Chapter 15: Grass Hound

On the curriculum schedule of No. 15 Middle School, there were three courses related to plants: Agricultural Studies, Botany, and Plant Practicum.

Cheng Han liked the third course the most.

The total number of class hours for it was nearly equal to the combined total of the first two.

This fully reflected the school’s practical-oriented educational philosophy.

Today’s plant practicum focused on—Soft Silk Vine.

At this moment, inside a small botanical garden on campus, wooden trellises had been neatly erected across the fields. Emerald-green vines climbed across them, turning the entire place into a forest of vines.

A bald teacher was speaking eloquently:

“I believe everyone already knows that Soft Silk Vine is the most important raw material in the textile industry.”

“After peeling away the outer bark of the vine stem and extracting the vine core, repeated hammering with a wooden mallet produces fine, soft ‘silk fibers’…”

The students stood amidst the vine forest, listening attentively to the teacher.

Cheng Han listened especially seriously.

In his previous world, cotton was the most common textile material.

Yet in this world, humanity had actually learned to utilize vines. The fabric woven from soft silk fibers was no less soft or breathable than cotton cloth.

“You must remember this carefully. If the Soft Silk Vine grows for too short a period, the silk yield will be too low, making it economically unprofitable.”

“But if it grows for too long, the produced silk fibers become overly tough. The resulting cloth will be too stiff and far less comfortable.”

“According to experience, the optimal growth period for Soft Silk Vine is five to six months…”

Right then, Cheng Han suddenly felt a tremor in his mind, and a phantom scene appeared before his eyes.

A moment later, the vision vanished completely.

A message immediately surfaced:

[Proficiency +2, current proficiency 70/1000, Spirit Value 6.4/13.8.]

The Omniscient Eye had passively activated once again.

Cheng Han turned toward a nearby classmate and urgently shouted,

“Liu Wenyou, give me the blade!”

During this practicum class, because the students needed to learn how to process Soft Silk Vine, the teacher had distributed twelve long blades. Liu Wenyou happened to have one.

The boy froze briefly before obediently handing over the blade.

If this had happened in the past, Cheng Han was merely a fringe figure in class, and Liu Wenyou definitely would not have paid him any attention.

But now, Cheng Han had become a famous figure within the class. His authority had risen greatly, causing Liu Wenyou to instinctively comply.

This sudden development made all the students stare over in surprise.

In a near-snatching motion, Cheng Han grabbed the long blade from Liu Wenyou’s hands and strode toward a Soft Silk Vine several meters away.

The bald teacher was momentarily dumbfounded and instinctively asked,

“Cheng Han, what are you doing with the blade?”

Cheng Han had no time to explain. He raised the blade with both hands.

Seeing this scene, many students cried out in alarm.

“Oh my god!”

“What is Cheng Han doing?”

Cheng Han ignored all of it and swung downward with force.

At the same time, he activated the True Flame Residual Seal.

Supernatural power descended from nowhere. The blade heated up slightly and emitted an extremely faint glow, though because the movement was too fast, nobody in the class noticed it.

In the next instant, something bizarre happened.

The Soft Silk Vine suddenly came alive.

The vine body twisted violently like a snake.

Its branches and countless leaves rapidly gathered together with rustling sounds. In the blink of an eye, they assembled into a strange-looking creature.

It resembled some sort of animal.

It had a body.

It had limbs.

And it had an enormous head.

The creature opened its mouth wide toward Cheng Han, revealing several rows of sharp spikes inside.

One could easily imagine that getting bitten by it would feel absolutely terrible.

At this moment, including the bald teacher, everyone was completely stunned.

Cheng Han showed no panic whatsoever. The long blade in his hands viciously chopped into the vine stem.

Crack!

The vine stem was cleanly severed into two halves.

He could faintly sense the power of the True Flame Residual Seal rapidly eroding the vine’s life force.

