Chapter 352: Chapter 350 Two Disciples
At three in the afternoon, the heat of summer had dissipated, leaving the sunshine warm, and a cool breeze blowing through the shaded paths near Wanxiang Forest.
When Le Yuxin arrived, she found Shi Wen and another young girl had been waiting for quite some time.
Since he had promised to teach Shi Wen the Combat Technique, he certainly wouldn’t break his word—at least not until after the Eye of Omniscience exam, lest Shi Wen shouted, ’This Combat Technique isn’t worth learning! Le Yin, you’re blind, just wait and see!’
"Good afternoon, Teacher Hongle."
The two of them said in unison when they saw Le Yuxin approaching. Shi Wen seemed a bit unwilling, but the young girl next to him nudged his leg, so he obliged and greeted her too.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Shi Wen." Le Yuxin looked at the new girl. She dressed simply and her appearance was indescribable: Her face was swollen and bruised like a pig’s head, making it impossible for Le Yuxin to discern her underlying beauty or plainness.
She was covered in bandages all over, as if she was bullied daily, comparable to the slave girl, Sylvie.
"May I ask who you are..."
"I’m an assistant cook at the Pig’s Trough cafeteria, my name is Laiya." The pig-headed girl quickly introduced herself and took out a box of steaming pastries: "I baked some puff pastries on the way over, just a little token of appreciation."
Le Yuxin sniffed them and found the aroma quite appealing: "Just put them down for now. What are you doing here?"
Laiya said: "I’m just here accompanying Shi Wen to wait for the teacher. Now that Teacher Hongle is here..."
"Then just watch from the side!" Shi Wen said irritably: "Teacher Hongle, you promised to teach me the Combat Technique, having someone watch doesn’t violate our agreement, does it!?"
"Of course, it doesn’t violate our agreement," Le Yuxin glanced at them: "But you’re clever at exploiting loopholes, and I can be too—guess if I’ll intentionally hold back or hide certain key points so that your practice of the Combat Technique will never be quite right, leaving you baffled, or even stuck at a bottleneck for life?"
Laiya grew anxious immediately: "No, Teacher Hongle, it was me who asked Shi Wen to let me come, I’ll leave now, right away..."
"Don’t rush." Le Yuxin pressed Laiya’s shoulder, "I just want to teach Shi Wen a small lesson—don’t play tricks with someone much stronger than yourself, conspiracies and intrigues need strength to back them up. Maybe everyone in the Imperial Academy is kindhearted, willing to protect your meager self-esteem, but not everyone will give you face; for instance, I’m too lazy to bother."
"When asking for help, you should behave like you’re seeking assistance, not pretending it’s something you’ve earned. Even children can act spoiled, who are you trying to impress with this rebellious phase? Am I your wild dad?"
Facing such unvarnished humiliation from Le Yuxin, Shi Wen trembled with anger, clenching his fists tightly.
Laiya looked at him worriedly, but eventually, Shi Wen lowered his head and said through gritted teeth, "Teacher Hongle, could you, while teaching me the Combat Technique, also guide Laiya’s practice a little?"
Le Yuxin was noncommittal, he looked at Laiya: "In theory, there are many skilled teachers in the Imperial Academy, and there’s at least one Combat Technique class every day, if you want to learn, couldn’t you just attend those classes?"
"I..." Laiya’s expression was complex, she lowered her head and said: "My eyesight is poor."
Le Yuxin blinked and didn’t ask why: "Haven’t you sought treatment from the Medical Officer?"
"It’s untreatable." Laiya explained briefly and hesitated for a moment before continuing: "It was an injury from when I was young, it’s the Nightmare Disease... Shi Wen and I are both orphans that the principal rescued from a fire back then."
The medical technology of Radiance is nearly omnipotent, as the principle of the Inner Combat Technique is to remove your diseased area directly, and then use potent light energy to stimulate cell regeneration of the corresponding flesh and organs, so naturally, they easily heal illnesses.
But there is one disease for which even the chief Medical Officer, who has mastered the Inner Combat Technique to the Peak of Perfection, is helpless.
That is mental illness, known as the Nightmare Disease.
Nightmare Disease only appears in children. Although young children are naive and innocent, their Spiritual Power is in a phase of rapid growth due to their implanted Luminous Stone chips, and unable to differentiate right from wrong, any major trauma during this period can become deeply imprinted in their mental memory—also known as psychological shadows.
