Chapter 64

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Rules

　　”You’re coming with me…”

　　Bai Ling thought about it carefully, and it did seem to make sense.

　　”By the way, what’s your deal?” she suddenly became curious. “How did your power level go up?”

　　Three weeks ago, during the first… no, the second time they had a lemony session, based on licking lemon water, Yuan Xiaoling was just at the early Third-tier stage.

　　Now not only does she have the spiritual energy intensity of late Third-tier, but she also has a complete set of skills.

　　Bai Ling found this strange because she hadn’t seen Yuan Xiaoling practice at all, nor had there been any major emotional fluctuations…

　　”I don’t know,” Yuan Xiaoling said innocently. “I just got stronger as days went by.”

　　Bai Ling knew she was clueless; Blonde-haired Maiden from her previous life was like that too—good for nothing except mocking others.

　　Upon careful reflection, the only difference between this life’s Yuan Xiaoling and the last life was that she was captured and forced into those sessions. And correspondingly, the only thing different from the same period back then was daily moxibustion.

　　It can’t be that these levels of spiritual energy came out of those sessions… never mind.

　　Bai Ling didn’t dwell on it further. Nobody in her past life figured out spiritual energy even when she died. Who knows if there are other strange ways to increase it besides cultivation, natural body growth, and extreme emotional fluctuations.

　　”What about your techniques?” She asked about another aspect. “How did you learn them?”

　　This part was clearer than spiritual energy since skills require one’s own initiative.

　　”Water creation, remember when we first went to the bar?” Yuan Xiaoling said. “At that time, I just wanted to show them our superpowers. Later, I thought creating things could also be used in combat, so I refined it.”

　　That’s what the System said at the time.

　　”What about the dragon? How’d you come up with that?” Bai Ling asked.

　　The first time she saw Yuan Xiaoling use it, although it was slightly disadvantaged against the enhanced Foundation Stone Metal Tier Spiritual Energy Manipulator, she immediately recognized its immense potential.

　　It benefits from four boosts: personal spiritual energy intensity, total spiritual energy, number of water creations, and concentration of weather elements in the area. Very promising for the future.

　　Yuan Xiaoling blushed a little: “That dragon… didn’t you experience it last night?”

　　”Last night? Inside?” Bai Ling twitched a corner of her mouth. “You developed a powerful move just for that kind of thing?”

　　In her ten years of seeing many Spiritual Energy Manipulators in her previous life, none of them created a big move for such a reason.

　　”Well, what else could I do?” Yuan Xiaoling pouted. “You locked me up, and every day was either those sessions or moxibustion. What else could I think about?”

　　There was nothing to be done; environment and routine decided everything, even Bai Ling couldn’t say anything else.

　　She originally wanted to advise Yuan Xiaoling to stop thinking about lewd things and put more imagination into the right path, which would help improve her strength.

　　But then she thought, if her abilities weren’t used for lewd purposes, Blonde-haired Maiden might not have so much inspiration. Moreover, the more inspiration Ningning had in that aspect, the more Bai Ling enjoyed it…

　　”Go to bed early, play less on your mobile phone, and sleep earlier. We’ll attend the banquet tomorrow afternoon.”

　　So in the end, she gave no advice, leaving that sentence behind before walking away.

　　”The banquet is in the afternoon, staying up late tonight won’t matter, I’ll just sleep in tomorrow morning.” Yuan Xiaoling muttered softly.

　　When she returned to the dormitory, the two roommates were also back. Gu Hui sat by the bed reading a book, Qiao Lili lay on the bed playing with her mobile phone, everything seemed harmonious.

　　”Xiaoling is back?” Gu Hui put down the book. “You worked hard last night.”

　　Yuan Xiaoling stiffened her face: “Last night, even though I didn’t win… I didn’t lose either.”

　　No matter how you look at it, she felt she deserved those words last night.

　　”Don’t talk about it anymore,” Qiao Lili wiped her eyes seriously. “I’m tearing up.”

　　”…”

　　This conversation was over.

　　”Alright, let’s talk about something else,” Yuan Xiaoling asked, “How’s our thesis going? Did the teacher praise us?”

　　At the mention of this, the two roommates couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

　　”The teacher scolded us and said we switched concepts.”

　　Yuan Xiaoling was stunned: “What concept switching?”

　　”She wants us to understand that using hobbies as work requires caution,” Gu Hui said, “Being a Xiamate worker isn’t being Xiamate, it’s working in a factory… that’s what the teacher said.”

　　”…” Yuan Xiaoling froze.

　　That’s indeed the truth.

