Chapter 704: Learning to Enjoy Life

“What do you mean?”

Everyone looked at me stopping just like that, finding it somewhat incredible and incomprehensible.

Breaking out of the encirclement and escaping, they could understand, but it was useless.

They were still clinging tightly to me.

Even with the mid-way change, Liffia was originally supposed to be ambushed at the perimeter, serving as the final insurance…

But this still couldn't change the final outcome.

“Are you preparing to surrender now?”

Although every single person who chased all this way had a very strong physical constitution, such high-intensity sprinting was definitely very taxing on their physical strength.

“I said… the offense and defense have swapped, do you understand? You fools!”

I mocked the crowd again.

“The offense and defense have swapped? Where did you get… you…”

Everyone was still confused, and some even thought I was acting foolish, but when they calmed down and saw the area directly in front of them.

There, crowds of examinees were gathered, forming a cooperative hunting party of hundreds, even thousands of people!

“How is that possible! You! You! You! How could you call so many people!”

The leader, seeing that large number of people, plus my confident expression, immediately thought I was up to mischief.

But gathering so many people at once was simply impossible for anyone to do!

“Who knows? Maybe I have great personal charisma.”

I brushed my hair from my forehead and said with a smile.

Everything that was currently happening was indeed beyond my expectations.

After all, who would have thought that so many people would come?

Judging by that formation, the sheer number of people was enough to qualify them to hunt an entire Mutated Beast pack.

“Liar! That's simply impossible!”

“You don't have that ability! Oh… I see. Your Wanted order hasn't been revoked yet, has it? No wonder you can attract so many people!”

“Your brain works pretty fast.”

I gestured with both hands, indicating they guessed correctly.

“Then now… are you still planning to chase and kill me? Before that group of people catches up, I bet you can't kill me. The longer this drags on, the more advantageous it is for me.”

“Because the final decision of who gets dragged down here is mine!”

“I can also drag one of you down with me.”

Liffia also added from the side.

“You! Damn you…”

Seeing our audacious confidence, this group was practically boiling with anger!

Didn't this mean that their plan was meaningless, like a joke, from the very beginning!

And this was clearly a straightforward plot.

If they retreated, it would definitely be in line with my wishes.

I would also escape the predicament.

It would seem like everything was fine, but they expended people and effort and gained nothing in the end!

But if they didn't retreat… they would perish together with that group!

Everyone would die.

Even so… it was still not worth it.

Even if they killed me once, what good would that do?

Furthermore, if they chose the latter, although that group might not necessarily catch up to them, the end result would be that they would be chased until they scattered and ran away.

This siege alliance would also collapse.

More importantly, the same would happen to the reputation of the teaching assistants!

And they were not of one mind… Just as the leader was thinking, the others in this cooperative team also understood the current situation, and many began to consider retreating.

“Have you decided on how to solve this?”

I looked at their scattered morale and knew I had won.

And at this moment, I used the Seed of Knowledge to record the current scene.

This was nearly twenty teaching assistants all at once!

“'Over twenty teaching assistants gathered here, foolish people, plenty of scoring, first come, first served.' How much trouble do you think this caption and post, combined with the current location tracking, will cause you if I post it?”

At this time, I made the view of the Seed of Knowledge public, becoming a shared spell image.

Everyone looked at this pending post, and their hearts sank.

Even though they clearly knew that even if this post was published, it would take time to ferment, and the rushing crowd would also take time to arrive, so it was impossible to cause them trouble now, but this still made their hearts run cold.

They failed… This siege completely failed!

And at this moment, I publicly posted the message.

Some people instinctively reached out their hands, indicating to wait, but they were still a step too late.

After the post was published, what I didn't expect was that the page views of my post soared immediately, and there was also a huge number of comments.

"Retreat!"

Although the crowd was unwilling, seeing the large hunting party getting closer and closer, they could only grit their teeth and shout.

“Just retreat? Are you sure?”

“What else do you want!”

The Witch Academy teaching assistant at the very front turned around angrily and questioned me.

“Of course, I want to press my advantage. Your team must disperse immediately today! I said it. If you don't disperse, I'll follow you. The hunting party will follow me. Let's see who can't take it first! Guess how tempting a reward of over two thousand scoring points is to the examinees?”

