Chapter 201 - 200: Sweet Smiles and Sheer Stockings
The Yang Family Army sampled the food in the second-floor cafeteria.
A meal cost around 200 to 400 per person, far surpassing the first floor’s standard. The decor was elegant, rivaling high-end restaurants in Jianghuai City, and it was à la carte.
The food was definitely better, too.
As for the "Source Supplement"...
Although most items on the menu were labeled "High Source," a single meal probably only provided a 0.1 boost.
It was the same old story: for Source Supplement, medicine and injections were always more cost-effective. High Source cuisine was an indulgence and a status symbol for the wealthy.
It was more about form than substance.
As for the third and fourth floors... the benefits might be greater, but the cost-effectiveness could be even worse.
In the spirit of not wasting a single drop of Source, Tian Zihan meticulously picked out and ate every last fava bean on his plate.
Yang Shen saw his pitiful state. ’This disciple of mine doesn’t have it easy,’ he thought. ’Aside from his family’s tendency to go all-in, his filial piety is quite genuine.’
So he asked, "Zihan, is your family still living in the same place?"
Tian Zihan shook his head with a guileless look. "We’ll be moving soon. I’m going to use half of my Martial Arts stipend to support my family. Once I get paid next month, we’ll rent a new place—at least sixty square meters this time, though still in the Jinshui District."
Yang Shen nodded. "You don’t have to wait for next month. I’ll lend you some money. Thirty thousand should be enough to cover three months’ rent and a one-month deposit."
Before he had even finished speaking, Tian Zihan dropped to his knees with a THUD. However, because he was so tall, his kneeling posture wasn’t much different from his sitting one. "Thank you, Master Yang!"
Yang Shen then turned to Yuan Rui. "Regarding the club subsidies you mentioned, let’s cap the total at 100,000 a month for now. I’ll provide the funds. When the time comes, remember to set aside a share for Tian Zihan."
Yuan Rui was deeply moved, marveling at his master’s paternal affection for his disciple.
He had originally planned to use his own allowance.
But it didn’t matter. This way, the club would be more tightly bound to their master.
In truth, given that Tian Zihan had entered the university ranked at the bottom of Class 38, a typical trajectory would have seen him become one of Jiangti’s "Lying Flat Life" students. He would have likely muddled through four years, somehow scraping his way to the Innate realm, before graduating to find a job and slowly pay off his loans.
But now, as a member of the Yang Family Army, things were different. He was not only benefiting from Master Yang’s generosity but also from the prestige of the group’s name.
’It’s a debt I can never repay!’
’In fact, the debt is only growing larger!’
Yuan Rui said, "One hundred thousand a month should be enough for the initial phase."
As for how many people he could recruit with that 100,000, that would depend on his own skills.
Competing with the Martial Arts Families in terms of raw financial power would be foolish, but Yuan Rui was a pragmatist who knew how to think on his feet.
The same amount of money that would be a mere drop in the bucket to some could earn the undying loyalty of others.
The sum wasn’t much of a burden for Yang Shen. Although his endorsement income had been a one-time payment and was nearly spent, his three books were still bestsellers, and he had a continuous stream of royalties from his "Source Tutoring" video course.
His monthly income was around 1.2 million, with the video course being the largest contributor.
After all, his nine-episode "Explanation of the Sixth Set" wasn’t padded with filler like the physical books, so it had received an excellent reception and continued to be a hot seller.
And once the Spirit Field was fully operational, the profits would be even more terrifying. Aided by the Spirit Plant Inheritance, even back when he only had a few dozen flowerpots, he could make 600,000 every half-month by running it at full capacity.
Now, however, he owned a full ten mu of land, and he was even using the "fertile soil" propagated from the "Earth."
Money wasn’t the issue. The real issue was when money couldn’t buy development.
The rules at Jiangti all encouraged top students to form their own cliques, so he would treat this as a vital component for the future development of the Yang Family.
He hoped to eventually find a few figures like Chen Beiwang.
In a way, he and the Legitimate Sons of top-tier Martial Arts Clans, like Jiang Xin, were not just competing for rankings, but also for resources and talent.
After lunch, they still had some time before their afternoon classes. The group conferred for a moment and decided to go check out the "Medicine Hall."
The so-called Medicine Hall was an extremely important facility at Jiangti.
To ensure students took safe medicine, received safe injections, avoided injury from improper use, and especially to prevent infectious diseases from unhygienic practices, every Martial Arts University had a "Medicine Hall."
