True Solution of the Sword Dao
Chapter 286 - 273 Facing the Abyss Part One (Please vote for a Monthly Ticket if you can, and support if possible)

Chapter 286: Chapter 273 Facing the Abyss Part One (Please vote for a Monthly Ticket if you can, and support if possible)

Three days later, early morning

Yan Capital University

The slightly grating bell for class rang throughout the entire teaching building.

As the bell sounded, every classroom filled up with students preparing for their exams. It was the first end-of-term for the freshmen after their admission. It was also the freshmen’s first finals.

Lin Fei sat in the middle of the back row, appearing somewhat distracted, his face turned sideways, lost in thought.

After resolving the incident with the True Force seed, he had completely stopped releasing any True Force seeds and planned to lay low for a while. The information and messages from the Forest of the Sky caused the Dream Eaters to be somewhat skeptical about the True Force seeds. Those who hadn’t absorbed them began to wait and see, while those who had absorbed them felt no abnormalities but were still worried. The information gathered from Shuang’er and after the Red Hand’s contact with other Dream Eaters showed that the leaked information from the Forest of the Sky was useless; even though Lin Fei had now stopped releasing True Force seeds, there were still some seeds released earlier that were continuously being merged.

So far, there were nearly two hundred linked within his body. That was roughly the total amount of seeds Lin Fei had previously released, excluding the ones previously eliminated and destroyed.

Therefore, he chose to remain silent for the time being. He would wait until the Dream Eaters with the True Force seeds felt absolutely normal and the ones whose time limits were up ran out of options, only able to focus their attention here. That would be the moment for him to reappear.

For now, what he needed to do was to study calmly for a while.

For Lin Fei, swordsmanship and life were completely different worlds.

Just like the division between the Surface World and the Inner World. His life too could be divided into two parts: the ordinary life and the life of fighting and swordsmanship. Like day and night, the two parts were distinctly separate.

In reality, in the normal world,

Studying, attending classes, taking exams, eating with classmates. Loafing around aimlessly, just like an ordinary college student, Lin Fei could enjoy the tranquility and ease outside of battles, just like now.

Lin Fei glanced around the quiet classroom. The proctor had just walked through the classroom door, about to cut open the bag of exam papers. Most of the students in the classroom were quietly waiting, while some who seemed poorly prepared were whispering to each other.

"Hey, Lin Fei," someone tapped on Lin Fei’s back with a finger from behind.

"What’s up?" Lin Fei turned around.

The girl sitting behind him was named Wu Xiuye, a classmate of his, or in other words, most of the students in this classroom were from their class.

Lin Fei’s roommate Shi Ran and Du Xiaosheng sat in the right corner, noticeably the class monitor Cheng Nianwei was in the front seat. To the left were Fan Weidong and his dormitory mates sitting together.

However, Lin Fei had been frequently disappearing during his free time throughout the semester, and his relationship with other classmates was growing more and more distant, although he had previously been quite close to Shi Ran and others. But now that too was fading. In this final period, Shi Ran and Du Xiaosheng had directly formed a small group, and Lin Fei was somewhat being ostracized. After all, with less interaction, even good relationships could become distant. However, they still got along quite harmoniously on a daily basis.

Sitting behind Lin Fei, Wu Xiuye, who was said to be from Hangzhou, had fair and tender skin with a delicate face, making her one of the more popular girls in the class, although she still lagged behind Cheng Nianwei. Being active among the boys and girls, she also had quite a bit of popularity, and most of the boys gave her face. However, her academics were not very strong.

"Help me out later, please?" Wu Xiuye pleaded with her hands clasped together.

"You mean this?" Lin Fei glanced at a white piece of paper she was holding.

"Just give me some hints after you finish, help me out, ok?" Wu Xiuye said with a flattering smile, her cheeks revealing two cute dimples. She belonged to the petite and adorable type, still maintaining the kind of one-sided ponytail popular among middle school girls, which made her look even younger. Displaying such an expression, she appeared very pitiful.

"I’m not good either," Lin Fei hesitated. In his everyday life, he played the role of an ordinary college student, modest and calm, with a somewhat distant relationship with his classmates, but not too mysterious. He was the kind of loner that was common in Yan Capital University. One more Lin Fei didn’t make much difference.

"You’re bluffing!" Wu Xiuye pouted, "I’ve noticed you. You’ve been self-studying other subjects. Haven’t you figured out these courses yet? Impossible, right? Among the boys, you’re considered one of the potential ones, you know?"

"Potential?" Lin Fei was puzzled.

"Yeah, one of the potential aces for the exam," Wu Xiuye patted Lin Fei on the shoulder. "Buddy, give me a sure thing, will you?"

Lin Fei nodded.

"If you think it’s okay, I don’t mind, just don’t come blaming me if the grades aren’t good." For a moment, Lin Fei felt extraordinarily relaxed and soothed, contrasting with the continuous conflicts and scheming of the past few days. He suddenly found himself feeling quite pleased.

"No problem," Wu Xiuye clapped her hands happily, "I’ll treat you to a meal after the exam!" She gave Lin Fei a hearty slap on the back.

"Heh," Lin Fei turned his head.

The other girls from Wu Xiuye’s dormitory who were sitting next to her were also busily seeking external help. Their dorm was notoriously playful; they hardly ever paid attention in class, making the exam a uniquely tense period for them.

Wu Xiuye had just agreed with Lin Fei when another girl from her dorm, Chen Yuelan, leaned in and asked,

"Xiuxiu, do you want the answers? I can get Wu Xuelong’s answers in a bit."

