As morning light filtered through the crack in the window, Tang San was flipping through the book on plant martial soul perception that Master Yu Xiaogang had lent him. Its pages were yellowed, and the margins were packed with dense notes. It was clearly an old book. By the time Wang Hu and the other two rubbed their eyes and got out of bed, he had only just closed it and leisurely folded it beside his pillow—today they were learning "perception evasion," so he needed to save his energy for slacking and could not waste it too early.
"Tang San, hurry up! This morning's training is on the basics of martial soul perception. Teacher Zhang said it connects to the evasion training this afternoon. If we're late, we'll definitely be punished!" Wang Hu shouted as he got dressed, even putting his socks on inside out.
Tang San stretched and slowly sat up. "What's the rush? There's still more than a quarter of an hour before morning training. I'll wash up first. You guys go save us a good spot, so we don't get assigned to train by the windward side later and end up with headaches." He deliberately dawdled while looking for his clothes. Only after Wang Hu and the others had left did he take his towel to wash up. He even spent another half-incense stick's worth of time tidying his bed. By the time he headed toward the morning training grounds, quite a few people were already adjusting their martial soul perception.
Deliberately delayed arriving for morning training, avoiding excessive early training expenditure. Slacking Value +1. Current total: 1 point.
At the morning training grounds, Teacher Zhang stood in the center with wooden chips in hand. When he saw Tang San arrive, he pointed at an empty spot by the side. "Tang San, get in position. Today we're practicing 'martial soul perception of wooden chip trajectories.' Use your martial soul to sense the direction of the chips I throw. If you dodge them, you pass. If you fail, you run five laps!"
Tang San quickly took his place and summoned Blue Silver Grass. Unlike the others, he did not spread it out to expand his perception range. He merely let the blades of grass sway gently in front of him, deliberately shrinking his perception range to within half a zhang—this would save Soul Power while still letting him sense nearby wooden chips. As for distant ones, even if he "failed to sense" them, he could always claim that his Soul Power was weak and his perception range was limited.
"Everyone ready? Begin!" As soon as Teacher Zhang spoke, the wooden chips in his hand flew out like raindrops. Tang San's Blue Silver Grass swayed lightly, and he dodged only the few chips directly in front of him. The distant chips "just happened" to graze past the hem of his clothes, making it look as though he had not sensed them.
"Tang San, why are you only dodging the ones in front of you? Didn't you sense the distant ones?" Teacher Zhang walked over with a frown.
"Teacher, my Soul Power is weak. My perception range is only half a zhang, so I really can't sense the distant chips. I can only do my best to dodge the ones close to me." Tang San put on a helpless expression and quickly shrank Blue Silver Grass's perception range even further. "Look, it's even smaller now. There's really nothing I can do."
Used "limited perception range" as a reason to reduce training intensity, avoiding excessive expenditure. Slacking Value +1. Current total: 2 points.
Teacher Zhang said nothing more and turned to guide the other students. After morning training ended, Xiao Wu handed Tang San a bottle of water. "Tang San, you could clearly sense those distant wooden chips just now. Why did you deliberately not dodge? You almost got hit."
"Sensing distant wooden chips costs Soul Power. We still have evasion training this afternoon, so I need to conserve my strength." Tang San unscrewed the bottle and slowly took a sip. "Come on, let's go eat at the cafeteria. There should be pork rib soup today."
The two headed toward the cafeteria and ran into Master Yu Xiaogang on the way. He carried a cloth bag that seemed to contain wooden chips and rope. "Tang San, come to my office after training this afternoon. I'll teach you 'perception evasion techniques.' I prepared some wooden chips, perfect for practice."
Tang San's heart skipped a beat. He wanted to make an excuse and refuse, but before he could speak, Master Yu Xiaogang continued, "Don't look for excuses. I've already told the cafeteria to save you a bowl of pork rib soup. Finish eating and get to training. If you can't learn it this afternoon, you'll practice for another two hours."
With no other choice, Tang San nodded. "Understood, Master."
The morning extra class was "precise Soul Power perception practice"—the students had to use their martial souls to sense the positions of pebbles on the ground and pick them up without looking. Anyone who picked the wrong one or missed one had to pick up ten extra pebbles. Wang Hu and the others all had martial soul perception ranges of over one zhang and quickly finished collecting their pebbles. Only Tang San's Blue Silver Grass slowly felt around the ground, "just happening" to miss several pebbles each time. After searching for a long time, he had only picked up half of them.
Teacher Li, who was overseeing the training, walked over and glanced at Tang San. "Tang San, why are you so slow? Have you not practiced perception enough?"
