64 Compressed Voice Communication (1/2)
Xue Wei stood outside his tent, fuming with anger. He had intended for his last words to cause the crazy prophet to become self-aware and maybe even angrily stomp out of the tent when his sexuality was questioned, but it seemed that Lan did not care at all.
Xue Wei grumbled. His tent was just big enough for himself, and now that they shared it there was almost no space for anything other than their beds.
Xue Wei looked appalled when he entered the tent and saw that Lan had not even found a second bed but had occupied the one bed that was present in the tent.
”What do you think you're doing?” Xue Wei asked with a frown on his face when he saw Lan sitting on his bed as if it was only natural.
”Oh, I am the guest, so it is only natural that this bed is mine. I mean, you would not request a guest to sleep on the hard ground for two weeks, would you now?”
”If the guest is some weirdo like you, I wouldn't mind being impolite,” Xue Wei mumbled to himself, completely aware that no matter how low his voice was, Lan would hear it, yet this time the prophet decided not to react to what the other said, deciding to just smile mischievously.
”This is going to be a long two weeks,” Xue Wei sighed, not even bothering to lower his voice as he sat down on the cold hard ground that was the floor of the tent.
The only soft part of the tent was the bed, but fortunately one no longer had much need for sleep as soon as one stepped down the path of cultivation. As long as one meditated and absorbed Qi from the surrounding air and refined it into one's own Qi, then one could remove all fatigue from the body.
Since this was the case, Xue Wei decided to ignore Lan and instead focus on his training completely. He understood that as long as he was unable to break into the Earth Warrior rank, he would not be amongst the strongest in the Genius Camp. In that case, he would not get the best rewards and resources.
His aim with being in the army was to become an entity that everyone had to respect, but the only way to become such a person was to train diligently and have access to the materials and resources that the Genius Camp had to offer.
Right now, he was at the lowest rank of the Genius Camp, which meant that he would receive the least resources every cycle. Although it would be a significantly higher amount compared to what the ninth layer Ordinary Warriors in the other division received, it was truly nothing compared to the top expert in the Genius Camp.
”Well, since you are not going to pursue the fact that I took your bed, I will teach you the voice compression trick,” Lan said magnanimously as he looked at Xue Wei.
Although Xue Wei was unhappy with Lan, hearing this, he suddenly felt that learning this skill would make it worth for him to give up his bed for the next two weeks.
His eyes gleamed with excitement, and his back straightened. He perked up, and although he was not about to forgive what the prophet had done to him, he was not so stubborn as to say no thank you to something so obviously practical to him.
”Got you interested for once,” Lan laughed, his eyes once more shining mischievously, and Xue Wei suddenly started wondering if he had been cheated.
”Don't worry; I promised I'd teach you, so I will teach you.” Lan laughed and seemed as if every little action Xue Wei made truly entertained him.
”You are a rarity. You would fit so nicely in my collection,” Lan sighed again and shook his head. ”Well, for now, try and focus on your voice, merge it with your Qi, as if you're coating a bubble, and send it towards me.”
Xue Wei looked at Lan with confusion. Compress his voice? How was he supposed to do that?
Lan shook his head, ”You are supposed to be a heaven-sent genius for goodness sake, try thinking a bit!”
”I am thinking!” Xue Wei protested, but his voice was a bit weaker than before. If he had some kind of starting point to go off of, he would understand what Lan meant, so he could not help but feel inadequate for the first time since he set off on the path of cultivation.
”Well, I guess it is because no one here in the Kingdom of Heping has the ability to do so. I will help you so don't worry – even if your comprehension was as bad as an earthworm's, I would still not give up!”
”Why thank you for comparing me to an earthworm.”
”No worries. Now what you should do is to think of the sentence you want to say. Then guide a stream of Qi into your mind and then project it towards the person you wish to speak with.”
”You could have given me that explanation from the start,” Xue Wei grumbled.
”It would not have been fun if I did that, now would it?” Lan grinned, but Xue Wei just snorted at his obvious amusement.
Still, Lan was teaching him how to compress his voice, so he stopped complaining. Instead, he attempted to do what Lan had told him, and sent a message to him.
”Can you hear me?” was what arrived, which made Lan look at Xue Wei with a smile on his face that grew larger by the minute. ”You managed to successfully transmit a message already on your first attempt... not bad at all!” Lan praised.
”The sound was very uneven, and some of the words were loud while others were silent. You will need to balance the Qi so that it is even with every single word.” Lan suddenly looked serious as he began explaining things to Xue Wei, taking the younger man completely by surprise.