Chapter 33: 33. Chapter Thirty-Three

33. Chapter Thirty-Three

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Atian has not eaten for two meals now, and she is currently starving to the point of going crazy.

Su Ying was in a rush to attend her morning class and gave her a lift on the way out of the dormitory; as one of the only two people on the entire Floating Island who could enjoy a leisurely morning, she was not surprised to see Song Zhicheng buried in his food in the empty cafeteria.

"Morning, Senior Brother Song." She called out Song Zhicheng's new title with good adaptability, sat directly in another seat, and pulled one out from the small mountain of stacked steamer baskets to place in front of herself.

"Ah," the man whose name was called looked up, still biting into a half-eaten steamed bun, "Junior Sister Bai, morning."

"……Excuse me, who are you, brother?" Bai Tian was completely stunned when she saw the man's face.

"What's wrong? I'm Song Zhicheng!" The man wore a bewildered expression.

"Liar! Senior Brother Song is clearly a magnificent man with a full beard!" Atian slapped the table and stood up.

"I do have one! Ah……" The man also stood up excitedly, even dropping his bun into the plate; halfway through, as if remembering something, he reached out to touch his chin, and naturally, there was only smooth skin there, "Oh right, my beard is gone……"

"My beard is gone!"

Sweeping the steamer baskets off the table, the youth suspected to be "Song Zhicheng with his beard shaved off" slumped on the table and let out a wail; Atian swore she could hear a crying tone in his trembling voice.

"S-Senior Brother Song?" The cautious question she posed received a pitiful "Yeah" from the other party, which immediately terrified her, "It really is Senior Brother Song? How did you…… become like this?"

It was no wonder; anyone who discovered that the burly man who loved stinky feet and the clean-shaven youth before her were the same person would be shocked.

Song Zhicheng, having had his beard shaved off, raised his head upon hearing this, his face full of desolation and hopelessness, "Last night, they told me to go pay respects to Senior Brother, so I stood outside the Stone Chamber waiting and waiting, and finally waited for you to come out……"

He only said half of his sentence, but Atian had already understood completely; she pursed her lips and whispered, "You…… fainted?"

Song Zhicheng's answer to this was a weak nod, and he couldn't help but shiver, "That guy…… is too terrifying. I couldn't hold on. When I woke up, I found myself lying on the bed with Elder Guo standing beside me. He was cleaning the remains of my beard. Not only that, he wouldn't let me call myself 'your father' anymore, saying the Beihai Sword Sect doesn't need embarrassing bumpkins……"

A feeling of shared misery spread between the two; Atian's eyes were filled with sympathy, her hand holding the chopsticks quietly reached toward the steamer basket, and with lightning speed, she picked up a bun and stuffed it into her mouth.

"That is truly excessive……" Atian echoed vaguely.

"……Hey," Song Zhicheng looked at her mouth covered by her sleeve, "The one you're eating, is that my bun?"

"Your eyes are playing tricks on you." Atian swallowed what was in her mouth, gave him a shy smile, and picked up another one to put in her mouth.

Song Zhicheng watched dumbfounded as the buns in the steamer basket disappeared into thin air, then looked at Atian, who was still covering her mouth with her sleeve; he was completely shocked by her shamelessness, "……Can you move your sleeve and let me see?"

Atian gave him an embarrassed look, and failing to control her strength, the chopsticks were snapped into several pieces.

"No, big boss, I shouldn't have asked, please go ahead……"

Song Zhicheng pushed all the steamer baskets in front of him toward the young girl with a mournful face.

Thus, after Su Ying finished her morning class, she saw Atian sitting in the middle of the cafeteria, being waited on hand and foot by the newly promoted Junior Brother.

"What are you two doing?" she asked.

Atian covered her mouth and smiled, put down the chopsticks in her hand, and said softly, "Senior Brother Song saw how hard I worked yesterday and couldn't bear to see me laboring further; he really is a good person."

A good person?

Su Ying looked at Song Zhicheng, who was running back and forth, her eyes filled with suspicion.

This guy, he isn't trying to poach Senior Brother's territory, is he?

Song Zhicheng felt so wronged he could have had snow fall in June.

The disciples who finished their morning class entered the cafeteria one after another; they carried their food and sat down at the long tables in turn. Legendary immortals were said to sleep in the open and eat in the wind, but in reality, cultivators who had not yet achieved Bigu still needed to eat, and even those who had successfully achieved Bigu were often happy to satisfy their appetites.

Watching the number of people in the cafeteria increase, the string in Atian's brain tightened; the more people eating, the more people there would be attending the Enlightenment class with her later, and her sense of crisis grew stronger.

"Senior Brother Song, shall we go first?" She frowned.

"Eh? Why? I still want to eat a little more……" Song Zhicheng looked at the porridge in his hand with reluctance.

Atian showed a troubled expression, and failing to control her strength, the chopsticks in her hand followed in the footsteps of their predecessor.

Song Zhicheng, who had witnessed the whole process, immediately nodded his head like a chick pecking at rice, "Sorry, big boss! I'm going! I'm going right now!"

Having finished their breakfast at lightning speed, the two junior and senior siblings followed the errand route from last night and found the location of the Classroom. It was a small, unremarkable palace, even looking a bit shabby compared to other buildings, but the hanging plaque proved that the two had indeed found the right place.

