Part 2
“So it’s not important.”
Sui An’s tone was flat and waveless. “The process isn’t important; only the result matters.”
Lin Qi couldn’t understand. Humans have emotions, and Awakeners are the same.
In fact, because it was hard for Awakeners to develop emotions, they were exceptionally attached to every emotion they possessed.
Whether weak Awakeners or powerful high-sequence ones, once they possessed an emotion, they would carefully protect it.
It wasn’t rare for Awakeners to lose control and mutate on the spot upon seeing a teammate die.
But Sui An seemed different. No one could see through his exterior to what he was thinking.
Even facing teammates he had lived and died with, gotten along with, and shared true friendship with, when it was time to strike, Sui An wouldn’t hesitate in the slightest.
Lin Qi was scared to death, genuinely worried that in the next second, Luo Shizhen, the only obedient and sensible kid, would be gone.
He tensed his face.
“Luo Shizhen, don’t dawdle. Hurry up and continue training!”
Luo Shizhen, who had just stood firm, immediately stood at attention by reflex. “Yes!”
His limbs were soft, but he still jogged into the adjacent soothing training ground.
Watching him run far away, Lin Qi let out a sigh of relief.
Sui An took in all his changes of expression.
“What’s with that face? Like I’m going to eat Luo Shizhen or something.”
Lin Qi: “…”
He thought to himself, You built a cocoon for Luo Shizhen; that’s not much different from eating him, is it?
But then he thought again, Captain Sui hadn’t been this gentle with other exhausted students over the past few days.
Using his mental projection to carry the sleeping Luo Shizhen back suggested he had a favorable impression of this student.
Lin Qi immediately seized the opportunity to persuade him. “Chief, before when I said we should special recruit Luo Shizhen into Silver Cocoon, you didn’t agree. Now you’re rushing to pick him up. Well? Are you tempted?”
“I told you, this kid looks likeable. If you spend more time with him, you’ll definitely like him. Willing to special recruit him now?”
Sui An grabbed sunglasses from the side and put them on. Lounge chair, parasol, sunglasses—it looked exactly like he was on vacation.
Lin Qi circled to the other side. “Chief, Captain Sui, Cap, say something. Can we special recruit? If yes, I’ll write the report immediately!”
He had calculated it clearly:
“We’ll be here for about three months. Although three months is a bit short, Luo Shizhen has high talent. He’s already Rank 2 so soon after awakening, and he purified two classmates. We can just let him graduate early and train him within our team.”
Sui An still didn’t relent.
“Special recruitment is a no-go.”
“Every member of Silver Cocoon must test in legitimately.”
Lin Qi: “…Three months. Even if I train him to death, a student who has never undergone training before can’t possibly pass the exam for Silver Cocoon!”
And if he really trained Luo Shizhen to death or caused some issue, Chen He’an and the principal would definitely kill him.
Sui An said leisurely, “Who said we only have three months?”
“Look at your transfer order.”
Skeptical, Lin Qi pulled up the transfer order. Looking at the date at the end, he was shocked beyond belief.
“One year?!!”
“Is Eternal Day crazy? The two of us combined account for one and a half of Silver Cocoon’s strongest combat power, and they sent us here to train students for a year?”
Sui An: “During this year, we’ll still go on missions if they come up. To facilitate our missions, those spatial Guardians will come to the school in a few days to set up a spatial teleportation elevator.”
Lin Qi: “! What’s the situation? Spatial teleportation elevators exhaust the spatial types so much they have to rest for months after setting one up. They’re setting one up here?”
He lowered his voice and leaned in.
“Chief, is there some insider info? A secret mission?”
Sui An gave a hum of affirmation. “There is insider info, but I can’t say.”
Lin Qi knew it. Suddenly moving them to this school definitely had a reason.
“Is the Vice Principal going to mutate? So they’re having you guard here under the guise of an instructor? In my opinion, the Vice Principal is the weirdest one in the whole school, hiding underground all day and never coming out. Fits the mutation state perfectly.”
