Chapter 65: Leaving One’s Innocence in This World
Lin Zhihui looked at the talisman paper in Si Er’s hand and began searching for a suitable test subject.
He felt that sticking it on Si Er might not be appropriate. If it got torn off again, he would be heartbroken.
While he was hesitating, Lu Taiping suddenly took out his Treasure-Seeking Mouse and thrust it toward Lin Zhihui.
“Instructor Lin, why not try it on my Xiao Bai? He’s very fragile—I think he really needs a better defensive talisman.”
Lin Zhihui thought it was a good idea and turned to ask Si Er, “Student Si Er, are you willing?”
Si Er smiled and nodded. “Of course.”
Why wouldn’t I be? Xiao Bai is so cute!
And he’s very useful. He really does need protection.
“Then we’ll use Xiao Bai.”
After some thought, Instructor Lin folded the talisman paper into a small triangle, placed it into a specially made talisman pouch, and hung it around the mouse’s neck.
“The purpose of this pouch is to make certain talismans easier to wear. We’ll teach you how to make these next class.”
“If you can learn to craft talisman pouches, that’s another source of income. They sell quite well.”
After saying that, Lin Zhihui sent a light attack toward the Treasure-Seeking Mouse, Xiao Bai. Since Xiao Bai looked extremely fragile, he held back considerably.
He only saw the talisman pouch around Xiao Bai’s neck flash with golden light, and his attack was absorbed.
Could this defensive talisman have the same effect as Yu Beixuan’s?
Lin Zhihui increased the strength of his attack. It was absorbed again—but the talisman paper did not grow stronger.
Puzzled, he launched another attack. This time, he saw his strongest strike rebound straight back at him.
Lin Zhihui crushed that rebounded strike in his hand—only to see the two previous attacks suddenly shoot toward different parts of his body.
He was stunned. This defensive talisman seemed rather advanced.
Si Er was stunned too.
Is this really a defensive talisman? Why does it feel like it has so many tricks?
The rest of the class: We’d like to ask you the same thing—how exactly did you make this?
After his initial shock, Lin Zhihui grew excited. He sent dozens of attacks at Xiao Bai in quick succession.
Although Xiao Bai knew this was an experiment, he still trembled in fear and darted away several times.
He was fast, but Lin Zhihui’s attacks had already locked onto him. At his current strength, he couldn’t dodge them.
Fortunately, even when he failed to dodge, the attacks never landed on him. They were all absorbed by the talisman paper, and occasionally rebounded back.
Lin Zhihui discovered that the rebound effect had no pattern—it was impossible to guard against.
Sometimes the attacks rebounded one after another. Sometimes they combined and rebounded together. Sometimes the talisman simply absorbed the energy without reflecting it at all.
In short, the rebound was a probability-triggered event, entirely dependent on the Treasure-Seeking Mouse’s luck.
Thankfully, the absorption aspect did follow a pattern. Roughly one out of every ten attacks would be truly absorbed instead of reflected.
When it was truly absorbed, the talisman paper would grow stronger.
So this talisman was also capable of growth—just not as quickly as Yu Beixuan’s.
Still, the rebound effect was quite interesting. The only problem was that it relied too much on luck—sometimes it could cause serious harm.
This feels less like a defensive talisman and more like a rebound talisman.
Si Er was speechless, unable to understand why drawing defensive runes had resulted in a rebound talisman.
Guagua nodded in agreement.
[Er’er drew a rather fancy type of defensive talisman. But if it were used on you, it would be no different from a rebound talisman.]
[With your luck, aside from the one attack that gets completely absorbed, every other attack would definitely rebound one hundred percent.]
Is my luck really that good?
Si Er didn’t dare believe it.
If my luck were good, would I have been switched at birth by Si Biaolian and thrown away?
If Heavenly Dao Dad hadn’t acted quickly, my soul sea would’ve been crippled. I’d have become a little idiot.
Even though my soul sea wasn’t destroyed, my body still spent years as a little idiot in a small mountain village!
And my soul had it miserable in the other world too—I got crushed to death by someone jumping off a building!
Good thing I was broke over there. My bank balance was only 250. Otherwise I’d have died with regrets!
Wait. I just thought of a serious problem!
[What problem?]
Guagua was extremely curious.
Can you see what happened in my other world? Especially after I died?
[Definitely not after you died. I can only see your past memories through the contract.]
[After your death and return, you had no further connection with that world.]
[That world is very far from ours. Without any other link, I can’t see anything.]
[What are you so nervous about, Er’er?]
Nothing. I just feel like I need to leave my innocence behind in this world.
But my innocence probably…
Wuwuwu. There are still browsing records on my web pages for certain “Tang” and “Po” sites. And there’s a T-themed fan comic in my cloud drive…
Ahhh, so socially dead. Luckily I really died. It’s like I fled Earth overnight and moved to another planet.
[Though the Ten Thousand Beasts Continent is just a fragment of the Cang Beast Continent’s planet?]
Thinking about his phone gave Si Er a headache. Then he remembered that just before being crushed to death, he had been reading about two male penguins falling in love—and secretly browsing illustrated stories about someone calling a little penguin—and his vision went dark.
Forget it, forget it. I’m already dead. No point thinking about it.
I was just an orphan in that world. Hardly anyone knew me. Even if it’s embarrassing, the damage is limited.
Si Er quickly comforted himself and turned to look at the talisman Si Xu had drawn.
Si Xu lowered his head, not daring to reveal the sympathy in his eyes.
He felt his younger brother truly had terrible luck—losing his innocence in another world after death. But at least he was already dead there; it was over and done with.
But here? Why suddenly recall those past events?
How many people just heard that?
Their classroom didn’t have many people—but there was a crowd lurking in the hallway!
And those people had friends and relatives. News could spread from ten to a hundred in no time…
Tsk tsk. He didn’t dare imagine it.
Even though no one understood what those “Tang” and “Po” sites meant, Si Er’s inner voice sounded so mortified that who knew what everyone would imagine?
Yu Beixuan also felt Si Er was unlucky. He stood up and glared at every student in the class. Instantly, everyone lowered their heads, not daring to entertain a single stray thought.
As for the instructor…
Yu Beixuan still had basic manners and upbringing; he couldn’t glare openly at his teacher. But his eyes conveyed his meaning clearly enough.
Lin Zhihui rolled his eyes speechlessly. He wasn’t interested in such minor gossip anyway. What he really wanted to know was how Yu Beixuan’s talisman crafting was going.
But looking down, he saw Yu Beixuan hadn’t even finished making his talisman paper yet, so he turned to check Si Xu’s work instead.
Si Xu’s talisman paper wasn’t great, but he could draw the runes. The effect was passable—roughly a mid-grade first-level defensive talisman.
Lin Zhihui then examined the other students’ results and felt relieved.
Quite a few students had successfully drawn defensive talismans!
Although their quality was lacking, if they pasted several together, they could still achieve a defensive effect.
