Legacy of a distant era

Lin Yi hurriedly said, "Don't! I'm actually more interested in hearing how the Athlete Students got into a fight with the Art Students."

"It really is 'interesting,'" Tian Bufan said bluntly. "But let's leave that until we're back at the Dormitory. Tell me what I want to know first."

"Same old rule: whoever stands to benefit more from the information gets their way." Seeing that Lin Yi still refused to give up, Tian Bufan delivered the finishing blow.

Lin Yi opened his mouth, then said speechlessly, "Aren't you just blatantly picking on me?"

"That only shows you lack confidence in your own intelligence," Tian Bufan said mildly.

"Fuck," Lin Yi said earnestly and solemnly. "I'm smarter than you. All right, you talk!"

Tian Bufan: "..."

"All right, stop messing around." He frowned slightly. "Hurry up and tell me. We still have PE after this."

Lin Yi curled his lip.

"Fine, fine. You win."

He organized his thoughts a little, then told Tian Bufan about the two incidents: meeting Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang in the classroom last night, and encountering Xu Shunkang in the Cafeteria at noon.

After listening, Tian Bufan raised his eyebrows slightly, an amused smile appearing on his lips. "Don't think at night, but think as much as you like under the Sun... What an interesting summary."

"He even helped you drive off that Green Apron Chef."

His gaze shifted from the old Kerosene Lamp to Lin Yi, and his eyes slowly narrowed. "Looks like... you've caught someone's 'attention'~"

"'Attention'? What do you mean?" Lin Yi asked, puzzled.

Tian Bufan shook his head slightly. "Don't misunderstand. I mean it literally. Some trait of yours probably caught his attention."

"What traits could I possibly have?"

"I don't know either. Perhaps... great wisdom disguised as stupidity?"

"That's Liangzi."

"Idiot, you're no different." Tian Bufan sneered. "One of you two is great wisdom disguised as stupidity, and the other is great stupidity disguised as wisdom. Figure out which one you are."

Lin Yi: "..."

Tian Bufan patted his shoulder. "All right, I'm leaving. Remember to come back to the Dormitory tonight. We need to properly pool our information."

"I know, I know~" Lin Yi waved helplessly. "Oh, right. Did you see the Athlete Students and Art Students fighting yourself?"

"More or less. Let's talk back at the Dormitory." Tian Bufan turned to leave.

Lin Yi let out a long sigh and looked at the old Kerosene Lamp with a wry smile.

Come to think of it, although it was clearly just a Kerosene Lamp, those strange patterns resembling intertwined thorny vines seemed to proclaim that it was a relic surviving from some extremely distant era...

"Oil lamps have existed since the dawn of humanity. Ancient people often lit oil lamps at night to substitute for the power of the 'Sun.' Traces of 'lamps' appear in many myths and legends..."

Tian Bufan's voice drifted slowly from behind him. For some reason, he had suddenly stopped leaving.

"That isn't a Kerosene Lamp, but something similar. Look closely, and you'll find that the fuel inside the shade is an unidentified substance."

"You can imagine that, although this lamp seems to have been abandoned by the times, some of the tremendous power it contains may still remain... It's a product of some distant era, modified by the hands of people from an old age and passed down to the present."

Lin Yi was startled. "A legacy of a distant era! But aren't the Security Guards carrying lamps like this too?"

"They're still functioning... seemingly flickering sparks, yet enduring without going out," Tian Bufan said calmly. "You should know, in some vaguely described stretch of history recorded only in murals and runes, oil lamps dared to compete with the Sun's radiance..."

"Overestimating themselves, certainly, but there's no denying that their light did illuminate a stretch of darkness."

As he said this, a gleam seemed to stir in Tian Bufan's eyes. To him, this old Kerosene Lamp seemed full of stories.

"How fascinating... A corner of history, hung on a wall like this for those who came later to behold."

Lin Yi did not understand, but he was impressed. At this moment, Tian Bufan seemed to have a different soul, recounting the old Kerosene Lamp's history with intimate familiarity, as though... he could see the marks time had left upon it!

At that moment, Tian Bufan seemed much more ethereal in Lin Yi's eyes, and the impression he gave him suddenly grew profound.

