What I Forgot Before, What I Forgot After, I'm So Furious I'm Shaking!

After swallowing the Whale Rubber, the side effects quickly surfaced.

Fortunately, the three of them were still children, so the Whale Rubber's side effects did not stir up any unspeakable primal urges.

Instead, it felt like getting utterly cheesed by some underhanded ninja while playing Naruto, then having the opponent keep patting your head and stalling you for ten seconds.

After the match ended, you decisively picked your best ninja, ready to play seriously, only to get matched against a sweaty kid who tore you apart without mercy.

You calmly ended the game and prepared for another round, only for the system to match you against a bot. After entering the game, the bot even got the first move. In the end, you completely lost it, your blood rushing to your head as your whole body burned with heat, leaving you dizzy and lightheaded.

Seeing the three of them flushed red, Shui Qinghan raised her delicate hand, and a wave of frigid air immediately swept toward them.

When the cold air touched their scorching bodies, it was like ice meeting burning charcoal. With a soft hiss, it turned into a great deal of mist that drifted away, soaking the clothes of all three.

The next moment, a thin layer of ice formed over their water-soaked clothing under the cold air's gusts, only to be melted in the blink of an eye by the blazing heat of their bodies.

Time slowly passed, and the heat within them ebbed away like the tide.

The expressions of Jiang Lan and the other two gradually returned to normal.

Before long, Jiang Lan slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of stale air, a hint of delight flashing through his gaze.

Sure enough, high-quality Thousand-Year Whale Glue worked far better than weathered Thousand-Year Whale Glue.

His physical strength had improved by more than just a little. The age limit he could withstand had increased by at least five or six hundred years.

"Ew~ So dirty!" Shui Yue'er opened her eyes and looked at the grayish impurities on her skin, which faintly gave off a fishy stench. Her face was filled with disgust.

"Junior Brother, don't look!" Shui Bing'er lowered her head at her completely soaked clothes, which had become clinging and transparent, as well as the sticky, foul-smelling impurities on her body. Her pretty little face immediately flushed crimson as she cried out in embarrassment.

"Okay~" Jiang Lan did not turn around. Instead, he proactively closed his eyes.

Girls cared more about their image, after all. They did not want others to see them looking filthy, and Jiang Lan could understand that.

"The bathwater has already been prepared for you." Shui Qingrou said with a soft laugh.

"Yue'er, let's go!" Shui Bing'er grabbed Shui Yue'er and hurried toward the bathroom. Their retreating figures even looked somewhat disheveled.

After Shui Bing'er and Shui Yue'er left, Jiang Lan opened his eyes as well. The sticky feeling all over his body made him deeply uncomfortable.

"Huh? Why is it the same as when I took that weathered Thousand-Year Whale Glue before? I only expelled a layer of oily grime, with barely any impurities at all." Jiang Lan stared at the grayish oily sheen on his skin, feeling quite puzzled.

After all, modern people ate Pinhaofan, prepackaged meals, zombie meat, and high-oil, high-sugar, high-calorie foods like fried chicken and cola every day. There should have been plenty of impurities in his body.

Could it be that the benefit of transmigrating was not just becoming young again, but also cleansing his tendons and marrow?

"Lan'er, hurry up and come wash yourself." With a wave of her hand, Shui Qinghan took a bath barrel filled with hot water out of her storage Soul Tool.

"Okay~" Jiang Lan snapped back to his senses and quickly removed his shirt. Looking at Shui Qinghan standing beside the bath barrel, apparently with no intention of leaving, he tentatively asked, "Teacher, could you... step aside for a moment?"

Shui Qinghan narrowed her ice-blue phoenix eyes and looked Jiang Lan up and down a few times. Then she let out a derisive snort and urged, "Hmph! What haven't I seen before? Stop talking nonsense and get in. Teacher will help you bathe."

Jiang Lan: "..."

What I forgot before, what I forgot after.

Anyway, he was so furious he was shaking.

Did boys not deserve privacy?