The psychological shadows of Earthlings are just shadows, but for Radiance people, such shadows can, with their Spiritual Power, transform into reality as they grow older, causing actual harm to their bodies.
Although Nightmare Disease has various symptoms, its essence is the same: it is to make the host relive their pain.
In fact, the Nightmare Disease isn’t deliberately harmful to the host, but is a self-protection mechanism of young children—the intense suffering is unbearable for children, they are unable even to understand why they must endure such pain, yet they cannot escape it, so they can only choose to accept, even embrace the pain.
Yes, the so-called Nightmare Disease is quite similar to the principle of the Forbidden Battle Technique. The initial Forbidden Battle Technique might have been inspired by the Nightmare Disease.
Under the intense stimulus of pain, a child’s Spiritual Power showcases rapid growth, also accelerating their body’s self-healing, enabling them to sustain life even after severe injury. But as a consequence, for children who regard pain as a part of life, after receiving help, their Spiritual Power seeks to return to ’normal’—which is to revert to that phase of pain.
If there were no Nightmare Disease, perhaps these children would have perished back then; yet because of the Nightmare Disease, these children, after growing up, are destined to live in perpetual agony.
Whether it’s worth it or not, only they can judge in their hearts.
Laiya’s Nightmare Disease is quite typical, perhaps she suffered severe trauma to her eyes as a child, which is why no matter how many times she undergoes treatment, her Spiritual Power subconsciously damages her corneas, drastically reducing her eyesight as she grows up.
Now Le Yuxin also realized what was going on with the injuries on Laiya’s body—it couldn’t possibly be from being beaten, as Cha Huan, the old principal, wouldn’t simply watch the weak being bullied on his turf—it must be that Laiya’s poor eyesight caused her to constantly bump into things, injuring herself.
To have injured herself to the extent that she looked as if she had been beaten by a multitude of men, the world Laiya saw must have been a blur of mosaics.
But compared to Shi Wen, Laiya’s Nightmare Disease was just a minor issue.
Yesterday, after Shi Wen and Kui Nian-re left the White Box, Le Yu inquired Cha Shiyin about Shi Wen’s background.
After all, Le Yu also found it strange—at the Imperial Academy, there are so many Combat Technique instructors. As long as Shi Wen is willing to learn, he could definitely do so. It couldn’t be that all the teachers look down on Shi Wen. What caused Shi Wen to regard the newly arrived Qin Le Yin as a savior?
After listening to Cha Shiyin’s explanation, Le Yu realized what a mess he had gotten himself into.
When Shi Wen was rescued from the sea of flames by Cha Huan back in the day, he was burned almost beyond recognition, with no intact skin on his body. Fortunately, Cha Huan’s teammate at the time is now the chief Medical Officer at the Medical Bureau in Yanjing, and managed to pull Shi Wen back from the brink.
This shows how terrifying and brilliant the medical technology of Huiyao is.
But suffering such horrific injuries in childhood made Shi Wen’s Nightmare Disease immensely formidable. The burn scars on his face are just an insignificant part of the Nightmare Disease. As long as he breathes, burns will inevitably appear on his face.
The complete form of Shi Wen’s Nightmare Disease manifests when he uses his Spiritual Power. Every time he employs his Spiritual Power, his entire nervous system experiences pain akin to being bathed in a sea of fire, and if he uses it for more than ten minutes, burn marks appear on his skin.
Cha Shiyin speculated that if Shi Wen were to conduct a high-intensity use of his Spiritual Power for thirty minutes, his entire body might turn into a piece of charcoal—this is the ’save point’ recorded by the Nightmare Disease, and also the greatest pain Shi Wen has tasted.
Because of this, no one at the Imperial Academy teaches Shi Wen Combat Technique.
Shi Wen even spent a whole year kneeling under the Platinum Tower, yet Cha Huan was unwilling to see him.
No one knows why Shi Wen insists on learning Combat Technique. Everyone advises him to live an ordinary life. It’s not that the teachers at the Imperial Academy are unwilling to teach; they really don’t know how to teach him—due to the pain caused by the Nightmare Disease, Shi Wen cannot focus when practicing Combat Technique, and has to stop practicing after ten minutes, otherwise he would be burned.
