“Wait! Stop right there! Don’t get any closer” Yue Mengli scurried backwards while keeping a close eye on Zhao Chen. In that moment she forgot that she could have easily overpowered him, but rather she felt like she shrunk down to the size of an ant in front of Zhao Chen. A feeling she had never felt before.

“Oh? But I'm just trying to help you, professor.” Zhao Chen's tone had completely changed from the start of class, becoming much more sinister. Yue Mengli couldn’t help but feel nervous at what he was planning.

“Help me with what!” She cried out, while holding her palm up to show Zhao Chen that he should stop advancing.

In response Zhao Chen stopped his approach, and a wicked smile appeared on his face.

“I know that you’re interested in it, professor” He spoke slowly, putting emphasis on every individual word.

“Interested in what!” If the boy in front of her wasn’t a 15 year old boy, she might have become flustered. But seeing as Zhao Chen had stopped approaching she started to regain her composure.

“Well just by seeing how you’ve been observing me for some time now and you were obviously waiting for me to come say something to you, so I think you and I both know what you’re interested in?” Zhao Chen paused, leaning in close to Yue Mengli.

She audibly gulped before raising her other palm, preparing for Zhao Chen to try something. But to her surprise, he pulled back and walked towards the door.

“I guess you weren’t interested in the spirit herb, oh well.” Zhao Chen spoke as if nothing had happened in the last few minutes.

“Wait! I am!” Yue Mengli also did a full 180 change, losing her composure once more.

Had the average passerby walked by the pair while they were having their “conversation”, the person would’ve kept walking with their head down, because everything that had just transpired was far too weird and confusing to try and comprehend.

“Oh? That's great! So what do I get in return for helping you out professor?” Zhao Chen turned around, his expression no longer carrying his smile from earlier.

Yue Mengli also noticed that his tone had changed, but she quickly thought nothing of it. At present all she cared about was the herb.

“Well, how do I know that your so-called master is actually capable of getting the herb? If you tell me the method and it works, you can ask for anything within reason.” Yue Mengli spoke the latter part of the sentence much more quietly.

“Don’t take me to be a fool just because I’m young. I’m confident in the method, and should I give it to you with no questions asked and you end up getting it, you could easily go back on your words.” Zhao Chen spoke quickly, as if he was desperately trying to end the conversation, but he kept his tone firm.

“Well, I’m not giving you anything until you prove the method works!” Yue Mengli did plan on going back on her word, so she was naturally annoyed that Zhao Chen was being so cautious.

“Meet me in front of the academy in six days, and exactly when the sun has fully set, not a minute later. Does that work, Professor Mengli?”

Yue Mengli paused for a second, weighing the idea in her head. It didn’t have any real downsides. If Zhao Chen was lying she could have him punished by making up some fake story, and if he was telling the truth she could always just refuse whatever he requested unless it was something small.

She wasn’t an upstanding person but she wasn’t a true cheat. Finally Yue Mengli decided to agree to Zhao Chens plans.

“Excellent. I’ll meet you in 6 days then.” Zhao Chen walked to the door but paused right as he opened it.

“Oh and professor, please forget what happened here today.” Zhao Chen said it like he was giving a command rather than asking.

Yue Mengli simply nodded her head in agreement, to which Zhao Chen flashed a small smile, much different from the one he had on his face earlier.

When Zhao Chen had left the room, Yue Mengli sat on one of the students' desks.

“There’s something different about him…” Yue Mengli spoke aloud. Something about Zhao Chen seemed off to her. He seemed to carry himself like an old man rather than a 15 year old boy.

In that moment Yue Mengli swore to figure out just what Zhao Chen's true background was. She refused to believe the youth she had just conversed with was the trash of the Chen family. Rather she was convinced he had some mysterious and powerful background.

Outside the room, a youth was hyperventilating, shaking his head vigorously.

‘What the hell was that you stupid old bat! How did you do that!’ Zhao Chen was squatting on the ground, clutching onto his head tightly.

