“Ms Salted Fish, they are…?” asked Ren Suo.
Ren Suo glanced at the three high school girls who were staring at him from the side as he treated Lin Xianyu’s arm.
“It’s all because of you guys mocking my name every day, even Uncle knows about the name ‘salted fish’ now,” chided Lin Xianyu as she glared at her friends. She continued, “These are my classmates, we are planning to go hiking today so they followed me here to the school hospital.”
“Hiking?” asked Ren Suo. “Aren’t you guys not allowed to leave school, except during special holidays?”
“There are mountains in school,” said a girl with short hair. She added, “It’s just behind the running track, it is still within the school compound.”
Ren Suo was slightly surprised, saying, “I remember that mountain is quite huge…”
“Yes, it is, so in addition to hiking, the school is also building facilities like fishing ponds, playgrounds, hot springs, swimming pools …”
Lin Xianyu shrugged. She winced as she suddenly moved an unhealed wound. Grimacing, she said, “I don’t even know if the facilities will finish construction before we graduate. Sigh, I don’t know if I’m lucky or not, the school is going to be upgraded with many new equipment right after my graduation… ”
The other three girls nodded in agreement.
As the girls continued chatting, Ren Suo finished treating the wounds on Lin Xianyu’s hands and said, “Alright, it’s done.”
“Wow!” exclaimed the girls as they grabbed and felt Lin Xianyu’s hands. They said, “The wounds are all healed indeed.”
“Ten minutes ago, it looked exactly like salted fish that had been chopped into parts.”
“The salted fish has found a new home!”
Lin Xianyu chided her friends angrily, “Who allowed you to call me salted fish?”
“Ah, what a salty salted fish.”
“Ah! You flat-chested salted fish!”
It looks like there is little hope in persuading her to sleep today…
Ren Suo stood up and shook his head, saying, “If that is all, you may leave now. You’re going to get injections from the nurses for making so much noise in the treatment room.”
“… Your warning is only going to scare young children who are afraid of injections, at best,” laughed Wen Jing, who had been standing at the side. She covered her mouth as she laughed, and asked curiously, “Will we be able to learn such abilities like the ones you know, doctor?”
“Of course you can. In the future, even if you are not a doctor, there will be abilities that allow you to treat yourself,” said Ren Suo. He casually added, “Although the current recovery abilities can only treat external injuries and may not be effective for illnesses like colds, but with advancements in technology, there would definitely be …”
“That’s awesome, you can eat spicy food without fearing acne breakouts in future!”
“We would not need to be afraid of dark eye circles forming anymore when we stay up late!”
The girls left the school hospital in smiles as they talked about the glorious future. Ren Suo made sure that they had all left before he took off his cap and fanned himself.
Although Ren Suo was not so concerned about himself, he was afraid as more people patted his head, they would start suspecting that he was using unorthodox methods to attract people to him – or that someone had made him the common target. Hence, he wore a cap when he left his house, and it turned out that indeed no one would touch his hair for no reason.
Of course, there was another way to “treat” the hidden threat plaguing Ren Suo – shaving bald. But as a young man of the next generation who duly paid his taxes, Ren Suo could not bear to impact the shampoo industry just because of his own selfishness, as he could still be a loyal user of shampoo for the next 70 years.
Moreover, it was summer and the sun was scorching, so heading out with a cap on was apt too to block the strong sunlight.
All of a sudden, Ren Suo’s mobile phone rang. The moment the call was connected, Ren Suo had a strong hunch that there was more work for him to do.
Yu Kuangtu said, “I did not know that you have a rather good relationship with Li Dan.”
Ren Suo was puzzled the moment Yu Kuangtu started talking. He asked, “What’s up?”
Yu Kuangtu replied, “Log in to the Knowledge Web now. You will see that there is another Knowledge Star that can be ignited. It is called the True Cultivation Method: Secret Records of Glorious Xuan. It was discovered by the nation and must only be transmitted through the Knowledge Web.”
“Secret Records of Glorious Xuan?” questioned Ren Suo as he found a tree to shade himself from the sun. He said, “The name sounds like it came from an ancient book, not from being discovered.”
“You are half correct. In fact, the simplified version of the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan contains the cultivation methods which the Practitioner Institution is going to impart to the students, to lay the foundation for their future study of the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan. The cultivation methods are categorised into levels one, two, and three. In the future, there may be different versions and the individual method names may be changed to ‘Dance of Youth’ and the like,” explained Yu Kuangtu.
He continued, “The true Secret Records of Glorious Xuan is indeed derived from the ancient books. All the useful secret ancient methods were extracted to form this “secret dairy”. Essentially, it is actually an encyclopedia containing all secret cultivation methods which have been agreed upon.”
“The reason why it is named Glorious Xuan is because our nation is called “Xuan” and it is respectfully “glorious”. It is a “secret record” because the contents should not be imparted to just anyone. Even the students learn only the tip of the iceberg of the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan.”
