Chapter 378: Chapter 340: I’ll Bear the Losses, I’ll Take the Punishment

"Holy shit, quick, stop it!"

"How are we supposed to stop it? That’s fire! There’s no way!"

"We’re screwed, we’re screwed! The sofa’s on fire..."

"Get water! Hurry up and get water to put it out!"

"It’s frozen solid! Xiaoqi can use ice too, did you all forget?"

"Watch out..."

"It almost got me! Has Xiaoqi gone nuts?"

"It’s not nuts, it’s drunk! Xiaoqi is a terrible drunk!"

"Sun Tao, look at what you’ve done! Why on earth would you add alcohol to the meat for no reason?"

"Move, it’s icing over..."

In an instant, the dorm room was thrown into utter chaos.

Wei Nan, Zhou Qi, and Sun Tao scrambled around the living room, dodging and weaving.

They dodged pillars of fire and blasts of ice from Xiaoqi.

The slightest misstep would get them caught in the crossfire.

Fortunately, even though Xiaoqi was drunk, its targets weren’t the three of them.

It could still tell friend from foe; its actions were just a little out of control.

Everything in the living room was either frozen solid or scorched by flames.

Even Wei Nan’s favorite sofa was half-burnt.

The other half was completely soaked with water.

The ruckus soon attracted the attention of students from other dorms.

They all came running over.

But as soon as they pushed the door open and saw the scene inside,

The local students were so scared that they slammed the door shut. Not a single one dared to enter.

However, ever since they had fought side-by-side,

they had held a great deal of respect for Lin Yi, Wei Nan, and the other martial exam candidates from the Old District.

They shouted through the closed door, "Brother Nan, you guys should get out of there! Stop provoking Xiaoqi!"

"Yeah, just wait for Xiaoqi to calm down before you go back in!"

"Brother Nan, come out and hide for a bit!"

Hearing this, Wei Nan and the others exchanged a glance.

"Let it burn! Let it blow off some steam!"

"We’ll go back in after it’s tired itself out!"

After Zhou Qi spoke, Wei Nan’s brow furrowed. "What if it sets the whole place on fire?"

"We’ll keep an eye on it from outside. If things look bad, we’ll rush in and put it out!"

"Right. Get the fire extinguishers ready..."

Having made a plan, the three of them steeled themselves and made a break for the door.

BANG—

The moment the dorm door slammed shut,

they could still hear the sounds of rampaging from within.

Wei Nan, Zhou Qi, and Sun Tao stood outside, panting heavily.

Wei Nan and Zhou Qi, in particular, both glared at Sun Tao.

Sun Tao looked utterly mortified.

"I just wanted to get Xiaoqi to drink enough to fall asleep! Who would’ve thought the side effects would be this bad? It actually started acting like a crazy drunk!"

Wei Nan shot him a fierce glare. "We were just worried about Lin Yi, and now look! I’d like to see how you’re going to explain this to the school!"

Sun Tao: "..."

Just as they were speaking,

the students from the other dorms in the hallway approached them.

"Brother Nan, what happened? What’s wrong with Xiaoqi...?"

"Yeah, Xiaoqi is always so gentle and obedient with Brother Yi. How did it go berserk?"

"Did you guys do something to provoke Xiaoqi?"

"Where’s Brother Yi? Why haven’t we seen him?"

Facing the barrage of questions, Wei Nan shot an irritated glance at Sun Tao.

"If he hadn’t added half a bottle of 136-proof liquor to the Demon Beast Meat he fed Xiaoqi, would any of this have happened? Xiaoqi got drunk after eating it, and now it’s on a rampage!"

The other students: "..."

"That is all for today. This old one has just opened some of your apertures. I believe by tomorrow, it will be enough to help you break through to the Divine Abyss Realm!"

"Thank you, Senior!"

Lin Yi quickly stood and bowed.

The excruciating pain that had wracked his body just moments ago had already vanished.

Now, he felt incredibly light and nimble.

He even felt a pang of hunger, as if he hadn’t eaten in a very long time.

Moreover, his Origin Qi suddenly felt depleted.

It seemed as though it had all been consumed when his apertures were opened.