"Teacher, my Soul Power is weak, and my perception lacks precision. I can only search slowly. If I go too fast, I might pick up the wrong ones. Then I'll be punished with extra collecting, which would waste even more time." Tang San hurriedly explained. The Blue Silver Grass in his hand slowed down even more, deliberately missing a pebble. "See? I missed another one. I can only search again."
Teacher Li said nothing further and turned to guide the others. Tang San secretly breathed a sigh of relief and continued "slowly picking up pebbles"—as long as he finished in the end, being slow was fine. It was better than wasting Soul Power.
Used "avoiding extra collecting as punishment" as a reason to reduce perception speed, avoiding excessive expenditure. Slacking Value +1. Current total: 3 points.
After the extra class ended, Tang San hurried toward the cafeteria—he had barely eaten that morning and was already starving. As soon as he arrived, he saw Wang Hu and the other two waiting for him. "Tang San, you were way too slow picking up those pebbles. We were all done while you had only collected half."
"My Soul Power is weak. There's nothing I can do. I have to take it slowly." Tang San picked up a meat bun and ate it at an unhurried pace. "There's training this afternoon too. Hurry up and eat, or you'll be late."
The afternoon extra class was "martial soul evasion sparring"—the students formed pairs, with one throwing wooden chips while the other used martial soul perception to dodge. Then they switched roles, practicing for half an hour. Wang Hu wanted to pair with Tang San, but Tang San shook his head. "My evasion speed is slow. I'd only hold you back if we teamed up. Go find Li Qing. I'll pair with Zhao Yu."
Zhao Yu was not very strong, and the wooden chips he threw were slow. Pairing with him would make it easy to "dodge without effort." During their sparring, Tang San deliberately slowed Blue Silver Grass's perception speed. Every time, he "just happened" to dodge only when the wooden chip was about to reach him. It looked as though he was nearly hit, but he always barely avoided it.
"Tang San, can't you dodge faster? Every time it's this risky, I'm almost afraid to throw anymore." Zhao Yu sounded helpless. "At this rate, we'll both get scolded by the teacher."
"Dodging too fast wastes Soul Power. There's no need." Tang San said with a smile, while the Blue Silver Grass in his hand continued sensing at its slow pace. "As long as I don't get hit, slow is fine. Better than draining all my Soul Power."
Used "saving Soul Power" as a reason to reduce evasion speed, avoiding excessive expenditure. Slacking Value +1. Current total: 4 points.
After training ended, Tang San had no choice but to head to Master Yu Xiaogang's office. Inside, Master Yu Xiaogang had already arranged the wooden chips and ropes, and several circles had been drawn on the floor. "Today I'll teach you 'perception evasion techniques.' Stand inside the circle and use Blue Silver Grass to sense the wooden chips I throw. Not only must you dodge them, you must remain inside the circle while doing so. Step outside the circle, and you fail."
Tang San followed the instructions, stepped into the circle, and summoned Blue Silver Grass. He deliberately used only thirty percent of his Soul Power, shrinking his perception range to half a zhang. He also deliberately slowed his dodging speed, only moving when the wooden chips were nearly upon him, and almost stepped outside the circle several times.
"No, expand your perception range and increase your evasion speed!" Master Yu Xiaogang frowned. "Your Soul Power may be weak, but you can still improve your perception speed. Stop constantly thinking about conserving Soul Power."
With no other choice, Tang San added another twenty percent of his Soul Power. His perception range expanded to one zhang, and his evasion speed increased somewhat, but he still deliberately delayed by half a beat, keeping himself just inside the circle.
"That's more like it." Master Yu Xiaogang nodded. "Practice a few more times and get used to it. We'll reinforce it tomorrow."
Forced to increase perception and evasion intensity. No Slacking Value gained, but by "delaying half a beat," avoided overperforming and no value was deducted.
Only after practicing for half an hour did Tang San leave the office. Xiao Wu was waiting outside. "Tang San, why are you only coming out now? I've been waiting for nearly two hours. I thought the teacher had punished you."
"No, Master taught me perception evasion techniques. It took a long time before I got the hang of it." Tang San stretched. "Come on, let's go eat. I'm starving."
The two walked toward the cafeteria. Along the way, Tang San calculated to himself: today, he had accumulated 4 points of Slacking Value. Although Master had forced him to practice the techniques, he had still gained something overall. As long as he kept up this rhythm, he would definitely save enough Slacking Value for his next Soul Power exchange.
The cafeteria lights were on. Tang San looked at the food before him and ate slowly—he knew that as long as he persisted in slacking, his "path to the pinnacle of slacking" would continue onward. Even with Master urging him on, he could still find chances to slack off and steadily grow stronger.
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