Whale Rubber: Tasteless to Eat, a Pity to Throw Away

Since he had settled on a plan to obtain the Blue Silver Emperor, Lin Qingchen was in no hurry. He could cultivate anywhere, after all.

So he simply stayed on and continued his studies at Nuoding Academy.

Because Lin Qingchen had beaten Xiao Chenyu up before, his status at the academy was now extraordinarily high. Wherever he went, people called him Brother Chen.

Besides his regular cultivation, Lin Qingchen also sought out Lei Nuo to help him train in actual combat.

Compared with the teachers at the academy, Lei Nuo had far more combat experience. At the very least, he was certainly qualified to instruct a transmigrator like Lin Qingchen, who was only level ten and had been an ordinary person in his previous life.

That day, Lin Qingchen was about to ask Lei Nuo to give him special training, but as soon as he entered the office, he saw him holding up and examining an earthy-brown object that gave off a faint salty, fishy scent of seawater.

Huh?

Lin Qingchen frowned. This thing... no way, right?

When Lei Nuo saw him come in, he hurriedly put the object in a drawer. His old face reddened, and he said, as if trying to cover it up, "Ahem, why didn't you knock before coming in?"

"Dean, didn't you tell me just the day before yesterday that there was no need to knock?"

Seeing Lin Qingchen look at him as though he were an idiot, Lei Nuo grew even more embarrassed.

"Oh, oh, oh, right, I forgot. What did you come to see me for this time?" Lei Nuo hurriedly changed the subject.

"I just came to ask you to give me special training, Dean. But now I'm a little curious what you were looking at. You were smiling so... uh..." Lin Qingchen still couldn't bring himself to say those two words.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem. What thing? You must have seen wrong."

Seeing that Lei Nuo was still denying it, Lin Qingchen said, "There's no need to fool me, Dean. Isn't that a specialty from the sea? It must have cost you quite a bit to get it, right? I didn't expect you to have that kind of hobby..."

"What are you talking about?! I didn't go out of my way to get it. That old fellow surnamed Xiao gave me that piece of whale rubber!"

"Oh... so it really was whale rubber. I was wondering what it was," Lin Qingchen said, suddenly enlightened.

Still, now that he thought about it, one of the miscellaneous books in the academy library really had mentioned it. Its full title seemed to be Secret Arts of the Bedchamber or something like that. Who knew which teacher with a twisted sense of humor had tossed it in there?

How wicked!

Keeping a critical attitude, Lin Qingchen had thoroughly criticized it from beginning to end.

Lei Nuo froze. Didn't you just say you knew what it was?

Then he immediately realized what had happened.

"Well, well! You brat, you tricked me!"

Seeing Lei Nuo bristle and glare, Lin Qingchen hurriedly said, "How would I know what it was? I just smelled something salty and fishy, so I asked offhand. Who would've thought you'd fall for a bluff so easily?"

Hearing the brat talk like that, Lei Nuo was at a loss. He looked at Lin Qingchen's "curious" expression, spread his hands, and took out the piece of whale rubber. "Here. This stuff is called whale rubber. It comes from the brains of whales in the sea, but supposedly there isn't much of it, and it only has that one effect."

He spread his hands. "Honestly, there are substitutes for what it does, and they work even better. I can't figure out why Old Xiao bought this stuff, or why he bought so much of it."

That said, he suddenly remembered visiting the city lord's residence a few days ago. Old Xiao had looked ashen and dejected, while the city lord's wife had paid no attention to their guest, instead watching Old Xiao with a resentful look the whole time. Lei Nuo felt as though he had found the truth of the matter.

Damn, could it be that Old Xiao can't get it up anymore, so he's desperately trying anything he can?

Lin Qingchen had no idea what Lei Nuo was thinking. He simply continued, "But if I remember right, Dean, aren't you still unmarried? What use do you have for it?"

Lei Nuo came back to his senses and put on a stern face. "What's it to you? Can't I use it to help young women from broken homes?"

"But you don't need it either, do you?" Lin Qingchen spread his hands.

Although Lei Nuo always referred to himself as an old man, he had only just turned fifty and was a Soul Ancestor above level forty. He truly hadn't reached that point yet.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem. Of course. My golden spear still stands strong. I can ride all night..."

Seeing that Lei Nuo was about to start boasting, Lin Qingchen hurriedly cut him off. "Yes, yes, Dean, you're full of vigor, so naturally you don't need it. Why not give it to me?"

"Huh? Give it to you? Why would a little brat like you want it?" Lei Nuo gave him a strange look.

"Hey, don't worry about that. I just want to take a look. I've never seen it before, so I'm curious."

Lei Nuo thought it over and decided that made sense. The brat probably hadn't even grown all his hair yet, and whale rubber wasn't anything precious, so he simply tossed it to him.

"You can look, but don't go eating it."

"I know."

Lei Nuo knew Lin Qingchen had always been sensible, so he said no more.

"Come on, I'll go train with you."

"Mm, thank you, Dean. But there's something I have to remind you about."

"What is it? Go ahead."

"I think you really need to do something about the academy library, Dean. Hardly any students read there, but having books like Secret Arts of the Bedchamber mixed in with the collection at a junior academy is a bit bizarre."

"Ahem... huh? Secret Arts of the Bedchamber?"

Lei Nuo's eyes widened.

Well, well. I was wondering where this brat learned about whale rubber. So he read about it in that book.

Damn it! Is this how you corrupt children?!

You didn't give something good like that to me, the dean, and instead put it in the library to corrupt public morals!

Don't let me find you!

After another morning of grueling practice, Lin Qingchen dragged his aching body back to the dormitory well before the other students.

"Damn, he really hit hard today. He's still hung up on me catching him playing with whale rubber, all right."

Lin Qingchen grumbled to himself for a while, but didn't dwell on it. Instead, he took out the earthy-brown piece of whale rubber.

To be honest, the piece of whale rubber didn't look like much. Not only was its color much like dirt, but its surface was also pitted with traces of insect damage.

A glance was enough to tell it hadn't been stored well.

Truthfully, Lin Qingchen hadn't paid much attention to whale rubber before. Though it could be called useful, it wasn't really all that useful.

Hadn't Young Master Wang Dong in Douluo II practically eaten the stuff as meals until he was almost sick, only just managing to raise his Second Soul Ring's age to a thousand years?

In other words, whale rubber's upper limit was basically the Soul Elder level, assuming Wang Dong hadn't eaten any other heavenly treasures.

To raise even the First Soul Ring to a thousand years would probably take a tremendous amount of effort.

On top of that, Nuoding City was inland and underdeveloped, so whale rubber was unlikely to be available there. Lin Qingchen therefore hadn't gone out of his way to buy any.

But since he had stumbled across it, he might as well eat it.