Even a prisoner shackled with handcuffs on both hands and feet can learn Combat Technique faster than Shi Wen.
What’s more, teaching Shi Wen Combat Technique is tantamount to harming him. As long as Shi Wen engages in combat, the Nightmare Disease will destroy him before the enemy tears him apart—who can fight while enduring burns all over the body?
"You might gain something, but Shi Wen will never lose." Cha Shiyin commented this way, "He can only deceive a new teacher like you."
Le Yu recalled the battle between Shi Wen and Dan Chixia and understood why Shi Wen dared to use the self-harming techniques in the Biting Battle Technique—it’s likely that the pain from self-harm doesn’t compare to the burning agony, so Shi Wen uses it as easily as breathing.
One Shi Wen wasn’t enough, now there’s a Lai Ya... Le Yu asked, "Can’t you wear glasses?"
"I tried wearing glasses, and then..." Lai Ya cautiously said, "I went blind the next day."
Amazing, this Nightmare Disease can even update and strengthen in real-time. If Lai Ya dared to resist, the Nightmare Disease would turn the table, even refusing to let you see mosaics.
Le Yu nodded, looking at these two Imperial Academy dual handicaps.
Lai Ya tightly grabbed her own clothes, lowering her head to quietly await Le Yu’s decision, though her legs trembled from time to time; Shi Wen lifted his head, staring straight at Le Yu, with defiance, unease, and the fear of being abandoned on his face.
One perks up ears to guess emotions, the other sharpens fangs to learn to speak.
"Interesting, others come to the Imperial Academy to teach the pride of heaven or the nobility, but when it’s my turn, I take in two half-handicapped disciples. Sometimes, one really has to sigh that lives are different, just as umbrellas have different handles..."
Shi Wen bit his lip almost to breaking point and yelled, "Enough! If you don’t want to teach me, then forget it! Hmph, you must regret it once you found out about my situation, right?"
"But if you won’t teach me, you’ll at least agree to teach Lai Ya, right? As long as you’re willing to teach her Combat Technique, our deal still stands, otherwise, I’ll go find others to cooperate with!"
"You never expected me to teach you in the first place, am I right?" Le Yu laughed, "You were just taking a gamble, hoping that once I found out the truth, you could settle for less and have Lai Ya take your compensation. Although Lai Ya’s eye condition is serious, it’s far better than yours, so of course, I’d gladly accept."
"But conversely, if you had initially asked me to take on the severely eyesight-impaired Lai Ya as a disciple, there would have been a high possibility I would have refused..."
"Impressive, using yourself as bait to fish me into teaching and even making me willingly instruct Lai Ya in Combat Technique. Shi Wen, if you were in Dongyang, you might become one of the giant moguls of the Silver Blood Eighty-Eighth Chamber of Commerce."
Exposed, Shi Wen couldn’t help stepping back in fright, and Lai Ya hurriedly said, "No, Teacher Hongle, Shi Wen didn’t intentionally scheme—"
Le Yu waved his hand, "It doesn’t matter, although I dislike small-minded little tricks, I do not detest grand strategies with bold spirit. Telling a lie is not shameful, it’s shameful if you can’t deceive anyone."
"Don’t be so pretentious, Shi Wen; I will take both of you as disciples. Just so happens I have little to do at the Imperial Academy."
Shi Wen and Lai Ya were overjoyed: "Really?" "Thank you, Teacher Hongle!"
From their responses, it was evident that Lai Ya’s wisdom is a notch higher than Shi Wen. Le Yu began to suspect whose strategy this plan was—Shi Wen was still incredulous, while she had already confirmed it verbally.
"Let me preface this; I can’t guarantee what I can teach you, and the learning process won’t be easy, it might even be dangerous or deadly... But I assume you’ve already mentally prepared yourselves."
"Thank you, teacher!" they both said in unison.
Why suddenly take on two disciples, Le Yu had many reasons, for instance, without anyone serving him at the academy, disciples could help with laundry; wanting to experiment with some of his cultivation ideas without doing it himself, letting the disciples take action instead; or...
Or perhaps, upon seeing these two faces of unyielding determination (referring to the pig’s head and the burnt face), he really just couldn’t find a reason not to extend a helping hand.