As Ren headed to his morning training with Lin, Taro entered Wei’s classroom with some apprehension.
During the last month, the professor’s behavior had been… peculiar.
It wasn’t just that he ignored Ren’s absence, he seemed to revel in it.
As Taro took his usual seat, he noticed how the professor practically glowed with satisfaction at his friend’s absence.
Each class had become a parade of indirect jabs and examples where Ren served as the perfect antagonist.
“As you can see in this diagram,” Wei pointed to a cultivation pattern illustration, “this is how mana flows naturally in a well-cultivated beast. With this analyzed information as an argument, we can see how proven methods are superior to the unfounded theories of certain… disruptive elements.”
It was the third reference in the first ten minutes of class. Taro had begun keeping a mental count, the current record was twelve “examples” in a single session.
“Observe the difference between correct cultivation and one…” Wei projected two images, “contaminated by baseless ideas.”
The constant jokes about fungi, idea-rotters, and infectious theories had become daily bread.
What bothered Taro most wasn’t just the lack of professionalism, but how Wei used his position to influence class opinion. With countless comparisons to try to make his teachings sound more convincing.
“Today we’ll do something different,” Wei announced, finishing his diagram. “I want you to form pairs to study cultivation methodologies for beasts different from your own. Sometimes, an external perspective can spark inspiration.”
He made a theatrical pause before adding:
His smile turned malicious. “Though remember to keep your minds open but not so much that they rot. Like those theorists who end up…” he made a dramatic pause, “with mushrooms in their brains.”
The class burst into laughter. Wei had carefully cultivated this atmosphere where mocking Ren was the norm.
Taro gripped his pencil tightly. For a respected professor, Wei was behaving more like a child with a personal vendetta.
Taro observed the classroom dejectedly.
He had never been particularly sociable in this class, preferring to keep to himself.
Now, as a known friend of the “Rotting Boy,” the possibilities of finding a partner were even more limited.
His gaze briefly met Jin’s group by accident.
The tiger boy, surrounded by his usual cronies, gave him a look of disgust so exaggerated it would have been comical in other circumstances.
A soft touch on his shoulder startled Taro.
“Can I be your partner?”
Taro turned to find Luna standing beside his desk.
Her expression was as unreadable as ever, but there was something in her gaze suggesting this wasn’t a random choice.
“With me?” the question came out higher-pitched than intended.
Luna, the most promising student in class, wanted to pair with the Rotting Boy’s friend?
♢♢♢♢
“Luna, why don’t you work with me?” Klein didn’t bother to hide his intentions as she passed near his seat. “My golden lion would be a much more interesting study subject than a simple beetle.”
Luna didn’t even dignify him with a look while sitting beside Taro.
Klein’s golden lion manifested in his arms, the marks glowing with irritation, but she kept her attention on the study materials she was beginning to take out.
“So…” Taro began nervously, still bewildered at having the class’s most promising student as his partner.
“The digger beetle,” Luna was direct, her voice barely a whisper while pretending to review a diagram. “Have you already started with the method Ren mentioned?”
The tension in Taro’s shoulders loosened a bit.
Talking to a girl was something difficult for him but… This was a topic he could discuss comfortably.
“Last night we processed the first crystals,” he explained while they pretended to work on the assigned exercise. “Ren used a method with concentrated moonlight…”
“And did it work?” Luna’s eyes showed a flash of genuine interest.
“This morning I absorbed the first crystal. It was… intense.”
While supposedly analyzing their beasts’ cultivation components, Luna maintained a steady flow of precise questions: How exactly did they concentrate the light? Which moons did they use? How much exposure time?
Suddenly, she stopped mid-analysis, her eyes fixed on Taro with an intensity that made him shift uncomfortably.
“There’s something different about you,” she murmured, her shadow wolf subtly manifesting in her eyes.
“Different?”
“Your mana,” Luna narrowed her eyes, studying him. “The flow patterns… they move differently in your body. My wolf can see it clearly. It’s as if…”
“Ah,” Taro smiled slightly, understanding. “During cultivation this morning. The first crystal was processed differently, as Ren said it should be. At first I thought it was mana poisoning, but…”
“Interesting,” Luna cut him off softly.
Though she asked no more questions, Taro could feel her gaze studying him periodically, as if monitoring the changes in his mana flow.
♢♢♢♢
They continued with the assigned exercise.
Taro, after much analysis, only managed to identify one correct component for shadow wolf cultivation, the specific need for night crystals to maintain its affinity with shadows.
Luna, for her part, identified two elements for the beetle: the critical importance of moonlight in processing and, surprisingly, the need for deep earth.
“The second is incorrect,” Taro pointed out, clearly remembering Ren’s explanations about purely lunar processing. “The method only requires specific moonlight.”
Luna looked at him with a curious expression, almost confused, but didn’t argue. Her eyes, still influenced by her shadow wolf, narrowed.
When the exercise ended, she rose with the same silent grace with which she had arrived.
Without saying another word, she returned to her seat, leaving Taro wondering if what had just happened was real.
Klein tried to get her attention again when she passed, but Luna ignored him as completely as the first time.