"Wu Xuelong?" Wu Xiuye hesitated. This boy had the same surname and she remembered him, just not clear on his academic performance since it was only the first semester and nobody really knew much. After a slight hesitation, she still replied,

"If the proctor is strict, forget it; if not, pass them over, okay?"

"Okay," Chen Yuelan definitely made an OK gesture.

"All right, the exam is starting now, please everyone put your textbooks, backpacks, and phones on the podium," the examination teacher said.

"This is the last subject, linear algebra, everyone should focus on doing well, and not think about anything else. Show the true results of your semester’s work," another teacher holding the exam papers said.

The white exam papers were passed around from one student to another. Soon the entire classroom was filled with rustling sounds, no one spoke. Yan Capital University was after all a decently prestigious university, generally having a good academic atmosphere. Although there were incidents of cheating, they were not frequent, and the teachers were relatively relaxed. One paced in circles in the classroom, another stepped outside to smoke.

The exam ended quickly. However, to Wu Xiuye’s disbelief, she didn’t even know when Lin Fei had passed the answers to her. After focusing on the questions for a while, she looked up to see a small piece of paper placed in front of her. Startled, she quickly grabbed it, tore it open, and copied the answers smoothly, though she wasn’t sure about the accuracy.

As the bell signaling the end of class rang,

Wu Xiuye immediately heaved a sigh of relief. She had thought it would be a chaotic rush to copy answers like before since usually, others would almost finish by the end. Writing down answers also took time. Moreover, sometimes the teachers were strict, and passing answers wasn’t even certain.

Unexpectedly, in this last subject, in less than an hour, Lin Fei had passed the answers along with a note attached: "Make slight modifications to avoid getting caught."

The moment the bell rang, Wu Xiuye immediately stood up, after turning in her paper, she hurried over to Lin Fei, slapping him on the shoulder.

"Bro, let’s go! My treat!"

Her straightforwardness was unexpected, hardly seeming like she was from Hangzhou, rather, she resembled a naive big sister from the Northeast.

"Just so you know, I’m not financially strong, don’t invite too many people to mooch off me!" Wu Xiuye made her intentions clear without a hint of embarrassment.

"Maybe not," Lin Fei thought she was just joking, but it turned out she was serious. Despite dressing like a delicate young lady, she acted as if she was very generous, creating a strong contrast that left Lin Fei somewhat speechless.

"What do you mean maybe not!" Wu Xiuye raised her eyebrows, looking around. Noticing no one was paying attention to them, she added in a low voice, "Bro, I might need your help in the future. Come on! Let’s have a feast!"

Two girls walked past Wu Xiuye.

"Xiuxiu, we’re heading out," they said.

"Go, go, go. Aren’t you tired of shopping all day!" Wu Xiuye said impatiently, then turned to look at Lin Fei again. "Hurry up, I have a guild event tonight. If we make it quick, I can play a few rounds of Dota."

Lin Fei was completely speechless.

"Xiuxiu, are you coming to the team fight tonight?" a girl wearing glasses with a scholarly look and many pimples on her face stood up and asked.

"Yes! Of course! Wan’er got thrashed yesterday, did you remember that team’s name?"

"I did!"

"Then let’s team up tonight and take them down!" Wu Xiuye said fiercely.

"Come on! Let’s deal with hunger first." She tugged at Lin Fei’s clothes.

As a result, Lin Fei was forcibly dragged to a small noodle restaurant outside the university gates.

The noodle restaurant was tiny, just a small storefront on the street with a few unevenly arranged tables inside, and waves of meaty aroma continuously wafted from inside. Although the thick greasy layer on the tables indicated poor hygiene, the business was indeed good.

The whole place was nearly full. Wu Xiuye pulled Lin Fei into the shop, secured two spots, then briskly brought over two bowls of beef rice noodle soup to the table.

Bang!

Wu Xiuye clumsily placed down the spice jar, then grabbed the vinegar bottle and poured vigorously into her bowl. Lin Fei stared blankly at her.

"Eat! Why aren’t you eating?" Wu Xiuye was about to dive into her meal but noticed Lin Fei staring at her with a speechless expression. "Is it not normal to add spices and vinegar to noodles?"

"The thing is, I feel like you are even more manly than me," Lin Fei thought to himself, utterly speechless.

"It’s nothing, just thinking about something else," he said casually while gently picking at his rice noodles. For some reason, when he saw Wu Xiuye, he inexplicably thought of his past self.

Disliking studies, loving games and practicing martial arts, and eating hastily—this strange familiarity made him momentarily lose his train of thought.

But that was all in the past, people always change. Now he had greater Strength and more influence, but he could no longer return to that past life.

"Eat, will you?" Wu Xiuye quickly finished the noodles in her bowl, lifted the bowl to drink half the soup in large gulps, then set down the bowl only to see Lin Fei had barely touched his meal. "What’s the matter? Don’t you like this place? I don’t have much spare money, so just make do."

"It’s not that; I just haven’t had meat soup noodles in a long time," Lin Feipeng said calmly.

"I feel like you always act so lifeless, like those old folks, lacking any passion. You don’t seem like a college student at all," Wu Xiuye wondered aloud. She was always straightforward, without caring whether she might offend anyone. Perhaps this was why, despite being popular in class, no one pursued her. After all, her grades were poor, she had a masculine personality, her family background wasn’t great, but most importantly, she lacked ambition. This made other self-proclaimed elite students unable to understand her, even though she was good-looking. (Continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to visit qidian.com to vote or purchase a monthly ticket. Your support is my greatest motivation.)