Daily life of a teacher in the martial arts department

[You won't reject me so cruelly, will you? No way! I'll be so embarrassed, it'll be incredibly humiliating, even if no one else sees...]

In the midst of Ying Qin Guan's panic... Mu Nan Dong spoke up.

"You don't need to think about this."

He said softly, "During the Gu Heart Demon period, when you used the Consciousness Slash in the cafeteria, you were already..."

Mu Nandong frowned, turned around, and repeated with difficulty, "It already is..."

"It is already..."

He stopped there, as if stuck, unable to continue.

Finally, he snorted coldly and closed his eyes.

"...Hmph, such stupid talk is completely unnecessary..."

Chapter Fifteen: Lessons from National Demise

"Cannot find..."

Inside the room, Chu Hui and Qiu Fei sat facing each other on two beds.

Chu Hui exhaled a breath of stale air, revealing a tired expression.

“Finding anti-extraterrestrial ore won’t be a quick process; the Saint Lotus Mountains are quite large,” Qiu Fei said in a low voice. “But how long can we use skiing as an excuse? If these people stay here, we’ll be in big trouble.”

"Bingning isn't even our territory yet, we can't even make a move..." Chu Hui looked exasperated. "This is outrageous! If Bingning were our territory, we wouldn't need to search like this..."

Qiu Fei said timidly, "That guy with the slender waist is a master, taller than all of us. And there's also the head of the Seven Luminaries Imperial Academy, Jiu Yi... His martial arts seem to have fallen into disuse, but he's probably no less skilled than us."

"If this really breaks out, we'll probably be the ones to lose..."

"Why boost their morale and diminish our own? If a fight breaks out, we can just take two hostages. They'll definitely protect the women well. We can grab that deadpan man. They'll never think of this reverse thinking..."

Qiu Fei didn't argue anymore; arguing was pointless because fighting was the only option. Bingning wasn't their territory. Their goal was to locate the anti-detached mine before the organization arrived, allowing them to mine it secretly, not to rush in and start a bloodbath. If a fight broke out and people died, Bingning's police wouldn't be trifled with. They couldn't do anything to them then, but the anti-detached mine would be in danger.

"Speaking of which... that lord always suspected that the nameless swordsman from Southern Qin was not dead. Coincidentally, the Gu Heart Demon went out of control and ended up at the Seven Luminaries Imperial Academy. We could have gotten some answers from the corpse. But that Fei Cun beat us to it and stole the body. We don't know where it went..."

Chu Hui sneered, "I heard that guy is currently looking for Po Xiezi in the Holy Alliance. After this mission is over, we'll go back and keep him here to see what we can pry out of him."

Qiu Fei said uneasily, "What you're saying reminds me of the soldiers who went home to get married after this battle..."

"I don't believe in these things... Although Yu Xietian and Jiu Yi are strong, they couldn't stop us. Are you suggesting there are other experts in this inn?"

Qiu Fei nodded and guessed, "That Fengyunke, look at his posture, his eyes, and even his name... he really seems like a peerless master."

"His inner energy is exposed to us, we can see right through him, what are you afraid of?!"

“This internal energy can be faked…” Qiu Fei’s voice became even softer after Chu Hui’s fierce rebuke. “We were faking it.”

"That's hilarious! What's the use of a middle-aged, slovenly man having scary eyes? Why don't you expect that dead-fish-eyed guy to be a peerless master?"

"That's hard to say..."

"You talk too much!" Chu Hui glared at Qiu Fei and said coldly, "Instead of wasting time thinking about this nonsense, you should be thinking about how to deal with that Hishimura Tan's wife. She only dared to attack him after gathering at least five of our seven members, plus the two adults..."

At this point in the meeting, he gasped, acknowledging that China has made indelible contributions to glacial melting and global warming.

"If his background wasn't so clear, I would probably have thought he was an unknown swordsman from Southern Qin."

"If he's just an unknown swordsman from Southern Qin, then you're just wasting your time trying to kill him. Haven't you learned the lesson of your country's downfall?"

-

Day three.

After being guided by Ye Qu, Gan Xingyao was inspired and became a writing pro, frantically working on her manuscript. Jiu Yi's daily routine was much more regular than Ying Qin Guan's. When he got up, Ying Qin Guan was still asleep, so he just stood by and watched what Gan Xingyao was writing.

He had read a little about the nameless swordsman of Southern Qin, but only a little, somewhere between a cloud reader and a regular reader.

"That's insane hand speed..."

Gan Xingyao's fingers moved back and forth on the typewriter at a speed that was dazzling.

Typewriter: Is her typing correct or incorrect?

Keyboard: I don't know, just type any word.

Jiu Yi looked for a while but couldn't figure it out. He stood up, looked around, and found that there were only the two of them in the living room.

Mu Nandong and Yu Xietian went out early in the morning, while everyone else seemed to be asleep. Doesn't that mean...?

Here, no one else knows what he did?

Evil thoughts began to arise in Jiu's heart.

He strode into the living room, took out his card case, quickly drew out the God of War card, glanced around, and was about to hide it away.

He couldn't take being beaten down by the God of War every day!

Who could stand this injustice?!

I'm going to hide this card today...

Just as Jiu was about to stuff the card into his pocket, he suddenly heard a playful voice behind him.

"Dean, what are you doing?"

Even though Jiu Yi considers himself a decent martial artist with fairly good control over his body, he's no longer the same person he was a few years ago when he was still in university and trained every day.

Perhaps because of his guilty conscience, Jiu Yi shuddered in fright, quickly put the card back into the card box, and then turned around... It was Nocturne, it really was Nocturne.

