"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"
Hearing Shen Xiu's exasperated voice, Xue Hui, who was still standing protectively in front of Chen Linlin, tore his gaze away from Nie Li and turned toward her.
From her expression, it was obvious that Shen Xiu was both perplexed and furious by his sudden actions.
"Hui-hui?"
A soft voice came from underneath him.
Chen Linlin gazed up at Xue Hui, giving him a confused look.
With one arm still wrapped around her, Xue Hui gave her a knowing look, silently telling her that he would explain everything later.
Chen Linlin nodded in understanding and decided to save her questions for later.
Even so, she remained vigilant.
The suddenness of Xue Hui's reaction had startled her, but she was certain she had sensed his soul force about to erupt before he abruptly stopped himself and suppressed it.
Noticing her anxiety, Xue Hui met her worried gaze and gave her a reassuring smile.
Chen Linlin returned it with a small smile of her own.
Once he was certain there was no danger nearby, Xue Hui withdrew his arm and turned toward Shen Xiu. Scratching his cheek with one finger, he offered her an apologetic smile.
"Sorry about that, Teacher."
His apology only made Shen Xiu's eyebrows knit together.
It was obvious from his tone that he wasn't particularly sincere, which only irritated her further.
"I felt the ground shake and thought there might have been a tremor, so my body reacted on its own and tried to shield Linlin," Xue Hui explained.
Hearing his explanation, the students around him began murmuring among themselves, asking whether anyone else had felt the ground shake.
One after another, they shook their heads.
Shen Xiu huffed.
She hadn't noticed anything either.
Still, she circulated her soul force and heightened her senses, carefully examining her surroundings.
There it was.
A faint vibration beneath her feet.
It was extremely subtle, so much so that she probably wouldn't have noticed it if Xue Hui hadn't mentioned it.
Shen Xiu glanced out the window and spotted a group of Demon Spiritualist students undergoing a soul force test. They were striking a measuring device, and the impact was causing faint tremors to travel through the ground.
Having found the source, Shen Xiu gave Xue Hui a condescending look.
"You want to become a Demon Spiritualist, yet you're frightened by a little shaking?"
She snickered, her voice filled with mockery.
"You might want to reconsider your career path. Fighting demon beasts will always cause tremors of some kind. You'll end up dead if you lose control of yourself every time the ground shakes."
Several students immediately laughed.
To them, Shen Xiu's words made perfect sense.
How could someone become a Demon Spiritualist if he was afraid of tremors? Many demon beasts were enormous, and their movements alone could shake the ground.
Chen Linlin's face darkened at the jeers.
'Afraid?! Hui-hui is afraid?! How could he possibly be afraid of anyone?!'
She was tempted to stand up and tell everyone just how powerful Xue Hui really was, if only to shut them all up.
Unlike her, Xue Hui showed no sign of being bothered by the mockery.
He stood calmly, his posture relaxed and regal as he looked around the classroom with a faint smile.
"Being afraid is perfectly fine."
His words immediately caused several students to stop laughing.
"Everyone is afraid of demon beasts, yet people are still willing to fight them. Bravery doesn't mean having nothing to fear."
As Xue Hui spoke, some of the students began pondering his words.
He continued.
"As long as you don't act like a coward when it matters, there's nothing wrong with feeling afraid."
The students who listened closely felt their hearts stir.
His casual words seemed to give them a deeper understanding of what it meant to become a Demon Spiritualist.
Then Xue Hui's dignified expression suddenly shifted into something mischievous.
A knowing grin appeared on his face.
"At least I don't freeze up and pee myself when I'm scared."
Silence.
For a moment, everyone stared at him in confusion.
Then realization struck.
It started with a single snort.
The next moment, the entire classroom erupted into laughter.
Shen Xiu looked around in confusion, completely unaware that her students were laughing at.
"Quiet!"
She infused a trace of spiritual pressure into her voice, immediately silencing the students.
Shen Xiu glared at Xue Hui and folded her arms across her chest.
"Go back to your seat. You've already wasted enough of my time," she barked irritably. "Do that again, and I'll have you stand outside."
Xue Hui exchanged a glance with Chen Linlin before returning to his seat.
As he walked back, his gaze swept toward the rear of the classroom.
At the same moment, Nie Li looked toward him.
Their eyes met.
Neither said a word, but both were clearly trying to read the other.
After the brief interruption, the lesson continued.
Shen Xiu resumed her lecture, moving on to soul force and innate talent.
She began comparing the differences in everyone's aptitude.
Many of the commoner students felt their faces burning with shame and lowered their heads.
Shen Xiu was merciless, repeatedly attacking their poor talent and lowly backgrounds.