Yu Kuangtu laughed and said, “This is the nation’s trump card for all its Practitioners. And now, you are sufficiently qualified to acquire the knowledge of the first chapter of the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan, although you would definitely not have sufficient Reiki Stones to purchase it now.”
“Although it is merely one chapter, even I am still practicing the first chapter. Unlike the basic cultivation method of inhaling and exhaling, the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan would allow you to make use of Reiki to enhance your physical fitness and even purify your soul while you are Practicing. The effectiveness is many times that of the basic breathing cultivation method. By the time you successfully complete the first chapter, you would at least be a mini superman,” said Yu Kuangtu.
Ren Suo laughed and asked, “That’s great, but why did I suddenly earn such a privilege?”
Yu Kuangtu said, “Now there are two compulsory conditions for accessing the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan. Firstly, you must be working for the nation, and secondly, you must be a Practitioner. Generally, only those with sufficiently high capability qualifications will be qualified to exchange for it. However, there are also many exceptions to that.”
“For example, if a Practitioner who has made a significant accomplishment is willing to use that credit and his earned reputation to be the guarantor for another eligible Practitioner…”
Ren Suo recalled the man with dark eye circles who was not good at conversing and always spoke too straightforwardly. He asked, “What has Li Dan been up to recently?”
“Him? He was transferred over to the Tianjing headquarters and has been very busy out on the field. I don’t know what exactly he is doing either, but even if I do know, I can’t tell you anyway. But I figure that they must have encountered something strange,” replied Yu Kuangtu.
Something strange…
Ren Suo said, “Thank you for specially telling me about the Secret Records. If that is all, I’ll — ”
“Hold on, what’s the rush? There is work for you to do,” interrupted Yu Kuangtu.
I knew it.
Yu Kuangtu said, “It’s been ten days since the final episode of ‘Over My Dead Body’ was uploaded and there are still no signs of a second season, so it’s time for you to write a summary report. I want you to analyze in terms of the different ability systems, the combat techniques, and the common patterns of monsters. The report only needs to be in the range of tens of thousands of words.”
Ren Suo agreed and quickly hung up the phone, but in his heart, he thought, mmp (son of a bitch).
Heading down to the ground level of the dormitory building, Ren Suo noticed that the black cat with the bell was resting under the shade. Ren Suo squatted down and rubbed its head, and then touched his own head. He felt that his head was still nicer to touch.
The black cat purred softly and was too lazy to move as it looked at Ren Suo’s foolish action.
Ren Suo returned home and closed the curtains. He turned on the Knowledge Web, but it was currently not the Exchange Period and the Knowledge Universe was dark, leaving Ren Suo with no choice but to wait.
Either way, Yu Kuangtu had already mentioned that he did not have sufficient Reiki stones to make the purchase, so he had to wait until he received his salary the following month.
Ren Suo turned on the Small World game console. He had already thought about what to do before falling asleep the night before, and navigated directly to the “World Shop”, and then the “Lesser Fullness of Grain Discount Event”.
In the system of the 24 solar terms, the Lesser Fullness of Grain signified that the summer crops were not fully mature and as such there was “lesser fullness” of grain.
And now, the current promotion was also related to the significance of Lesser Fullness of Grain.
The games on discount were only semi-finished products and games that were not yet “mature”.
[Semi-finished games: there would be no merit points and treasure chests rewarded, and there are no in-game purchase options, mission scores and evaluations. The specialized reward is also unknown (it will be related to how the game is played and completed).]
Most importantly, such games… had no main characters!
——————
When Li Dan arrived at the Tianjing Research Institute, he was led to the third underground floor by a researcher, where he saw only six team members.
A member of the team said, “When Cheng Xiao visited his parents three days ago, he fell completely asleep. Gou Dan fell asleep while he was in the car two days ago, and Li Ming fell asleep yesterday when he was on the plane.”
Li Dan looked at them and said, “So, out of the initial twenty people, we are the only seven left… The rest of you have done what you need to do as well?”
The team members nodded their heads and said, “Yes, we took two flights in a day and it was so rushed. How about you?”
Li Dan said, “I have no close friends or relatives, so I just went back to sleep and came here after.”
Li Dan rubbed his dark eye circles as he glanced at the huge, advanced automatic door leading to the third underground floor. He said in a hushed tone, “I hope that our lives, which are about to be destroyed by such impurity, can shine brightly for one last time before we fall into our long, deep slumber…”
“If only we had not entered that room when we were searching for the earth spirits, and if we had not touched…” said a tall and large guy, choking on his words.
“There are no ifs,” said Li Dan.
Quietly, the automatic door opened. Li Dan looked at the man sitting on the metal throne seat inside and shook his head slightly. He continued, “This is all… fate.”