She was dressed in casual clothes today, smiling and waving a light blue fan as she looked at Jiu Yi.

Jiu Yi was extremely nervous, thinking, "You're like a ghost, how come you walk without making a sound?" He hurriedly said, "It's nothing, I just opened the card box in advance so we can start right away!"

"The dean looks very nervous..."

"That's not true!"

"Hehe..." Nocturne didn't dwell on the matter further, and said with a smile, "It's a beautiful day today, Dean, are you still going to play cards with Teacher Ying all day?"

Jiu Yi didn't know what "Nocturne" meant, and said, "Of course, what else can we do?"

Nocturne chuckled, "The woman found a Truth or Dare card box over there, why don't we play some of that..."

"Ha." Jiu Yi scoffed at this, saying, "I have absolutely no interest in that kind of game—"

"Oh dear, why is this Battle God Card placed on top, and it's crumpled up? Teacher Ying might have some clues. Why don't you go ask him, young lady..."

"Ah—wait a minute, wait a minute. To be honest, I'm already tired of Time Kill, but Ying Qin Guan keeps pestering me, so I have to play along. Since you want to play this, let's play this." Beads of sweat appeared on Jiu Yi's forehead. He shamelessly closed the lid of the card box under Ye Qu's smiling gaze, and only then did he relax a little.

Nocturne waved his fan and laughed, "Since the dean has already agreed, then the woman can go find someone else."

Jiu Yi was utterly powerless to resist Nocturne's will, and could only sigh, "Go then."

Chapter Sixteen Truth or Dare

Ying Qin Guan was washing up in his bathroom with dead fish eyes when there was a knock on the door.

He calmly wiped his face with a towel and peeked through the crack in the door—it was Shenxin.

"Little Pudding, what's the matter?" Ying Qin Guan opened the door.

Shenxin raised the small blackboard.

["Yu Xietian said he felt that the liquid was unreliable. They wore the pendant around their necks, and the way it was being groped felt really wrong. Why not just test the composition of that liquid on those two people? You're a peerless expert; you should have more ideas than him."]

Ying Qin Guan hesitated and said, "Wouldn't that be inappropriate?"

"Maybe a little, but the outcome will definitely be good, either for us or for them. If they really are using this to conceal their inner energy, then they must have ulterior motives. If they just accidentally wore it, then we can tell them about the dangers of the Cloud Suppression Stone... mainly because this thing is illegal, and ordinary people can't get their hands on it."

"And don't you know that 'Consciousness Slash' skill? Why are you so aggressive against your teammates, but so hesitant and timid against others?"

Ying Qin Guan shook his head and said, "You don't understand. I judge the opponent's strength based on the fluctuation of their internal energy and their specific reaction after receiving the attack. If you just give me their reaction, how am I supposed to know their level?"

That's the truth. For someone at Wu Changying's level, Ying Qin Guan believed that the stronger he was, the greater his reaction. But for Kui, it was clear that his lack of reaction made him even stronger. Using the "consciousness slash" to judge strength was just a vague statement.

Just as Shenxin was about to say something more... Nocturne began.

What are you two talking about?

Shenxin didn't want Yequ to know about these messy and troublesome things, so she quickly raised the blackboard before Ying Qin Guan could speak.

"Nothing much, just chatting. Is there anything I can help you with, Miss Nocturn?"

Nocturne smiled and said, "The woman discovered Truth or Dare in the board game arcade and is quite interested, so she wants to invite some people. What do you two think?"

Shen Xin naturally had no objection, but Ying Qin Guan said he was going to play cards with Jiu Yi—until Ye Qu indicated that Jiu Yi also played this game.

-

"Me? That works too."

"I'm quite interested too."

After that, Ye Qu invited other people, and neither Gan Xingyao nor Feng Yunke refused.

Chu Hui politely declined, saying, "We've been preparing for this trip for a long time and have been saving up for a long time. Skiing is one of the most important and easiest wishes on our life list. So... let's do it another day. Maybe we'll get tired of it by tomorrow."

Nocturne didn't insist, and said with a smile, "Please do as you please."

The remaining six people sat on the sofa in the living room. Ying Qin Guan had his back to the door, while Feng Yun Ke stood opposite him with his arms crossed, deep eyes, and an aura of an unparalleled expert.

Nocturne was arranging the playing cards. Generally, Truth or Dare is played with a quick-win game where the loser is punished. But there are so many games that can be played with playing cards, and it's unclear what Nocturne plans to play.

Ying Qin Guan listened to the sounds behind him... He knew the two were about to leave, and by the time they returned it would probably be evening again. He didn't care, and he didn't know why Mu Nan Dong, Shen Xin, and Yu Xie Tian cared so much, but since things had come to this point...

Ying Qin Guan lowered his gaze, a murderous intent surging within him, his inner energy surging.

Consciousness Slash!

However, compared to before, the power of this consciousness strike is the weakest. Firstly, Ying Qin Guan is facing away from them. The most important part of the consciousness strike relies on micro-movements and eye contact, along with the stimulation of internal energy and killing intent, to force the opponent's brain to "imagine". Now, the key part of micro-movements and eye contact is completely gone.

Secondly, Ying Qin Guan didn't unleash much internal energy or killing intent, and given the distance, this mental strike didn't even manage to pull the two into an illusion.

But the power was weak, and whether one could feel it was another matter entirely. Chu Hui and Qiu Fei both felt a chill run down their necks... Although they had never actually had their heads chopped off, at this moment, the same thought arose in their minds.

"If one day I were really beheaded with a single blow, that would definitely feel like this."

Yes, that's the feeling that Ying Qin Guan's strike gave people.

There are some things that you can sense even if you haven't experienced them yourself.