Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Ice Beauty
The weekend flew past faster than I thought it would, and I found myself back in school on Monday. This being the beginning of the week, I had the same Monday blues that every other student did. I didn't enjoy getting up early and going to school.
I would much rather stay at home and train. I had to catch up to the rest of my peers. Even though I was jubilant at regaining my cultivation, now that I actually got it, I couldn't help but be greedy and wishing that I could quickly return to my previous Yellow ranked cultivation base. I guess it was only human nature to keep desiring for more.
Of course, I wasn't going to surpass my previous rank in a matter of days. While I understood that so many people in the younger generation demanded instant gratification and overpowered protagonists, reality wasn't kind enough to bend over backward to accommodate their wants. I would have no choice but to continue working hard and being patient.
Speaking of patience, it turned out that there were a few people impatient enough to stalk me. The moment I passed through the gates, I immediately caught sight of a group of people in the school courtyard.
Shao Ye and his cronies. They were glaring at me for some reason. I raised an eyebrow, but decided to ignore them. No point provoking trouble when I could help it.
The dudes were insistent on creating trouble for me, though.
"Song Jun Wen!" Shao Ye stepped forward, his lackeys spreading out to block my way. He pointed a finger at the ground and sneered. "Kneel down before me and kowtow a hundred times until your forehead bleeds! Then I might consider leaving your corpse intact!"
For a moment, I stared at him incredulously, not believing what I just heard.
"…what?"
"Don't make me repeat myself." Shao Ye continued jabbing his finger toward the ground. "Kneel."
"Or what?" I cocked my head to the side, still not sure if this bizarre exchange was happening in reality. Surely nobody could be this deluded. "You'll kill me and dismember my corpse?"
"Yes!"
I looked around and saw that the other students passing by were just as bemused. A teacher had stopped to watch the encounter from afar, but she hadn't intervened. Not because she was corrupted – she looked just as bewildered as everyone else, and Shao Ye hadn't actually done anything yet. Maybe he was staging a play from a manhua or something.
"Uh, Young Master, murder is a crime," one of his lackeys whispered into his ear. "Even if you want to kill the bastard, you can't do it in the open like this. Even your father won't be able to cover up for you if you commit murder publicly."
"There's nothing that cannot be solved or covered up with an abundance of money. And strength. The authorities wouldn't dare risk offending a high ranked cultivator like me, especially with my prestigious Shao family backing me up, for a trash."
"Dude, you do realize this isn't a xianxia novel, right?" I buried my face in my palm. "If you go around killing people for no reason, you will have to face legal consequences, regardless of how rich and powerful you or your family are. The government might not be perfect, but they are not that corrupted. Or what? Is your father named Li Gang or something?"
Shao Ye's gang gaped at me, speechless and uncomprehending. Shao Ye blinked and then nodded fervently.
"That's right! Sue me if you dare! My father is Shao Gang!"
"You sure? You might end up spending six years in jail, you know."
"Maybe, but I'm confident I'll escape the death sentence at least!"
"Uh, young master," another crony whispered. "I don't think it's a good idea to end up in prison in the first place."
"T…that's right!" Shao Ye realized that he was being led on. He scowled and jabbed a finger at me. "How dare you turn the conversation away from the main point?! Courting death!"
What was this, a comedy skit?
Sighing, I shook my head. "Why don't you stop wasting time and tell me what exactly is the main point? Or are you just randomly forcing me to kneel and kowtow to you out of no fucking where?"
"You bastard, you still don't know what you did wrong!?"
Is this guy for real?
"Is there a problem here?" The teacher finally made her way there. Shao Ye and his flunkies immediately straightened their backs and put on placating smiles.
"Not at all, teacher."
"Sorry, we're just having a conversation. We didn't mean to make so much noise."
"Nothing's wrong. We're all fine. Right?" One of the lackeys directed the question to me. I raised an eyebrow.
"Um, so why are you trying to force me to kneel and kowtow, and even threaten to kill me while using your dad as cover?"
"We…we were joking!" Shao Ye laughed, though the humor was absent and the sound seemed improvised. "We were just…quoting lines from a trashy web novel! We thought a nerd like you would appreciate the references!"
…did he just call me nerd to my face? In front of a teacher?
"Stop making a big fuss and go to class then." The teacher frowned and turned to leave. I was about to follow her when Shao Ye called out to me.
"Wait! Song Jun Wen, our conversation isn't done yet!"
"I'm not kneeling and kowtowing to you, regardless of who your father is."
"I'm not talking about that! Just listen, you bastard!"
Even though I wanted to ignore him, I decided to entertain him for now. To be fair, I was also curious about why he wanted to speak to me, though I had a vague idea. I did remember his conversation with his lackeys last week.
"What is it?"
"You should stay away from Long Fan Xue." Shao Ye pointed at me accusingly. "Keep your distance from her. You're nothing more than trash. You're not worthy of her."
"R…right. And you are?"
"Of course!" Shao Ye puffed his chest out proudly. His flunkies spread around him, performing their usual ass kissing.
"Don't you know who he is? He's the young master of the super-rich Shao family!"
"The Shao family has a lot of high-ranking cultivators too! Your family background is nothing compared to his!"
"Trash like you don't even deserve to be in this school!"
