Chapter 1088: Number One

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

When he sensed Lotus Sun’s gaze, Wang Ling quickly looked away and pretended that he was taking a casual look out the window.

But in any case, he had definitely been careless just now, and hadn’t completely guarded against Lotus Sun’s line of sight.

Wang Ling was indeed secretly observing Lotus Sun.

He wasn’t looking at Lotus Sun’s face, of course, but observing her reactions. Once Single’s Curse was triggered, the effects of the curse would only disappear after a full three days, meaning that if there was a spell bug, it would show up in these three days.

So Wang Ling was curious as well as concerned that a bug might appear on Lotus Sun at any moment.

…

He was apprehensive all morning, but everything was fine so far and Lotus Sun still wasn’t showing any reactions.

Wang Ling sighed with relief. Maybe the bug in Single’s Curse was completely fixed. After all, he had tinkered with it around twenty times already; Wang Ling felt that there shouldn’t be anything wrong with it anymore.

He was probably worrying over nothing.

After the reference lists of spiritual veins were given out in the morning history lesson, Teacher Pan unexpectedly mentioned the spiritual veins once more in the Dao talisman lesson in the afternoon.

Everyone tensed up.

They didn’t even have to think about it to know that anything related to the spiritual veins might be a key assessment point in the test next month.

Since the beginning of an era of spiritual qi, cultivators in various countries had discovered more and more underground spiritual veins. These spiritual veins could be divided into five levels, and those at the fifth level, which was the highest level, were also known as heavenly veins.

At present, more than one thousand heavenly veins had been detected around the world. They were scattered all over the globe, some of them even hidden at the bottom of the deep sea.

The heavenly veins in Huaxiu accounted for 20% of the total number. Thriving cities basically all sat on heavenly veins and relied on them to grow.

The heavenly veins were an important energy source for cities.

A high-level underground spiritual vein could renew itself; in other words, the underground spiritual vein could theoretically never run dry, but only if there was a balance between supply and consumption. In the current era of national cultivation, cultivators were consuming more and more of the energy from spiritual veins year by year… no matter how many spiritual veins there were, they would be overwhelmed in the long run.

“The problem which human cultivators have struggled with since time immemorial is the search for a means of sustainable development which must protect the environment at the same time.” Teacher Pan put her hands on the dais, her gaze extremely solemn. A lot of the students didn’t expect Teacher Pan’s class today to be on such a profound topic.

This topic had little to do with the Dao talisman course, but teachers-in-charge also had to consider the spiritual and moral education of their students. Therefore, Teacher Pan wouldn’t hesitate to use some of her class hours to guide students in building a foundation comprised of the correct values.

In any case, there were still a lot of PE lessons this semester.

She was bringing up the underground spiritual veins today not only because Old Antique had broached the topic in the morning, but also because a criminal gang which specialized in plundering underground spiritual veins for profit had recently emerged.

The structure of this organization was very strict, and the division of labor was clear. This was probably the most dangerous criminal gang now, following the downfall of Immortal Mansion.

“Plundering the spiritual veins is a road that leads only to death. Once you’re caught, you won’t even qualify to go to prison – you’ll be given the death penalty right away,” Teacher Pan said gravely. “If a spiritual vein is plundered dry and the power source is cut off, it’s not only a huge blow to the regional economy, but also has a severe impact on the living environment of cultivators. The most vital point, moreover, is that the barrier around every city is built on a spiritual vein. Once an underground spiritual vein is plundered, this will affect the stability of the barrier and put the city at huge risk.”

“Teacher, do we know who the ringleader of this organization is?”

“From the joint investigation of various police departments throughout the country, the ringleader of this organization is currently the new number one figure in the Dark Network, but what we know about him at the moment is very little; we have yet to precisely determine this person’s identity and abilities, and can only make a rough guess as to what they look like. At present, this criminal suspect who plunders spiritual veins has been given the codename Number One by the police. I’m sure it won’t be long before this person is caught.”

…

Plundering spiritual veins…

It wasn’t that Wang Ling never thought that such a lunatic would appear.

But underground spiritual veins weren’t that easy to find. They were buried very deep, almost close to the earth’s core; an ordinary person wouldn’t be able to touch them at all.

At present, high-precision magic treasures were used to penetrate the earth to mine the energy of the spiritual veins. These high-precision magic treasures for gathering energy had their own independent energy bases and were heavily guarded.

Collecting the energy of underground spiritual veins was extremely dangerous work; if an energy base exploded, disaster would befall the entire city.

But this sort of situation basically wouldn’t happen, given the energy bases’ defensive measures.

This gang could actually mine underground spiritual veins with their bare hands; they definitely had their own special means.

After hearing what Teacher Pan said in class, Wang Ling also quietly thought this in his heart.

It hadn’t been very peaceful recently. He had just helped Wang Nuan sort out her mess when this group of strange people popped up to mine spiritual veins.

Elsewhere, Odd Zhuo hadn’t made the slightest headway in Bai Youquan’s trial.

The word was that Bai Youquan was very tough, and refused to leak a single word.

His memories had been so jumbled up by Fate Dao, that even when the police forcibly plucked out his memories, they still didn’t extract any useful information.

But with Bai Youquan’s arrest, the black soldier army seemed to calm down recently and no longer made any drastic moves.

But that was what worried Wang Ling and Odd Zhuo the most.

It was the calm before the storm – they had already been through too much.

The lack of activity was by no means a sign of peace – it was very likely that an even bigger conspiracy was brewing in the wings.

…

When school was nearly over for the day, Wang Ling slipped into the bathroom, ready to cast a teleportation spell and leave earlier.

If he continued to remain at school for the extra lessons with Lotus Sun, who knew what other strange things might happen…

But just as Wang Ling was about to slip away, he heard a male student’s voice in the hallway.

“Classmate Lotus Sun!”

Wang Ling’s eyes followed the voice. Through the King’s Eye, he saw a boy from the next class standing in front of Lotus Sun with an entirely red face, who seemed to have summoned up great courage.

“Is he going to confess…” Wang Ling raised his eyebrows.

This wasn’t the first time Wang Ling had seen this kind of scene.

Since the start of the year, many male students had confessed to Lotus Sun one after another.

This mentality of biting the bullet with their confession while knowing that they would be rejected was beyond Wang Ling’s reach.

Lotus Sun herself seemed to like being confessed to.

Just as she was about to give the boy a good guy card 1, the boy, who initially wanted to confess his feelings, suddenly roared, “Lotus Sun! I hate you! I hate you the most! I beg you, don’t appear in front of me again!”

Everyone: “???”