Chapter 161: [Honoring a Bet and Accepting Defeat]

The other students broke into murmurs of discussion. Even if they had not yet mastered various super-abilities, they had at least witnessed others practicing them. Injecting spiritual energy into super-abilities through unconventional mediums usually favored dense and hard objects; stones, for instance, were among the easiest. Conversely, the lighter and more fragile a substance, the harder it was to use for spiritual energy conduction. This was practically common knowledge.

This leaf, light and pliable, was obviously one of the least suitable unconventional mediums for spiritual energy conduction. Even if someone were powerful enough to force spiritual energy into a leaf, it would shatter the leaf's skeletal structure, causing it to disintegrate instantly.

While experts capable of plucking leaves and flying flowers did exist, they were almost exclusively supreme powerhouses.

Deep down, everyone remained deeply skeptical. Lin Jia even snickered inwardly, thinking: *Luo Chen, you actually want to conduct spiritual energy through a leaf? Do you think you're some sort of celestial being?*

Joanna shook her head and said, "That idiot is showing off again!"

Aunt Ellie smiled and replied, "Indeed. But every time Luo Chen shows off, the end result always proves that we underestimated his abilities. So this time, I'll reserve half of my belief!"

"I don't believe it at all!" Joanna declared decisively. "Alright, I admit I looked down on him many times before, but is plucking leaves and flying flowers something a level-five spiritual warrior can do? Let me tell you, those people are at the god-tier level! Does that kid look like a deity to you? A charlatan is more like it! How about this, let's make a bet. Let's wager on whether Luo Chen can input spiritual energy into the leaf. I say he definitely can't. The loser has to wash the winner's clothes for a week!"

Ellie laughed and said, "Mom, I'll take that bet!"

"Hehe, it's a deal, no backing out!" Joanna smiled mischievously. "Let me tell you some bad news—starting tomorrow, I plan to change into two outfits every day!"

"I'm so scared!" Ellie stuck out her tongue and said, "Let's just wait and see the result first!"

"Do we even need to watch? I'm bound to win!" Joanna was extremely confident. She simply refused to believe that Luo Chen was a god who could do everything!

Amidst the skeptical gazes of the crowd, Luo Chen instantly adjusted his mindset to a specific emotional state while channeling his spiritual energy. Having practiced the reverse-thinking method for so long, this level of emotional control was now child's play to him.

A miracle occurred. That soft, limp leaf suddenly stood up straight and rigid, its edges radiating jagged blades of Qi energy.

Everyone's eyes widened in disbelief. No way! Luo Chen actually pulled it off? Not only did he successfully infuse spiritual energy, but he even reached the point of generating Qi blades!

Joanna almost fainted. "Impossible. That kid must be cheating."

"The facts are right before our eyes. A bet's a bet!" Ellie laughed. "Well, starting today, I need to prepare a few more outfits to change into. It's rare to have someone volunteer to do the laundry."

Imagining a mountain of clothes piling up while she scrubbed and scrubbed with no end in sight, Joanna shivered. She quickly grabbed Ellie's arm and said, "I must tell you something very important: clothes fade if they're washed too often. The fewer times we wash them, the better!"

Ellie teased, "Oh my, Joanna, why didn't you think of this big problem just now?"

"My memory is bad, you see."

Witnessing Luo Chen's demonstration, Lin Jia in the crowd wore a look of utter disdain. *This Luo Chen is definitely cheating!*

If he just wrapped the leaf in a layer of spiritual energy to form a protective membrane, it would indeed cause the leaf to stand upright. He hadn't used the leaf's actual internal structure at all—did he think that counted as infusing spiritual energy? Using a trick like that, anyone present could do it!

What a laughable little trick. Did he really think he could pull the wool over the instructors' eyes? Just wait until the instructors exposed him and he suffered utter humiliation! You don't show off like that. That kind of stunt might fool a three-year-old child, but standing around him right now were instructors—instructors from Blue Emperor Academy, all of whom were meteor-tier super-powered warriors or above!

However, after waiting for a long while, not a single instructor spoke up to expose Luo Chen. This was because they could all tell that this was definitely not some cheap trick involving a protective membrane!

Luo Chen flicked his wrist, and the leaf flew out. However, after flying about ten meters through the air, it drifted down and landed.

Luo Chen scratched his head and said, "Instructors, I'm sorry, I'm still not very practiced at it!"

