"That plant was the pothos I saw Teacher Wu growing last time."
Tang Wulin said quietly, "It froze to death?"
"The pothos isn't the point!"
Xie Xie slapped the table. "The point is, what exactly did Teacher Wu go off to do last night?"
As expected of Douluo's number one gossip king, Xie Xie had zeroed in on the point at once.
"Xie Xie, we're in class."
A student in front turned around and glared at him.
What Wu Changkong was teaching in this class was quite important, and the students in front were very unhappy that Xie Xie was disturbing them.
"Oh, right."
Xie Xie meekly shrank back, but he couldn't resist muttering again.
"Anyway, I've got a feeling this has something to do with our new teaching assistant, Teacher Linyun. Look, he wasn't here yesterday, and as soon as he came back today, Teacher Wu was back to normal."
Tang Wulin thought for a moment. "Isn't Teacher Linyun Teacher Wu's junior brother?"
"Yeah, that's why I think it's strange."
Xie Xie chuckled. "I keep feeling like there's something going on between those two. I'll have to ask Teacher Linyun another day."
"Don't go prying."
"Oh, you don't understand. When it comes to digging up information, you've got to strike while the iron's hot."
At the front of the classroom, Wu Changkong was teaching them about compressing and releasing Soul Power. He spoke more slowly and in greater detail than usual.
He drew a line on the blackboard.
He said Soul Power was like water, meridians were river channels, and Soul Skills were floodgates.
If the floodgates opened too wide, the water would wash away the river channels.
If they opened too little, they wouldn't produce any force.
So the essence of ordinary cultivation was to use the small increases in Soul Power to widen the meridians step by step, allowing more Soul Power to flow through them and stronger Soul Skills to be unleashed.
(A humble opinion from this little author. It isn't entirely correct, so please don't roast me.)
Tang Wulin listened, absorbed. Wu Changkong was indeed an outstanding graduate of Shrek Academy, and on top of that, he was a gifted genius Soul Master himself. Naturally, he had his own way of looking at Soul Power and cultivation.
But this also revealed another of Wu Changkong's talents: his talent for teaching.
Back on the Blue Planet, there was a saying that the best students were often not the ones best suited to become teachers, because they didn't understand how less clever people should approach those problems and concepts. They often overlooked this when teaching.
As a result, even if someone was an immensely gifted expert in a specialized field, the people listening to his lectures still wouldn't understand a thing.
The same applied on the Douluo Continent.
Although Wu Changkong was quite gifted, he was also highly talented when it came to teaching.
He had accurately grasped that these students, whose innate talents were generally only at the second or third rank,
couldn't have the strong meridians and control over Soul Power that genius Soul Masters had.
So his teaching had always followed a gradual approach: expanding their meridians scientifically and reasonably, allowing them to absorb more Soul Power, rather than cultivating recklessly with brute force.
That was why, no matter how much Long Hengxu usually disliked Wu Changkong, he had never said that he was unqualified to be a teacher.
That was because he really did have a method and knew how to teach.
Xie Xie, on the other hand, hadn't taken anything in. His eyes kept drifting toward the window as he calculated how to pry information out of Teacher Linyun after class.
Wu Changkong stood at the front of the classroom and heard the rustling below.
Without turning around, he said blandly:
"Xie Xie, come to my office after class."
To Xie Xie, Wu Changkong's voice was no different from a demon's whisper.
Xie Xie turned pale with fright.
Two words had already begun to appear faintly above his head.
I'm done for.
After class, the unfortunate Xie Xie was taken away by Wu Changkong.
At the end of the corridor.
Gu Yue leaned against the wall, watching that familiar figure on the sports field.
Qing Linyun had just come out of the office building and was walking toward the dormitories at an unhurried pace. He looked to be in good spirits, and the injury to his shoulder seemed to be mostly healed.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
When that presence had erupted last night, she had almost been unable to sit still.
That sinister darkness, tinged with the smell of blood, could be felt from most of the way across Eastsea City. It was strong enough to make her heart tremble.
Gu Yue could naturally tell that it definitely belonged to a level 98 Evil Soul Master. She had even wondered whether that person had been after Qing Linyun.
The presence had disappeared later, but she hadn't slept soundly all night.
Now that she saw he had returned safe and sound, the heart that had hung suspended all night finally settled back into place.
As long as he's all right.
Gu Yue thought.
Wait, what am I thinking? What does it have to do with me whether he's all right?
She hurriedly snuffed out the thought and turned her face away.
But another thought surfaced.
He had escaped that presence unscathed.
The owner of that presence was a Super Douluo of at least level 95, possibly even higher.
Qing Linyun was a fifteen-year-old brat, the same age as her, even lower than her, yet he had come back alive and didn't look seriously injured.
His strength ran far deeper than she had thought.
Gu Yue narrowed her eyes, watching his retreating figure grow more distant, and silently made a note of it.
I have to be careful around him, she thought. This guy is hiding too much.
She was just about to turn and leave when the figure suddenly stopped.
Qing Linyun turned his head and glanced in her direction.
Across half the sports field, their gazes met.
Gu Yue's heart skipped a beat. She instinctively wanted to hide, but forced herself to stay put. Instead, she looked away, pretending to watch the teaching building in the distance.
Qing Linyun looked for a while, smiled, then turned back and continued on his way.
His spiritual power had been watching this side all along, so he naturally knew about Gu Yue's little actions. But he paid them no mind. After all, curiosity was the beginning of a woman falling, and our little Silver Dragon King had already fallen into the trap.
Gu Yue stood where she was, biting her lip, and didn't move for a long time. Every now and then, she "casually" glanced at Qing Linyun's retreating figure.
He noticed.
She thought to herself.
That monster.
His spiritual power is actually this terrifying. I'll have to keep my distance from him from now on.