The dormitory hall was noisy and chaotic, with the sounds of fox apprentices playing occasionally coming from beside.
Bai Mo sat on the bed, looking at the smiling face of the human head model, feeling peculiar in his heart.
His Divine Sense went inside the head model, probing the muscles at the corner of the mouth, then the nerves, and from the nerves to the cerebral cortex, and back to the brain... He hesitated for a mont and did not continue.
"To solve this problem, do I need to probe the brain?"
The human brain carries a lifeti of mories, emotions, knowledge, and sentints, with contents vast as the ocean.
Yet, it is not solid... instead, it is like colored clouds, like glass.
When the Divine Sense enters the brain to probe, it is like wind blowing into the colored clouds, like stepping and running on glass steps; a slight carelessness might destroy it.
The brain is even more fragile than the Sea of Consciousness, and for the Ancient Immortal, the brain is also a forbidden zone!
"After all, it’s just a model, so let’s give it a try."
Bai Mo sat quietly, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and condensed his Divine Sense like water, soaking the cerebral cortex in it to trace the folds, grooves on the cortex, tracing the information transmitted, tracing the slight biological fluctuations that escaped...
His Divine Sense saw the brain of this model, a brain that’s a million tis simpler and coarser than a real brain... But it’s also dazzling with multicolored lights, as vivid as colorful clouds, as much as glass.
His Divine Sense slowly approached, trying to see more clearly...
Boom~
The model’s brain silently shook, colorful clouds scattered, glass shattered!
Bai Mo opened his eyes, looking at the mushroom head model again, seeing its smile stiffen, dumbfounded and unmoving.
"Um... Definitely doesn’t work.
"This matter is more troubleso than I imagined.
"How did Ancient Immortals handle it? Is there no way to probe the brain? And what secrets does the Ear-Enlightening Soup hide?"
It’s bedti, and so clever apprentices have sneakily run over, jumped onto the bed, burrowed into the quilt, and lay next to the master. Others ran to the master’s pillow, resting their heads at the edge of the master’s pillow, so when the master lays down, their head would be next to it.
"Whimpering whimpering!"
"Howling howling!"
More and more apprentices ran from all corners of the hall!
Those who ran faster managed to find a spot on the bed.
Those who ran slower could only sleep under the bed or further to the side.
In a short ti, the foxes surrounded this bed, forming a large clump.
Bai Mo temporarily placed the dumb mushroom head at the bed pole.
Rubbing each of the apprentices’ little heads around him.
"I’ll study this again in the morning.
"Tonight, let’s sleep first!"
...
The morning wind blew into the Bronze Hall, chilly, carrying dust and yellow sand.
Bai Mo sat behind the Bronze Table, quickly flipping through the tablet’s docunts.
"I’ve morized the knowledge-type and skill-type docunts.
"But docunts about the brain, I’ve never seen before.
"Better to slowly search through miscellaneous stories, etiquette, and rules-type docunts."
These docunts seed useless before, but Bai Mo also copied them down. In this tablet, instead, they occupy most of the storage space.
Reading them one by one, page after page, the vast majority... are still useless!
But Bai Mo didn’t dare to be sloppy, reading seriously, one by one.
...
Like this, he watched from morning to noon and went to the canteen to have lunch with the apprentices.
Returning to the Bronze Hall, he watched from noon to dusk and went to the canteen to have dinner with the apprentices.
One day passed by, and only then did he manage to finish less than one-tenth of this large pile of miscellaneous docunts.
"Just consider it as making up for what I missed. Once I’ve seen these things, I’ll rember them. I won’t need to look again in the future."
Returning to the dormitory hall, he sat at the bedhead, continued reading.
The light from the tablet screen illuminated his face in the darkness.
Behind his left shoulder, suddenly erged a fox’s face, turned out to be White Tail!
This guy didn’t go play today, but ca to accompany the master, its chin resting on the master’s shoulder, eyes glancing at the tablet, nuzzling the master’s face.
From Bai Mo’s arms also erged a fox’s face... turned out to be Black Star.
This guy also didn’t play today but ca to accompany the master, scurrying around in the master’s arms, finding a comfortable pose.
Even though not knowing why, it always felt like the master seed strangely serious, strangely solemn today.
Bai Mo reached out, touched White Tail’s head, and then stretched his hand to his arms, rubbed Black Star’s belly, and continued flipping through the docunts.
In the hall, hundreds of fox apprentices gathered together, forming a square formation, not knowing what they’re doing, clamoring "Ying ying aow aow".
Bai Mo glanced briefly, letting them play.
Reading one docunt after another, sotis long-winded, sotis scattered pieces.
Bai Mo flipped through a page and saw a lengthy docunt again, beauty-related, describing how beauty-loving Ancient Immortals maintained their ears and earlobes.
"Eh?
"Could this be related to the Ear-Enlightening Soup?"
Bai Mo gathered his concentration and began to seriously read this docunt.
The docunt recorded the bizarre habits of Ancient Immortals regarding ears, such as using dication to make their earlobes larger, rounder, fuller, considering this more aesthetic.
"Like Maitreya Buddha?"
The docunt included the recipe for reforming earlobes... completely lacking in technicality. Even so common herbs, applied casually, would work.
The docunt also noted that Ancient Immortals had extrely high aesthetic standards for ear shapes, considering naturally grown ear shapes as beautiful! If one needed to reshape their ears later, they would refer to others’ naturally beautiful ears.
"Just like so internet celebrities who undergo plastic surgery to imitate movie stars?"
Bai Mo continued reading, towards the end, there was a warning to those with naturally beautiful ears...
[... If you are weak and have naturally beautiful ears, then it’s best to apply oil paint on the ears or fold them up, not to expose them...]
[... So Firen who took the Ear-Enlightening Soup developed peculiar habits. Their ears beca sensitive, getting excited and joyful from hearing sounds...]
[... They weren’t satisfied with the delight from two ears and sought more ears, grafting them onto their own ear platform...]
Huh?
Bai Mo was stunned.
Those Multi-Eared Monsters, the additional ears, are grafted for the pursuit of excitent and joy?
[... More ears bring them more excitent and joy, leading to greater greed.
Four ears would be curious over the excitent from six ears;
Six ears would be covetous of the joy from eight ears;
Eight ears would fantasize about the ecstasy from ten ears;
The greed for excitent and joy is endless...]
[... They indulge in the excitent and joy brought by ears as if falling into a trap, sinking deeper and deeper, eventually unable to extricate themselves...]
A certain addiction chanism?
Bai Mo had heard about addiction to video gas, addiction to drinking cola, addiction to drinking strong drinks... but hearing for the first ti that transplanted ears can also lead to addiction!
[... So Firen would be addicted to this, while others wouldn’t. This seems related to the individual differences in the brain. Every Fireman who takes the Ear-Enlightening Soup is engaging in a gamble, betting whether they belong to the category that won’t beco addicted...]
[... The Marquis can tolerate moderate addiction, allowing up to six ears, but not tolerating eight ears...]
[... The Marquis is hoping to warn the addicted by engraving the formula for the Ear-Enlightening Soup at the gallows’ base and the cases of hanging every eight-eared criminal on the gallows’ pillars. Although this has no effect. No Fireman addicted to this can resist temptation, all six ears eventually beco eight ears. All eight ears eventually being hanged...]
[... Among Alchemists ascending to Sequence Six, none were multi-eared...]
Bai Mo’s lips twitched.
"So, this is the truth of the Ear-Enlightening Soup?
"Taking the Ear-Enlightening Soup is also a gamble?
"Betting whether my own brain falls in the category that cannot beco addicted?"
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