Chapter 206: Exercise
After formally joining by paying homage to the ancestors, Yu Guang began his studies.
Unlike ordinary students, Yu Guang possessed divine responses, exceptional strength, fighting skills honed by years of experience, and a golden aura of merit.
Ordinary people fought evil spirits by first cultivating spiritual energy, then using talismans, consecrated weapons, and formations to subdue and kill them.
“Big Brother’s way of killing evil spirits is unconventional, not something anyone else could learn. Ours is the most traditional way!”
The students of Tianchong Class, finally regaining a bit of confidence, eagerly offered to teach Yu Guang when he started his cultivation lessons. They even crowded out the teacher who had come especially to instruct him.
The teacher exclaimed, “…What kind of behavior is this! Do you dare to call yourselves teachers in my presence?”
The enthusiastic classmates had no choice but to tutor Yu Guang after class. Soon, the teacher noticed Yu Guang’s astonishing progress; he had learned three pages the previous day, and the next day he told the teacher he had already finished half the book.
As for talismans, a medium for channeling the forces of nature, making them was simple for Yu Guang as long as he remembered the symbols and could invoke the spirit of the founding master.
What was the hardest part for other students turned out to be the easiest for Yu Guang. The teacher could only marvel at his rapid learning pace, watching him complete an entire course in just a few days.
The juniors in the class initially tried to teach him and demonstrate techniques, but after a few days, they found themselves far behind, with the brief joy of helping him quickly fading away before they could savor it.
The student with the highest talisman scores in the class beat his chest and cried, lamenting that despite years of study, he still couldn’t match Yu Guang’s progress in a few days.
Everyone tried to console him, saying that genius was simply unreasonable. After all, they were considered prodigies too—ordinary people would need over a decade to achieve what they learned in just two months.
“Why are you beating yourself up by comparing yourself to Yu Guang? He can stay up for two days and nights straight, drawing eight hundred talismans, and still train energetically on the mountain in the morning. How can anyone compete with that?”
“Exactly! Even Pei Wenjue has accepted it and stopped comparing. Do you think your pride is stronger than Pei Wenjue’s?”
Hearing this, the student sighed and said, “I thought I was extraordinary for so many years, only to realize I’m just an ordinary person. You, me, and even Pei Wenjue, we’re all the same!”
Pei Wenjue retorted, “Get lost, don’t lump me in with you!”
In the formation class, Yu Guang turned his head and was already instructing his juniors on how to set up formations.
The teacher was shocked and asked him how he had mastered so many formations so quickly and could even alter them.
Yu Guang was puzzled. “Formations? I don’t know what that book was talking about—it was just full of vague diagrams that I couldn’t understand.”
But as for containing dangerous entities, coordinating everyone based on their abilities to seal any gaps and prevent escape—this was something he was already well-versed in.
It was all arranged purely from his own combat intuition and sharp perception.
Not to mention the theory, he was unmatched in actual combat.
If there was a short learning process for the rest, when it came to the weapons use and combat aspect, the teacher who came to teach could only stand by and let out a gasp of amazement along with the students of the Tian Chong class.
In terms of self-development, he naturally maximized his potential, turning everything around him into a weapon instinctively, needing no instruction.
His younger brothers, numb from witnessing his talent, were no longer discouraged. The gap was too wide to feel envy; they could only applaud, beaming with admiration and pride.
He completed all the courses in less than a month.
“When he said he’d graduate in two months, I advised him not to aim too high and to take things one step at a time.”
Standing in the Shuxue Building and looking across at the bustling training grounds, Wang Rongqing sighed, “Who would have thought that two months was already a humble estimate for Yu Guang?”
“So, should we arrange for him to enter the Exorcism Bureau ahead of schedule? Have you decided where he should be assigned?”
“My original plan was to have him spend two months with the Tianchong Class students, allowing them to get more familiar with one another.”
Remembering the current situation, Wang Rongqing chuckled, “This works even better. When they all start their internship at the Exorcism Bureau together, Yu Guang can lead them in forming a new team, one that’s independent from the current factions in the bureau.”
