Chapter 346: Learning for the Sake of Eavesdropping

The beef sent by Daoist Huang was truly top-tier; it wasn't the kind that was high in fat and melted in the mouth, but rather one where you could taste the meat fibers. Yet, the thickness of the fibers was just right. Chen Shu sliced it thin and boiled it in red sour soup, and one could taste the rich meaty aroma. Even Xiaoxiao ate quite a bit.

After dinner, the two sat on the swing, admiring the sunset glow.

Ning Qing's gaze swept over the courtyard indifferently. Every corner of the courtyard was clean; fallen leaves and withered flowers had all been cleared away, and even the gaps between the bricks were spotless. Only the trampled marks on the Pearl Grass she used as a ground-cover lawn indicated that these two had not been that well-behaved.

Chen Shu's voice came from beside her: "What are you looking at?"

"It's tidied up quite cleanly."

"That's right!"

"You spent a long time cleaning it, didn't you?" Ning Qing didn't even look at him. "You only cleaned it this afternoon, right?"

"Haha..."

"It seems that when I wasn't here, you two really lived quite freely."

"That's right! When you weren't here, we stepped on the lawn whenever we wanted, went online whenever we wanted, skipped homework whenever we wanted, and if we didn't want to clean up after eating, we just left things on the table. It was incredibly happy."

"..."

Ning Qing glanced at him, not wanting to talk to him.

Lest he use not dating her to threaten her again later.

Although the threat had no real effect, playing along with his act was quite a loss; she couldn't help but have to concede some things and let him take advantage of her more.

"Then how much of your Seven Emotions is left now?"

"Only 'Surprise' remains."

"That's fast then."

"'Surprise' might take a long time to cultivate." Ning Qing's tone was very flat. "In my memory, I have very, very rarely felt surprised by something, or been startled. This is the emotion most unfamiliar to me."

"Wait..."

Chen Shu only thought of it now: "When did you finish cultivating 'Fear'?"

"During the internship."

"During the internship? What made you feel 'Fear'? I'd like to study its core philosophy."

"..."

Ning Qing cast a light glance at him—

This person couldn't help but be cheeky at any time.

"I'm asking you."

"Conjecture."

"I see..."

With just that one word "conjecture," Chen Shu understood.

Ning Qing gave a hum as a response, then grabbed the chain of the swing with one hand, and the swing began to sway automatically, with a very small amplitude: "I saw that Plane; there was no vitality, no Spirit Power, just dead silence. Secret Sect Practitioners often deal with the World Will; the World Will we speak of is actually the Plane Will. We believe it has life, but the Plane Will of that world had already died."

"So that's the destroyed Plane... Did you observe why it was destroyed?"

"No."

"Guess?"

"No."

"You're so bad at this."

"I had a dream." Ning Qing ignored him. "A Heavenly Human does not dream. This is the third dream I have been able to remember in my entire life."

"What did you dream of?"

"I dreamed that before we were dating, gods from another plane invaded here, and we were forced to participate in the war, displaced and homeless."

"That's too melodramatic."

"I felt the same way when I woke up."

"Right?"

Chen Shu thought rationally according to his own understanding.

Due to the existence of the Plane Will and the great power it possesses, if a war were to break out with another plane, it would be destined to be a war between gods. Existences below the gods could not possibly invade this plane; even a Ninth Stage cultivator would have no power to fight back under the strength of the Plane Will, just as it is effortless for a Secret Sect Practitioner who borrows the power of the Plane Will to execute someone of the same tier.

And as for those above the Ninth Stage, for Chen Shu, who was still working hard to advance to High-Tier, it was still relatively far off.

"Don't worry so much."

Chen Shu grabbed Ning Qing's hand and stroked it, his tone rarely serious: "Although it is quite reasonable to say that if a man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand, there is no need to place worries so early on things completely out of our reach. A long-distance runner must set their goal a short distance ahead, otherwise, they will be exhausted halfway... So we only need to advance toward High-Tier now. We have to drive the car to the mountain before we can find the road. In the spare time in between, let's live our lives well."

