Poor Cao Han wasn't discovered until more than ten minutes later, when someone coming to use the restroom found him and pulled him out of the urinal.
For more than a month afterward, Cao Han washed his hair and face countless times a day. He scrubbed with such force that he'd worn his once-smooth face down until it was as coarse as sandpaper. Even so, he still felt like he reeked of piss...
The only saving grace for Cao Han was that his rescuer didn't recognize him. Otherwise, he would have become infamous on campus. At that point, he wouldn't be worrying about transferring departments, but dropping out of school entirely!
Meanwhile, after the third class ended, Zhao Yuan noticed a crowd of uninvited guests had gathered outside his classroom.
Some stood by the windows, others by the door, all craning their necks and peering into the classroom. The moment they spotted Zhao Yuan, a wave of low gasps and murmurs erupted from the crowd.
"That's him!"
"That's Zhao Yuan!"
"I've only ever seen his photo before. Now I'm finally seeing him in the flesh. He has just as much presence as he does in pictures!"
Zhao Yuan was baffled by their words.
'What's going on? Are these people really here for me? But I don't know any of them!'
He had been engrossed in studying the knowledge from the Information Leaf during class, so he had no idea what was happening on the school forums. Naturally, he was unaware that he had once again become a campus celebrity at West Hua Medical University.
If he had previously been famous for his "good looks" and "physique," he was now the very definition of someone with both "brains and beauty." It was no wonder people were gathering to see him.
Just as he was puzzling over this, his phone rang. He took it out and saw it was his student counselor, Pan Mei, calling.
The moment the call connected, Pan Mei eagerly asked, "Zhao Yuan, is it true? The stuff they're saying online?"
"What stuff online?" Zhao Yuan asked, completely baffled.
"What, you still don't know?" Pan Mei was taken aback for a moment, then quickly filled him in on what was happening on the school forums.
After she finished, Zhao Yuan glanced at the gawking crowd outside the classroom and muttered, "So that's why. No wonder so many people suddenly showed up to stare at me."
'This whole thing has gotten out of hand. So much for keeping a low profile!'
"What was that?" Pan Mei asked. Zhao Yuan had muttered so quietly that she hadn't been able to hear him.
"It's nothing," Zhao Yuan said with a bitter smile. He couldn't very well tell Pan Mei that he was being gawked at like a panda in a zoo, could he?
The only thing missing was people trying to feed him...
Pan Mei didn't dwell on it and returned to her original question. "So, is what they're saying online true? Did you really re-punctuate and offer a new interpretation of the *Treasure of Life and Form Theory*? And did you really win over Elder Qiu and the others?"
"It's true, but it's not as dramatic as people online are making it sound..."
Zhao Yuan didn't even get to finish his sentence before Pan Mei cut him off with a shout.
"Oh my god, it's really true! Zhao Yuan, you're incredible! You're seriously incredible!"
In that moment, Pan Mei had none of her usual counselor's dignity. She was as excited as a child, shouting and screaming into the phone.
'Then again, Pan Mei might be a student counselor, but she was also a first-year grad student, only a few years older than Zhao Yuan's cohort. Her usual composure was probably just an act. This was likely her true self.'
Pan Mei exclaimed excitedly, "I can't believe I have such a powerhouse like you among my students! The reason the *Treasure of Life and Form Theory* is used in textbooks is not just for its foundational concepts, but because the research on it is considered completely settled! And yet, you managed to dig up something new from this 'settled' text. No wonder you won over Elder Qiu and the others! I heard you're going to be published in the *Chinese Medicine* journal? My god, a freshman in a top national journal! That's unheard of! This won't do. I have to contact the school paper's reporters right away and get them to do a feature story on you! And I'll contact some other medical journals to have them cover this, too..."
"Do we really need to make such a big fuss about it?" Zhao Yuan was stunned. He'd never realized Pan Mei was someone who could make so much happen.
Pan Mei said, "Of course it's necessary! A while back, someone from Class 5 of the Integrated Medicine program published a paper in *Shu Region Medical Tales*. Their counselor, Liu Fugui, got so excited you'd think he'd won the lottery. He didn't just get the school paper to run a multi-part interview series; he also contacted several medical journals to hype the guy up. They blew him up into this 'once-in-a-century medical prodigy' and 'future leader of the medical field.' I read the articleāit had some decent points, but overall it was just average. And *Shu Region Medical Tales* is just a second-rate journal; it's nothing compared to *Chinese Medicine*! If they can make such a huge scene, we can't possibly fall behind, right? Oh, hey, what do you think of the tagline 'once-in-a-millennium medical prodigy'? Should we have them use that for publicity?"
"Don't. That's a terrible tagline," Zhao Yuan refused immediately. 'Are you kidding? A tagline like that would just make me a target for everyone's resentment. It's not that 'once-in-a-millennium prodigy' is an exaggeration, given that I have the Witch Doctor's legacy, but there's no need to attract a mountain of envy over an empty title.'
"So boring. Fine, have it your way. But you *have* to cooperate with the other interviews!" Without a doubt, revealing this condition had been Pan Mei's goal all along.
"Well..." Zhao Yuan instinctively started to refuse, but the words died on his lips as he swallowed them back down.
Because at that exact moment, he made an unexpected and shocking discovery!
Another wave of Wish Power was surging into his body.
Although each strand of this Wish Power was very faintāfar weaker than any he had received beforeāthe quantity was immense. There were over a hundred of them! All these small trickles added up, and the total amount of this wave of Wish Power was nearly as great as what he had gained after saving the person on the subway!
'What's going on? Where is all this Wish Power coming from? It's not like I healed anyone today,' Zhao Yuan wondered, frowning in concentration. Just then, he caught a glimpse of the "tourists" outside his classroom out of the corner of his eye, and a theory instantly popped into his head. 'Could this Wish Power be coming from them?'
The more Zhao Yuan thought about it, the more likely the theory seemed.
'My classmates from Class 3 of the Integrated Medicine program posted about what I did on the school forums. That must have generated a lot of admiration from people. After building up and fermenting, that admiration transformed into Wish Power!'
'It's just like how deities and Buddhas draw strength from the faith of their followers.'
Of course, this was all just a theory. He would have to observe for a while to see if it held true.
But if it was true, it meant he had found a new way of acquiring Wish Powerāa method that would be a huge boon to his Cultivation!