Seedlings couldn’t absorb too much decayed matter, or they’d be poisoned too. Su Cha cleaned up the area around the flowerpots and went inside for a drink of water.
Over the next several days, he continuously stimulated the seeds using his spiritual power, along with super-powered fertilizer. This “forced growth” lasted for ten days. Once all the poisonous plants had grown, Su Cha began grafting the most toxic one to improve its quality. Plants from the wastelands already had strong vitality, and with his demonic energy protecting them, they quickly matured from seedlings into full-grown plants.
During this period, the freshmen hadn’t started forming teams yet. Every combat-related activity in the school had a ranking system. A single match or project wasn’t enough to see the whole picture. The strong were looking for equally well-rounded teammates, while the weak desperately tried to improve themselves and climb the rankings.
Someone compiled a list of freshman rankings for each event. Ji Tianjin was far ahead, and the only other name that drew as much attention—was Su Cha.
He ranked last in every event, and his challenge count was zero.
A complete blank slate, proving he’d never participated in combat training.
“Has he completely given up on himself? He could at least try a little.” Many were discontent about this.
This year, military training had been canceled. The school announced that individual starting points would be determined based on results from the preliminary competition.
The affiliated school used a points system, and the points had many purposes. For example, the school divided classes into required and elective courses. But unlike college, these electives weren’t minor—they included material science, strategy, and other courses taught by top-tier instructors. Getting access to those could give one a huge advantage when applying to the First Military Academy after graduation.
Additionally, the school had a trading platform where points could be exchanged for resources. At year’s end, class rankings were calculated from the total points of all students, with honors awarded to the top performers.
The preliminary match would be fought in small teams. Points earned would be averaged across the team—so if one member did poorly, the rest would suffer heavily.
Those confident in their strength had no concern—they simply wouldn’t team up with Su Cha. But the lower-ranked students, whose standings were already at the bottom, were panicking.
Even if they couldn’t catch up during the prelims, they could still scrape together some points. But if they were forced to team with Su Cha, the consequences could be catastrophic.
At that moment, a few students were sitting together, looking rather grim.
“Forget everything else. Just looking at how he lazes around in the dorm every day, he’ll probably surrender the moment the match starts.”
One of them, Zhao Shi, suddenly said, “Everyone participating is an unwritten rule, but it’s not an absolute requirement.”
The others turned to look at him.
Zhao Shi said seriously, “If he insists on withdrawing, the instructors probably won’t stop him.”
….
A few days ago, the strong winds had knocked down some thick tree branches. An idea struck Su Cha—he scraped off some bark and gritted his teeth to buy a hotplate and a pot.
The school didn’t ban high-powered appliances. If Su Cha had better grades and lived on a higher floor, his room would’ve come fully equipped.
After plucking a few leaves, he dried and ground the bark into powder and began making incense.
It wasn’t his first time doing this. Su Cha was skilled at making incense, and even more so at precisely adjusting its medicinal properties. The plants grown entirely with spiritual power gave off a faint aroma when ground into powder. As the binding agent, he didn’t use water or honey, but instead the toxic fluids he’d collected from the plants over the past few days.
The incense wasn’t as deadly as the Overlord Flower itself—he kept it mild to avoid provoking surprise attacks from other freshmen.
Even though the rules strictly forbade infighting during the competition, there were always those willing to take risks for victory.
Su Cha then clipped a rosebud that hadn’t yet bloomed and repeated the process to create a non-toxic version of the incense.
The summer heat was oppressive. Burning incense could help regulate one’s mood and avoid confusion. Su Cha deliberately made the incense sticks in different colors.
Once everything was ready, he was too exhausted to mix any more medicines. He sat on the balcony to rest for a moment. A gust of wind blew past, and the fragile stems in the pots swayed gently back and forth.
There were side effects to forced growth—each plant looked like a malnourished little sprout.
After days of draining his spiritual power, Su Cha’s face had lost some of its color. At his current capacity, this was his limit. A rough estimate told him he could only finish three or four sticks of incense before the preliminaries started.
“…That’s enough.”
The incense was only for emergencies. The rest of the leaves would be used to prepare medicinal powder. He couldn’t pluck too many—ultimately, the plants themselves were the real weapons.
