Does She Deserve It?

At last, under Lü Chongyang's immense pressure, Zhou Bai temporarily won his approval.

Watching Old Lü's departing back, Zhou Bai finally let out a breath of relief.

"Two months from now... I have to succeed."

Not long after Lü Chongyang left, a paper crane flew up before him, giving off faint wisps of Primordial Spirit Power.

"Chongyang, how is Zhou Bai doing?"

"What? You agreed to let him skip classes for two months? What are you doing? Do you know that could ruin a genius?"

"You're being far too irresponsible..."

"Fine, I understand. You... honestly, your heart is just too soft. Back during the second round of exams, you were the only one who explained the Three Great Rules of Cultivation in advance."

"And now with this Zhou Bai, you're indulging him like this."

Lü Chongyang replied softly, "Teacher, didn't you say that cultivation is a matter of personal will, a choice of the self? Since Zhou Bai chose this path himself, there is no point in forcing him down another."

The paper crane spoke, "What if he fails?"

"Then that means he chose the wrong path. Every cultivator must pay the price for their choices."

Elsewhere, behind the police station window, Li Xiuzhu watched Zhou Bai and Lü Chongyang leave in different directions, a knowing smile appearing on his face.

Behind him, a colleague walked over. "We found him. The man who contacted Sakurako is called Wei Dong. According to border defense records, he took a carriage out of Donghua City this morning."

Li Xiuzhu asked, "Where was he going?"

"We don't know. According to the driver, he vanished halfway through the journey. They searched for ages and couldn't find him."

Li Xiuzhu frowned. "He escaped into the wilderness? Let me see the route that flying carriage took."

"What are you planning? There were signs at the dormitory scene that a second person helped set up the formation, and we found talisman paper made by Wei Dong.

"Besides, Wei Dong hadn't returned to his dorm since last night, and now he's fled into the wilderness. It's obvious he's fleeing out of fear of punishment."

Li Xiuzhu looked over the documents and said, "Escaping into the wilderness—don't you find that strange? With his cultivation at the first realm, it would be impossible for him to survive."

"Who knows? Maybe people from the Heaven-Overturning Sect were outside to receive him."

Li Xiuzhu said, "Then why was there no Heaven-Overturning Sect symbol in Sakurako's room? Since they left marks in Jianxing and Sun Chuan's rooms, why not leave one in Sakurako's?"

"Who knows? Maybe they forgot. Hey, don't tell me you still want to keep investigating?"

Li Xiuzhu said, "Arrange a flying carriage for me... no, just book me a ticket on the same flying carriage Wei Dong took."

"What are you planning?"

Li Xiuzhu smiled. "I think there's something fishy about this Wei Dong. I'll just go find him myself."

Zhou Bai, meanwhile, returned to his dorm feeling light as a feather. After an entire night had passed, dawn was already close.

"I'll sleep first, then get up tonight and continue studying on my own." Zhou Bai exhaled. "Two months from now, I have to take first place."

Elsa had no idea what had happened, but seeing how fired up Zhou Bai was, she started cheering too.

But once Zhou Bai lay down, he realized he was too excited to sleep at all.

And Christina, who had been curled up cultivating in his mind all this time, had somehow stretched herself out. She arched her back and yawned.

Whoosh!

Seeing Christina run out of his mind, Zhou Bai said, "You're finally awake. Do you know how dangerous last night was? You slept like a pig."

Christina shot Zhou Bai a glare. "Watch your mouth. What do you mean, slept like a pig? Is there a pig as pretty as me? Don't you know I was cultivating?"

At those words, her cat tail rose high, and Christina looked at Zhou Bai with a smug expression. Primordial Spirit Power spread from her body and surged toward him.

Zhou Bai likewise erupted with Primordial Spirit Power, blocking Christina's attack. Then he exclaimed, "Your Primordial Spirit Power..."

"Ha ha ha ha!" Christina burst into laughter. "Ninety-nine! This genius cultivated in seclusion for a few days and raised my Primordial Spirit Power to ninety-nine! Zhou Bai! From now on, don't even think about—"

Bang!

Zhou Bai wrapped his body in Primordial Spirit Power and directly used the combined strength of his flesh and spirit to force Christina's Primordial Spirit Power aside.

"Little silly cat, I've already cultivated the Divine Map to its fourth star point."

"What?"

The next moment, Christina was placed into Zhou Bai's sea of consciousness. She abruptly sprawled across Zhou Bai's Supreme Unity Disc, carefully examining the four illuminated star points over and over before turning away unwillingly.

"Tch, cheater."

She had originally thought that after coming out, she could awe Zhou Bai with her astonishing cultivation speed. Who would have thought that this kid's cheat really was that powerful?

Christina had no choice but to rein in her inflated ego again and slowly look for another opportunity.

So that night, when she saw Zhou Bai racking his brains over the basic textbooks, Christina's eyes immediately lit up.

The white cat gave a light leap onto Zhou Bai's desk, then held her tail high and paced back and forth in front of him.

Zhou Bai waved a hand and swept Christina off the desk. "Don't interfere with my studying."

Christina snorted. "I see you're not learning very smoothly. How about it? Want me to tutor you?"

Zhou Bai gave a disdainful smile and could not be bothered to respond to Christina.

Hearing Zhou Bai's scornful laugh, Christina's fur instantly stood on end.

With a meow, she jumped onto the desk. "I'm telling you, after my Primordial Spirit Value reached ninety-nine, I remembered a lot of things!! My cultivation theory now absolutely crushes yours!"

Seeing that Zhou Bai still looked unconvinced, Christina immediately jumped onto his book and slapped a passage with her paw. "Hmph, the notes you wrote here are wrong! The concept of the Five Phases of Spiritual Machine refers to the five states of Spiritual Machine: gestation, growth, fruition, decline, and extinction. It doesn't refer to the five categories of examples you understood it as!"

Zhou Bai's eyes shifted, and several doubts that had troubled him these past few days were immediately resolved.

Christina then continued explaining, making the profound simple and the complex easy to understand. In an instant, she taught Zhou Bai until everything was crystal clear.

"What about the rest?" Zhou Bai looked at Christina. "Why did you stop?"

Christina lay sprawled across the desk like a blanket, flicking her tail as she said, "Sigh, I'm too tired. I don't feel like talking."

Zhou Bai hurriedly stretched out his hand and rubbed Christina's neck and back. Watching the cat close her eyes in comfort, he said, "Tina, I'll give you a massage. Look at how exhausted you are. You've been curled up for nearly a week—how could you not be tired? How's this pressure?"

From Christina's explanation just now, Zhou Bai felt as though he had gained more than he would from reading for several days.

Sure enough, when it came to studying, having someone guide you was the most efficient way. Unfortunately, he had to conceal the existence of the cultivation assistance system and use it to cover up his rapid progress in cultivation, so naturally he could not let others know that his foundation was weak.

Hearing Zhou Bai's words, Christina sighed. "Sigh... a cute little girl, a little girl who lost her memories, was turned into a cat and fell into the hands of a foolish child. Did she do anything wrong?"

"Uh..." Zhou Bai said.

Christina continued, "Such a pitiful little girl still has to be forced to mop floors, wash toilets, walk dogs, wash underwear, and even cook after being turned into a cat. Isn't that too much?"

Zhou Bai said, "Well... those were all misunderstandings."