How About You Bow to Zhou You Twice? (Thanks to Moonlight Lemon Eater for the alliance leader support)

While Red King held a secret call with the professor, Mind Master and Mighty Warrior tactfully moved away and began a discussion of their own.

"Do you think we should kowtow to Zhou You a couple of times and ask him to forgive us?" Mind Master suggested.

Ever since learning Chu Xiaoyao's identity, he had felt that the two of them must have been drunk out of their minds to dare pick a fight with Zhou You.

Those two had known each other since middle school. Even if they weren't quite childhood sweethearts, they were close enough. There was no question how close they were, and Calamity certainly wouldn't let anyone bully Zhou You.

It wasn't as though they absolutely had to stay in the Superpower Organization. Their lives mattered more.

Even if Humanity's Supreme Treasure was found, it wouldn't end up in their hands anyway.

If worse came to worst, they could return to their old trade and go tomb raiding again.

"Thinking about it carefully, we haven't actually done anything too bad to Zhou You. He even hit me with a brick!" Mind Master touched the back of his head and grimaced. That brick had hit hard. It still hurt, and his head was wrapped in bandages that needed regular dressing changes.

Mighty Warrior had originally agreed to betray the organization and kowtow to Zhou You in apology, but hearing that made him change his mind.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Huh? Why?" Mind Master was puzzled. Mighty Warrior had clearly seemed interested a moment ago. Had he imagined it?

"Think about it. Zhou You is so close to Calamity, yet he's also got some murky relationship with that Su Tingxue. That tells you he's not a decent person."

"He might be petty and vindictive. What if kowtowing and apologizing doesn't settle things? We'd be walking straight into his trap, with nowhere to run."

Mind Master nodded. Mighty Warrior's reasoning made sense. Calamity had frightened him so badly that he had started grasping at straws.

"I was too hasty."

The previous period had been math. When break began, the moment the homeroom teacher left the classroom, the students all slumped over their desks, sleepy enough to doze off. Chu Xiaoyao wanted to sleep too, but Zhou You insisted on making her review the lesson.

"Aah, I don't want to!" Chu Xiaoyao felt that Zhou You was an absolute demon. She tried to escape her deskmate's clutches, but it was no use.

"Did you understand the last big math problem?"

Chu Xiaoyao honestly shook her head, and Zhou You explained it.

Usually, Zhao Zhuo, who sat in front of them, would eavesdrop on their conversations as though he were reading a novel. This time, after listening to the beginning, he decisively put his head down on his desk to recover his energy.

Nuomi floated above Chu Xiaoyao's head, watching with her head tilted.

She had sat in on several days of lessons while serving as an air conditioner, but these strange numbers were far beyond her understanding. She couldn't make any sense of what the problem was saying.

"Isn't this a math problem? Why are there so many English letters?"

Chu Xiaoyao covered one eye in agony and stared at the big math problem, which looked like some incomprehensible heavenly script. An enigmatic smile curled her lips.

"Interesting. Even these eyes of mine can't see through you?"

She abruptly turned toward the window, her smile deepening.

"Wouldn't you agree?"

"All right, I'll be careful and won't let her notice..." Red King stopped halfway through his sentence, as abruptly as if someone had struck a pressure point.

Unable to hear Red King's voice, the professor grew puzzled and glanced at the screen.

What happened? The call hasn't ended.

Red King's strained voice came from the other end.

"I... think I've been spotted." "Enough with the seeing-through act." Zhou You turned Chu Xiaoyao's head back toward him.

At the same time, he handed her his worked solution.

"Read it carefully and learn it properly. Ask me if there's anything you don't understand."

"Oh." Having failed to distract Zhou You, Chu Xiaoyao had no choice but to keep studying math.

Math is so hard. Superpowers are much easier.

When the bell rang for the last class of the afternoon, the students, cooped up all afternoon, surged outside. Some headed straight for the cafeteria, while others went to the school gate to buy snacks through the fence.

