Daily life of a teacher in the martial arts department

"No..." Nocturne waved her hand weakly, "The boss doesn't have the ability to do these things in front of women... He just made it up on his own."

Nocturne is so confident... Ying Qin Guan didn't know where Nocturne's confidence came from. But since she said it, she must have her reasons.

Ying Qin Guan tried to calculate how many points the boss had won, but he had never seen anything like it before. It was a winning hand that even science fiction writers wouldn't dare to use, and he only half-understood the rules of Seven Luminaries Mahjong. After calculating for a long time, he still couldn't come up with a result. However, he was certain that the two people from Yorozuya and Miss Nocturne had already gone bankrupt.

...Well, Nocturne might be an exception; she can still afford breakfast now, but I suppose that's all she can afford for now.

When Ying Qin Guan exclaimed that the boss was truly a gambling god, Shen Xin was like a whirlwind sweeping away fallen leaves. After finishing what was in front of him, he regained his energy.

"That motherfucker, I can't let this go unavenged! Ying Qin Guan, lend me fifty pounds. Back then, the boss could win all my wealth when I only had 700 points left. Now I can use fifty pounds to turn the tables!"

Yu Xietian hurriedly grabbed Shenxin. He had been so fooled by the boss that he lost the will to fight back. The boss would adjust his glasses when he made a move, and now if the boss made that move, Yu Xietian might have a PTSD attack and immediately bow down and submit.

"Brother, forget it, forget it."

"You coward!"

Divine Heart angrily rebuked his incompetent ally, then looked at Nocturne. Nocturne looked away when the words on the blackboard were only half-written.

In an instant, Shenxin's faith collapsed. It was as if her soul had been ripped out, leaving only an empty body, or like a punctured balloon that burst in an instant, leaving only a withered surface and nothing left.

“We’ll talk about this later,” Nocturne said, her voice lacking confidence. Clearly, the battle with her boss had taken a heavy toll on her. “Right now, we need to take care of our living expenses. The boss still owes us some money. Although he doesn’t care, we can’t leave him unpaid. I have an idea about how to get the money.”

While Shen Xin was still in a state of "Idol collapse, I don't accept it," Yu Xietian realized that he was about to start his old ways again, and hurriedly said, "Miss Nocturne, please speak."

Nocturne shook her folding fan, but perhaps because she had been defeated by her boss and her true fate was lost, the movement lost its usual spirit.

"Seven Stars is currently recruiting guests for a variety show. The woman has some connections in the industry; it's a cooking program. But the focus isn't on the dishes, but on the ingredients. The guests don't have any ingredients initially; they have to complete challenges to obtain them. These challenges might test their intelligence or physical strength. The final prize is substantial, and it happens to be a three-person team..."

"Isn't this great?" Ying Qin Guan interjected. He felt that Ye Qu and Shen Xin's cooking skills were both quite good, and winning the championship shouldn't be a problem. But after thinking about it, he decided to give Shen Xin and Yu Xie Tian a wake-up call to see if they would dare to spend money like this again. So he deliberately asked, "What will happen to the remaining money after we win the championship?"

His original intention was to figure out what to do with the money left over after paying off the boss, whether to continue making mindless purchases, and whether he would still dare to gamble with people like that.

However, Yu Xietian sadly looked up at the sky.

"What about the rest? We can pay it back slowly later."

Chapter Twenty-Nine: You Are Free

"I'm not going!"

Nocturne's suggestion seemed quite plausible to her, Yu Xietian, and Ying Qin Guan. However, Shen Xin might be going through a rebellious phase and had her own ideas... though she had always had them.

"I'll get back up wherever I fall, and I'll get back what I've lost! I'm going to fight my boss again!"

Ying Qin Guan felt a tickle in his throat, and he wanted to say something... He wanted to call out Shen Xin's name.

Divine Heart...

You are really brave right now!

She's more than just brave; she's the embodiment of courage! The case is solved! The weapon Mu Nandong is researching is the invincible Divine Heart... After being completely outmaneuvered, she still dares to launch a deadly attack on her boss?!

"...This wasn't a wise choice." Nocturne sighed, her voice still tinged with disbelief. "The boss's luck was unstoppable. He had countless opportunities to win. Remember, Little God Heart? How crazy he was! To double his winnings without the God of Wealth, he even discarded the God of Wealth himself. He was certain he would win. And he really did win, right up to the very last hand... Three Years on the Stone!"

"Ishigami Sannen" means having a ready hand on the first hand but not winning until the very last hand. It is an extremely rare ancient game and used to only happen in competitions. This is because if it's not a competition, you can't prove that you had a ready hand on the first hand. The boss also called Ahe to record the hands of all four players at the same time to prove that he had "Ishigami Sannen".

Most people might play this out of desperation, but the boss was completely insane. He played the God of Wealth midway through the game and chose to discard it. Most people might discard it to defend, but the boss wanted an even bigger win. He discarded the God of Wealth to double his winnings against fate. His unparalleled rationality, madness, and greed ultimately led to his victory, even causing someone like Nocturne to have his Dao heart shattered.

