Chapter 40: Death

Li Kang was so terrified that cold sweat poured down his back, casting nervous glances up at the sky every now and then, fearing that divine punishment might strike at any moment. Guan Fei finally snapped out of his daze as well, his expression shifting rapidly. If this had something to do with... then everything could be explained.

"No wonder Teacher Chu and... It turns out it's all because of..." Guan Fei bit his lower lip hard. Even though the matter was utterly absurd, if things really were this way... whether it was the unimaginable transformation of the underground temple from before or Chu Zhu's drastic change in personality, it all made sense now...

Despite his deep reverence for Nüwa Seventeen, Guan Fei could not help but feel a surge of anger and resentment right now.

"Do not speak of this!" Li Kang said through gritted teeth. Precisely because it made so much sense, it was something they couldn't even afford to touch—or better yet, even think about!

Meanwhile.

Chu Zhu had already politely declined Ning Linglong's invitation to dinner for tonight.

"So much has happened today, it's not really appropriate! Besides... if nothing unexpected happens, your dad must have strongly urged you to attend tonight's dinner as well, right?"

"What do you mean?" Ning Linglong asked in surprise.

"It's simple! Just tell your father tonight that you already had lunch with me today, and that should be enough to satisfy him." Chu Zhu paused for a moment, glancing sideways at Ning Linglong. "Of course, if you really are eager to play the cradle-snatcher..."

"...Uncle Chu!!" Ning Linglong bristled. But a second later, she found herself thinking that the whole situation was getting weirder and weirder... The person across from her was someone she called uncle, yet somehow, a blind date between her and her uncle would be considered cradle-snatching?

The thought alone gave her goosebumps and left her utterly speechless!

Thinking back and forth, Ning Linglong gnashed her teeth, blaming it all on her foolish and outrageous father.

"Oh, right." Ning Linglong suddenly remembered something, blinking her eyes. Her long-booted feet rubbed gently against the ground, causing her long, black-stocking-clad legs and hips to subtly sway into a graceful curve. "That thing you guys were discussing earlier..."

"That is a topic we dare not even touch," Chu Zhu replied casually.

"Oh, well, never mind then."

...

At eight o'clock in the evening.

Chu Zhu pushed open the door and stepped inside. Li Kang followed closely behind, with Guan Fei and Ning Linglong entering in turn.

Due to her combat strength, Bi Xuan had not participated in this mission.

"So small!" After sweeping her gaze around the room, Ning Linglong's voice carried a hint of sheer disbelief. This was the dwelling of Chu Zhu, the founder of that guild and the self-proclaimed underground king of the shanty town redevelopment zone?

This... this was barely even a single floor!

Judging by the way Guan Fei had been bragging earlier, she felt that even if Chu Zhu had rented out the entire building, it still wouldn't match his status.

Guan Fei remained silent, unphased, as he had long known what kind of person Chu Zhu was.

It was Li Kang's first time visiting Chu Zhu's home as well. After taking a couple of looks, a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes, but he quickly asked, "By the way, where are we staying? Right here in the living room?"

"I'll be staying with you guys!" Chu Zhu said calmly. "The assassin possesses extraordinarily supreme concealment abilities. If I sleep alone in a room while you guys stay in the living room, who knows? Tomorrow morning when you come to wake me up, you might just find my head hanging from the ceiling!"

"...This!" Li Kang's expression shifted slightly, and he shook his head. "If that's truly the case, then we're talking about an assassin at least in the second realm who has mastered concealment divine arts! That... should be impossible, right? This kind of..."

"No, no, no. Given Teacher Chu's status, I'd say not even a second-realm assassin—even if a third-realm expert made a move, it wouldn't be a problem at all!" Guan Fei interrupted solemnly. Realizing that Chu Zhu's previous indifference might have been due to divine intervention, his attitude had completely swung back.

Li Kang thought for a moment and shot Guan Fei a fierce glare. What kind of ominous nonsense was he spouting? If it really were a third-realm assassin, they would all be slaughtered in an instant! Were they just delivering themselves as food on a platter by coming here?

Chu Zhu gathered the bedding he had washed and laid out pallets on the floor for the others.

As for himself, he stretched out directly on the sofa.

Time ticked away drop by drop.

Soon...

It reached the exact time of the previous assassination attempt at home—though strictly speaking, that time had been yesterday!

