Chapter 88: Returning to School to Revitalize the Cultivation World (88% complete)

"bass!"

That was the sound of countless weapons being drawn.

"This octopus isn't dead yet? It's pretty tough." Su Xiaoyao took a step back, shielding Helian Yi in front of her. She rubbed her slightly blurry eyes and looked at the young child in front of her.

“That’s true. The inner core is with us, so the octopus’s self-destruction won’t damage its core.” Shen Suqi slapped a talisman over to ensure the octopus had no ability to retaliate.

Shui Fan moved closer to Helian Yi, poked the person on the ground, and turned back to say, "It's definitely this one. It's a bit charred from the electric shock, but it's definitely the taste I remember."

He then licked his lips.

"Stop drooling, it's about to wake up," Helian Yi said.

Everyone immediately jumped back, ready to defend themselves.

"Oh right, there's something I forgot to mention." Shui Fan remembered something and was about to continue when she was interrupted by the little octopus's piercing hiss.

"It's you again!" The little octopus's face turned bright red with anger, and her long, blue curly hair exploded as if she had been electrocuted.

The monster, having lost its intimidating presence, failed to arouse vigilance; instead, it became somewhat endearing.

"Despicable human cultivators! You broke into my home and stole my inner core, and now you still won't let me go!"

"We don't want your inner core, nor do we want your life. We just need you to come with us." Su Qinghuan, who had been dejected all the way, instantly perked up upon seeing the living mission target.

"I don't want it. Who knows what you're up to?" The little octopus said warily, its eyes darting around. "You capture spirit beasts just to exchange them for treasures. I've been the boss of this sea for hundreds of years. I still have enough money to redeem myself. It's enough to make each of you a millionaire. Hmph, you're getting off easy."

It offered what it thought was a reasonable solution, but the human in front of it turned out to have a very strange expression.

Helian Yi stared at it intently: "A million-dollar fortune? Are you cursing the Helian family to go bankrupt?"

Little Octopus: "..." How come this person is so stubborn!

"Alright, alright," Su Xiaoyao stepped in to smooth things over. "We won't hurt you, we just need you to answer a few questions."

The little octopus pouted and squeezed out tears: "But you have already hurt me."

“We have different positions, but we don’t have any conflicts now.” She smiled kindly. “Come on, Jiang Yun, show your friendliness.”

Jiang Yun opened his palm, and a blue-purple ball of lightning crackled and popped.

The little octopus immediately wiped away its feigned tears: "Okay, I'll cooperate."

Su Xiaoyao clicked her tongue, thinking that this old man, who was hundreds of years old, was trying to act young with her.

"My first question is, how did you obtain the other inner core?"

The little octopus seemed to recall: "Two groups of cultivators were fighting on my territory when this thing fell down."

Su Xiaoyao's smile remained unchanged as she turned to Shen Suxi: "I remember you drew a truth talisman that would make you get electrocuted if you told a lie."

Shen Suqi immediately understood: "Yes, yes, I just happened to bring some." As she spoke, she started to take out her wallet.

"I misremembered," the little octopus said quickly. "Back then, two groups of cultivators were fighting over that inner core on my territory. I sensed its power and had a vague intuition that it could help me break through to the Golden Core stage, so I seized the opportunity to steal it and made them think that the other side had gotten it." It proudly raised its head, clearly thinking that it had played its trick brilliantly.

"You have absolutely no doubt that there's something wrong with it?" Su Xiaoyao stroked her chin, basically confirming her previous guess.

The little octopus fell silent, clearly having reservations, but its yearning for increased strength outweighed everything, leading it to choose to turn a blind eye.

"You should thank us for arriving early," Shui Fan said with a snort, arms crossed. "If you were controlled by it for any longer, you'd be nothing but an empty shell."

Su Xiaoyao thought of something: "How could someone so stupid steal something from a bunch of unscrupulous cultivators without being discovered? You haven't been set up, have you?"

The little octopus tensed: "What do you mean?"

“This is an inner core formed from demonic energy, and it’s not ordinary demonic energy,” Shui Fan said. “It’s the purest demonic energy of the Abyss Dragon. Those corrupted by it will become slaves of the dragon and lose all their own thoughts. Do you feel yourself becoming more and more irritable, your emotions out of control, and your desire to kill overriding your reason?”

The little octopus's eyes darted away; it had been right.

