ASER - Chapter 101
Chapter 101: Master
Fortunately, A'Diao was a pragmatist. Since she had ambitions, she naturally had ways to achieve them.
"Others can't do it, but I can. Don't forget, I have the BUG advantage of two Spirit Clusters!"
Toilet: "?"
A'Diao: "I have two Spirit Clusters, and the second Spirit Cluster is located in the Dimensional Space. So, if I activate 303, bring myself into the Dimensional Space, then inject these extracted Spirit Elements into the second Spirit Cluster, and before it's assimilated by Spiritual Power, I use 202 vacuum compression to infinitely shrink it and apply it to the second Spirit Cluster. This external force will prevent assimilation and instead convert Spiritual Power into Spirit Elements… But because I don't have a Spirit Core yet, I can't maintain the long-term existence of Spirit Elements. However, at this point, I can draw out the Spiritual Power from the first Spirit Cluster and use it as a driving force to push these Spirit Elements to simulate connecting meridians… In other words, originally, after reaching peak dual-A rank, I could connect two sets of seven main and eight collateral meridians, which is 30 meridians, already twice that of an ordinary person. But before becoming a Forbidden Master, I'll first create more meridians now… to further expand this advantage."
Most people really wouldn't understand.
Perhaps she could only discuss it with Toilet.
Especially since she already had the foundation of Tendon-Splitting Bone-Misaligning, her meridians were already more numerous and tougher than others, making it perfect for this endeavor.
Anyway, it was like moving something from the left hand to the right, a lot of fuss. At worst, it would consume time and resources, but if it succeeded, it would be a cornerstone for immense profit and unparalleled dominance. This deal wasn't a loss.
"Doesn't Lushan Academy recruit the most awesome, talented geniuses? If I pull this off, even if my talent assessment and cultivation level are slightly inferior to others, just by surpassing them by far in this core threshold for Forbidden Masters, they'd have to look at me differently, right? After all, just having dozens of meridians can make my instant casting speed and burst strength far exceed others." A'Diao had a bit of a cunning plan, her small face full of slyness.
Toilet: "Holy crap, this could work! And I'm right here in the Dimensional Space, I can maintain your energy stability to the maximum extent, preventing an energy collapse. Once you pull this off, you'll soar, my Diao!"
Actually, both the person and the toilet knew that while the principle of this operation sounded feasible, it would be very difficult to execute. But then again, no one had ever thought a person could possess two Spirit Clusters before.
And yet, she had managed it.
Later, no one had thought she could hide a Spirit Cluster in the Dimensional Space either.
She still succeeded.
She was inherently special.
Why not infinitely expand this unparalleled advantage?
Let's do it!
A'Diao first digested the inheritance from Cui Liang and two A-rank fighters.
Among them, the absorbed energy from Spirit Cores and Spirit Plant Bodies totaled 66,500 points, directly absorbed by Toilet, bringing its energy level to 93,000 points. This was too far from the 500,000 points needed for an upgrade, so it couldn't reach level 9. Later, A'Diao also sold the forbidden items and consolidated various miscellaneous resources. After selling everything, her total assets currently amounted to 10 billion. This money was intended for formula ingredients.
Her Mental Power had accumulated to 4 million points, so A'Diao exchanged them for both the Grade C Formula and the Body Armor.
After the Grade C Formula appeared, A'Diao glanced at it, her expression like an old man on the subway looking at a stock market chart… If she didn't understand it, it was "Holy crap!"; if she did understand it, it was still "Holy crap!"
Fortunately, this old lady now has 10 billion in hand.
Xiao Yuanbao's and Sparrow's two accounts each held 5 billion. After their assets met the threshold, Huayao Bank proactively contacted them. With A'Diao's consent, both accounts were upgraded to Black Gold VIP. This way, apart from a few top executives at Huayao Bank, no internal personnel below them could see A'Diao's transaction details.
Only then did A'Diao feel at ease to purchase a large quantity of medicinal ingredients from their trading house. She bought ingredients for everything from Tendon-Splitting Bone-Misaligning to the Grade C and D formulas, and in considerable amounts.
Looking back, the Tendon-Splitting Bone-Misaligning formula seemed incredibly cheap. A'Diao bought it like it was cabbage; her goal was to achieve at least one hundred bone misalignments.
Anyway, she wasn't short of money anymore. After all, a single dose of the Grade C medicine cost over a hundred million.
My money, ahhh!!!
Seeing A'Diao's contorted expression as she spent money, Toilet rarely offered heartfelt comfort: "Don't look at the cost, look at the effect. Even if you don't consider your aptitude, look at your appearance. Hasn't it improved a lot recently? You could even be considered a little beauty."