But that wasn’t the case. The Daoist had helped Lin Yi open even more apertures.

Each new aperture was capable of holding more Origin Qi.

Once they opened, the Origin Qi that had previously filled his body surged into them, leaving no surplus.

This was what made Lin Yi feel as if his Origin Qi had been completely exhausted.

When the Daoist’s figure once again vanished silently into the vast Star River,

Lin Yi gave a deep bow to the empty space before leaving the domain of the Star River Qi Transformation Technique.

The moment he opened his eyes,

a strong, acrid smell of smoke made his expression change abruptly.

’What’s going on? Is there a fire?’

Lin Yi’s expression changed drastically, and he leaped out of bed.

The moment he opened his bedroom door, he was completely dumbfounded.

He saw that Xiaoqi was no longer making a ruckus.

It was sprawled on the floor, fast asleep and snoring softly.

Thick smoke still hung in the air of the living room, and scorch marks and patches of ice were everywhere.

Looking at the devastated scene,

Lin Yi’s mind went blank.

’Did Xiaoqi cause all this?’

That was his first thought.

After all, besides himself, only Xiaoqi was in the dorm.

He swept his divine sense through the other three rooms; Wei Nan, Wei Shang, and Feng Lei were all gone.

’Doesn’t that prove Xiaoqi was the one who caused all this trouble?’

Fury surged in Lin Yi’s heart, and he snatched Xiaoqi up by the scruff of its neck.

As a result, the dangling Xiaoqi let out a "BLECH."

It threw up, and the pungent stench of alcohol filled the air.

Lin Yi was startled. ’Someone gave Xiaoqi alcohol?’

His anger flared again. ’Who the hell would do something so despicable? Who got Xiaoqi drunk?’

He stormed towards the front door.

’I have to find out who did this today...’

CLICK—

The moment Lin Yi threw the door open,

a whole crowd of people tumbled to the floor.

Fortunately, Lin Yi dodged in time, quickly taking a step back.

He just managed to avoid being knocked over by them.

He looked at the people on the floor. Besides Wei Nan, Zhou Qi, and Sun Tao,

there were also many students from other dorms.

At that moment, Lin Yi seemed to understand what had happened.

His face darkened as he stared at them. "What are you all doing here?"

"Brother Yi..."

"Uh, well, I still have laundry to do. I’ll head back first!"

"Hey, Brother Yi! I’m leaving now!"

"I-I’m going too!"

"Hehehe, I haven’t washed my socks yet, so I’m gonna head back!"

The students from the other dorms all turned and fled, terrified of getting caught in the fallout if they were too slow.

Soon, only Wei Nan, Zhou Qi, and Sun Tao remained.

They looked up at Lin Yi, their faces filled with unconcealable embarrassment.

「A few minutes later, inside the dorm.」

Lin Yi listened as they recounted the entire series of events.

He looked at the three of them, not knowing whether to be angry or amused.

He couldn’t really blame them; they had all acted with the best of intentions.

They were simply worried about him and wanted to come in to see what was wrong.

Unfortunately, Xiaoqi had blocked the way, refusing to let anyone in.

This was, in fact, an order Lin Yi had given Xiaoqi.

For the past few days, the Daoist had been guiding Lin Yi’s cultivation, helping him break through to the next realm.

He was not to be disturbed during this period of "secluded cultivation."

The main issue was that the conditions weren’t ideal. If he had been on Dragon Tiger Mountain,

his senior brothers would have definitely been able to create a proper environment for his seclusion.

But Lin Yi didn’t want to go through the trouble of making the trip, so he had no choice but to cultivate in his dorm room.

That was why he had asked Xiaoqi to stand guard outside.

Who could have known that today, the Daoist would be opening his apertures?

The pain was unbearable for anyone, and Lin Yi couldn’t help but cry out a few times.

This had worried Wei Nan, Zhou Qi, and the others, making them want to come over and see what was happening.

As a result, Xiaoqi blocked the door, refusing to let them in no matter what.

In reality, no one was truly at fault. Wei Nan and his friends were worried about Lin Yi, and Xiaoqi was dutifully following its orders.