—Of course, my wallet collapsed along with it.

If the boss had chosen to play it safe earlier, it would have been impossible to beat these three people like this. They would have been lucky to recover even one-sixth of their current strength, barely suffering any serious damage. But now, they've been completely bankrupted.

Such a person...it's really hard not to be afraid of him.

However, God was determined to leave and picked up the small blackboard.

"If I fear him, I am not of God's heart!"

Yu Xietian asked, "Are you really not afraid?"

"I'm a human being too! The boss is a human being too, why don't you ask him if he's afraid of me!"

“God’s Heart…” Nocturne finally spoke, her expression complex, and sighed softly, “If you want to do it, then go for it. You are free.”

Low emotional intelligence: What do I care if you lose money?

High emotional intelligence: You are free.

Shen Xin nodded proudly, then turned to look at Ying Qin Guan, his face turning obedient again.

"Um, I think..."

She reached out and rubbed her index finger and thumb together.

“I can lend it to you…” Ying Qin Guan said, “But no matter how much I lend you, it won’t be enough for you to lose, so I will only lend it to you once. You just said fifty pounds, I will lend you a hundred pounds now, but there will never be a second time.”

Shen Xin hurriedly made a pledge... but Ying Qin Guan had already seen the invincible figure of his boss in Yu Xie Tian's words, and he knew that Shen Xin would lose in the end.

Yu Xietian frowned again. Originally, the three of them were just right to participate in the program, but now that Shenxin was missing, things had become troublesome again.

His gaze shifted and quickly landed on Ying Qin Guan, but before he could speak, Ye Qu stopped him.

"Teacher Ying has just been discharged from the hospital; she should take care of her health."

Nocturne spoke first, silencing Yu Xietian with a single word of concern... Yes, Ying Qin Guan had just been discharged from the hospital, so it was indeed inconvenient for him.

"Hmm, thank you." Ying Qin Guan replied to Nocturne, then took out a nineteen-pound note from his wallet and handed it to Shen Xin—the Seven Luminaries had printed the founding emperor on a one-hundred-pound note, and the fifty, twenty, and ten below were Taki, the eternal Third Princess Nineteen Bones, and the great writer Bognir.

Needless to say, Taki was a modern-day strategist who could be considered a god. If he were alive, Pyth would probably bow down in reverence and relinquish his position as commander-in-chief of the military. Unfortunately, he was frail and sickly, and was suspected of being cursed by the progenitor. He died in his early twenties.

Princess Nineteen Bones, the Eternal Third Princess, is the daughter of the third emperor of the Seven Luminaries. The third emperor of the Seven Luminaries was rotten to the core and was one of the very few who made everyone think, "I'm really good at this." The Seven Luminaries once faced the destruction of the country, and Princess Nineteen Bones raised the banner of restoration. She was a kind of faith in the hearts of the people of the Seven Luminaries. In the history of the Seven Luminaries, her status was second only to the founding emperor and Sanyu. She is known as the Eternal Third Princess.

The great writer Borgniel... The Seven Stars have existed for less than two hundred years and have very shallow cultural foundations. Borgniel is their most outstanding writer.

The five-pound and one-pound figures are not human; they are respectively marked with the Supreme Mage Tower of the Royal Court and the sword known as "the Future".

Shen Xin left happily, intending to find the boss for a final showdown. The three people on the other side didn't think she had a good chance. They stared at her back with sorrowful eyes, as if looking at a black and white photo hanging on the wall.

-

Yu Xietian and Ye Qu spent the whole afternoon working together and finally managed to recruit another contestant... Who could this person be? That's right, it's none other than Chef Ahe. Although Ye Qu is a good chef, she still needs some assistants with basic culinary knowledge to help her... But how it will all turn out in the end, and whether the variety show mentors will suddenly die, depends on whether Ahe wants to perform well.

Yu Xietian returned to the Yorozuya, but Shenxin hadn't come back yet. He went downstairs to the izakaya and had a couple of drinks. The proprietress didn't say anything. When the Yorozuya made a fortune earlier, she had paid off the three months' worth of overdue alcohol bills and rent, and even bought a lot of alcohol from the proprietress to store. No matter how much the boss wins, he can't earn all the money the Yorozuya received from the military in one go, mainly because the Yorozuya itself had spent most of it.

"Hey, Yorozuya." The proprietress was a middle-aged woman, single, who ran an izakaya (Japanese pub). She always had a cigarette in her hand, and although she had a foul mouth, she was actually a good person—otherwise, how could Yorozuya owe three months' worth of drinks and rent?!

"Someone called looking for you earlier, but you weren't there. Go call them back yourself."

Yorozuya (the Yorozuya business) couldn't afford to install a telephone, but the izakaya (Japanese pub) downstairs did. The telephone was essentially under the Yorozuya's partial control, and although the proprietress grumbled, she allowed the Yorozuya to use it.

