Chapter 358: Chapter 356 Third-rate
"What’s this?"
At the pavilion near Wanxiang Forest of the Imperial Academy, Le Yin raised an eyebrow at the lunchbox in front of him.
He intended to teach two rebellious disciples the Forbidden Battle Techniques, and naturally, this couldn’t be done in the Grand Martial Arts Arena in front of everyone. The area near Wanxiang Forest was secluded and lush, far from the teaching building, and students rarely came here unless they needed to conduct rapid blade training.
However, to avoid encountering wild mandarin ducks in heat, Le Yin placed a sign nearby saying "Under Construction, Beware of Vicious Cats." This wasn’t something Le Yin intentionally brought but he ’accidentally’ discovered the sign while wandering and then ’accidentally’ found this place particularly suitable for teaching.
With everything falling into place, Le Yin had no reason to refuse the good intentions from the academy, although he felt a bit insulted – why was it vicious cats inside? Couldn’t it be vicious wolves? Or vicious tigers? What if someone who loves cats or a Beast Tamer gets excited about hunting?
In summary, now apart from the weekly class of "The Fall of Silver Blood," Le Yin also had to teach the forbidden battle techniques that the world could not tolerate to his two disciples every afternoon in broad daylight. Such a regular life made Le Yin somewhat unaccustomed – it’s been a long time since he hasn’t engaged in combat or deceit, and common scumbags are seldom seen; the surroundings are full of lively, youthful female students, making Le Yin almost feel like he’s experiencing university life again, but with the perks of being ’handsome,’ ’not having to do homework,’ and ’having endless money’ like a max-level boss returning to the starting village to rampage.
As the saying goes, you gain some, you lose some. When Le Yin started driving the Le Yin supercar, naturally he lost a lot of worries.
Hence, the minor issues encountered while teaching these two younglings became the spicy flavor in Le Yin’s life.
Le Yin shook the fried rice inside the lunchbox, and a pungent smell hit him.
It’s merely a condiment, albeit a bit strong.
"Did you drop poop into this?" Le Yin frowned and asked, "And it’s the kind that’s been constipated for many days, extra hard."
"Teacher, if you had this interest, you should’ve said so earlier, haha..." Shi Wen sarcastically remarked, "Weren’t you asking me to cook? This is what I made; not sure if it suits your taste. I bet your admirer, Dan Chixia, has a great appetite, he’d devour it clean if it’s from you..."
Le Yin kicked him flying with one foot and glanced at Lai Ya who was cultivating beside him, coldly saying, "What? Can’t you focus even if blind? Do I have to deafen you as well?"
Hearing Shi Wen get beaten, Lai Ya’s sword-waving action paused slightly, not daring to argue against Le Yin’s rebuke, she could only refine the swordsmanship technique more vigorously, her practice clothes soaked with sweat.
Her eyes were covered with cloth, and if the cloth was removed, her eyes would be seen sewn shut, although not blind, it’s essentially the same as being blind—normally the Medical Bureau wouldn’t perform such surgery, but it’s evident that Le Yin has influence above.
"Seems you have great strength, a wooden stick can’t satisfy you anymore? Bring an iron sword for training tomorrow." Le Yin snickered and turned to look at Shi Wen who climbed back up, shaking the lunchbox in his hand, "I advise you to speak honestly—otherwise, I’ll force this lunch into your lower mouth."
Lower mouth? Shi Wen froze, then his face drastically changed, covering his rear in fear, his previous arrogance vanished. He’s been beaten a lot these days; though his endurance is strong by nature, after Le Yin’s intensive training, he almost doesn’t fear getting beat anymore—severe wounds are refreshed after a visit to the Medical Bureau, back to being in top condition.
Yet Le Yin always finds ways to humiliate him, like pulling down his pants to spank him, tearing up all his clothes forcing him to run home naked...he surely doesn’t think this man would just be talking. This man named Qin has no teacherly sense at all, more like a thug who dares to do anything.