“Ms Salted Fish, they are…?” asked Ren Suo.
Ren Suo glanced at the three high school girls who were staring at him from the side as he treated Lin Xianyu’s arm.
“It’s all because of you guys mocking my name every day, even Uncle knows about the name ‘salted fish’ now,” chided Lin Xianyu as she glared at her friends. She continued, “These are my classmates, we are planning to go hiking today so they followed me here to the school hospital.”
“Hiking?” asked Ren Suo. “Aren’t you guys not allowed to leave school, except during special holidays?”
“There are mountains in school,” said a girl with short hair. She added, “It’s just behind the running track, it is still within the school compound.”
Ren Suo was slightly surprised, saying, “I remember that mountain is quite huge…”
“Yes, it is, so in addition to hiking, the school is also building facilities like fishing ponds, playgrounds, hot springs, swimming pools …”
Lin Xianyu shrugged. She winced as she suddenly moved an unhealed wound. Grimacing, she said, “I don’t even know if the facilities will finish construction before we graduate. Sigh, I don’t know if I’m lucky or not, the school is going to be upgraded with many new equipment right after my graduation… ”
The other three girls nodded in agreement.
As the girls continued chatting, Ren Suo finished treating the wounds on Lin Xianyu’s hands and said, “Alright, it’s done.”
“Wow!” exclaimed the girls as they grabbed and felt Lin Xianyu’s hands. They said, “The wounds are all healed indeed.”
“Ten minutes ago, it looked exactly like salted fish that had been chopped into parts.”
“The salted fish has found a new home!”
Lin Xianyu chided her friends angrily, “Who allowed you to call me salted fish?”
“Ah, what a salty salted fish.”
“Ah! You flat-chested salted fish!”
It looks like there is little hope in persuading her to sleep today…
Ren Suo stood up and shook his head, saying, “If that is all, you may leave now. You’re going to get injections from the nurses for making so much noise in the treatment room.”
“… Your warning is only going to scare young children who are afraid of injections, at best,” laughed Wen Jing, who had been standing at the side. She covered her mouth as she laughed, and asked curiously, “Will we be able to learn such abilities like the ones you know, doctor?”
“Of course you can. In the future, even if you are not a doctor, there will be abilities that allow you to treat yourself,” said Ren Suo. He casually added, “Although the current recovery abilities can only treat external injuries and may not be effective for illnesses like colds, but with advancements in technology, there would definitely be …”
“That’s awesome, you can eat spicy food without fearing acne breakouts in future!”
“We would not need to be afraid of dark eye circles forming anymore when we stay up late!”
The girls left the school hospital in smiles as they talked about the glorious future. Ren Suo made sure that they had all left before he took off his cap and fanned himself.
Although Ren Suo was not so concerned about himself, he was afraid as more people patted his head, they would start suspecting that he was using unorthodox methods to attract people to him – or that someone had made him the common target. Hence, he wore a cap when he left his house, and it turned out that indeed no one would touch his hair for no reason.
Of course, there was another way to “treat” the hidden threat plaguing Ren Suo – shaving bald. But as a young man of the next generation who duly paid his taxes, Ren Suo could not bear to impact the shampoo industry just because of his own selfishness, as he could still be a loyal user of shampoo for the next 70 years.
Moreover, it was summer and the sun was scorching, so heading out with a cap on was apt too to block the strong sunlight.
All of a sudden, Ren Suo’s mobile phone rang. The moment the call was connected, Ren Suo had a strong hunch that there was more work for him to do.
Yu Kuangtu said, “I did not know that you have a rather good relationship with Li Dan.”
Ren Suo was puzzled the moment Yu Kuangtu started talking. He asked, “What’s up?”
Yu Kuangtu replied, “Log in to the Knowledge Web now. You will see that there is another Knowledge Star that can be ignited. It is called the True Cultivation Method: Secret Records of Glorious Xuan. It was discovered by the nation and must only be transmitted through the Knowledge Web.”
“Secret Records of Glorious Xuan?” questioned Ren Suo as he found a tree to shade himself from the sun. He said, “The name sounds like it came from an ancient book, not from being discovered.”
“You are half correct. In fact, the simplified version of the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan contains the cultivation methods which the Practitioner Institution is going to impart to the students, to lay the foundation for their future study of the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan. The cultivation methods are categorised into levels one, two, and three. In the future, there may be different versions and the individual method names may be changed to ‘Dance of Youth’ and the like,” explained Yu Kuangtu.
He continued, “The true Secret Records of Glorious Xuan is indeed derived from the ancient books. All the useful secret ancient methods were extracted to form this “secret dairy”. Essentially, it is actually an encyclopedia containing all secret cultivation methods which have been agreed upon.”
“The reason why it is named Glorious Xuan is because our nation is called “Xuan” and it is respectfully “glorious”. It is a “secret record” because the contents should not be imparted to just anyone. Even the students learn only the tip of the iceberg of the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan.”