It not only provided affordable medication but was also staffed with professional nurses and pharmacists. The monthly Quota Supplements were also distributed there.
There was a saying among outsiders: if you want to know how good a university is, don’t look at how grand its academic buildings are—look at how impressive its Medicine Hall is.
And Jiangti’s was incredible. It had one of the nation’s top Medical Schools and administered four top-tier hospitals. They had everything.
The "Medicine Hall" had become Jiangti’s central hub for medicine and treatment, staffed by experts the university had trained itself.
Yang Shen stood at the bottom of a massive staircase, gazing up at the grand, palace-like, antique-style building before him. ’Jiangti really is loaded,’ he thought.
Then he looked at the sheer density of the crowd coming and going. ’And the people at Jiangti are absolute freaks...’
’Isn’t this just like a major hospital?’
’No... it probably makes more money than a major hospital. You can’t buy cheap cold medicine here; it’s all Supplements.’
The Yang Family Army walked inside and found it spacious, bright, and orderly, with very high ceilings.
Even with over a thousand people inside, it didn’t feel crowded.
The dispensary, the administration ward, and the infirmary occupied different sections. Many of the nurses were young and beautiful, clearly peers of the students. They all had sweet smiles and wore sheer stockings.
Tian Zihan muttered, "I never would’ve thought that even for getting an injection, the nurses are ranked. Are the prettier ones more expensive?"
Yuan Rui shook his head. "Junior Brother, you’re mistaken. As far as I know, the older they are here, the more expensive they are. For these tall, long-legged nurses, a single injection costs about a 30-yuan service fee. But for those old, ugly, grumpy ones who look like they’re menopausal to the bone and have terrible bad breath, one shot costs a 300-yuan service fee."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because the young and pretty ones are all interns, some haven’t even graduated yet. They’re just here to practice. The old, ugly ones with the bad attitudes are the ones who have mastered the real techniques."
Yuan Rui’s expression turned reverent. "The Medical School has many specialized Martial Arts. While administering an injection, they can make their hands vibrate precisely 200 times per second to help the medicine absorb faster. They can even atomize the dose directly with their palms from a distance, guaranteeing not a single drop is wasted."
After a moment, Tian Zihan nodded in agreement. "So, the old ones really are better. Nurses are like fine wine—they get more refined with age."
Yang Shen didn’t need any medicine at the moment, but the others—including Zhuzi, who had yet to succeed in her Cultivation—did. So they took a few laps around the Medicine Hall.
He saw some upperclassmen collecting their "Quota Supplements" and noticed that the hall also offered a storage service. It was like a nightclub where you could "keep a bottle," which made sense since many of the medicines required special storage conditions.
As for how Yang Shen knew that you could keep a bottle at a nightclub...
Don’t ask. If you have to ask, let’s just say he got a little lost during the commercialization of the college entrance exams.
By the time they left, Yuan Rui and Cao Wei were each carrying a bag of Supplements. These were all medicines that were in short supply or even restricted on the open market, but here, there were no limits.
Mega-corporations in fields like the Biological Domain and from firms like Seed Origin Technology all worked in close partnership with Jiangti. Many of the drugs were even jointly developed.
Yang Shen said, "By that logic, couldn’t someone make a decent profit just by reselling medicine from the university?"
Yuan Rui shook his head. "Some people definitely do, but you have to register your student ID to buy medicine, and there are purchasing limits based on your cultivation realm. For example, Cao Wei and I are in the Mid-stage of Marrow Refining, so our total monthly purchases on campus can’t exceed 50,000."
"In other words, reselling medicine is effectively trading your own cultivation resources for cash. It would actually hold back your Martial Arts Cultivation."
That made sense. The total amount of medicine a student could buy was tied to their realm. If they resold some, they would naturally have less for themselves.
It might be fine for students who had completely given up on advancing or those in a desperate emergency, but anyone ambitious would be reluctant to do so.
Conversely, those who were wealthy enough to not rely on university resources couldn’t be bothered to make such petty cash.
With that, the group dispersed. They all had different classes in the afternoon; even Zhuzi and Yang Shen’s schedules didn’t fully overlap.
His afternoon class, "Advanced Spear Technique," was in Stadium 8. Only by obtaining the instructor’s permission in this class could he apply to study Spear Martial Arts.
It wouldn’t be difficult for Yang Shen. He had no intention of spending an entire semester on this course like an ordinary student.