I am the Immortal Emperor, and I am VIP 50.

"Hello, hello," Zhou Yu replied, shaking his hand. "My name is Zhuge Liang."

Liu Bei paused for a moment, then said, "No need to joke around. I know your name is Zhou Yu. I've already heard Gao Ying introduce you."

"Oh, I see," Zhou Yu nodded. "Let's go inside and talk. It's not good to stand outside the cafeteria."

Liu Bei did not refuse, and the three of them entered the dining hall.

Zhou Yu pulled out his meal card from his pocket and suddenly said, "Oh dear... I haven't awakened any spiritual energy, so I'm not qualified to eat your food. Why don't you go and line up first? I'll come find you after I and the first-year students finish our food. You don't need to pity me..."

The use of the word "pitiful" was very strange. Liu Bei didn't know why he would say it that way. Perhaps Zhou Yu and Gao Ying usually communicated like this.

But since Zhou Yu had come to him of his own accord, Liu Bei felt it was rather pitiful to leave him queuing alone, so he said, "This meal is on me. I'll get you an extra serving."

"Really? Well, that's quite a expense for you," Zhou Yu said casually as he put away his meal card. "I was originally planning to treat you, but I was worried that you two wouldn't be used to the food served to regular students."

Liu Bei: "...It's nothing."

After waiting for a while in the middle of the cafeteria, Liu Bei and Gao Ying quickly came over with three meals and handed one of them to Zhou Yu.

"Thank you, Imperial Uncle Liu."

Liu Bei: "..."

To be honest, he really wanted to kick Zhou Yu.

The three of them carried their food to a table and sat down. Zhou Yu picked up a piece of meat and put it in his mouth.

Suddenly, it felt as if a warm current flowed into his body, giving him a very strange feeling.

It felt like... a Spirit Gathering Agent had been injected into my body, but the pleasure was nowhere near as great as the Spirit Gathering Agent.

"This meat..."

"This is the meat of a spirit beast," Liu Bei explained. "It has a great nourishing effect on cultivators, but the more spiritual energy it contains, the better the absorption effect. For ordinary people, it's no different from ordinary meat."

It turned out to be like this...

Zhou Yu wondered to himself how well he would absorb the food.

"By the way," Zhou Yu steered the conversation back on track, "I heard from Gao Ying that you wanted to invest in me, so you came to me, right?"

At this point, Liu Bei put down his chopsticks and said, "To be honest, I actually have no such plans."

Zhou Yu: "Are you kidding me?"

Liu Bei calmly replied, "No, it's not that. My family and Gao Ying's family are old friends, and we usually have some exchanges. Gao Ying's parents know that she is not very bright, so they asked me to keep an eye on her at school and make sure she is not deceived."

Gao Ying paused for a moment while eating.

"When Gao Ying mentioned you to me and asked if I was interested in investing in you, I realized that she had definitely been scammed again. That's why I lied and said that I was interested in this investment and wanted to see what kind of scammer you were."

At this point, Liu Bei's gaze suddenly sharpened. "However, when I saw you, I suddenly changed my mind. Although I don't know why, investing in you seems like a good option."

Zhou Yu's face contorted with anger. "What do you mean?!"

"I don't think you have any reason to be angry," Liu Bei said. "I don't quite understand."

Zhou Yu flew into a rage and said, "I thought you were going to play me, but you're not? Aren't you just playing me?"

Liu Bei: "..."

Gao Ying: "Wow, I couldn't have said that even if I were looking for trouble."

However, considering that the other party genuinely wanted to invest and even treated him to a "proper student meal," Zhou Yu calmed down and turned to Gao Ying, whispering, "Hey, can this person be trusted?"

Gao Ying thought for a moment and replied, "It should be possible. My parents said that Liu Bei may not be good at anything else, but he has a great eye for investment. His family used to be similar to ours, but after Liu Bei was born, they became the richest family in Qingcheng."

Is he the richest man in Qingcheng?

Zhou Yu curled his lip in disdain.

He then grabbed Liu Bei's hand and said with deep emotion, "Please, you must join us."

Liu Bei first slapped Zhou Yu's hand away, and then said, "But to be honest, I still don't know the specifics of your project, when we can expect a return, or what that return will entail. I hope you can talk to me about it."

"The investment is to help me cultivate immortality!" Zhou Yu said with a serious face. "To tell you the truth, as long as I'm willing to spend the money, I can become strong enough."

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei almost turned around and left.

Pay him to help him cultivate immortality?

Isn't that ridiculous?

Countless wealthy people in this world have proven that using money to help someone who hasn't awakened their spiritual energy to awaken is simply a bottomless pit.

Those who can awaken spiritual energy can do so without spending money.

People who cannot awaken their spiritual energy will not be able to awaken it no matter how much money they spend.

They're even willing to spend money...

Do you think those richest and most powerful people are unwilling to spend money?

"Zhou," Liu Bei now felt that his earlier feeling might have been wrong, "spending money is meaningless if you don't have talent."

"From the time I enrolled in school until I awakened my Reiki, I didn't spend a single penny; while another classmate's family spent a lot of money trying to help him awaken, but it didn't work."

"During the test, my spiritual energy value was 0.54, while his spiritual energy value was only 0.33."

"Whether or not one can cross the 0.5 threshold is the key to awakening spiritual energy, and as it turns out, even if he spent a lot of money, he still couldn't cross that threshold, so..."

At this moment, Zhou Yu suddenly raised his hand to interrupt Liu Bei, "Wait, what did you say?"

Liu Bei hesitated for a moment, then said, "I said, he spent money but still couldn't cross this threshold..."

"No, it's still about that previous sentence," Zhou Yu asked, "What did you say is the threshold for awakening spiritual energy?"

Liu Bei repeated, "0.5. Whether or not one can exceed this value is the standard for judging whether one has awakened spiritual energy."

Zhou Yu immediately looked at the panel in his line of sight.

When this thing first appeared, it showed that Zhou Yu's spiritual energy value was only 0.22.

Let alone 0.5, we didn't even catch up with the person Liu Bei just mentioned.

Now, Zhou Yu has been taking the Spirit Gathering Elixir for three consecutive days.

His spiritual aura has changed.

[Spiritual Energy: 0.49]

In three days, my spiritual energy value increased by 0.27!

It's just one step away from 0.5, the decisive threshold!

"So," Liu Bei continued, "you can't become stronger by spending money..."

"Can."

Zhou Yu said in a deep voice, his eyes filled with confidence.

"Others may not be able to do it, but I have confidence!"

Liu Bei was stunned.

"If you invest in me, I'll show you what a true whale (a player who spends a lot of money) is when you take the entrance exam next week!"