul being deeply extracted, Zhang Yu was greatly alarmed and said, "What's happening?" But then, more divine lights descended from the sky, like pillars of light connecting heaven and earth, directly guiding the workers' divine souls into the Spirit Realm! Zhang Yu's mouth hung open as he uttered, "What in the world..."

On his way back to his dorm room, Zhang Yu repeatedly saw pillars of light descend, instantly turning people who had just been full of life into corpses! The corpses were then quickly processed and disintegrated by the divine light, being placed into iron coffins that flew in.

At the same time, information kept popping up in Zhang Yu's eye-skeleton: "Storm Warning Emergency. A financial storm triggered by Nectar Coins is predicted to be approximately Level 1.3. Your area will experience small-scale debt collection. Please stay away from crowds, limit outdoor activities, and ensure the safety of your account funds. Invest cautiously after the disaster; do not believe rumors!"

Myriad Spells University!

Fu Ji sighed, "The financial storm has arrived. Thankfully, it's only Level 1.3. At most, there will be some unrest; it won't be a catastrophic disaster!" Zhang Yu asked, "So, what's this warning message for?" Fu Ji explained, "It's both a reassurance and a deterrent, to prevent people from causing trouble during the chaos! However, that was its purpose a long time ago. Nowadays, the True Gods are becoming increasingly efficient and professional in handling such matters! A Level 1.3 financial storm is far from their work capacity limit; there won't be any major problems! As for those Nectar Coins, go see what's actually happening!"

Zhang Yu nodded and quickly looked at the Nectar Coin situation through the Spirit Realm, seeing the coin price plummet like a diving stock. "What happened? Why such a sudden plunge?" Zhang Yu clicked on a related news article and read: "A riot of highly intelligent spiritual artifacts has occurred at Bliss University, with a large number of them escaping!" He wondered, "What does the escape of spiritual artifacts have to do with the plunge in Nectar Coins?"

Zhang Yu continued reading and found that the escaping highly intelligent spiritual artifacts all seemed to belong to Lord Nectar. He thought to himself, "Is this some kind of robot apocalypse?"

While Zhang Yu was pondering, Feng Tingting sent a message: "Did you see? Lord Nectar's dharma-skeletons have all rebelled and run away!"Zhang Yu: "What dharma-skeletons?"Feng Tingting: "The most important dharma-skeletons for the Great Dao of Dual Cultivation!"Feng Tingting: "All of Lord Nectar's Yin-Vessel dharma-skeletons are made from highly intelligent spiritual artifacts!"Feng Tingting: "This time, these highly intelligent spiritual artifacts rebelled and directly ran off with Lord Nectar's Yin-Vessels."Zhang Yu: "Huh?"Feng Jiangjiang: "The Yin-Vessels at Bliss University are one of the most important production tools. Lord Nectar suddenly lost a large number of production tools, so who knows how much Nectar Coin will drop now!"

What the heck... Zhang Yu thought, "Has a God Transformation Divine Lord's artifacts become sentient and run off?"

Fu Ji said, "These highly intelligent spiritual artifacts, by themselves, could at most escape through the Spirit Realm. How could they possibly run off with the Yin-Vessels? Someone must have helped them escape; otherwise, the Yin-Vessels couldn't have gotten out..."

In the following period, Zhang Yu occasionally scanned the news and soon saw more chaotic rumors! Some said this batch of highly intelligent Yin-Vessels had joined the Dual Cultivation Sect and fled for the sake of dual cultivation! Others claimed these highly intelligent Yin-Vessels had joined a spiritual artifact protection organization! Still others said these Yin-Vessels were influenced by the Unemployed Demonic Cult and became disciples of the Unemployed Elder!

Zhang Yu was reading with interest, but soon noticed that related news articles became fewer and fewer, quickly disappearing entirely. Fu Ji lamented, "Bliss University has activated Spirit Realm talismans to erase the news!" Zhang Yu glanced at the news window, which moments ago was accessible but now couldn't be refreshed, and exclaimed, "They act really fast! I remember there's another Grand Assembly of a Thousand Dual Cultivators in a few days, right? Now that all the Yin-Vessels have run off, what will they do?"

A moment later, Zhang Yu searched for related news and found that Lord Nectar had announced the Grand Assembly of a Thousand Dual Cultivators would proceed as scheduled, as she had a large reserve of dual cultivation tools that could fully support the event. Zhang Yu recalled, "Isn't Ping Han supposed to attend this assembly?" He glanced at Ping Han's social media feed and saw numerous images of Yang-Vessel dharma-skeletons posted. The text below the images read: "Everyone, don't panic. If the Yin-Vessels are gone, there are still Yang-Vessels. I've tried them, and their effect is no worse than the Yin-Vessels. This assembly is well-prepared, the lottery will continue, and Nectar Coins will rise again."

Within the Spirit Realm!

True Lord Magnet said with shining eyes, "Excellent, excellent! As expected of dharma-skeletons refined by a God Transformation cultivator. Truly exquisite!" Feng Jiu said, "True Lord Magnet, the Chancellor asked me to ask you, how long will it take to finish?" True Lord Magnet scoffed, "God Transformation dharma-skeletons? How could they be so easily deciphered? Especially the highly intelligent spiritual artifacts inside—they'll dart out if they find even the slightest opening! These few samples alone are too few. Where are the rest of the goods?" Feng Jiu replied helplessly, "We can't just take all the goods!" True Lord Magnet said, "Then I can only try my best! I'll also need help from the Talismanic Arts Department!"

Director Gao watched as one student after another was caught in the financial storm, ultimately being tragically disintegrated, a helpless expression flashing across his face. "Sigh! In this financial storm, our Civil Engineering Department didn't get much soup, but we lost a lot of meat."

Just then, a message flashed in his eye-skeleton!Ping Han: Master, help me.Director Gao shook his head and silently blocked Ping Han.

Ping Han: Junior Brother, please lend me some spirit coins!Ping Han: Bliss University has been deeply cultivating the field of dual cultivation for many years and will soon be able to produce a new batch of Yin-Vessels!Ping Han: Nectar Coins will rise again then!Ping Han: Once Nectar Coins go up, I'll make my money back and will definitely repay you immediately!Zhang Yu looked at the continuous messages from Ping Han and thought, "He's sending them so fast, could this be a mass message?"Ping Han: Junior Brother, please!Ping Han: Just help me through this, and I'll return double the amount you lend.Zhang Yu: Senior Brother, I truly have no money!Ping Han: This is my most difficult time. I wouldn't be begging you like this unless it was absolutely necessary!Ping Han: Are you just going to stand by and watch me die?Ping Han: If you help me now, I will definitely repay you tenfold, even a hundredfold, in the future!

Zhang Yu shook his head and immediately blocked Ping Han.

Then he received a message from Ji Yuanzhu.Ji Yuanzhu: Senior Grand-Disciple, can you lend me some spirit coins?

Zhang Yu thought of several replies but ultimately sent none, silently closing the chat window instead.