Chapter 38: Not recommended to learn; this thing consumes HP instead of MP!

"Phew~ finally back..."

As the three of them returned to the dormitory, Wang Chengyu collapsed onto his bed.

He never imagined that a trip to the zoo would turn into such an ordeal.

Reviewing the events once more, Wang Chengyu couldn't help but mutter

"Tsk tsk, the more I think about it, the more surreal it feels... How could that lightning strike so accurately?"

"It actually struck the human traffickers' car directly!"

"Brother Nan... this really has nothing to do with you, right?"

By now, Lin Nan and Jiang Tao had also sat down. Lin Nan spoke up

"Stop overthinking it. Believe in science."

"Exactly. Engaging in something as heartless as child trafficking—it's only right that those traffickers met divine retribution," Jiang Tao added from the side.

"I guess that's true..." Wang Chengyu clicked his tongue and fell silent.

*Beep, beep, beep.*

Before they could chat much longer, all three of their phones began to ring simultaneously.

Lin Nan pulled out his phone and saw a notification from their instructor in the class group chat

"@All members, tomorrow is the military training parade, the final day of training. Give it your all and show your spirit~"

"Once the parade is over, students can begin preparations for the upcoming Dormitory Culture Festival."

Glancing at the notice, the parade had been scheduled long ago.

However, looking at the second message, Wang Chengyu muttered to Lin Nan and the others

"Dormitory Culture Festival? What's that?"

Jiang Tao, who had clearly done his homework, explained to the two

"It's basically letting freshmen decorate their dorms, put up wallpapers, and things like that."

"In the end, the faculty will take a stroll through the dorms to select a few outstanding ones, and they'll be rewarded with some cheap little trinkets."

"Can it add extra credits?" Wang Chengyu asked, being extremely pragmatic.

Jiang Tao didn't say anything, merely shrugging and shaking his head.

"Ah? That's boring. If I have that kind of free time, I'd rather just scroll through videos."

As he spoke, Wang Chengyu opened Douyin, intending to browse some videos of beautiful women.

But as he glanced at his notifications, his eyes were immediately drawn to the unread "99+"!

"Huh?? Holy crap... I think I've gone viral!"

Wang Chengyu let out a surprised shout, leaving Lin Nan and the other stunned.

However, as soon as Wang Chengyu tapped the messages and scanned them briefly, he spoke to Lin Nan in an excited tone

"Ah, wait, no—Brother Nan, *you've* gone viral!"

Under their confused gazes, Wang Chengyu hurriedly reminded them

"I've screenshotted it and shared it to the group. You guys better go check it out too!"

Lin Nan immediately opened Douyin, and only then did he understand what Wang Chengyu meant.

On Douyin, due to today's livestream content, the news of the lightning intercepting the human traffickers had already spread across the internet.

Furthermore, because of Lin Nan's various performances during that livestream, he had sparked intense discussion among fans.

Even though Lin Nan had stated that the hand seals he was performing were merely intended to help calculate directions, it couldn't stop the speculation and the curiosity of netizens who loved a good spectacle.

Many fans with editing skills had even used the available footage to create montage videos.

The most popular one had already garnered tens of thousands of likes.

The video content was roughly a montage of Lin Nan performing the hand seals and incantations in the livestream.

The appearance of those several profound and mysterious hand seals was dizzying to watch.

The latter half of the video was paired with lightning footage from documentaries.

Combined, the two created a genuine sense of the Thunder Ancestor manifesting and descending divine lightning retribution.

Coupled with the fact that Chinese people are naturally very interested in metaphysics, the video ultimately became a trending topic.

Many netizens who didn't know the full story followed the trend, filming their own edited videos of performing hand seals to summon lightning.

As it stood, over two thousand people had already participated in the challenge!

And keep in mind, this was only after one day.

Among the newly added topics of the same period, this level of popularity was exceptionally high!

"Damn... so many netizens are following the trend to make videos!"

"And I just checked our follower count—it's shot up a lot!"

Wang Chengyu's excited voice echoed through the dormitory.

Lin Nan picked a few of the most-liked videos from the topic and opened them. He saw that indeed, many fans were mimicking the hand seals in their videos.

A few young people even seemed to have learned them quite well, looking as if they had studied them frame by frame.

"..."

But looking at the spectacle on Douyin, Lin Nan frowned.

Although he knew that the Purple Cloud Divine Thunder Incantation required the hand seals and the method to be used together, and that an ordinary person analyzing only the hand seals would achieve nothing—not to mention the phone camera wasn't always pointed at him, making it impossible to replicate perfectly—even so... everything has a price.

A technique capable of invoking divine thunder carries a power and a cost that are directly proportional.

Even when Lin Nan himself was careful during the execution, it consumed half a cycle's worth of his mana.

If netizens were allowed to learn it haphazardly, even if they only managed to mimic ten or twenty percent of it... there would still be a loss.

And for ordinary people without mana, mimicking these hand seals at will without mana consumption would very likely damage their health and diminish their blessings.

Some might even lose years of their lifespan!

Thinking of this, Lin Nan's frown deepened as he watched the netizens following the trend.

"Brother Nan, our livestream really hit a small peak this time."

"But your reaction... it's not quite what I expected?"

Noticing Lin Nan's expression, Wang Chengyu asked in confusion.

Lin Nan did not explain the situation directly, but instead gave instructions

"Don't bother removing the makeup. We'll start another livestream tonight and issue a statement at the same time."

"Huh? What kind of statement?"

Hearing Lin Nan's plan to livestream again, Wang Chengyu and Jiang Tao perked up, listening intently.

"Just a reminder to the fans that I don't recommend they try to imitate these hand seals randomly."

"Otherwise, at best, they will suffer a loss of blessings and be marked by fate; at worst, they might damage their bodies and shorten their lives."

After Lin Nan finished speaking, Wang Chengyu and Jiang Tao just stared at each other, looking as if they hadn't understood a word.

"Fine, to put it in layman's terms... once these hand seals are used, if you have no mana, you'll burn your health instead."

As Lin Nan's words fell, Wang Chengyu and Jiang Tao finally had an epiphany.

They didn't think too deeply about it, assuming Lin Nan was just using this opportunity to create more "content" for the show.

Wang Chengyu's eyes darted around as if he had figured out the angle, and he said with admiration

"Holy crap, you're something else, Brother Nan! You made it sound so real."

"Once this statement goes out, our livestream's popularity will probably jump even higher!"

With Wang Chengyu's words, the three began preparing for the evening's livestream.

...

Soon, evening arrived.

Following the usual routine, the three started the livestream on time.

Lin Nan was still in his Thunder Ancestor persona, holding his ritual tool and sitting regally before the camera.

Perhaps due to the previous hype, a wave of viewers quickly flooded into the room.

The real-time viewer count began to climb rapidly!

...

(End of Chapter)