"Hello, Student Dugu! Were you waiting for me? Was there something I didn't explain clearly in class?"
The sunshine had brightened again.
Chu Men pulled out his lesson plan, looking ready to give Student Dugu some extra tutoring.
"Teacher Chu, your lecture was excellent! I was just curious about that Golden Snake Dancing Wildly. Such a powerful Soul Tool—did you make it yourself?"
Chu Men was slightly surprised.
It wasn't that he hadn't considered that the Tesla Coil might attract other people's attention and covetousness.
But he never expected Dugu Yan to be the first to ask—and to ask so openly!
"The sun's pretty strong. Let's talk as we walk!"
"Okay!"
Along the mottled patches of light on the stone path, Chu Men deliberately slowed his pace and walked alongside Dugu Yan.
A few strands of the girl's short purple hair fluttered in the breeze, and her fair neck gleamed in the sunlight.
Chu Men gathered his thoughts before speaking. "By rights, with your talent... Forgive me for asking, but what level of Innate Soul Power do you have?"
"Nine!"
Dugu Yan answered without a moment's hesitation.
Chu Men nodded. "That's a very high level of talent! A Soul Master as gifted as you should be devoting all her energy to cultivation. When did you start taking an interest in these unorthodox pursuits?"
As he spoke, Chu Men couldn't help laughing.
"Cultivation and all that is such a pain!"
Dugu Yan's sudden complaint caught Chu Men off guard.
"I thought you'd be more fun, Teacher Chu. I didn't expect you to open your mouth and tell me to go cultivate!"
Chu Men looked at Dugu Yan in surprise.
He remembered that in the original story, the girl had been quite aloof—the tactical core of the Imperial Fighting Team. So why was she acting like a spoiled little girl now?
He quickly pieced together the timeline and logic, and suddenly understood:
The girl was still young, and with Poison Douluo backing her up, she was basically an upgraded Ning Rongrong.
Watching Dugu Yan kick the cobblestones along the path, Chu Men smiled warmly.
"All right, then. Let's not talk about cultivation. We can chat about something else.
"For example, what are your hobbies? What do you do for fun besides cultivating?"
Dugu Yan sent a cobblestone flying with a kick, excitement gleaming in her eyes.
A pale green phosphorescence suddenly flashed at the tip of her left index finger.
A little jade-green snake, no thicker than her pinky, slid out of her sleeve and coiled around her snowy-white wrist, flicking its tongue.
"Does playing with snakes count?"
She gently stroked its head with her right hand. The little snake nuzzled her hand obediently, but its slit pupils remained fixed on Chu Men, as if it might pounce at any moment.
This left not only Chu Men dumbfounded, but the viewers in the livestream were also stunned.
[Holy crap, she really does play with snakes!]
[Could that be the Nine-Section Jade?!]
[Streamer, be careful! You can still surrender!]
Chu Men reflexively took half a step back, and the Inversion Pen appeared in his palm.
"Ahem... I suppose that counts! But your snake... isn't poisonous, is it?"
"Not poisonous!" Dugu Yan said with a bright smile. "Not one person bitten by this little fellow has said it was poisonous!"
She said it as casually as could be, but Chu Men felt a chill run down his back.
What kind of Little Demoness was she? She was a full-blown Demon King!
Chu Men discreetly poked himself with the Inversion Pen first. Only then did he feel reassured.
He usually took poison as a tonic. Unless this little fellow could kill him on the spot, it would be—
A powerful supplement!
Of course, he couldn't let any of that show on his face!
Chu Men straightened his collar and gave Dugu Yan another look.
Perhaps out of professional habit, seeing Dugu Yan empty-handed, his mind automatically matched her with a suitable weapon—
The Red Refined Soft Sword!
Then Chu Men shook his head. Dugu Yan had Dugu Bo backing her up. It wasn't his place to meddle in something like that.
"What are you looking at? Do you know me?"