“You!”

“Stop with the 'you' and 'my.' I've already said it: the so-called public's wrath is merely the pride that you can't let go of. It may seem intimidating, but in the face of greater power, it's just a paper tiger. Pride is also worthless in the face of life and death.”

I smiled as I looked at them, as if I had them completely figured out.

If the opponents truly confronted me to the death, it would indeed be very troublesome, because I didn't want to die this way.

Every death of mine must have its value, not be wasted here senselessly.

But I was betting that they wouldn't dare, and now… I won.

Watching their retreating figures, although they still made threats, the sense of being in a sorry state could not be erased no matter what.

“They really ran away…”

At this moment, Liffia looked at those people, finding it somewhat incredible.

“Let’s go.”

I said to Liffia.

“Eh? Where are we going?”

“To run away, of course. Did you really think the people behind us were here to help us? They are essentially here because they were tracking my location. If we don't run now, are we waiting to be caught?”

“Oh, right. I almost didn't realize. That… Big Sis Xiao Han, how much longer until your Wanted order ends?”

“It's about a few more hours, I guess.”

I shrugged and said, “The previous team I fought with was a bit too numerous.”

“You mean we still have to run for several hours?!”

“Or we could find a pack of Mutated Beasts for the group behind us.”

I added.

“Huh? That sounds easy, but how is that possible!”

Liffia complained, but she quickly reacted, “Wait, Big Sis Xiao Han, tell me how you did it? Making those who chase you always run into Mutated Beast packs…”

“Luck, I guess.”

I didn't explain too much, but speaking of Mutated Beast packs, there genuinely was one nearby.

After all, when I came here earlier to "hunt" the teaching assistants, I naturally considered the people who would chase me.

It was just that the plan changed afterward, so I was forced to resort to this less-than-ideal solution.

After running with Liffia for a while, we had barely managed to shake off the pursuing crowd, and the Wanted order would also end soon.

And at this moment, the Plant Network hunting website was in a frenzy because of the post I had published earlier.

After all, that one picture gathered teaching assistants from various academies, and it was hard not to have someone recognize them.

This was a gathering of over 20 teaching assistants!

The comment section was filled with people posting things like "Save one for me" and "Share one with me," which was enough to prove the post's allure.

But regrettably, even though I attached the location, these people still managed to escape.

Then, there were comments below saying that the hunting party, which consisted of hundreds of people, also launched an attack.

Although they didn't catch a single teaching assistant, they ran headlong into a pack of Mutated Beasts again.

This truly left everyone speechless.

I heard that because they were too excited about chasing the over twenty teaching assistants, they were unprepared when they suddenly encountered the Mutated Beast pack and suffered heavy losses…

Time passed quickly.

As the sun gradually set, the sky became dim.

But on an uninhabited small hill, two figures busied themselves starting a bonfire.

As the bonfire was lit, many other things were also laid out beside it, such as pots, drinking water, luncheon meat, instant meals, staple foods, ready-to-eat meal packages, and so on.

And I, meanwhile, was busy setting up a tent.

After everything was more or less set up, I leisurely lay down on a foldable recliner.

“Hmm… this is truly comfortable. Another day has passed. Today was much more exciting than the past few days' events.”

I opened my mouth with a smile, seemingly talking to myself, and also chatting with Liffia.

“Are you this relaxed every day?”

Liffia carried over a bundle of dry branches and added more firewood to the bonfire. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

“Of course. On the first night, I was still staying in a hotel in Ninglan New City. Now, I guess that won't be possible anymore.”

“Huh?!”

“Are you surprised? That means you don't really know how to live.”

“I was wondering why there were so many people guarding the city gate when I wanted to return to resupply…”

“Well, I apologize for that. But I have plenty of supplies. I remember you bought a lot of things back then, didn't you? It couldn't have been used up that quickly.”

“Aiya… they were all useless things… I was too rushed at the time, thinking I could just go back… but now I can't go back…”

“Is that so?”

I sat up and fiddled with the small charcoal stove beside me.

The fire from the bonfire was too unstable.

A small charcoal stove like this had the most stable heat, and with a small pot set on top, one could even have hot pot in the wild.