Just now, inside Yue Menglis room, it wasn't Zhao Chen speaking. In some strange turn of events, Baifun had taken over his body and approached Yue Mengli, and all Zhao Chen could do was watch in horror as Baifun used his body and tried to make advances to Yue Mengli.

‘You should be thanking me. I could’ve helped you score, and then you’d get closer to her that way instead of your stupid little plan.’ Baifun spoke indifferently, as if it was no big deal.

‘I want to get closer to her to understand the academy better! I have no intention of sleeping with some 20 year old brat! I’m over 500 years old, you lunatic!’ Zhao Chen was more disgusted then he was mad. Just the thought of being with someone so much younger made him nearly throw up.

The reason why he was trying to get closer to Yue Mengli was so he could learn about the academy from her. He knew that professors would probably know the most about the academy, including the academy's secrets. He thought if he did her this favor then she’d do him one.

And as for the twin yang root horn, Zhao Chen had only taken a gamble that she would be interested in it. He didn’t expect to hit the nail on the head, and despite what Baifun had just done, he was happy to know his plans didn’t go down the drain. Then suddenly another thought popped up into Zhao Chen's head.

‘You can control my body?!’

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‘Of course I can? Did you forget one of the conditions was, don’t ask me for help unless it’s life threatening? How else would I help you other than taking control of your body?’ Baifun once again spoke as if what he was saying was common sense, and it was simply Zhao Chen's fault for not understanding.

‘Oh yeah, why didn’t I think about that! The strange veiled spirit that lives inside of me can take over my body! Stupid Zhao Chen!’ Zhao Chen responded in a sarcastic way but in reality he did feel a little stupid for not considering it to be a possibility. And it did explain how Baifun got rid of his inner demon on the day of the entrance exam.

‘I'm still waiting for that thank you Baifun.’ Baifun spoke up jokingly. Zhao Chen noticed that he seemed to be much more talkative now then he ever was. And his tone had returned to normal, which put Zhao Chen's mind at ease. He thought for a second that Baifun was going to keep that weird and ominous gentle tone he had earlier, forever.

‘You’ll be waiting awhile.’ Zhao Chen stood up, patting his clothes and fixing his hair. He looked around to make sure no one was watching him, and was relieved to see there was no one around. He fixed his hair and set off back to his dorm.

‘My control over my emotions still isn’t perfect in this body. I need to quickly gain control over them so nothing like that happens again.’ Zhao Chen looked down at his hands as he spoke, embarrassed as he thought about how he looked just now.

As Zhao Chen walked out of the lecture hall, he felt the touch of someone’s hand on his shoulder, causing his body to instinctively knock the hand away as he raised his palms, preparing himself for a fight.

But to his surprise, the person wasn’t there to fight.

“Sorry, I guess I should’ve said something first.” Biyu Liu spoke, rubbing her hand.

Zhao Chen lowered his palms when he saw who it was, but stayed alert. He didn’t have the faintest idea as to why she was approaching him.

“No, that's my own fault for lashing out like that. I’m not exactly well liked at the academy, so I hope you understand.”

Biyu Liu looked at Zhao Chen for a moment, confused as to what he meant. But as she thought about how the young lords all looked at him like they wanted to kill Zhao Chen during the entrance ceremony, she quickly understood his words.

“I understand but still. I also wanted to say thank you for standing up for me during class.” Biyu Liu spoke confidently, but on the inside was terrified as to how Zhao Chen would respond.

“Don’t worry about it, I only spoke up because I agreed with what you said.” Zhao Chen paused and waited for Biyu Liu to nod her head, showing she was still thankful.

“Well if that’s all, I’ll-”

“Wait! Would you, maybe, want to go to the city with me?” Biyu Liu interjected, immediately regretting her words.

‘Sh*t! Why did I say that? He’s probably going to think I’m asking him on a date!’ Biyu Liu yelled on the inside. She wanted to show her thanks to Zhao Chen by buying him food or something else along those lines, but she ended up saying it like she was asking him on a date.

