Beautiful, Dashing, and Utterly Useless!

Four or five miles south of the ancient castle lay the ruins of a fishing village.

It was a small village, and judging by the dilapidated, crumbling houses, it had once housed, at most, a hundred people. Now, however, the village was overgrown with weeds, and its paths were desolate, clearly uninhabited for a very long time.

Professor Jemison pointed at the fishing village from afar, letting out a rare, solemn sigh. “Alas, this is the handiwork of those accursed Merfolk. The villagers originally lived by the sea, but after the Merfolk arrived, they were forced to abandon their homes and migrate inland to avoid being eaten…”

Xino Dwarf Sem strode behind the group. Upon hearing this, he declared, “Professor Jemison, those damned Merfolk are truly abominable! Where are they!? I shall eliminate them at once!”

“Hold your horses, the Merfolk will come to us!” Jemison chuckled, raising an iron cage he held. Inside were several plump chickens taken from the ancient castle’s kitchen.

“Merfolk are fond of the scent of blood. We can lure them out with this!” Jemison and old Bovin clumsily clambered up a tree, then scattered a circle of what looked like lime powder around its base. Jemison grinned, “Mr. Brook, even the strongest of these Merfolk are only One-Star Fighters. These students can handle them easily. Come up here and enjoy the show; let the students get some training! And, incidentally… protect us.”

Deboning glanced at Du Chen and whispered, “Young Master, Professor Jemison’s words are quite sound. Merfolk are indeed the most suitable targets for your cultivation at present.”

“Indeed, my practical combat experience is severely lacking; it’s time for some real training. Take Beibei and Harry up the tree and simply keep an eye on my safety!”

Seated in the tree, Jemison seized the clucking roosters from the cage, cut several wounds into them, and then tossed them far into the distance. “My dear students, according to the excursion manual, there’s a tribe of three hundred Merfolk here. Each of you five Three-Star Fighters can easily handle an average of sixty! All right! Prepare to begin your training. Remember, ten Merfolk equal one academic credit! And the credits you earn on this excursion will determine your scholarship in your fourth year!”

A faint scent of blood wafted through the air.

“Gah!” A shriek echoed from the sea near the fishing village. It was the Merfolk—a dozen of them, with long, slender legs, powerful upper limbs, and massive, tusked maws. Du Chen instantly felt a sense of oppression.

This oppressive sensation, which made his heart subtly quicken, began to excite Du Chen.

“One, two, three… Haha, seventeen! Classmates, I’ll go first!” Sem cried out, discarding the Golden Circlet from his head, and roared, “Corona of Fire!”

Before his words could fully land, Martial Fighter Jason had already charged forward, wielding a sacred artifact great-axe.

Annie and Porter also moved in that instant, but then, the four students suddenly felt the sky grow dim.

A gentle breeze swept across the coast, and then, crystalline snowflakes began to dance and swirl on the June beach. Amidst the fluttering, all-encompassing snow dance, the flakes assailed their faces, momentarily blurring their vision.

The pure white snow, the rapidly spinning white robes, and that faint wisp of golden, flowing hair. All clearly revealed an aura of elegant grace and poise.

Suddenly, a flash of silver-white light.

“Drip-drop,” a few drops of crimson liquid appeared in the glistening white snow.

As the snowflakes dissipated, Du Chen, standing on the white and blood-stained beach, slowly sheathed his sacred artifact longsword. As seventeen Merfolk corpses toppled to the ground, he smiled faintly. “This is my unique Water Element Secret Art, Vanishing Snow! Though it’s not yet perfect, it’s quite capable of instantly killing a dozen or so Merfolk!”

Though Du Chen’s expression was calm, he thought with a touch of pride, *Snowflakes dancing, white robes and golden hair fluttering, enemies slain in the swirl of a longsword… This image, paired with Francis’s transcendent and handsome face…*

*Surely, that’s incredibly dashing?*

*That ordinary-looking, shifty thief from my previous life could never have pulled this off!*

Annie watched Du Chen approach, his feet treading on the two-colored path of snow and blood, and suddenly hurried to meet him, her face flushed. “Francis, your Secret Art is so beautiful! The snowflakes are beautiful, your swordsmanship is beautiful, and you’re so handsome! It’s truly perfect…”

“Oh, Brother Francis, your Secret Art is indeed brilliant, but you must leave some for your brother to earn academic credits!” Sem complained. Then, he pointed at the sea and shouted, “Hey, here come a lot more! Everyone, quickly grab some, don’t let Brother Francis kill them all!”

Wave after wave of Merfolk surged from the sea. They were strange; once ashore, they seemed indifferent to the few who had just slaughtered their kin. Instead, they rushed straight towards the fallen Merfolk, opened their gaping, bloody mouths, and devoured the corpses of their own kind with feral greed.

They were more savage than beasts, not even sparing their own kin!

Witnessing this scene, Annie and Porter, who had initially hesitated, now unleashed their full power! But the situation was gradually spiraling out of control.