"Woman, you have to spend money on yourself. It's like the conservation of energy; it never disappears, it just exists in your beauty…"
It thought A'Diao would scold it for spouting pyramid scheme nonsense.
Unexpectedly, A'Diao looked in the mirror, felt good, and suddenly wasn't sad anymore.
Toilet: "…"
The little evil dragon was sometimes quite easy to coax.
But it felt like her greedy nature—for power, wealth, food, and beauty—was becoming more and more apparent. A proper prototype of a supervillain.
In the blink of an eye, 9 billion out of the 10 billion was spent, gathering enough medicinal ingredients for 80 days of consumption.
This transaction was clearly very large; even Huayao Bank's headquarters took notice.
Huayao's second-in-command executive for the Tang-Song national region personally contacted Sparrow's and Xiao Yuanbao's private account message channels. He informed them that the bank would activate a teleportation array to send the goods across countries directly to the Jinling branch, asking whether they preferred home delivery or self-pickup to ensure address privacy. If home delivery was chosen, a Forbidden Master from headquarters would personally escort it.
Good heavens!
The more expensive the goods, the faster the delivery; even a teleportation array was used. It showed how formidable this world's number one private bank was.
However, A'Diao chose home delivery because the person in charge of the Huayao branch in Jinling didn't know the inside details, so the information wouldn't leak. As for the Forbidden Master…
A'Diao took the initiative to ask, "What level of Forbidden Master? Will they be detected? If there's a chance of detection, it's better to pick it up myself."
Clearly, the CEO knew that these VIPs valued privacy the most. He immediately said: "It's a mid-rank Transcendent. But our Huayao Bank equips these escorting Forbidden Masters with top-tier armor and Grade B ancient camouflage forbidden items. No one in the Jinling area can see through his disguise."
His tone was very certain.
According to the cultivation realm calculations of the first generation, after A-rank is the threshold for Forbidden Masters. Forbidden Masters are roughly divided into Transcendent, Glimmer, Star, Grandmaster, and Demon King/Spirit King. Each tier is further divided into upper, middle, and lower grades.
Only then was A'Diao convinced of the other party's sincerity and chose delivery. The CEO informed her it would arrive in two hours.
Taking advantage of this time, A'Diao went to the Clearance Points Tower once.
Beat the fourth level, without revealing her results, but she had to let a certain someone know.
As Qu Jiangnan expected, after returning from Jinxiang, Tuoba indeed reduced his class time and was pulled away by the Principal for personal instruction. He was probably holding in some frustration (That brat Qu Jiangnan taught that troublesome imp; could my Tuoba still lose to her?).
Not allowed, absolutely not allowed!
So, this old man also got serious. Anyway, Tuoba experienced a sudden spike in learning difficulty.
"At a normal pace, you should be able to pass the fourth floor in another three days. But I hope you can break through your own limits under this prediction, shrinking the target by a small amount each time, half a day or a day earlier. This is progress, and also an excavation of potential. Remember, a person's upper limit is finite, but revealing that limit earlier is beneficial for acquiring more resources, and resources can often help you expand that upper limit—do you know why I said Song Ling's future is no worse than yours?"
Tuoba thought for a moment and said: "Her psychic arts are very strong, and the Spirit Plant Body she has is highly compatible with her currently manifested talent skill, which is very rare. Moreover, she works hard just right; I've never seen her do anything superfluous. Basically, every effort yields results. This time, the resources she obtained were no less than mine, and another thing is that she has a large number of talismans."
He had discovered this back in Jinxiang, and at the time, he couldn't help but feel regret. But the Jinxiang incident happened too suddenly; even if he had money and connections through his class teacher, he didn't have time to acquire them.
He also guessed that Song Ling's sharp reaction was likely due to A'Diao's reminder, as A'Diao was the first to sense the Jinxiang crisis.
Principal: "These only show that she has high EQ and IQ, and knows how to anticipate—why do you think she gave up on you four F4s early on and chose A'Diao?"
The title "F4" sounded truly embarrassing.
Tuoba, a steel-straight guy, rarely felt awkward. The Principal snorted lightly: "If I'm not mistaken, her psychic talent isn't the one she displayed in the exam, but telepathy—she saw long ago that A'Diao's mental body was the strongest among everyone, much stronger than yours, so she made her choice."
"Her talismans should have come from A'Diao. Because your Teacher Qu is skilled in talismans, and A'Diao learned for only a short time before she could make level-two talismans. In the future, resources will pour in; she won't lack money or talismans. Her upper limit has already self-expanded."
