Chapter 107 - 82: The True Function of the Gallbladder

"Senior Brother Zhicheng, it seems that Xiaochen isn’t fated to join our Dragon Gate Sect." Zhao Jianguo sighed and shook his head, gazing in the direction Chen Jue had gone.

Daoist Zhicheng, however, remained perfectly calm. He held up the phone he had just used to add Chen Jue on WeChat and said serenely, "The time is not yet right. We simply have to wait for good news."

...

’They want me to become a Daoist and cultivate?’

’What a load of bullshit!’ Chen Jue grumbled to himself.

He was the eldest son and heir of the Chens. While it wasn’t like his family had a throne to inherit, the culture of ancestral clans was prevalent in Jiang Province, placing great importance on the continuation of one’s bloodline.

Besides, Chen Jue was a worldly man at heart. He was still deeply attached to the dazzling, mortal world and had absolutely no interest in religious culture, making it even more unlikely that he would ever become a Cultivator.

’He could advance his body’s transformation just by relying on the panel and learning modern science. Why bother seeking some Dao or practicing cultivation?’

He left the small woods with a light step. Seeing that Wu Fang had already left for her job at the school, Chen Jue went out for breakfast before driving back to Wangyang Apartment in a hurry.

Since it was a Monday, his schedule had several classes he could audit.

Chen Jue slung a small bag over his back, put on his training gear for class, and with an easy leap, vaulted over the 2.5-meter school wall outside the apartment complex.

To his surprise, a new notification popped up on the panel the moment he landed:

——————

[Ding~]

[Proficiency has reached 100%. Skill Level increased.]

[Climbing Lv2 → Lv3]

[Your understanding of the sport of climbing has deepened. Your climbing technique has slightly improved.]

[Through frequent climbing, your palmaris longus muscle has been fully exercised. This once-atrophied muscle is beginning to revive, and your grip strength and wrist flexion have improved.]

[Prolonged climbing has effectively trained your sense of balance. Your atrophied tailbone has formed a unique synergistic connection with your cerebellum and otoliths, enhancing your equilibrium.]

——————

A surge of unfamiliar muscle memory flooded his mind. Chen Jue, who had just landed, glanced back at the 2.5-meter wall.

He felt that if he were to try vaulting it again, he would definitely be even faster.

He might not even need to kick off the wall for a boost—he could probably scale it from a standing start.

Beyond that, a few new terms in the panel’s notification piqued Chen Jue’s interest.

He had learned about the tailbone in a previous class—it was a vestige of the tail from humanity’s ancestors, which had atrophied over time.

For primates, a tail’s primary function is to maintain balance while climbing, walking, and jumping.

He hadn’t realized that besides the atrophied tailbone, the human body had two other organs responsible for balance.

’I know about the cerebellum, but what in the world are otoliths?’ Chen Jue was itching with curiosity.

It was like seeing the code and a thumbnail for a video but being unable to find the download link. Not knowing the juicy details made life feel incomplete.

Luckily, he had plenty of upcoming classes on the human body. Chen Jue slung his small bag over his shoulder and rushed to the lecture hall.

To his surprise, the first class of the morning—a lecture on internal medicine for clinical students—was also a massive one. The huge lecture hall was packed to the gills with people.

’So many people!’

’Is this an open lecture for students from different years and majors?’

Chen Jue scanned the room and saw not only fresh-faced first-years but also quite a few older-looking students.

He quickly found an empty seat in a corner and sat down. A few male students nearby shot him a knowing smile.

"Hey, are you a grad student or a Ph.D.?" the guy next to him asked quietly.

"Me? A grad student, I guess."

Chen Jue thought for a moment. He decided not to flaunt the fact that he was just auditing the class.

’Anyway, I’ve graduated from the school of hard knocks,’ he reasoned. ’My work history and life experience are definitely on par with a grad student.’

"Wow, Teacher Xia’s appeal is really something else! She even draws in grad students like you," the guy next to him said with a sly chuckle, making a comment that Chen Jue didn’t quite understand.

Just as he was about to ask what the guy meant, a familiar figure walked in from the front of the hall.

It was none other than his beautiful landlady, Xia Xue. She was wearing a black trench coat, beneath which a pair of long, black-stockinged legs were faintly visible, causing all the guys in the classroom to stare, their eyes practically popping out of their heads.

"Teacher Xia is here!"

"Quick, find a seat!"

A new wave of students flooded in from outside, scrambling to find places to sit.

Before long, the entire lecture hall was packed to the brim.

Not only were all the seats taken, but people were even squatting in the aisles and at the very back of the room.

Many of the guys shamelessly took out their phones to take pictures and record videos, acting like they were at a celebrity fan meeting.

’Seriously... are these guys here for a class or to gawk at a pretty woman?’

’Are all college students this free?’

Chen Jue was completely dumbfounded. He never imagined his beautiful landlady was this charismatic!

Of all the students packed into the room, he guessed only a small fraction were actually in Xia Xue’s class. The rest were all here to audit, just like him, or simply to join the crowd and feast their eyes.

"Is this Teacher Xia really famous or something?" Chen Jue asked the starry-eyed guy next to him out of curiosity.

The question earned him a look of disbelief, as if Chen Jue were an alien. "Holy crap! Dude, are you even a student at Jiang University? You don’t know the universally acknowledged campus goddess, our most beautiful TA?"

"Whenever Teacher Xia teaches a big lecture, at least a quarter of all the single guys on campus will skip their own classes just to get a look at her!"