Chapter 89: It Seems There Is No More Harmony

"What are you laughing at?"

"I'm not laughing!"

"You laughed."

"I was laughing at..." Chen Shu thought for a moment, "laughing that your roommate actually wants to protect you!"

"Is that so?"

"Of course! What else?"

"..."

"Hehe..."

Chen Shu laughed twice more and immediately changed the subject: "I brought something amazing..."

Ning Qing watched him run into the room, and when he ran back out, he was already holding a strange object in his hand—that object had many wires on one end, and each wire had a black tip the size of a grain of rice at the end; he was pinching it with two fingers and spinning it constantly.

"Guess what this is used for?"

"First, rule out beating eggs."

"Even a fool can see that."

"..." Ning Qing glanced at the object in his hand, then raised her eyes to glance at him, and said with a calm expression, "Second, rule out a bicycle."

"..."

"So what exactly is it?"

"The Soul Extraction Device!" Chen Shu said, enunciating each word.

"How do you extract it?"

"Come over and try it." Chen Shu pulled Qingqing to his side and then demonstrated for her, "Just like this, stick it onto your head, and you will have a feeling like your Spirit Soul is leaving your body."

"A massager?"

"Yeah."

Chen Shu had already placed the massager on Qingqing's head, calibrated the position, and pushed it down.

Ning Qing stood where she was, very calmly, with an expressionless face.

Taozi stood upright, craning its neck to look at them.

"Hmm?"

Chen Shu looked at Qingqing with great surprise, pulled the Soul Extraction Device up, and inserted it again, only to see that Qingqing's expression remained as usual, so he couldn't help but ask:

"Why don't you have any reaction?"

Qingqing tilted her head slightly and asked back, puzzled:

"Should there be a reaction?"

"Don't you feel anything?"

"I do."

"What do you feel? Tell me!"

"I feel that you put this thing on my head, and then its tips were inserted into my hair." Ning Qing let him stand behind her, calmly and objectively aiming at the feeling at this moment, "This thing is still in my hair now."

"Is it uncomfortable?"

"Average."

"Just average?"

"What else?"

"Have you tried something similar before?"

"No."

"Then why are you so insensitive!" Chen Shu said, puzzled, "Other people have a huge reaction the first time; they'll cry out, their Spirit Soul will feel like it's leaving their body."

"Perhaps it's because of the Heavenly Human Bloodline." Ning Qing took the object off her head with her backhand and analyzed it very rationally, "When receiving weak stimulation, Heavenly Humans will perceive it more keenly than Wise Humans, but the threshold for Heavenly Human senses is very low, and the upper limit of stimulation they can feel is far inferior to Wise Humans. At the same time, Heavenly Humans will not make strong physical or verbal reactions to certain stimuli like Wise Humans do."

"So you won't shout when you're in pain?"

"Correct."

"And you won't shout when you're feeling good?" Chen Shu seemed to have discovered the main point.

"..." Ning Qing looked at him, her eyes as calm as water, easily seeing through this person's filthy inner thoughts, "If you have nothing to do, you can go start preparing lunch. I want to eat fried rice with pickled pepper chicken giblets."

"Don't change the subject."

"Changing the subject is for your own good."

"The point now is..." Chen Shu pondered seriously, "Doesn't that mean I'll be missing a harmony when I play poker with you in the future?"

"..."

Ning Qing pursed her lips tightly and said nothing, looking at Chen Shu. After a few seconds, she spoke, her voice still very light and faint: "I want to eat pickled pepper chicken giblets. If I can successfully eat this dish at noon today, I can pour out half of the water."

"In your dreams!"

Chen Shu said without even thinking.

Two sparrows overhead were startled and flew up.

Chen Shu looked up, didn't care, and continued to say to Ning Qing: "To make that, I still have to go buy chicken giblets. The supermarket is so far away, it'll be noon by the time I get back. Besides, I just drank the Laba porridge you brought, and I'm still full now."

"It's still not too late to leave now."

"It's so cold, I'm too lazy to walk."

"We'll go together."

"I'll just order you some takeout..."

Chen Shu sat where he was, not moving, and placed the Soul Extraction Device on his own head, pulling it in and out repeatedly.

"Very good."

Ning Qing looked at him calmly.

"?"

Chen Shu felt something was a bit off; his hand was still gripping the Soul Extraction Device resting on his head, but he stopped his movements, and just as he was about to ask Ning Qing, he felt something suddenly land on the back of the hand atop his head.

*Plop. *

He took it off to look—

A glob of bird droppings!