　　Lying in bed at night, feeling bored, Yuan Xiaoling curiously opened a chat window with the Xiamate uncle.

　　[Lemon: Uncle He, did you have any other hobbies besides being Xiamate back then?]

　　After a few minutes, Uncle He replied.

　　[Love Lock’s Flame: Hobbies? Besides Xiamate and those few games, I also liked watching Romance of the Three Kingdoms.]

　　”Romance of the Three Kingdoms…”

　　Yuan Xiaoling wasn’t surprised; it’s a TV series evergreen and has many excellent game adaptations, constantly emerging in recent years.

　　[Lemon: So, Uncle He, which part or character of the Three Kingdoms do you like best?]

　　She just asked casually, since she had nothing better to do anyway, but unexpectedly, Uncle He gave an unexpected response.

　　[Love Lock’s Flame: My favorite plot is the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and my favorite character is Zhang Jue.]

　　Eh?

　　Yuan Xiaoling thought about it, a bit surprised, but not entirely incomprehensible.

　　[Lemon: Is it because he led a peasant uprising and tried to overthrow the corrupt Han Dynasty?]

　　She thought Uncle He, who used to be a worker in the factory and now works as a maintenance worker in the building, must have resonated with him.

　　[Love Lock’s Flame: No, actually not for that reason.]

　　Eh?

　　[Love Lock’s Flame: In fact, if we talk about leading peasant uprisings, he was completely unqualified, without any guidelines or clear thoughts, and even turned the refugee army into a mob, becoming a thoroughly violent movement.]

　　[Lemon: If that’s the case, why then?]

　　Uncle He didn’t reply, his avatar showed offline.

　　”It’s getting late,” Yuan Xiaoling yawned. “Let’s sleep.”

　　Zzzz

　　The next morning, Bai Ling tried sending a message to Yuan Xiaoling, then received intelligence from her roommate in the school group saying the big-chested girl was still sleeping.

　　Of course, she stayed up late again, right?

　　”Bai Ling, are you going out again this afternoon?” Her roommate asked.

　　Bai Ling went to the office to find the Academic Advisor in the morning, and they saw her. A university student with no position in the class running to the Academic Advisor’s office probably meant only one thing – asking for leave.

　　”Yes, to Tianhai Grand Hotel this afternoon,” Bai Ling paused for a moment, adding, “With Yuan Xiaoling.”

　　Tsk, sounds like bragging, how did I become like this?

　　”That’s great, dating every now and then and going to such places,” the roommate said enviously. “Tianhai Grand Hotel.”

　　”Tianhai Grand Hotel? You should definitely try their signature dish, local specialty, Drunken Lobster,” another roommate said. “It’s said to be the chef’s ultimate masterpiece, and only available there.”

　　Bai Ling frowned slightly. “Is it rare?”

　　”Of course it’s rare. Don’t you know about Tianhai Lobsters? They’re on par with Australian Lobsters, abbreviated as Tianlong, unavailable anywhere else,” the roommate said. “Only Tianhai Grand Hotel in Tianhai City serves them.”

　　”And you can peel the shell for Yuan Xiaoling yourself. That poor little hand of Miss Yuan Daxiaohua probably can’t handle it. If you feed her yourself, she’ll surely feel very happy.”

　　”Hmm,” Bai Ling twitched her mouth. “Not interested.”

　　Back when the Bai family wasn’t impoverished, she didn’t like eating them, and after her fingers broke in her previous life, she lost interest altogether.

　　Crabs, lobsters, just bugs with shells.

　　Might as well send a message to ask when Yuan Xiaoling will wake up.

　　……

　　”You’re awake,” roommate Gu Hui looked at her. “Bai Ling told us to call you when you woke up, saying it’s time to get ready and head out.”

　　”Another date?” Qiao Lili said. “Teary-eyed… oh wait, it’s great.”

　　In the minds of her roommates, it seems that their dates always involved Bai Ling having fun while Yuan Xiaoling suffered.

　　”This time it’s not, we have serious business.”

　　Yuan Xiaoling rubbed her eyes and checked her phone, only to find she had slept until one o’clock in the afternoon.

　　There was an unread message on QQ. She thought it was the teacher asking why she didn’t attend class, but upon closer inspection, it was Uncle He’s reply—

　　[Love Lock’s Flame: Because he personally pushed open the door to the next era.

　　He tore off the hypocritical mask of filial piety and integrity of the Eastern Han Dynasty in a near-destructive manner, making people at the time realize a truth – the world never had so many rules. It has and will only have one basic rule:

　　Survival of the fittest.]