Chapter 166: The Return

Chapter 166: Return

When Li Hongshen opened his eyes once more, he had already returned to the primary world, stepping out of the life-support pod within the traversal matrix.

The dense aura of world power radiating from him immediately drew attention. At the same time, the teacher on duty cast a somewhat complex look in Li Hongshen's direction.

"Hongshen, come with me for a moment. I'll take you to get your condition checked and stabilized."

"Teacher, I'm fine. I don't need any treatment, really."

"It doesn't matter what you think; it matters what I think. Listen to me."

Mi Xianyun intercepted Li Hongshen, pulled him out of the queue, told the rest of the students to disperse on their own, and then dragged Li Hongshen toward the Comprehensive Traversal Processing Center.

This center was specifically established to handle various traversal syndromes, aiming to provide timely post-traversal counseling for students of the numerous Central Lord Universities and to alleviate any psychological, mental, or physical issues they might encounter.

Upon arriving at the center, Mi Xianyun led Li Hongshen straight into an office equipped with a simple desk and a life-support pod.

Behind the desk sat a mature beauty reading through a report. She had brown hair styled in wispy bangs with large waves, a seed-shaped face, willow-leaf eyebrows, large eyes, and a cherry mouth, all combining to project an air of alluring charm.

Seeing Mi Xianyun push the door open, the mature beauty frowned slightly, looking somewhat displeased. However, upon spotting Li Hongshen trailing behind Mi Xianyun, she hurriedly stood up and walked briskly toward the door.

Once she stood up, it became apparent that she possessed a tall and slender figure with an impressive proportion, sporting a pair of dazzlingly fair, long legs, alongside an overwhelming, suffocating voluptuousness.

"Yingzi, help me check on this student of mine. He turned out like this right after transmigrating back from his reincarnation trip."

Noticing Li Hongshen's somewhat resistant and depressed look, the teacher addressed as Yingzi smiled faintly. Then, with a gentle flick of her finger toward Li Hongshen, he fell soundlessly asleep without any room for resistance.

With a wave of Yingzi's arm, Li Hongshen's body floated automatically into the life-support pod. She then traced her fingers lightly through the air, and the conspicuously turbulent world power surrounding Li Hongshen was entirely reeled back into his body.

"Alright, I've taken over this student. He should wake up shortly, and once he does, I'll ask him a few questions and guide him through it. Do you have anything else to do? If not, you can leave."

Hearing Yingzi's words, Mi Xianyun awkwardly rubbed his hands together.

"Well, I was wondering if you're free this week. I heard the small cafeteria just brought in some top-tier ingredients. If possible, I'd like to invite you to try them together."

"Not free. I've already eaten with Luorui. Besides, you're the third person who has come to ask me out today, and you know very well that I don't like people using students as an excuse to approach me."

***

"Thump."

Mi Xianyun stared at the heavily shut door with a look of frustration, calling out toward the interior,

"I'm not using students as an excuse! I actually brought a student over, and I'm just asking you out on the side."

"Heh, asking me out is an afterthought, then? That makes me even less inclined to go. Hurry up and leave, don't interrupt my work."

"Tch, this is tough."

Mi Xianyun scratched his head, looked left and right to make sure no one else was witnessing his awkward predicament, and then knocked on the door again.

"What is it?"

"I'll wait here for my student and help guide him along afterward."

"Do you not trust me?"

"No, no, not at all. After all, I am his counselor, and this is my first time guiding students. I just want to show a bit more care for my pupils."

"Hmph, come in then."

Mi Xianyun rubbed his hands together once more, looking somewhat nervous, before pushing the door open again.

"Yingzi, you know me, I just wanted to—"

Before Mi Xianyun could finish his sentence, Li Hongshen inside the life-support pod opened his eyes once more, and the pod's hatch slid open.

"Teacher, I'm all set. There are no issues left. Can I head back now?"

"Don't leave just yet. I need to record your condition, ask you a few questions, and write a summary."

Li Hongshen looked somewhat conflicted between the mature beauty and Mi Xianyun. Seeing that his counselor was staring intently at Teacher Yingzi and paying him no attention whatsoever, Li Hongshen said with a helpless sigh,

"Go ahead and ask."

"What kind of world did you go to? What were the general conditions like?"

"A rather turbulent world, I suppose. It was a place saturated with various low-tier weapons and ammunition."

***

"What did you experience in that world, and did you encounter any problems?"

When she asked this, Teacher Yingzi's tone inexplicably softened. At the same time, her question seemed to trigger something in Li Hongshen, as if the answers were automatically floating up from the depths of his mind, causing him to speak smoothly in response,

"I faced several major risks right after birth in that world, narrowly escaping death. Then I became a child soldier, and eventually struck a deal with an arms dealer: I fought for him, and in return, he helped me look after war orphans.

"Shortly after, during my first encounter with enemies, I brushed against the world line and awakened the Gunman template through world power. Soon after, my boss assigned me to act as a bodyguard for his daughter.

"His daughter was also an arms dealer, as well as one of the protagonists of that world. After that, I didn't have to worry about acquiring world power anymore; I just stayed peacefully by the female arms dealer's side, slowly absorbing the world power she radiated.

"Occasionally, I ran into other supporting characters, harvesting extra world power from them. Through all of that, I completely analyzed the entire legal framework of that world and furthered the progression of my professional template's tier.

"After a few years, I felt the world's repulsion, so I tried my best to lower my own presence. But when Koko was targeted by assassins, I lost control of myself.

"I started a massacre in that world, almost wiping out the entire underworld's Table of Eight, and even teamed up with a few protagonists to clean up some assassin organizations—like that assassin firm that collected taxes but never paid out retirement pensions.

"And like that textile factory that used a loom with faint transcendent properties to slaughter people left and right. When I destroyed that loom, a massive surge of world power poured out, and then I was kicked out of the world before I even had the chance to say goodbye to Koko.

"It's a bit of a pity that I didn't have time to carefully process the world power I acquired, and since that low-tier world lacked any particularly good transcendent properties, I just stuffed it all roughly into my professional template. It feels a bit wasteful.

"Still, overall, the harvest was quite decent."

Having listened to Li Hongshen recount his experiences from start to finish, Teacher Yingzi turned her gaze directly toward Mi Xianyun and said somewhat fiercely,

"Are you here just to show off? Hmph, I admit your student is formidable, and you taught him well. Now you can leave. Besides, I'm busy—at least I'm busy recently."

With that, Teacher Yingzi flicked her hand, instantly shoving Mi Xianyun and Li Hongshen out the door, which slammed shut behind them with a loud thud.

"Teacher, what was that all about?"

Looking at the still slightly bewildered Li Hongshen, Mi Xianyun shook his head with a bitter smile.

"Sigh, don't even ask."