The Merfolk kept coming, seemingly endless and unkillable!

Annie was the first to gasp for breath, and Du Chen secretly began to use his Lotus Internal Force to replenish his excessive expenditure of battle qi! What was going on? Where were all these Merfolk coming from?

Before long, a force of over a thousand Merfolk surrounded the five students!

Was this still a trial!? They had said there were only three hundred Merfolk!

Up in the tree, Deboning cast a cold glance at Jemison. “This is the trial location you chose? What kind of information did you have?! There are too many Merfolk, aren’t there?”

He was genuinely worried. The Merfolk race was extremely peculiar; their presence in the sea was almost indistinguishable from ordinary fish, and they possessed no battle qi. Thus, Battle Gods who were not proficient in the Water Element found it difficult to ascertain how many Merfolk were hidden in the ocean. In the past, even Zigurd, a Titled Battle God, only discovered the Merfolk spies monitoring the Belkus due to his Water Element Secret Art!

Even a Nine-Star Battle God like Deboning had no idea how many Merfolk truly lurked beneath the waves.

“Heh heh, intelligence error!” Jemison chuckled sheepishly. “How could there be so many Merfolk? I recall the excursion manual stating there were at most three hundred Merfolk here!”

*Blast it, you tossed that excursion manual away ages ago! The situation here isn't even in the manual!* The Old Charlatan secretly disdained Jemison.

*Damn it, there are too many Merfolk! Has Jemison gone mad? Why did he choose such a trial location!?* Du Chen, his arms weary from killing, looked back at Jemison in the tree and yelled, “Old Gambler, are you trying to trick us!?”

Just then, *Whoosh! Whoosh!* Giant waves erupted on the sea, followed by a towering pillar of water rising into the sky. Upon it stood a mighty, colossal figure—another Merfolk, but his body was as massive as a mammoth elephant!

“Who dares slaughter my descendants!? Pay with your lives!”

Porter gasped, “A Six-star Aberrant Beast Merfolk King! This is a high-tier Aberrant Beast we can’t handle!”

The Merfolk King strode onto the coast, roaring his challenge, and instantly closed in on Du Chen and the others. The smaller Merfolk underfoot scattered. He bellowed, “You dared to slaughter my descendants in such numbers!? Prepare to die!”

The students’ faces all paled. Annie pressed herself against Du Chen, repeatedly glancing back at Jemison in the tree. “Francis, what do we do?”

Porter’s face was ashen, and he quietly huddled close to Du Chen, while Jason and Sem were frantically gulping!

*Damn it, weren't we just supposed to kill some ordinary Merfolk? Why is such a powerful Merfolk King here!?*

*It’s over!* With another roar from the Merfolk King, their hearts sank to the lowest depths.

“All of you, die!” The Merfolk King swung his enormous arm.

Du Chen glared furiously at Jemison, who was watching from the tree, then turned his cold eyes to the hideous Merfolk King, suddenly curling his lip. “Idiot!”

“Idiot?” The Merfolk King froze.

“Precisely, a quintessential idiot!” Du Chen stated very seriously.

The Merfolk King immediately flew into a rage, but before he could roar, a brilliant crimson flower suddenly bloomed on the back of his head, and he toppled backward with a thud, *Boom!*.

Instantly, the half-sentient, half-beast Merfolk plunged into chaos. A group of beasts had lost the leader they had always regarded as their supreme existence. Some shrieked and scattered, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye! Another portion desired revenge but were intimidated by Deboning’s aura and dared not advance.

“Tell me, if you had just stayed hidden in the sea, using your Merfolk’s unique aura advantage for refuge, you wouldn’t have died so meaninglessly! But what happened? You actively came out of the sea to seek death. If that’s not idiocy, what is it!?” Du Chen lectured the Merfolk King, then waved a hand at Deboning, who was still over its corpse.

“Wow, a high-tier Battle God warrior from the Saint Sigurd Cain family saved us!” Sem yelled excitedly, seemingly always in a state of hyper-excitability!

Then, Sem indignantly added, “Professor Jemison’s intelligence was flawed! We must demand an explanation!”

They went to confront Jemison, while Du Chen approached Deboning, asking with a smile, “Not coming down yet? What’s so interesting about this corpse to study?”

Deboning’s hands worked swiftly on the Merfolk King’s body. “Aberrant Beasts above Six-star often produce Soul Crystals. They’re good things!”

So there was something good. Du Chen asked again, “How was my ‘Vanishing Snow’ move just now?”

Deboning’s hands paused. “It looked very pretty!”

“Besides looking very pretty?”

Deboning hesitated for a long time. “It also looked very dashing!”

“Besides looking very dashing?”

“Do you really want me to say?”

“Say it, tell the truth!”

“Are you sure you want me to say?!”

“Absolutely.”

“It’s utterly rubbish!”

