Chapter 149: The Anxious Second Senior Brother

The most fundamental difference between an Awakened and an ordinary person lies in whether they possess inner value within their body.

Then what category does Ye Shanshan belong to now?

Ye Chen hurriedly pursued the questioning:

"Can you feel the inner breath flowing within your body? Especially when you breathe in and out, it constantly flows through your meridians!"

While tidying her clothes, Ye Shanshan frowned her delicate brows, tilted her head to ponder for a moment, and replied:

"I can indeed feel as if an extra breath has appeared in my body, but I am not sure whether it is what you call inner breath."

What the hell kind of situation is this? There is breath, yet no inner value can be detected?!

Compared to Ye Shanshan's naive and silly posture, Ye Chen's heart was surging with emotions as he fell into deep contemplation.

Very well, returning to the previous question: your body now bears my beast-tooth branding, the patterns can appear on your face, and you can even make the breath flow within your body, yet you completely lack inner value.

Or rather, it is hard to say whether the thing flowing inside you is even inner breath at all.

What on earth is going on here?

If you are not considered an Awakened, could it be that you count as... a Practitioner?!

Several problems plagued Ye Chen, who was acting as a teacher for the very first time.

Wait, my initial train of thought was wrong from the start; I shouldn't lump the art of breathing and awakening together as one and the same.

The art of breathing represents a path of cultivation, which allows practitioners to continuously raise the upper limit of their abilities.

Whereas awakening is the pathway through which abilities are born.

In other words, having the art of breathing does not necessarily mean one is an Awakened, but one can still possess the beast-tooth branding and demonic beast patterns.

The brand and the patterns are unique products forged by the art of breathing.

Moreover, one thing is certain: once a practitioner like Ye Shanshan awakens, she will likewise possess a tremendous room for growth.

She is very likely to be an existence that completely overwhelms the same type of Awakened.

In short, the two are completely different things: one determines whether your upper limit will be capped, while the other determines how flashy and dazzling you appear.

Regardless, this daring attempt turned out to be an accidental success.

What remained was to help his new student get accustomed to the rhythm of the breathing technique, and then quietly wait for her moment of screaming... The delighted teacher prepared himself for long-term, earnest guidance.

......

Inner City, Extraordinary Mansion.

Director-General You Zhi had easily survived yet another all-nighter.

With dark circles heavily shadowing his eyes, he smoked cigarette after cigarette, joyfully dancing back and forth on the edge of sudden death.

Beside his car lay a pile of discarded cigarette butts as he continuously raised his hand to check the time.

He had never imagined that a woman could dawdle so much when going out, especially since she wasn't even taking a long trip.

"Ding-dong," the sound of the elevator stopping at the ground floor acted like a shot of adrenaline, instantly making his face beam with joy. With a flick of his finger, he tossed away the remaining half of his cigarette and greeted You Ya with utmost warmth.

Pushing two suitcases, his younger sister felt a wave of bad luck at the sight of her brother, pulling a long face as she shoved the luggage into the hands of the disheveled man.

Since last night, when You Ya suggested that she might have the opportunity to try Ye Chen's miraculous cultivation method, this heartless brother of hers had been desperately urging his sister to pack her things and move in overnight.

Seeing his sister casually dressed in the white coat of the Extraordinary Mansion, her brother complained softly:

"Normally you dress up all glamorous and fancy, but today..."

Little did he know, as bad luck would have it, these words fell right into You Ya's ears. She turned her head, glared at him, and snapped angrily:

"Just dare to say that one more word and see what happens! Listen up: your big sister here is not going to sacrifice herself for your sake."

......

Inside Ye Chen's courtyard.

He fetched a fresh basin of clean water for Ye Shanshan, closed the door, and returned to the courtyard to rest with an internal chuckle of amusement.

He had completely abandoned his plan to report back to the mansion today; nothing was more worth anticipating than the screams of agony to come.

Ye Chen walked over to the uncultivated patch of land, rubbing his nose as he pondered:

What should I plant here? Plant another tree? Forget about trees, there is already one by the corner of the wall.

Plant flowers? Tsk, am I an idiot? Can't I just grow flowers in pots? It would be a waste of such a large space.

Then let's do half vegetables and half fruit.

