Chapter 046

Chapter 046

Bai Xiaoyu looked at the mess in the room and then at the interns who were frozen in disbelief. He slowly removed his earplugs, not saying a word, just silently observing them.

Over the past half month, their progress seemed good, but it was still far from satisfactory, falling short of his standards.

Thus, the entire space was filled with Lou Hao's laughter. The varied reactions of everyone made their scalps tingle, and they couldn't help but steal glances at Bai Xiaoyu, only to quickly look away when they met his gaze.

After ducking their heads, they inevitably saw the broken eggshells scattered on the ground, mixed with egg yolks and whites—a stark contrast to their imagined scenario of perfectly completing the task and impressing Bai Xiaoyu with their achievements. In this moment, they didn't know where to place their hands or feet.

While Lou Hao's mocking laughter made them feel ashamed, Bai Xiaoyu's gaze made them feel utterly humiliated.

Once Lou Hao finished laughing, the interns gradually stood up. After a while, they had mostly regained their composure and stood with their heads down, not daring to look at Bai Xiaoyu.

Bai Xiaoyu glanced at them, clapped his hands, and soon several robots entered with micro-repair devices, starting to treat their external injuries.

Bai Xiaoyu: "Once your injuries are healed, clean up the mess you made. You're responsible for cleaning up after yourselves."

Everyone expected to be ridiculed, but upon hearing these words, they hurriedly started cleaning up.

In the end, each person had a damaged alchemy furnace in front of them, along with half-cooked or partially cooked chunks of egg white or yolk.

Bai Xiaoyu looked around, "Fortunately, these were artificial eggs today. What if they were real eggs? Think about it carefully."

Their expressions changed slightly as they realized that the egg liquid and shells on their bodies represented the loss of small lives, all due to their lack of skill and arrogance.

After finishing his words, Bai Xiaoyu left, with Lou Hao following him.

Lou Hao: "This should teach them a lesson. But shouldn't you scold them more?"

Bai Xiaoyu: "No need."

Lou Hao: "Why not?"

Bai Xiaoyu: "I'll include artificial eggs in their upcoming lessons every day. Alchemy furnaces will explode daily."

Lou Hao: "..."

Thinking about the grim situation and seeing Bai Xiaoyu's calm expression, Lou Hao's lips twitched. This was much harsher than any verbal reprimand.

After tidying themselves up, the interns rushed to the mental strength training room.

This time, looking at the targets, they no longer found them annoying. They drank the mental strength dye and repeatedly pierced the targets, enduring the tedious process until their mental strength was depleted. They slowly recovered and continued, repeating the cycle.

In one morning, they could go through this cycle three times.

This was much better than their previous training sessions, which barely exhausted their mental strength by the end.

Seeing their efforts, Bai Xiaoyu felt satisfied. It seemed that one explosion was enough; he would have to do it more often in the future.

In the afternoon, Bai Xiaoyu led the mentally drained interns to the Pharmacy Building.

Hundreds of people were queuing here. Parents of Xiao Shiqi and Xiao Shiba were familiarly inspecting herbs, sorting them by quality, and transferring credits, performing these tasks with great proficiency.

The interns watched curiously, especially since they rarely came here and didn't expect so many people.

After all, D36, an edge planet, had never been densely populated, and after the insectoid invasion, the population had decreased even further. Their Ninth District was particularly sparse.

What was happening now?

Seeing the number of people here, Bai Xiaoyu noted that the collection time was from 8 AM to 6 PM, and the current crowd wasn't even the full extent. People kept arriving continuously.

Many recognized Bai Xiaoyu and greeted him happily. Some young fans even ran over, surrounding him and chattering excitedly.

"Teacher Bai, I collected herbs today. Look at what I brought back."

"Me too! Check mine first; maybe I found some rare and high-quality herbs today."

"And me..."

Suddenly, there were over ten children, including pure human kids and mostly half-beast children. They were somewhat thin and had average mental strength and physical constitution, like most of the young ones raised by cultivators in this world, affected by dark matter, resulting in D and E-level mental strength and constitution, which would affect their lifespans.

Bai Xiaoyu squatted down and took out small, round white candies, about the size of thumbs, with transparent sugar wrappers tied into bow shapes.

He patted the head of a little half-beast child whose arm had been bitten off by an insectoid three years ago. As a half-beast, his body below the neck was in beast form, and the abnormal half-beast shape was already unstable. After his arm was damaged, his form became even harder to control.

Now, the child had a human head and beast body, human hands, and beast legs. Before this, Bai Xiaoyu had seen him with various combinations of human and beast parts.

"Little An, you did great today. Here's a candy for you."

The other children looked at him eagerly. Bai Xiaoyu found it amusing and patted each of their heads, praising and giving them candy.

"Little guys, go call your friends over."

The children nodded eagerly and quickly ran off. Soon, more children arrived, all accompanied by their parents. The amusement park at the cultivation center clearly held great appeal for these young ones.

More and more children came with their parents, and Bai Xiaoyu had noticed their longing looks before. He let them play inside once but realized it wasn't feasible to allow them in every time. So, he built a small amusement park outside, which became a favorite spot for these children.

Seeing the children leave and return with more, the interns were stunned. There were so many young ones here.

Bai Xiaoyu finished distributing the candies and then said to the little ones with a smile, "Today, I won't be checking your herbs. Instead, these brothers and sisters behind me will do it. They are all future excellent cultivators. Go back and tell your parents to bring the herbs here; we'll accept them."

After the little ones left, Bai Xiaoyu turned around to face the group of interns behind him.

