Applied Immortality

Wang Qi brought three people over the next day. “Senior Brother Su, here we are. Please inspect them.”

Su Junyu’s mouth twitched. “What am I, a human trafficker? What’s there to check? Though I have to admit, you work fast.” 

Wang Qi laughed. “It was nothing.”

A careful look at the three exacerbated Su Junyu’s twitching: “Is this your team?”

The first member was a Qi Refining demonborn with orange hair. Su Junyu recalled the debacle that day Wang Qi enrolled. He heard Wang Qi was close to her later on. Wang Qi brought her over to fill the quota, but she was a demonborn among demonborns! The Radiant Divinity Pavilion said there was no data to suggest a demon’s intelligence was any lower than a human’s, while the Immortal Alliance demanded all discrimination against them to cease and desist. Nevertheless, it was a known fact demonborns fell short when it came to math. And he wanted to bring a Qi-refining demonborn to an exploration trial?

It was not discrimination on Su Junyu’s part; he was just aware of a demonborn’s mediocre calculation skills, something they could address with a whole lot of effort. In fact, Golden Core demonborn had around the same math skills as Golden Core humans. Furthermore, a demonborn’s computing skills would be even higher if they had White Marsh’s bloodline.

What of a Qi Refining cat demonborn, you ask? Please!

Mao Zimiao noticed Su Junyu sizing her up and gave her a friendly little smile. The second member wasn’t so welcoming to it. The person was a towering girl, huffing and flicking her head sideways as Su Junyu turned his gaze on her.

Su Junyu judged her to be the rash type on the spot. It wasn’t because Su Junyu met countless women, but her aura. [Missie, that electric energy passing through your body comes from the Celestial Hymn Odyssey, no? I give you props for solving its problem in the back of the Arts Archive, but getting the mild Celestial Hymn Odyssey trained to be so violent   takes the cake.] 

The third was way more normal—an average guy. He maintained the same demeanor, smiling politely at his Foundation Establishment Senior Brother. After Su Junyu used his spiritual sense to scan him, he asked with uncertainty, “Are you really here to help, Junior Brother?”

The youth’s aura was thin, like he just passed Reaching Heaven minutes ago.

The youth gave a shy smile, but it was Wang Qi who replied, “Of course! Brother has a profound sense of camaraderie!”

Su Junyu’s face twitched. “You didn’t bother to remember his name, at least? Junior Brother, what is your name?”

The youth cupped his hands and said, “I am Wu Fan; please take care of me, Senior Brother.”

Wang Qi laughed and patted Wu Fan’s shoulder. “Brother Wu Fan is a good comrade. He got to Reaching Heaven in front of me just as I was finding myself missing a third member. So I asked him to join me.”

Now even Mao Zimiao looked oddly and said, “How could you just do that, nya?”

“A’Zimiao, didn’t I tell you? The world is filled with wonders. Bro Dao is such a swell guy.”

Su Junyu shook his head. “That’s not in the least bit funny. Just what happened?”

Under Su Junyu’s pestering, Wu Fan relented to the real facts. He was in his room this morning when he focused on understanding Landscape Metropolis’ cultivation method, Tides of Change. With some awareness, he passed, Reaching Heaven within half an hour. Wu Fan then noticed Wang Qi kicking his door open and yanking him over here.

Mao Zimiao asked, “Little Qi, it can’t be that you kept an eye out on all with potential to Reaching Heaven, can you?”

Su Junyu and the wild girl showed doubt as well.

Wang Qi shrugged. “How could I? I really can’t do that. He was next door—my good neighbor!”

Mao Zimiao eased a breath. “I’m relieved to hear that, nya.”

Su Junyu agreed, “Yeah, there’s no way he’s that familiar with everyone to know when they’d pass Reaching Heaven.”

Wang Qi whined, “Hey, you’re talking like I hardly have any friends.”

“It’s the cold, hard truth.” “Abysmally few, nya.”

Wang Qi’s face fell at their blunt responses. He pointed with a sneer at the silent second girl and said, “She’s my new friend!” 

Su Junyu mocked, “You sure know how to pick ’em.”

Su Junyu bit his tongue at the end. While over the last two months he and Wang Qi had been buddy-buddy as they cracked jokes with each other, there were girls present right now. Such a remark would be taken the wrong way.

His luck was with him this time, for Mao Zimiao and the girl were oblivious to his meaning.

Mao Zimiao was curious. “Little Qi, how did you meet her?”

Wang Qi gave a wide smile. “Last night, she and I fell down in a tangle of limbs.”

Wang Qi paused with theobviously intended effect, giving the girl a long look.

She glared in reply, flicking a light at him.

Mao Zimiao froze in shock, but at the girl’s reaction, she realized, “Little Qi, you’re taking the joke too far!”

Wu Fan switched to a bored look, in no hurry to supply the truth. It was the plain and average Wu Fan who turned to her instead and said, “Excuse me, are you Senior Sister Wu from the Behavioral Office?” 

Su Junyu gasped, “A disciplinary officer?”

The Behavioral Office was made up of Foundation Establishment assistant teachers and freshmen, mainly set up to oversee the behavior of freshmen in case of any violation of Immortal Alliance rules. To Su Junyu, Wang Qi was the typical troubled student who was always up to no good. Yet a disciplinary officer ended up being his friend? Did she lose it?

Wang Qi gave a drawn-out explanation: “She ain’t a disciplinary officer because she upholds the laws and hates bad students. It’s because disciplinary officers are free to beat people up.” 

Wang Qi had trouble finding people last night, so he came up with putting up a notice. It wouldn’t have been a problem in most places, but the Immortal Institute was against vandalism. Disciplinary officer Wu Shiqin spotted him posting notices and bypassed the standard Behavioral Office procedure in favor of beating the shit out of him. Wang Qi refused to take it up like a man, bolting to a remote place in the Immortal Institute. There, the two fought and ended up in a draw. It was also then that Wang Qi casually offered the invitation.

Su Junyu complained, “What casually? Also, Junior Sister Wu, the Behavioral Office should’ve issued you with a standard restrictive magic item. Why don’t I see any signs of the Behavioral Office’s restrictive magic item used on him?” 

Wu Shiqin replied, “I like to use my fists.”

[Holly crap, this disciplinary officer has a screw loose.]