Chapter 77: American Hunter Academy
If cultivating took a few years, White obviously wouldn’t agree, but if it was just a few weeks, then there was no problem. Just asking the Hunter Association chairman to work overtime and cover White’s job was the fastest way.
Making an old man past retirement age work overtime was pretty cruel, but an S-rank hunter was in great health. Just a few weeks of overtime wouldn’t kill him.
"Then that’s fine. Oh right, do you have any books about combat methods? I don’t need to learn more, but it’d still be good to use them as reference."
The universe’s ultimate cultivation technique from Nexus, and only now had White finally agreed to take it. If this cultivation technique had consciousness, it’d probably burn itself to ashes after realizing its value wasn’t as high as it thought.
"No big deal. I’ll give you a few. Read them whenever you have time."
Nexus snapped his fingers, and several books appeared out of thin air. Only now, after paying close attention to how Nexus created those books, White frowned and asked.
"Can cultivators really create matter out of thin air like this?"
"They can, but you need a really high realm. You aren’t determined to cultivate until becoming an immortal anyway, so you’ll never reach a realm high enough to do this." Nexus said bluntly.
Whether it was Mark or White, neither of them could reach that level because neither of them actually wanted to cultivate all the way.
White took the books. Her attitude was much calmer than before, so she became more curious about all sorts of things.
"Are there any special techniques that cultivators can use? Like special magic that can be learned."
White had heard bits and pieces of Eastern legends before, so she knew a little about them. She thought Nexus was the real deal, not just folklore, so he probably knew things like that.
"There are, but wait until you reach the Qi Refinement realm, then I’ll teach you."
Nexus knew every spell in his plane. From random tricks for petty theft to planet-destroying ones, he had them all. As long as your realm was high enough and you had enough spiritual power, he’d teach you whatever you wanted to learn.
With the random stuff out of the way, White remembered the main reason why she had agreed to become Nexus’s disciple.
"What about Ziz?"
[Here you go. Take him somewhere as far away and for as long as possible. The farther he gets from this stupid master, the weaker Ziz becomes. Besides, unless Nexus is in danger or Nexus’s disciple is in danger, Ziz won’t be able to use his power, so he can’t run away.]
As if it had been waiting for this question all along, the system immediately teleported the offline Ziz onto White’s hands. The expression drawn with those crafty little pixels clearly showed it really wanted to see Ziz become a mortal’s pet.
White had obviously spent enough time with this system to understand that even though it didn’t respect Nexus at all, the final decision was always Nexus’s. She looked at Nexus and immediately got a nod from him.
"At least Master finally did something right instead of being an asshole."
White happily hugged Ziz and spun around in circles. All the frustration from earlier disappeared without leaving a trace... Well, there were still tear stains on her face, but other than that, there was nothing.
"Oh right, I think you said before I became your disciple that you already had another disciple, right? Where is that person?"
After achieving her goal, White started caring about the little things around her. Even though her impression of Nexus wasn’t exactly good, she figured anyone accepted as Nexus’s disciple couldn’t be ordinary. If it was a high-rank hunter, maybe it was someone she knew.
"Over there. Mark’s in lesson number two."
Nexus pointed toward the towering cliff. It wasn’t that he had changed locations. The original mountain peak had been blasted through by White’s punch, leaving a massive hole in the middle, which was why there were cliffs surrounding them like this.
The cliff naturally couldn’t block White’s vision. As soon as she opened her eyes, she could see nearly ten miles away.
"What the hell? That weak-looking guy lying there, barely hanging on, looks like he’s cultivating or something. That’s your disciple?"
White looked at Nexus in surprise, but then she thought about her own experience and realized there wasn’t anything wrong with that.
"No, this is way more reasonable. We had just met for the first time, and you already threw me into a space for consciousness and killed me thousands of times."
"Want to hear a bit about my first disciple?" Nexus knew White did, which was why he asked.
Seeing White nod, he started telling the story from the first time he met Mark. Of course, not by speaking.
Nexus touched a finger to White’s head. The information he wanted to convey was immediately transferred straight into her brain.
Even Mark’s intimate scenes showed up crystal clear in her mind, making the corner of her mouth twitch.
"Y-you aren’t planning to make me do that perverted stuff too, are you?"
White looked at Nexus warily, but then realized that being wary wouldn’t change anything. Just like Mark, no matter how much she begged, it wouldn’t work.
The part related to Mark’s enlightenment with Nexus had been completely omitted. After all, the fewer people who knew about this, the better it would be for Mark’s growth.
"Why are you overreacting so much? Don’t you already know that if you found yourself in that situation, you would get through it easily? I already knew you met the standard, so I wouldn’t do something that pointless."
Whatever White misunderstood, Nexus didn’t care. Even though he teased her quite a lot, most of his actions still followed principles.
"That’s true, but that experience wasn’t exactly pleasant either. Mark might be a useless F-rank, but I have to admit his mental strength is really good."
When she first saw the beginning, White found it strange that someone as powerful as Nexus would take in an F-rank like Mark. But the more she saw, the more she acknowledged that Mark really did deserve it. He had plenty of flaws, but that determination to never give up was something she respected.
"Coming up, if you don’t know where to go, I suggest heading to the American Hunter Academy. That place has a lot of talented young people. Maybe you’ll find another disciple you like."