"For the past half month, you've been learning about herbs by having them placed in front of you. But today, your task is to sort the herbs brought by the little ones and their parents according to type. For herbs of the same type, you need to further categorize them by quality. Different types and qualities of herbs have vastly different prices, so don't make any mistakes."

Soon, many parents arrived with their children, filled with gratitude towards Bai Xiaoyu. They knew their little ones' situations well. Recently, the children's mental strength and physical health had improved significantly, which thrilled them. When they asked the little ones, the only explanation was that Bai Xiaoyu gave them candies.

Bai Xiaoyu refused their offer to give him the herbs. After the parents left, the little ones stayed, each holding herbs and looking curiously at the sixty or so intern brothers and sisters.

Bai Xiaoyu transferred some credit points to everyone and then said to the interns, "Go ahead. By the way, the little ones have learned quite a bit from constant exposure, so don't let them catch you making mistakes."

Then he turned to the little ones again, "If you think these brothers and sisters made a mistake, point it out, and you get a candy for each one."

He shook the candy box in his hand.

The little ones cheered immediately.

He took the herbs from one of the little ones and, under the interns' watchful eyes, sorted an entire basket of herbs in less than a minute.

"This is how you sort them; it's very simple. Now it's your turn."

The interns watched Bai Xiaoyu work and thought it indeed looked easy, but they remembered the morning's mishap. Their expressions were no longer as relaxed. Some hadn't even started sorting when they were caught by the little ones.

"Brother, Cultivator Bai said you'll be excellent cultivators in the future. Will the siblings you cultivate also be able to fight the insectoids on the battlefield like those cultivated by Cultivator Bai and drive them away?"

"Sister, can you restore the appearance of deformed half-beast eggs like mine to their original beast form?" Little An spoke up, "My father is a hero who protects everyone, and I want to fight on the battlefield like him. But my physical condition and mental strength aren't good. If I could have met you when I was still an egg, it would have been great."

The person being asked was taken aback, remembering the eggs they had previously destroyed. Looking at the little ones, they felt even more ashamed.

Bai Xiaoyu watched quietly. On this war-torn planet, the children here yearned for strength more than those on other planets. Unfortunately, the planet was heavily contaminated by dark matter from the insectoids, and without proper nurturing during the incubation period, the best opportunity to improve had been missed.

There were countless planets like D36 where such defective little ones were born every day, unseen by others.

He looked at the interns, his eyes flickering.

Each person's herbs were different, and there were dozens to hundreds of varieties scattered across various baskets. Initially, they didn't feel pressured, but when faced with a mix of herbs, it was entirely different from recognizing individual plants.

Moreover, they had to deal with the enthusiastic little ones, answering questions and accepting hugs and kisses.

Bai Xiaoyu watched as they struggled to sort the herbs while gradually becoming more comfortable with the little ones, and a smile slowly spread across his face.

Take it slow; the torch needs to be passed. He was willing to be the first to pass these torches throughout the galaxy.

After half an hour, Bai Xiaoyu looked at the sorted herbs.

He took out the candy box and asked the little ones, "Do you think the brothers and sisters made any mistakes? There are candies for pointing them out."

The little ones looked at each other, hesitating.

Bai Xiaoyu found it amusing and wondered if the friendship formed over an hour could withstand the storm of candies.

Just as the little ones were hesitating, the interns gently encouraged them, "Little ones, go ahead and tell us. We want to know too."

One of the little ones suddenly seemed to remember something and said happily, "Sister, I'll go tell them. Let's split the candies later."

The other little ones quickly followed suit, excitedly pointing out mistakes.

Bai Xiaoyu couldn't help laughing as he watched them pick out both correct and incorrect sorts.

For the correct ones, the interns immediately understood. For the correct sorts, the interns next to them frantically winked at Bai Xiaoyu and made a gesture asking for help.

Bai Xiaoyu watched their antics but ultimately decided not to intervene. Mistakes were mistakes and shouldn't be overlooked. However, he offered to record the correct sorts under the corresponding interns, leading to a happy outcome. Each intern received candies, which they then gave back to the little ones.

After sending off the reluctant little ones, Bai Xiaoyu turned to the interns and said, "We'll continue these practical exercises every day. Those who made mistakes earlier, including those who wanted to give candies to the little ones, will be marked down one egg each time. Remember, it doesn't matter if you make mistakes now, but once you graduate, every egg you destroy means one fewer adorable little one like those just now."

"Can we postpone this training for a while?"

"Yes, until we're more proficient in this area."

Bai Xiaoyu shook his head, "No."

That night, through the surveillance, Bai Xiaoyu discovered that most of the interns, who should have been resting, were practicing in the mental strength training room. The rest were cramming herb knowledge.

At three in the morning, a cry echoed from the training room.

Bai Xiaoyu had just finished making a potion, showered, and was about to go to bed when he couldn't resist opening the holographic projection from the surveillance.

He saw that Zhou Miaomiao's target had a small gap. Her dyed mental strength tendrils, originally rounded, now had a slight protrusion, a tiny spike.

This wasn't the end. As Zhou Miaomiao broke through, Ren Zitao, another 2S+ top-tier mental strength user nearby, also broke through. His tendril developed a curved hook, leaving a mark on the target.

The others gathered around them, envious but soon returned to their training.

Bai Xiaoyu couldn't hide his smile. At that moment, the two eggs waiting for him on the bed finally couldn't hold back anymore.

Bai Xiaoyu looked at the big black egg nudging him and felt the frequent urging from the small one through his mental strength.

Glancing at the interns making progress in the surveillance, he realized he could finally get some sleep. But first, he needed to calm down the big and small eggs.