But fortunately for Biyu Liu, being the 500 year old virgin that he was, Zhao Chen didn’t find anything strange with what she said, except one thing.

“We’re allowed to leave the academy on weekdays?” Up until then Zhao Chen was under the assumption they were basically trapped in the academy until their two days off.

“Well yeah. After class hours are over, we’re free to do whatever, inside the confines of the city of course. If we want to leave the city, we have to ask for permission. Did you not read the rule book?” Biyu Liu was elated that Zhao Chen didn’t ask any follow ups pertaining to her basically asking him on a date, but she was a little shocked that Zhao Chen didn’t know something that basic.

“Oh, well that’s good to know.” Zhao Chen thought about the large and heavy book that was currently being used as a step stool for Zhao Chen to place things on top of his dresser. It seemed that Zhao Chen was focused on dying of embarrassment in this life.

“Well I would love to, but the thing is I don’t have any money.” Though it sounded like an excuse, Zhao Chen was simply being honest. He spent the last of his money on the inn turned entrance exam, and he had no idea how he was supposed to earn it.

“Wow, you really didn’t read the rule book. You can just go to the contribution hall and take a mission!”

“Oh, well I knew about the contribution hall but-” Zhao Chen stopped as Biyu Liu’s expression told him that she could tell he was just trying to seem like he wasn’t a complete idiot.

Defeated, he decided to fully let go of his last shred of dignity and ask more questions to Biyu Liu, to which she happily obliged.

“Come on, I’ll show you where it is, and explain how it works on the walk over.” Biyu Liu didn’t wait for Zhao Chen to say anything, as she immediately headed off in the direction of the hall.

‘She’s a strange girl.’ Zhao Chen thought to himself, then when he realised Biyu Liu was already several feet away, picked up the pace and followed after her.

In Front of the large azure and black structure, with a large sign board that read ‘Contribution’ raised in front of it, Zhao Chen and Biyu Liu had arrived.

“So what you’re telling me is, there’s two ways to receive contribution points. You can receive them from helping with stuff inside the academy like being a teacher's assistant, or joining one of the halls and helping out with everyday tasks there. Or you can take on missions inside the contribution hall, which can come from anywhere and anyone.”

“There you go, you get it now.”

“Yeah it makes sense now. And then the missions are split into difficulty levels based on what the mission asks for, and every level of difficulty, at bare minimum, doubles the base amount of points earned of the previous level in points earned. Then you can exchange the contribution points for anything that the sect can offer, within reason, but most people use it for martial techniques or money?”

“Well yes, but the alchemy students also use them in exchange for herbs and pills to study.”

“I see. Maybe I should have read the rule book.”

Zhao Chen had listened to Biyu Liu talk endlessly for the few minutes that it took the pair to walk to the contribution hall, but the information he could actually retain was pretty minimal. The girl seemed to simply enjoy talking, which wasn’t helping the already confused Zhao Chen.

As the two entered the hall, they were surprised to see they were the only ones present.

The hall itself wasn’t anything that impressive, at least to Zhao Chen. After seeing the thousand whispers library, he doubted anything else could make him be stuck in such a state of awe.

Several lanterns dangled from the walls, lighting up the hall. On one side, the wall was lined with hundreds upon thousands of small sheets of paper, all with small notes written on them. The wall was separated into 5 different rows, with inscriptions at the top of each row that Zhao Chen couldn’t quite make out.

‘So that side must be the missions.’ Zhao Chen thought to himself as he walked past. He then turned his head to look at the other side of the hall, which to Zhao Chen's surprise, was lined with an amount of drawers equal to the number of papers on the other side.

Upon closer inspection, Zhao Chen noticed that there were small talismans placed on the four corners of the wall, which Zhao Chen assumed was to prevent any attempted thefts.

When Biyu Liu finally stopped walking, the pair had arrived at the end of the hall, facing a sleeping middle aged man, sitting behind a small desk.

