Chapter 343: Friends Are Meant to Be Used

Night fell upon Lingzhou, with stars filling the sky.

Yuding Mountain on the ground was also dotted with specks of light.

Inside a courtyard, a highly-rated cartoon was playing on the Wall Projector, titled "The Daily Transformation Life of Master Tuanzi." It told the story of a little cat demon named Tuanzi who, after turning into a little cat-girl, lived a mundane life alongside a few weak humans and foolish demons.

Chen Shu lay on the bed, flipping through A Book.

With the recommendation and help of the Vice Sect Master, he had obtained several Spells.

One was the "Mountain Piercing Technique," considered one of the ancient unique arts of the Spirit Sect, a proper single-target offensive Spell, meaning it could pierce through mountains. Naturally, modern Spirit Sect scholars had improved it, so it had not fallen behind.

Chen Shu intended to use it to replace the Tracer Technique.

The recommended Cultivation Rank for the Mountain Piercing Technique was the Seventh Stage; besides the Spell rank being higher than the Tracer Technique, its inherent characteristics were also different.

The Tracer Technique was an explosive Spell, and explosions had both pros and cons. The Mountain Piercing Technique, however, was a purely penetrative Spell with no area-of-effect damage.

For Chen Shu, who was at the Sixth Stage Peak, the Tracer Technique was already slightly outdated. It was fine for ordinary use, but if he were to fight a genius of the same level, such as in his confrontation with Zhang Suannai, it would appear very lackluster and be relegated to a functional Spell.

Therefore, the Mountain Piercing Technique could replace the Tracer Technique as Chen Shu's standard offensive Spell.

At the same time, the functionality of the Tracer Technique remained very strong.

Chen Shu planned to improve it by imitating the Spirit Power Cannons on warships, modifying the characteristics of the Spirit Power Bullets fired by the Tracer Technique to reduce their aggressiveness and penetration while increasing their instability and Spirit Sensitivity, for future use primarily in defense and interception.

In any case, Chen Shu's Spirit Sea space was very large, far larger than that of a normal Cultivator; the larger Spirit Sea space allowed the Thousand Machine Art to accommodate more Spells as well.

There was also a "God Binding Technique," which was a binding Spell.

It was to be used to replace the Cage Technique.

There were also three defensive Spells.

And the "Great Blazing Sun Art."

The minimum cultivation requirement for the Great Blazing Sun Art was the Seventh Stage. Just like with the Small Blazing Sun Art, its unique Reverse Rune Principle structure had non-negotiable, rigid requirements for Spirit Power Quality upon activation; if the Spirit Power Quality was insufficient, the conflicting reactions between the Runes could not be completed. Even though Chen Shu had a Double Spirit Sea and his own Spirit Power Quality was much higher than that of Cultivators at the same level, plus the fact that Divine Power had a significant boosting effect on Spirit Power Quality, the Vice Sect Master was still not certain if he could meet the operational requirements of the Great Blazing Sun Art while at the Sixth Stage Peak. However, considering he was not far from the Seventh Stage, the Vice Sect Master still gave him the Spell so he could familiarize himself with the differences between the Great Blazing Sun Art and the Small Blazing Sun Art in advance, allowing him to master it faster later on.

Chen Shu decided to learn the Mountain Piercing Technique first.

Unlike the Great Blazing Sun Art, even if Chen Shu's Spirit Power Quality fell a bit short of its recommended standard, the Mountain Piercing Technique would at most just decrease in power; perhaps he could compensate with a larger quantity, perhaps not, but in any case, it would not be completely unusable.

"..."

The sound of the cartoon in the room had unknowingly become a little quieter.

Chen Shu moved his gaze away from the book, lifted his eyes to glance ahead, and saw Taozi pressing the remote control; after adjusting the volume, it even turned its head to sneak a glance at him.

Chen Shu was immediately amused: "You're quite thoughtful..."

"Woof~"

"It's fine, go ahead and watch."

Chen Shu tilted his chin toward the screen on the wall: "Watch carefully, when you become a spirit, just transform according to this cartoon."

"Woof?"

Taozi tilted its head and stared at him, somewhat puzzled.

"What?"

"Woof?"

"I can't understand what you're saying."

"Hmm~"

Taozi silently withdrew its gaze, feeling disdain inside—

It could understand what he said, while he could not understand what it said; who was smarter and who was dumber seemed to already have an answer.

"Little kittens are all like this."

The little tabby cat in the cartoon said as much.

Taozi lay down, its eyes shining brightly.

Seeing the stars outside the window quietly change positions, and the little tabby cat in the cartoon, skilled at changing, turn into a little black cat and then into a little orange cat, Taozi judged through the restless Parkour Power within its body that it was now the normal sleeping time for humans.

That person sat cross-legged, eyes closed in cultivation.

Spirit Power gathered toward him, circling around his body.

To a Spirit Cat, these Spirit Power particles were like fine, colorful light dust, possessing countless colors, and when extremely dense, they were like water or silk.

