The method was simply to write in the notebook: "I want to become someone who cannot be domesticated by this notebook."
And honestly...
This notebook was surprisingly literal and obedient.
As long as one wrote "I want to become someone who cannot be domesticated by this notebook," it would actually domesticate the writer into "someone who cannot be domesticated by this notebook," thereby making them immune to its domestication.
It was an outright bug exploit.
Yu Xian was genuinely curious about how many tests Qilin's researchers had run before discovering a loophole like that.
Moreover, this method was a one-time affair with lifelong results. From then on, one could use the notebook however they pleased. Quite a few chronic procrastinators in Qilin were currently using it to force themselves to finish their work on time.
Yu Xian felt he had no need for the notebook for the time being, so he moved on to the next containment item.
He spent the entire night browsing, and he realized he was probably quite a satisfied person. After looking through hundreds of containment items, not a single one tempted him.
It was not that the items were bad, but rather that his own abilities were too strong, leaving him little need for the assistance of external objects.
"Wait, why have I been scrolling down this whole time?"
Yu Xian realized at daybreak that the only reason the catalog had opened on Item 034 was that he had previously looked at Item 033, the Grand Blaze Sky-Burning Saber. Because of his browsing history, the system had automatically jumped ahead to Item 034.
In truth, there were plenty of powerful containment items earlier on the list.
He quickly navigated to Item 032, but unfortunately the entry showed it was unavailable for requisition—clearly, no solution had been found for its side effects yet.
Actually, the Grand Blaze Sky-Burning Saber was also an item strictly barred from regular use. If an ordinary person used it once, their entire remaining lifespan might be incinerated in a matter of minutes.
Yu Xian continued backward: Item 031, Item 030, Item 029...
Sure enough, the higher up the list went, the more absurd the contained items became. Yet their side effects were equally terrifying, and for most of them, no workarounds had been found.
However, when Yu Xian reached Item 020, his eyes suddenly lit up.
Item 020, Codename: Bronze Sacred Tree.
This was an ancient divine artifact. Perched at the tips of the sacred tree's nine branches were nine bronze birds.
If anyone dripped their blood onto a bronze bird, it would transform into a Golden Crow that hovered permanently above them.
A single Golden Crow was equivalent to the midday sun. If perpetually baked under a midday sun, an ordinary person would quickly die of heatstroke or dehydration.
Even among Transcendents, hardly anyone could endure it.
Having a Golden Crow following you meant facing two suns during the day and one sun at night; resting and sleeping would become major ordeals.
Yet for Yu Xian, none of that was a problem!
The more Yu Xian read, the more he felt the Golden Crow was tailor-made for him. If a sun shone on him through the night as well, the time required to awaken his innate talent would be cut down drastically.
The only problem now was that the Bronze Sacred Tree was not among the items open for requisition.
Because no solution had been found for its side effects, the Bronze Sacred Tree, like the Grand Blaze Sky-Burning Saber, was strictly forbidden from being checked out.
Yu Xian thought it over, then decided to simply dial Xiao Cheng's cell phone number.
"Hello? Don't you ever sleep, kid? It's only six in the morning..." Xiao Cheng had stayed up late into the night handling Yu Xian's affairs, only turning in after four, and now he had been jolted awake at six by Yu Xian's call.
Yu Xian realized the hour and hastily apologized. Xiao Cheng snapped irritably, "All right, spit it out."
"Director, I want to apply for permission to use Containment Item 020," Yu Xian stated directly.
Xiao Cheng fell silent for a moment, then agreed. "Come over at noon. I'll take you to collect it. That's all."
With that, he hung up.
The mountain of excuses Yu Xian had prepared got stuck in his throat. *He just agreed, like that?*
Because of what had happened with the Grand Blaze Sky-Burning Saber, he had assumed Xiao Cheng would reject him outright like last time, leaving no room for discussion. Yet this time, Xiao Cheng had agreed without fuss.
*Could Director Xiao know Appraisal too?*
The thought flashed through Yu Xian's mind—no, perhaps all the higher-ups knew it.
Even if it was not Appraisal, the top brass probably had other means to view his attributes, perhaps yielding information even more comprehensive than Appraisal could provide.
The reason he had caused such a stir among everyone this time was not just the game-breaking nature of his spatial bubbles, but likely also his logic-defying rate of growth.
At their last meeting, he was an Ant-rank rookie, but now he was already a Snake-rank expert.
How much time had passed?
It was like seeing an unweaned baby today, only to run into him again tomorrow and find the infant had turned into a bleach-blonde punk riding a souped-up scooter. How mind-boggling would that be?
***
Noon.
Yu Xian teleported to Qilin Headquarters.
He went straight up to the third floor, knocked, and entered Xiao Cheng's office.
Xiao Cheng's office was completely different from what Yu Xian had imagined. First, it was massive; second, it was riddled with pits and craters.
Rather than an office, Yu Xian felt it looked more like a battlefield. Xiao Cheng was sitting in the corner working at a tiny desk, appearing entirely out of place in his surroundings.
"Give me a moment!"
Noticing Yu Xian's arrival, Xiao Cheng spoke without looking up, rapidly processing documents on his computer.
After about two minutes, he shut down the computer, stood up, and said, "All right, let's go."
Leaving the office, they began climbing the stairs.
Trailing behind Xiao Cheng, Yu Xian could not resist asking, "Director, why isn't there an elevator at headquarters?"
"Because headquarters has no need for useless deadbeats who need an elevator just to climb a few flights of stairs," Xiao Cheng replied as he walked.
Everyone accepted into Qilin was a Transcendent. Even a Transcendent with the poorest constitution was physically far superior to ordinary people. If they could not even manage this many stairs, it would be an absolute joke.
Of course, there were other reasons, but Xiao Cheng could not be bothered to explain.
A moment later, however, Xiao Cheng saw Yu Xian produce an elastic bubble, seat himself on top of it, and leisurely float up the stairs.
"..."
Xiao Cheng felt an inexplicable urge to smack the back of Yu Xian's head.
In the end, he took a deep breath and said, "Make one for me too."
"Sure."
Yu Xian complied and conjured another elastic bubble.
Sitting atop their bubbles, the two moved upward swiftly, soon reaching the fiftieth floor.
Xiao Cheng then stood up and led Yu Xian into a pitch-black room. Following Xiao Cheng, Yu Xian discovered that despite having night vision, the room remained an impenetrable void of blackness to his eyes.
Walking straight ahead through the pitch-black room, his sense of space and time gradually grew muddled. Yu Xian even felt slight fluctuations in his own body weight.
Suddenly, the space ahead opened wide, and a colossal, sealed, all-metal base presented itself before Yu Xian's eyes.
Yu Xian could not resist glancing back. The room behind them remained pitch-black.
"Stop staring. Let's go."
Seeing Yu Xian look back, the corner of Xiao Cheng's mouth curved slightly as he spoke.
The very next moment, however, Yu Xian conjured a bubble to encase himself, and his eyes instantly went wide with shock and disbelief.
Chapter 93