"!!"

How the hell could he endure this?

Chen Shu stood up instantly, looked up at the two birds bickering in the sky, raised his Spirit Power, and immediately wanted to finish them off, but just as he was about to trigger it, he sighed helplessly, withdrew his gathered momentum, and instead walked to the side to wash the thing off with the faucet in the courtyard.

While washing, he was secretly angry—

What the hell is the use of this garbage Warning Technique? And it's called Absolute Spiritual Perception? Are you even worthy of comparing yourself to Spiritual Sense?

Other people's Spiritual Sense is way more badass than you!

After washing, he turned his head; Qingqing was still standing in the same spot, watching him with a calm expression, and the long-haired white cat at her feet was watching him too.

Oh right! This person is the real culprit!

"Fine, you! You actually framed me!"

"It has nothing to do with me."

"And you say it has nothing to do with you!"

"It doesn't." Ning Qing was unmoved by his anger and explained patiently, "It was because you refused me too loudly that they were startled into flying up. Afterward, I tried to ask you to leave your seat twice; you only needed to agree to one of them to avoid it, but you didn't agree even once."

"So you're blaming me now?"

"Yes."

Ning Qing nodded to confirm her thought, then she finally moved, pulling his arm to walk outside.

Chen Shu asked in a daze: "What do you want to do again?"

"Go out."

"Go out for what?"

"Buy chicken offal."

"... Can you not be like this?"

"?"

"When you're like this, I have absolutely no way to refuse."

"Oh."

Chen Shu was pulled out the door by her with a pained expression.

If he had known, he should have just agreed to her earlier; now he had been bombed by those two birds for nothing.

The next afternoon.

Chen Shu walked out of the exam room for his final subject, feeling completely relaxed.

He had only brought one pen to this exam; after coming out, he stuffed the pen into his pants pocket and walked toward the school gate—Meng Chunqiu was already waiting for him there. This guy was wearing a simple and elegant traditional outfit, his sleeves fluttering, his belt tied in a double-ear knot, and his long hair tied behind his head; he looked every bit like a beauty from an ancient costume drama.

Some boys even gathered the courage to go up and hit on him.

But as soon as Meng Chunqiu opened his mouth, it was a gentle male voice. The people who had gathered the courage to hit on him were so scared by this that they probably wouldn't have the courage to hit on any girl for the rest of their university years.

Chen Shu walked up, his face full of teasing:

"Brother Meng, what charm you have!"

"..." Meng Chunqiu looked at Chen Shu in embarrassment, then pretended to be generous and smiled to cover up his awkwardness, "Brother Chen seems to be in a good mood today?"

"How did you know?"

"When you're in a good mood, you call me Brother Meng; when you're in a bad mood, you call me Meng Chunqiu."

"Haha... let's go!"

Today they had an appointment to watch Jiang Lai get beaten up.

After Jiang Lai won several matches in a row, he finally stabilized. Now, the opponents assigned to him were basically on par with him; there were wins and losses, and sometimes the difference in strength was so small that the outcome depended on the day's condition and luck.

It was said that today's opponent was very strong.

Chen Shu and Meng Chunqiu had just finished their exams this afternoon, so they made an appointment to appreciate their roommate's disheveled state.

Two hours later.

Chen Shu and Meng Chunqiu were sitting in the back row.

The two were fighting each other on the Arena.

A muscular man with bulging muscles and fierce Rune tattoos all over his body was launching a fierce and sharp attack on Jiang Lai, like a violent storm.

Jiang Lai was forced to defend.

Compared to his opponent's physique, he appeared a bit too thin and also looked very immature.

Wearing a pair of black shorts, his lean body had only a small patch of Runes on his back—at first, his supporters saw this patch of Runes and were both happy that this young man was finally willing to engrave Runes, meaning his strength would surely improve, and felt that this patch of Runes looked truly crude and not at all imposing; it was hard to imagine that this "flush toilet button" could unleash much power.

Before the duel, during the audience's favorite standoff segment, some opponents had even used this patch of Runes to mock Jiang Lai, and the result afterward was obvious.

In the past few days, Jiang Lai and the performance of this set of Runes on his back had made many people's jaws drop.

Jiang Lai was indeed working hard to promote for Chen Shu.

He was a good kid.

Quite a few people had already contacted Chen Shu, including professional Underground Arena Martial Artists, wealthy amateur hobbyists, studios specializing in engraving Runes, and even the boss behind this Underground Arena that Jiang Lai was signed to.