In truth, Luo Chen currently only knew how to infuse spiritual energy into leaves. Ever since Nicole first demonstrated it to him using a tree leaf, he had continuously practiced using this specific medium. As a result, he had yet to master stones or other easier mediums. Even though his fused spiritual power had greatly increased after successfully infusing energy into a leaf, he had spent the following days busy studying spiritual perception and rhythm control, temporarily putting aside his hidden weapon training.

However, once he could infuse spiritual energy into leaves, practicing with stones would be quite easy; it was only a matter of time.

Lin Jia chuckled inwardly upon seeing this, convinced it was just a low-level trick using a spiritual energy protective film, and a poorly executed one at that. Having strong spiritual power alone was useless!

Baruk wiped away a sweat, thinking: *Kid, you call that "not very practiced," but many meteor-tier super-powered warriors still can't infuse spiritual energy into a leaf at all!*

This student was truly an absolute freak! The only person in the class with a spiritual energy level of only five possessed the strongest spiritual power, and now, he could even infuse spiritual energy into leaves!

Right, Luo Chen's primary attribute was light, and his secondary attributes were wind, metal, and electricity. Because Luo Chen's performance in the assessment was so astonishing, Baruk remembered his profile exceptionally well.

If one's primary or secondary attributes included the wood attribute, their talent for infusing spiritual energy into wood-based substances would be much higher. For instance, Lin Jia was a genius capable of infusing spiritual energy into stones, which naturally meant her primary or secondary attributes included earth—a fact verified by testing, as this was common knowledge.

Yet Luo Chen's attributes did not include wood, and he could still infuse spiritual energy into tree leaves. That was simply unbelievable.

Could this technique have been taught to Luo Chen by the dean? No, impossible. Even sacred battle qi possessed the trait of allowing energy infusion into various mediums, but that could only be achieved when the sacred battle qi was refined to an extremely pure state. Luo Chen, however, was still in the latent stage regarding his sacred attribute.

Initially, Instructor Baruk had wanted to use Luo Chen's expected failure in unconventional conduction mediums to prove that comprehension was more important than mere spiritual power when mastering super-abilities. But now that Luo Chen had actually succeeded—successfully infusing spiritual energy into a leaf—the instructors had to pivot their collective lesson plan. Baruk gave a light cough and said, "Student Luo Chen, you did very well. You may return to the ranks now!"

Lin Jia, standing below, felt utterly bewildered. *Why didn't the instructor expose Luo Chen?*

After the class was dismissed, Lin Jia tracked down Baruk and asked, "Instructor Baruk, I... I believe Student Luo Chen's stunt just now was clearly just wrapping the object in a layer of spiritual energy!"

Baruk glanced at Lin Jia without giving a direct answer. With a single thought, a leaf on the ground drifted up and landed in his hand. "Student Lin Jia, take a look for yourself. You're a smart person; you should know the reason."

With those words, Baruk walked away, leaving behind a bewildered Lin Jia. She touched the small leaf and suddenly made a startling discovery.

The texture—this leaf's texture was harder than normal! She knew very well that it came from the Milan trees planted along the edge of the training grounds, and Milan leaves were extremely soft, similar to weeping willow leaves.

If Luo Chen had merely used a protective film of spiritual energy to release the Milan leaf, the leaf would never have remained this hard. The moment the spiritual energy dissipated, a leaf lacking that protective membrane would instantly return to its original state. Infusing spiritual energy directly into an object, however, was different: a portion of the residual spiritual energy would remain within the object, sustaining it for a short time before finally dissipating. During this period, the object would feel harder than its original state.

In other words, Luo Chen had indeed infused spiritual energy into the leaf; he was not faking it!

Zhuo Yuqing walked over with a gentle smile and said, "Student Lin Jia, I also want to tell you something: never assume you are the only genius in this world. Doing so makes you look rather superficial."

Lin Jia bit her cherry lips. She naturally understood what Zhuo Yuqing meant. In this round, she had lost again!

After class, just as Luo Chen was about to leave, Zhuo Yuqing walked up to him and said, "Captain, let's continue with this week's hunt!"

"Alright!" Luo Chen agreed with a nod, then suddenly remembered something. "By the way, has that relative of yours left? If he hasn't left yet, you probably shouldn't go just yet."

Hearing this, Shi Feng misunderstood completely. *Relative? Could it be her period? Zhuo Yuqing can talk to innocent little Luo Chen about when it comes and goes without blushing or skipping a beat—it seems their relationship is truly extraordinary!*

Thinking of this, Shi Feng secretly whispered to Sara, "Sara, look how bold Zhuo Yuqing is, talking so openly about her 'relatives' visiting! You should learn from her—loosen up a bit, have some fun. Although I know you aren't a wild person, I hope that when you do go wild, you're utterly untamed!"