"What a pity." Shui Fan's gaze lingered on it reluctantly. "It can't be eaten now that it's contaminated."

Upon hearing this, the little octopus immediately bristled and instinctively swung out a tentacle, which was then severed by Shui Fan's claw.

Shui Fan pinched the severed tentacle and smelled it, feeling even more regretful: "It's hopeless, the demonic energy has seeped into it."

"Why waste words with it? We're going to take it back anyway." Su Qinghuan's chains rattled in his hands; he was getting impatient.

"Relax, relax, don't be so fierce. He's just a few hundred-year-old baby with a bad brain." Su Xiaoyao pulled him back. "Peace brings wealth."

Su Qing looked at her suspiciously, feeling that she was up to no good.

Su Xiaoyao raised her hand to her lips and coughed twice: "Oh, I'm still a little dizzy and lightheaded. I don't know if it's because of some internal injury. My eyes are also a little blurry. Although the hazy world is quite nice, well, sigh."

Su Qinghuan couldn't stand the nagging anymore and took two steps back to give up the stage.

Su Xiaoyao turned to the octopus who was suspicious of her life and smiled: "You have no choice. Come with us. Besides, after we took your demon core, you can't even protect yourself. If you come back with us, maybe I can still save you."

"Are you willing to help me?" the little octopus asked hesitantly.

Su Xiaoyao smiled brightly and rubbed its head: "You are also a victim. At least so far you have controlled your emotions and have not committed any major evils."

"Alright then." The little octopus glanced at Su Qinghuan, "but I want to stay by your side."

"Don't forget our agreement," Su Qinghuan frowned, reminding him promptly.

“I can’t forget it, let it stay with me for now.” Su Xiaoyao pulled up the little octopus, which immediately hid behind her, timidly showing half its face, looking at Su Qinghuan and then at Jiang Yunshui Fan.

“Trying to be cute with them won’t work,” she said.

The little octopus lowered its eyes in thought, then a tentacle reached out from under its clothes and poked her. Seeing her laughing heartily, it understood.

It doesn't work on those people, but it works on her!

So he tried even harder to act weak, tugging at Su Xiaoyao's clothes and whining while rolling his eyes at Su Qingqian.

Su Qingzhen felt that Su Xiaoyao's attitude was unusual. He didn't think that she, who was petty, could forget about being chased and beaten by tentacles just because the little octopus was cute. But he couldn't figure out what was wrong. Even after sending 007, he only got the answer from 996 that Su Xiaoyao was a looks-obsessed person.

"That's in line with 996's consistent approach of pushing his luck," 007 said.

After all that trouble, the group embarked on their journey home again.

On the way, Su Xiaoyao, taking advantage of her injury, would sometimes have Su Qinghuan scout ahead, and other times would only use Jiang Yun to generate electric mosquitoes.

Su Qinghuan kept a close eye on her. He had a feeling that Su Xiaoyao's unusual behavior must be suspicious, but he couldn't find any evidence. So he just watched her cause trouble all the way back to the academy.

As they entered the university, chatting and laughing, a sudden gust of wind swept in.

Su Xiaoyao dodged the ancient zither that fell from the sky, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Helian Yi dodge a cauldron that was thrown at her.

"Holy crap, what is this?"

The students in the equipment repair class felt reassured as soon as they saw her and quickly gathered in her direction.

"Squad leader!!!" A head popped out from the chaotic crowd of people fighting, leaving behind a brief shout before being quickly silenced.

"Has the midterm exam started yet? The fighting is so fierce." Shen Suqi patted her chest to catch her breath and threw two talismans to freeze the various magical artifacts that were flying around uncontrollably.

The physical training class quickly formed a formation, while Jiang Yun protected the flanks, lightning dancing on his fingertips to prevent any more random things from accidentally injuring their newly returned group of elderly, weak, sick, and disabled.

Su Xiaoyao looked closely and saw a group of classmates with tattered clothes pulling each other's hair. Her dignified and elegant vice class monitor had one arm held by someone and her waist blocked. She was trying to stretch her leg forward, baring her teeth and looking ferocious.

"Damn it! The most cunning guy from the equipment repair squad is back! We need to finish this quickly! Tie them up!"

Seeing that things were going badly, the students in the sound editing class quickly accelerated the assessment process.

