“Master, you want me to buy a plot of land from you?” she asked, slightly surprised. “Not that I have anything against it, but...”

  Hua Tang offered her an unusually spacious plot of land located on flat terrain in a valley, barely fifty kilometers from the capital. It was an ideal piece of land, but...

  “Yes. There’s no catch.” He replied with a smile. He nervously tapped his pen on the desk in a rhythmic manner. It was one of his many tics that May had observed. It usually meant that he was hiding something, but it didn't necessarily have to be something negative. Contrary to appearances, Hua Tang was quite socially awkward

  “Even considering such an absurdly low price?” she asked suspiciously. Hua Tang wanted only thirty thousand from her. It was obvious to May that the plot was worth much more.

  Hua Tang just shrugged. “Is there anything wrong with wanting to support my disciple?”

  May rolled her eyes. She wasn't naive. “As I guess, Master, you would want a few percent of the profits if I am successful.”

  Hearing her words, he just snorted and pretended to be offended. However, his poor acting skills were not enough to fool her. “Do you think so poorly of your master?”

  “I’m a realist.” She replied. “And I know that nothing in this world comes for free. Whether you're my master or not.”

  “That's terribly sad,” he said, clicking his tongue. “But you're not wrong. I do offer the same as with our penicillin deal. I want to invest in you.”

  It was something she had anticipated. She just sighed quietly. To tell the truth, May didn’t mind it. She needed a lot of money. There was also something comforting about having the support of another person.

  After a short break, he continued. “Besides, there's a mine nearby that belongs to me. It's only a few minutes away,” he said with a smile. “You mentioned something about iron, didn't you? In that case, this place is perfect.”

  “Oh...?” She was surprised. Indeed, she would need some iron as a catalyst, but that was still a distant future. “It's hard for me to refuse this offer. However, we need to work out the details.”

  “Of course.” He said, “However, since this is a long-term investment, there is no need to rush.”

  He was quite right about that. To solve the sect's biggest problem, namely food shortages resulting from barren land, she needed more than just a few discoveries. She had to recreate all of Earth's modern chemical technology.

  “It's a pleasure doing business with the Master,” she said with a smile after concluding the agreement.

  He nodded. “How long do you think it will take you?”

  “A few decades? For now, this place will be my center for experiments...”

  “I see... You certainly don't lack enthusiasm,” he said, frowning. “But don't forget not to do anything reckless.”

  At these words, her bodyguard began to look at her closely, which made her laugh a little.

  “Of course, I plan to be well-behaved,” she said, but no one believed her.

  ───── ??☆?? ─────

  She struck the air a few times and made a nimble dodge to the side. She looked a bit like a circus performer, but appearances were deceiving. In reality, she was training her martial arts. These were movements only possible in this world, where Qi energy existed.

  For the past two months, she had done nothing special except cultivate and train her skills. She had no shortage of money, so she could buy only the most expensive and best items from the system, which accelerated her cultivation pace to unearthly speeds.

  The other three geniuses couldn't compare to her.

  She decided not to buy new skills with her income, but to wait and ultimately strengthen her talent. It took a little longer than she expected, as penicillin revenues slowed down a bit (supply could not keep up with demand).

  The expansion of the production plant was still ongoing, and revenues had stabilized, although they would undoubtedly increase in the future.

  May immediately felt a warmth inside. It had been a long time since she had felt that pleasant feeling of enlightenment that came with the growth of her talent. She smiled to herself and couldn't wait to test it out.

  “I hope you know what you're doing,” Minnie said to her, extremely concerned that someone would see through their actions.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Relax. No one from the sect will check my talent again. As for my rapid progress... It can be explained by money. Even without the existence of the system, it is common knowledge that cultivation is easier with money.

  May sat down and decided to see how the new talent turned out. As soon as she started, the changes were extremely noticeable.

  Oh...? I originally predicted the eighth stage around the second year, but at this rate... I'll make it in the first year!

  Reaching the eighth stage of Qi Refinement at the age of eleven would be an great achievement for the entire region. After all, to be considered a genius, it would be enough to reach the fifth or sixth stage... Of course, there were a few other people in the region with similar results, but it would still put May among the top geniuses.

  After all, even if someone had more talent than her, for example one in a million or one in a hundred million talent, May still had unprecedented amount of resources and support from the system that an ordinary person could never obtain in their lifetime.

  “What is this..” Niu Pin, who had been watching her from the sidelines, had been observing her every day for the past few months. He was impressed by her diligence and discipline, but even this usually calm man could not help but feel jealous of her talent.

  Being at the Foundation Establishment stage and having cultivated for nearly half a century, he was stunned to see her pace. At first, he didn't understand why someone like him would be a bodyguard for some girl, but he already knew that he was standing before someone who would change the face of the sect.

