113 The Teacher and the Student 11

After Song Hua, the next person that came in was Qin Shuang. It was awkward being alone with Qin Shuang, his intense gaze making Yin Mei constantly wonder if her identity had already been seen through.

Because they had been interrupted the other day, she didn't have her answer, and neither did he.

Yin Mei didn't bring it up though, instead tapping at her tablet for a moment before handing it over for Qin Shuang to take a look at it. It only had on task on it, the task that Yin Mei had considered the most important out of the original tasks that Mei Wen had assigned to Qin Shuang.

Qin Shuang raised an eyebrow. "Only one?" He took the tablet from Yin Mei, taking a look.

"Obtain the egg of Planet Leiden's sacred beast?" Qin Shuang raised an eyebrow.

Yin Mei tapped her stylus on the table. "If you recall from your interplanetary studies..." Yin Mei began, but Qin Shuang interrupted her to finish.

"According to the murals left behind by the now extinct indigenous peoples of Planet Leiden, they worshipped something resembling a phoenix as their sacred guardian and protector.... But, isn't this just a legend? There is no proof or evidence of this beast ever existing." Qin Shuang said, furrowing his brow.

"Don't worry. It exists. And I have no doubt that you'll be able to find it. This is important. He is important." Yin Mei seemed to emphasize, narrowing her eyes, but in a moment, her face was once more calm.

Qin Shuang was doubtful, but for some reason, at this moment, he felt a flash of familiarity. It was faint, but there. And he couldn't help but feel that this woman was really... really like his older sister.

That older sister of his, who was constantly one step ahead, seemingly knowing everything - it was only later that he realized that she had known the future. Her once incomprehensible actions finally made sense.

In the end, everything had fallen into place, the cure had been created, the world had been saved. In Qin Shuang's opinion, without Lu Mei, none of that would have ever happened. He would have died, the doctor would have never been able to formulate the cure, and the mutants would have never been able to enter a treaty with the humans.

"Since that's settled, that'll be all today. Call Alice on your way out," Yin Mei said, dismissing him without noticing the changes in his expressions. He obediently did so, and only afterwards did he regret it. His body had just naturally moved to complete her request!

He had on a bitter expression. Now he would need to wait for another time to corner her while she was alone. Dammit, if only there was some way to know for sure if she was his older sister... And if she was, then why hadn't she said anything? Ri Yi had only needed to probe him for a few moments before the two had realized each others identities.

But for Mei Wen, it was as if she didn't even have a single intention of revealing herself, if she truly was Lu Mei.

He bit his lip, and in the end, settled down with the rest of his classmates, taking out his personal tablet to study.

When Alice walked into the adjoining room, Yin Mei looked up to see this pretty little thing that was the female lead. Silver hair, shimmering eyes, and pale skin. She was like some sort of starlight princess, with her lovely appearance.

She politely waited for Yin Mei to motion for her to sit, her mannerisms soft and gentle. Yin Mei really wanted to ask - where in the world did Qin Shuang see any resemblance of this girl in comparison to herself?

The answer was apparently: her ruthlessness toward her enemies.

Yin Mei: ...

Yin Mei was silent, going through a few things on her tablet. Alice felt slightly nervous, her eyes curious as she looked at this beautiful teacher of theirs. She felt that she really admired her. She had heard a lot of rumors from her classmates, about how she was once a very talented Brigade member known for her ruthlessness, only to retire early on and take on this job to nurture the next generation.

Alice thought that for such a strong person to make such a decision, sacrificing herself for the sake of teaching others, was very admirable. Of course, she had completely misunderstood Mei Wen.

Yin Mei finally began talking, first going over Alice's performance in class. Alice was a good student. She was ranked third in the class, below Qin Shuang and Song Hua, and her best subjects were combat theory and weapons studies.

Although Yin Mei's class wasn't included among them, it wasn't surprising. In fact, the only student whose "best class" could be considered history was Qin Shuang, and he had lived through history.

Yin Mei wondered if it would be better to change subjects... Next year, she decided maybe she would try teaching combat training. At least then she would be able to beat up students!

In fact, it was odd in the first place that a former Brigade member like Mei Wen was even teaching a core class like history, instead of combat elective.

But, such was Mei Wen's decision. When she had retired from the Brigade, she had done so in order to get away from fighting. Not have to teach it for the rest of her life.

Yin Mei turned her tablet toward Alice, where there was a small list of missions written out. It wasn't that much, and Yin Mei hadn't actually put any thought into them. These were all what the original Mei Wen had given to Alice. The original Mei Wen may have considered this and that when assigning them, but Yin Mei didn't know her thoughts on the matter - the information didn't go that much in detail.

Alice looked over it. She thought that they all looked reasonable, a few of them especially tailored to help her overcome her weaknesses, and she once more thought that her teacher was a very admirable person, who paid attention to her students. Her sparkling eyes of awe were a little painful and Yin Mei really wanted to ask - what in the world are you looking at this minor villain like that for?

