After the Whale Rubber went down, its side effects quickly began to show.
Fortunately, the three of them were still children, so the Whale Rubber's side effects did not stir up any unspeakable primal urges.
Instead, the feeling was like getting sneakily beaten to tears by some underhanded ninja while playing Naruto, only for your opponent to 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 some sweaty kid who tore you apart without mercy.
You calmly ended the game and prepared for another round, but the system matched you with a bot. Once the game began, the bot even seized the initiative, leaving you completely red-hot with rage. Your blood rushed to your head, your entire body grew unbearably hot, and you even felt dizzy.
Seeing the three of them red-faced, Shui Qinghan raised her delicate hand, and a wave of bone-chilling cold immediately swept toward them.
When the cold touched their scorching bodies, it was like ice meeting burning charcoal. It let out a soft hiss and turned into a great deal of mist, soaking the clothes of all three children.
The next moment, the water-soaked clothes on their bodies froze into a thin layer of ice beneath the cold air, only to be melted again in the blink of an eye by their blazing body temperature.
Time slowly passed, and the heat in their bodies receded like a 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 turbid air, a trace of delight flashing through his eyes.
Sure enough, high-quality Thousand-Year Whale Glue was far more effective than weathered Thousand-Year Whale Glue.
His physical strength had improved by more than just a little, and the age limit he could endure had increased by at least five or six hundred years.
"Eww~ So filthy!" 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 full of disgust.
"Junior Brother, don't look!" Shui Bing'er lowered her head and saw that her clothes were completely soaked, clinging to her body and turning transparent. Looking at the sticky, foul-smelling impurities on herself, her pretty little face instantly 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. Jiang Lan could understand that.
"I've already prepared bathwater 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 looking almost panicked.
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 extremely 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 looked at the grayish oily sheen on his skin, feeling very 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 transmigration was not merely turning young again, but also cleansing his marrow and remolding his tendons?
"Lan'er, hurry in and wash up." With a wave of her hand, Shui Qinghan took out a tub filled with hot water from her Storage Soul Tool.
"Oh~" Jiang Lan came back to his senses and quickly took off his shirt. Seeing Shui Qinghan standing beside the tub with no intention of leaving, he cautiously asked, "Teacher, could you perhaps give me some privacy?"
Shui Qinghan narrowed her ice-blue phoenix eyes and looked Jiang Lan up and down a few times. Then she snorted with a laugh and urged, "Hmph! What hasn't your teacher seen before? Stop talking nonsense and get in. I'll help you bathe."
Jiang Lan: "..."
What I forgot before, what I forgot after.
In short, he was furious, shaken, and freezing cold.
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 a faint voice.
Damn!
Jiang Lan's vision went dark.
Just imagining that scene was already enough to make him die of embarrassment.
He could only choose the lesser of two evils.
"Teacher, could you turn around first?" Jiang Lan asked awkwardly.
Honestly, he still could not get over that mental hurdle.
"Fine, fine, fine~" Shui Qinghan smiled with her eyes and brows, then turned around and faced away from Jiang Lan.
This child was truly too amusing.
Seeing Shui Qinghan turn around, Jiang Lan immediately breathed a sigh of relief. He hurriedly took off the rest of his clothes, then flipped himself into the bathwater.
"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 rolled up her sleeves, took out a bar of soap and a rough cloth, and began scrubbing Jiang Lan's back. (Note 1)
Her boneless, delicate hands gently rubbed his back. Even through the dense foam of the soap, he could feel how smooth and soft those hands were. It truly was a pleasure.
Jiang Lan closed his eyes. While enjoying Shui Qinghan's back-scrubbing service, he considered what opportunities he could still obtain in the future.
At this point in the timeline of Douluo One, aside from the Immortal Herbs at the Icefire Yin Yang Well and 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 certain qualifications.
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 for obtaining the Immortal Herbs, Dugu Bo was eccentric and temperamental. Taking the initiative to seek him out and trade for Immortal Herbs carried enormous risk, making it simply not worth it.
Unless Shui Qinghan could break through to the Title Rank.
Only then would they have the standing to speak with Dugu Bo as equals.
Likewise, as long as Shui Qinghan could break through to the Title Rank, Xue Ye would not begrudge them a Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud.
"Teacher, what level are you at now? Can Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue help you break through the bottleneck to the Title Rank?" Jiang Lan asked.
"Level eighty-five." Shui Qinghan's hands paused, and she sighed. "How could breaking through to the Title Rank be so easy? At most, Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue could increase my chance of breaking through to the Title Rank by ten percent. Besides, there isn't much Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue to begin with. It's already somewhat insufficient for the three of you little ones to take. Where would there be any left for a Soul Douluo like me?"
"If there were enough Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue, then perhaps within ten years, your teacher might be able to attempt breaking through the bottleneck to the Title Rank."
"Ten years..." Jiang Lan's heart sank halfway upon hearing that.
In ten years, it would all be too late.
Judging by 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 bottleneck to the Title Rank anytime soon.
Yet without the backing of someone at the Title Rank, obtaining the Immortal Herbs was impossible.
Wasn't the reason Tang San survived Dugu Bo because of his useless father?
Did he really think that curing Dugu Bo's poison would stop Dugu Bo from killing him?
What a joke!
Sigh~ This was truly a headache.
If only his teacher were a level eighty-nine Soul Douluo. Then he would only need to tell her about the concept of Soul Cores, and she could break through to the realm of a Titled Douluo by condensing a Soul Core.
(Note 1: Fun fact: soap already existed in ancient China. A primitive form of soap appeared during the Song Dynasty and was called Soap Ball. Soap-making reached its peak in the late Ming Dynasty, when it was even sold among the common people. Soaps scented with all kinds of flowers were available. Wealthy households would also add honey, Chinese herbal medicine, pearl powder, and similar ingredients for skincare.)
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