The door of the Classroom was tightly shut, and a stone statue of a Jiaotu was coiled at the entrance; at first glance, this thing looked like a large lion carrying a snail shell. Atian unfolded the class schedule Su Ying had given her, found "Enlightenment" among the courses offered today, followed the instructions on the schedule to place her hand on the head of the Jiaotu statue at the door, and loudly recited the name of the teaching Elder.

The imposing Jiaotu statue seemed to be startled by the sudden voice; it actually jumped up directly from the doorway, the entire lion retracted into its snail shell, and then it rolled aside, clearing the path to the interior, with the six large characters "Path to Enlightenment Course" written on it in gold.

The two entered one after another, and then, they saw a raised buttock.

Zhao Kuo, the Immortal Elder who had disappeared without a trace after bringing Atian to Shengxian Town, was crawling between rows of desks and chairs, clutching a handful of Yellow Talismans, muttering incantations that couldn't be understood, and crawling forward bit by bit.

"This person…… is sick?"

Song Zhicheng looked surprised, but Atian waved her hand enthusiastically to greet him: "Zhao~ Immortal~ Elder~"

These three words, like a death warrant, reached his ears; Zhao Kuo shivered all over, his mouth stuttered, and he recited the spell wrong. By the time he realized it, it was too late to save it.

"Boom!!"

A mushroom cloud rose slowly over the Classroom, and the disciples who saw it continued with their own business as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.

"Cough cough, cough cough cough cough," a series of coughs came from the smoke. When the smoke and dust obscuring the view dissipated, Zhao Kuo, who had been blown into a disheveled mess, hunched over like a shrimp, coughing while patting the dust off his body, still muttering, "The Thunderbolt Bomb from Leihuo Mountain…… you bastards, this is going to get someone killed."

"Immortal Elder Zhao?" Atian looked at him with concern.

Hearing the death warrant again, Zhao Kuo subconsciously shivered again to show respect, turned his head mechanically, and gave Bai Tian a smile that was uglier than crying, "……Junior Sister Bai."

As soon as this title came out, he wanted to slap himself twice. Why call her Junior Sister? Why call her Junior Sister! This sounded like a lecher trying to get close; hadn't that beating been painful enough?!

Atian was naturally unaware of his internal dramatic changes. Thinking that it was indeed inappropriate to call him Immortal Elder distantly now that she had joined the sect, she immediately changed her words, "Senior Brother Zhao, are you also here to attend this class?"

As soon as this question came out, the smile on Zhao Kuo's face stiffened even more, "Reviewing the old to learn the new, reviewing the old to learn the new! Every time I listen to Elder Li teach the content of Enlightenment, I have new insights."

While saying this, he was crying on the inside. Because of his poor performance during the mission, he didn't dare go to Senior Brother to claim his mission reward, fearing that if things went wrong, he would lose his life. He never expected that Bai Xinli would enthusiastically deliver the goods to his door! If it had just been being beaten until his face was swollen, it would have been fine, but after receiving a sound thrashing under the guise of "intern guidance," before Bai Xinli could even say anything, his dear Master had taken the lead.

Although the Beihai Sword Sect had abolished the one-on-one master-disciple system, if you were particularly compatible with a certain Elder, you still had the opportunity to become their true disciple. On weekdays, you would attend classes with others as usual; the only difference was that true disciples could occasionally enjoy private tutoring from their own Master.

To date, the Beihai Sword Sect had three major true disciples. The position of the Grandmaster's true disciple was firmly occupied by Senior Brother Bai Xinli; Elder Tan Tianming, who was responsible for managing mission releases, had Senior Sister Su Ying under his tutelage; and Zhao Kuo, who couldn't do anything right and couldn't finish anything he ate, had actually squeezed into their ranks. His Master was none other than the jolly Guo Huai.

Because his performance during the mission was truly too terrible, Zhao Kuo, who was already eligible for more advanced courses, had been kicked by his Master to be "re-forged."

Of course, this couldn't be told to Bai Tian.

"Senior Brother Zhao, what are you doing crawling on the ground?" Atian continued to ask.

"I'm dismantling a trap," Zhao Kuo said, wiping his face. "In our sect, there's an unwritten rule: as long as you can break the defenses and traps someone has left on their seat, you can take their spot. It's just that these bastards often use dangerous items to hold their seats, so one must remain vigilant."

"So that's how it is!" Atian tapped her right fist into her open left palm. "Then just how dangerous is it?"

"A bunch of brats who just joined the sect managed to get their hands on some Thunderbolt Bombs from Leihuo Mountain; in terms of power, they're only slightly inferior to the Tianxing Sect's Soul-Chasing Arrows," Zhao Kuo said, waving his hand. "Hmph, they're nothing but petty tricks relying on external force. Don't be afraid, let your senior brother take you to new heights."

"Inferior to the Soul-Chasing Arrows, huh..."

Atian looked thoughtful, then, under Song Zhicheng's horrified gaze, she walked straight toward the desk and chair, stepped over Zhao Kuo who was sprawled on the floor, went to the seat with the best view, pulled out the chair, and sat down.