Knowing from Qu Jiangnan that A'Diao's mental body scored 100 points, the Principal had guessed it. However, he also suspected that Song Ling's mental body strength was also extraordinary, because a talent like telepathy usually only manifested in cultivators with strong mental bodies.
But Jinling didn't have the equipment for verification, and Qu Jiangnan, the only one who could check, was more interested in A'Diao. But this was also good.
In the early stages, an ability like telepathy couldn't be effectively used for attacks. Exposing a mental body talent too early wasn't a good thing, especially since their A, B, C aptitudes weren't outstanding enough to compare with the prodigies from places like Kyoto.
Tuoba was somewhat surprised, frowning in thought: "Even if A'Diao's Spiritual Power is E-rank, an E-rank can make level-two talismans. Although it's correct in principle, I see that Song Ling has many talismans of various types. If it were a D-rank, it would be more plausible, but she's only E-rank… Is it because her mental body is strong?"
Principal: "What else? Or do you wish her Spiritual Power was D-rank?"
Tuoba, who had just absorbed a wave of resources and whose Spiritual Power was exactly E7: "…"
The old man was quite grumpy today.
"As a teacher, who doesn't have a temper? The anger just flares up while teaching. Your combat ability is good, but your overall strategic management is a bit lacking. You need to learn from A'Diao, be more treacherous, more cunning, more shameless, so you'll live longer… Uh, never mind, continue your cultivation, study hard."
"Here, this is a detailed diagram of Daoist arts. Practice it first. I'll come back later to demonstrate for you. If you don't learn it today, stay up all night, don't eat!"
The Principal's expression suddenly froze slightly, his tone changed, and then he threw down a booklet and ran off.
Tuoba: "?"
Why did it feel like the old man's gaze just now… was slightly pitiful?
After A'Diao left the Clearance Points Tower, she was sneaking home like a thief when she glimpsed a dark, ghostly figure in the bamboo forest. The location seemed to be where the A-rank assassin had been buried alive earlier.
Holy crap, a ghost!
A glint flashed in A'Diao's eyes, but she pretended to be scared, shivering and about to run. Fortunately, the other party quickly emerged.
"Principal?" Although A'Diao guessed this old man was likely looking for her, she didn't expect him to be so sneaky. She inwardly cursed this rotten old man for trying to scare people to death with his ghostly act.
The Principal smiled until his face crinkled like a chrysanthemum, looking benevolent: "Classmate A'Diao, finished with the tower?"
"Yes, I failed again."
She still hid her results.
From Jiang Zhou +44444!
"Hehehe."
One deliberately played dumb, the other inwardly cursed her for playing dumb.
But the Principal finally said with a smile: "Little friend, you're not being honest. You passed level 4, right? Planning to use the points for closed-door cultivation?"
A'Diao: "Can't be helped. My dad is stingy and doesn't treat me well. I have no resources."
Oh-ho, hinting at me?
From Jiang Zhou +22222!
Principal: "So short on resources, huh? Didn't Teacher Qu give you any?"
Sowing discord against Qu Jiangnan.
A'Diao: "The fact that Teacher is willing to teach me is already a tremendous kindness. She's one of us, not an outsider."
Oh-ho, hinting at me again?
From Jiang Zhou +23333!
Principal: "That's not necessarily true. Some people both teach and give."
Like me, me, me!
A'Diao: "Principal, what are you talking about? I need to go back and cook for Teacher Qu to show my filial piety. As a disciple, it's better to be filial. I'll be going now…"
From Jiang Zhou +33333!
The Principal quickly called out to A'Diao and swiftly, deftly stuffed a bag into her hands.
"This is the compensation gift delivered by the Baili family this afternoon. Some of it is yours, some is mine. This is yours, take it. Work hard to become a Forbidden Master!"
"Inside, there are also my cultivation insights—that long-duration mimicry control technique I played with the other day, it's nothing special, but it's good enough for you to play around with."
It looked like a treasure and secret manual bundle; once she accepted the secret manual, it meant she had to acknowledge him as her master.
This old fox, so pragmatic! The moment he saw I passed the fourth floor and sensed my aptitude, he came running like an old cat that smelled fish.
"Ah, this isn't quite right. A disciple doesn't serve two masters… I have principles, you know~~~" A'Diao said, pushing it away while quickly stuffing the pouch into her clothes. Before the Principal could react, she quickly added: "But Principal, you're so enthusiastic, and considering Brother's face, A'Diao doesn't dare to refuse and can only reluctantly accept. But this is the only time, okay? I won't tell my Teacher Qu either. This is our little secret, okay?"
Then she was about to run.
Damn! Am I being tricked into giving something for nothing?!
