Era of Mist

Chapter 138: Chapter 137: Bewildering Rhetoric, Breaking the 800-Strong Tide

”Brother Chong, Brother Chong, hurry and take the test!” Wang Jiaxu leaned in and whispered urgently to He Chong. ”A man of your stature shouldn’t take needless risks. Go first. That way, no matter what Shi Tiexin does, he’ll just end up a joke!”

”But...” He Chong hesitated. He glanced at the testing instrument right in front of him. All he had to do was place his hand on the crystal orb at its base, and the test would be complete. No reaction, no qualification. Any reaction, a pass. It was simple and clear.

Besides, there was no need for manual recording. The information would automatically sync with the big data system. The Student Union official’s main purpose was simply to act as a witness and protect the valuable equipment from damage.

The test would be over the moment he reached out his hand.

He Chong raised his hand, then glanced again at the young man who had just spoken. On closer inspection, he seemed somewhat familiar...

From within his wide sleeves, the young man subtly formed a hand seal.

A faint buzz went through He Chong’s mind, and he subconsciously shook his head. ’No, I must have been mistaken. He’s not familiar. I’ve never seen this person before.’ But regardless of whether he’d seen him or not, the young man’s words continued to echo in his mind. For some reason, they carried immense weight. He Chong turned them over and over, and the more he thought, the more it soured his mood.

’He’s right. If I win this way, there’s no glory in it. I’d just be a supporting character in this farce.’

’No, I can’t do that. It would make me look like I’m afraid of him, wouldn’t it?’

’I was born to conquer! I will not back down from any challenger!’

”Brother Chong, Brother Chong!” His bootlicker, Wang Jiaxu, grew anxious. He glanced behind them. The dense wall of people was thinning, and a figure was slowly becoming visible.

With a CRACK, another secret realm shattered. Shi Tiexin’s towering form came into focus, his oppressive presence growing ever stronger. That hard-headed bastard had already broken through the sixteenth person!

’Damn it! If the secret realms weren’t immune to interference, if they didn’t completely isolate the two fighters from everyone else, we would’ve just swarmed and killed the guy! Who would’ve thought he’d become such a huge pain in the ass!’

Wang Jiaxu grew more and more agitated. He shot a meaningful glance at a person behind him. The person was seventeenth in line. He caught the look, understood instantly, and moved to intercept Shi Tiexin, stepping directly into his path.

Shi Tiexin looked down at him, his voice booming like a great bell. ”You mean to block my path as well?”

This person was actually somewhat familiar with Shi Tiexin.

”Brother Shi, I’m not trying to stop you, how could I? You’ve helped me so many times before; I’d never forget a debt like that! But Brother Shi, I’m here to talk some sense into you. Why are you being so extreme?” The man looked deeply pained. ”Brother Shi, we all heard what happened. I’m furious for you, I really am, but you have to think about your future! After you join the corporation, you’ll still need to make a place for yourself. After offending so many people today, what are you going to do?”

Shi Tiexin’s expression remained unchanged. He stared straight ahead. ”If you are not blocking my path, then move.”

”Whoa, whoa, Brother Shi, why are you so stubborn? I’m telling you this for your own good! Look, Brother Shi, don’t worry. With our history, once you’re in the corporation, I’ll ask my dad to smooth things over for you. I can even get you a good post...”

Shi Tiexin lowered his head again to look at the man blocking his path. His voice was grim. ”I won’t warn you a third time. I’ll say it again: move.”

The man’s expression twisted into a snarl. ”Shi Tiexin, are you really so ungrateful? You’re just going to throw away the favor from all the times I helped you? I’m telling you, after offending so many people today, you’re going to suffer for it once you’re in the corporation! And with your background, how much essence energy could you possibly have saved up? You must be running on fumes!”

Then, his expression changed again, becoming one of earnest persuasion. ”The old adages say: ’Lay down your butcher’s knife and instantly become a Buddha.’ The Sea of Suffering is endless, but the shore is there if you just turn back...”

CRACK!

A secret realm opened. Shi Tiexin gathered his energy and threw a thunderous punch.

”First, I helped you, not the other way around. You owe me a favor, not the other way around.”

BAM!

