Defense Before the Assessment Committee

"Let's begin."

Ning Zhishou slapped the exam paper down on the table. In the small meeting room next to the director's office, five pairs of eyes stared at Lu Yuan, who stood before the blackboard.

Lu Yuan didn't move. The blackboard behind him was old, and the smell of chalk dust was a little choking.

"The third major problem." Teacher Sun picked up the transcribed answer sheet, his voice hard. "The standard answer uses Elementary Soul Beast Habits to calculate a straight-line retreat. What did you write? 'Air Soul Power resistance coefficient: 0.023'-where did that term come from?"

"I made it up," Lu Yuan said.

"Made it up?" Teacher Sun gave an angry laugh. "And where did the coefficient of 0.023 come from?"

"I estimated it." Lu Yuan's tone didn't change. "I caught a Bristle Rat, pulled out its stiff hairs and threw them thirty-seven times, then worked backward from where they landed. It might not be exact, but the order of magnitude should be right."

Beside him, the balding Teacher Zhou let out a surprised "Huh."

Ning Zhishou's face darkened, and his fingers tapped the table.

"All right, let's say you estimated it." Teacher Sun refused to let up. "What about the terrain slope influence factor? What on earth is that?"

"You run slower uphill and faster downhill." Lu Yuan turned, picked up half a piece of chalk, and drew a slanting line on the blackboard. "The Soul Power consumption is different. You have to account for it."

He wrote down the symbols. The formula was concise, using only symbols from Basic Soul Power Mechanics.

Teacher Zhou leaned forward.

Teacher Sun still wanted to find fault. "Who has time to calculate that in actual combat?"

"You don't have to calculate it on the spot." Lu Yuan stopped writing. "Calculate it for several common slopes before the exam and put the results in a table. When you actually encounter one, just look it up."

He paused.

"Besides, if you don't account for the slope, the 'optimal' result you calculate might not be optimal at all."

His words were blunt. Teacher Sun's face flushed red.

Ning Zhishou rapped on the table. "The last major problem. The 'Balance-Constrained Extremum Method'-I've never even heard of it."

Lu Yuan drew a set of axes on the blackboard.

"The horizontal axis is Soul Power output, and the vertical axis is retreat speed." He drew two curves, one rising and the other starting gently before climbing steeply. "If the output is too low, you can't escape. If it's too high, your body breaks down. There's a balance point in between that gives you the highest speed without breaking your body down."

Chalk dust sifted down.

"The intersection is the balance point. Use mathematics to find the extremum, and you can calculate the corresponding output and speed." He looked at Ning Zhishou. "The method is attached to the back of the exam paper. Try it, and you'll know whether it's right or wrong."

The meeting room fell silent.

A bird called outside the window.

The female herbalism teacher asked softly, "Who... taught you all this?"

"No one." Lu Yuan shook his head. "I worked it out myself. Reading, observing, testing."

"What books did you read?" Teacher Sun seized on his words. "The academy library doesn't have anything like this!"

"Basic Soul Power Mechanics, Illustrated Guide to Common Soul Beast Ecology, Introduction to Soul Master Physical Load." Lu Yuan listed the titles. "And some notes Assistant Teacher Shen lent me. They're all in the library."

Teacher Sun was left speechless.

Teacher Zhou suddenly stood and walked over to the blackboard. He stared at the formula for a long while, tracing it in the air with his finger.

"How much faster is the optimal speed you calculated than the standard answer?"

"Fifteen percent," Lu Yuan said. "Provided the parameters are measured accurately."

Teacher Zhou sucked in a breath.

Fifteen percent was the difference between life and death in an encounter battle.

Ning Zhishou's expression grew uglier by the moment. The questions he had prepared were being pushed back down his throat, bit by bit, by the derivation on the blackboard.

Under the table, Shen Moxin quietly clenched her fingers.

"Even if what you say makes sense," Ning Zhishou finally said, his voice low, "these 'models' and 'coefficients' aren't what a junior academy should be teaching! Writing all this is showing off, trying to be different! If the other students all copy you, will they still practice actual combat or not?"

That was unreasonable.

Lu Yuan fell silent for two seconds.

"Director," he said, "the academy teaches us to identify Soul Beasts so we know how to deal with them. All I did was make 'knowing how to deal with them' a little more precise. Is that trying to be different?"

His tone was even, but his words were firm.

Ning Zhishou slapped the table. "Insolence!"