"I cooked according to your instructions, using my left hand to adapt to this ’Bloodthorn Fishbone’." Shi Wen swallowed his anger, "But my left hand just won’t listen, I can’t help it."
Le Yin looked at Shi Wen’s left hand, his bronze-colored arm adorned with a thick black wrist guard, it appears unremarkable at first glance, but it’s a set of ’torture instruments’ made specifically by Le Yin, ordered from the academy’s metallurgy bureau—yes, the Imperial Academy even has a place for forging, and courses for forging too.
The complete set couldn’t be built all at once, so they made a wrist guard first, its defense similar to a normal wrist guard, but the feature is many slender long spikes inside.
Once worn, the spikes pierce the skin, brushing many nerve endings, giving the wearer intense pain.
But these spike accessories, are precisely the auxiliary gear Shi Wen needs to train in forbidden battle techniques.
Le Yin originally didn’t intend to name it, but after seeing Shi Wen sweat profusely, almost gritting his teeth while wearing the wrist guard, he voluntarily requested to name it, and dubbed the entire set ’Bloodthorn Fishbone.’
Bloodthorn, refers to the Bloodstain Eight Rice Format; and Fishbone, refers to the sharp equipment set, as well as his inner expectations.
’Fish possess many sharp bones, they likely don’t feel pain, I simply have a few more fishbones than normal people.’
Words were nice, yet Shi Wen hadn’t adapted to the Fishbone Wrist Guard’s pain over several days, any move with it caused distorted actions and unclear consciousness.
During this process, Le Yin increasingly felt the auxiliary equipment was indeed distinctive—whenever Shi Wen underwent extensive exercise, his body surface intensely heated, as if licked by fire; thus those wounds pierced by long needles, received thorough disinfection almost daily, no worry of bacterial infection at all.
And to accelerate Shi Wen’s adaptation to the wrist guard, Le Yin required Shi Wen to use his left hand for complex tasks, such as cooking.
Then Shi Wen presented him this peculiar lunch.
Le Yin picked up a grain of nearly blackened rice, putting it in his mouth to savor. His expression unchanged, instead letting out ’mm-mm’ sounds, nodding repeatedly.
Shi Wen suspiciously wondered—did he accidentally cook something tasty?
"Lai Ya, come over." Le Yin suddenly called, and Lai Ya immediately stopped cultivating and approached her teacher.
"I’ve got a great idea." Le Yin passed the lunchbox to Lai Ya, "You’ve been practicing hard, and I don’t have much to help you, only offer you some nutrition—eat it all."
Lai Ya was stunned for a moment, then silently reached to grab some rice to eat. Shi Wen lunged over, his hands releasing Desolate Bite Light Burst, but Le Yin slapped him to the ground: "Your left hand was quite obedient when you fought, seems much potential awaits exploring."
He clamped Shi Wen’s neck, leaving the latter completely immobile: "The cooking discipline won’t change in the future. You can choose not to practice, or you can fool around with me, but if the stuff you bring is made by you, it’ll be for Lai Ya to eat; if not, I’ll shove it into your mouth below — conserving food starts with me, and as a teacher, I’m responding to the trend of frugality."
"Teacher, I’ve... I’ve finished eating."
Lai Ya covered her mouth to chew, and the lunch box was already completely empty. Le Yin said, "Okay, go throw up on the side."
Lai Ya ran to the grass and directly vomited loudly. Shi Wen silently got up and suddenly said, "Qing Fu urging wine?"
"You paid attention in class, not bad." Le Yin smiled and said, "Then you should know the interesting thing about Qing Fu urging wine is — you have no choice. Or rather, you can only choose the options I give."
Shi Wen asked, "Tomorrow is the Eye of Omniscience exam, are we still having class?"
"Of course not, the Eye of Omniscience exam lasts the whole afternoon." Le Yin gave him a glance, "Why? You’re suddenly bringing this up now, are you planning to get revenge on me?"
