If You Find It, I'll Eat the Map

Qian Yuhan: "?!", Huh? When I went out for a stroll this morning, I had already asked the locals about all the famous schools in Bright Capital as a tourist, and even put together a school guide.

Although the Bright Capital Soul Engineer Academy is also a well-known first-class institution in the Sun Moon Empire.

Compared to the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, which is the number one in the empire and the second in the entire continent, the gap is still quite significant.

Why on earth would I visit this academy?!

No! Let me sort this out... morning, afternoon, princess, visit, Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, Bright Capital Soul Engineer Academy...

Could it be... that little princess didn't apply to the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, but to the Bright Capital Soul Engineer Academy, and these guys want me to tag along?

How does this princess's brain work? Not attending the top academy in her own country, but choosing another one that is at least a grade lower—this is simply a waste of her own talent!

With the classic case of Qian Renxue wasting her talent to steal the Heaven Dou Empire, only to fail and waste the most precious years of her youth, serving as a cautionary tale.

Therefore, when Qian Yuhan saw: a young girl coming up with a "genius" idea of her own, wasting her talent.

With these three magical elements converging on one person, the underlying code within him labeled "Cannot stand watching young girls waste their talent" was instantly triggered, and a powerful, terrifying aura radiated outward with him as the center.

"...", Qian Yuhan's face darkened, his expression so gloomy it seemed like it could drip water. He said:

"Tell me the truth, did your princess not apply to the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy? Did she apply to the Bright Capital Soul Engineer Academy, and you want me to go along?"

"This...", Xu Yan pretended not to hear clearly, looking left and right as he said: "The weather is quite nice today, even this sun, it really is a good sun!"

"Don't change the subject! Look into my eyes and tell the truth!"

Xu Yan's act of playing dumb made Qian Yuhan very dissatisfied, forcing him to release a bit of his "King's Aura"—the kind that says 'I am the best under the heavens'—to give this immature middle-aged man a small taste of a true powerhouse's shock.

The majesty that only exists in peerless experts at the pinnacle of their era appeared for only a brief moment under Qian Yuhan's control, yet it was enough to make a chill run down Xu Yan's back.

"!"

"...", Cough, cough, cough!, Xu Yan coughed a few times, wiping the bean-sized cold sweat from his forehead while muttering to himself:

This kid's aura is truly intense! When my old man used the family rules to tie me to the ancestral hall rafters to 'discipline' me, it wasn't even as scary as what he just did.

Come to think of it, why do I feel wet? Did a rain shower drift by and soak my clothes? Oh, it's not rain, it's sweat!

I knew it!

How could a mere eleven-year-old brat possibly summon wind and rain...

Just as he was thinking aimlessly, Xu Yan looked up and saw Qian Yuhan turn his back to him, pulling out the latest version of the simplified Bright Capital tourist map printed and sold by the Imperial Tourism Bureau from his storage Soul Tool, marking it up.

With a living, breathing map of Bright Capital like me standing right here, you don't ask, but instead turn to look at a simplified tourist map? Are you kidding me!

Feeling as though he had been ignored by a child, Xu Yan's face darkened. He suppressed his embarrassment, stepped forward, bent down, and said: "Oi, where are you going with that map? I can help you find it!"

"Princess Mansion!", Qian Yuhan didn't even give Xu Yan a glance, continuing to circle and mark the map with the tourist pen that came with the map he bought this morning.

"Come on, kid, how could private residences like the Prince's Mansion or the Princess Mansion appear on a tourist map that costs five copper soul coins! The Imperial Tourism Bureau isn't stupid; they wouldn't mark such secretive places on a tourist map!"

"If you can find the Princess Mansion in that shaded area, I will... tear that map in your hand to pieces and eat it!"

"Found it."

Qian Yuhan's indifferent "Found it" and Xu Yan's impassioned "Eat it" rang out almost simultaneously. Xu Yan's heart skipped a beat, and he thought to himself:

No way, he didn't actually find the Princess Mansion in that shaded area on the map that has almost no reference points, did he!

"Found it? Where? Let me see!", Xu Yan swallowed hard, focusing his gaze on the center of the map in Qian Yuhan's hand, the area surrounded by a dozen strange black lines.

Bad news: Qian Yuhan really found the Princess Mansion.

Good news: This area is quite general; besides the Princess Mansion, there are other residences, so I just need to use a little sophistry to avoid having to eat that map.

"Here."

Considering that Xu Yan might choke if he ate such a large piece of paper dry, Qian Yuhan, being a decent person, thoughtfully took a white coconut with its rough outer skin removed from his storage Soul Tool and handed it to him.

It just goes to show that Bright Capital is a super city; you can buy anything on the street, even coconuts early in the morning.

"Thanks, I'm not thirsty.", Xu Yan waved his hand, starting to ponder how to use sophistry to avoid the miserable fate of eating the map dry.

"Don't misunderstand, I'm not worried about you being thirsty.", Qian Yuhan poked a hole in the coconut, inserted a paper straw, and looked at Xu Yan with a mocking, half-smile, teasing: "I'm worried you'll choke while eating the map."

"!"

Seeing that there was fun to be had, the Rakshasa Phantom didn't even want to sleep anymore. It crawled out from Qian Yuhan's shadow and cackled loudly:

That's it, Old Qian! That's it. This is exactly what I wanted to see! We winners should humiliate the losers like this!!

"No, you drew such a large area with black lines, how can you be sure you found it?", Xu Yan refused to give up, suppressing his embarrassment to continue arguing: "If you used a black pen to circle the entire Bright Capital, would that count as finding it too?!"

"Right here.", Qian Yuhan took the map from Xu Yan, made a slow mark in the center where the dozen black lines intersected, and handed it back to Xu Yan.

The spot marked by the final circle was exactly the Princess Mansion of Xu Tianzhen.

Xu Yan: "...", 666, you aren't even pretending anymore, I see you were just waiting for me to ask that specific question! Weren't you!

"Do you need me to go to the street and buy some seasoning for you to dip it in?", Qian "innocent" Yuhan asked with a smile.

"No need!", Xu Yan took a deep breath, rolled the Bright Capital tourist map into a long scroll, and began to tear and chew it viciously, as if he were tasting a scallion dipped in sauce.