“Liffia, what do you want to eat?”

“Eh? You… have fish… never mind…”

“Fish? Do you want finished spicy dried fish, or freshly sliced fish fillets? I also have smoked fish chunks, but you have to set up a pot yourself, otherwise, the fishy smell might contaminate the air.”

“Wait… how do you have everything?!”

Liffia looked at the well-packaged fish fillets and fish chunks, and even another small charcoal stove and pot I took out beside it…

“This is called being prepared for the unexpected. Don't worry about whether you'll need it or not. The saddest thing in life is wanting to use something but not having it.”

“Thank… thank you.”

Liffia sighed, finally taking the small charcoal stove from my hand.

“And smokeless charcoal.”

“Mhm…”

While Liffia was busy, my pot was already boiling.

The rich, pre-made hot pot base had a faint technological flavor.

Even the strongest flavors couldn't mask it from my Body Cultivation sense of smell, but this level of it couldn't even break through my Body Cultivation's defense against bodily harm.

“Liffia, out of curiosity, didn't you say you were also going to choose the Mage class?”

“Uh…”

“Actually, I did want to choose it… but the other class was simply too appealing…”

Liffia hesitated for a moment, and finally spoke.

“Is the close-combat Cat-person very appealing?”

I was a little puzzled.

“Perhaps you wouldn't quite understand…”

Liffia canceled her Cat-person transformation, and the iconic cat ears on her head also vanished.

As for this "pseudo Cat-girl," I had always known the truth.

She wasn't a real Cat-girl.

I had figured it out roughly when we first met.

Her cat ears and other cat elements were all spell effects.

“After the contract was signed, all transcendent powers were prohibited, and that naturally included my original decorations…”

“It's obvious that you really like being a Cat-girl. So you chose this class because of that?”

“Doesn't that reason convince you?”

“You could have just told me back then. I was wondering why you tried to excuse yourself when I wanted to test the Fireball spell's power.”

I said.

“Sorry… I didn't intend to do that at the time…”

“I don't mind these things, but I'm curious why those people called you a traitor when you appeared just now… What does that mean?”

“……”

“Oh, was my question too direct?”

I looked at Liffia, whose movements had paused, realizing that the way I asked the question was problematic.

“You don't really want to talk about it?”

“It's not very convenient to talk about…”

“Oh.”

Seeing Liffia's expression, I roughly understood.

It was because the camera was live-broadcasting.

"Are you not going to apply for a live broadcast pause?"

“Hmm?”

Liffia looked confused.

“A live broadcast pause. You didn't think the live broadcast only pauses when everyone is doing private things, did you?”

“It can be done like that?”

“Mhm.”

I nodded.

Looking at her expression, I understood that the reason she couldn't talk was indeed the live broadcast, but I quickly demonstrated how to pause it for her.

“Now there are no external interferences. Is it convenient to talk now?”

“Well… this is very complicated to explain. I…”

“If it's complicated, then simplify it. I'll ask directly: Is it related to an external family?”

“This… you know about that…”

“It really is related? Which side do you represent?”

I raised an eyebrow, a little surprised.

Because, judging by Liffia's mannerisms, I really thought she was the free-spirited type.

But thinking about it… if Liffia were truly free-spirited, would she have become the troublemaker she is now?

Every person's attitude toward life has a necessary survival environment that led to its creation.

To say Liffia was still in a rebellious phase… that was probably unlikely…

“Which side… hmm? What do you mean?”

“The families affiliated with the Witch Academy, haven't they already been divided into two camps: one resisting the Witch Academy and one supporting the Witch Academy?”

After all, Fu Xinglan had vaguely mentioned this to me, and I had some of my own judgments.

“Resisting? Supporting? What are you talking about? What would a family use to resist a Transcendent Academy? Xiao Han, have you gone crazy reading some strange novel?”

“Oh… so that means I misunderstood? Then are you willing to tell me briefly? I truly don't know much about families.”

“Uh… I… I don't know much about families either…”

Liffia also looked embarrassed at this moment.

“What do you mean?”

“What if I were to say… and I mean if… I was never qualified to enter the Witch Academy in the first place?”