  May, on the other hand, was so excited about her new talent that she kept practicing for hours. She only finished the next day, when she made a little progress. “Huh... It took a little longer than I expected, but it's not bad.”

  She got up from the ground and decided to freshen up before going to class. Although there weren't many things there that she personally found noteworthy, she still went to class, even though she probably didn't have to.

  She went to her first class. It was a formation course, which she had been trying to avoid lately. It was her least favorite subject, but she decided she couldn't keep running away from it. She sighed quietly and headed to class. Niu Pin disappeared as soon as she entered Cloud Academy. May had no idea how he did it, but luckily no one had noticed his presence so far.

  “Oh! Look who's finally gracing us with her presence, the great May Shang!” hissed the elderly female professor who taught Basics of Formation. She made no secret of her animosity towards May.

  “Sorry for being late,” she replied casually and sat down next to Peng Chen, who looked at her with concern.

  Professor Le Huea, commonly known as Pig, was clearly not pleased with May's carefree attitude and occasionally gave her unpleasant looks.

  The lesson was in full swing. May was having trouble understanding the topic under discussion. This was due to her falling behind.

  “Now we will move on to individual work. In five minutes, one of you will present your results to the rest of the class,” she said, coming to the blackboard and drawing the problem.

  Great, May thought.

  She already knew who she would choose to present the problem. She stared at the question. It was a fairly simple task of transferring one of the defensive formations from a geometric system to a symbolic system. She understood the problem, but had no idea how to solve it.

  The room was completely silent. She tried to see if Peng, who was sitting next to her, had the answer, but unfortunately, he didn't seem to know much more than she did. She sighed quietly. She thought about nudging Zu Chen, who was sitting in front of them, but quickly dismissed the idea due to the prevailing silence.

  “If you don't know the answer, you know you can just ask the system...?” Minnie finally suggested, seeing her desperation.

  Oh! Yes, I'm so stupid sometimes! How much will it cost?

  Seeing the low price, May was surprised for a moment, but quickly realized that the problem was so simple that it couldn't cost much.

  The answer to the question immediately popped into May's head. She quickly wrote down the solution. Still, she couldn't figure out where the answer came from. Theoretically, she could have bought an “understanding” of the problem, but that would have cost way more.

  After a few more minutes of silence, Pig finally spoke. “May Shang, come up and write down the solution.”

  Just as expected. May thought with a smile.

  She got up, walked closer, and began to redraw the answer from the piece of paper. Seeing this, Le Huea frowned and was slightly irritated by the fact that May knew the answer. After a moment, Pig decided that May had probably copied the answer from one of her classmates, so she said, “Please put the paper away. You should be able to do this from memory.”

  May smirked, aware of what she was thinking. She had no problem with that, though. She put the paper away and finished the task herself. The system had ultimately put the answer directly into her head, so contrary to Le Huea’s expectations, she had no trouble solving the problem correctly.

  The pig spent a moment trying to find a flaw in her solution, but quickly realized she couldn't. It was quite logical, considering that the solution had been given to her by the system, and was therefore the most optimal solution. Le Huea, however, did not give up and decided to deliver her final blow.

  “Correct... Could you perhaps explain your logic in solving it to the rest of us?” she asked, as a last attempt to attack May. However, she did not have high expectations.

  Damn it!

  May was unable to explain how she did it. How irritating that was. She also knew that, for some reason, buying ready-made knowledge from the system was terribly expensive.

  Minnie?

  “Five thousand,” she replied curtly.

  You must be joking! she thought angrily. It was just basic knowledge, but she wanted that much money for it? Ordinary people would be considered wealthy if they earned that much in a whole month. Was avoiding humiliation in front of everyone really worth that price?

  “May Shang! Do you often freeze like that? Is there something wrong with your head?” The professor frowned and began to insult her while May was busy answering Minnie.

  Ugh! I'll buy that knowledge!

  May couldn't stand Pig's attitude and decided that even if it was a bit of a waste of money, showing her would be worth it!

  Once again, she felt overwhelmed by knowledge, this time much more intensely. All the knowledge about translating formations. It was information worth hours of self-study. She felt a twinge in her head. Although the system was safe and reliable, she still felt uncomfortable.

  “I'll explain...” she gasped wearily, seeing Le Huea already irritated by the wait. She felt weak, but within five minutes she explained the solution so well that even the mean teacher couldn't find fault with it.

  The Pig hissed and ordered her to return to her seat, without even a word of acknowledgment. May crawled back to her place with difficulty. Her poor condition was easily noticeable, but Professor Le was quite pleased with this fact.

  She began rubbing her temples, trying to process the information that had flooded her mind.

  “Are you okay? You look paler than usual,” Peng Chen asked, concerned.

  “I'm fine, I just got a migraine,” she replied, not entirely lying.

  Acquiring that amount of knowledge was unpleasant. It wasn't even such a huge amount of information, so May decided to be cautious with this option in the future.