Yu Kuangtu laughed and said, “This is the nation’s trump card for all its Practitioners. And now, you are sufficiently qualified to acquire the knowledge of the first chapter of the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan, although you would definitely not have sufficient Reiki Stones to purchase it now.”
“Although it is merely one chapter, even I am still practicing the first chapter. Unlike the basic cultivation method of inhaling and exhaling, the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan would allow you to make use of Reiki to enhance your physical fitness and even purify your soul while you are Practicing. The effectiveness is many times that of the basic breathing cultivation method. By the time you successfully complete the first chapter, you would at least be a mini superman,” said Yu Kuangtu.
Ren Suo laughed and asked, “That’s great, but why did I suddenly earn such a privilege?”
Yu Kuangtu said, “Now there are two compulsory conditions for accessing the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan. Firstly, you must be working for the nation, and secondly, you must be a Practitioner. Generally, only those with sufficiently high capability qualifications will be qualified to exchange for it. However, there are also many exceptions to that.”
“For example, if a Practitioner who has made a significant accomplishment is willing to use that credit and his earned reputation to be the guarantor for another eligible Practitioner…”
Ren Suo recalled the man with dark eye circles who was not good at conversing and always spoke too straightforwardly. He asked, “What has Li Dan been up to recently?”
“Him? He was transferred over to the Tianjing headquarters and has been very busy out on the field. I don’t know what exactly he is doing either, but even if I do know, I can’t tell you anyway. But I figure that they must have encountered something strange,” replied Yu Kuangtu.
Something strange…
Ren Suo said, “Thank you for specially telling me about the Secret Records. If that is all, I’ll — ”
“Hold on, what’s the rush? There is work for you to do,” interrupted Yu Kuangtu.
I knew it.
Yu Kuangtu said, “It’s been ten days since the final episode of ‘Over My Dead Body’ was uploaded and there are still no signs of a second season, so it’s time for you to write a summary report. I want you to analyze in terms of the different ability systems, the combat techniques, and the common patterns of monsters. The report only needs to be in the range of tens of thousands of words.”
Ren Suo agreed and quickly hung up the phone, but in his heart, he thought, mmp (son of a bitch).
Heading down to the ground level of the dormitory building, Ren Suo noticed that the black cat with the bell was resting under the shade. Ren Suo squatted down and rubbed its head, and then touched his own head. He felt that his head was still nicer to touch.
The black cat purred softly and was too lazy to move as it looked at Ren Suo’s foolish action.
Ren Suo returned home and closed the curtains. He turned on the Knowledge Web, but it was currently not the Exchange Period and the Knowledge Universe was dark, leaving Ren Suo with no choice but to wait.
Either way, Yu Kuangtu had already mentioned that he did not have sufficient Reiki stones to make the purchase, so he had to wait until he received his salary the following month.
Ren Suo turned on the Small World game console. He had already thought about what to do before falling asleep the night before, and navigated directly to the “World Shop”, and then the “Lesser Fullness of Grain Discount Event”.
In the system of the 24 solar terms, the Lesser Fullness of Grain signified that the summer crops were not fully mature and as such there was “lesser fullness” of grain.
And now, the current promotion was also related to the significance of Lesser Fullness of Grain.
The games on discount were only semi-finished products and games that were not yet “mature”.
[Semi-finished games: there would be no merit points and treasure chests rewarded, and there are no in-game purchase options, mission scores and evaluations. The specialized reward is also unknown (it will be related to how the game is played and completed).]
Most importantly, such games… had no main characters!
——————
When Li Dan arrived at the Tianjing Research Institute, he was led to the third underground floor by a researcher, where he saw only six team members.
A member of the team said, “When Cheng Xiao visited his parents three days ago, he fell completely asleep. Gou Dan fell asleep while he was in the car two days ago, and Li Ming fell asleep yesterday when he was on the plane.”
Li Dan looked at them and said, “So, out of the initial twenty people, we are the only seven left… The rest of you have done what you need to do as well?”
The team members nodded their heads and said, “Yes, we took two flights in a day and it was so rushed. How about you?”
Li Dan said, “I have no close friends or relatives, so I just went back to sleep and came here after.”
Li Dan rubbed his dark eye circles as he glanced at the huge, advanced automatic door leading to the third underground floor. He said in a hushed tone, “I hope that our lives, which are about to be destroyed by such impurity, can shine brightly for one last time before we fall into our long, deep slumber…”
“If only we had not entered that room when we were searching for the earth spirits, and if we had not touched…” said a tall and large guy, choking on his words.
“There are no ifs,” said Li Dan.
Quietly, the automatic door opened. Li Dan looked at the man sitting on the metal throne seat inside and shook his head slightly. He continued, “This is all… fate.”