“To think you’d want to change the entire situation of the Exorcism Bureau—you really do have ambition.”
Wang Rong smiled bitterly. “It’s not ambition. The current Exorcism Bureau has decayed beyond salvation and needs a chance for change. I think Yu Guang is that chance.”
“Yu Guang did even better than I imagined. For the next month, let’s have him train his future teammates.”
*
On a hot day, over thirty members of the Tianchong Class were running up the mountain beside the martial arts field, drenched in sweat and feeling weak in the legs.
Leading the way was Wu Jin, running with a sense of high morale as he tried to keep up with the Big Brother’s standards.
Ming Yu, Pei Wenjue, and others followed closely behind him, while most people stayed in the middle. Bringing up the rear were two relatively frail young boys.
“Training us is one thing, but why do us two guest students have to train like this too?” one of them said, wiping away sweat and panting.
Previously, the Tianchong Class had thirty official students, plus two guest students who were not counted as official members.
The two guest students, Jiang Hong and Jiang Sha, lacked talent, but since their families were wealthy, their elders hoped they would meet some talented peers and maybe even form a good relationship with the influential Pei Wenjue, so they were sent here as guest students.
Usually, they just blended in and kept a low profile, planning to go back home after graduation. But then Yu Guang appeared.
The new Big Brother decided they should all train, and no one could object—so the two guest students also had to follow this group of prodigies in training.
“What’s the point of us training too? No matter how hard we try, we can’t keep up with the others,” Jiang Sha said, slumping in exhaustion.
Jiang Hong, also tired, replied softly, “But no matter how hard Wu Jin and the others train, they still can’t match the Big Brother, yet they’re still giving it their all, aren’t they?”
“And besides, isn’t Yu Yin training with us too?”
Jiang Sha looked back at Yu Guang and Yu Yin, who were running at the very end.
Yu Guang set training goals for everyone, not leaving out a single person—even his sickly younger brother was required to train alongside the others.
Yu Yin, the younger guest student who was blind and slower than the others, ran at a much slower pace. Yu Guang stayed by his side.
The people running ahead often heard the big brother encouraging his younger sibling from behind.
“Very good, you’ve made a little progress today compared to yesterday!”
“You can keep going, don’t stop, lift your feet.”
“Don’t be afraid of falling. Be bold, I’ll catch you if you stumble!”
Among all of them, only Yu Yin received this special treatment from his big brother, but no one envied him.
The big brother was indeed very kind, but training under his watch was tough to endure.
Running was just the basic training. They also worked on reaction time, sparring, and weapon handling.
Yu Guang was even tougher on them than the instructors, and after guiding them through one round, he would focus on Yu Yin’s training.
When Yu Guang wasn’t watching, some could occasionally slack off, but Yu Yin couldn’t even afford to take a single step without his big brother noticing.
How frightening was it when his big brother was serious about training?
The black cloth tied around Yu Yin’s face was soaked with sweat.
“Big Brother, it’s so hot today. After training, how about we go to the bathhouse for a cold medicinal bath?”
“Yeah, let’s go together. That medicinal bath is really helpful. At the beginning, whenever Big Brother would punish us, we’d secretly sneak off to soak in that bath.”
Yu Guang, who was checking his younger brother’s arms and legs for any issues, immediately agreed, “Alright, let’s go!”
He casually lifted his exhausted brother.
With one word from him, the whole group of sweaty and tired people, who had collapsed on the ground, got up and began moving.
The more than thirty people split into male and female groups and entered the large medicinal bathhouse. A group of teenage boys excitedly stripped off their clothes and splashed around in the water.
Yu Guang smiled as he watched them and gently set Yu Yin down.
Yu Yin swayed a little and nearly lost his balance. Yu Guang quickly caught his shoulder and arm, helping him stay upright.
The sudden increase in the training load had left Yu Yin unable to walk properly, so Yu Guang had carried him the entire way.
Seeing his brother’s trembling fingers, the responsible older brother decided to take off his clothes for him and placed them in the cold medicinal bath to soak.
He also removed the black cloth that covered Yu Yin’s eyes, preparing to wash it.