"What! You're not including me in the midterm exam? What will happen to my overall grade?!" Su Xiaoyao's legs no longer hurt and her eyes no longer ached, so she immediately rolled up her sleeves and joined in.

The two sides, who were both skilled in instrument repair and sound repair, abandoned their prized magical artifacts and musical instruments and engaged in a fierce battle in the open space.

The instrument repairmen wielded unfinished iron blanks as clubs, while the music repairmen picked up scorched-tail zithers and smashed them on each other's heads. The clanging and banging of the instruments were interspersed with the crisp sound of snapping strings, and occasionally a few zither nails would fly out from the melee, indiscriminately attacking the onlookers like hidden weapons.

"I didn't expect you bunch of brutes who only know how to forge iron to have some skill." The class leader of the sound cultivation class stretched out his arm, which was missing a sleeve, grabbed the beard of the weapon cultivator, and with his other hand, he tightly gripped half of a jade flute and threw spiritual energy attacks at the others.

"Ha, at least you're better than all you guys who just babble all day long." The big man swung his iron hammer backhand, smashing the other man's hair into a mess.

Two young disciples rolled past, one grabbing his neck and the other pulling his hairband.

Beyond the fact that their cultivation levels are evenly matched, it is the purest form of competition.

Finally, the teacher in charge of scoring called a halt. The audio editing class won, but the instrumental editing class had a higher average score.

"The blacksmith's hand strength is definitely greater." Although the sound editing team won, they were not satisfied with the result.

"They carry their ritual implements around every day; their stamina is incredible," the implement repair team retorted indignantly.

"We will definitely not lose at the final exam!" Both sides declared confidently at the same time.

Su Xiaoyao, as the representative of the instrument repair class, shook hands with the head of the sound repair class. As soon as they stepped off the stage, it was as if the two sides had become different groups of people.

The head of the sound editing class put on his coat to cover the torn sleeve, tidied his disheveled hair, and with his clothes fluttering, he showed no trace of the ruthless ferocity he had just displayed.

"Xiao Yao, you're back! Long time no see. How did the mission go?"

"Everything went smoothly. I didn't expect your music training class to be so knowledgeable about physical training."

"You flatter me, you're not bad either."

"Sorry, I got carried away and broke your flute."

"It's nothing, it's just my spare magic weapon. Do you take any jobs? Could you help me refine it again?"

"No problem."

Other sound cultivators also stepped forward and immediately found familiar or suitable instruments to repair the ritual objects.

"That's too cruel. I'd better go cook something." Xiao Tingyuan silently stepped back.

"The task hasn't been submitted yet."

"Oh right."

Feeling refreshed, Su Xiaoyao returned to the team, and the group arrived at the mission hall in a grand procession.

They were greeted by Guiyi's ever-present smile.

"Grandma, we're back!"

"You've completed your missions," Guiyi said with a smile, greeting the two teams.

From the moment they stepped into the mission hall, Su Qinghuan consciously separated himself from Su Xiaoyao into two opposing camps, and casually took an octopus with him.

Guiyi glanced at the two of them meaningfully, then handed them two blank forms, asking them to write a task summary and clearly state each person's contribution to the task.

Su Xiaoyao accepted the brush with great enthusiasm and completed the work in one go.

"Give me a rating for my calligraphy." She looked at her contribution rating on the report with satisfaction.

"Graceful as a startled swan, elegant as a swimming dragon, her brushstrokes are divine." Shen Suqi praised, giving a thumbs up.

Su Qingqian glanced at her scrawled handwriting: "Tsk, your handwriting reflects your personality."

Shen Suqi immediately defended her friend: "Hey, hey, hey, why are you making personal attacks! You're even swearing at me."

Su Qingqian sneered: "So she's justified in attacking my eyes with her handwriting?"

Su Xiaoyao: Something seems off.

"Alright, alright, the task is important, and so are the credits." She was unusually magnanimous and let Su Qinghuan off the hook.

But just a second before Su Qinghuan was about to submit the task.

"Wait a minute."

Su Xiaoyao smiled broadly, and Su Qinghuan's heart skipped a beat.

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A note from the author: Seeing my lovely readers still waiting makes me feel very remorseful. I'm sorry, I'm under a lot of work pressure and I'm habitually anxious and irritable. Every time I try to finish updating in one go, I can't calm down at all when I sit in front of the computer.

I'm planning to take a long vacation soon and get myself in the right state of mind to finish this [crying emoji].