Chapter 122 — Cultural Studies, Three Spies of the Red Room

Charlton Xavier had to admit that Wang Xu had influenced him deeply.

Ever since their first meeting, he had been profoundly shaken by the man.

From that day on, he developed a keen interest in Chinese civilization.

After spending the better part of a day browsing the exchange list, Charlton's eye fell at once upon a "cultivation art" steeped in the flavor of Cathay.

[The Wheel of Life and Death Across the Heavens: Created by Grand Preceptor Hong Xuanji of the Great Qian Dynasty, fusing the martial essence of the Supreme Elixir Canon and the Heavenly Creation Canon.]

[For those who master its entry stage, a drop of blood suffices for rebirth; they know neither death nor annihilation, and command the turning of the wheel of life and death. Once the art is perfected, one may attain the realm of "Pulverizing the Void."]

The Lord God's exchange was remarkably fair-minded.

Even one ignorant of Chinese culture would suffer no hindrance in cultivation; all knowledge and technique were poured directly into the depths of memory.

The Wheel of Life and Death Across the Heavens commanded an exorbitant price—reward points and Destiny Gems beyond astronomical reckoning—and the dearer it was, the more Charlton coveted it.

He understood the principle that you get what you pay for.

Clicking into the detailed description of the exchange item, Charlton made up his mind.

This was the kind of foresight he wanted!

Grand Preceptor Hong, the man who had devised this secret canon, was a prodigy such as appears once in a thousand years.

In his early years he had placed third in the imperial examination; later he wrote books and established his doctrine as a master of Neo-Confucian learning, and his martial arts reached the point of shattering the void. Truly a man accomplished in both letters and arms, trusted by emperors, standing at the very pinnacle of courtly rank.

The man's résumé stirred in the proud heart of Charlton a sense of kinship.

He considered himself a man of exceptional intellect and martial prowess (before Wang Xu had battered his self-regard into shamefaced silence, Charlton's self-assessment had run a notch higher still).

He too wished to be an outstanding "minister" like Hong Xuanji, aiding Wang Xu in building a Gensokyo in the real world.

"Reward points, Destiny Gems..."

As Charlton Xavier waited longingly for his mission, his good friend Ai Chengyu was enduring spiritual suffering and torment.

......

Five Years of Superpowers, Three Years of Mock Exams; The Mutant's Guide to Foresight: 108 Official Practice Papers; One Hundred Thousand Questions on Moral Character; One Hundred Authentic Papers for the Level Eight Chinese Proficiency Exam...

Looking at the thick stack of test papers and study materials on the table, Ai Chengyu wanted to die.

He was no illiterate, nor one of those fools who took one look at writing and clutched his head in pain.

As a Jew, his score on intelligence tests ran a good margin above the average.

But these papers...

Every damn one of them was written in Chinese!

The future Magneto now had a scalp prickling with numbness from doing exercises.

Each time he finished a set of test questions, he would spit out seven to thirteen words beginning with f and ending with k.

The weekly quiz—only three consecutive weeks of passing marks counted as clearing Wang Huai'an's [test].

If not for the need to reclaim his own superpower of foresight, Ai Chengyu would sooner die than waste a single moment on this garbage!

Circumstances were stronger than the man.

As the weaker party, Ai Chengyu could only swallow his pride and embrace the sea-of-questions strategy with a most unwilling heart.

He could not beat Wang Xu in a fight, so he could only grind through exercises every day, barely keeping up the appearance of living.

Suppressing the wicked fire in his heart, Ai Chengyu opened his Chinese-Chinese-English dictionary.

That was right...

Chinese-Chinese-English dictionary.

First translate from simplified Chinese to traditional Chinese, then translate into English...

"Just how bored are the Chinese? They went and made two writing systems! Do they have nowhere to spend their cleverness?"

Grumbling all the while, Ai Chengyu worked hard to study certain rules within the Chinese language.

Just like the twenty-six letters of English, those most fundamental things—once mastered, once you had devised a method suited to yourself, your learning efficiency would multiply tenfold!

Unfortunately...

There was none!

What was the difference between the four characters wu, xu, shu, and rong?

"These rather obscure difficulties can be set aside for now..."

The mountain man has his own clever scheme—consoling himself thus, Ai Chengyu, scion of Jewish blood, found a shortcut.

A shortcut that could help raise his Chinese listening-comprehension scores!

His notebook read as follows:

"Sorry" is pronounced—boo(k) howyes.

"Hello"—kneehow.

"Arm"—showbee.

"Knee"—"sheguy."

"Stomach"—"way."

After flipping through the notebook a while, Ai Chengyu, feeling rather pleased with himself, switched on the recorder and played a set of authentic Level Eight Chinese listening-comprehension questions.

"Question one."

Female voice: "Xiaoming, I feel awful, thief-level awful!"

Male voice: "Drink more water."

Ai Chengyu lowered his head; on the paper was a fill-in-the-blank question.

"Question: Who feels awful?"

He pondered earnestly for a long while, and a sage smile worthy of a great detective surfaced on his face.

"'Xiaoming' refers to the person being confided in, not the subject speaking—therefore, the truth is only one!"

"The ones feeling awful must be 'me' and 'the thief.'"

Ai Chengyu had a bad habit.

For every question he did, he would check the answer explanation.

Getting it right gave him a fine sense of accomplishment.

But now...

Ai Chengyu slapped himself across the face.

"'Thief'—this character can actually be used that way?"

The question was very true to life.

Right now he felt thief-level awful indeed.

......

While Magneto languished in the sea of questions, the nations of the world, by unspoken accord, avoided large-scale military conflict.

The existence of the Aragami, together with the appearance of the God Arc wielders known as "God Eaters," had roused intense interest in "Oracle Cells" among the military and political magnates of every nation.

Countless intelligence organizations swung into efficient action; some went straight for the God Eaters, while others pushed deep into the heartland of the Eastern Isle, seeking the source of the mutations.

At this very moment.

The Soviet Union, Red Room Secret Base 021.

Haruno Sakura, Terumi Mei, and Natasha Romanoff were receiving a dressing-down from their female instructor.

"This term, nineteen trainees. Only you three succeeded."

The female instructor had a dark, brooding gaze, a gaunt face, and a voice cold as ice: "You have sufficient ideological resolve, and you possess the qualified skills of intelligence operatives. But you are still missing one thing."

No one spoke up to ask; all simply listened in silence.

Originally, Haruno Sakura and Terumi Mei had joined the Red Room as reincarnators to undergo spy training with a certain lofty attitude.

After all, reincarnators who could roam the endless planes could look at anyone and stick a label reading "native" on their foreheads.

But after this period of training, the two of them realized that none of it was so simple.

Compared with the Red Room, that institution for cultivating intelligence operatives, the Ninja Academy of Konoha was like a training ground for brute warriors.

In terms of professional skill, the gap was far too wide.

"It is power!"

The female instructor smiled a sinister smile: "The Red Room will bestow upon you undying youth and tremendous power!"

As she spoke, three white-coated figures wearing masks came to stand beside the three of them.