"What?!" Lu Jin was utterly stunned.
Now he understood why everyone had been so shocked.
So this kid had taken an interest in something that did not exist, suddenly found inspiration, and created this whole discipline.
An eccentric prodigy!
A genius!
Beyond human!
"Want to learn? I'll teach you." Wang Zhuo laughed heartily, not taking any of this to heart.
Zhi Jinhua looked at him, her eyes full of confusion. "Teach us? Are you serious?"
"These arts aren't passed on lightly. Don't you know that?"
"Oh, get out of here. What's with all these rules? Once you've learned something, you should share it. Enjoying it together is better than enjoying it alone. Rather than selfishly keeping it to yourself, why not share it with the world?"
"I help everyone, and then everyone helps everyone."
There was not a trace of insincerity in Wang Zhuo's voice. He genuinely did not care about such things, nor did he like keeping knowledge to himself.
Zhi Jinhua shook her head. "When you're this sincere, people don't know how to handle you."
No one felt this more deeply than Lu Jin. A life without blemish-had his life truly been without blemish?
This boy had created a discipline of his own, yet willingly shared it with the world.
Yet back then, those people had fought tooth and nail over the Eight Extraordinary Skills, battling to the death.
Their understanding had actually fallen short of a young child's.
Wang Zhuo planted his hands on his hips. "It's simple. To learn ice, I needed to alleviate the cold, which meant learning fire. Once I learned fire, my constitution needed to keep up, so I learned lightning and physical cultivation. After learning those, I needed to study biology. So all you have to do is follow my Three Years of College Entrance Exams, Five Years of Practice Tests, and you're guaranteed to achieve something."
Hidden Dragon hurriedly waved his hands. "Stop, stop, stop. Hold it right there. You'd better not teach anyone these abilities of yours."
"Holy crap. If we followed your approach, everyone except you would go insane. To learn this, you have to learn that, and to learn that, you have to learn this. Are you just going around in circles with me here?!"
"Even if you're willing to make it public, us ordinary folks don't have brains like yours."
"If we lost control and couldn't suppress it, wouldn't we turn straight into Creepers?!"
"Blown to bits scattered everywhere."
"Keep that Ice-Fire Poison Dragon Drill for yourself."
Hidden Dragon's words were blunt, completely putting an end to the thoughts in everyone's minds.
Just because Wang Zhuo could use it did not mean they could. Being able to learn it did not necessarily mean they could master it. With so many powers counteracting one another, the slightest mistake would leave them with no option but death.
Hidden Dragon wiped away his cold sweat. "Please keep it safely to yourself. Whatever you do, don't make it public. Half the Outsider world might drop dead on the spot!"
Wang Zhuo did not deny this point. With so many Devil Fruit abilities inside him, the fact that they did not clash was all thanks to the system coming through.
Before, whenever he overused them, his body inevitably failed to endure it and partially broke down, requiring Reverse Cursed Technique to offset the damage.
Now that he had the Twelve Talismans, with the most important Tiger Talisman inside him balancing yin and yang, those problems naturally no longer existed.
Lu Jin took a fresh look at the young man before him. "Young Liu, do you belong to a school?"
"Nope. I'm still a university student." Wang Zhuo shrugged, completely unconcerned.
"Then where did you learn all these abilities? Surely someone taught you how to cultivate qi?"
"I figured it all out myself. One look, and I'd learned it."
Wang Zhuo could hardly tell them he had a system, that doing just about anything earned him rewards, and that he was already invincible.
But towering waves had already risen in everyone's hearts.
No school!
Self-taught!
And he'd reached this level!
Where the hell was the fairness in that?!
Was heaven chasing after him to spoon-feed him?!
Whatever jealousy the younger generation had felt had long since vanished, replaced entirely by admiration for a genius.
"Ah, if you score 300, you'll envy someone who scores 400. But if you score 100 and the other person scores 700, you won't feel even a hint of jealousy."
Zhi Jinhua sighed from the heart. That was reality.
"Heaven really isn't fair." Zhang Chulan gave a helpless, bitter smile.
"Wait, wait. Haven't we gotten sidetracked? We've wandered all the way into academic questions."
"Right, right. If there's nothing else, let's hurry up and leave. It's time to eat." Hidden Dragon quickly chimed in.
They were all smart enough to have noticed the subtle shift in the atmosphere.
No school, no sect.
Those words kept turning over in Zhang Zhiwei's and Lu Jin's minds. They meant this boy could take a master at any time.
Outstanding talent, overflowing brilliance.
Here was a living, breathing child favored by heaven. Who could look at him and not be tempted?
But Xu San knew perfectly well. Was this a matter of having no school or sect? The boy simply lacked nothing.
He had someone backing him from above!
These two old men, whose combined ages ran into the hundreds, were actually still thinking about taking him as a disciple.
Xu Si abruptly spoke up. "All right, we've had enough excitement. But Old Master Lu, those youngsters you've stationed on the mountain... they're certainly full of fighting spirit."
"They're all eagerly waiting for Quanxing to walk into this trap."
"Holy shit, that's going on too?!" Zhang Chulan exclaimed in shock.
Xu Si chuckled. "Chulan, you underestimate us far too much. There are quite a few people from the company here on Mount Longhu. You had no idea, did you? They've all been keeping watch in secret."
Lu Jin made no attempt to avoid the subject and slowly stood up. "Zhang Chulan is bait, and so is the Heaven Communicating Talisman Art."
Lu Jin and Xu Si stood facing each other and shook hands.
"As long as Quanxing dares to take the bait, we'll catch them all in one fell swoop here on Mount Longhu."
Seeing the older and younger men so confident of victory, the young people all felt fired up.
The two from Mount Longhu, on the other hand, began joking around.
Tian Jinzhong stared at the pair. "If you insist on fighting on our Mount Longhu, that's fine. But you'll have to pay for anything you break."
"Haha, don't worry. Old Lu has plenty of money, and the other one's company is even state-owned. They can certainly afford compensation. Who knows? We might even get Mount Longhu renovated."
Zhang Zhiwei cheerfully added fuel to the conversation, as though afraid the flames would not burn fiercely enough.
The two men, who had been brimming with ambition, both looked miserable the moment they heard they would have to pay.
Xu Si hurriedly waved his hands. "Oh, you give us too much credit. Our company isn't state-owned. We really don't have that much money."
Li Yanzi, who had been listening in the whole time, responded, "Headquarters issued written instructions not to interfere in their affairs. Unless ordinary people are threatened, do not take action."
"..." Wang Zhuo remained silent.
Fine. As long as I don't kill anyone, it doesn't count as taking action. No rules broken.
If Old Master Tian were killed right under his nose, he would have lived two lives for nothing.
Whatever happened in the future did not matter. The person before him mattered most.
Lu Jin continued, "All right. With the company and the Celestial Master Mansion helping me, even if we can't eradicate those fiends of Quanxing this time, we can still cripple them!"
When it came to wiping out Quanxing, Lu Jin was determined to succeed.
Xu Si played along. "Haha, that would be best. If there's nothing else, we'll take our leave."
"Everyone, how about we see you at the tournament?"
"Chulan? We're leaving!"
Zhang Chulan did not move a step, seemingly caught up in some emotion. His eyes shifted, and, as though he had made up his mind, he dropped to his knees with a thud.
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