Before he could even pick up the hoe and fiddle with the soil a few times, a knock came from outside the courtyard gate, its rhythm brimming with excitement and urgency.

Who could that be?

The door opened, and—holy cow, why is it you again, "Dark Circles"... Ye Chen almost blurted out the man's defining feature.

Following right behind was the sister of the man on the verge of sudden death—the high-and-mighty female demon who wore an expression of extreme displeasure, pushing her own luggage.

Judging by your grand posture, are you coming to my house for a vacation?!

You Ya averted her gaze, turning her head away with haughty pride, unwilling to make eye contact with Ye Chen.

At this moment, You Zhi completely lacked the bearing of a Director-General of the Extraordinary Mansion. Beaming broadly, he pulled a black gold card from his coat pocket and flicked his left eyebrow at Ye Chen.

Then, with a swift pinch of his fingers, one black gold card instantly became two, and he flicked his right eyebrow.

Without saying a word, he grabbed Ye Chen's hand and dropped both cards right into his palm with a crisp slap.

Ye Chen looked at the cards, then looked at You Zhi, completely failing to understand the other's actions.

The dark-circle Director-General explained: "One card is for the lodging fee, and the other is for the tuition fee. Please graciously accept them!"

Behind him, You Ya covered her face and stomped her feet... This was far too shameless, the tactic was simply too crude!

When all was said and done, this idea had been hatched by You Zhi himself.

Last night, the siblings had discussed at length how to make Ye Chen gladly accept the two of them living under his roof, and how to make him willingly teach them the art of breathing.

You Ya had said with absolute conviction:

"My moving in is something I'll handle; you don't need to worry about it. But you aren't allowed to openly tell him that I'm going there to protect him—that would be too detrimental to my dignity!

"As for your matter, brother, you need to put in real effort, because the Extraordinary Mansion currently cannot produce anything that will truly make him's heart flutter.

"A self-awakening artifact could be considered, but items like that aren't mass-produced goods, and the one we just managed to unearth has already been taken away by him.

"So, aside from selling me—ah, pfft... selling my combat prowess, what else can you possibly sell?!"

However, having a flash of inspiration in his desperation, You Zhi had retorted:

"The kid loves money. As long as it can be solved with money, it's not a problem at all."

You Ya had angrily snapped back:

"Don't underestimate other people's aspirations. He's just temporarily unexposed; once the entire continent knows of him, what kind of wealth won't he be able to get?"

She had even added as a parting shot, "If you want to try, try it yourself. Don't drag me into this!"

Heh, as it turned out, the brother had boldly gone ahead and paid You Ya's tab as well.

In his own words:

"Ye Chen's true identity hasn't been exposed yet. When he truly soars up into the clouds, will mere money like this be enough to keep him grounded?

"Therefore, sooner is better than later. While it's still effective, use it right away!"

As expected, when Ye Chen understood the purpose of the siblings' visit, he didn't even bother putting on a polite act of refusal; he accepted the whole lot.

You wealthy scoundrels, I love you to death!

Teaching one person is teaching, and teaching two is also teaching.

The crucial point was that the tuition fees they offered started at tens of millions. Who... who could possibly resist that?

You Zhi turned his head triumphantly to look behind him, the look in his eyes making his meaning abundantly clear:

See? Wasn't my guess spot on, old man?

You Ya experienced a complex whirl of emotions. She couldn't help wondering if her previous way of communicating with him had been entirely wrong. Was it really true that to pry anything out of his mouth, all she had to do was hand over money?

The process of You Zhi becoming Ye Chen's disciple went astonishingly smoothly—so smoothly that You Ya began to doubt reality.

"When do we start?" You Zhi asked eagerly, his face full of urgency.

Ye Chen glanced at his dark circles.

Are you sure you shouldn't take a nap first?

Never mind, looking at how excited you are, lying in bed would be a waste of time anyway. You can recover your energy while cultivating... The teacher directly made the schedule for his student.

"Then let's start right now."

"Do I need to make any preparations?"

"Uh... bring a change of clothes, grab a chair, and follow me to the bathroom!"

You Ya, who was just about to lift her luggage and head upstairs, suffered a slip of the hand as her suitcase dropped to the ground with a loud thud.

Stiffly, she turned her head to look at the two men engaged in such a question-and-answer exchange... What on earth are the two of you planning to do?!