I! Cleaner!-Chapter 744 - 679: Leon’s Inner Self

"Alright."

After glancing up at the sun overhead, the Sagittarius Director pulled out a small copper gong from somewhere and gently tapped it twice with his palm.

"Time’s up, everyone stop!"

Accompanied by the deep, soul-piercing gong sound, over forty cleaners, lost in secret techniques, suddenly jolted, unable to maintain the continuous compression of their inner selves, and withdrew from their focused state.

As their original state was broken, the cleaners were surprised to find that the ordinary sand grain in their hands, though it appeared unchanged, felt drastically different when overlapped with their ’inner selves’, almost like it had an altered identity.

"Now, it’s time to assess your learning progress."

Frowning at the sand in Leon’s hand, considering his extraordinary talent shared among the five palaces, the Sagittarius Director hesitated for a moment before raising his hand and waving to the cleaner furthest away from him.

"Starting with you, everyone hold your sand tight, do not let go, and come to me one by one."

"Ah, okay!"

After hearing the Sagittarius Director’s command, the petite female cleaner, pulled by Abigail, hurriedly stood up, crossed the crowd, and presented her sand to the Sagittarius Director. But instead of reaching out to take it, the Sagittarius Director exhibited a touch of mastery by waving his hand at a distance.

Under the amazed gaze of the cleaners, the fine sand trembled slightly, then swelled to the size of a baby’s fist from its original rice-grain size, and then...

It was gone.

"Not bad."

Picking up the large sand grain with his fingers and rubbing it twice, feeling the texture that greatly differed from normal sand yet still within the sand’s domain, a satisfied smile emerged on the Sagittarius Director’s face.

"As expected from Baltro’s recommendation, your talent in secret techniques is exceptional, feel free to continue learning next time... Next one!"

After hearing the Sagittarius Director’s words, Abigail bit her lip, then maneuvered from the furthest distance from Leon to the Sagittarius Director, presenting her sand.

As the Sagittarius Director passed his hand over it, her sand also began to tremble, but it only expanded to the size of a pea before losing momentum, no longer moving.

The shape was maintained well, but the essence wasn’t pure enough.

Picking up the pea-sized sand to rub, noticing its slightly soft texture, the Sagittarius Director shook his head and gently told Abigail:

"Although you possess some talent, you lag significantly behind the previous child, and though your conviction is firm, it doesn’t entirely stem from yourself, your affinity with the Sagittarius Palace is average, so it’s best to abandon the selection.

Of course, you’ve still passed my assessment, so it’s not a mandatory withdrawal this time. If you wish to continue, I won’t stop you, but based on my judgment, your achievements in this secret technique will be limited, you might want to give up early."

"Thank you for your advice..."

After listening to the Sagittarius Director’s evaluation, a hint of regret appeared in Abigail’s eyes as she returned to the back of the crowd, sitting beside the petite female cleaner.

The evaluation of fist-sized versus pea-sized is higher, so... does it mean the larger the sand enhancement, the better?

Looking at the Sagittarius Director whose attitude had become much kinder than at the initial lesson, the cleaners relaxed a bit, until the third one eagerly brought his sand to the Sagittarius Director...

"Your existence is practically an insult to the Sagittarius secret technique."

Staring at the third cleaner holding the sand, which expanded to the size of a human head and transformed into a large granite after exhibiting its ’essence’, the Sagittarius Director couldn’t contain his disdainful comment:

"What did I tell you before? The prerequisite for mastering this secret technique is to enhance the sand’s original characteristics without altering its structure! Now tell me, what does this lump in your hand have to do with sand?"

"I..."

"Enough, I don’t have much to say, after everyone’s assessment is done, remember to go to the Cancer Director and have him erase your memories of the secret technique."

"Ah?"

"Ah, what? I’m trying to prevent you from harming yourself!"

Amid the cleaners’ slightly reluctant gazes, the Sagittarius Director explained with a headache:

"The essence of the Sagittarius secret technique, once you dig into it, is quite straightforward: compress your ’inner self’ and align it with an abnormal object to enhance the target abnormal object, but doing so means fully opening up, relinquishing your safeguards.

Luckily I exercised caution, not letting you start with abnormal objects directly but instead used the ordinary sand, which is small enough for you, so even if your inner self is not strong, the impact remains limited.

If it were replaced by an abnormal object with a sufficiently strong ’inner self’, or even an abnormal object with self-awareness, the result of applying the secret technique might turn you into a monster merged with the abnormal, or even enslaved by it!"

After explaining the dangers of the Abnormal Enhancement secret technique, the Sagittarius Director grabbed the ’granite’ vigorously, causing it to shrink slightly and its color to return towards sand, but it barely shrank to fist size before stopping.

"See? You can’t even control your ’inner self’, this sand’s structure has been completely altered, and if you apply the secret technique to a target with a stronger ’inner self’ than yours, this rock will be your fate!"

Tossing the fist-sized sand to the pale third cleaner, urging him to leave, the Sagittarius Director sternly warned:

"Remember! Anyone whose sand differs too much from the original sand must not leave alone later, all go to the Cancer Director and completely erase today’s memory!

Don’t think I’m harsh, my requirement is to prevent you from practicing the secret technique privately and accidentally harming yourself! Every few generations, cleaners die from it, and I don’t want you to repeat the same mistake!"

After reiterating the warning several times, ensuring cleaners do not experiment privately with the secret technique, the Sagittarius Director looked at Leon sitting opposite him, asking:

"Next, it’s your turn... hand over your sand!"

"Um..."

On hearing the Sagittarius Director’s request, feeling the ’restless’ sand in his hand, Leon hesitated slightly, then while handing over the sand, he whispered:

"Sagittarius Sir, my sand might be a bit different, please be cautious."

Be cautious?

On hearing Leon’s words, the Sagittarius Director looked at him in surprise.

What caution for a grain of sand? Even if you learn it bizarrely, at most you make the sand bigger, do I, a Director, fear being hit by sand?

"Alright, let’s see!"

Paying little attention to Leon’s reminder, the Sagittarius Director reached over, intending to assess Leon’s secret technique mastery.

Yet, the moment the Sagittarius Director’s hand passed over, a huge black dog with three heads leapt out of Leon’s palm, biting him on the calf with a snap!