"Wah, waaah-"
Yu Tianheng fainted.
It was embarrassing to say, but Yu Tianheng, the clan leader's eldest grandson and a direct-line descendant of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, who had awakened the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul with innate rank-nine Soul Power, was actually afraid of bugs.
When the plump Caterpie landed on his face, Yu Tianheng fainted from fright.
"This is all your fault! Now look what happened!"
Yu Xiaochuan was speechless at the sight too.
Why would he faint? Wasn't it just a big bug falling onto his face?
Yu Tianheng, pull yourself together!
Didn't this make him look like someone who bullied his deskmate? Would they call his parents in?
"Y-you, put Caterpie away, quick!"
The girl panicked too. She bore some responsibility, after all. If she had not tugged at him, Caterpie would never have fallen onto Yu Tianheng's face.
Her good intentions had made a mess of things.
What should she do? Would Yu Tianheng hate her for this?
"Sigh, what's done is done. Caterpie, keep eating your Blue Silver Grass!"
Yu Xiaochuan gave up trying. If the teacher scolded him a little, so be it.
He picked the still somewhat bewildered Caterpie off Yu Tianheng's face and set him on the pile of Blue Silver Grass to keep eating.
Looking at the unconscious Yu Tianheng, he felt he could not just leave him there. He reached out and pinched the spot between his nose and upper lip, waking him after a while.
"Did I just fall asleep?"
Yu Tianheng was still a little dazed when he woke. Looking at Yu Xiaochuan beside him and Caterpie, who was still eating Blue Silver Grass, he felt as though he had lost a small stretch of his memory.
"That's right. Young people really are healthy. You fell asleep the moment your head went down."
"Say thank you. I just pinched you awake. Otherwise, you'd still be asleep when class started!"
Yu Xiaochuan spoke calmly. Since Yu Tianheng had forgotten, he had no intention of making trouble for himself and went back to his book.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan truly lived up to its reputation as one of the Upper Three Sects. Its collection of books was extensive.
"Oh, thanks."
Yu Tianheng thanked him blankly, but the looks in his classmates' eyes made him feel that something was wrong.
Especially that girl, who kept starting to speak, stopping, then starting again, only to say nothing in the end.
Yu Tianheng froze for a while, then remembered what had happened earlier. His face turned as red as a tomato.
He had actually fainted from the fright of Caterpie. That was undoubtedly humiliating.
Whenever he thought about how Caterpie had scared him unconscious, Yu Tianheng felt his toes clench so tightly they were about to claw holes through his shoes.
Maybe he should just pretend he really had lost his memory?
Yu Tianheng was rather like an ostrich, feeling that everything would be fine if he buried his head in the sand, but his flushed face was far too obvious.
Yu Xiaochuan noticed at once.
"Tian Heng, your face is so red! Do you have a fever? I was wondering why you fainted. You must have been cultivating too hard and not resting properly. You need to balance cultivation with rest."
"I, ah, ah, yes! I've been cultivating too hard!"
Yu Tianheng's face reddened with the effort, but in the end, he could not squeeze out so much as a fart and simply went along with Yu Xiaochuan's words.
After returning home, Yu Tianheng had thought the matter was over, only for his father to ask about him fainting from the fright of Caterpie.
Although his father only mentioned it in passing, he already felt too ashamed to face anyone.
As he walked through the clan grounds and heard his clansmen whispering, he felt they were all laughing at him for fainting over a Caterpie.
When he went to bed that night, closing his eyes brought back the memory of being scared unconscious by a Caterpie, leaving him too embarrassed to sleep.
Unable to sleep in the dead of night, he tossed and turned, then climbed back out of bed, almost wanting to slap himself a few times.
The next day, with two dark circles under his eyes, Yu Tianheng challenged Yu Xiaochuan.
"Xiaochuan, I challenge you! Let's have a fight!"
"Huh? Are you serious? You're rank nine, and you're challenging me at rank two? If you want to beat me up, just say so."
Yu Xiaochuan was reading, thoroughly enjoying the sound of Caterpie eating Blue Silver Grass. It had the satisfying feel of cultivating while AFK.
He had thought yesterday's incident was over, but who knew what had gotten into Yu Tianheng? He actually intended to challenge him.
Hmm? Rank nine fighting rank two counted as a challenge?
Stomping a noob was more like it.
"I sincerely want to challenge you!"
Yu Tianheng's face was bright red.
Actually, Yu Xiaochuan was right. He simply wanted to beat Yu Xiaochuan up.
He felt that the only way to wash away his humiliation was to defeat Yu Xiaochuan once.
"I refuse. Do you really think I'm stupid? Let you beat me up for no reason, when I get nothing out of it?"
"How can you refuse? Xiaochuan, you're a Soul Master! Where's your dignity as a Soul Master?"
"But the problem is that my Martial Soul is a trash Martial Soul, okay? It has no fighting power. Does Caterpie look like he has any attack power to you?"
Yu Xiaochuan spread his hands. As long as I'm trash enough, nobody can guilt-trip me.
A Soul Master's dignity?
What dignity did a Soul Master with a trash Martial Soul like me have?
"A hundred-year-old ginseng! My father gave it to me to nourish my body. As long as you accept my challenge, Xiaochuan, I'll give you this hundred-year-old ginseng."
Yu Tianheng had only just taken a hundred-year-old ginseng out of his Storage Soul Tool when Yu Xiaochuan snatched it away.
"Why didn't you say so earlier? No problem. I accept your challenge. Don't leave after school. Wait for me in the grove, and we'll have a fight."
Yu Xiaochuan agreed with a grin and fed the hundred-year-old ginseng straight to Caterpie.
As expected of the clan leader's eldest grandson, he ate hundred-year-old ginseng like ordinary food and could casually produce a whole root.
"Ah-oh-"
Caterpie happily gnawed on the hundred-year-old ginseng, eating it like a radish.
After finishing it, he began shedding his skin, rising to level three.
His levels really were flowing upward like water.
Yu Xiaochuan stroked Caterpie's head, delighted, thinking that he would have to find a way to defeat Yu Tianheng after school that evening.
Caterpie's cultivation resources would depend on Yu Tianheng.
As long as he remained undefeated, Yu Tianheng would have to offer a hundred-year-old ginseng whenever he wanted to challenge him. Otherwise, he would refuse.
This kid was dripping with wealth, casually pulling out a hundred-year-old ginseng, unlike him, a collateral descendant who had nothing and could only scrape by.
At this rate, getting Caterpie to level ten quickly would be no problem, though things would probably slow down after that.
Caterpie evolved into Metapod at level seven, then into Butterfree at level ten.
But Yu Xiaochuan did not intend to let Caterpie evolve so quickly. At most, he would let him evolve into Metapod.
As for evolving again, that would have to wait.
Ideally, he would add a few more dragon-type Soul Rings. He did not want his Martial Soul to be merely Butterfree.
Although Butterfree was not bad, Rayquaza offered seas and skies far more boundless!
That evening, classes ended at the clan school, and Yu Xiaochuan and Yu Tianheng exchanged a glance.
Yu Xiaochuan left first, heading to the grove beside the clan school.
Yu Tianheng, meanwhile, declined quite a few classmates' invitations to play together, then followed Yu Xiaochuan to the grove, where he found him idling in utter boredom with a blade of Blue Silver Grass between his lips.
Their gazes met. A battle was about to begin.