Ning Qing listened quietly, lowering her head and eyes, staring at her own hand.

This person was holding her hand with one hand and stroking it back and forth with the other.

Ning Qing understood what he meant.

Teacher Ou also often said that one must keep their eyes on the stars and the universe—that is a dream—but also keep their eyes on the ground—that is life.

Chen Shu's personality was transcendent yet lazy, as if he were playing at life. For a person like him, even if the sky were to fall, he wouldn't stay tense forever. This way, even if the final outcome wasn't good, at least there was a process in between; this life would still be interesting and valuable. If one were always tense, in his view, it would be a waste of time, and even if the result were good, there would be no experience to speak of.

Ning Qing pursed her lips and said to him:

"You need to keep accounts."

"?"

Chen Shu looked at her in astonishment: "No way, Secretary Ning, I'm talking to you about serious matters in all earnestness, and you tell me this?"

"Learned it from you."

"Ugh! Now that you say that, I suddenly feel this behavior has become cute again!" Chen Shu paused, his expression serious. "But your behavior is still different from mine. I am kindly guiding you and comforting you, and you are haggling over these things with me—a total turn-off."

"Shameless."

"You're scolding me too." Chen Shu was very disappointed. "Human hearts are truly cold."

"Swish!"

Ning Qing pulled her hand back.

"No way, right? You've already confessed to me, and now I can't even hold your hand?"

"A premature confession."

"A premature confession is still a confession."

"A premature rehearsal."

"..." Chen Shu looked at her with a complex expression, "With this attitude of yours, it'll be very hard for me to say yes to you later."

"Suit yourself."

"Wow, you're so fickle! Just a moment ago you said..." Chen Shu stopped to clear his throat, then wiped his face to look expressionless, but instead of imitating her cold and indifferent tone, he deliberately made his voice sound very strange, "I have always wanted to hold your hand, always wanted to kiss you, always wanted to hug you, always wanted to be like a normal girl... mmph mmph mmph..."

A mass of Spirit Power blocked his mouth.

"Pfft..."

Chen Shu broke through her blockade and said to her, "It's useless. I'll remember this sentence for the rest of my life, and I'll recite it to you often."

"..."

Ning Qing remained expressionless, acting as if she didn't hear.

Chen Shu had no choice but to ask again: "Then what were the other two dreams you had?"

"One of them was from when we moved in the past. On the first day of moving, I dreamed that you had become distant with me. You wouldn't even look at me in class, and on the way home after school, I talked to you, but you ignored me. Oh right, you even bought Sugar-coated Haws for the girl sitting in front of you to eat..."

"And the other one?"

"I'm not telling you."

"Refusing to say? Then it must have been a wet dream."

"Think whatever you want."

"Tch!"

Don't know what's so great about it.

Chen Shu dangled his legs, making the swing go even harder.

Meanwhile, upstairs, in the second bedroom.

The little girl had already finished her homework and was holding a copy of "Wind-Following Ear," looking down at it.

This was an Ancient Spell for enhancing hearing. The performance of Ancient Spells was not as good as modern Spells, but their advantage was that they were much simpler than modern Spells—usually, if one was not a professional Spirit Cultivator, except for a very small number of Spells that were particularly important to them, everyone would choose Ancient Spells.

The little girl was studying earnestly.

Mid-October.

The mountain forest behind Yuan'an Temple had also turned yellow, and the fallen leaves were piled up thick.

Chen Shu stood in mid-air and pointed his finger into the void—

"Boom!"

A highly condensed force shot out, only about the thickness of a forearm in diameter, piercing through and breaking all the trees along the way, instantly disappearing into the small mountain ahead.

Chen Shu locked onto that position and flew over.

A hole the thickness of a forearm had been punched into the mountain, and the hole was pitch black, its depth unknown.

This Spell could be considered learned.

Likewise, he would need to familiarize himself with it further later on. After mastering it completely, it would also take some time to integrate it into the Thousand Machine Art, but he could already learn other Spells in the process of integrating it into the Thousand Machine Art.