The powder needed to be colorless and tasteless, and he still required some rare herbs. After checking his account balance, Su Cha realized that after this shopping trip, he wouldn’t have even a single star coin left.
Just as he was calculating his expenses, a broadcast came on, notifying all freshmen to collect their uniforms.
Worried about long lines, Su Cha immediately threw on a raincoat and hurried out. As he came downstairs, Li Huai caught sight of his pale face and frowned. He’d been holed up in the dorm resting every day, yet somehow looked even worse?
“Wait,” Li Huai called out to the rushing Su Cha.
He handed over a contact number and told him to add it to speed dial. “If you feel unwell, call me immediately.”
Su Cha hadn’t expected the usually stern instructor to show such concern.
“You’re really a good person.”
Li Huai’s mouth twitched. He waved him off with a flick of his fingers. Without morning drills, Su Cha preferred to stay holed up in his dorm. Li Huai had reason to suspect he might one day pass out inside and not be discovered for ten days straight.
Su Cha had only been delayed for a short while, but by the time he reached the uniform distribution point, there was already a line.
Nearby, a few students were discussing the Ten Schools Tournament. When they saw Su Cha, their expressions darkened.
They whispered a few words among themselves, and then one of the boys walked over. “Perfect timing. After you get your uniform, meet us in the woods behind the back field.”
Back field. Woods. Us?
Hearing those three key words, Su Cha’s eyes lit up. Are they planning to beat me up?
“Okay.”
He patted the card in his pocket. Thinking of his nearly overdrawn living allowance, he couldn’t help the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. In the end, he had to lower his head and stare at his toes to hide it.
After getting his uniform, Su Cha made a quick stop at the bathroom. The uniform set included elbow guards and knee pads, which he quietly put on.
Everything in place, Su Cha headed for the woods as agreed.
“You took long enough.”
The small grove was behind the back field, and the group was already growing impatient. All of them were taller than Su Cha, and being surrounded only made him appear more fragile.
“I had to wait in line. Took a bit longer than expected.” His voice was slightly hoarse from not drinking enough water.
Su Cha was mostly scanning their name tags—so he’d have someone to collect debts from later.
Zhao Shi.
That was the name of the lead boy.
Perfect. Must remember it.
“Classmate, the reason we called you out here today is…” Zhao Shi slowed his tone, hand in his pocket reaching toward Su Cha—
Bang!
You can fake injury all you want, but you can’t actually take a hit.
Su Cha was ready. The moment Zhao Shi’s elbow moved, he flung himself backward in sync.
His silver hair drew a graceful arc through the air. His eyes full of fear and despair, he fell with convincing drama. As he hit the ground, he clutched his chest and prepared to burst into a fit of coughing.
But Zhao Shi hadn’t thrown a punch. Instead, he was holding a black card.
In that moment, both of them saw disbelief in each other’s faces.
“What are you doing?”
“What are you doing?”
They spoke in unison.
Su Cha swallowed, then was the first to continue, “I thought you were going to hit me.”
Zhao Shi’s temple twitched. He stepped forward to help Su Cha up. “The preliminary match is important. This card has two million star coins. We’d like you to drop out of the competition.”
Two million?!
Su Cha opened his mouth, struggling to keep his voice from going dry. “Where did you get that kind of money?”
The affiliated school had plenty of rich kids, but two million wasn’t pocket change.
“We pooled it together.”
Su Cha was even more surprised. “Crowdfunded?”
Zhao Shi nodded. Another student added, “If that’s not enough, the price is negotiable…”
Before he could finish, a low shout rang out from a distance: “What are you doing?”
A massive wave of spiritual pressure surged toward them.
Su Cha suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head.
Zhao Shi seemed to be under even more pressure. He dropped into a crouch, clutching his head. Spotting the person walking over, he quickly kicked the black card into the bushes.
As the figure approached, Li Huai reined in his spiritual force.
“A bunch of brats who haven’t even grown hair yet, and you’re already learning to gang up on your classmates?”
The school didn’t forbid student sparring—but only if it took place in designated battle rooms, following the rules.
No time to wonder why the instructor showed up. The spiritual force just now, although controlled, had still left Su Cha slightly affected. He forced himself to stand and explained, “It’s not what it looked like. They didn’t hit me.”
