Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 106 - 26: The Master

Chapter 106: Chapter 26: The Master

"""

It truly was a tragic day.

After the advanced class ended, Chen Chou remained in place, not leaving for a long time.

He gazed toward the direction where the scroll vanished, pondering his duel with Duan Mingyuan, and no matter how he looked at it, he could only come to one conclusion—he had been toyed with by Duan Mingyuan, and that without a single dead angle, a full 360 degrees.

He had set up the Barrier early on, seizing the initiative, so "I was careless" was no longer an excuse he could use; during the battle, Duan Mingyuan’s Sword Control Technique made him think of past grudges, and he had long thrown the notion of stopping at a touch out of his mind, so the excuse of "I didn’t fight seriously" no longer held up either; and if the topic returned to the sneak attack... if one were to be really strict about it, he was actually the one who initiated the sneak attack.

That’s it!

A lightbulb went off in Chen Chou’s head.

Mingyuan, that young whipper-snapper, relied on his youthful vigor and strong physique to bully him, a comrade several centuries old.

Beating up an old man is not the act of a hero or a mighty warrior!

With this thought, Chen Chou felt somewhat better.

After successfully adjusting his mindset, he began to ponder the main issue at hand.

Even a blind man could see that Duan Mingyuan’s final strike was held back; otherwise, if that blow had truly landed on him, he would likely have been reduced to ashes along with the Barrier, even though he was extremely reluctant to admit it, Chen Chou had no choice but to acknowledge that if the Prime Monarch of the past had advanced a step further and mastered that sword strike capable of severing all things in the world, perhaps their war against the Extraterrestrials would have gone differently.

Before long, Duan Mingyuan, who had finished his post-class review, returned.

Today’s Barrier duel was meant to set an aspirational direction for the students of the advanced class. The path to constructing Barriers was incredibly long, after all, and he too had taken over a year to finally unravel some of its mysteries.

Duan Mingyuan found a large rock beside Chen Chou and sat down, then pulled out osmanthus wine and transformed two small pebbles on the ground into drinking vessels, pouring a cup for himself and Chen Chou.

Chen Chou had also made a significant contribution to the success of the first lesson of the advanced class.

As a man of his word, Duan Mingyuan naturally would keep his promise.

"What kind of Mysterious Technique is this?"

Chen Chou picked up his cup, eyeing it with suspicion.

To his knowledge, people of the Prime Monarch’s Bloodline did not transform stones into cups. In his memory, the only thing close to that was an illusion, which could only temporarily alter the appearance, not the essence, and therefore, one would end up drinking from a stone although it appeared to be a real vessel.

"Reconstructing objects, this is my Ability."

"Reconstructing objects? Then what was that Sword Control Technique you used earlier?"

"I figured it out while I was sleeping last night."

"Hold on, aren’t you a descendant of that Prime Monarch kid?"

"I don’t have any royal Bloodline."

He wasn’t even born into a wealthy family; as a youth, he went through the same selection tests as all the other teenagers in Yunlong City, and after graduating, he took on a job that looked glamorous to outsiders but was in fact dry and boring, and he stuck with it for four years.

"No, this can’t be right. If you’re not that kid’s descendant, then why can you use their hereditary Sword Control Technique?"

In the era before the Extraterrestrials arrived, the Sword Control Technique was a totemic art. While the Strange Gates and Devious Techniques were diverse and many, in the fixed impression of the people, those who mastered the Sword Control Technique were symbols of exorcising demons and monsters, receiving the utmost respect from locals wherever they went.

"Because I am the teacher for ’Defense Against the Wicked Spirits’ class."

Duan Mingyuan had lost track of how many times he had repeated this question these past few days. He always felt that the minds of those in the academy were somewhat peculiar, always fixating on some strange issues.

"What does that have to do with being a ’Defense Against the Wicked Spirits’ teacher?"

"Since I am the teacher of this class, naturally, the prerequisite for guiding the students is to first be proficient in those Skills."