Yu Guang cleaned up his grimacing younger brother, and when he got up to fetch something, the boys who had been eyeing Yu Yin from the corner couldn’t resist any longer and turned their attention to him.
The members of the Tianchong Class were all curious about Big Brother’s younger brother Yu Yin, but since they weren’t familiar with him before, they hadn’t dared to approach him.
And Big Brother was so protective that he even kept Yu Yin separated during training, giving everyone no chance to approach him.
“This is our chance! The little brother is all alone over there! Go!”
“Let’s go, let’s go! Let’s get to know the little brother! I’ve been wondering for so long, but the little brother hasn’t even recognized us, and that’s just not right—we’re all brothers now!”
“Not just the little brother, I’ve never even seen his face properly.”
Yu Yin sat in the cold medicinal bath with his eyes closed, his face cold and grim, clearly in a bad mood.
In such a foul mood, a few boys who approached became his outlets for frustration.
They happily approached, foolishly calling out “Little Brother,” only to suddenly stop when they saw Yu Yin raise his head and look at them.
A few of the boys, in their dazed state, stumbled and fell straight into the water, bubbles coming up from their mouths.
“Ah! Meng Miao? Ayi? Why did they faint?!”
Someone hurried to fish them out, but Yu Yin just watched them approach, water droplets hanging from his eyelashes and the tip of his nose.
Before long, the entire pool was in chaos.
When Yu Guang returned and saw the commotion, he quickly pulled the dazed boys apart, dragged the ones who had drifted in the water back to the shore, and pinched the ones foolishly crawling toward Yu Yin to wake them up.
…
In the adjacent female bath, the girls were getting a headache from the noise coming from the next pool.
“What are these guys doing? Making such a racket—are they fighting?”
“Who knows? They said they were too tired earlier, but now they’re all full of energy again.”
“Just ignore them, a bunch of monkeys.”
“Hm? Why has it suddenly gone quiet?”
“They must’ve been disciplined by Big Brother!”
…
In the men’s bathhouse, boys lay scattered on the ground, confused and disoriented, both in and out of the water.
Yu Yin sat there, his expression cold, as if the chaos around him had nothing to do with him.
Yu Guang walked over and ruffled his younger brother’s neatly styled hair. “Were you doing that on purpose?”
Yu Yin avoided his hand and sat down on the edge of the pool, revealing the bruises all over his legs and knees.
They were all marks from the training sessions, accidents where he had fallen or bumped into something while Yu Guang was pushing him too hard.
His pale, smooth skin made every small bruise look worse, as if he had been beaten, making him appear pitiful.
Seeing this, Yu Guang couldn’t help but sigh. None of his other younger siblings were this fragile.
He took out the medicinal alcohol he had gone to find earlier and pulled Yu Yin’s arm over, carefully rubbing it onto the bruises.
With his rough, slightly darker hands pressing against Yu Yin’s arm, the slight resistance from his brother was easily subdued.
After massaging the area thoroughly, Yu Guang lifted Yu Yin’s leg and placed it on his own thigh, applying the oil to his brother’s knee.
Yu Yin’s leg, cold from the medicinal bath, rested on his older brother’s leg, which was warm from the heat of the bath.
“Youngest, you can’t take your frustration out on others. If you have a problem, come to Big Brother, understand?”
Yu Guang pressed down on Yu Yin’s skin, turning it red, and casually massaged his younger brother’s sore and trembling calves.
Yu Yin clenched his fingers, a look of anger flashing across his face.
Take it out on him? If he could handle him, why would he take his frustration out on these monkeys!
After tending to the bruises on his younger brother’s body and giving him a few words of advice, Yu Guang finally let him go.
Turning around, he saw the boys slowly waking up, still dazed.
Yu Guang spoke to them: “I’ve decided, tomorrow I’ll add a new course for you all—to train your willpower.”
The boys, still in a fog, immediately snapped out of it, covering their bodies in shock. What was going on? Why were they suddenly getting an additional class?
“Willpower training? How are we supposed to do that?” someone nervously asked.
Yu Guang pointed toward Yu Yin by the side of the pool. “My little brother will help you train.”
