Roundtable Conference

"Understood!" the two replied in unison.

"The second thing," Instructor Jing's gaze swept over the two of them. "The academy is giving you three days off to rest up and recharge. In three days, there will be new training tasks, and by then you'll have to return to the First Academy's side. Don't run around during these three days."

"New tasks?" Long Ao's eyes lit up.

It was his favorite part again.

Instructor Jing walked to the window, looking at the gray sky outside. Without giving any spoilers, he already had one leg over the windowsill.

"Instructor, you..." An Changqing was just about to ask why he wasn't taking the main door.

"The window is faster." Instructor Jing had already guessed what he was thinking. He turned his head and grinned at them, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. "By the way, An Changqing."

"Present."

"Your analysis of the human heart is very interesting, and your logic is rigorous." Instructor Jing leaned back, already hanging outside the window. "However, sometimes, don't overthink things."

His figure disappeared from the window.

The last sentence drifted in lightly.

"A five-thousand-word self-reflection might really just be a five-thousand-word self-reflection."

An Changqing stood frozen in place, the expression on his face stiffening.

Long Ao scratched his head, looking at his companion in utter confusion. "What did he mean by that last sentence?"

An Changqing stood there, his brows tightly knitted.

A five-thousand-word self-reflection might really just be a five-thousand-word self-reflection.

What did that mean? Was it denying all of his deductions?

"Hey, An Changqing, what are you spacing out for?" Long Ao nudged him with his elbow. "Does that weirdo instructor think we're overthinking it?"

Long Ao was simple-minded and took the words literally, but he trusted An Changqing more, so he wavered for a moment.

"No." An Changqing slowly shook his head, his eyes returning to firmness after a brief moment of confusion. "You didn't understand. On the contrary, this is the key."

An Changqing chose to believe in his own reasoning.

"Huh?" Long Ao was full of question marks.

An Changqing walked to the window, looking in the direction Instructor Jing had disappeared, and lowered his voice to a whisper. "The instructor is giving us a hint, and more importantly, he is protecting Chen Guan."

"He doesn't want us to pry too deeply into Chen Guan's heart. This is respect, so he deliberately used a seemingly simple piece of nonsense to end our topic."

Following this line of thought, Long Ao realized that all the details indeed matched up.

Finally, he smashed his fist heavily into his palm, his face flushed red with both sudden realization and shame.

"I get it! Instructor Jing is truly a good person!"

Long Ao felt ashamed for calling him a weirdo instructor just now.

[Holy crap, the closed loop of over-interpretation got a 2.0 update?]

[I'm begging you, please stop thinking.]

[You have to wait in line even to beg.]

[Chen Guan: Is there a possibility that I just wanted to pad the word count?]

Not far away, Instructor Jing picked at his ear.

You idiot kids, do you think my hearing is that bad?

Who taught you to interpret things that way?

Instructor Jing was quite speechless. Both of his parents were obviously smart people, so who did An Changqing inherit this bad habit from?

And Long Ao, acting one way to his face and another behind his back.

Just a moment ago he was a sweetie, and now he's yesterday's news. How infuriating. Just wait until you grow up, your tasks will definitely be super multiplied.

...

On the other side, Chen Guan returned to his single room.

Closing the door, he unloaded the black coffin from his back and set it firmly on the ground. Then, he took out a palm-sized black wooden box from his storage ring.

Opening the lid, a delicate fragrance wafted out, relaxing his tense nerves.

Inside the box, a thumb-sized, entirely jade-green piece of wood core lay quietly, emitting a soft green glow and brimming with abundant life energy.

Chen Guan touched the wood core with his fingertips, and a warm current instantly flowed through his entire body.

He walked up to the black coffin, and the heavy lid slid open silently.

Inside, the main body lay quietly, face pale as paper, eyes tightly shut.

It was strange. The main body's current strength was not weak at all—ordinary people didn't even have the qualifications to break its defenses—yet it always looked so bloodless.

It made one's heart ache to see.

The main body was his only family in this world.

They had different bloodlines, but their minds were connected; they were each other's only one.

He took out the Soul-Nourishing Wood Core, brushed aside the thin gray mist, and gently placed it on the main body's chest.

Actually, he didn't know how to use this thing either, but based on his understanding of his gray energy, it would automatically devour what it needed.

The moment the wood core touched the skin, the green light flared brightly. It then melted like a candle, turning into a puddle of jade-green liquid that quickly seeped beneath the skin and disappeared.

"System, use a data-driven way to explain the current repair progress bar."

[Current repair progress: 9.01%]

[Estimated daily sustainable repair: 0.1% from now on, until all energy is depleted.]

Looking at the prompt on the system panel, Chen Guan calculated silently in his heart.

If it increased by 0.1 per day, completing the repair would take nearly three years.

"What if I want to skip this three-year wait?"

"It will require about three million popularity points."

Chen Guan gritted his back teeth. This damn system was getting more and more expensive.

However, he had no other choice, unless he scoured this world for more heavenly materials and earthly treasures. But was that something he, a weak Rank Six, could do?

He still needed to pluck the White Tiger's fur. A Rank Eleven would definitely be wealthy and generous.

He closed the coffin lid and lay back down on his small bed.

After finishing all this, Chen Guan checked the time: 9:50.

Right on time.

With ten minutes left until the online meeting, he took out that token and placed it on the desk, waiting quietly.

Ten o'clock sharp.

The token vibrated violently, and the patterns on its surface lit up with a faint blue glow.

Chen Guan picked up the token, and instantly, the scene before his eyes changed.

In front of him was a pitch-black stone round table, and several people were already sitting around it.

However, their appearances were all blurry. The confidentiality was done quite well.

A crisp whistle sounded, followed by a familiar voice: "The two newcomers are quite punctual."

Chen Guan looked toward the voice. It was White Tiger, but unfortunately, the other party's face was also obscured by a layer of mist.

He was actually quite curious about White Tiger's true appearance, as the other party looked different every time they appeared.

This mechanism where faces couldn't be seen was actually beneficial to him. He didn't really want to meet Long Ao in this manner right now.

Meeting Yin Chen or Hong Yuan in this kind of setting wouldn't be too awkward, but Long Ao was the sole exception.

This pitch-black stone round table was very large, big enough to seat over a dozen people, but at this moment, only a few blurry humanoid silhouettes of light were scattered about.

Besides White Tiger's signature lazy sitting posture, Chen Guan also saw a few other figures.

One sat ramrod straight, completely motionless, while another seemed a bit bored, their silhouette swaying slightly.

"We meet again, Little Xuanwu."

A brisk and melodious female voice rang out. It was that swaying silhouette. Chen Guan looked at the other party and remembered the owner of this voice.

Santai.

Back in Jiang City, it was she who had provided him with support using her ability, the Myriad Phenomena Scroll.

Santai was the cause of both his success and his downfall. Without Santai, he never would have gone to Jiangcheng in the first place, nor would he have been swept up in those affairs.

But looking at the outcome, it wasn't too bad. Santai had also left him a life-saving talisman.

Chen Guan had already realized that everything in Jiangcheng was a trap set for Long Ao, and he had merely been dragged into it as collateral damage.

Chen Guan gave a slight nod and replied in an even tone, "Thank you for everything in Jiangcheng."