Amid the hectic life of senior year, the brief hour between the last afternoon class and evening self-study was a rare chance to relax. For a little while, they could stop grinding through practice problems, memorizing texts or English vocabulary, and figuring out how to raise their scores.

The two humans and one ghost relaxed by going to the cafeteria together.

Chu Xiaoyao ordered a bowl of zhajiang noodles, Zhou You ordered a plate of tomato and egg rice, and Nuomi could only watch.

Zhou You wanted Nuomi to be able to eat, so he had bought her a bowl of shaved ice the previous evening too. Unfortunately, despite trying every method they could think of, they couldn't get Nuomi to eat. They could only watch the shaved ice melt.

Nuomi put her mind to work and came up with an idea. "I heard that people burn offerings for the dead. Sect Master, why don't you burn the food for me?"

"...Wouldn't that just char it? Could you still eat it?"

"That's true." Nuomi stopped dwelling on it. She had always been cheerful and optimistic. "Forget it. If I can't eat, I can't eat. Watching is pretty nice too."

Zhou You said nothing more. He really wanted Nuomi to be able to eat something.

"What's charred? Your rice?" Chu Xiaoyao tasted a bite of Zhou You's rice. "It's not burnt."

"...It's nothing. Just eat your food."

Zhou You felt exhausted. Chu Xiaoyao couldn't see Nuomi, so he had to relay Nuomi's words to her. If he didn't, misunderstandings like this could easily happen. When would Chu Xiaoyao be able to see Nuomi?

Maybe I should ask Su Tingxue to think of something?

On the way back to the classroom, Zhou You rolled up his sleeves and trouser legs to let the mosquitoes keep biting him.

Perhaps because his cultivation realm was too high, any mosquito bite would heal by the next day without him even applying Floral Water. That meant he needed to get bitten every day.

The thought of standing motionless downstairs, letting mosquitoes bite him while his classmates mistook it for striking a pose, made Zhou You's teeth ache.

School had only started a few days ago, and his image had already gone completely off the rails.

"Why don't you go over to Great Stone Lake? There are fewer people there," Chu Xiaoyao suggested.

She inwardly shook her head. Zhou You still couldn't match her state of mind. He needed more practice.

"Good idea."

The two humans and one ghost changed course midway and headed straight for Great Stone Lake.

Once they reached Great Stone Lake, his cultivation efficiency did indeed multiply. Mosquitoes swarmed in countless numbers.

Zhou You sensed the gradual changes taking place and felt himself growing stronger, caught between pain and pleasure.

The mosquitoes weren't having an easy time either, though. His skin tempering was gradually taking effect, strengthening the spots they had bitten. The mosquitoes could no longer pierce those areas and had to find somewhere new to bite.

He noticed that the mosquitoes still weren't biting Chu Xiaoyao. Instead, they all swarmed toward him. "Damn it, you sprayed Floral Water again!"

"Hehe, this isn't Floral Water." Chu Xiaoyao planted her hands on her hips, immensely proud of her identity. "I'm the sole surviving bloodline of the Elder Nine Li. The mosquitoes sensed the power of my bloodline and didn't dare bite."

"You're amazing, Grand Supreme Elder!" Nuomi gazed at Chu Xiaoyao in admiration, increasingly convinced that she had chosen the right powerful backer. With the Grand Supreme Elder around, wouldn't they be able to swagger wherever they pleased once they announced the Carefree Sect's name?

Zhou You rolled his eyes, refusing to believe that nonsense. She had fooled him for three whole years in middle school. There was no way he would keep falling for it now.

Looking at Nuomi, he saw his middle-school self: utterly naive, left wide-eyed by every tall tale Chu Xiaoyao told.

"Then use your superpower to fish out Nuomi's Little Treasury."

"I already told you, my superpower has a limited number of uses. I can't waste them on something this trivial."