In society, despicable individuals often feign weakness to manipulate others' sympathy.
Madam Nan was clearly one of them.
But Ling Xian knew exactly how to punish her!
With his current cultivation realm, if he concentrated his spiritual pressure to its peak, he could blast her out of the atmosphere in the blink of an eye.
Within minutes, she would traverse the entire Milky Way!
He could leave her spinning there until her wretched life ended...
If he were feeling merciful, he could activate the Divine Buddha's Eye and bombard her system with stellar cluster energy, incinerating her instantly.
However, Ling Xian had never been one for ostentation.
Apart from the Phantom Assassins who treated human lives like ants, Ling Xian had never truly killed anyone in this lifetime. Of course, his previous life was a different matter—he had slaughtered countless gods and demons. But in this life, he held an extraordinary reverence for all living beings.
Moreover, in this era, killing solved absolutely nothing!
...
Madam Nan finally rose, stuffed the "cash" into her handbag, and swept out with a flick of her sleeve.
"Another successful scam!" she cackled, staggering away.
Ling Xian watched her retreating figure expressionlessly. Though these con artists were annoying, they couldn't escape his Illusionary Ability.
Madam Nan believed her handbag contained the cash she'd been dreaming of...
In reality, it held nothing but a pile of dry grass!
Acting discreetly had always been his guiding principle.
Since this was a problem that only supernatural power could solve...
Ling Xian's creed remained: avoid conflict at all costs.
Otherwise, if a conflict truly erupted, the entire nation would collapse, and even the world... This was a scenario Ling Xian would never allow come to pass.
This time, he had employed two spells from the Four Thousand Eternal Powers— Galaxy Condensation series: "The Everlasting Illusion Spell." and the "Great Aphorism Technique."
He cast the latter spell upon the pile of dry grass, imbuing it with immense mind-cleansing power.
When Madam Nan returned to her gang with the grass, the designated spell inscribed within would instantly purify them all!
Watching Madam Nan depart with such composure, Ling couldn't help but sigh inwardly. This had truly become a difficult situation...
...
"That woman actually left with a damn pile of dry grass?"
"This... I've never seen anything like it in my life."
The sight left his friends utterly bewildered.
"Perhaps the work stress was too much," Xu Yutong analyzed. "Being fired must have affected her judgment."
After a unanimous discussion, the group concluded: they weren't entirely to blame for their current state!
...
Wednesday of the third week of the semester. 8:15 AM.
Xie Zhenyu returned to the Student Council President's office with a swollen face, having just been beaten up by a gang.
The lumps on his head looked like meatballs!
Even Zunhao was stunned, initially failing to recognize him. "Uh... Are you here to register, or...?"
Xie Zhenyu: "..."
Baiye wiped his glasses and squinted, scrutinizing Xie Zhenyu until he confirmed it was indeed him before sighing. Xie Zhenyu, his cheeks puffed out in anger, covered his face with his hands. "I got beaten up..."
"Beaten up? What the hell happened? Did you steal something?" Zunhao asked, genuinely surprised.
"No... It was that fraud gang from Shuyuan district." Before he could finish, he pulled out a news report detailing the conspiracy that had unfolded the previous day. Zunhao immediately noticed the prominent headline above the fold: "Breaking! Notorious 'Fraud and Drug Trafficking' Gang from one of Feilong City's Twenty-Two Districts Collectively Surrenders! Is This Act for Cultivation?"
As Zunhao read this, the corner of his mouth twitched violently.
No one knew what exactly had happened to the gang's elders... Some had sold their properties to repay debts, while others had voluntarily turned themselves in.
Recalling the events of the previous night, Xie Zhenyu, as the employer, couldn't help but feel deeply wronged.
He had just bought noodles and was heading back when he was suddenly ambushed and dragged into a secluded alleyway controlled by Madam Nan's subordinates.
The group's abnormally developed muscles sent shivers down Xie Zhenyu's spine.
Madam Nan pulled out her notebook, glared at him, and began chanting a purification spell.
Xie Zhenyu couldn't remember exactly what she recited.
All he remembered was that after she finished, the muscular old women and burly men suddenly started doing push-ups, and when they were done, they glared fiercely at him!
"By this declaration: Zhenyu hired us with malicious intent, failing to pay the agreed-upon compensation... This is a heinous crime, deserving of punishment!" Before the words had even left her mouth, she waved her hand to activate—"Malicious Judgment Sin!"