All was peaceful and quiet.

Chu Zhu blinked. So, no assassination this time? Fine by him. He would just hold out until three or four in the morning and then commit suicide to trigger a reset!

And then...

...

Inside the dormitory.

Six o'clock in the morning.

Chu Zhu's eyes snapped wide open as he panted lightly for a few moments. "I... got killed again?"

He was certain that at the very end of the dream world, he had not committed suicide.

"Even with Li Kang and the others guarding me, I still got killed?" Chu Zhu felt a severe headache coming on. What bothered him most was that he couldn't even be sure whether Li Kang and the rest had noticed anything when the assassin killed him.

What if Li Kang and the others hadn't noticed at all, only realizing it when they woke up in the morning and tried to call out to him... That would truly be too absurd.

He got out of bed.

With a solemn expression, Chu Zhu began to record his notes.

Second... Third?

These two numbers indicated that Chu Zhu could basically confirm the assassin was at least at the second realm—most likely a Qi cultivator! Perhaps Li Kang's casual remark had hit the mark, and the opponent truly possessed some sort of concealment divine art!

Of course, there was also the possibility of a third realm, though the probability was low, hence the question mark. Furthermore, the fact that an assassination still took place could only mean one thing: the mastermind's target wasn't just the guild alone.

"Me?" Chu Zhu fell into deep contemplation. Aside from founding the organization, what else did he have that people would set their sights on, or perhaps hold a grudge over?

...

After classes ended.

Chu Zhu scribbled a note and handed it to Lin Xia.

"What is this? Wait!" Lin Xia looked at the stock codes, followed by the designated buy-in and sell-out times. Realizing what it meant, he drew a sharp breath and stared at Chu Zhu repeatedly.

"There's more on the back!" Chu Zhu added.

Lin Xia's hands trembled. Th-there's more? He hurriedly flipped the paper over and saw a string of numbers.

"The lottery? Why are there three sets?"

"Well, one is from last time, one is from this time, and the last one is for next time!"

"!!!"

Lin Xia snapped back to the present and quickly pulled out his phone to check. "The last one matches... it really matches! Ah-Zhu, you didn't usually have the habit of checking the lottery results before, did you? That... that possibility is getting higher and higher..."

Although most of the students had already cleared out of the classroom, Lin Xia still didn't dare to speak directly about the future. Even though Chu Zhu was already practically certain of it, he didn't elaborate much further on the matter with Lin Xia.

Lin Xia took several deep breaths, yet still failed to suppress his surging, turbulent emotions. "Alright, I'm heading out right now! Tonight, let's meet up at the Weinan Internet Cafe near the school gate."

Chu Zhu watched Lin Xia's figure depart, paused for a moment, then stood up and clenched his fists, pondering internally, "Although the physical strength in the dream world seems to be continuously growing over time... it should be about seven times the strength of a normal physique now!"

"Yet the strength of my physical body in the real world... doesn't seem to have increased at all! Is it stuck?"

Chu Zhu felt a bit bewildered, and then a certain thought crossed his mind...

"Wait, don't tell me... I need to go expose myself to some nuclear radiation or something in order for my physical body to evolve?" Chu Zhu's cheek twitched slightly. But... how on earth was he supposed to get his hands on that kind of stuff in the real world?

No, wait, Chu Zhu thought deeply. According to the current global situation, there were still plenty of low-difficulty channels to acquire it—

For instance, buying a plane ticket, running over to their neighboring island neighbors, taking a running dive right into their nuclear wastewater discharge site, and gulping it down in huge mouthfuls!

The only problem was...

"I only have one life in reality!"

With resets unavailable, who in their right mind would play like that?

"Whatever! Let's just..." Chu Zhu struggled with himself for a long time before stopping in the school hallway, pulling out his phone to open Pinduoduo, and then instinctively searching for a specific term: *Banhecha*.

Nothing? Ah, right, almost forgot—that was what it would be called in the future! In the current era, it might not go by that name...

Chu Zhu thought for a moment, opened an AI app, described its appearance and effects, and asked it to search for what kind of herb it might be...

And then...

"Thirty-seven herbs, and I can only filter out thirty-three!"

Chu Zhu's brows furrowed tightly. What about the remaining four?

Were the data for those herbs simply not inputted into the AI yet, or were those herbs specialized local products of the future that would only emerge after certain special events?