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 were 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.
Xue Wei listened intently and nodded his head solemnly. He was going to try his best and sent another sentence towards Lan.
"Much better this time!" he praised. "Once again!"
And like this, most of the day went by. Xue Wei had been capable of transmitting a sentence right away, but to balance the Qi and make the sound natural was something he found was a lot harder than he had expected.
"Okay, you have learned it now," Lan nodded his head with satisfaction. "It took you a few hours, but for you to learn it so fast shows that your comprehension is not bad. Still, it is not great either as I had to explain to you what you were to do and you could not figure it out on your own."
Xue Wei smiled wryly and shook his head. No one would have been able to understand his first way of describing the technique, but things were different now that he understood it.
"Well then, why don't you lead me to the dining hall?" Lan asked. They had spent most of the day wandering the tent camp and had stopped by their tent, where Lan taught Xue Wei how to compress his voice.
"Do you think they are distributing food this late?" Xue Wei asked, frowning. The sun had already set, and it was past dinner time. But on on second thought, Xue Wei recalled that Lan was an esteemed guest. Xue Wei could not imagine them saying no to him.
While Xue Wei viewed Lan as a weirdo and a madman, it was clear that everyone else revered him.
"Tell me, you are not a real prophet are you?" Xue Wei sent to Lan, which made Lan laugh, but the man did not answer the question. Instead, he just smiled at Xue Wei.
In Xue Wei's eyes, Lan was an extremely skilled martial artist, but he was not a prophet. He was able to observe things that others did not notice, but this was not enough to call him a prophet.
Seeing that he was not going to answer the question, Xue Wei just snorted and came to the conclusion that Lan was indeed a fraud. And he was good at what he did.
"Since you won't answer that question, then what about your collection? Which kind of things do you collect?" Xue Wei asked.
In fact, Xue Wei was practicing his ability to converse through the mind, and since he had no other person to talk to, he had no option than to strike up a conversation with prophet Lan.
Lan finally seemed interested. His eyes burned with excitement, and he stopped in his tracks, turned towards Xue Wei, and the biggest, happiest grin the younger of the two had seen appeared on the lips of this older man.
"I am collecting anything rare. That can be beast cores, herbs, minerals, ores, treasures, pills. Everything that is rare is of value to me. Why have you taken an interest in my collection? Have you decided to become a part of my collection now?"
When Xue Wei heard this, he shook his head silently. "I am not going to become a part of your collection," he said seriously. This time, he was not using the compressed voice because Lan had not done so either, and his response made the prophet seem disappointed.
"Let us go and get something to eat," Xue Wei said again and started walking towards the dining hall, this time leaving Lan to follow him. However, Lan took one step, and suddenly he was next to Xue Wei once more. It was as if he had compressed space itself and teleported. This was done so casually that Xue Wei, who was watching him, realized that the man was without equal among the ones he had ever met or heard about.
Xue Wei and Lan made it to the dining hall. They could smell the scent of food in the air, and when they arrived at the dining hall, they found that it was filled with youngsters.
When Lan and Xue Wei entered everyone turned around to see who it was, and many of the expressions were filled with jealousy.
The dining hall was a tent like the others. There was a kitchen in one end of the tent, and in the other end was a tall podium where the commander and various captains were seated around a large table with benches.
On the ground in the middle were also many tables and benches for the geniuses of the Genius Camp, and they were all filled to the brim.
"Mister Lan, please come sit with us," the commander requested, and Lan nodded his head as he went to fetch a tray of food before heading to the commander's table.
Xue Wei knew that the invitation was not extended to him, so he too went to get a tray of food, after which he started looking around the tables.
It was not until the final table that he found a spot to sit, but as soon as he sat down, he felt everyone staring at him with anger and jealousy in their eyes. What made this weakling think he was better than them? What made him so special that Prophet Lan went out of his way to take care of him?
Everyone was completely convinced that Lan was a prophet and that he knew things that no one else knew. As a result, they also thought that he had noticed something in Xue Wei's future that made him a special figure.
These geniuses had never before been stepped over by anyone else, and now they felt that a weakling beneath their strength was doing just that.
Xue Wei was used to being hated, so he did not do anything special. He just started eating his meal and completely ignored everyone else.
Seeing his complete and utter lack of reaction, some of the stronger experts clenched their fists with the desire to put him in his place, but whenever they thought about it they would glance at Lan and stop themselves. Their vengeance could wait until the prophet had left.