These guys weren't even in the elite class and they thought they could call me trash. To be fair, I was in a regular class like them too, and they probably still believed that my cultivation was crippled. Trying not to smirk, I pushed my glasses up my nose.
"Sure, I'll stay away from Long Fan Xue. It's not like I have any real feelings for her or anything. But as for whether I'm trash or not, let's find out when we meet in the tournament a couple of months later."
My ex-classmates in the elite class were one thing, but regular students? None of them had reached Yellow Rank, otherwise they would have been promoted to the elite class in the first place. Honestly, I was confident that I could surpass most of the regular students within the next two months. Even if they came from a rich and powerful family like Shao Ye.
Honestly, Shao Ye relied way too much on his family for everything, which was why he was stuck in the regular classes. If he stopped bragging about his wealth and actually put in some effort into cultivating, he might improve tremendously, but…it is what it is.
"What did you say!?"
"Courting death!"
"Look, you can yell all you want, but it doesn't prove anything." I had enough and stepped around them to get to my classroom. "Actions speak louder than words. All this posturing and verbal debate are meaningless. Let the results of the tournament speak for themselves."
The blank expressions on their faces told me that they weren't in the regular classes simply because of their cultivation levels. These guys need to read more. Sighing, I put my words in terms that even they can understand.
"If you want to beat me up, you'll have your chance during the tournament."
More likely, I would be the one beating them up instead, but I wasn't going to behave all arrogant and get complacent. Not when I hadn't gotten my strength up to par yet.
"Wait! I'm not done with you yet!" Shao Ye yelled. "You have yet to kneel and kowtow to me until your forehead bleeds!"
Yeah, I was going to ignore his delusional demands. While his lackeys were still trying to wrap their heads around my seemingly complex words (they weren't that complicated, were they? I thought my statement was pretty straightforward), Shao Ye made his move.
"I didn't say you can go!"
Fiery swords ignited to life around him, wings of a phoenix manifesting around his shoulders like some sort of creature, and he launched the blazing blades at me before I could react.
Fortunately, I didn't have to respond.
Several fireballs flickered to existence before launching forth and detonating against the incoming hail of fiery swords. I blinked in surprise as I spun around, feeling a weight on my shoulder.
"Xiao Huo?"
-Threat to user detected. Automated summoning initiated. –
The system had also shown up in the form of a notification window. My head lowered a slight fraction as I processed the last couple of seconds. So the summoning system had automatically responded to protect me when I was in danger.
Nice. I actually had an inbuilt defensive mechanism. Of course, it wasn't 100% foolproof – Xiao Huo was only an ordinary ranked spirit beast, so if the enemy had been much stronger, I would still have been roasted by the sneak attack.
"Did you seriously just assault me?"
"So what?! Trash like you deserve to DIE!"
Cackling evilly, confident now that the teacher was no longer present, Shao Ye summoned more fireballs. His eyes darted to Xiao Huo, who was on my shoulder, and he scoffed malevolently.
"A spirit beast, huh? I don't know how you tamed one, but it's evidence that you have defected to the spirit beasts' side and should be eradicated!"
Xiao Huo bristled and prepared to materialize her own volley of fireballs, but before she or Shao Ye could do anything, a blizzard descended upon the school courtyard, turning all of the blazing blades to ice.
"What?!"
Shao Ye backed away, shivering as a layer of ice expanded across his body. He looked up fearfully, his eyes wide in disbelief.
"Long Fan Xue?! Why…?"
The number one beauty of Divine Path Academy stalked forward, leaving sparkling snow trailing behind her. She glared at the freezing Shao Ye, her eyes cold and wintry.
"I should be asking you that. Why are you attacking Song Jun Wen?"
"Why are you protecting him!? He's trash! He's not worthy of you! I'm just warning him to stay away from you…"
"Who's worthy of me and who I befriend are something I will decide for myself. Not you, not my parents, not anyone else." Long Fan Xue leaned forward, her glacial eyes icy with rage. "Who do you think you are? Are you making decisions on my behalf now?"
"N…no! I wouldn't dare!" Shao Ye spluttered, stiffening as he struggled to keep his head free of ice with his fiery qi. Despite generating heat, he was unable to melt Long Fan Xue's ice. "M…mercy! I apologize for being so presumptuous!"
"Also…it seems like you've misunderstood my relationship with Song Jun Wen. With anyone, for that matter." Long Fan Xue folded her arms, the frost around her cracking and snapping as they spread throughout the courtyard. All the other students shivered from the drop of temperature, but they continued to listen, as if bewitched. "I mentioned it before, and I'll repeat it again. The only guy I will consider dating is someone from our generation who's powerful enough to defeat me. As long as you are unable to best me in combat, then don't even think about asking me out."
With that, she spun around and stalked off, leaving poor Shao Ye out in the cold.
I watched him sympathetically, but after what he did to me, I had no intention of helping him. I could already hear the existences from beyond the fourth dimension yelling about how I was a beta wimp or something. Xiao Huo bristled, wanting to incinerate those haters as well, but I quickly dismissed her and resumed my trek back toward class.
Like I said, it was meaningless to argue with people. If I wanted to prove myself, I would have to do it through actual actions and not words.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone