The human brain was a marvelous thing. Some said that less than 10% of the brain had been developed, while others said it was 5%.
Though the figures differed, it was true that the brain had not been fully developed.
The relative speed of consciousness was also incredibly fast. As people often described it, in the brief moments before death, one might relive an entire lifetime.
So was it possible to live for thousands of years within one's consciousness while only a single year passed in reality?
Or perhaps one day, a game would be developed where a day passed in-game while only ten minutes passed in reality?
Chen Luo was not sure about the latter, but he had genuinely experienced the former.
"Ah Luo, what's wrong with you? You look a little out of it." Venti, seated at the bartender's counter, looked at the dazed Chen Luo with concern.
"It's nothing. I just overused my brain. It's a normal side effect, nothing serious. I'll be fine after a nap." Chen Luo shook his head.
As everyone knew, there was no trouble that could not be forgotten after a good sleep. No matter what illness one had, more sleep was always beneficial.
That afternoon, from a little after two until after six, Chen Luo had been dragged by the Herrscher of Knowledge into her consciousness space for training.
Training in consciousness space had many advantages. Time flowed slowly there; training for more than ten days inside might barely take any time at all outside.
To match Chen Luo's current mental strength, the Herrscher of Knowledge had turned four hours outside into one hundred days within the consciousness space.
According to the Herrscher of Knowledge, that was already very little time, but Chen Luo did not see it that way.
Consciousness-space training had another advantage: it was real. It could imprint the training into one's reflexes, letting one clearly understand what one had learned.
Besides that, its greatest benefit was that dying within consciousness space caused no harm whatsoever.
The Herrscher of Knowledge had said that if he wanted results, they had to make it real.
So Chen Luo spent one hundred days training on the Tai Xu Mountain she had simulated, getting cut to death a total of 3,080 times.
As for the results...
Swordsmanship Mastery
Chen Luo's Swordsmanship Mastery had originally belonged to Furniture Mastery. If he ever lost that ability—and this was only a hypothetical—he would no longer be able to wield a sword so freely.
But things were different now. Even without Furniture Mastery, Chen Luo could handle a sword with ease. That meant he could now be called a skilled swordsman.
He was one step closer to becoming a true happy wind man.
Only after mastering Swordsmanship Mastery could Chen Luo possibly continue breaking through and become a Sword Master or even a sword grandmaster.
Besides that...
Melee Weaponry Novice Spear Proficiency Close Combat Novice Fist Technique Proficiency Tai Xu Sword Qi (Proficient)
This training method was brutal, but its progress was undeniably fast.
It also meant that Chen Luo and the Herrscher of Time had spent one hundred days alone together, though most of that time consisted of the Herrscher of Knowledge training and hunting Chen Luo down.
The facts proved that the Herrscher of Knowledge's obsession with making Chen Luo master the Tai Xu Sword God was far stronger than Chen Luo's own desire to learn it.
And human potential truly was limitless, especially under the pressure of death.
It was just unfortunate that Heart Essence was easy to learn but difficult to master. Chen Luo was also male, so he could only reach the Dustless stage at most. If Chen Luo's Heart Essence realm reached "Tai Xu," then his Tai Xu Sword Qi would rise to Mastery.
All in all, out of the five essences of Tai Xu Sword Qi, Chen Luo had learned one and a half.
Half a Heart, half a Soul, and half a Form.
The first two required an opportunity to break through, while the last simply lacked sufficient training time.
That was right—even one hundred days of practice still counted as insufficient time. After all, Chen Luo was not Kiana. A hundred days was nowhere near enough for him to graduate, and that was only because he was talented.
Kiana? She was simply cheating.
Whenever Chen Luo thought about how Kiana had been able to use the Tai Xu Sword God after only a few dozen days of training, he became unrecognizably jealous.
At that moment, Chen Luo watched expectantly as the Herrscher of Knowledge, seated at the table with a drink in hand, prepared to take a sip.
