Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 123 - 43: Cleanse Your Soul

Chapter 123: Chapter 43: Cleanse Your Soul

As someone born during a peaceful era, Duan Mingyuan had neither experienced war nor did he wish to.

The struggles of the royal bloodline and the heir, as well as the Universe Company that manipulated everything from far above the clouds, were nothing but an endless source of annoyance to him.

His life plan was simple.

Teach students during the day, share a midday meal with Jiuyue, and in the afternoon, he could be undistracted in the library, quietly flipping through the pages of books all afternoon.

Such days were relaxed and pleasant, conforming to his ideal vision of life.

Duan Mingyuan saw himself as a scholar; the ever-changing Life Energy contained countless mysteries waiting to be researched and explored.

He was never a war-monger, let alone some kind of ogre mage.

Those who spread rumors and framed him as a mage had already received their due punishment.

However, history had proven time and again that if there was a treasure in this world, there would definitely be those who would turn it into guns and cannons, using these weapons to defeat their rivals, and then raise those who had yet to learn how to make guns and cannons like livestock.

This was probably why the people at the Imperial Court placed such importance on the Yunhai Academy.

Even though the founder of Yunhai Academy had defined "guns and cannons" as Tricky Art and strictly forbade future generations from researching it, the people at the Court were still unwilling to let go of anyone who could possibly touch that treasure, not even a group of scholars without any power to resist.

This was something Duan Mingyuan found very uncomfortable.

It was like when you’re enjoying a peaceful afternoon, brewing a cup of tea and about to indulge in a brief midday rest, but before you could even have a sip, a passing department head suddenly throws a new report at you.

Duan Mingyuan had seriously considered tossing the scalding tea onto the department head’s face.

As long as he altered the memories of the department head and everyone at the company, he could make them believe the department head had scalded himself while eating.

Until the day he resigned, Duan Mingyuan had never quite made up his mind to turn this thought into action.

And now, Department Head EX had appeared.

A younger, more ambitious department head.

The old viper believed the Second Prince was the Prime Monarch in his youth, ambitious and capable, with an innate gift for the Sword Control Technique, not needing those iron cans to prolong life.

But in Duan Mingyuan’s view, the Second Prince’s anti-social personality was exactly like the department head’s.

The kind that, while you’re quietly reading in the library, feels the need to lift off the library’s roof as he passes by, making trouble for everyone as if it were their innate mission.

Duan Mingyuan flipped one page back in "Dreamland Odd Talk," his mood no longer calm perhaps because of the influence of the old viper’s memories.

For the first time in his life, he felt that using the book, which was square and solid, to forcibly hit someone on the head wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

It seemed that he also kind of wanted to immerse himself in the "unrestricted combat" atmosphere.

"Mr. Mingyuan, your tea."

Jiuyue, who claimed she wanted to make amends, was sitting across from him, having brewed tea for him.

This little fox had followed him all the way to the library, volunteering to be the subject of hypnosis experiments. In her words, as the Evil Spirit Queen, she had extremely high mental resistance; if she could be hypnotized, then the teachers and students of the academy could easily be dealt with.

Duan Mingyuan took the tea cup.

He kept reminding himself that just half an hour ago, this little fox had falsely accused him of being an ogre boxer, but the moment he saw Jiuyue’s smiling face, he couldn’t get angry.

Jiuyue had figured out his daily routine well, always able to make him feel comfortable at the right time.

"How about it, is there any mention of hypnosis in the book?"

Jiuyue was also very interested in this Mysterious Technique. Mr. Mingyuan, being a gentleman, might refrain from certain actions due to his status, but she wouldn’t.

Being an evil spirit meant doing as she pleased; she could hypnotize Mr. Mingyuan in return.

However, her understanding of hypnosis was not deep, all of her knowledge still derived from what she had seen on TV, swinging a pendulum back and forth in front of the person to be hypnotized.

This method had proven effective in tests; whenever Mr. Mingyuan rested his head on her tail, she only needed to gently swing the tip of her tail to quickly lull Mr. Mingyuan to sleep.

The only downside was that this technique could only be used for hypnosis and couldn’t dominate the one who was asleep.

Perhaps she should also study "Dreamland Odd Talk."

"Hypnotism isn’t hard; the difficulty lies in how to impart thoughts into the hypnotized."

Duan Mingyuan took a sip of his tea, momentarily putting aside the antisocial Second Prince, as the lines of this book made one thing clear to him.

The author was a refined gentleman.

Despite possessing abilities many envied, he mostly used them to hypnotize himself and dominate his own dreamland.

Sitting alone by a stream, cradling a book of poetry, he thoroughly enjoyed the serene tranquility of his leisure time.

The only time he manipulated someone else’s dream was to help a student from the academy build confidence, assisting her to walk out of the shadows of her heart.

From this, the image of an exemplary teacher, far removed from lowbrow tastes, jumped out at him.

Duan Mingyuan felt that Jiuyue really ought to thoroughly read this book, to scrub clean the filth filling her mind.

"The book only mentions admiring flowers and birds in the dreamland, building a bamboo garden."

"Tell me more about bird-watching!"

Jiuyue was very excited.

Looking at her eyes, shining like spotlights, Duan Mingyuan took a deep breath.

Indeed, "Dreamland Odd Talk" was square and solid enough to be used as a brick.

If the content here failed to refine Jiuyue’s sentiments, he still had the option of physical therapy to cure this vixen’s stubborn illness.

Conveniently, he was currently playing the role of a healer in the team.

Duan Mingyuan steered the conversation back to the point, "If you want to dominate another’s dream and instill thoughts, you need to apply a strong psychological suggestion."

"How strong?"

"So strong that it borders on brainwashing."

Herein lay the problem.

Although Duan Mingyuan could replicate the Mysterious Techniques from "Dreamland Odd Talk," he, never having experienced war, was not skilled at pre-war speeches, nor could he stir up emotions like those military strategists could.

Yet, according to the knowledge recorded in the book, emotion was the key to everything.

"Strong enough to brainwash..."

Jiuyue reflected thoughtfully. She had seen plenty of impassioned speeches, "If you’re not good at it, how about copying others’ successful cases?"

"You know of successful examples?"

"I do."

Jiuyue cleared her throat and, trying to appear serious, lifted her left hand in front of her as if it were a microphone, "Teachers and students of the academy, you don’t want the Imperial Court to snatch away our Cloud Sea Academy, do you?"

"Is that it?"

Duan Mingyuan waited for quite a while but heard nothing more, expressing his doubt.

What sort of pre-war mobilization was this? It didn’t invigorate anyone; instead, it left them utterly baffled.

"Hmm, in the works I’ve seen, simply saying that makes the brainwashed subjects instantly comply."

"That won’t do at all."

"Then, how about another one?"

"For example?"

"What a pity, tormented by the Imperial Court again, huh? You should be aware that only the academy is your true home."

"Jiuyue."

"Present!"

"Delete all those weird things from your phone for me!"