Dragging me into this without any pressure?
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I hate it when people apologize after the fact.
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Luo Qiusheng left all the errands to those two. They busied themselves from one task to the next, looking so full of energy that for a moment, he almost wondered if he was being too kind to them. It never occurred to him that they might be masochists.
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He'd heard back when he first enrolled that the Alchemy Department often worked with the Equipment Department, and that the people in the Equipment Department were all a bunch of lunatics.
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Perhaps practical experience was the only way to test things.
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And they had put that into practice completely, uniting knowledge and action.
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"Tsk, tsk~ These exquisite lines, this curve—ah~"
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"Oh-ho-ho~ Even if I died right now, I'd have no regrets."
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Watching them stroke their chins as they held the sketches he'd just finished and the half-completed Qinggui Zhusui, Luo Qiusheng mused:
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"A thing that stores the Spirit Word [Time Zero]?"
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Usually, anything that stores time involves the power of rules... I wonder if I'll be able to bring it with me next time I return to Douluo Continent.
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It came with a built-in Two Extremes Prohibition Domain. That was insanely awesome!
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After accepting the Alchemy Department members' thanks, Luo Qiusheng left the department—and ran into someone he knew. "Renata?"
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Zero turned at the sound of his voice. Her expression was still blank, but only Luo Qiusheng knew she was forcing herself to stay calm.
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"Renata Yevgenyevna Chicherin. That's your name, right?"
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"I don't know what you're talking about." Zero turned to leave, but Luo Qiusheng called after her.
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"You wouldn't want people to find out that your name is Renata, would you? Then come with me."
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Zero paused, though she'd been about to leave. After a moment, she followed Luo Qiusheng.
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She glanced around, checking several times to make sure no one was nearby. Only then did she speak, from a meter behind Luo Qiusheng. "Where did you learn that name?"
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Principal Angers had promised not to expose her without good reason. And now she was Zero. No one knew about her past; even her records had been arranged by Principal Angers. Unless...
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He was one of the people who had escaped from there too!
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"I know what you're looking for. I can help you, but you have to help me too. I need dragon bones. You know what the First Generation Dragon Tribe are capable of. I need that power."
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The Vacuum Queen laid her cards on the table. As long as she didn't reveal the trump card of the Dual-World Gate, so what if you knew she had a dragon's skeleton inside her?
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After all, Luo Qiusheng thought that in some ways, Zero, who had escaped from Black Swan Bay, was better than Kassel's own people.
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"You... know about Black Swan Bay?"
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"Yes. Not only do I know about it, I also know you were sold to the human experimentation facility at Black Swan Bay in Siberia and became one of Doctor Herzog's test subjects, suffering inhuman abuse for years."
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"And it was Bondarev's betrayal that led to its destruction, right?"
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Zero stayed silent as they walked. It had happened so many years ago that even she could barely remember some of the details. The man before her seemed to have lived through it all himself; he'd recounted everything, right down to the smallest detail.
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After exchanging a few more words, Luo Qiusheng said goodbye to Zero. He couldn't read anything useful from her expression.
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It was nearly evening by the time Luo Qiusheng returned to Dorm 304. He walked while poring over several books in his hands.
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When Qilan saw Luo Qiusheng return, he lit up. He pulled six or seven boxes of chocolates out from under his bunk.
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"Luo Qiusheng! Hey, stop reading for a second. A bunch of girls from our year came by today to give you chocolates."
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Luo Qiusheng continued reading his alchemy book with absorbed interest, shutting out everything around him.
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"Hey? Are you listening?" Qilan held the most beautifully wrapped box of chocolates between Luo Qiusheng and his book.
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"If you don't want them, can I have them?" Qilan blinked at him.
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Luo Qiusheng was enjoying his book. Being interrupted put him in a foul mood. "Couldn't you just refuse them?"
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"Huh? Refuse?" Qilan's hand holding the chocolates paused. "But..."
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"Enough with the 'but.' Take them to Lu Mingfei and tell him they were delivered to the wrong room. They were all meant for him."
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Luo Qiusheng set his alchemy book aside and began reading a book on medicinal properties.
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Cultivating and harvesting the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well required a solid foundation of knowledge. His knowledge of medicinal properties was still far too limited.
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Dugu Bo's poison was more or less cured, and there was also Dugu Yan, whose body had not been as badly corroded by her own poison. Her ongoing treatment couldn't be the same as Dugu Bo's. She was still young, after all, and there was no reason her future achievements had to stop at the Title Douluo level.
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With a mind for perfection, Luo Qiusheng didn't finish the book until shortly before dawn. It contained an extensive catalogue of plants and herbs, though many of them had complex compositions.
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"The Compendium of Materia Medica really is authoritative. But... why are all the characters in it ancient?"
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The ancient, obscure seal-script characters on the pages fell, stroke by stroke, into Luo Qiusheng's eyes. The writing carried a faint, bitter herbal scent. The pages were slightly creased, their edges yellowed and brittle—a glance was enough to tell that this ancient book had been passed down for countless years.
###
This herbal compendium wasn't an ordinary book from Kassel's library. It was a unique copy he'd found deep in Dugu Bo's herb hut the last time he traveled to Douluo Continent. It documented the poisonous plants and spirit herbs in the world, making it a perfect match for the methods used to cultivate the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
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Qilan had long since settled into a nearby sofa with a pile of chocolates, idly unwrapping them. Their rich, cloying sweetness filled the air, a stark contrast to the crisp medicinal fragrance between the pages.
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He chewed on a piece of dark chocolate and asked indistinctly, "What do you mean, ancient characters? Don't Kassel's books all use standard Dragon Tribe script and modern Chinese?"
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Luo Qiusheng ran his fingers over the uneven seal-script inscriptions and explained calmly, "Ancient Chinese characters. They share an origin with the Chinese characters used here, but their written forms are vastly different—like a gulf spanning several thousand years."
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A thought struck him, and he stopped turning the pages.
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An entry in the book caught his attention.
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"Medicinal plants associated with ice and fire?"
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When he'd treated Dugu Bo's poison, he'd already noticed that it had penetrated deep into his bones. After decades, it had damaged his foundations and held back his cultivation.
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"So that's why you're always clutching those strange books." Qilan stuffed the last piece of chocolate into his mouth and pointed at the mountain of gift boxes on the table. "By the way, are you really giving all of them to Lu Mingfei? A lot of the girls picked top-quality handmade chocolates, and some of the boxes even have tiny diamonds set into them. You really aren't keeping any?"
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Luo Qiusheng didn't even look up. He casually turned to the section on Green Phosphorus Purple Mist Grass. "Romantic attachments are all burdens in the Dragon Tribe world. Over in Douluo, it's survival of the fittest. Spending time on these trivialities is a waste. Lu Mingfei is soft-hearted, so they'll be a nice memento for him."
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Qilan pursed his lips and stood up, carrying a whole box of chocolates. "Fine, I'll take them to him now. That guy will probably go crazy with joy when he sees all these chocolates. Oh, right. I saw a notice on the bulletin board this afternoon. The academy has another big event coming up soon."
Before you continue