The Wrong Answer

Leaning against the wall outside the classroom, Xu Le breathed a small sigh of relief.

Whatever else happened, at least he had a teacher looking after him now. He was more or less safe.

The journey from the dormitory to the classroom had been fraught with danger, especially when he encountered Witch Cicada. One wrong step, and he might never have made it here.

Now that he had relaxed, Xu Le suddenly felt tired.

Fortunately, Zhang Zhe left him alone while he sat there.

Zhang Zhe began assigning students to build simple defenses, mainly wooden fences and ground spikes, along with scattering some red-and-white powder.

What interested Xu Le most was the red-and-white powder.

According to the original owner's memories, the school scattered this powder every time, but he had never known what its primary purpose was.

Although the original owner had been wholly devoted to studying the supernatural,

most of his energy had gone into figuring out how to become a Calamity Sorcerer.

He simply had no energy left for anything else, so he knew nothing about these powders.

[The Red Moon Calamity will arrive in 3 hours and 52 minutes.]

He glanced at the sky. There was still plenty of time, and he could use this lull to do something else, such as asking questions.

As everyone knew, never being ashamed to ask questions was one of Xu Le's fine traditions.

So he asked what the original owner would not have asked:

"Mr. Zhang Zhe, what are these powders?"

Hearing Xu Le's question, Zhang Zhe answered with a smile:

"You mean this red-and-white powder? These are oddity ashes. Processed ones, of course, with no Guyinduo pollution left. The red ones come from the Red Moon lineage, and the white ones from the Guyinduo lineage. After being mixed with some warlock power and scattered on the ground, these ashes can reveal oddities in ghost form. They're mainly a precaution against any ghost-type oddities that might appear."

Xu Le's eyes lit up when he heard that it could reveal ghost-type oddities.

In truth, the powder's effect was completely useless to him.

But used properly, it had the added benefit of concealing his ability.

He could reveal his ability to see ghost forms.

But he had done that to protect himself in front of the Night Watchers, to survive.

Now that he had returned to Lighthouse, he could hardly tell everyone he met, "My ability lets me see ghosts..."

That would be stupid, and it could easily invite unnecessary trouble or attract people with ulterior motives.

With oddity ashes as a cover, his ability would no longer stand out so much.

"Oh, I see."

Xu Le nodded, but their brief exchange seemed to have opened the floodgates for Zhang Zhe.

He gestured to Xu Le with his chin, then pointed at Wang Man, who was busily running around and kept hovering near Xu Le.

"That girl is from the Zion Arts Troupe, isn't she? Girls like her are usually very proud. You two must have been through quite a lot?"

Xu Le paused. Everything that had happened between him and Wang Man had taken perhaps twenty minutes.

Yet in those twenty minutes, they had faced death twice.

When events became significant enough, they made time seem much longer.

"A lot did happen. An oddity chased us, and I killed it."

Xu Le's account was simple and brief.

But after he said that, some students who overheard their conversation stopped working and turned to look at Xu Le and Zhang Zhe.

They kept casting questioning looks at Zhang Zhe.

They seemed to want their teacher to confirm whether the news was true.

Zhang Zhe naturally knew what they were thinking, so he nodded to them in confirmation.

He sensed a competence and composure in Xu Le that belied his age.

The blood on Xu Le's neck, head, and clothes, and that powerful Guyinduo aura, could not possibly have been faked.

Zhang Zhe was certain that Xu Le really had killed an oddity.

He also had a feeling.

This probably was not Xu Le's first time killing an oddity.

"How many times now?"

Xu Le felt there was something ambiguous about Zhang Zhe's question. What did he mean, how many times? He made it sound as though Xu Le was always up to something bad.

And Zhang Zhe's question left the surrounding students even more astonished.

If they had known Xu Le better, and the situation had not been so dangerous, the boys here might have thrown their arms around his shoulders and grabbed some beer for a good round of bragging.

Seeing Xu Le's conflicted expression, Zhang Zhe smiled again.

"This isn't your first time, is it? You're not nervous at all. It doesn't look like it. I was scared to death my first time."

Well, now Zhang Zhe's words sounded even more ambiguous.

Still, there was a hint of explanation on Xu Le's behalf in those words.

Only then did the others look at Xu Le. Sure enough, his expression was calm, without the slightest sign of nervousness.

The excitement of gawking at a tough guy began spreading through the crowd.

In fact, it was precisely this composure that had drastically changed Wang Man's opinion of Xu Le, even made her see him in a new light, despite having grown up playing with him.

In the Dark Age, there were plenty of powerful people.

But powerful people who remained calm were far rarer.

The existence of heart energy left many powerful people unable to face fear, anger, or desire head-on.

Someone who could maintain a peaceful state of mind even in the face of oddities possessed a unique charm in this era.

"My second time."

Xu Le answered honestly.

As for his lack of nerves, he knew exactly what was going on.

It was not that he truly felt no nervousness. Rather, the Guyinduo soul tree had absorbed all his nervousness and fear.