Shen Moxin spoke up at once. "Director, Lu Yuan was only explaining his reasoning. The assessment review is meant to determine what's right and what's wrong. His derivation is logically consistent, and he also proposed a way to verify it. At the very least, he didn't just make it all up."

Teacher Zhou nodded hesitantly. "Yes, the idea is novel, but I can't find a flaw in the logic. The increase in speed has practical value in combat."

The female teacher also nodded gently.

Teacher Sun opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Ning Zhishou looked at the exam paper, then at the blackboard, his chest rising and falling. He suddenly felt very tired.

After a long while, he leaned back in his chair, took off his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Meeting adjourned," he said.

Teacher Sun was taken aback. "Director, the score..."

"For the theory assessment, count the score on the paper." Ning Zhishou's voice was weary. "Ninety-seven points."

He stood, pulled the door open, and left without looking at Lu Yuan.

His footsteps faded into the distance.

Teacher Sun's face turned ashen. He grabbed his things and left. The female teacher gave Lu Yuan a gentle smile and left as well.

Teacher Zhou didn't move. He was still looking at the blackboard, his eyes shining.

Shen Moxin walked over to Lu Yuan. "You go back first."

Lu Yuan nodded and clapped the chalk dust off his hands.

"Wait."

Teacher Zhou called him back.

Lu Yuan turned around.

Teacher Zhou rubbed his hands together, eagerness showing on his face. He lowered his voice. "Young man, you mentioned Soul Power residue in Bristle Rat quills on your exam paper... You said you'd pulled some out. Did you happen to notice that their Soul Power fluctuations decayed especially quickly after they were removed? Much faster than ordinary dissipation?"

Lu Yuan froze for a moment.

He had indeed noticed. In his previous life, it was called "carrier-dependent Soul Power disintegration."

"I noticed," he answered cautiously. "About three to five breaths after removal, the fluctuations can no longer be measured."

"Right! Right!" Teacher Zhou's eyes shone even brighter. "For the past few years, I've been collecting hair and scale samples from different Soul Beasts and measuring their Soul Power decay patterns after removal. Bristle Rat quills are among the fastest to decay. But why? Is their structure unusual, or is the nature of their Soul Power unstable?"

He spoke rapidly, as though he had been holding it in for a long time.

"I've accumulated quite a bit of data, but I can't make heads or tails of it." Teacher Zhou looked at Lu Yuan, his tone almost pleading. "Are you... interested in this? Would you like to come take a look? Maybe you'll spot something I don't understand."

Lu Yuan didn't answer right away. He looked at Shen Moxin.

Shen Moxin nodded slightly.

"All right," Lu Yuan said. "Thank you, Teacher Zhou."

Teacher Zhou breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. "It's settled, then! Come to my laboratory after class tomorrow afternoon-the single-story building behind the Soul Beast specimen hall, the room at the eastern end."

He patted Lu Yuan on the shoulder and left, thoroughly satisfied.

Only the two of them remained in the meeting room.

Shen Moxin walked over to the blackboard and looked at the formula.

"You won," she said softly.

Lu Yuan shook his head. "I didn't win. I just didn't lose."

Shen Moxin turned her head. The light from outside the window reflected on her lenses.

"Director Ning won't let this go," she said. "You made him lose face today. From now on, they'll be watching you even more closely at the academy."

"I know."

"Teacher Zhou is one path open to you." Shen Moxin paused. "He's obsessed with research and isn't particularly well liked, but he has data and samples no one else has. If you work with him, you'll have access to things you couldn't otherwise get at the academy. But you might also be lumped in with the 'weirdos.'"

Lu Yuan smiled.

"I don't care."

Shen Moxin smiled too, a very faint smile. She raised her hand and wiped the formula off the blackboard with her sleeve. Chalk dust rose and drifted in the light.

"Go back," she said. "You still have class this afternoon."

Lu Yuan nodded, slung his old cloth bag over his shoulder, and pulled the door open.

The corridor was empty. From far away came the rhythmic shouts of students drilling, strong and forceful.

He walked down the corridor toward the exit, his steps neither hurried nor slow.

The exam paper was still in his bag. Ninety-seven points.

He felt the bag's rough surface, his fingertips touching the hard cover of the notes Shen Moxin had given him inside.

Teacher Zhou's shining eyes flashed through his mind, along with the words "decay patterns."

A new door had opened a crack.

He went down the stairs and turned out of the teaching building. The sunlight was just right, a little warm on his face.

At the edge of the training ground, Wang Shuo was crouched there waiting for him. When he saw him come out, he sprang to his feet, his face full of anxiety.

Lu Yuan walked toward him.