Chapter 377: The Sparse Body Cultivation Circle of the Witch Academy
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 377: The Sparse Body Cultivation Circle of the Witch Academy
"Alright, I was being too impatient." The senior sister pressed a hand to her forehead, realizing her behavior had been a bit excessive.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Tao Ling. How should I address you, Senior?"
"Hmm?" I looked at this girl—Tao Ling—with confusion. Did everyone in the Witch Academy just call whoever was stronger than them "Senior Sister"?
The last person to call me that was Betty, I think. Come to think of it, I haven't dropped by her mentor's place for alchemy lessons in a while.
"Just call me 'Junior.' As for my name, you can call me Moon."
"Junior? Impossible! Absolutely impossible. You must be a high-year senior who has been immersed in body cultivation for years! Otherwise, that internal energy..."
"I just got lucky and mastered it," I interjected.
"That's also impossible. There's no such thing as luck in body cultivation. Your body is your own; time is the scale of effort, and every minute of tempering is your own accumulation."
"Fine, think whatever you want. Please move, I'm leaving," I said, adopting a cold tone.
Judging by her repeated cries of "impossible," it was clear she was the stubborn type who stuck to her guns. Even if she was slightly off the mark, she wouldn't stray far from her convictions. Was I really supposed to explain to her that I was a "Self-Awakened Body Cultivator"?
She wouldn't even accept that I was her junior. I didn't want to waste any more energy talking to her.
"Wait... Senior, please teach me body cultivation! I want to be able to throw a punch with a sonic boom like that! You were definitely holding back just now, weren't you!" At this point, she seemed to have read my mood and hurriedly tried to make me stay.
"Wouldn't you learn better from those Transcendent Mentors? You have your own mentor now, don't you?"
"I do, but my mentor doesn't know how to teach. Body cultivation is just her secondary focus. She can produce internal energy too, but there's a Transcendent-level gap between us. You, on the other hand, are around my level. I want to know how you trained!"
"Ugh..."
I stared at the senior sister, who had completely abandoned her previous two personas. Now, she looked like she wanted to cling to my leg and wail, prompting a sound of pure disgust from me.
Who would have thought this senior sister, who looked so cold and aloof while practicing her body arts earlier, would turn into this?
"Let go. Let go of me first," I said helplessly. My legs, however, showed no mercy. With a stomp, a burst of internal energy shook her hands off.
Using the feet and legs to resonate internal energy was actually a pretty good idea—at least it allowed for a quick escape when someone tried to grab your leg.
"Alright, I don't like people taking advantage of me or getting fresh. Besides, I have a girlfriend, understand?"
"What... a girlfriend? Oh... I see, I see. I'll be careful in the future." After a moment of shock, she quickly accepted the fact. "Um... would it be possible to..."
"I don't have time to teach you. Forget it," I rejected her again.
"Er... I actually wanted to ask how you reached this level. Which mentor's body arts school do you follow? Would you mind sharing?"
"I don't practice any specific body arts, and I don't know any schools. Or rather, the path I'm taking isn't conventional body cultivation. There's no point in pestering me."
I explained as I prepared to leave. Stepping outside, the atmosphere immediately shifted from the intense vibe of the body arts training hall. It felt like the outside world was just child's play in comparison.
Tao Ling followed me out, still peppering me with questions.
"Not conventional? No body arts? How did you do it then?"
"I just did. You can think of it as innate talent."
"Talent? So it was talent all along? No wonder I've never heard your name in the academy's body cultivation circle."
"Body cultivation circle?"
"Yeah, haven't you heard of it, Senior? How about I introduce you to the Witch Academy's body cultivation circle? With your abilities, you'd definitely be highly sought after!"
"Highly sought after? I'll pass." I waved her off.
If a freshman like me could be "highly sought after" in that circle, then it probably didn't have much value to me. Plus, I hated trouble; I preferred to keep my impressive feats to a minimum.
Just having my name known among the Witch Mentors had already changed my life enough.
"Well, if you're not interested, that's fine. That circle is mostly just for exchanging tips on body arts training anyway. It might not be very useful for you. By the way, Senior, do you have any secrets for your body cultivation?"
