by <unknown>
The smiling clown and the bald gym owner glanced at each other. They laughed involuntarily, saying, “It’s nothing! There’s absolutely nothing going on! How could we ever be plotting something? All we wanted was just to make sure you’re brought to your best condition so that you can spar for a good five minutes!”
“Five minutes? The contract obviously says three minutes!” Li Yao suddenly jumped up.
The smiling clown raised two fingers as he said, “Twenty grand. All you need to do is endure through 5 minutes and I will give you twenty grand!”
…...
The night... felt absolutely endless.
The Ghost Market was a dozen or so kilometers from the surface. The Upper Eastern District extended to include the villas on the artificial lakes. In the basement of one of the luxurious villas was…
“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!”
A lash ripped through the air and deeply embedded itself into someone’s back. The sound of a whip striking was enough to cause one’s hair to stand on end.
A giant with exploding muscles and dark hair all over his body gripped a whip that contained special pain-causing drugs. One whip after another lashed out ruthlessly, seemingly seeking to flay the still-living Helian Lie dead.
The wooden bar within Helian Lie’s mouth had already been bitten into a pulp. Surprisingly, Helian Lie had yet to scream even half a squeak. His gaze remained fixed ahead.
In front of Helian Lie was an enormous hologram. It played, over and over, the entire fight between Li Yao and Zhao Liang that had happened during the day at the 9th gym.
Helian Lie’s expression was that of a wolf and tiger. He wished with all his hate to be able to jump into the screen and eat Li Yao whole.
“Do you know why you’re receiving this family punishment?” the towering iron giant spoke coldly behind Helian Lie. His voice was both sharp and piercing, a complete contradiction from his thick and buff body. It was a stark contrast.
“According to father, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have stirred up trouble in public, causing our Helian family to lose face!” Helian Lie snorted indifferently.
“Nonsense!”
Helian Ba’s rage flared! A kick flew out that actually caused the torture rack to forcefully split, sending Helian Lie flying into the wall!
This powerful and heavy kick contained absolutely no mercy. Helian Lie’s skull collided directly into the wall, forming a crater in the granite adorned wall. Helian Lie fell to the ground. Blood spurted wildly from his mouth, even bringing three white thick teeth out of his mouth.
Helian Ba didn’t even glance at Helian Lie while he walked over with large strides. His leather boots crushed, with strength, onto his son’s face. He said each word with a stomp, “Although it’s true that your father doesn’t like you causing trouble in public, it’s because even though you stirred up trouble, you still lost that badly in that manner! I dislike that even more! A lion facing a rabbit still must use all his strength. Even if you were facing a piece of trash from the Common Class, you, a genius of the Important Class, should not have lowered your guard in that fashion. Keep in mind that any person who becomes your enemy is qualified for you to use all your strength. Do you understand yet?”
“Under... understand. I won’t underestimate any opponents. I will absolutely get my revenge!” Helian Lie’s skull echoed with creaks under his father’s military boots. Helian Lie howled with all his strength.
Helian Ba gave a cold snort, “Think it over before doing anything. That old fart Sun Biao pulled the kid out of trouble. Be peaceful for this period of time. Don’t give me any more trouble!”
Helian Lie’s eyes suddenly bulged open as he cried out, “It can’t be that we’re letting it go like this? Dad, you’re a board member of our school. Don’t tell me that you’re scared of that dead, retired old geezer Sun Biao? True. I’ve heard that in his younger years, he was quite a fierce cultivator in the circle, but he’s made too many enemies. He suffered a critical injury from an attack a dozen years ago. The strength he has left is no more than 1% of his peak, so he was forced to hide in Crimson Nimbus Second and act as an ordinary teacher. And right now, he’s so old with many plaguing ailments. He could die any moment now! Do we really need to be this scared of him?”