And after absorbing those emotions, the soul tree fed a strange state back to him.

A clear mind, a calm disposition.

That was why he could perform so well.

To say he himself was some incredible badass would really be going too far...

"You managed this on your second time? You're pretty impressive!"

Zhang Zhe praised him again, and Xu Le turned his head away, a little embarrassed.

"I'm all right, I guess."

Beside him, Wang Man puffed out her chest as though she were the one being praised. Yes, it rose quite high.

After that, Xu Le and Zhang Zhe did not speak again.

Because Xu Le was covered in so much oddity blood and had already been through a fight,

Zhang Zhe did not have Xu Le help build the defenses.

Xu Le simply leaned quietly against the wall, rested properly for a while, then began attending to his own business.

A few hours later.

Having finished her assigned work, Wang Man walked outside the classroom and looked curiously at Xu Le, who was squatting on the ground.

"Xu Le, what are you doing?"

"Digging for earthworms."

"Earthworms? Why are you digging for earthworms?"

"To summon a toad, of course."

Wang Man: ???

Seeing Xu Le's serious expression, Wang Man became even more confused. Summon a toad?

"The Black Tide is almost here, Xu Le."

"I know." Without lifting his head, Xu Le kept digging for earthworms.

She watched Xu Le for a while. No matter how she looked at it, he seemed unwilling to talk to her, and she began to feel upset.

"Xu Le, are you just going to keep digging for earthworms until tonight?"

"Is there a problem with that?"

Xu Le's question left Wang Man speechless.

"If you don't want to talk to me, just say so. Why beat around the bush?"

Watching his childhood friend storm off, Xu Le looked utterly bewildered.

I'm talking to you perfectly seriously, and you think I'm lying?

Still, Wang Man was right about his not wanting to talk to her. He really did not particularly want to.

Time ticked by, second after second.

Xu Le dug for a long time before gathering ten earthworms, then dug up a few extra just in case.

Late that night, Xu Le raised his head to the sky.

Unlike the sky the previous night, tonight's sky was no longer dark.

Instead, it was a sea of red.

Beside him, Zhang Zhe also gazed at the red moon and began his prayer:

"The red moon shines upon the earth. May the Red Moon Holy Lord protect our Deep Blue, and may humanity pass through the darkness into the light."

Xu Le quietly watched him pray.

He did not know what to make of Zhang Zhe's prayer. He, too, looked toward the red moon.

[The Red Moon Calamity will arrive in 13 minutes and 45 seconds.]

Xu Le was not quite sure whether the red moon had anything to do with the so-called Red Moon Calamity.

He had not reached a level where he could investigate such things.

At this moment, neither the Red Moon Calamity nor the Guyinduo Black Tide seemed to matter anymore.

All he hoped for now was a quieter night.

He had heard that as long as they held out until between 4:30 and 4:50, when the first ray of morning light shone upon the earth, the oddities would retreat like an ebbing tide.

Seeing Xu Le also looking at the red moon, Zhang Zhe spoke with feeling:

"The red moon is so beautiful. Its existence taught us knowledge and granted us power. It gave us an entirely new path, bringing warlocks into existence and allowing humanity to grow. Xu Le, did you know? When the red moon is full, the Black Tide arrives."

Xu Le's thoughts suddenly stalled, as though something had occurred to him.

Zhang Zhe had just mentioned knowledge. No, not knowledge.

Gan had told him before that the answer had actually long since been recorded along his path to knowledge.

"It's the path. The red moon gave us an entirely new path, and the answer has long since been recorded along the path to knowledge. The path to knowledge is learning. Does that mean the answer was already recorded on something related to learning? If that's what Gan meant..."

Xu Le hurriedly took the manual from inside his clothes and quickly flipped to the last page.

Whether it was because of the red moon or his own realization, he did not know.

At that moment, the words in the manual began to twist and squirm.

And two more requirements appeared.

[Calamity Sorcerer-Flame LV1 advancement-Sacrificial Method. Specific requirements are as follows.]

LV1-Flame Secret Sorcerer.

Sacrificial advancement requirements:

1. Consume a Guyinduo product. The purer and more potent its energy, the higher the success rate.

2. Weave ten Flame Flowers into a wreath with oddity thread. Wear it on your head at noon on Monday and feel the afterglow of the blazing sun.

3. Bathe in fire.

4. Using warlock fire to bathe in will raise the success rate to a maximum of 25%.

5. Consuming the Guyinduo Fruit of Anger while bathing in fire will raise the success rate to a maximum of 50%.

Xu Le twitched.

In other words, even if he fulfilled every requirement, the Sacrificial Method only had a fifty-percent success rate.

A fifty-percent chance of becoming a warlock, and a fifty-percent chance of burning himself to death?

How wonderful! What a brilliant way to get myself killed.

Xu Le felt rather helpless. In his previous life, some big shots considered a ninety-eight-percent chance little different from certain death. He was not quite that extreme, but he would not take reckless risks either.

Fifty percent. Isn't that practically the same as going off to die?

"So this is all the so-called answer amounts to..."