He seemed to see the hem of Tian Bufan's clothes flutter, as though the wind that had swept past the old Kerosene Lamp had blown onto Tian Bufan.

His pupils contracted slightly. As that invisible wind passed over Tian Bufan, it seemed to blow before him as well.

An atmosphere, distant and weighty, seemed to emerge from the void and slowly approach him.

Weathered, distant, mysterious, ancient...

He seemed to see an ancient prophet raising a scepter atop a mountain in a foreign land, singing a great epic like an ancient deity. The dust of history blew past, and the individual figure was as insignificant as a grain in the vast sea.

He seemed to look through those ancient eyes into the clouds...

His view had only risen a little when an indescribable, intense, chaotically uneasy feeling came crashing down, surging toward him like a collapsing sea of clouds...

Just as that indescribable, terrifying power was about to descend, he shuddered and shook his head sharply.

An extraordinarily solid sensation came from beneath his feet. He realized he was still standing where he had been.

"What was that feeling just now...?! This is bad!" He broke into a cold sweat, then suddenly realized something. Hurriedly looking toward Tian Bufan, he called out a warning. "Oh no! Young Master Tian, hurry and... huh?"

Tian Bufan was looking at him calmly, a faint smile on his lips.

"Young Master Tian, you...?" Lin Yi was instantly stunned. "You... why are you so normal? Didn't you lose yourself?"

"Lose myself?" A teasing look crept onto Tian Bufan's lips. "Because this knowledge is still within my 'Cognition.'"

Tian Bufan glanced at him and said evenly, "Fortunately, you only followed my impressions to 'sense' it. If you'd gained those 'impressions' from the lamp itself, then I really would have a headache..."

He rubbed his brow and reminded him, "All right, sensing it is one thing, but don't stare at it for too long. Be careful the firelight doesn't distort your shadow."

Lin Yi froze where he stood. Why had Tian Bufan's words... suddenly become so profound?

Tian Bufan offered no further explanation, merely saying slowly, "Everyone has their strengths. Don't overthink it. If you have questions, wait until we're back at the Dormitory tonight."

"It's about time. I'll head off first. A pretty Athlete Student just invited me to study gymnastics techniques."

The abrupt change in tone caught Lin Yi completely off guard. "Please! You could have left that part out!"

Tian Bufan shrugged. "You should get moving too. If you don't have a cute girl to guide your practice, you can find Wei Liang to work out with you. Overall, PE must serve some purpose."

"I'll go look into it. Don't just sit around either."

"Oh, and your sock is quite distinctive." Before leaving, Tian Bufan gave Lin Yi's shoeless right foot a mild glance and offered it high praise.

Then, before Lin Yi could fly into a rage, he turned smoothly and waved.

"I'm off. Do your best."

With that, he slipped his hands into his pockets and slowly walked toward the stairs leading to the Gymnasium's second floor.

Watching Tian Bufan's carefree retreating figure, Lin Yi curled the toes of his right foot unhappily and could not resist complaining, "Seriously, we agreed to exchange information, but he just came over, pumped me for information, and left!"

"Not a single word about the Athlete Students fighting the Art Students!"

"Ugh!" He sighed. "I guess we'll have a proper talk tonight."

Once PE ended, he could eat dinner, idle away some time in the classroom, and reach the Dormitory building before the fog rolled in. Thinking it through, the time would actually pass quite quickly.

"Speaking of which, this PE class..." Lin Yi refocused and began looking around.

Most people had gradually started exercising, and he began considering getting moving himself.

After all, both Tian Bufan's words and the section about PE in the Rules indicated its importance.

He lowered his head to glance at his watch.

14:48.

Something stirred in his mind. Even setting aside the time spent reading the Rules and observing the Gymnasium, he had spent nearly fifteen minutes just chatting with Tian Bufan.

He suddenly felt pressed for time. Almost a third of the hour-long PE class had passed just like that.

He quickly took out the Gymnasium Rules and read them again. After reinforcing his memory of them, he decided to find an Athlete Student and borrow some equipment to practice with.

A cute Athlete Student? He had not considered it.