"Hmm... use your brain more?" I said after a moment of thought.
Whether it was Self-Awakened Body Cultivation or those martial runes, none of it came from mindless brute force. Training hard is fine, but you can't only train.
"Use my brain?" The mere mention of thinking gave Tao Ling a headache.
"Of course. You're a body cultivator. Essentially, you're training your body, not just practicing body arts. There's so much to cultivate in the body—don't you know that? Muscles are just the most superficial part. Isn't your brain part of your body too?"
"Huh?"
"You really didn't know?" I slapped my forehead, double-checking in disbelief.
Sister Bai had told me this. She mentioned it back when we were discussing Spirit Vision and Five Senses cultivation—that Five Senses cultivation is also part of body cultivation.
But this girl... she actually didn't know?
"My mentor... might have mentioned it... I think," she said uncertainly.
"Then you should spend more time reading related books instead of looking for shortcuts from me. You said it yourself—there are no shortcuts in body cultivation, only hard work, right?"
"I guess..."
At that point, I swiped my member card and left the body arts training hall. I had to say, my first experience here was... terrible.
I somewhat regretted wasting the money. At least I hadn't been suckered into buying any other services.
Then again, the name of the place explicitly said it was for "body arts," so I suppose my expectations had been too high.
Even now, Tao Ling kept calling me "Senior" and chatting about various things, trying to get closer to me.
A lot of the information she shared came from that body cultivation circle, which happened to hit on some points I was curious about.
The body cultivation circle in the Witch Academy was small. Compared to the flashier, more convenient spellbooks, body cultivation was seen by many as a thankless, grueling path.
Only a tiny fraction of people truly loved it. I heard that quite a few senior sisters used to be boys who were tricked or kidnapped into coming here, which was why they were interested in body cultivation in the first place.
Many seniors chose body cultivation as a secondary focus. Once they reached the higher years, the witchification of their Mana Source would slowly strengthen their constitution, providing a physical foundation. This led many to consider picking up body arts on the side.
Some just wanted a good physique to attract cute underclassmen... she told me all of this quite bluntly.
One could say the body arts circle at the Witch Academy was quite a mess, once dominated by lesbians. Pure body cultivators like Tao Ling, who had even mastered internal energy, were rare. Interestingly, someone like her was extremely popular in that circle.
It was probably similar to how guys who over-train their muscles at the gym mostly end up attracting other guys.
Based on this, the body cultivation circle had even developed a strange "Internal Energy Worship," somewhat similar to the "Academic Worship" found among lesbians in the outside world.
And Tao Ling had apparently been subconsciously influenced into becoming one of those worshippers.
I didn't quite understand it, but I was certainly shocked.
After being pestered for a long time, I finally shook her off. Sticky-sweet "nougat" types are truly a pain to deal with, especially since I'd have to come here regularly for body tempering in the coming days. I might run into her often.
I considered switching to a different training hall, but... if I did, my display of dominance today would have been pointless. So... I'd just put up with it for now.
Furthermore, some of the information I got from Tao Ling was unexpected. For instance, remembering that Sister Bai was also a body cultivator, I asked about her. It turned out Tao Ling actually knew of her.
Sister Bai was apparently the most "aloof flower" in the body cultivation circle, and she had even publicly stated her rejection of same-sex relationships...
If I hadn't confirmed it multiple times, I wouldn't have believed they were talking about the same Sister Bai.
However, Tao Ling hadn't heard anything about Sister Bai recently promoting to a Transcendent Witch. It seemed Sister Bai was keeping her promotion very low-profile.
That was fine by me. Sister Bai belongs to me now! No room for any of those other prying eyes!
I checked the time; the morning was almost over.
Between meditation and body tempering, half the day was gone. These things were real time-sinks.
But if I wanted to compress that time, it wouldn't be easy. These arrangements were all very important.
Aside from these two tasks, I didn't have much else to do.
On the way back, I took the opportunity to buy some workout clothes—things like sports bras and shorts. I really didn't want to practice the Ritual War Dance in my current outfit. I also needed to buy some stretchable leg rings; I was afraid the standard ones might snap during intense exercise.