In an instant, the muscular men and women swarmed toward him.
Though Madam Nan herself wasn't a cultivator, her gang of swindlers had plenty of them.
If it had been just Madam Nan, Xie Zhenyu might have stood a chance. But facing eight men and women whose muscles had clearly been honed over years of rigorous training—combined with their cultivation realms—he was doomed!
And then... what else could he do?
He didn't even have time to protest before being brutally bullied and beaten, returning to school covered in injuries.
He wanted to cry, but his tears had long dried up.
Zunhao: "..."
Baiye: "..."
At that moment, Baiye and Zunhao felt as if they had seen a ghost.
Ever since the Phoenix Ridge group appeared, chaos had never ceased.
Destroying the arrays wasn't enough—they had even stirred up the gangs?!
Now, even those gang members involved in money laundering were abandoning their hideouts and turning themselves in. What could he possibly do?! Zunhao's mind was in complete disarray.
His meticulously planned humiliation scheme had been utterly ruined by these Phoenix Ridge fools... They were acting as if they had moved in permanently, treating this place like their own backyard!
Zunhao felt he had had enough—this was absolutely intolerable!
Gazing out the window, he sighed inwardly, "Ah, there's no choice left. It seems we must ask that senior to intervene."
Xie Zhenyu and Baiye simultaneously gasped. They both knew exactly who "that senior" referred to.
Because at this point, only seeking help from that senior could turn the tide for No. 74 Ziyang High School.
...
...
Every school has its troublemakers. No. 73 Phoenix Ridge High School had theirs, and Ziyang High School was no exception.
With only two days remaining until the end of the exchange, Zunhao's "humiliation plan" had not only failed to work but had backfired spectacularly—he had practically shot himself in the foot.
Regardless, the remaining two days felt like his last chance...
At dawn, Zunhao and his companions set out to find the delinquent named Rong Bufan.
His very name screamed "troublemaker."
Hmm...
The name suited his reputation perfectly. Zunhao knew surprisingly little about this senior, whose past was shrouded in mystery.
Rumor had it that Rong Bufan had been neglected by his mother in his early years before living with his father, who later founded Ziyang High School No. 74. This gave him considerable influence within the school.
What made him even more peculiar was that people referred to him solely by numerical code: 9,782.
This string of digits wasn't his student ID or a record of how many men he had slept with. Instead, it represented the sum of his total scores across all subjects during his four years at the school.
This was the highest score in the school's history! To this day, no one has broken this record.
Keep in mind... the maximum score on exams in this era was only 2,000 points, and all grading was based on this benchmark. From entrance tests to weekly, monthly, and annual exams, students struggled to even reach 5,000 points, let alone such an astonishing figure.
This year marked his fourth time being held back in the upper grades...
During this time, the delinquent, Rong Bufan, had grown stronger during his time here, so he was only called out as a last resort.
In short, even Director Xie found him a headache.
Early that morning, Zunhao dug out the school's old student directory, found Rong Bufan's still-active phone number, and successfully arranged a meeting place.
The men's restroom. The location couldn't be more straightforward—if you wanted to make a deal, this was the place.
Moreover, the second floor of the men's restroom was Rong Bufan's territory. To pass through, you had to pay him 82 yuan, or he'd shove your head into the toilet...
As Student Council President, Zunhao and the teachers had received complaints. But as always... they chose to turn a blind eye.
The main reason, as mentioned earlier, was that Rong Bufan's father was none other than Li Wanghuo.
This connection had prevented the school from expelling him to this day.
"So you're the guys looking for Senior Rong?" Zunhao and his group had just stepped onto the second floor when another senior, wearing a vest jacket and stylish glasses, blocked their path.
Zunhao quickly sized him up: about 1.7 meters tall, school uniform tied around his waist, radiating arrogance. The most striking feature was his meticulously styled spiky hair—a perfect compensation for his lack of height. This hairstyle was rare, typically reserved for emotionally volatile (non-mainstream) youths.
"..." Zunhao, Xie Zhenyu, and Baiye collectively gasped. Holy shit! That hairstyle is absolutely atrocious!
The senior scoffed and jerked his thumb toward the open men's restroom door. "What are you waiting for? Don't keep him waiting. Senior Rong likes to get things done quickly."
His arrogant demeanor forced Zunhao and his group to look in the direction he indicated...
As if they were about to step into "his" world...
...