The session ended quickly, and each one after that was a blur, Yin Mei simply recommended what the original Mei Wen had - as for those less important students whose missions hadn't been mentioned, she had randomly chosen a few things that had seemed suitable before sending them on their way.

The next month passed by slowly but surely, as things returned to normal and the students seemed to forget that there had been an attack on campus at all, falling back into the rhythm of things, burying themselves in their school work.

As like Yin Mei had thought, the issue with the Ming family was handled under the table, and there was no news of the attack from any media outlets at all. She didn't know what deal had. been made, but the Ming twins had been quickly released and returned to the Ming family's home, their actions afterward quiet and very much under the radar.

By the time Yin Mei blinked, it was already time for the trip to Leiden.

Because of advancements in technology, the trip would be like the time it would take for about a short plane ride - only two and a half hours. After the invention of warp tunnels, space travel had taken on a whole new meaning, and advancements in it were made in leaps and bounds, humanity journeying to far off stars and planets.

When the group landed, they could immediately see the misty green forests and mountains of Leiden in the distance, truly deserving of looking like a cultivation world where immortals meditated at.

The group dropped off the children in the sector of the world that they would be training in, while the rest of the teachers would have their accommodations paid for and could go travel wherever they pleased for the rest of the week.

Hai Lan planned to go to one of Leiden's beautiful beaches along with a group of other teachers. Though she had invited both Alexei and Yin Mei, the former was planning on staying at the hotel the school had booked near the space station, and Yin Mei had her own plans.

She was disappointed but still excited for her own vacation plans and so the three quickly split up.

Yin Mei wasn't exactly here on vacation, though she certainly planned on enjoying herself.

She looked at the looming forest and mountain ranges beyond the gated wall where the students were currently embarking on their survival journey, battling ferocious alien beasts and carnivorous plants.

She went to what she could only describe as a ticket booth, where a security officer was in a room inside the wall, a window between him and the outside world. "I'd like to purchase an adult training pass." Yin Mei said, knocking on the window lightly.

The security guard yawned lightly, tapping something into the computer. "That's 850 credits miss. Ah... but with the Black Cross Academy discount, you'll only need to pay 650 credits." Yin Mei reached her hand through the slot in the window, and the guard scanned her wrist where the small diamond was. There was a beep that indicated the successful transaction.

He waved her off, the gate opening to let her in. Beyond the gate was an enclosed space, with another gate that opened as the first one closed. An extra security measure, to make sure nothing that they didn't want to would get out.

When Yin Mei entered the forest, the first thing she noticed was the darkness. The leaves were a deep green, almost blue color, and the shadows made the bark of the trees a near black. In addition, there was a light fog that slightly impeded ones vision.

It was a witch's forest.

That was what Yin Mei thought.

She wasted no time in entering the shadow world, and when she reemerged, the scenery had vastly changed. The ground was smooth black rock, and before her was a deep scar in the earth, a ravine that was all darkness.

She had no hesitation in jumping in. She felt like she was going down the rabbit hole, though it wasn't a rabbit hole that she was going down.

For what could have been several hours, or only several minutes, she was free falling in complete darkness. But after a while, she could see a small light, getting brighter. The shadows turned murky and thick, slowing her descent.

Soon the brightness was overwhelming, momentarily blinding her. When she blinked it away, she was no longer falling through darkness, but had reemerged into a whole new world.

The world under Leiden.

The shadows wrapped themselves around her, completely stopping her fall now, allowing her to hang in the air and admire the scene before her. There were pockets, holes of light that shone through the earth to illuminate the scene.

There was a forest, a volcano dripping with lava, a small mountain range, and the ruins of an ancient city.

It was literally a world within a world.

In some weird way.

The shadows stretched down, down, down, before letting her go gently to the floor.

This region was one that was undiscovered by the governments of their world, through a magical barrier that messed with their technology.

That barrier was a remnant of the ancient technology of the indigenous Leiden people, who were already extinct (or perhaps they had flown off the planet and gone to explore the rest of the vast expanses of space, but the point is, there were no more of them left on Leiden).

And now all Yin Mei would need to do was wait for Qin Shuang, Song Hua, and that Alice girl to arrive here.

Of course, with Qin Shuang main character halo, there was no way that he would not discover this place. And, this was where the sacred beast egg that he needed to find was.

Yin Mei glanced toward the small mountains, with their gray jagged peaks. They were high enough to almost touch the ceiling that was lined with a bright glowing moss, and wreathed in mist, almost as if they were shy, hiding themselves from the view of others.

She checked the time. It would take a few days before Qin Shuang and Song Hua (plus an Alice) would get here. She might as well go exploring.

She felt that she would feel too guilty if she stole treasures from Qin Shuang out of all people though, so this really would just be exploring. Not treasure stealing.

She nodded firmly. After all, she wasn't the type of person to bully little kids, okay?