Chapter 44: Master, Your Talent Is Extraordinary!

Zheng Fan truly could not understand it.

He had merely signed up for a little private tutoring.

How had the style suddenly shifted into Liang Cheng sticking a finger into his body?

The change was like your unforgettable first love suddenly adding you on WeChat with the note:

“Darling, do you still remember me?”

Then, just as you excitedly accepted, she sent you an electronic wedding invitation with a payment QR code attached.

If Zheng Fan still could not sense that something was abnormal about these Demon Kings under him, that would be far too embarrassing.

But even if he sensed it, what could he do?

Did Emperor Xian of Han not understand what the Cao clan was thinking?

In short, for all sorts of reasons, since they did not say anything, Emperor Xian Zheng did not ask.

Very soon, the former multimedia anatomy classroom transformed into a medical-school dissection lecture hall.

A’Ming, the original cadaver instructor, put his clothes back on.

The newly appointed cadaver instructor, Zheng Fan, took off his shirt.

Liang Cheng stood beside Zheng Fan, his expression calm as calm as the white-coated doctor who gave you an injection in the butt when you were a child.

“Be gentle! You absolutely must not hurt Master. Otherwise, ten thousand deaths would not redeem your crime!”

The Blind Man Bei stood nearby spouting nonsense, sounding exactly like the wolf grandmother deceiving Little Red Riding Hood.

Zheng Fan closed his eyes.

At this moment, he was genuinely meat on someone else’s chopping block.

It was even more literal than Liu Bang at the Feast at Hong Gate.

So perhaps there truly was some logic behind rulers of old cooking the hunting hounds once the cunning hare was dead.

If the great generals beneath you were too capable and too powerful, then if you did not screw them, they would come screw you.

Ding Hao, meanwhile, was extremely curious about this bizarre method of “taking powder.”

He was gradually becoming accustomed to this group’s strange methods and thought processes.

At the same time, a faint hope rose within him.

Given what these people were capable of, perhaps their promise to heal him and restore him after the matter was finished was not entirely impossible.

Liang Cheng’s fingernail hovered above Zheng Fan.

Xue San suddenly asked, “Where do we stick it in?”

Fan Li answered, “The butt!”

Then

Fan Li even explained, “There’s lots of meat there. Won’t hurt much if you stab it.”

Zheng Fan drew a deep breath.

To prevent the scene from turning into him rolling over so Liang Cheng could stab him in the butt, he spoke first.

“Chest. Do it around the chest.

“Gently.”

Liang Cheng nodded.

The nail of his index finger touched Zheng Fan’s chest.

Then slowly pierced inside.

At first, there was a sour, tingling numbness.

Then came a swollen ache.

Immediately afterward, his entire body began convulsing violently.

“Ugh... AAAAAH!”

Zheng Fan started twitching like someone in the middle of an epileptic seizure.

It felt as though an enormous spoon had plunged into his body and stirred everything inside him into chaos.

White foam began leaking from the corners of Zheng Fan’s mouth.

The whites of his eyes rapidly swallowed the territory that had once belonged to his pupils.

“Fuck! Stop!”

Xue San immediately shouted.

Don’t fucking play Master to death!

Liang Cheng instantly pulled his nail out.

He stared at Zheng Fan lying before him with some confusion.

“He won’t get infected with corpse poison, will he?” A’Ming asked worriedly.

“I know what I’m doing. Corpse poison won’t enter Master’s body,” Liang Cheng replied.

“You call this knowing what you’re doing?” Feng Siniang snapped in dissatisfaction. “We told you to stimulate him with a little baleful energy, and you nearly gave Master senile dementia.”

“It shouldn’t have happened. I didn’t inject much baleful energy. Besides, at my current level of strength, it shouldn’t be this terrifying.”

Liang Cheng knew perfectly well how much baleful energy he had injected.

Ding Hao analyzed, “Perhaps this lord already possesses an extremely abundant reserve of qi and blood inside his body.

“In that case, it was like having a pile of dry firewood sitting there, and your baleful energy merely ignited it.”

“Mm... is that so?”