As for why I didn't just take them off... I don't need to elaborate on that.
Fortunately, there was a specialty sports apparel shop near the training hall, so I didn't have to go out of my way.
Following the tradition Sister Bai taught me—trying on lots of clothes—I tested out several styles.
In the end, I chose types that were comfortable and relatively conservative. As for the sexier, more revealing ones... I just looked. Maybe I'll buy those when Sister Bai gives me one-on-one lessons.
I remembered suggesting that Sister Bai should teach body arts at the academy, so there would be chances to wear them.
"Please come again~"
Amidst the enthusiastic farewells from the part-time senior sisters, I left the shop.
But man, the clothes here were expensive. Even though they were just workout clothes with very little fabric, they still cost a fortune...
I don't think I'll be coming back anytime soon.
Leaving the shop, I opened my phone and checked the dorm group chat. It was almost lunchtime, so I asked the idle bunch back at the dorm if they wanted me to bring food.
When the replies came flooding in instantly, I realized this group chat was destined to become a "delivery service" group.
By the time I got back to the villa...
"Sister Xiao Han! You're finally here! Where's my food!" Hong Chenyi was practically pressed against the peephole, watching the outside. The moment she saw me, she threw the door open to welcome me.
"The only thing you remember is your food, isn't it?"
I pretended to be annoyed as I handed her the portion she'd requested.
"No, no, hehe~ But Sister Xiao Han, you look like you're in a great mood today! Did something good happen?"
"Mhm~" I subconsciously touched my face. If I ignored the unpleasant encounter at the training hall and the sadness of parting with Sister Bai, there was something to be happy about. After all, Sister Bai and I had officially confirmed our relationship~
"Can you really tell?"
"Of course! Sister Xiao Han, your theory score for the monthly exam was second place! That's for the entire grade! Heavens! You're absolutely god-tier!"
"What?"
Hong Chenyi's words didn't register at first. She was talking about that?
So it wasn't about the thing with Sister Bai... Since the Academy Dean had seen through me, I thought my change was obvious.
"Wait, that's not right. Didn't the monthly exam just finish yesterday?"
"Monthly exam results come out fast. Don't underestimate the speed of the mentors! They're all Transcendent Witches!"
"True, that's not surprising then. But... wait, how do you know?" I asked curiously.
"The rankings are posted on the academy system! Hahaha! Sister Xiao Han, you're a genius! You have no idea—people from other classes were talking trash for so long because you missed the last exam. Now you've given those idiots a massive slap in the face! They don't dare say a word now."
"I don't really care about that. By the way, who's first? Tan Han?"
"Yeah, Tan Han is first. Who would've thought the top two in the grade would be the only two people with course exemptions? And you guys were delayed for so long by the sleep curse, only coming back a few days before the exam. To get these results despite that... Sister Xiao Han, how did you do it?"
"Well... just work hard and find a learning method that suits you." I gave a simple, vague answer. After all, I couldn't exactly say I had a bunch of spells specifically for studying, could I?
And it wasn't exactly a lie. I knew very well that I was just an ordinary person. Compared to the geniuses around me, the gap was huge. So, I used various means to bridge that gap until I surpassed them. Borrowing the power of spells was just one of those means.
If you want to learn something, there are only methods you haven't thought of, not methods you can't do. If you can't do it, it's because your execution in that area isn't strong enough.
"Aww... that's easy to say, but hard to do."
"Maybe... you could try to get some auxiliary learning spells. Things like... Rapid Memorization, Memory Enhancement, and so on. Although those kinds of spellbooks are rare in the Witch Academy, they do exist."
"Eh?! There are spellbooks like that?"
"Of course. There are things in the Witch Academy you can't even imagine. Maybe you should look into that more. Or perhaps you just don't value studying that much and haven't broken out of your mental habits. Maybe you should learn how to be 'lazy' effectively. After all, studying is exhausting."
"I've been 'lazy' all the time... but my ranking dropped so much this time. Even though so many people were affected by the sleep curse, my total ranking still didn't go up..."
"Then that means being lazy doesn't suit you. You'd better stick to making up for lack of talent with hard work," I teased with a laugh. "Now go eat your food."