"Of course... not." Shi Wen lowered his head, expressionless as he spoke, "How could I seek revenge on the teacher?"
Don’t think that without showing your face, I wouldn’t know you have an expression of ’wishing to eat his flesh’ on your face... Le Yin chuckled, "As per plan, gather after noon; is that okay? If your left hand hinders the exam, you can first remove the wrist guard and put it back on after tomorrow."
At the mention of installing the fishbone wrist guard, Shi Wen’s body suddenly shook. He immediately said, "It won’t hinder!"
"That’s good."
Le Yin beckoned him over, "Now is the time of burning, come, let’s see if you can make me sweat a bit."
...
...
At eight in the evening, Le Yin came out of the shower, tapped the metal badge on the desk, sat down eagerly and said, "Have you read ’Future Echoes’?"
The badge emitted a mechanical sound, "I have, it wasn’t easy to gather so many copies of Youth Daily, especially the first edition of ’Youth Daily’, you can’t buy it outside. I had to borrow it from friends."
"How do you feel?" Le Yin looked full of expectation.
"The tool concepts inside are very interesting, and not purely fanciful. They have a certain reality basis, and the details are densely packed, as if the author had really visited the future." The badge said, "For example, the most frequently appearing ’mobile phone’, has power demands, requires a base station to provide signals, and signals are greatly reduced in enclosed and underground spaces. If the power is insufficient, an external tool ’power bank’ is needed, and power becomes another ’lifeline’ for future people... There’s also the lift, elevator, airplane, household appliances, as well as existent trains and cars..."
"I’ve read fantasy novels before, but those novels are really just ’fantasy’, completely ignoring energy constraints, nor considering the connection between different industries. All the tools appearing in this book could actually be manufactured now in Luminous Stone’s place, just a bit more advanced than Luminous Stone, and these countless ’bit more advances’ accumulated make progress, yet throws Luminous Stone a hundred years behind."
Le Yin nodded, the light energy system of Luminous Stone is not inferior to an electrical energy system, people of Luminous Stone could ensure cities are ’night as day’ hundreds of years ago, thousands of almost maintenance-free Luminous Stone lamp posts illuminating Luminous Stone’s land, train tracks also started being laid, so people of Luminous Stone won’t think the future described in ’Future Echoes’ is too distant, even considering it within reach.
"What else?" Le Yin asked.
"The future political system conceived by the author also has unique features, if it’s really written by Zhengwei, then his ambition is extremely large." The badge said, "Grassroots self-governance, separation of political party and government functions, this is a road Luminous Stone hadn’t imagined..."
"What else?"
"The ’ultimate weapon’ mentioned inside is also quite fascinating, a bomb that could destroy an entire city, and the author even straightforwardly describes its principle and formula as if it’s real..."
"What else?"
"The entertainment methods mentioned in this book are quite numerous too, video games, movies, shopping in big malls, watching TV... Although I can barely understand ’watching TV’ and ’watching movies’, but not having truly seen them makes it hard to imagine the fun in them. However, I can understand shopping in big malls, if there truly is a place gathering all products, I might be able to stroll all day without feeling tired."
Le Yin couldn’t contain himself and directly asked, "Then what do you think of the book’s plot?"
"First-rate."
Le Yin’s eyes lit up, "First-rate!?"
"Yes, first-rate world view, second-rate writing, third-rate plot."
The badge said, "I actually don’t really want to discuss the plot because it’s like talking nonsense, not very interesting. I prefer to appreciate the strengths of the work, but if you want to critique the weaknesses of this book with me, I don’t mind either. I think there’s something amiss with the three protagonists’ storyline arrangements..."
"Let’s discuss the Eye of Omniscience exam tomorrow then, Yin."
"Not talking about the book anymore?"
Le Yin covered his chest, "You’re right, a third-rate book like this isn’t worth discussing."