Du Chen’s smile froze on his face. How could the dazzling move he had painstakingly researched earn such a comment from a true master-level expert? “Hmm, please continue. Tell the truth, don’t be afraid to be blunt! It’s fine, I can take it!”

Deboning buried himself in processing the Merfolk King’s corpse and said, “If Young Master truly wishes to hear the truth, then I shall speak. This move, it’s fine for fooling the few students around you who lack practical combat experience, but against an experienced Battle-Warrior—not even a high-level one, a Four-Star Battle-Warrior could easily exploit its flaws and defeat you! Perhaps even kill you! Hmm, why lower the temperature and unleash snow before drawing your sword? Isn’t that just telling your opponent you’re about to attack? Why disperse your battle qi among the snowflakes? While this can activate the slowing properties of ice and snow, the power of your sword…”

Deboning expounded at length, finally concluding, “Young Master, what I fail to understand most is this: you are a Battle Mage, yet you abandon channeling Water Elements for long-range attacks, choosing instead to use a sword like a Martial Fighter to slay enemies!? In my opinion, no matter how magnificent a move’s appearance, it cannot compare to making your sword even a fraction of a second faster!”

Loyal advice is harsh, but this fellow had gone too far. Du Chen was almost at his limit. He sighed, shaking his head, yet still took Deboning’s words to heart.

“Young Master, all of this is based on you not using the divine power bestowed by Yessar God. If you were to use the Precious Lotus Scripture sacred artifact, your strength would naturally be incomparable!”

Deboning leaped from the corpse, holding a white crystal. “Young Master, this is the Merfolk King’s Soul Crystal; it’s very beneficial for cultivating Water Element battle qi!”

Du Chen, still pondering his Secret Art, casually put away the Soul Crystal, then walked back to join the others in reprimanding Jemison. Deboning, meanwhile, casually tossed the massive Merfolk King’s corpse into the ocean, sending it a considerable distance!

Facing the students’ accusations, Jemison abandoned all pretense of being a teacher, hanging his head and sheepishly explaining his mistake. Finally, perhaps feeling he could no longer save face, he glared. “What? Can’t a professor make one mistake!? Come on, let’s go back to Julie’s Ancient Castle and continue training our courage among The Undead!”

In broad daylight, Julie’s Ancient Castle, though somewhat eerie, no longer exuded the same terrifying atmosphere as it did at night. The students’ moods also improved slightly. At this time, Deboning invited Du Chen to his bedroom, where Beibei and Harry were also present.

“Young Master, that Merfolk King just now was very strange. I also found this in its body!” Deboning handed him a black object.

The black object was a perfect cube, neither metal nor iron, nor did it resemble stone. It was entirely black and very small, only about the size of a quail egg!

“Young Master, this thing definitely shouldn’t be on a Merfolk King. I’m not sure what to make of it!”

“You don’t recognize this either? Harry, sniff it. Beibei, you have a look too!”

Neither of them found anything. Harry only said the object smelled like an ordinary stone, while Beibei had just one comment: “This thing definitely doesn’t taste good!”

“Young Master, if you intend to ask Bovin and Jemison, I advise against it. I’ve found them to be very strange throughout this journey; it’s best not to trust them wholeheartedly anymore!” Deboning’s words immediately dispelled Du Chen’s intention of seeking out the two old men. “My boy,” he called out to Alex! Let’s see if his ‘Master’ son could give him a surprise.

The ‘Master’ child casually glanced at the object in Du Chen’s hand, disdainfully remarking, “Isn’t this just a small item made with alchemy, combining Holy Light Stone, Skyflame Stone, Sun Dust… and so on? Does this really require a master to identify?”

“It’s a product of alchemy?” Du Chen’s eyes lit up. This ‘Master’ son’s knowledge was truly vast! He truly was a ‘Master’!

Filled with hope, he pressed on, “Alex, quickly, tell Dad, what is this thing used for?”

The ‘Master’ raised his head and said indifferently, “I don’t know!”

“You don’t know?” Du Chen was startled. “Didn’t you recognize this thing…?”

“To be able to recognize the raw materials is naturally the mark of a master!! But even a master doesn’t necessarily know the purpose of products made from those materials; that’s basic common sense! Don’t tell anyone you know *this* master! Idiot…” The child hadn’t even finished his sentence before Du Chen stifled him with a single word: “Son.”

A baffling item, but judging by the names of the raw materials, it must be something good. He’d keep it for now!

Night fell. The students were all sound asleep. The room assignments were the same as yesterday.

Du Chen lay in bed, feigning sleep, yet he couldn't fall asleep, for the mysterious sensation in his mind grew ever stronger.

Porter was curled up asleep on the sofa with a book, his nostrils fluttering slightly, emitting soft, pleasant snores.

The mysterious sensation in his mind slowly escalated, becoming clearer and clearer. Just as it reached its peak, Du Chen suddenly saw the Portraits on the opposite wall move; the person within them moved!

“Francis, our captain requests your presence!”