Covered in dirt, a lingering look of fear on his face… from any angle, it was unconvincing.
“Oh? Then what were you doing, bonding over shared feelings?”
“They were just—”
Zhao Shi quickly shook his head at him.
Compared to physical violence, the school viewed class-based coercion far more severely. If the bribery was exposed, the punishment would be worse.
Swallowing the words he was about to say, Su Cha earnestly replied, “I lost my balance and fell.”
Li Huai’s gaze swept slowly over the boys. “Twenty laps around the field. While you’re running, think about why your fists only seem to fly at the weak.”
Su Cha: “…”
They hit me with a bank card.
Brushing the dust off his clothes, Su Cha tentatively asked, “Instructor, why were you here?”
Li Huai casually explained.
Everything started about ten minutes earlier.
Right after Su Cha left the classroom, chatter had erupted.
“That wimp got called out to the woods.”
“I saw it too. He didn’t even dare make a sound, just headed straight there.”
“Let’s go watch. What if something happens?”
“No need to get involved—just report it to the instructor.”
In these situations, having the instructor intervene and punish a few examples usually kept the rest in line. They didn’t like Su Cha, but that didn’t mean they wanted to see him bullied.
After learning the full story, Su Cha took a deep breath, unsure how to describe this whole “incident.”
“You haven’t eaten? Run faster!” Li Huai shouted.
The punished boys picked up the pace.
Staying behind to watch people run laps seemed nosy. Su Cha quietly left the field. His face stayed serious the whole way back—he knew he shared some blame. He’d jumped to conclusions using old patterns of thought.
The stairwell was cool, but his dorm room felt like a steamer. After reading a bit but failing to concentrate, Su Cha lit one of the incense sticks he had just made.
The gentle mist spread quickly, soon filling the small room.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.
Su Cha opened it—it was the same freshmen from earlier. Zhao Shi was waving his hand to cool himself off, panting heavily from running twenty laps. He was hot and thirsty.
“Sorry. It’s because I fell…”
Zhao Shi waved it off. “If you hadn’t fallen, we wouldn’t have been able to explain anything.”
Surrounding someone in the woods was already a bad look. It was impossible to defend.
They’d mostly come to ask Su Cha not to mention the attempted bribe. But before they could speak, Zhao Shi stretched his neck and sniffed the air. “It feels… really nice in here.”
Su Cha’s spiritual power was weak, and the rose only carried a faint floral trace. Although the scent wasn’t strong enough for Galan starfolk to detect, the incense—enhanced with spiritual energy—had an obvious calming effect.
He invited them in. Su Cha laid a straw mat on the floor and poured each of them a cup of warm water. “Please, have a seat.”
The warm water soothed their throats. The incense stick burned quietly in a flowerpot in the center of the room.
Zhao Shi felt more at peace than he ever had. All his worries faded. His worldly desires seemed to scatter. He completely forgot to ask what kind of incense this was.
The detector hadn’t signaled any toxins, and none of them used spiritual resistance—they simply enjoyed the moment.
Su Cha began sharing Buddhist scriptures he’d read before, and said, “With a calm heart, the self disappears into the outer world…”
Zhao Shi murmured, “Yeah… we’ve been too restless.”
Another freshman closed his eyes and added, “We’ve been focusing on action—getting up early, training hard—but we’ve lacked the ‘insight’ part.”
“In our rush for progress, we’ve fallen into a trap.”
Su Cha’s demonic energy was minimal, giving him natural resistance to both poison and incense. For him, the calming effect was only about thirty percent of what others experienced.
Suddenly, the door burst open.
It was Li Huai again. To be fair, the students at the affiliated school had a strong sense of principle. Someone had seen Zhao Shi and the others sneak up to the third floor. At first they thought, They just got punished—they wouldn’t dare try anything. But just in case, someone reported it to the instructor.
“What are you all doing?” That was the second time Li Huai asked that question today.
Seeing the group seated in a circle, he began to wonder whether they’d switched from physical threats to verbal coercion.
The boys on the mat all turned their faces at once, revealing serene smiles. “We’re cultivating enlightenment.”
