The Fleeing Dai Mubai (3)

Although he had become the "boss" at Le Bai's request, Dai Mubai knew perfectly well that he had not truly become the boss.

Dai Mubai had mainly agreed for two reasons:

First, among Shrek Academy's current four students, he was the oldest and had the highest Soul Power Level.

Second, Le Bai had won their fight.

True, they had not agreed on anything before their match, nor had there been any wager. But the loser should reasonably comply with the winner's demands. It was both a sign of respect for the victor and a way to preserve the loser's remaining dignity.

As for Le Bai's true purpose, Dai Mubai did not know. For the time being, he buried his doubts.

Through his battle with Dai Mubai, Le Bai gained a rough understanding of his current strength—his goal had been achieved, and he was satisfied. So he took the initiative to show Dai Mubai around the Academy, telling Oscar and Ma Hongjun to go carry out their respective daily training first.

Oscar and Ma Hongjun did not have as solid an excuse as Le Bai and had no choice but to accept the reality that they could not slack off for half a day. Grumbling and cursing, they headed toward their usual training grounds.

Le Bai then led Dai Mubai around the Academy:

"This is the cafeteria. Meal times are fairly fixed every day, so it's best to show up on time. Otherwise, we can't guarantee we'll save you any food."

"This is the dormitory. Your room with Ma Hongjun is the one on the left ahead; Oscar's is the one on the right. The conditions aren't great, but they aren't terrible either. You'd better not compare them to your home."

"This is the Playground. Every morning, unless the teachers specifically said otherwise the day before, everyone was expected to arrive early. If you're late, the teachers will very likely punish you, so watch yourself."

"This is the Office for the Dean and teachers. The teachers might not be around, but unless the Dean has gone out, he is usually here."

"This whole area is where the teachers live. Further out are the villagers living near the Academy. I live nearby as well. They generally don't interact with us, and the Academy has rules forbidding us from bullying them. Otherwise, the Dean will very likely deal with us personally."

"And over here..."

Shrek Academy was not big at all—one could even say it was tiny. But Le Bai's introduction was quite thorough, and one round around the grounds took more than an hour.

"That's every area of Shrek Academy. Boss Dai, did you remember it all? Do you need me to take you around again?"

Le Bai turned to speak to Dai Mubai, only then realizing that Dai Mubai was not paying attention to him. He walked over, grabbed Dai Mubai's shoulder, and shook him. "Hey, Boss Dai, what are you thinking about?"

"!?"

Dai Mubai startled awake and came back to his senses. "Ah, sorry, I was thinking about something just now! What were you saying?"

"When exactly did you start spacing out...?"

Le Bai's expression gradually turned disdainful. "Boss Dai, I know you're not in a good mood after losing to me, but isn't this way of getting back at me a little too petty?"

"I'm not that petty!"

Dai Mubai denied it with all his might, his face nearly pressing against Le Bai's. "I really was thinking about something!"

"Ah, I know, I know!"

Le Bai leaned back with all his strength to avoid making facial contact with Dai Mubai. "Too close, Boss Dai, too close! We're going to touch!"

The two found somewhere they could sit and rest. Dai Mubai sat down and calmed down a little.

"Anyway, Boss Dai, tell me whatever you can. What were you thinking about just now?"

Le Bai reached out and draped an arm over Dai Mubai's shoulder. "The person involved always sees things from a relatively limited perspective. As an outsider, I might be able to offer you a different point of view."

Dai Mubai crossed his hands beneath his chin and thought for a while. "You have a point. And what I was thinking about isn't completely unrelated to you."

"Oh? It actually has something to do with me?"

If Le Bai had merely been offering casual comfort before, he was now genuinely interested in what Dai Mubai had been thinking about. "Then I definitely need to hear it!"

"Actually, I was thinking that you and Oscar are the same age, and both have Food System Martial Souls. Yet your Soul Power lags so far behind Oscar's. What exactly is the reason?"

Dai Mubai looked at Le Bai seriously. "After thinking it over, the biggest possibility is that your Innate Soul Power Level is very low."

"That's it?"