He leaned too close, and several transparent threads pulled him away.
“Classified matter. If you want to know, sign the confidentiality agreement and come back to ask.”
Lin Qi: “…Forget it then.”
Leaving aside that Eternal Day’s confidentiality agreements were as tall as a desk, for an Awakener like him not originally listed in the classified event, joining later meant being monitored until the event ended.
He didn’t want a Wood Spirit flapping its wings and staring at him with big eyes just while he was eating.
“Chief…”
Lin Qi, unwilling to give up, wanted to persuade him about special recruiting Luo Shizhen again. Sui An suddenly sat up and picked up the laptop from the side table to start working.
Lin Qi: …Fine.
While the two teachers revolved around the topic of Luo Shizhen, the person in question had arrived at the training ground.
Luo Shizhen obediently followed previous instructions and began stretching his body, preparing for soothing training.
There were other students training in the soothing training ground, and many of them quietly cast their gazes upon him.
The students in the school were young after all, so they had some curiosity.
Moreover, Luo Shizhen had purified two students in a row.
The appearance of a Purifier was like a sheepdog mixing into a pack of wolves. Regardless of their mindset, these young and strong “wolves” instinctively wanted to step forward to sniff and test.
Normally, Luo Shizhen would have been surrounded long ago, but the training intensity these past few days had been too high, draining everyone of their energy. Plus, Lu Qiujin was guarding him 24 hours a day, preventing any overt actions.
But now, in the soothing training ground, the instructors weren’t there, and the eyesore Lu Qiujin wasn’t there either.
There was only Luo Shizhen, burying his head in serious training.
Oppressive, aggressive gazes from all around stared at Luo Shizhen, openly or secretly, eager to approach.
Luo Shizhen felt that none of his classmates were paying attention to him.
But in reality, the Qi that was invisible to the naked eye but faintly perceptible to Awakeners was tentatively circling Luo Shizhen, sizing him up.
If this were any other Awakener, they would definitely feel the discomfort of their territory being invaded and would angrily seek out the owner of the Qi for a fight.
This was also one of the ways Awakeners provoked and tested each other. Usually, one only needed to release their Qi, and within three seconds, they would get a response.
—Although that response was usually a violent fight.
But Luo Shizhen didn’t react at all, continuing to bury his head in his own business.
Luo Shizhen was a very dull person.
According to the neighbor auntie, he was even sillier when he was little. When his grandma was tending the fire, he sat nearby waiting. Sparks flew out and set his clothes on fire.
Any other child would have screamed and cried, but little Luo Shizhen just stared blankly at the fire on his body. He didn’t even cry when he got burned.
When the adults helped put out the fire, he just watched them quietly. After the fire was out, someone told Grandma Luo that this child was completely foolish and she should send him to an orphanage because she couldn’t raise him.
But Grandma Luo raised Luo Shizhen well. He learned to put out fires quickly and knew to greet the neighbor auntie politely.
However, he still appeared a bit slow in daily life. For instance, when these Qi surrounded him, Luo Shizhen could feel something extra on his body.
But he just strangely patted his body and didn’t take it seriously.
Luo Shizhen remaining motionless puzzled the other students.
But an Awakener’s territorial instinct was vividly expressed through their Qi. Initially approaching cautiously to observe slowly, seeing the owner of this body not reacting, these Qi became uncontrollably brazen.
Luo Shizhen hadn’t learned to control his own Qi yet, but his Qi seemed to contain its master’s characteristics.
When the violent and unruly Qi from others approached, Luo Shizhen’s Qi not only lacked the instinct to attack but accepted them with tolerance.
Awakeners were the type to take a yard when given an inch. Finding the host here didn’t drive them away, they immediately became more spirited, stopped testing, and approached swaggeringly.
Luo Shizhen’s Qi remained harmless, even gently touching the first Qi body that leaned in.
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