Taozi couldn't help but burrow into Chen Shu's arms; it liked this fine and dense light dust very much.

Just then, Chen Shu opened his eyes.

"Woof?"

Taozi couldn't help but look up at him, thinking it was the one who had woken him up.

If that were the case...

It wouldn't feel guilty either.

"Are you sleepy?"

"Woo~"

"Sleep."

Chen Shu held it and burrowed into the quilt, lying flat, letting it curl up on his chest.

If Qingqing were here, this little thing would definitely struggle desperately, but with Qingqing away, he was like a second-in-line heir, inheriting all of this little thing's trust and reliance on Qingqing. And truth be told, the feeling of being snuggled by such a little thing was very reassuring.

Chen Shu soon fell asleep.

A few days later, Chen Shu returned to Yujing.

By this time, the internship for their class had already ended. The students were like they had gone out on a field trip; except for a few who suffered minor injuries—and basically none were caused by Sword Pigs, but rather by some Spiritualized or mutated plants inside—the rest had profound experiences and training.

Zhang Suannai had also already been released from the detention center.

When Chen Shu went to Ling'an Academy to find Xiaoxiao, he had a meal with her. This person was as normal as ever; going into a detention center was like just going online for a while.

I have to say, the Sword Sect has a way of educating its disciples.

No matter how other sects want to teach their disciples, every generation will have some rebellious, unconventional, and uniquely minded ones, yet the Sword Sect manages to teach all its disciples to be exactly the same; except for a batch of traitors a thousand years ago, almost everyone has this same temperament.

With this kind of cohesion, it's no wonder their heritage has remained unbroken for four thousand years.

"Ah..."

Today's study of Spells ends here.

Chen Shu pulled Taozi over to stroke her a few times, then took out his Mobile Phone and found Fellow Daoist Huang's WeChat.

Chen Shu: It's already dark in Dongzhou, right?

Huang Chu: Just got dark.

Chen Shu: Have you eaten dinner?

Huang Chu: I have.

Huang Chu: I'm on a diet recently, I only ate half a cow.

Chen Shu: /expression complex

These past few days, besides studying Spells, Daily Cultivation, and chatting every day, he would also chat a bit in his spare time with a few Demon Race fellow daoists he met last month.

The one he chatted with the most was naturally Fellow Daoist Huang.

Fellow Daoist Huang and he were life-and-death friends in the Forbidden Land; he lived and she died, and plus this tiger spirit had a cheerful personality, which suited his taste.

Next was Fellow Daoist Hu.

Fellow Daoist Hu was proficient in Spells and Formations and was very knowledgeable; it just so happened that Chen Shu also had a good understanding of Spell Runes and loved reading miscellaneous books, so the two had common topics and could exchange information on some small Spells from Dayi and Dongzhou.

This was the daily friendship-building plan.

Chen Shu thought for a moment, and not wanting to beat around the bush, he said directly—

Chen Shu: Set aside a few jin of meat from your dinner and mail it to me.

Chen Shu: /pointing with a Sword

Chen Shu: In exchange, I brought two bags of top-quality Yuding Mountain tea from the Spirit Sect, I'll share one bag with you.

Huang Chu: Send the address.

Huang Chu: You finally found the right person.

Huang Chu: The absolute best meat is restricted from export in our Dongzhou, but it just so happens I have connections; besides these, I'll get you some local specialties, Spirit Deer antlers, Spirit Cow pizzle, and Spirit Chicken egg clusters, all are great tonics, I'll mail them all together, I guarantee your girlfriend will be satisfied.

Chen Shu: That won't be necessary.

Chen Shu: It's too valuable.

Chen Shu hurriedly refused.

Setting aside whether these things actually have any effect, even if they did, there's no use for them, wouldn't that just be torturing himself?

Just then, a message flashed.

Qingqing: Coming back the day after tomorrow.

Qingqing: Getting off the plane at five in the afternoon.

Chen Shu immediately forgot about Fellow Daoist Huang and started typing, but before he could finish typing "Did you miss me?", Qingqing's message came through again.

Qingqing: I miss you very much.

Chen Shu was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly pressed the backspace key, deleted what he had typed, and started over.

Qingqing: Just finished dinner.

"?"

Chen Shu deleted the text again.

Qingqing: Had hot pot, it's too cold here, only hot pot to eat at night.

"??"

Chen Shu scratched his head and deleted it once more.

This time he started typing again.

Chen Shu: Why don't you go chat with yourself, damn it.

Qingqing:?

Chen Shu recalled a message.

Chen Shu: I miss you very much too.

Chen Shu: /cute

Qingqing: No wonder you kept showing as typing, but no message ever came through.

Qingqing: /dying of laughter

Chen Shu: /indifferent

The two of them sent each other's commonly used emojis.

------------------Author's Note------------------

I rode my little electric scooter out this afternoon to find some good food, but the vehicle broke down halfway, so I had to push it for over ten kilometers to get back, which is why I was delayed.