Chapter 58 - Social Fear

Chapter 58 - Social Fear

"Thank you so much. If not for you, I wouldn't have come here and easily obtained the Hidden Shadow skill."
In the training room, Chen Rouxue smiled and thanked her friend.
"Haha! It's a small matter. You don't have to be so polite with me." Su Bai shrugged.
She chuckled and said, "Okay. Let's train separately first, then practice together once we're familiar with the new skill."
The girl wanted to train the newly bought skill and Shadow Energy Ball with her Big Demon.
Meanwhile, the boy mainly wanted to train Purple Jade on the Energy Burst skill that he had just acquired, too.
After incorporating the jade into the contract book, he passed it over for the cub to comprehend.
Ten minutes later, the cub opened its eyes.
After a moment of silence, undulating spiritual power burst out from its body. Its small mouth opened slightly, and a light green, bullet-shaped energy ball slowly condensed inside.
As it continued injecting spiritual power, the color of the energy ball slowly changed from light green and emerald green to dark green.
Eventually, it burst with a bang, and a small light green spiritual power vortex spread to the surroundings. It looked dreamlike before finally disappearing slowly into the void.
"Howl! (`ー ́)"
The cub was furious to have failed. It had not performed what the skill description said and was even unable to make a bullet condense completely.
Su Bai came over to comfort his pet, feeding it a creamy energy medicinal cake as he said, "Don't worry; you're already very strong to have achieved this on your first try. For now, let it condense into an emerald green shade and then launch it.
"Take your time by doing it step by step. Once you're more proficient with the skill, you'll naturally successfully condense an energy bullet."
The cub was still too young and anxious. In fact, it was already an excellent performance for Purple Jade to have achieved such level on its first attempt.
"Howl! <( ̄) ̄)/"
Under his encouragement and guidance, it started launching continuous energy bombs.
Soon, it condensed a jujube-size energy bullet—a special one formed with wood spiritual power.
It burped lightly, and an energy bullet flew out, hitting a wild-boar-shaped target thirty meters away.
With a bang, a hole, the size of a baby's fist, appeared on the target's neck. The wall behind the hole was covered with traces of energy erosion, as well as faint marks of paralysis.
The small hole on the target slowly closed, and a specific evaluation was shown on the display at the side. The power of this energy bullet had reached the low-level slave attack while possessing a slight paralysis effect.
"Not bad, buddy. If you can fire more than ten shots consecutively, the power will definitely rise to a high-level servant."
Su Bai praised it.
"Howl!"
The cub shook its head, indicating that it could not do that now.
"It's alright; we'll just practice launching one shot at a time. It'll definitely be possible when you're more proficient with the skill."
He rewarded his pet with an energy medicinal cake while talking before continuing its training.
The Blue Moon's training facilities were complete, so Su Bai needed only to train his pet with the target this cultivation house provided.
More than an hour quickly passed. Perhaps because the skill was too difficult, but the cub's progress was not very big.
It could condense an energy bullet at ten seconds at first; now, it would take the cub eight seconds to do that.
Maybe because of its previous training or because it often played stimulating battlefield games, it hit the target pretty accurately.
"Hey, how's your pet's training?"
During break, Chen Rouxue walked over and sat opposite of him.
"The effect isn't very obvious. What about yours?"
"It's okay. Hidden Shadow isn't difficult, so Xiao Bai learned it quickly. Shadow Energy Ball was awakened after it evolved into a Big Demon, so it can do that pretty well, too.
"However, its hit rate isn't high, and it's not proficient enough. It can't use it flexibly for now as the time it condenses takes too long."
The girl sighed.
"Oh, I see. It's still a while before it gets dark; let's practice some more. We'll feel more invigorated training our pets together," suggested Su Bai.
"I think so, too." Chen Rouxue blinked and smiled.
...
While the two were chatting, Hou Jie walked to the training ground and shouted, "Su Bai, come out for a while! I have something to ask you."
"Okay!"
The boy waved to his friend, motioning that he would go out first and come back later.
He then followed the adult, asking, "What's the matter, teacher?"
"Come with me and you'll know."
"Okay."
He followed Hou Jie and walked through the planting fields, finally arriving at a familiar experimental field. At the center was a blood-colored fruit tree with wilted leaves and some withered yellow leaves.
His English teacher's younger brother was digging this dying Blood-origin Fruit Tree.
"I heard you last time saying that using much sunjade powder to grow that Blood-origin Fruit Tree isn't advisable. You seem to understand it, so come over and lend a hand.
"My brother is good at everything, but he's afraid of socializing. He does everything by himself and doesn't make any friends. You can go and help him."
Hou Jie sighed. If her younger brother were not so anti-social, he would be in school instead of doing experiments at home.
"Okay."
The youth nodded, realizing the reason why Hou Lan had looked quite anxious and afraid of meeting his eyes previously. He turned out to have a social fear.
"Teacher, you don't need to dig out the Blood-origin Fruit Tree. You can mix the earthstone powder into the wood spirit liquid and water it.
"In fact, there's nothing wrong with your planting method. The warm sunjade powder can provide the nutrients needed by the Blood-origin Fruit Tree to grow, but its warmth can also burn the fruit tree's roots.
"The scorching heat of the fluorite crystal you add doesn't have a good neutralizing effect because its negative aura has the effect of a golden fire.
"Doing so will only make things worse. The mixed liquid of the wood spirit liquid and the earthstone powder has the effect of healing and burning. It'll absorb the golden fire while neutralizing the power of the sunjade and the fluorite crystal. Once you use it, this plot will become fertile, and the Blood-origin Fruit Tree will also thrive."
Su Bai walked over to Hou Lan and explained.
Although the latter was anti-social, he was still very confident about his trainer knowledge.
Originally a bit dismissive of the boy's ideas, he now felt stunned upon hearing his explanation. "What an ingenious cultivation method. Did you think of it yourself?"
He carefully thought about it, and the method indeed could be effective.
"No, I learned it from my master." Su Bai shook his head. He was telling the truth; his master, who also had Blood-origin Fruit Trees planted, had explained this solution to him the previous time.
"Your master?" Both siblings looked at him.
"Oh, it's the old man, Gao An. He became my master after the exam." He clarified. It was not a big deal telling these two about this.
Hou Jie: Σ(゚∀゚ノ)ノ
Hou Lan: Σ(゚∀゚ノ)ノ
The female teacher glanced at her student and suddenly knew why the boy had been hesitant to tell her the details of what had happened that day.
It turned out that the youth was afraid of her being unable to stand the shock of learning that he had become a big boss's apprentice, so he very considerately omitted that part then!
"Wow! You're amazing. No wonder you saw that there's something wrong with the Blood-origin Fruit Tree last time." Hou Lan exhaled.
"No, sir. It's just difficult for you to think of it in a short time. I am just a rookie and was making groundless guesses." The boy immediately waved his hand.
"You can call me Hou Lan; don't you dare to call me sir." The man shook his head and spoke again. "Erm… Could you come with me? I'm afraid that I'll make the wrong mixture."
"Oh, no problem. Of course, I can." Su Bai quickly agreed.