Some wanted to ask him to help design Runes, some wanted to obtain the license for the general-purpose version of the set of Runes on Jiang Lai's body, and some wanted long-term cooperation.

It's just because I've been taking exams for the past few days...

Alright, that's an excuse.

The main thing is that Chen Shu feels it's all very troublesome whenever he thinks about these things.

Everyone has their own troubles.

Mentally exhausted.

Plus, having just made quite a bit of easy money from the stock market, he temporarily lost the motivation to earn money, especially this kind of troublesome money. So he told everyone that he had to focus on preparing for the final exams during this period and had no heart to worry about these things for the time being. In fact, these past few days he either sprawled on the sofa watching short videos, played games, or teased Qingqing and Qingqing's roommate; in short, he didn't touch his review at all.

Now that the exams are over...

It's fine, the New Year is coming soon anyway.

When he's short on money, he'll pick them back up.

At this moment, Meng Chunqiu's flamboyant voice came from beside him: "Brother Chen, why do people in the venue keep looking at me?"

"Because you're pretty."

"That is true." Meng Chunqiu smoothed his hair and pointed forward, "Brother Chen, look, Brother Jiang has many supporters too, no fewer than the opponent's, and the proportion of die-hard supporters is very high. They feel very heartbroken every time he gets beaten!"

"He seems to have a lot of 'mom fans'."

"'Mom fans', that's a good term." Meng Chunqiu looked very delighted, then asked with concern, "Who do you think will win?"

"I don't know."

"Brother Jiang is being beaten so miserably..."

"Indeed."

Only then did Chen Shu understand why Jiang Lai always returned covered in injuries—his style is heavily biased toward defense, always taking beatings, but he is very resistant to them. Even without a Defense Rune, he can block the opponent's attacks, and even if he is battered and bloody, it doesn't seem to affect his state.

Such physical fitness is considered very rare among Martial Artists, right? It's almost comparable to Martial Cultivators who specialize in defense, like those from the Buddhist Sect.

"Is Brother Jiang always beaten this miserably?"

"Yes."

"How bloody and barbaric."

"It is indeed a bit of an eyesore for Brother Meng to see this."

"That's not quite it. My Dayi was founded on martial arts. Brother Chen, don't look at me as if I'm peerless and elegant, like a god descended to earth; if a war were to break out one day, perhaps I, as a descendant of Meng Yi, would also have to be the first to join the army to defend the country."

"A god descended to earth..." Chen Shu was silent for a moment, then quickly changed the subject, "Brother Meng, do you know who the boss behind this Arena is?"

"Of course I know!"

"You really know?"

"There is nothing in Yujing that I don't know."

"Tell me about it."

"I came here once before, and then I looked into it." Meng Chunqiu temporarily reined in his flamboyance, "The boss of this Arena is surnamed Li. He is a Sixth-stage Martial Artist, which is relatively rare among the common people now. He retired from the army and was a soldier brought up by one of my uncle's subordinates before retiring due to injury. With this connection, plus a few first or second-class military merits to protect him, as long as he doesn't do anything excessive, he basically won't be investigated. It's much more stable than other Arenas."

"No wonder the business is so big..."

"Plus, since he served in the army and has a background, it means he has constraints, so he acts quite properly. He knows his limits and knows the bottom line of those above. So at most, he just does things like this—making it a bit bloody—but he won't do anything that seriously violates the law."

"I see..."

Chen Shu looked back at the Arena.

The roommate was being beaten even more miserably.

Finally, the opponent's offensive began to wane.

Jiang Lai began to counterattack.

The Moon-shaped Rune on his back was suddenly activated, and Jiang Lai punched from bottom to top. A huge shockwave, like an explosion, instantly rushed out.

"Boom!"

A deafening muffled sound.

The opponent was directly knocked into the sky.

It was even more terrifying than the impact produced by that Fifth-stage Martial Artist in the Fourth Rank vs. Fifth Rank match he had watched before.

Then the Sun-character Rune was activated.

Jiang Lai bent his legs, and as he leaped upward, the huge impact rushing toward his feet gave him extremely strong reverse thrust. The floor of the Arena instantly deformed severely, and he shot into the sky like a human cannonball, colliding with his opponent.

And at this moment, his opponent was falling; it is very difficult for a crude Martial Artist to find leverage in mid-air.

Without any power to resist, and even unable to dodge.

"Boom!"

Both sides landed on the ground one after the other.

The roles of attacker and defender had already swapped.

The strength and weakness had also instantly reversed.