The Blind Man Bei reached up to stroke the beard he had not pasted on today and therefore did not exist.

He remembered Xue San’s description of Zheng Fan’s strength, as well as Liang Cheng’s own assessment during their martial practice that Master possessed considerable physical power.

“So our Master is good material for martial cultivation?”

The Blind Man Bei turned toward Ding Hao and asked very seriously.

Ding Hao nodded.

“If he truly never underwent body tempering or development before, and was never raised from childhood with medicinal baths or had a high-level Martial Artist nourish his qi and blood with internal power, then yes.

“He can indeed be called a martial genius.”

Thud...

A massive stone dropped from everyone’s hearts.

Actually, it was not only Zheng Fan who had been worried.

Every Demon King present had also feared this might turn out to be the beginning of a trash-protagonist story.

Fortunately, Master had delivered!

Everyone was delighted.

After all, galloping across the plains on horseback and galloping across the plains on a pig were entirely different sights.

Before long, Zheng Fan slowly regained consciousness.

The Blind Man Bei leaned closer and asked, “Master, may I ask what you feel?”

“My head’s a little dizzy.

“And I kind of want to vomit.”

That was Zheng Fan’s genuine sensation upon waking.

Most addicts felt similarly hollowed out after coming down from a high.

“This subordinate means— can you feel that qi?”

Zheng Fan calmed his mind and tried to sense it.

Well, damn.

He really could feel a warm current wandering through his body.

The sensation was somewhat like Liang Cheng’s baleful energy had been a torch thrown into a bat cave, awakening whatever had been sleeping inside.

“Yes...”

“Can you describe exactly what it feels like?”

“Thick... and swollen.”

“Mm...”

The Blind Man Bei raised his head toward Ding Hao.

Delight appeared on Ding Hao’s face.

“When ordinary people first begin martial cultivation and learn to sense their qi and blood, what they perceive is usually no thicker than a strand of silk.

“For this lord to immediately feel something so robust surging inside him— this is truly worthy of celebration!”

He said it was worthy of celebration, but after yesterday’s shock of watching those six freaks advance instantly, Ding Hao genuinely could not summon the excitement of discovering a genius.

Everything suffered in comparison.

The man was clearly a martial prodigy.

Yet compared with the six subordinates beside him, he instantly looked like trash.

Ding Hao truly could not understand why this group acknowledged him as Master.

Even the most powerful aristocratic clan would not be extravagant enough to equip one of its descendants with such an absurdly luxurious team of attendants.

Once Ding Hao confirmed it, the Blind Man Bei took one step backward.

Xue San’s eyes twitched.

Damn it.

That sinister old bastard was going to steal the first chance to flatter Master again.

The next instant, Xue San, Liang Cheng, Feng Siniang, A’Ming, and Fan Li all stepped backward together.

They cupped their hands.

Bowed.

And declared, “Congratulations, Master, on your extraordinary talent!

“Master’s great undertaking is assured!”

Zheng Fan lay weakly on the wooden bed.

He waved one hand.

Then said, “You may withdraw.”

...

The effects of baleful energy entering the body were extremely obvious.

The next step was to teach Master how to control the circulation of that qi and blood.

But that could not happen today.

Today’s progress had already exceeded the curriculum.

If they overloaded him any further, everyone genuinely feared Master’s body would fail.

So Feng Siniang carried Zheng Fan away to soak in the “hot spring” and receive a massage.

The others returned to their respective responsibilities.

Before long, night fell.

Creak...

Xue San walked out of Ding Hao’s room holding a slip of paper.

But before he could put it into his pocket, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

He saw well... a blind man carrying a lantern.

Everything in the world had two sides.

Viewed from a different angle, even the level of an idea could become completely different.

As the saying went: a blind man lighting a lamp only wastes wax.

But if the blind man said, “I’m carrying the lamp not so I can see, but so others can see me at night and won’t crash into me,” then the philosophical level of the matter instantly changed.

Of course, this particular blind man carrying a lamp was simply creepy as hell.

“What did you go there for?” the Blind Man Bei asked.

“Hey, I’m telling you, the Eastern Depot would suit you perfectly as its chief one day.”