"After you've all grown up and left this school, you'll understand my words. Equality is merely a lie that adults fill your heads with. You can't live in a fairy tale forever."
Hearing this, Xue Hui's eyes flashed with hatred.
'The audacity of this woman.'
'She has the nerve to look down on others when she and the entire Sacred Family will eventually betray Glory City and abandon their duties.'
Seeing Shen Xiu's proud and condescending attitude as she continued crushing the confidence of the commoner students, Xue Hui decided it was time to shut her up.
He was about to speak when a student at the back of the classroom suddenly raised his hand.
"Teacher Shen Xiu, I have a question."
Xue Hui turned around to see who had spoken.
It was Nie Li.
The boy had raised his hand while wearing a faintly amused smile.
What followed quickly turned into a one-man show.
Nie Li proceeded to pick apart Shen Xiu's arguments one by one, throwing her own words back at her.
First, he questioned her claim that Glory City was the last and only surviving refuge of humanity.
Xue Hui himself hadn't seen much of the Tiny World, but he was certain that there were still places where humanity was either surviving or even thriving.
For Shen Xiu to confidently claim that Glory City was the only surviving city in the world was simply laughable.
"Let me tell Teacher Shen Xiu a story."
Nie Li smiled.
"Once, a frog lived at the bottom of a well. Since its birth, it had never left. All it could see was a small patch of sky above it, so it believed the sky was no bigger than the opening of the well."
He paused.
"But is the sky really that small? Of course not. We can only say that the frog is ignorant."
Shen Xiu's expression turned ugly.
She immediately realized that Nie Li was comparing her to a frog.
The students struggled to suppress their laughter.
Even Ye Ziyun, who was sitting beside Xue Hui, couldn't help letting out a soft giggle at Nie Li's words.
Noticing her reaction, Nie Li glanced at her and gave her a wink.
Ye Ziyun immediately looked away.
"Such audacity," she muttered under her breath.
Hearing her words, Xue Hui leaned slightly toward her and whispered, "It seems that boy is showing off for you, Lady Ye Ziyun."
"N-no, he isn't! I don't even know him," Ye Ziyun hurriedly replied.
Her face flushed as she realized how close Xue Hui had suddenly gotten.
At that moment, Xue Hui sensed a faint hostility coming from the back of the classroom.
It was directed straight at him.
He laughed inwardly.
He didn't even need to look behind him to know who it came from.
The faint shift in Nie Li's tone and the subtle change in his expression were enough.
'Interesting.'
Xue Hui became even more curious about why Nie Li.
Meanwhile, Nie Li continued finding faults in Shen Xiu's arguments.
He pointed out the absurdity of her claim that commoners could never accomplish anything, reminding everyone that Ye Mo, Glory City's legendary protector, had been born a commoner.
Shen Xiu attempted to justify herself by claiming that Ye Mo was merely a special case.
Her rebuttal only made her sound more foolish.
Even Xue Hui couldn't help snickering at her blatant contradiction.
Eventually, when Shen Xiu could no longer refute Nie Li's arguments, she shifted her attack toward his character.
She revealed to everyone that Nie Li possessed only a Red Soul Realm, an aptitude even worse than that of most commoners.
Even Ye Ziyun felt a little sorry for him upon hearing how poor his innate talent was.
Despite this, Nie Li showed no signs of backing down.
He allowed Shen Xiu to ridicule him, then calmly retaliated by emphasizing that innate talent did not determine a person's achievements.
"I know your heart is filled with contempt, but one day I'll silence you with undeniable facts. Aptitude does not determine a person's achievements! We use the weak to defeat the strong, to defy the heavens! As practitioners, we are already challenging the impossible by going against the natural order of heaven!"
Xue Hui's breath caught.
'Those words.'
He was certain that those mantras belonged to Emperor Kong Ming, a supreme expert who had existed even before Emperor Shen Jiao Dao.
Surprised, Xue Hui turned his attention fully toward Nie Li.
If Nie Li's earlier behavior had merely caught his interest, those words had completely changed things.
"Without an unyielding fighting spirit, without the courage to turn the impossible into possible, even extraordinary talent is useless."
Nie Li's voice rang through the classroom.
"Since I, Nie Li, was born into this world, I will challenge the impossible! Teacher Shen Xiu, how about making a bet with me?"
As Nie Li continued speaking, Xue Hui fell into deep thought.
'The temporal distortions.'
'Emperor Kong Ming's mantra.'
'Nie Li's extraordinary insight.'
All of these strange occurrences came together in Xue Hui's mind, forming a theory about what might have happened earlier.
But he didn't draw any conclusions.
Without further evidence, baseless assumptions would accomplish nothing.