Ultimately, that’s what led to this situation.

Sun Tao had mixed alcohol into the Demon Beast Meat to get Xiaoqi drunk.

Who could have predicted that Xiaoqi had such a low tolerance for alcohol and would go on a drunken rampage, creating the current mess.

After understanding the full story, Lin Yi looked at the still-drunk Xiaoqi,

and then at the destroyed living room.

He couldn’t help but chuckle. "The responsibility for this mess is mostly mine."

"I’ve reached a critical point in breaking through a bottleneck recently, and I didn’t tell you guys beforehand."

"Now that this has happened, I should be the one to take responsibility."

"I’ll go find Director Qiao in a bit and explain the situation to him personally. I’ll pay for whatever damages there are. I’ll bear the costs!"

As soon as he finished, Wei Nan quickly interjected, "No way. The three of us caused this, you can’t take the fall for it alone. We’ll go see Director Qiao!"

Zhou Qi and Sun Tao nodded in agreement.

"Damaging dorm property might get us a demerit on our records. We can’t let you take the blame for us. The three of us will go!"

Seeing their earnest expressions, Lin Yi couldn’t help but smile.

"Alright, how about this: I’ll take responsibility, and you guys cover the damages."

"You can use your money to replace the furniture and get the dorm cleaned up, how about that?"

"It’s settled. No one argues with me about it."

After he finished speaking, Lin Yi glanced at the still-sleeping Xiaoqi.

"Help me look after it..."

With that, Lin Yi walked out.

He left Wei Nan, Zhou Qi, and the others staring at each other.

Since things had come to this, all they could do now was figure out how to minimize the damage.

Replacing the furniture and other items was no big deal for them now.

The money they had earned from Demon Hunting recently had lined their pockets well.

They had given some to their families and kept a portion for their own cultivation funds.

The money needed to replace the furniture was just a drop in the bucket.

"I’ll cover the cost of the furniture!"

Sun Tao, who had been holding it in for a while, finally spoke up.

Wei Nan and Zhou Qi couldn’t help but laugh.

"The three of us caused this mess. How could we let you bear the cost alone!"

"And if the school decides to punish Lin Yi, we’ll take the demerit instead!"

"That’s right. The three of us will take responsibility together. We can’t let him take the fall for us!"

Having finished their discussion, the three of them came to a decision.

「Meanwhile.」

Lin Yi arrived at Director Qiao’s office.

The door was closed. Lin Yi walked up and raised his hand to knock.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK—

A moment after the knocking sounded,

Director Qiao’s voice came from inside. "Come in!"

Lin Yi opened the door and went inside.

He saw Director Qiao sitting at his desk, busy with some paperwork.

"Director Qiao!"

Lin Yi said with a smile as he walked in.

Director Qiao looked up at him.

When he saw it was Lin Yi, he was slightly taken aback at first.

Then, his face broke into a wide smile. "Lin Yi? What brings you here?"

Although Director Qiao held the title of "Director,"

his actual authority was no different from that of a vice principal.

His directorship didn’t come with specifically defined duties.

However, he was responsible for all matters at the school, big and small.

He was essentially second-in-command to Tang Baichuan.

Lin Yi smiled and recounted the events in the dorm, leaving out no detail.

"Director Qiao, I’m willing to personally cover all the damages done to the dorm."

"If the school issues a demerit, I’m willing to accept that as well."

At his words, Director Qiao laughed.

"What damages? What demerit?"

"This is all trivial. You didn’t have to come all the way here in person!"

"How about this? I’ll contact someone right away to replace all the furniture and repaint the walls. Actually, you know what? Why don’t we just give your whole dorm a complete renovation?"

"Some parts of it are getting old anyway. It’s time for an upgrade!"

"However, you probably won’t be able to stay in your dorm for the next few days."

"Didn’t Zhou Qi and Sun Tao come from the Old District with you? Their dorm still has two empty rooms. It’s perfect, you and Wei Nan can move in there temporarily."

"As for demerits, don’t even think about it. Something this minor isn’t worth a demerit for someone like you."

"So it’s decided. Once the renovation is done, you can all move back in!"

Lin Yi: "???"

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