Ch. 272 - Sleep at 4, Wake at 7, King Yan Praises My Health [1]

"I absolutely have to make the most of this slot!"

Chen Shu steeled his resolve. Lord materials on the Beast Taming Website were expensive beyond reason.

A single Black Iron Lord was listed at four million — even if you were loaded, you couldn't throw money around like that.

He browsed through all manner of elemental skills, determined to pick out the best one.

Before he knew it, it was the dead of night.

"Forget it. There's way too many skill types. I'll ask Old Shen tomorrow."

Chen Shu yawned and drifted off, dead tired.

Bright and early the next morning, his phone rang.

"Who the hell...?"

Chen Shu rubbed his eyes and checked the time. Barely 7 a.m.

Xu Xingxing's voice came through:

"Chen Pi, we're about to get rich! Those two stones you gave me are insane expensive!"

Chen Shu's body jolted. The word "rich" instantly chased away most of his drowsiness.

"Hang on, I'm coming right now!"

Chen Shu threw himself together and headed straight out the door.

Xie Sunan and Xu Xingxing were already at a breakfast stall, their mouths practically trembling as they ate their youtiao.[2]

"Seriously, you two. Acting like you've never seen money before?"

Chen Shu arrived at the stall and casually grabbed a youtiao for himself.

Xu Xingxing leaned in close and said in a hushed tone, "Those stones of yours — each one's worth close to a hundred million!"

"Close to a hundred million?! A hundred million!"

Chen Shu's hand spasmed. The youtiao went flying...

The two of them turned to stare. And you're the one acting like you've never seen money?

"Holy crap, so you're telling me I literally threw away four hundred million?!"

Chen Shu wore an expression of absolute grief.

To bait the White Lion into swallowing the Explosion Potion, he'd used four hundred million as bait?!

"What a fool I was!"

Chen Shu sighed toward the sky. Four hundred million in Huaxia currency had once appeared before his eyes, and he hadn't treasured it...[3]

"Having two hundred million still isn't bad."

Xu Xingxing shook his head and explained, "The stones are called True Treasures. Black Iron grade. They only do one thing: permanently boost your attributes!"

"So they're basically like potions, then?"

Chen Shu spoke up, instantly grasping their value in his mind.

"True Treasures only come from King-rank beasts. Ordinary people have never even heard of them, let alone used them."

Xu Xingxing explained, "My family only knows about them because we're on good terms with a Gold-rank Beast Tamer."

King-rank beasts were Black Iron at bare minimum. Even Silver Beast Tamers weren't confident in hunting them — only Gold-rank tamers could pull it off.

That was precisely why True Treasures were something only Gold-rank Beast Tamers even knew about.

"Of the two stones, one's fire-attribute and the other's light-attribute. They can boost elemental damage by roughly 10%."

Xu Xingxing asked quietly, "How do you two want to handle them?"

His gaze shifted to Chen Shu, waiting to see whether he'd sell or use them himself.

"I'll buy them."

Chen Shu tapped the table.

The Husky was an all-attribute contract spirit — it'd get a pretty significant boost from these.

What was the point of Chen Shu making money if not to get stronger? No way he was letting this opportunity slip.

True Treasures were the kind of thing you stumble into, not something you seek out. Treasures of this grade would never even show up on the Beast Tamer Association Website.

If these were Silver-grade True Treasures, the price would multiply countless times over.

His Husky's base attributes weren't high to begin with. Swallowing these would boost its elemental damage by 10%.

For a Gold-rank contract spirit, the effect would've been far less meaningful.

"Let's call it two hundred million, then."

Chen Shu continued, "Split three ways, that'd come to about... each..."

Xie Sunan cut him off. "I can't take that much."

During the heist on the White Lion's treasures, his Winged Caterpillar hadn't really pulled its weight.

The operation had hinged on Chen Shu and Xu Xingxing.

After some back and forth, the three settled on Xie Sunan taking twenty million, with Chen Shu and Xu Xingxing each getting ninety million.

Whether it was the Mutant Thunderbird or the Explosion Potion, both had been critical to their success — splitting evenly between the two of them was only fair.

With the sums involved being this massive, Chen Shu reined in his bandit instincts.

The last thing he wanted was for money to drive a wedge between the three of them. That'd be way too big a price to pay.

In the end, Chen Shu shelled out a hundred and ten million to buy both Black Iron-grade True Treasures.

All three of their faces shone with excitement. As the saying went, fortune favored the bold!

"Chen Pi, how'd you get dark circles under your eyes?"

The three of them strolled down the street when Xie Sunan asked.

"Went to bed way too late last night."