Mixing a delicious drink was important, but having it acknowledged by someone he cared about was even more important.
"Pfft!" The Herrscher of Knowledge sprayed out the pale green liquid after taking a sip.
"Chen Luo! Why does this drink taste like bitter melon?!" The Herrscher of Knowledge's roar instantly flooded the entire tavern.
Theresa: I Heard Someone Mention Bitter Melon Juice
Since only Chen Luo could attack others within this tavern, while no one else could attack him, the Herrscher of Knowledge could not hit Chen Luo here.
Even so, Chen Luo felt as if his neck were about to snap from being shaken.
"You bastard! You tricked me into drinking bitter melon juice? Don't you know that stuff tastes awful?"
"I do, but bitter medicine cures sickness. Immortal Crimson Kite, you should understand that better than I do. Bitter melon may be bitter, but it has extremely high nutritional value," Chen Luo explained.
"Then why don't you drink it?"
"Obviously because bitter melon juice tastes awful. Who would want to drink it?" Chen Luo replied with complete confidence.
"So you made me drink it? You heartless bastard!" The Herrscher of Knowledge grabbed Chen Luo by the ear.
"But aren't you the Herrscher of Knowledge? You're omnipotent. Can't you even drink a cup of bitter melon juice?"
"Yes, I can alter my consciousness to make bitter melon juice taste good, but other than Theresa, who would ever want to drink that garbage? Bitter melon juice should be destroyed for the good of humanity!" the Herrscher of Knowledge continued shouting at Chen Luo.
After hearing that the Herrscher of Knowledge really could drink bitter melon juice, Chen Luo became even more envious of the authority of the Herrscher of Knowledge Core.
"Did I just hear bitter melon juice? Were you talking about bitter melon juice?" A little head suddenly poked in through the tavern door.
The Herrscher of Knowledge and Chen Luo both looked in that direction and froze at once.
"Theresa?" The Herrscher of Knowledge was dumbfounded.
Good grief, was bitter melon juice Theresa's summoning chant?
Speak of Theresa, and Theresa appeared—crossing worlds to come straight to them, no less. That was truly unexpected.
"Oh, it's Fu Hua. You're here too. It's strange enough that such a little tavern suddenly appeared at St. Freya Academy. I thought it was rather eerie at first, but seeing you here puts me much more at ease. But why do your clothes look so strange?"
The moment Theresa saw the Herrscher of Knowledge, she immediately relaxed, then fully entered the little tavern from outside.
"Um, Theresa, you... aren't you afraid when you see me?" After releasing Chen Luo, the Herrscher of Knowledge looked at Theresa.
"Afraid? Who, me? Why would I be afraid? And if anyone should be afraid, shouldn't it be you? As a student, you actually ran off here to drink. That's completely unacceptable." Theresa puffed out her cheeks.
"..." Upon hearing that astonishing statement, the Herrscher of Knowledge stared at Theresa in surprise before walking up to examine her from head to toe.
Had Kiana kicked Theresa in the head? How could she fail to recognize that she was the Herrscher of Knowledge?
Unless...
"Theresa, let me ask you something..." The Herrscher of Knowledge took two steps back before speaking.
"Call me Principal! Of course, you can call me Theresa in front of people who don't know me." Theresa put her hands on her hips and raised her head.
"Um... Principal, how has Kiana been lately?" the Herrscher of Knowledge asked seamlessly.
"Hm, Kiana? Why have you started caring about that? Fine, I'll tell you. That old shameless Siegfried took his daughter away, and I still haven't found Kiana. With such an unreliable father, Kiana must be having a hard time, right?" At the mention of this, Theresa stamped her foot in anger.
"Any recent worries?"
"According to Schicksal intelligence, there seem to be signs of Anti-Entropy members operating in Changkong City. Who knows what they're planning?"
"Oh... that really is troublesome." As Theresa spoke, the smile on the Herrscher of Knowledge's face became increasingly obvious, as if she were about to burst into wild laughter.
"Never mind that. You mentioned bitter melon juice just now, right? What's with this bar? Does it sell bitter melon juice?" Theresa looked around, wrinkled her small nose slightly, then turned toward the pale green drink on the table.
"That's the scent of premium bitter melon juice!"
"Cough, cough. Here's the thing: this tavern seems to connect different worlds. For example, the person beside you is the finest bard on the Teyvat Continent. I also happened to come here by accident." Upon hearing Theresa's question, the Herrscher of Knowledge hurriedly used her Herrscher authority to regulate her emotions.
At least she could not laugh yet.
"And in this tavern, as long as your wish is strong enough, whatever kind of bitter melon juice you want is the kind of bitter melon juice you can drink." While explaining it to Theresa, the Herrscher of Knowledge did not forget to bring Chen Luo some business.
"Oh, is it really that amazing? Then I'll have a cup of the same bitter melon juice." Theresa pointed at the bitter melon juice the Herrscher of Knowledge had left unfinished.
Ding! You have received a new commission.
At the same time, Chen Luo received a commission.
The Finest Bitter Melon Juice: Please prepare Theresa a cup of bitter melon juice identical to the Herrscher of Knowledge's. Reward: 30 Primogems Difficulty: One Star
"No problem." Chen Luo, the tavern owner, immediately nodded.
Then Chen Luo promptly returned behind the bar and began preparing bitter melon juice for Theresa.
This was far bigger business than Barbatos's order.
After all, Barbatos's normal reward was only twenty Primogems; it had merely doubled to forty.
Chen Luo understood why Theresa's bitter melon juice was worth more Primogems than Barbatos drinking alcohol.
Because Barbatos had not initially believed Chen Luo could truly make wine brewed with wind, his expectations had not been high.
The so-called commission tasks depended on the strength of the wish. The stronger the wish, the greater the reward.
However, because he had not held much hope yet received an excessive reward, Venti had made up the difference. After completing the task beyond expectations, the reward had become forty.
Of course, another reason that bitter melon juice was so expensive was that Chen Luo had added extra ingredients to it.
This cup of bitter melon juice had used three portions of Chen Luo's materials, or 0.3 Primogems.
To keep the Herrscher of Knowledge from discovering that it was bitter melon juice, Chen Luo had gone to great lengths.
As a result, this cup of bitter melon juice was actually of very high quality.
"Here!" Before long, a cup of bitter melon juice that did not look like bitter melon juice at all was placed before Theresa.
Theresa pinched the straw and tasted the bitter melon juice before her, her face instantly blooming into a blissful smile.
"Delicious! It really is premium bitter melon juice!" Theresa declared at once.
Ding! Mission complete. Theresa's favorability has increased.
"Ah Luo, come here." The Chen Luo who had just completed the mission saw the Herrscher of Knowledge, who had somehow run to the farthest corner of the first floor, wave him over.
"Mm. You two keep drinking. I'll go over there for a moment." After speaking to Theresa and Venti, his two current customers, Chen Luo walked toward the corner.
"Go ahead. As for me, as long as there's wine to drink, I'm good." Venti nodded.
As for Theresa, she had not heard Chen Luo at all. She was fully immersed in the deliciousness of the bitter melon juice.
Seeing Theresa like that, Venti curiously picked up a straw and placed it in his oversized wine glass.
Would drinking wine through a straw make it taste better?
The Reversed Timeline
"Why did you call me over?" Chen Luo asked the Herrscher of Knowledge after reaching the corner.
"Enough playing dumb. From those bits and pieces just now, you should have noticed something, right?" The Herrscher of Knowledge rolled her eyes at Chen Luo.
"You mean that you didn't just travel through space—you also traveled through time?"
"That's right. Do you remember how I was described in your mission?"
"Just got scammed over the phone by your biological mother?"
"Bang!"
The Herrscher of Knowledge punched Chen Luo in the head.
Before you continue