“Mr. Qiu, I'm here to get a mission!” Biyu Liu leaned closer to the man, before yelling in his ear to wake him up.

“I wasn’t sleeping sir!” The man cried out as he sprang up, turning his head around hastily in an attempt to wake himself up. When his vision cleared and he saw that he wasn’t woken up by the dean, he calmed down a bit.

“Oh it’s just you. Why are you coming up to me then? Go to the wall and come back when you’ve picked one out.” The man Yu Qiu took one more look at the pair before resting his head on the desk once more.

“Seems like an energetic guy.” Zhao Chen said as he turned to walk over to the wall. Once he arrived in front of it he could finally make out the inscriptions.

From left to right, the inscriptions read ‘Soul, Mind, Body, Earth, Heaven’, Zhao Chen paused for a moment, thinking about what the words meant. Then to Zhao Chen's disdain, he realised the words were ranks within the academy. Meaning that certain missions could only be taken on by certain ranks.

‘There’s no need to worry, maybe the Soul rank missions aren’t that bad. Who knows, maybe I’ll find a good one.’ Zhao Chen reassured himself before inspecting the sheets of papers under the ‘Soul’ row.

“Missing cat, kitchen help, mail delivery… These are terrible!” Zhao Chen cried out in frustration. Not a single one of the missions were interesting, nor did any of them pay well. They all ranged from 10 to 20 contribution points, and according to Biyu Liu, every 10 contribution points was only equal to 1 piece of silver.

Which to the average person wasn’t horrible, but to duel martial artist and alchemist Zhao Chen, 1 silver wasn’t even enough to wipe his ass. He needed to be making several hundred gold coins for him to be able to satisfy his desires.

Zhao Chen marched over to the sound of Yu Qiu, and knocked on his desk.

“Am I allowed to take missions from a higher rank?”

“No.” Yu Qiu spoke without even lifting his head.

“Not even if I'm able to complete them?”

“No.”

“Why not!”

“Because.”

“Because what!”

“Because I said so you loudmouth idiot! I didn’t make the rules so stop badgering me with questions! If you want to take better missions, go increase your rank, now leave me alone unless you're taking a mission!” Yu Qiu briefly raised his head to yell at Zhao Chen, before putting his head back down on his desk, and the snores could be heard almost instantly.

Zhao Chen raised his fist in anger, but quickly lowered it when he remembered he was still a Qi Gather Realm junior. Still, to vent his frustration, Zhao Chen made a mental image of relieving some stress later.

When the image of Yu Qiu had been fully beat up inside Zhao Chen's head, Zhao Chen turned to walk towards the exit.

Biyu Liu noticed Zhao Chen hadn’t taken a mission and quickly caught up with him just before Zhao Chen had walked out the hall.

“You’re not going to take a mission? I know they aren’t the best, but it’s not like you’ll be stuck at soul rank for very long.” Some might think Biyu Liu was trying to comfort Zhao Chen, but in reality from what she’d heard about Zhao Chen's strength, she was confident in him becoming one of the academy's strongest students in the near future.

“They’re all beyond horrible, I can’t bring myself to even look at them. So I’m not going to take any missions yet.” Zhao Chen spoke without stopping.

“Well what do you plan on doing instead?” Biyu Liu had to lightly jog in an effort to keep up with Zhao Chen, he seemed to have already thought up a plan.

“ I’m going to fight my way to the mind rank this week, the body rank next week and finally the earth rank by the end of the month.” Zhao Chen said casually, causing Biyu Liu to completely stop where she was.

“What!”

“What?”

“You’re going to fight your way to the earth rank in a month? Do you even understand how absurd that is? Some of the Body rank students are at Foundational Harmony Realm, not to mention the Earth Rank students! Just how do you plan on breaking through to their level in a month?” Biyu Liu yelled at Zhao Chens as he continued to walk away.

“What, like it’s hard?” Zhao Chen turned his head to show the sinister smile that had appeared on his face. His heart was already beating in excitement at the thought of the upcoming battles.

‘I hope they don’t disappoint me!’