Chapter 152: Zhang Suannai, Who Loves to Read

The second day of the fourth lunar month.

It is already summer.

After the rains of last month ended, the sky remained clear for several days, and the temperature in Yujing suddenly reached summer levels; whenever the sun was at its strongest at noon, those walking in the open had to shield themselves from the sun, and the cicadas chirping outside the window were enough to make one feel restless and irritable.

Under the supervision of Zhang Qingqing at home, Chen Shu came to the laboratory of the Ancient Cultivation Building again.

Today, he had to modify the Sword Light Technique.

Previously, the performance of the Sword Light Technique in all aspects had been sufficient, but Chen Shu had recently obtained many new Third-tier Penetration Runes from his teachers, and he wanted to apply these runes before the Martial Body competition began to grant his Sword Qi stronger penetrating power.

This work had been ongoing for some time and was now in the final stages.

"Sigh..."

Chen Shu began his work with great difficulty.

This process could not utilize the Spell Simulator provided by the laboratory, because the simulator did not have these few runes or their usage methods recorded; in fact, because the application of Third-tier Runes is too complex and highly variable, the simulator provides little help for any spell that uses a large number of Third-tier Runes.

Chen Shu could only experiment in person, repeatedly test-running the spell, and modifying it whenever it was wrong.

The match schedule for the first round of the school's Arena competition had already been released today, and his opponent was a senior from his own academy named Zhang Yunyan. The allocation of opponents for the Arena competition had a certain bias; the school hoped that students could achieve the goal of exchange and growth through this competition.

As the competition drew closer, Chen Shu also felt a certain sense of nervousness, which to some extent slightly diluted his laziness.

Of course, it was mainly because his temporary guardian was supervising him well.

The morning passed quickly.

He did not see that senior again today, which was a joyous and congratulatory thing, otherwise he would have been troubled by him again.

Afternoon.

Chen Shu came to the teachers' Project Laboratory.

He could no longer bear the power of the curse.

He could have endured it on his own—at worst, he would just lie paralyzed in his dormitory as a good-for-nothing for a while—but he was young and ignorant, and chose to let Qingqing supervise him. What truly made him unable to bear it was the conflict of being lazy yet not wanting to be lazy; thus, he decided to seek help from his teachers.

"Uncle Shi Qian..."

"Something up?"

"How did you know?"

"You called me uncle."

"Ha..."

Chen Shu scratched his head and said honestly: "I recently encountered a curse, and it's a bit troublesome."

"What kind of curse?"

"The Lazy Cancer Curse."

"What is the Lazy Cancer Curse?"

"It's just suddenly becoming very lazy and not wanting to do anything."

"..." Shi Qian looked him over and was silent for a moment, "I often get this kind of curse too."

"It's not that!"

So Chen Shu explained it to him once.

After listening, Shi Qian pondered for a long time before saying: "It sounds a bit like the handiwork of certain temples of the ancient Buddhist Sect, like Inertia Poison, and it also looks a bit like a curse from Puluo..."

"I don't know much about this either. Teacher Lan Ming knows more about it; let Teacher Lan Ming take a look at it for you..."

"Teacher Lan Ming!"

Teacher Lan Ming was also a teacher who was researching the Thunder Method project with Teacher Shi Qian; he had been concentrating on his research and only turned his head when he heard the call, then walked over at Shi Qian's summons.

"What is it?"

"This child says he opened a ring and encountered a curse, becoming exceptionally lazy. You take a look and see what's going on?"

"Did you bring the ring?"

"I brought it."

"Let me see..."

Teacher Lan Ming took the ring and began to examine it.

The residual Spirit Power of the curse inside was already nearly exhausted. After Lan Ming examined it and conducted an investigation and inquiry into Chen Shu, he finally said: "It should be a Black Curse practiced by some low-class Cultivators from Puluo or the small countries around us; it's not a big problem."

"Is there a way to remove it?"

"There is, but it's troublesome, and there's no need to remove it."

"Just leave it alone?"

"It will dissipate naturally, but it's hard to say; after all, the human brain is a very wondrous thing." Teacher Lan Ming paused, "The main thing is that by the time its influence on you disappears, you might have already become accustomed to laziness and become obsessed with this feeling of laziness. Even if its power has vanished, you still won't be able to change it back."

What this teacher said was exactly the same as what Qingqing said.

"So you must continue to fight against it before its power dissipates." Teacher Shi Qian also advised Chen Shu.

"I have been fighting against it." Chen Shu did not blush or skip a beat; what he said was indeed the truth, it was just under Qingqing's supervision.

"Very good." Teacher Shi Qian nodded.

"What time do you cultivate every day?" Teacher Lan Ming asked again.

"Most of the time, I start after dinner in the evening."

"What about the Spirit Power you usually absorb?"

"The Spirit Power transmitted from Monoceros and the Dragon Maiden Constellation has a relatively high compatibility with me, so I usually absorb their Spirit Power. If these two types are not very convenient, I'm not picky about others; anyway, besides these two, they are all about the same."

"Then you can try cultivating at noon in the coming days, absorbing Sun Essence, and before digesting it, guide it to circulate through your body once. The Spirit Power of our star has a certain inhibitory and repellent effect on this kind of trashy curse, which can help you reduce its influence and accelerate its dissipation."

"Okay, thank you, Teacher Lan."

"I'm going to get busy; you come and do the recording for me later."

"Okay, okay."

Chen Shu rubbed his face; he really wanted to lie on the bed and scroll through short videos.