"Sure. You're Dugu Bo's granddaughter. Is there anyone in Heaven Dou City's Soul Master circles who doesn't know that?" Chu Men replied offhandedly.
"'Dugu Bo's granddaughter'? You called my grandfather by his full name. You're pretty bold, Teacher Chu."
Chu Men spread his hands. "Miss Dugu, you aren't going to tattle, are you?"
"Can't say for sure, Tee-acher Chu~"
"All right, what do you want? Name your terms, Little De-mon-ess~"
"Hmph! At least you know what's good for you! First, come clean. How old are you? What level are you? What's your Martial Soul? How many people are in your family? Do you have a girlfriend?"
Dugu Yan planted her hands on her hips, looking like a little housekeeper checking up on her man.
The livestream exploded.
[Holy crap! This is faster than a rocket! They just met and she's already asking for his family history and whether he has a girlfriend!]
[Old Poison, get over here! Your granddaughter's about to steal somebody else's man!]
[Sister Erlong is on her way with a knife!]
Is this an interrogation or what?
Chu Men couldn't quite read Dugu Yan. What was with this crazy girl, jumping from one thing to the next?
He raised an eyebrow and pulled out a little notebook.
"Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing. How old are you? What's your height, weight, and measurements? Are you engaged?
"Who else is in your family? Tell me everything, honestly!"
"You!" Dugu Yan puffed out her cheeks in anger. "Who asked you that?"
"You asked me first." Chu Men closed his notebook and answered with a perfectly straight face.
"Sixteen, a Soul Ancestor. My Martial Soul is just an ordinary pen. I have a younger sister, and I teach at Blue Tyrant Academy."
Chu Men made full use of his talent for making things up on the spot. "I live in Heaven Dou City. I own a house but don't have a car. My salary is confidential. I'm single, and my admirers could line up from Heaven Dou City all the way to the Star Dou Great Forest!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a string of "Boo! Boo! Boo!" comments floated across the livestream!
[I thought Dugu Yan was already invincible, but it turns out there's always someone stronger!]
[With the streamer's shamelessness, he really is cut out for a harem!]
[At this rate, are these two going to get together in record time?]
Chu Men kept pouring out words like beans from a bamboo tube, speaking without pause until Dugu Yan was completely dumbfounded.
"...I just coast through life, with no real ambitions. That's about it."
Chu Men was certainly interested in Dugu Yan, but this was clearly no time to get tangled up in a romance.
Besides, this girl's situation was complicated. After what had happened to Cheng, he couldn't afford to let his guard down.
While the girl was still dazed, he had to make his escape!
"Wait, where are you going?"
Seeing Chu Men head out of the academy gates as if he were trying to run away, Dugu Yan hurriedly called after him.
"Where else? Home! You should head back soon too. His Excellency Poison Douluo must be waiting for you."
With that, Chu Men quickened his pace.
But Dugu Yan came straight after him!
With no choice, Chu Men slowed down as well. He greeted the students he knew along the way, then asked Dugu Yan helplessly:
"Student Dugu, is there something else you need?"
"You said you opened a little shop. I want to buy something. What, you won't let me?"
Chu Men wore the impassive expression of a cold-blooded judge. "The shop is closed to customers today! Please make an appointment if you need anything."
Dugu Yan snorted and folded her arms. "What if I want to buy your Soul Tool shop?"
Chu Men fell silent.
Why was Dugu Yan's whole storyline so strange?
It was their first time meeting today. No matter how good his lecture had been, that hardly justified all this.
And how was someone from the Jade Phosphor Snake family even more overbearing than the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect?
Chu Men set aside his doubts for the moment and asked, "Aren't you a student at Heaven Dou Royal Academy? Shouldn't you be going back to class?"
"It's because of you! You held an open lecture, so the academy canceled today's classes and treated it as an academic exchange with a sister academy."
Dugu Yan complained, but she couldn't hide how happy she was.
Chu Men was a little bewildered. "So you decided to have your academic exchange with me?"
"Then... would you like to come over to my house?"
Before you continue