Practice with Wei Liang? Even if he wanted to, Wei Liang had already gone to Gymnastics Class.

He surveyed the people inside the Gymnasium and found that the students could broadly be divided into two types: Athlete Students wearing blue-and-white Sportswear, and Experience Students wearing their own different clothes (ordinary students).

Farther inside the Gymnasium's ground floor, there was also a Swimming Hall.

A huge pane of glass separated the Swimming Hall from the courts. Through it, he could see an enormous swimming pool, but very few people were swimming in it.

While he was observing the pool, he suddenly noticed that quite a few Athlete Students on the basketball court had stopped exercising and turned their gazes toward the Gymnasium entrance in unison...

Curious, Lin Yi followed their gazes.

Several people carrying Baseball Bats entered through the Gymnasium doors. Some were the Athlete Students who had previously stood guard outside.

But now, all these Athlete Students spread out to the sides like security personnel, seemingly clearing a path for someone.

Lin Yi narrowed his eyes, his curiosity growing.

"Seems Athlete Students have ranks too?"

The person about to appear was clearly highly respected.

"Could it be the Gym Teacher?"

But that idea was soon shattered.

The person who walked in was not the Gym Teacher. At least... she did not look like one.

She was a tall Sports Department Girl.

She wore a black one-piece athletic outfit with blue-and-white stripes and pure white sneakers. The tight-fitting Sportswear outlined her almost perfect figure in full.

She had tied a loose piece of Sportswear around her waist. Something unknown weighed down its pockets, pulling down two corners that swayed slowly with her unhurried steps.

She carried a thick club across her shoulders, her hands hanging over it on either side. Setting gender aside, her bearing was remarkably like that of some top-tier staff-wielding martial artist.

Lin Yi could not make out her features. He could only see the pink bubble she was blowing and the red-and-white baseball cap on her head, the same style worn by a Poké*on trainer.

Between the brim and the bubblegum, only a small part of her face remained visible from Lin Yi's angle.

And even that small part was obscured by the bangs spilling wildly from beneath her cap.

The girl's arrival instantly drew the attention of almost every Athlete Student in the Gymnasium.

She walked into the venue at an unhurried pace, drawing the gaze of everyone along her path.

Only when she reached the court area did Lin Yi notice several more Athlete Students behind her.

Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang... were among them.

"Huh? Didn't Xu Shunkang come back ages ago? Why is he only reaching the Gymnasium now?" This question surfaced in Lin Yi's mind when he saw Xu Shunkang.

But just then, he suddenly noticed the sweat covering Xu Shunkang's face. He seemed much more exhausted than he had at noon.

It was not just him. The others all looked exhausted too, as though they had been through a long battle of endurance.

He also suddenly realized that every Athlete Student entering from outside held a Baseball Bat or club, and every one of those bats was coated in a Plaster-like substance!

At that thought, he could not help looking toward the Sports Department Girl leading them.

His gaze immediately landed on the club resting across her shoulders.

"Just as I thought!" Lin Yi's heart jolted.

The middle of that club was wrapped in tape to increase friction and grip, while both ends beyond the tape were actually covered in a Plaster-like substance!

Assuming all that Plaster-like substance had been transformed from Tomato Sauce, then...

"How many Green Apron Chefs would she have to take out to get that much wrapped around it?"

As Lin Yi noticed Xu Shunkang, Xu Shunkang also spotted him and waved, beckoning him over.

Lin Yi had wanted to find an Athlete Student to borrow sports equipment from anyway. Delighted, he felt rather as though they were meeting each other halfway.

He happily walked toward Xu Shunkang.

However, once he got within a certain distance of Xu Shunkang, a powerful sense of pressure suddenly emanated from the group, making his steps falter instinctively.

His subconscious told him someone had fixed their eyes on him.

Clang!

The Steel-Reinforced Iron Bar struck the ground, the powerful tremor making the floor shudder.

The Sports Department Girl at the head of Xu Shunkang's group slowly lowered her gaze onto Lin Yi's shoulders.

Beneath the baseball cap, behind the bubblegum, under her bangs, golden flames slowly kindled in her pitch-black eyes as she saw Lin Yi.