Helian Ba scowled. The weight of his foot increased by several factors. With a deep shout, he said, “What do you know? A cultivator, in the end, is still a cultivator. Even if he only has 1% of his strength, even if he only has 1 second left to live, as long as he’s not completely dead, we cannot lower our guard! What’s even more is, that this undying old man has said that he won’t dedicate his life protecting the kid. He just wants us to give him a month of time. After a month, he will stand aside and do nothing… It’s a far too unspeakable action if I don’t show him this tiny bit of face; after all, I am only a board member, not the chairman. Even if I am the chairman, I would still need to follow proper conduct as a cultivator of the circle. Otherwise, hatred may be born between me and another cultivator, one that will last until one of us dies. Death would be looming over my head every minute!”
“A month of time... Fine! I will wait a month then!” Helian Lie’s handsome face was warped and twisted under the military boot. It was an expression of incomparable enmity.
Chapter 34: A Savage Beast Emerges From its Cage |
From that day forwards, Crimson Nimbus Second had a new legend spread around campus.
“Hey, did y’all hear about ‘that’?”
“Of course~ It really was way too scary, too terrible, and too brutal!”
Lunch time in the school’s dining hall, several girls were whispering among themselves. Fear lingered in their hearts.
“What ‘thing’ are y’all talking about? How could it frighten y’all to shivers?” one of the duller girls asked puzzled.
A school girl, with a face full of freckles, looked left and right before saying in a low and secretive voice, “You didn’t hear? There’s someone in the third year called Li Yao. He’s a screwed ghost! I don’t know how he offended Helian Lie, but he even beat one of Helian Lie’s underlings down to the ground. So, Helian Lie’s been provoked into a giant rage! It’s become even worse; he tortured Li Yao! Those who’ve been tortured by Helian Lie don’t resemble people anymore. Their ghosts don’t resemble ghosts!”
“Dear god, Helian Lie! My prince charming! So in the end, how did he torture Li Yao?” asked the dull-witted girl in surprise.
The freckled girl promptly covered her mouth and said, “Be a little bit quieter! How can we talk about something like this loud and screaming? Obviously, we haven’t personally seen the details of the torture. But all you need to do is to take one look at Li Yao and you will know just how miserable people become when they offend Helian Lie!
“She’s right. I’ve heard that Helian Lie locked Li Yao into the school’s warehouse, torturing him day in and day out. I passed through the alley behind the warehouse one time. I heard blood-curdling screams going “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” coming out from the warehouse. Those screams seemed to come straight from the depths of hell! I don’t want to talk about how terrifying it was. It scared me out of my mind! Even though I’d left my shoe behind, I was too scared to go back to get it!” verified another chubby girl.
“Is it as exaggerated as you all say?” asked the dull-witted girl in doubt.
Right at this moment, a boy with a bloody nose, swollen face, haggard appearance, and a completely exhausted body, walked past the girls, trembling and swaying, staggering and stumbling, with an unsteady gait. The moment his buttocks hit the chair, his entire body slumped over onto the table as if he were made of mud.
“Look! That’s Li Yao right there!” The freckled girl’s eyes shined while she poked the dull-witted girl without delay.
The dull-witted girl turned around and looked. She couldn’t help let out a gasp of surprise, “Dear god! It’s even worse than you say! His entire face has turned into a pig’s head! Hurry, look! He’s
shivering non-stop all over his body! There are bloody blisters all over his hands and they’re still bleeding! How horrible!”
Right as she spoke, Li Yao suddenly went into a violent twitching fit. His head even jerked up from the spasms.
“You see it, right? Those are the symptoms of being beaten into epilepsy,” whispered the freckled girl.
And opposite of Li Yao came his bro for life Meng Jiang, carrying lunch. In total, there were 10 sausages each as thick as an arm, 20 giant meatballs, a giant wooden bowl of rice, and 10 MRE biscuits meant for military consumption.
“Little Devil, don’t lie to me. Are you really getting special training from Sun Biao? You’re not getting beat up by Helian Lie’s henchmen are you?” Meng Jiang asked once again, his eyes full of doubt.
Li Yao’s mouth pulled back into a laugh that was uglier than crying. He lacked the strength to even talk.