“That’s a matter for the future.”

The Blind Man Bei skipped over the topic and asked again, “What did you go to Ding Hao for?”

Xue San waved the paper in his hand.

“I asked him what kinds of things someone can eat to massively increase their cultivation.

“He listed a few things he’s eaten and a few he’s only heard of.

“Oh, and it isn’t just heavenly treasures. There are pills too.”

“Expensive?”

“Not too bad. Aren’t we preparing to send out merchant caravans soon? Money shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Some things cannot be bought no matter how much money you have.”

“Then rob them.

“Or steal them.”

“You think I never considered using pills to force Master’s cultivation forward?”

“Mm?”

“There are side effects.”

“But they’re extremely effective in the early stages. If we pile pills on him, smash resources into him, I think we can make Master enter the grades faster.

“Maybe even push him from Ninth Grade to Eighth Grade, perhaps even...

“Seventh Grade.”

“And then the consequences of pulling seedlings to make them grow appear.

“Master will remain trapped at Seventh Grade for the rest of his life, unable to advance another inch.”

“That’s a problem for later.

“We can deal with later things later.

“Master would probably be willing too.

“Cultivation is painful and slow, after all.”

The Blind Man Bei laughed.

At night, the red lantern illuminated his face.

His voice became slightly hoarse.

He said heavily, “You think the only person who would remain trapped there for life is Master?”

“I...”

“I advise you not to get clever on your own.

“If the others discover you intend to stuff Master full of pills— heh.

“Before, everyone was an ordinary person, so none of it mattered.

“Now, everyone has recovered some strength.

“The future is bright.

“And you want to drain the pond to catch the fish, drink poison to quench thirst, and directly block everyone’s future hopes and path of advancement.

“Tell me.

“What do you think they would do to you if they found out?”

“I was only asking so we’d be prepared.

“It’s not like I planned to immediately find the stuff and feed it to Master.”

“Seven is a pleasantly smooth number.”

“Uh...”

“But six-six means great fortune.

“And 66666 sounds pretty nice too.

“You know that, right?”

Xue San nodded.

He raised his left hand and made the “six” gesture.

Very sincerely, he said, “I understand.”

The Blind Man Bei suddenly turned aside with a trace of melancholy.

Slowly, he said, “I think we’ve gone a little too far.

“Especially today.

“We were too eager.”

“Master will understand.

“Besides, Master cooperated pretty well today, didn’t he?”

“You must maintain a certain reverence toward your Creator,” the Blind Man reminded him.

“All I know is that Master and us are grasshoppers tied to the same rope.

“None of us can leave the others.

“Right now, we need strength.

“And we need it badly.”

“Grasshoppers on the same rope?”

“Are we not?” Xue San asked.

“The Demon Pill still hasn’t awakened.

“But none of us knows when he might suddenly unseal himself and appear.”

“What does that have to do with the Demon Pill?”

“Heh.

“If the Demon Pill wakes up, and we continue pressuring—even forcing—Master the way we did today, do you think Master would rather continue staying with us, or... take the Demon Pill and simply leave?”

“This...”

Xue San suddenly fell silent.

“After all, to Master, the rest of us are more like adopted sons.

“But the Demon Pill— he is Master’s own true... biological son.”

“But Blind Man, I admit you’ve always been intelligent.

“You’re also very good at calculating human nature.

“But you know the Demon Pill’s personality and habits as well as I do.

“Maybe you’re too close to the matter.

“Perhaps even Master himself, because of that special emotional bond between a creator and his creation, has overlooked the same problem you have.

“He has forgotten exactly what kind of image and character he personally designed the Demon Pill to be.”

“Oh?

“Tell me.”

“Why has the Demon Pill never unsealed himself?” Xue San suddenly lowered his voice.

“Why?”

“Because...”

Under the moonlight, Xue San’s face looked slightly pale.

Yet his entire body radiated a strange excitement.

“Because I think that if the Demon Pill truly wakes up, the very first thing he’ll do after unsealing himself is kill Master!

“And then leave behind a single sentence:

“‘You think you’re worthy of being my father?’”

(End of Chapter)