Sara glared at Shi Feng and hissed, "Stop letting your mind wander into the gutter! Yuqing meant a literal relative. An old man came to look for her last week, seemingly an uncle or something of hers!"

*Damn, so that was it.* Shi Feng couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed. He had always deeply regretted failing to orchestrate a scenario where Luo Chen pushed Zhuo Yuqing down, and he had been dying for the two of them to hook up sooner.

"He has already left!" Zhuo Yuqing smiled faintly. "Also, Captain, he asked me to give you a message: you're a very good young man, but he hopes never to see you again."

*Since he thinks I'm pretty good, why on earth does he hope never to see me again?* Luo Chen was thoroughly puzzled. *What scholars and professors say is truly impossible for ordinary people to understand!*

Only Zhuo Yuqing understood what Bainu's words truly implied: if he ever saw Luo Chen again, it would likely be inside the Saint Martial Research Department, with Luo Chen reduced to a test subject.

At that moment, Joanna chased after them in a fury and shouted, "You stinky brat, look what good deed you've done!"

Luo Chen was full of questions, thinking: *When did I ever offend her? There really are a lot of strange people today.* "Student Joanna, what did I do this time?"

"You made me lose the bet! Starting today, I have to wash her clothes for a whole month!" Joanna said angrily, "It's all because of you! How come I've never seen anyone infuse spiritual energy into a leaf before?!"

"Student Joanna, that's because I only just learned how to do it not long ago!" Luo Chen was left speechless, thinking: *There are plenty of things I can do that you probably don't know about. Besides, you're the one who dragged me into your bet, and now that you've lost, you're turning around to blame me? What kind of logic is that?*

"I don't care, it's your fault! You have to help me..."

"Me help Student Ellie wash her clothes?" A mental image of piles of women's undergarments flashed through Luo Chen's mind, causing him to break out in a cold sweat.

"Joanna, what on earth are you talking about!" Ellie didn't know whether to laugh or cry. With so many people watching, she felt utterly embarrassed. "Alright, I won't make you wash them, okay?"

Joanna quickly chimed in, "You said that yourself! I didn't force you! By the way, stinky brat, what other tricks do you have up your sleeve? Tell me all of them right now, so I don't lose another bet in the future!"

"I'm learning every day, so you'll probably discover something new about me every day," Luo Chen laughed. "How am I supposed to list all of that? Student Joanna, please, just stop using me for your bets, and that'll solve the problem! Well, I have about two more hours, so I'm going back to train for a bit longer. Who knows, the me you see tomorrow might be a completely different person than the me today! Goodbye, everyone!"

Luo Chen winked at Shi Feng and added, "I won't be returning to the dorms for the next two hours. Yep, you know how it is..."

Sara turned crimson with embarrassment and lashed out with a kick, shouting, "Luo Chen, get lost already!"

"Haha, rolling away immediately, rolling away right now!" With that, Luo Chen deployed his lightness technique and sprinted toward the paid training grounds. He had made quite a bit of money over the past few days—more than enough to spend every evening at the paid training grounds.

"Sara, let's go talk about life and ideals too," Shi Feng said with a deadpan, serious expression. "I am now determined to become an outstanding young man of a new era, and I desperately need guidance from someone of your stellar character!"

The boy-crazy girl gave a disdainful snort. "Oh, please. We all know what you two are really after. Do whatever you're going to do, just don't try to dress it up so nicely!"

Sara's face flushed red. "Lulu, stop saying such unpleasant things! If you're jealous, go find someone for yourself sooner!"

With that, the group dispersed—some going to train, others going to discuss life and ideals.

On the way back to the dorms, Joanna said to Ellie, "Seriously, I really feel like every time a certain amount of time passes, my impression of Luo Chen changes. He's constantly and rapidly improving, and from time to time he pulls off things that shock us. If this keeps on going, the two of us might actually get surpassed by him! I refuse to be surpassed by him. Back when I used to tutor him in extracurriculars, I always bossed him around. I want that dynamic to stay the exact same forever, never changing!"

Ellie gasped in mock shock. "Joanna, you want to lord over him for life? Do you actually have a hidden empress complex?"

"Hmph, think whatever you want. I even have lesbian tendencies—you'll find out once we get back to the dorm!"

"No way, Lord Joanna, I'm so scared..."