"If you don't hurry up, then once Bing'er and Yue'er finish bathing, there'll be even more people watching you bathe." Shui Qinghan said in an eerie tone.

Damn it!

Jiang Lan's vision went black.

Just imagining that scene was already socially fatal.

He could only choose the lesser of two evils.

"Teacher, could you turn around first?" Jiang Lan asked, looking slightly embarrassed.

To be honest, he still could not get past that mental hurdle.

"Fine, fine, fine~" Shui Qinghan smiled with her eyes crinkling and turned around, presenting her back to Jiang Lan.

This child was far too amusing.

Seeing Shui Qinghan turn around, Jiang Lan immediately breathed a sigh of relief. He hurriedly stripped off his clothes and flipped into the bath barrel.

"Teacher, you can turn around now." Jiang Lan spoke while keeping his entire body submerged in the hot water.

Hearing this, Shui Qinghan immediately turned back around. She then rolled up her sleeves, took out a bar of soap and a piece of coarse cloth, and began scrubbing Jiang Lan's back. (Note 1)

Her bonelessly soft hands gently rubbed his back. Even through the rich lather of the soap, he could feel how smooth and tender those hands were. It truly was a pleasure.

Jiang Lan closed his eyes, enjoying Shui Qinghan's back-scrubbing service while considering what other opportunities he could obtain in the future.

At this point in the timeline of Douluo 1, aside from the Immortal Herbs at the Icefire Yin Yang Well and the Whale Rubber, only the Sea God's Divine Trials remained.

However, whether it was the Immortal Herbs at the Icefire Yin Yang Well or the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud containing the Sea God's Inheritance, both required a certain threshold.

The former was guarded by Dugu Bo, a Titled Douluo, while the latter was a national treasure of the Heaven Dou Empire. Neither was something he could covet right now.

Although Jiang Lan knew the code to exchange for Immortal Herbs, Dugu Bo had an eccentric temperament and mercurial moods. Taking the initiative to seek him out and exchange for Immortal Herbs would entail enormous risk. It simply was not worth it.

Unless Shui Qinghan could break through to Titled Douluo.

Only then would they have the standing to speak with Dugu Bo as equals.

Likewise, as long as Shui Qinghan could break through to Titled Douluo, Xue Ye would not begrudge them a Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud.

"Teacher, what level are you at now? Can the Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue help you break through the Titled Douluo bottleneck?" Jiang Lan asked.

"Level eighty-five." Shui Qinghan paused in her movements and sighed. "How could breaking through to Titled Douluo be so easy? The Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue can at most increase my chances of breaking through by ten percent. Besides, there isn't much Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue. It is already barely enough for you three little ones to take. Where would there be any left over for a Soul Douluo like me?"

"If there were an unlimited supply of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue, Teacher might be able to attempt the Titled Douluo bottleneck within ten years."

"Ten years..." Jiang Lan's heart sank halfway upon hearing that.

In ten years, it would be far too late.

Judging from Shui Bing'er's age, Tang San should have been the same age as him.

He could not afford to wait ten years.

But here came the problem.

Without Immortal Herbs, Shui Qinghan could not challenge the Titled Douluo bottleneck anytime soon.

Yet without the backing of a Titled Douluo, obtaining the Immortal Herbs was impossible.

Wasn't the reason Tang San could survive after encountering Dugu Bo because of his useless father?

Did they really think Dugu Bo would not kill someone just because they could cure his poison?

What a joke!

Sigh~ This is truly a headache.

If only Teacher were an eighty-ninth-level Soul Douluo. Then he would only need to tell her the concept of the Soul Core, and she could break through to the realm of Titled Douluo by condensing one.

(Note 1: Fun fact: soap already existed in ancient China. During the Song Dynasty, there was already a primitive form of soap called Soap Ball. Soap-making techniques reached their peak in the late Ming Dynasty, and soap was even sold among the common people. There were soaps scented with all kinds of flowers. Wealthy households also added ingredients such as honey, Chinese herbs, and pearl powder for skincare.)