Le Bai instantly lost interest. "You could have just asked me next time. My Innate Soul Power is level two, which is average. After all, my Martial Soul didn't mutate, and I wasn't born into a Soul Master family. Being born with level two was already pretty lucky."

"Level two..."

The answer was even lower than Dai Mubai had expected. "Then how exactly do you cultivate? Forget Innate Soul Power at level two—I've seen people with levels three or four, and many of them couldn't even reach level ten Soul Power at your age!"

"How else would I cultivate?"

Le Bai leaned back and looked up at the sky. "Keep my Soul Power in a cultivation state as much as possible, exercise my body as much as possible, and keep at it every day. That's all."

"Have you never thought about giving up?"

Dai Mubai's voice trembled slightly. "With Innate Soul Power that low, your Soul Power Enhancement Speed must be very slow."

"Of course it's slow."

Le Bai spoke very seriously. "I spend more time cultivating and train harder, but my Soul Power Enhancement Speed is nowhere near Oscar's or Ma Hongjun's. Since I started cultivating, not only have I failed to close the gap, the difference between my Soul Power and theirs has actually grown larger over the past two years. The teachers said that the higher one's Soul Power Level becomes, the harder it will be to improve. The gap should become even bigger then. Seriously, just thinking about it makes my liver hurt!"

"If that's the case!"

Dai Mubai grew a little agitated. "Why haven't you given up? Why do you still work so desperately hard at cultivation and training?"

"It's not a matter of why I haven't given up. It's a matter of why I should."

Le Bai looked directly into Dai Mubai's eyes. "Having a poor Martial Soul and insufficient Innate Soul Power—those aren't reasons why I must give up, are they? Of course, effort has limits. I understand that very clearly."

Dai Mubai looked at Le Bai with an utterly incomprehensible expression. "Then why do you still..."

"Why do I still persist?"

Le Bai finished what Dai Mubai could not say. "It's a meaningless question. No matter what I think, reality won't change. What benefit would giving up everything bring me? None. It would even make me unable to do some small things I was originally capable of doing—that's a disadvantage. Whether it's to seize the last shred of possibility or to avoid disadvantages as much as possible, I shouldn't give up, should I?"

"This really is..."

Dai Mubai had not received the answer he wanted.

However, Le Bai's answer let him see something different. "Can you listen to a story? A story about a fleeing coward."

Isn't the coward you're talking about yourself? .jpg

But Le Bai was not so tactless. He silently nodded.

"That coward was born into a great family and inherited his father's excellent Martial Soul. Although his Innate Soul Power did not reach level ten, it was above level nine. His talent could be called exceptional."

Dai Mubai began telling his story. "The coward also had an older brother, six years his senior. His brother's talent was no worse than his, perhaps even better. The coward's family had a cruel rule: every generation's clan head could only be inherited by the strongest one. So the coward's brother was always targeting him, and even... tried many times to have the coward killed."

"Though the coward was timid, he did not want to die. So he cultivated and trained very hard."

"But the age gap between the coward and his brother was too great. No matter what he did, he could never catch up. Although the coward had better talent, he no longer had enough time left to grow."

"In the end, the coward accepted his fate. He knew he no longer had any chance of defeating his brother. So the coward chose to flee. He fled his family, fled his country, and fled to a place where no one knew him, waiting for the day his brother would come looking for him."

At this point, Dai Mubai fell silent. Le Bai waited for a while, and when Dai Mubai showed no intention of continuing, he asked, "Are you done?"

"I'm done."

Dai Mubai nodded and asked Le Bai, "Do you think that coward was right? Should he have been braver? Instead of giving up everything and fleeing, should he have worked harder to fight against his brother?"

"I don't even know where the end of the universe is. How could I possibly know that?"

Le Bai casually tossed out a famous line. Under Dai Mubai's puzzled gaze, he slowly said, "I'm not that coward, and I don't know what his family situation was like, so it's hard for me to understand his thoughts. But just from what you told me, Boss Dai, I think that coward's brother has something wrong with him."

Because the previous chapter was revised, this chapter's content was also slightly revised. I sincerely apologize for the resulting confusion in the chapter comments. (Bows)

Revision date: November 30, 2020