The vine monster suffered heavy damage. Its leaves and branches trembled violently, yet it still unwillingly stretched out its head, trying to bite its enemy one last time.

Cheng Han agilely stepped backward and flicked the blade upward in a reverse slash, delivering another strike.

Bang!

The vine monster’s head exploded.

This strike appeared to trigger a chain reaction. Its entire body collapsed apart as leaves and broken branches scattered everywhere.

It was dead!

Standing there with blade in hand, Cheng Han finally felt his heart begin pounding wildly.

It was his first real battle after all. Feeling a little nervous was only natural.

The entire place fell silent.

The bald teacher swallowed hard before finally breaking the silence.

“Student Cheng Han… was that just now a Grass Hound?”

Turning around, Cheng Han nodded.

“Yes, Teacher Zhang.”

A stir instantly erupted among the students.

“So it was a Grass Hound!”

“We’ve really broadened our horizons today!”

The bald teacher spoke with lingering fear:

“In extremely rare cases, vine-type plants can transform into highly aggressive Grass Hounds. I never expected one would actually appear in the botanical garden.”

Then his expression turned appreciative.

“Student Cheng Han handled the situation perfectly. A newly born Grass Hound cannot detach from its host vine. As long as the vine stem is severed in time, it will quickly die.”

Cheng Han remained expressionless.

He knew perfectly well that the reason the Grass Hound died instantly was because of the True Flame Residual Seal. Otherwise, it would have continued rampaging for quite a while and likely injured several students.

The gazes directed at him now all carried traces of admiration.

In everyone’s eyes, discovering the Grass Hound first and then cutting it down with a blade was practically the stuff of legends. How could the students not feel awed?

Teacher Zhang suddenly changed topics.

“Students, I’m very sorry, but today’s practicum class must end here. Please leave the botanical garden in an orderly manner and return to your classroom.”

“A Grass Hound has appeared here. I must immediately report this to the school and conduct a full inspection of the garden to ensure no safety hazards remain.”

The students quickly departed from the botanical garden.

Cheng Han deliberately lagged behind. Before leaving through the gates, he bent down and picked up a leaf left behind by the Grass Hound.

Teacher Zhang noticed this scene. His lips moved slightly, but in the end he said nothing.

By regulations, this counted as a sensitive material and should have been collected and uniformly destroyed by the school.

However, Cheng Han had single-handedly slain the Grass Hound and resolved a major problem for the school. Teacher Zhang chose to turn a blind eye and pretend he had seen nothing.

Because of the brief delay, Cheng Han was the last to return to the classroom.

The instant he entered, the previously noisy classroom suddenly quieted for a moment before the chatter resumed.

The atmosphere resembled the grand entrance of some major figure.

Cheng Han calmly walked toward his seat.

After only a few steps, he heard someone call out:

“Cheng Han, how did you discover the Grass Hound back in the botanical garden?”

It was the short-haired girl, Wan Tengjiao.

The classroom fell silent again.

Everyone waited for Cheng Han’s answer.

Cheng Han paused briefly before casually replying,

“My senses are sharper than most people’s.”

Wan Tengjiao looked thoughtful.

“It seems your sensitivity toward Origin Energy is stronger than I expected. Perhaps it won’t be long before you successfully condense a Source Perception Seal.”

Cheng Han smiled.

“Perhaps.”

He already had a feeling that, at the soonest within a month and at the latest within three months, he would most likely succeed in condensing a seal.

Upon hearing this, every student looked at him with envy.

Previously, many students privately doubted his selection by Qiu Yuan for the opportunity to observe the Mountain Suppression Mystic Wall. They suspected shady dealings were involved.

But his performance today had completely convinced everyone.

After returning to his seat, Qian Qingqing stared straight at him with a rather strange expression in her eyes.

Cheng Han asked curiously,

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Qian Qingqing sighed emotionally.

“Today I finally realized that you’re actually the person in the class who hides himself the deepest.”

Cheng Han merely smiled without saying anything.

(End of Chapter)