”Second, I don’t need to use essence energy to deal with a pampered little soldier like you.”

WHACK!

”Third—trying to bewitch me? With ill intentions? You should work on cultivating your rhetoric skills a bit more!”

POP! POP! POP!

SPURT! SPURT! SPURT! SPURT! Blood shot from five fatal points on the man’s body. His flesh was mangled, his pain immense. He was deader than dead as he tumbled out of the secret realm. Shi Tiexin took a deep breath and strode forward once more.

’Today, there are no favors. All who block my path will be slain!’

”Useless trash!” Wang Jiaxu was fuming. That guy was usually reliable; he was the one who’d leaked Shi Tiexin’s whereabouts last time, or they never would have cornered him so easily. He’d sent him to stall, but he never imagined that thick-skulled brute would be so ruthless. He couldn’t even buy them a few seconds!

He looked at the others. Plenty of them were screaming and shouting, but not one of them dared to make a move.

Wang Jiaxu couldn’t help but tremble.

He was trembling partly from anger. These students, all scions of powerful families, were divided into countless factions with complicated relationships. Letting He Chong go first was no problem—it was an easy, cost-free favor to curry. But asking them to take a bullet for him and jeopardize their own futures? Few would be so foolish.

And he was trembling partly from fear. Even a die-hard bootlicker like him was only good for scheming and cheering from the sidelines. But to ask him to throw away his chance at the Small Township Qualification Test and step up to solve his master’s problem for him? Heh, he couldn’t do that either.

Shi Tiexin’s reputation as a formidable fighter was known throughout the entire school!

If not for his stellar combat record, how could a low-born mutt from the Orphanage ever have become the monitor of Class One? How could he have become a thorn in He Chong’s side? After all, to be a thorn in someone’s eye, you first have to be noticed by them.

The eighteenth, the nineteenth—he swept past them.

In truth, the strongest resistance had been at the front of the line. Those students had no hope of passing the Small Township Test, so their only path to a future was to curry favor with the powerful, which was why they’d thrown themselves at him like rabid dogs. The ones further back, however, were confident they would pass, so they had to weigh their options. As for the final few, they were the leaders and representatives of their respective factions for this year, making them even less likely to stick their necks out for He Chong.

The twentieth person.

”Do you really think that out of eight hundred students in our year, there’s no one who can take you down?” The man was powerfully built, his muscles bulging as he stared coldly at Shi Tiexin. ”Kid, you’re not the only fighter here.”

Shi Tiexin refused to yield. His aura surged, growing ever more vigorous, and the False Core in his lower abdomen swelled. He had reached the point where he had no choice but to use his essence energy.

Shi Tiexin’s voice was cold. ”You want to be He Chong’s dog too?”

The man roared, ”I don’t need to be his dog!”

”Then are you blocking me to fight for first place?”

The man glanced at He Chong and hesitated. After all, he had wanted to observe the situation for a while longer; he wasn’t ready to make his move so soon.

Seizing on the man’s hesitation, the mental energy of his Rhetoric discipline surged within Shi Tiexin, and he let out a thunderous roar. ”If you’re not going to fight for first, then move! You don’t want to be a dog, yet you block my path. Do you think I’m some pushover? Are you determined to fight me to the death?!”

The man was already intimidated by the aura Shi Tiexin had built from his string of victories. Now, unsettled by the mental energy of his Rhetoric, he began to waver.

”This...”

”If you don’t block me, we go our separate ways. If you do, this ends only in death!”

Shi Tiexin’s aura erupted as he surged forward. The man, dazed, subconsciously took half a step back as if to let him pass.

With a flick of his shoulder, Shi Tiexin slammed into the man’s chest. THUD. He knocked him aside and, without a second glance, continued his relentless advance. The man, ashamed and enraged, watched Shi Tiexin’s retreating back. In the end, he did not give chase, but simply stood there, completely crestfallen.

The human tide had been parted!

He had fought upstream against the current, through every peril, and had finally parted the roiling human tide. He had broken through the curses, insults, brawls, and barriers of eight hundred people. Shi Tiexin advanced with unwavering resolve. Behind him lay a path of carnage and fear. Before him stood the goal of his journey.

The testing instrument, and—He Chong!