It’s like how a teacher who can’t themselves understand Olympiad problems couldn’t possibly teach their students well in class.

Chen Chou clearly didn’t believe it and asked, "Are you deceiving me?"

His memory merged with all the knowledge about Tricky Arts from the academy centuries ago, but none of the books mentioned anything like Duan Mingyuan’s case. He was now seriously suspecting that this man might be some other species wearing human skin.

"No."

Duan Mingyuan said, "Now, let’s talk about your Ability. You were able to fill the Barrier with a life-draining fog that was corrosive. Once touched by this fog, it would drain one’s Life Energy in an instant."

It sounded like a powerful Ability, yet it brought back his recollection of Bai Kou’s scornful look while she was singing praises for Jiuyue and Liu Qiangda.

"""

Rather than flattery, it seemed more like a kind of sarcasm with a formal twist.

It only proved that Chen Chou, who was on the same level as the other two, wouldn’t be treated with respect by the company’s higher-ups either; they didn’t even regard Chen Chou as a competitor, but as a rare source of Life Energy.

"Now I can be sure that, with the abilities you’ve shown so far, you’re not a match for ’Long Branch’."

"That’s not necessarily true,"

Chen Chou said defiantly, sipping his osmanthus wine, "How would you know without trying?"

He had a principle.

As long as there had been no fight, even the Emperor’s father should start with a fifty-fifty split.

"If your powers can’t corrode their armor, what other trump cards do you have?"

While Duan Mingyuan used the forceful winds to disperse the black fog, he also carefully observed Chen Chou’s reaction.

The result was less than ideal.

This might be a common illness among both ancient and contemporary exalted beings; once their abilities fail to take effect, they revert to instinct and start throwing punches in various ways.

He didn’t want to discourage Chen Chou, but frankly speaking, the old gentleman’s combat style of gathering Life Energy into a giant hand to throw punches was crap.

When facing an opponent on the level of ’Long Branch,’ it was basically no different from the passive act of AFK punching the ground.

Ever since he had observed the fight between Jiuyue and Western Wind, he too often pondered this issue.

If an exalted being wishes to advance further and touch the realm of Cosmic Level, what changes would be needed?

"Trump card? I’ve got plenty of those."

Chen Chou snorted coldly.

"Such as?"

"For instance... If it’s a trump card, why would I tell you? But what about you, your reconstructive ability isn’t omnipotent, right? What if you come across an opponent you can’t reconstruct—"

Chen Chou’s voice cut off abruptly.

He saw Duan Mingyuan snap his fingers towards the other end of the cliff, and suddenly the space in front of the two twisted together, forming a hole about twenty meters in diameter.

An injury appeared in the world, and behind the wound was darkness and nothingness that not even light could penetrate.

"Considering that this might happen, that’s why I’ve developed many special applications on top of my ability,"

Duan Mingyuan said as he sipped his osmanthus wine, observing the hole that lasted for more than a dozen seconds as though enjoying a fireworks show.

"If you were to use gaming terms, it would probably be called ’skills.’"

"Skills?"

"Skills derived on top of abilities. The more skills you have, the easier it is to handle emergencies."

This time Chen Chou did not retort but became thoughtful.

It was humiliating to actually be instructed by a junior.

But in the Ghost Prison, Duan Mingyuan had indeed promised to help him advance further, and now it seemed that it wasn’t just nonsense.

Chen Chou coughed lightly, not wanting others to detect his complex mood, and suddenly changed the subject. He glanced at the cup placed on the ground, "But you really do like osmanthus wine, huh."

"I don’t usually have the habit of drinking."

"Don’t tell me you specially came to drink with me."

"Of course not, how could you think that?"

Duan Mingyuan also looked at the cup on the ground, "The osmanthus wine was brewed by my wife herself; it shouldn’t go to waste."

"Mingyuan, you little rascal!"

Chen Chou flew into a rage, "Damn you!"