As for how strong its specific performance was, it still needed further testing.

The best testing method was to find Zhang Suannai and have another fight; he could intuitively know its power and its application in actual combat, but Chen Shu didn't have this idea for the time being.

"Hum..."

Chen Shu set up several One-way Defensive Barriers on the ground, then circled to the defensive side, pulled a distance of about five hundred meters from the first layer of the Defense Barrier, calmed his mind again to circulate the Spell, and after trying twice, he pointed his finger into the void—

"Boom!"

The force shot out again, crossing hundreds of meters, still concentrated.

There were a total of five layers of One-way Defensive Barrier, all of which were signature Spells that Chen Shu had improved for himself, but in front of the Mountain Piercing Technique, they were instantly penetrated by three layers.

The Spirit Power hit the fourth layer, causing violent ripples on the invisible barrier, and finally dissipated.

This Spell was actually quite interesting.

In that instant, what was unleashed was not pure Spirit Power, but was mainly divided into three parts—

One part remained in the form of pure Spirit Power but did not serve an attacking function; instead, it provided continuous Spirit Power for the attack. One part transformed into a force similar to the strength of a Martial Cultivator, and the other part was the air it carried along. The three were intertwined and fused with each other, becoming an inseparable whole. This not only avoided the unstable characteristics of pure Spirit Power attacks but also avoided the shortcoming of insufficient follow-through in the pure force attacks of Martial Cultivators. Then, the Spirit Power bound the air, endowing it with characteristics, making ordinary gas become an indestructible attack, and it would maintain such characteristics until the part of the Spirit Power accompanying the attack was exhausted.

There were many other small aspects that collectively maintained the stability and comprehensive performance of the attack unleashed by this Spell.

The final effect shown made Chen Shu very Surprise.

This Spell seemed to have been born two thousand years ago.

It had to be said that the Spirit Sect, as the oldest sect in the world and the foundation of most current systems, still had some substance.

Chen Shu tested it a few more times, then waved his hand.

"Boom..."

The soil layer on the ground suddenly rose more than ten meters high and was also more than ten meters thick.

Earth Element Spiritual Power was infused into it, making the soil seem to have a luster, becoming harder than steel.

Chen Shu pulled away again and aimed at that side.

"Boom!"

Oh, missed.

Try again.

"Boom!"

The Mountain Piercing Power struck the soil layer.

This was a defensive fortification Chen Shu had spent quite a bit of effort to research; its drawbacks were that the defensive direction was not comprehensive and the generation speed was slow. If it were only a single wall, an opponent would bypass it without hesitation, and if a fortress were generated, one would trap oneself inside. It could be considered a specific product prepared for specific battles, used only to block or weaken Zhang Suannai's Sword Control Technique, but it was truly hard; Zhang Suannai's Sword Light had to shatter wave after wave against it before it could be gouged open.

And when Chen Shu flew over to check, the Mountain Piercing Power had only just missed piercing through it.

One must take into account that he had just mastered this Spell and was not yet proficient, and casting a High-Tier Spell at the Sixth Stage not only meant his Spirit Power Quality could not keep up, but the Spirit Power's effect was also incomplete, all of which would lead to this Spell functioning abnormally.

Overall, the Mountain Piercing Technique displayed strong performance against both Spirit Power Defense and physical defense, and it seemed the effect against physical defense was even better.

The reason might be that Spirit Power Defense had a greater influence on the Spirit Power carried within the Mountain Piercing Power, leading to excessive consumption of the Spirit Power within the Mountain Piercing Power, which in turn caused the other two forces responsible for the attack to lack follow-through, ultimately shattering it.

At the same time, because of the constraint of Spirit Power, the Mountain Piercing Power would not disperse with flight distance, but instead remained concentrated throughout.

Chen Shu tested it one more time.

He kept going until the Spirit Power in his body was consumed to the point where only enough remained to fly out, and only then did he stop and fly out of this place.