From Jiang Zhou +66666!
How could the Principal agree? With a flick of his finger, the bamboo leaves on the ground wrapped around her and pulled her back. A'Diao immediately moved the pouch to her chest, looking as if she would cry "molestation!" if he dared to snatch it back.
Damn it! This brat!
Shameless!
The Principal could only say in a gentle tone: "I'm now thinking, is it me that the Baili family has wronged? No, it's you! As your Principal, I still pity you, so I'm giving you my share as well. How about it, do you want to switch sides?"
A'Diao looked at the pouch, which was clearly much more high-grade, and finally couldn't resist. "Well… alright then. But I can't afford to offend Teacher Qu. After all, I've offended the Baili family now, and I still need her to protect me."
"It's fine, I'll protect you too. She's very busy and might not have time to teach you. But if you don't say anything now, let her teach you about talismans first, and then you can secretly learn control techniques mainly from me. That's actually not bad."
"Secretly," "mainly"—these two words were quite loaded.
This old man was so cunning.
A'Diao pretended to be troubled: "But…"
Principal: "No need to say more, I know your concerns. Actually, the Baili family won't care too much about you. But it's not wrong for you to be so cautious and low-key now, not daring to stand out. I can also have Tuoba shield you. We can be secret master and disciple in private, how about that?"
A'Diao: "Alright, but you have to treat Brother Tuoba a little better. No matter what, he's my future husband backup."
Principal: "?"
The Principal still gave the golden pouch to A'Diao. The two newly minted "master and disciple" held hands, looked at each other with teary eyes, reluctant to part… but then they quickly separated at opposite ends of the bamboo forest, like thieves.
But as soon as they turned around, their mental fluctuations were considerable.
A'Diao: Holy crap, I only guessed this old lurker would definitely come to poach me, but I didn't expect him to sacrifice his disciple Tuoba. What an unparalleled old scumbag!
Principal: Amazing! When she couldn't beat him, it was "sweetheart, a good match." Once she could, he became a backup in minutes. What an unparalleled scumbag girl!
After A'Diao slipped out of the bamboo forest, she received +99999 Mental Power from the Principal.
Is this old man so happy now?
Like he'd found a treasure…
Actually, A'Diao was also quite happy, until suddenly on the Mental Power list floated—From Qu Jiangnan +122222!
Holy crap! Qu Jiangnan is nearby, and she saw my contact with the Principal?!!
A'Diao's scalp tingled. Trembling, on the way back to her residential complex, she sent a message to Qu Jiangnan, explaining what had just happened. "But I didn't agree. Am I the kind of person who casually switches allegiance?"
Qu Jiangnan, who had seen everything but spoke lightly: "Does it matter if you are? Since he wants to take you in, just go."
A'Diao: "Aren't you angry?"
Qu Jiangnan flipped through a book and said faintly: "No."
Woman, ah, over one hundred twenty thousand points, and you still say you're not angry.
"Then if I refuse the Principal, will he take his anger out on you?"
"As long as it aligns with the interests of Jinling Academy, all means are permissible."
A'Diao understood. So the old man could poach from Qu Jiangnan and wasn't afraid of falling out with her; on the contrary, it could prove their good relationship.
Then it would be fine for her to operate flexibly. Anyway, Qu Jiangnan was protecting her.
"Teacher, just you wait."
Qu Jiangnan was curious. Indeed, after waiting a while… she received a video.
A'Diao climbed the wall.
She secretly climbed the wall of the Principal's residence.
Up and down, and while she was at it, she plucked his pomegranates.
"Teacher, actions speak louder than words. Keep this video. If he brings it up in the future, just say my body has already climbed the wall, but my heart is still with you, and it will never leave."
"…"
Where did this kid learn this, spouting scumbag lines? Does she think I'm easy to fool?
But it was considered sincere enough.
From Qu Jiangnan +155555!
Qu Jiangnan, pressing her forehead, closed her book, lowered her eyes with a faint smile, and saved the video. She only said slowly to A'Diao: "I don't care about this, you don't need to be so nervous. Since the Principal is treating you so well, just accept it. We'll talk after the college entrance exams."
You say that, but you still saved it, hmph!
However, Qu Jiangnan's and the Principal's mentality was exactly the same—if there's an advantage for my disciple, it would be a waste not to take it.
A'Diao readily agreed.
The Principal, who rushed back without stopping to teach Tuoba, was in a delightful mood and treated Tuoba with a bit more gentleness.
Tuoba: "…"
"With my limited cunning, I have a premonition that I've been tricked, but I don't know where things went wrong."
Comments
Post a Comment