“If you knew it would be like this earlier, it might have been better to just take a beating from Helian Lie!” Bro for life Meng Jiang let out a deep sigh.
From not too far away, the girls continued their conversation in whispers.
“How can he eat so much! He’s simply a monster!” said the dull-witted girl.
“I know the answer to this!”
The chubby girl said with some pity, “According to psychology, when one’s mental pressure becomes too strong, one would involuntarily get an insatiable appetite and would eat an enormous amount of food to relieve their stress. Personally, I have to manage depression all day due to my parents fighting at home, so I can’t help but eat more and more. However…”
The chubby girl glanced down at the two sausages, three giant meatballs, and one large ball of rice on her plate. She looked once more at the giant mountain of meat piled in front of Li Yao, coming to a conclusion, “From the way he eats, he must be at a terminal stage. He’s on the verge of a mental breakdown!”
“That’s so sad!” The dull-witted girl saw Li Yao’s figure twitching from time to time. Her expression was full of pity.
“So that’s why people say that in our school, you can mess with anyone… just as long as it’s not Helian Lie! Even if you offended Helian Lie by accident, you need to beg for forgiveness immediately! By all means, do not go against him. Otherwise… you will end up as screwed as a ghost!” said the freckled girl in all seriousness.
Upon seeing Li Yao’s “Tragic Experience”, this was the common conclusion of every student in Crimson Nimbus Second.
However, Li Yao was described in a totally different image within the e-crane messages between Sun Biao and Peng Hai.
Day Seven of Special Training. Sun Biao’s and Peng Hai’s chat logs.
Sun Biao: “He’s not human! It’s impossible that this kid’s a human! It’s only been the seventh day of special training, yet he increased the gravitational field of ‘Give Up’ to 400kg and completed the whole workout! I even increased the intensity of the training program by 20%, yet that’s still not hard enough to stop him! How about you? Ol’Hai, how goes it on your end?”
Peng Hai: “Needless to say, he sparred with me for a full ten minutes last night. There were many times where I was nearly hit by him. Even if I only used 3% of my true power, this type of feeling truly... puts me in a bad mood! Anyway, I was finally able to make huge improvements on my strength control capabilities under his pressure!”
…
Day Thirteen of Special Training. Sun Biao’s and Peng Hai’s chat logs.
Sun Biao: “This kid squatted 500 kg of weight and completed two days worth of workouts! Oh that’s right, his Actualization Quotient increased by 4% to 62% in a short three days. Does this even count as being human? Hey Ol’Hai, talk to me! Why aren’t you saying anything!”
Peng Hai: “He managed to hit me with a punch last night in the stomach.”
Sun Biao: “......”
Peng Hai: “......”
Sun Baio: “Hahahahahahaha! If I’m the Degenerate of Cultivators, then that simply makes you the Disgrace of Cultivators! You were actually hit by an ordinary person!”
Peng Hai: “I only used 3% of my true strength! I wasn’t just restricting down to 3% of my physical strength, but I was also restricting my hearing, sight, smell, speed… Everything was restricted down to 3%! It’s perfectly normal to be accidently hit by him! No, this won’t do. Tonight, I will use 4% of my true power!”
Sun Biao: “Then what will happen to your ‘Strength Control Special Training’?”
Peng Hai: “F*ck my strength control special training. This senior needs to first let out some steam!”
…
Day Twenty-Five of Special Training. Sun Biao’s and Peng Hai’s chat logs.
Sun Biao: “I’ve already raised all of Give Up’s magical abilities to their limits! It’s basically the equivalent of your training difficulty back in the day, yet this kid still can forcefully squat that barbell! It’s way too horrifying! Even I’m a bit scared of looking at his expression when he grinds his teeth with rage. What do you think… .Should I draw some of his blood to get some lab tests done?”
Peng Hai: “Lab tests, why?”
Sun Biao: “This kid absolutely has some Demon Beast blood lineage running inside him. He’s 100% a savage beast!”
…
The Final Day of Special Training. Sun Biao’s and Peng Hai’s chat logs.