It would be even better if he could lie on Qingqing's lap.

……

Three days later.

The fifth day of the fourth lunar month.

Zhang Suannai was unusually holding A Book and reading it.

Her figure was great, with long, toned legs, wearing black sports shorts with white trim; a cropped t-shirt revealed a section of her waist with abdominal muscles, and her hair was tied into a high ponytail. When she sat quietly reading, one could see the beauty of youth in her.

This book was called Island Survival Guide.

It's a long story.

Because her balcony and Ning Qing's room were connected, and there were desks with large bookshelves at both ends of the balcony. Ning Qing's bookshelf was filled with books, while hers was filled with souvenirs left over from doing charity work in Wangxi Ancient Town. Yesterday, she was bored and pacing back and forth on the balcony when she unexpectedly saw a book on Ning Qing's shelf that she could actually understand, so she happily picked it up to read.

Upon reading it, she could actually understand it.

How rare, how rare.

Today, Zhang Suannai was also a cultured person.

Moreover, she was reading Ning Qing's book, so rounding up, her cultural level was approximately equal to Ning Qing's. The confidence that rose within her gave her great motivation to read; if she didn't read two pages before and after every meal, she wouldn't feel at ease eating.

"Swish..."

Zhang Suannai turned another page.

At this moment, Ning Qing walked out of her room, and almost at the same time, the little girl also opened her door.

The two of them seemed to be going out.

Zhang Suannai sat with her legs crossed and looked up at them: "Where are you two going?"

"Out," the little girl replied.

"Where to?" Zhang Suannai asked, then added, "Where outside?"

"The school next door."

"What for?"

"To watch the Martial Body competition."

"What's there to see at a Martial Body competition..."

Zhang Suannai shook her head with some disdain; those were things liked by rough people. It was more stylish to sit at home and read quietly.

Zhang Suannai lowered her head and continued reading.

She read silently to herself: "Contains a large amount of water that can be drunk directly..."

Eh??

What was it that contained a large amount of water that could be drunk directly?

Zhang Suannai pondered for a moment and flipped to the previous page.

Oh, it's a coconut!

Immediately, her brows gradually furrowed as she sensed something was wrong—

Oh no!

She had only been focused on reading and had forgotten to comprehend and memorize it!

She had only just reached the Second Stage and had already forgotten the content of the previous paragraph!

Zhang Suannai fell into thought. While thinking, she realized that she was always like this when reading; after finishing a paragraph, her eyes claimed to have taken it in, but her brain did not agree. Yet, she was clearly reading word by word and paragraph by paragraph; she hadn't missed a single character.

Is it only me like this?

Or is everyone like this?

"Emmm..."

Zhang Suannai pondered for a while, decided to put the book down, walked out to the balcony, and leaned over the railing to look down.

The two roommates were already gone.

After a moment of hesitation, she braced herself against the railing and vaulted over.

"Bang!"

She landed lightly.

She decided to go see where her two roommates were going.

One hour later.

Yujing Academy.

Zhang Suannai stood on top of the Teaching Building opposite the Sports Field, looking down at the scene below.

Today was the first day of the regular competition for the Martial Arts Academy Group. Although the Martial Arts Academy Group was more professional, it was not as lively as the Ordinary Group.

There were neither many nor few people on the Sports Field.

Zhang Suannai saw Ning Qing and Xiaoxiao arrive at a corner of the Sports Field. That place backed onto a wall, and a row of targets stood beneath the wall; it was clearly the Archery competition venue for Yujing Academy's Martial Body competition this time.

The distance seemed to be one hundred meters.

There were many students watching on the sidelines; these people were quite bold, not afraid that someone might shoot wide and hit them.

The competition was currently underway.

Zhang Suannai saw the figure of Chen Shu.

This person was standing lazily in the middle of the field, lazily drawing his bow and shooting arrows, aiming at the target; he had already shot his fourth arrow.

His performance was average, neither good nor bad.

Every arrow had hit the target, but the scores weren't high. Among the contestants in the same group, there were clearly professional students from the Martial Arts Academy Group; others were scoring at least eight or nine rings per arrow, so in comparison, his performance was a bit worse.

Another arrow was shot out.

In the eyes of Zhang Suannai, the distance of the Sports Field was rapidly closed, and she could see the image of the arrow swimming forward.

Immediately after, the arrow nailed itself into the center of the target.

"Eh?"

It was actually a ten-ring bullseye.

A blind cat bumping into a dead mouse.

Zhang Suannai cast her gaze downward and saw that some classmates had already let out exclamations of Surprise; there was no need to think, they were definitely Chen Shu's classmates, here to show support. What made her feel very comforted was that her two roommates were both very calm, standing still and watching without cheering or showing any signs of being very happy.

What did this indicate?

The goddess was still the goddess in her heart.

Zhang Suannai thought as much.

The ten arrows were finished.

Unsurprisingly, he could not make it into the finals.

Zhang Suannai saw Chen Shu walk out; this person first patted Xiaoxiao's little bun, then said something to Ning Qing, Ning Qing did not pay much attention to him either, and then the three of them walked out of the Sports Field, perhaps to go eat lunch.

Overall, it was about the same as she had imagined.

This was more like it!

But just as their figures were about to disappear from her line of sight, Zhang Suannai suddenly saw that person reach out and wrap his arm around Ning Qing's shoulder.

That movement was exactly the same as in her dream!

"!!"

Zhang Suannai held her breath.

Fortunately, Ning Qing quickly brushed his hand away and even glared at him, which gave her a little comfort.