Yu Xietian went over and glanced at the phone number left by the other party. A chill ran down his spine; it was a contact number left by the military… The Yorozuya was practically even now. Although the military would probably give them another sum of money if they shamelessly begged, Shenxin and Yu Xietian couldn't afford to lose face. Therefore, there was probably only one reason the military would contact them.

Especially after Hiramura Danzakura went missing...

Yu Xietian composed himself and answered the phone.

Chapter Thirty: Ji Chaoge!

"Such a thing is true..."

Yu Xietian frowned slightly and hung up the phone. It was someone from the military who had called to inform him about Shen Jiu's treatment. Hisumura Tan's disappearance meant that the only person left who could be connected to Shen Jiu was Shen Xin, and Shen Xin's guardian was Yu Xietian, so naturally they could only call him to report.

However, this news was truly disheartening. The tragedy in the Black Dragon capital, Bird City, was still fresh in everyone's mind, with over ten million people dying—a super disaster unprecedented in thousands of years. Who knew what lay hidden in the Black Dragon ruins? Especially now, news came from the military that several squads had gone missing inside, without managing to send out a single message before their disappearance.

Although they said they would not give up the search for Yinhensheng, the treatment of Shenzhou-9 will definitely have to be slowed down.

Unfortunately, Yinhensheng is an acquired species, a failed product of artificial hybridization, and its data is not in the natural database; otherwise, Shenxin could have easily resolved this matter.

"Black Dragon Ruins... what might be inside?"

-

In the western part of the Holy Union, on the Anglia Islands, a man with long, silver-white hair, dressed in a robe and barefoot, stepped onto this land.

The Anglia Islands are over ten thousand kilometers away from the Black Dragon Ruins, a distance nearly a third of the equator's circumference—it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they're worlds apart. Yet Cain is now the person in this world closest to God... no, perhaps more accurately, the being closest to God.

He traveled through the void and then became the void again, thus easily traversing more than 10,000 kilometers to reach the Anglia Islands.

It was dusk, and the afterglow of the setting sun bathed the entire azure expanse in golden light, turning it into a golden paradise. The horizon opened its boundless maw, slowly swallowing the sun.

A man with one eye stood straight on the beach, staring blankly at the horizon. But what he saw was not the beautiful scene of the setting sun. A man with long, silver-white hair blocked the sunset, seawater washing over his feet. He walked slowly towards them, as if he came from the sea, or as if he came from the sun.

If this were a manga, then when Cain arrived, there would probably already be something like "gogogogogogogogo" around him to set the mood.

But even without such a thing, his arrival still brought a terrifying sense of oppression, even though he was smiling and looked frail.

“I have no intention of stirring up trouble.” Cain said with a smile, his words unbelievable. “That’s why I deliberately chose a deserted place to do my own thing.”

Cain has been resurrected from behind the door for half a month now. During this time, he has been missing, and no one knows where he is. But the man knows that he is in the core of the Black Dragon Ruins, doing his own thing.

"No intention to provoke conflict?" The one-eyed man scoffed, "It's just not the right time yet, is it?"

“You could say that,” Cain didn’t deny it. “My test subjects usually stay in the core of the Black Dragon Ruins, which is a very safe place. No one can go deep into it... But they were disturbed and scattered on their own. It was your people who did it, wasn’t it?”

He spoke it as a statement, even though it was a question, with an undeniable force. He wasn't asking; he was forcing the man to admit it.

"Ah, not bad," the man praised, adding, "I had the clown do it."

"Do you still have any means of monitoring that place?" Cain asked curiously. He was a man who always disregarded position and atmosphere, and he actually asked his enemy such a question.

"Does this matter?" the man asked. "I think you should have more important questions."

“If that’s what you mean, then that’s true,” Cain chuckled. “Why would you try to stop me, deliberately disturbing my experimental subjects and drawing the military’s attention? What’s your reason for doing that?”

"Since you possess such extraordinary abilities, why don't you guess what my reason is?"

The man pulled a pipe from his pocket, but didn't smoke it; he just fiddled with it in his hand. He was a very arrogant person; if he talked like that in public, he would most likely get beaten up.

When someone asks the first question—"You have other questions you want to know, right?"—that's fine.

When someone asks an important question—you're so awesome, guess it yourself!

They really figured out how the riddle-maker was being played.

If Cain had Ye Jiaofang's temper, he would have already made his move by now—damn it, ruining my plans and acting as a riddle-maker, die!

However, Cain had a good temper... and his good temper stemmed from his powerful abilities, which had surpassed those of the human race.

Cain smiled as he gazed at the man. In his eyes, the world had turned pitch black, and countless faint threads were wrapped around the man's body. He followed the threads, looking at them one by one...

“Your gaze disgusts me.” The man suddenly spoke, interrupting Cain’s spying. Without even looking at Cain, he jabbed a crab that had crawled to his feet with his pipe, killing it. “Just like this crab, baring its fangs and claws, strutting around arrogantly, its body wet and smelling of the sea.”

"Is that so? I'm sorry, I haven't used this ability many times either." Cain apologized earnestly, saying something that sent chills down one's spine. "The previous times, I used it on dead people. This is the first time I've experienced the feeling on a living person."