Peng Hai: “Isn’t it the final day? In a few hours, it will be the ‘Hour of Intense Battle’. Over a thousand Third Year students will fight for the 10 tickets. So how is he? How’s the kid’s situation?”
Sun Biao: “I’m not sure how to say this, but I’m a bit scared to let him go out.”
Peng Hai: “Why is that?”
Sun Biao: “I’m scared that when this savage beast emerges from its cage, it will cause the entire school to explode into the heavens!”
Chapter 35: The Hour of Intense Battle |
April 12th. Light showers with a slight breeze. 61 Days 13 Hours 22 Minutes and 45 Seconds remain until the university entrance exams!
Today was Crimson Nimbus Second’s annual ‘Hour of Intense Battle’. All the first and second years have the day off, leaving the campus to be a battlefield for the third years. The third years will strive over 10 tickets to the “Youth Limit Challenge Competition”, fighting to the bloody end!
The rules are simple. First, 10 seeded competitors will be chosen out of all the Third Year Students via lottery fashion. Each of these students will receive a ticket to carry on their bodies and each of these students will be dispersed around the campus. It was up to the student to decide whether to go into hiding or to form a group. Anything goes, as long as the student doesn’t leave campus.
And the other students can use any methods, any strategies, and any objects found within the campus to attack these 10 seeded competitors and seize by force their tickets.
All the admission tickets were sealed in special artifact boxes. Every half a minute, these boxes will send a ripple of spiritual energy to notify every student’s handheld crystal processor of the positions of these tickets. So, the students needn’t worry about a ticket holder hiding in a dark corner, camping despicably until the contest was over.
The fierce battle begins at 10 in the morning and ends at 3 in the afternoon — a total of 5 hours. Only the students who still held onto the tickets to the end will receive the qualifications to participate in the Federation’s Youth Limit Challenge!
Early Morning, 8:45
One by one, fluffy puffy balls of flesh opened their round and plump eyes. They were of every color imaginable, like bright colors of the rainbow, and used all their effort to flutter their flabby wings. They flew through the air crying “Puji puji puji”, dispersing around campus.
This was an artificial Demon Beast whose scientific name was Flying Piglet Eye. Experts from the Beast Guild used the blood of piglets, bunnies, and various flying creatures to create this amalgamation. This new species was created after cross-breeding sever
al dozens of generations.
Special crystal camera chips were even installed in the bodies of these Flying Piglet Eyes. Whatever is seen by these Flying Piglet Eyes can be transmitted to crystal processors nearby.
These sorts of things were originally engineered with the purpose of being floating security cameras.
However, due to their fluffy shape, chubby body, and the laughter-like “Puji puji” sounds they made while flying in the air, they soon became popular among every household. They became an extraordinarily hot household pet and were called “Puji Critters” by the masses.
A thousand Puji Critters spread to every nook and cranny across campus, getting into position for surveillance. Over a thousand real-time videos were broadcasted to gigantic holograms installed in three VIP lounges.
The first VIP lounge was set up in gymnasium number 1. It was extremely large and was meant for the family heads to come watch their children. A thousand family heads had already gathered inside, creating a cauldron of voices that clamored loudly.
The second VIP lounge was set up in the school’s assembly room, providing footage of the fights to the teachers and elite students of various sister schools within Floating Spear City… This sort of school exchange was extremely common. Crimson Nimbus Second also sends their elite students and teachers to other high schools to exchange and learn from their admission ticket competitions.
The third VIP lounge was set up directly in the headmaster’s office. All those present were either of school administration or board members.
However, at this moment, the headmaster, head instructor, supervisors of each grade, and even the board members, whose positions exceeded the rest, gathered around a single person like stars cupping the moon. With great reverence and respect, they circled around an extremely scholarly middle-aged man, who’s temple hair has gone white.
This refined and scholarly middle-aged man was called Zhou Yin and was a cultivator of the Building Foundation Stage. He was the elder responsible for nurturing new admittees to the Crimson Nimbus Guild and was the immediate supervisor to the administration of Crimson Nimbus Second!
