Time for Your Nighttime Tutoring, Girl

Spirit City, Worship Hall.

That night.

After a busy day, Master Qian finally closed her eyes.

Hunting a ten-thousand-year phoenix species and absorbing a thirty-eight-thousand-year soul ring during the day-feats worthy of being recorded in Spirit Hall's history-had now all turned into the steady, drawn-out breathing in the Worship Hall's bedchamber.

The fifteen-year-old girl's sleeping face was peaceful, like a porcelain doll who knew nothing of the world.

After an unknown stretch of time, a ripple passed through her mind.

"Time for your nighttime tutoring, girl." Cheng Ran's voice rang out in her mind, as obnoxious as ever. "A night raid, for short."

"Hm?" Qian Renxue blinked and tugged groggily at her blanket.

The Evil God had been putting her through intense operations all day. She was utterly exhausted and could barely open her eyes.

There was no exhausted Evil God, only a believer worn out by his operations.

But remembering that she could not skip the Evil God's lessons, Qian Renxue could only curl up under the blanket and nod. "Mm..."

Cheng Ran wasted no words. He kept pouring it in, brainwashing her without a pause.

"Now, listen to the question!"

Cheng Ran cleared his throat, his voice rising and falling like a storyteller's.

"This is a reading comprehension question."

"There was a genius girl born into the greatest noble clan in the world.

Her clan poured a century's worth of accumulated resources into raising her, giving her the best Soul Bones and the best teachers.

She lived up to everyone's expectations, reaching heights by twenty that her peers could not even look up to.

Everyone said she was this generation's chosen daughter, destined to be unbeatable.

But there was a boy named Wu Qian, born to a poor family in a remote mountain village.

His father was a down-and-out blacksmith who spent his days drinking, and his mother had died young.

On the day of his Martial Soul Awakening, his test revealed a toothpick, universally recognized across the continent as a Trash Martial Soul.

Everyone thought that, at best, he would scrape by as an odd-job Soul Master."

Qian Renxue's eyes opened a little wider. This did not sound like a question at all. It had the flavor of a storybook, and sounded rather interesting.

Cheng Ran continued, "But this fellow's luck was absurdly good.

He strolled around deep in the mountains where others could not venture and stumbled upon an uninhabited cave. Heavenly Treasures covered the ground inside, his for the picking.

A reclusive master whom others could spend their whole lives trying and failing to become a disciple of happened across him while he was peeing by the roadside. Not only did the master not disdain his Trash Martial Soul, he even said his Martial Soul was one in ten thousand and insisted on taking him as his disciple."

"Most absurdly, that master's wife was a beautiful woman who had been married to him for years without having children.

The moment she saw this boy, she adored him. She raised him as her own son, fussing over him and caring for his every need.

Even onlookers felt something was off. His beautiful master's wife paid more attention to him than to her own husband.

The boy had grown up without a mother. How could he withstand such tenderness? Naturally, he came to see his master's wife as something of a mother too.

What do you call that? Dumb luck with a mom thrown in."

"But even that wasn't the most absurd part.

The most absurd part was that his Trash Martial Soul could actually evolve into a spiked club.

The girl studied every move in his arsenal and thought victory was assured this time, only for him to suddenly unleash a lost Big Bowl Wide Noodles Hidden Weapon Technique that she could not defend against at all.

The girl cut off all his escape routes, only for him to reveal another Beast Martial Soul, Cai Xukun. That's right, he even had Twin Martial Souls.

The girl thought she had seen through all his trump cards, only for him to pull out an unheard-of Self-Created Soul Skill, Ji Ni Tai Mei, in the very next match.

The girl laid an inescapable net, only for an expert whose background no one knew to suddenly appear at his side and rescue him."

"The girl was better than him at everything. Her Martial Soul was higher quality, she had more resources, and her starting point was who knew how much higher, yet she just couldn't beat him.

It wasn't that he was stronger than her. It was that every time she felt most confident, he pulled out something she could never have anticipated.

The girl didn't lose because of her strength. She lost because her cheats weren't outrageous enough."

"Ahem. As the saying goes, Douluo is a grand stage-don't come without cheats. So, in the end, the girl lost."

Qian Renxue blinked, a hint of confusion in her eyes.

Cheng Ran continued, "From that day on, she could think of nothing but him.

She replayed that battle over and over, wondering what she had done wrong and whether she could win if she got another chance.

She thought about it for a very, very long time. Gradually, the girl realized she was no longer thinking about how to beat that lad. She was thinking about him."

"She began paying attention to his every move. She told herself it was to understand her opponent, but she knew perfectly well that she simply couldn't let go."

"He became her inner demon."

Cheng Ran's tone shifted. "She just fell in love with the man who defeated her. Anyway, I can't understand that lovesick brain of hers."

"Later, she died. How she died doesn't matter. What matters is that heaven gave her a chance to start over. She was reborn."

"All right, once again, there are four options."

"A: Have someone kill him before he grows up. Dead men can't cheat. End it once and for all."

"B: Stop fighting and befriend him. You know all his secrets and preferences. Become the person he trusts most, join his team, and ride his luck to level up."

"C: Cheat even harder than he does. Destiny is on his side? Then steal his destiny, and take the whole bowl while you're at it."

"D: Don't compete, don't hide, don't dwell on it. Put all your energy into yourself. Once you stand ten major realms above him, look back at that poor boy from the mountain backwoods. He won't even qualify to look up at you."

"Single choice. Pick one."

Qian Renxue frowned and thought seriously.

"C," she answered. "She fell in love with that man just because she lost in her previous life? What kind of bullshit logic is that? In this life, just crush him! Steal every opportunity and overwhelm him outright."

Cheng Ran fell silent.

Qian Renxue grew nervous. "W-wrong again?"

Cheng Ran felt deeply gratified. "No. Congratulations, you got it right!"

Qian Renxue: ⁄(⁄⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄⁄)⁄.

Cheng Ran said, "Very good. All this time I've spent teaching you hasn't been wasted. All right, that's it for today's lesson. Now let's discuss some serious business. Hehehe..."

Qian Renxue: "..."

She had prepared in advance and reported the intelligence on Xiao Wu. "Spirit Hall's intelligence network and the spies in the Heaven Dou Empire sent word back at the same time.

A girl was discovered near Nuoding City. Her Martial Soul is a Soft Bone Rabbit, a Beast Martial Soul. She's six years old.

She passed Nuoding Academy's Martial Soul Awakening test and was admitted, but she won't report there until September."

Cheng Ran asked, "Have you found her address?"

Qian Renxue said, "Her registered address is fake. The information points to an abandoned general store on East Street in Nuoding City, where no one has lived at all. The spies investigated, but still couldn't find any trace of her."

Cheng Ran said, "In that case, we'll wait until school starts in September and Xiao Wu delivers herself to our doorstep. In the meantime, I can arrange an excellent leveling map for you. It's called-"

Cheng Ran paused. "Slaughter City."

Qian Renxue frowned. "I've heard of Slaughter City. Mo... Bibi Dong seems to have been there."

Cheng Ran explained, "Not seems. Bibi Dong has indeed been there. She is one of the two Slayers alive today.

Slaughter City is full of Humanoid Monsters like criminals and Evil Soul Masters, and your Angel Martial Soul happens to naturally counter evil. For you, Slaughter City is a natural experience dungeon."