Chen Shu yawned, looking a bit drowsy.

"Maybe you should head back and sleep for a bit?"

"It's fine. Sleep at four, wake at seven — King Yan praises my health!"

Chen Shu waved it off. "Besides, there's a class party at noon. No way I'm missing a free meal!"

The three wandered the streets, chatting about their summer plans.

With over two months left before university started, they naturally had to plan it all out properly.

As they idled away the time, noon arrived.

Delicious Hotpot.

Most of the Special Training Class students had already shown up.

Everyone was laughing and chatting, eyes gleaming with anticipation for the future and nostalgia for their high school days.

The moment Chen Shu walked in, the entire room fell silent for a beat.

"Pretend I'm not here. I didn't bring my backpack today..."

Everyone looked — sure enough, Chen Shu was traveling light.

No backpack meant no urea bag. The mood instantly lightened considerably.

"Teacher Shen."

Chen Shu spotted Shen Wushuang right away and asked about the Custom Skill situation.

Shen Wushuang had been teaching the Special Training Class for years. His experience and knowledge were leagues beyond what Chen Shu could match.

"Hmm, let me think."

Shen Wushuang stroked his chin, mulling over which skills would pair well with the Elemental Beast.

By now, the entire Special Training Class had taken their seats.

"Let's eat first. I'll look into it for you later."

Shen Wushuang said. This slot was far too precious to be used carelessly.

Everyone dug in with gusto, as if this were their final celebration.

Though the Special Training Class had only existed for less than a year, the bonds between them ran deep — they had, after all, fought side by side.

But the joys and sorrows of humans are never shared.[4]

At that very moment, in a research building at Huaxia Academy...

Six professors sat in a row, expressions grim and faces utterly bewildered.

Playing on the screen before them was a video.

In the video, a student enveloped in white smoke stood calmly in line, completely unfazed.

Then came a highlight reel of iconic moments: triggering a Drill Beast stampede right at the start... spiking roast rabbit with laxatives... robbing a King-rank beast...

The final frame froze: three figures in psychiatric gowns and gas masks, standing atop a bird's back.

Behind them, countless beasts roared — a truly soul-shaking sight!

The star of this video was none other than Chen Shu!

Originally, the gaokao practical was graded by a dedicated team of examiners.

But this year's examiners simply couldn't handle it.

So the video had to be forwarded to Huaxia Academy, to be analyzed and judged by the most authoritative professors...

One middle-aged professor swallowed hard and spoke up:

"Is this really something a senior high school student could do?"

[1] 四点睡七点起，阎王夸我好身体 (Sì diǎn shuì qī diǎn qǐ, Yánwáng kuā wǒ hǎo shēntǐ): "Sleep at four, wake at seven, King Yan praises my health" is a Chinese internet meme from circa 2021. The dark humor lies in King Yan (阎王, Yánwáng) being the ruler of the underworld in Chinese folk religion and Buddhism — having him "praise" your health means you're practically killing yourself. The meme spawned countless variants on Douyin and Weibo among students, gamers, and overworked young professionals joking about disastrous sleep schedules (the darker the hours, the funnier the joke).

[2] Youtiao (油条): Deep-fried dough sticks, a staple Chinese breakfast food. They appear frequently in the novel as Chen Shu's go-to street snack.

[3] 'Four hundred million Huaxia currency had once appeared before my eyes...': This is a direct parody of the most iconic line in Chinese cinema — from Stephen Chow's 1995 film A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella (大话西游之大圣娶亲). In the film, the protagonist Joker delivers a tearful monologue: "Once I had a sincere love before me, but I didn't cherish it... If heaven gave me one more chance, I would tell that girl three words: I love you. And if I must put a time limit on this love, I hope it would be ten thousand years!" The line has become the most quoted and parodied in Chinese pop culture — speakers swap in whatever they regret losing (money, food, opportunities) for "true love." Chen Shu's version swaps in four hundred million yuan, turning melodramatic regret into a punchline about having casually thrown away a fortune as monster bait.

[4] 'The joys and sorrows of humans are never shared' (人类的悲欢并不相通): A famous line by Lu Xun (鲁迅, 1881–1936), the father of modern Chinese literature, from his 1928 essay collection And That's All (而已集). The original passage: "Downstairs a man is dying of illness, the family next door is playing a gramophone... Human joys and sorrows are not connected — to me they are merely noise." The line is widely quoted on the Chinese internet as a deadpan transition between emotionally dissonant scenes — precisely how the author deploys it here, cutting from the students' cheerful hotpot farewell to six professors staring in traumatized silence at Chen Shu's exam footage.