That didn't mean he would ignore the oddities surrounding Nie Li, however.
From now on, he will keep a close eye on him.
The only question was whether Nie Li had already figured him out, just as he had begun figuring out Nie Li.
Nie Li curled his lips disdainfully as he continued addressing Shen Xiu.
"I feel ashamed to have a teacher like you. I can guarantee that there are many commoners in this class who will exceed your imagination. They will accomplish the unimaginable."
His voice grew firmer.
"Instead of patiently guiding them, you use harsh words to crush their confidence. You are not worthy of being a teacher!"
He paused before continuing.
"Although my talent is weak, so what? One day, I will become a Legend Rank Demon Spiritualist like Lord Ye Mo and marry the most beautiful woman in Glory City!"
Nie Li cast an affectionate look toward Ye Ziyun.
Her face immediately flushed.
At the same time, Nie Li shot Xue Hui a meaningful glance.
"Yup," Xue Hui muttered under his breath, meeting Nie Li's gaze.
He definitely has his eye on me.
Xue Hui turned his attention back toward the front.
'I don't know who you are, Nie Li, but if you're looking for trouble, I don't mind giving you some.'
It didn't matter to Xue Hui who his enemies were.
If anyone dared to harm the people he cared about, he would simply eliminate them before they could pose a threat to his loved ones.
His goal was to obtain enough strength to surpass even the Origin Gods and live freely without constantly fearing that someone would take away the happiness he had built.
It didn't matter whether his enemies were the Sage Emperor, Emperor Kong Ming, or even Origin Gods.
To Xue Hui, they were all merely stepping stones toward achieving his dream.
Convinced that Nie Li would amount to nothing because of his poor talent, Shen Xiu readily accepted his bet.
At the end of the semester, two months from now, if Nie Li failed to reach Bronze Rank, he would have to withdraw from the academy.
On the other hand, if Nie Li succeeded in reaching Bronze Rank, Shen Xiu would be the one forced to leave the academy.
Hearing the terms of the bet, Xue Hui wore a knowing grin.
Unlike his classmates, who thought Nie Li had lost his mind by making such a one-sided wager, Xue Hui believed Shen Xiu had just signed herself up for complete public humiliation.
He couldn't help laughing inwardly.
The Sacred Family really did have a talent for making enemies out of unusual people.
First him.
Now Nie Li.
"Such rudeness toward your teacher."
After agreeing to the bet, Shen Xiu pointed toward the back of the classroom.
"For the next two months, you will stand there and listen!"
Nie Li accepted his punishment without complaint.
As he moved to the back of the room, some students laughed and jeered at him.
Nie Li paid them no mind.
Instead, his actions inspired several of the commoner students.
Grateful that he had stood up for them, they decided to show their support by joining him at the back of the classroom and sharing his punishment.
Shen Xiu merely huffed at their actions.
She allowed them to stay there, convinced that all of them would be gone within two months anyway.
With the confrontation over, Shen Xiu resumed her mediocre lecture.
As the lesson continued, Xue Hui suddenly felt a gaze fixed on him.
He glanced to the side.
Chen Linlin had covered her mouth with her dainty fingers, seemingly trying to hide her grin.
Her eyes sparkled as her gaze shifted between Xue Hui and Nie Li's group.
She looked unusually excited.
It didn't take long for Xue Hui to figure out what she was thinking.
His eyebrows twitched.
He shook his head and mouthed a single word.
"No."
Chen Linlin immediately pouted.
Seeing her dissatisfaction, Xue Hui activated his soul communication technique.
'I don't want to. It's nonsense.'
Unfortunately, Chen Linlin wasn't listening.
Her voice suddenly squealed directly inside his mind.
'Eeeeeeiii! Do it! Go stand with them! It would be so cool! You'd be standing up against injustice and showing camaraderie. This is your chance to make friends, Hui-hui!'
The sudden outburst made Xue Hui jolt.
Meanwhile, Ye Ziyun, who had been sitting beside him with a bashful expression, had to lean back in her chair.
A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead.
Xue Hui had unknowingly leaned in her direction, invading her personal space to the point where she could practically smell his unique scent.
'I don't need to stand at the back of the class to look cool. I'm already cool without doing anything.'
Xue Hui declared confidently.
'And I don't need friends. I have you.'
Chen Linlin crossed her arms and shook her head disapprovingly.
'You don't understand the appeal of brotherhood, Hui-hui. Look at them.'
She pointed toward the back of the classroom.
'They're already bonding with each other.'
Xue Hui rolled his eyes.
'Why would I want to bond with those guys anyway?' he thought.
'And I don't count as your friend anymore, Hui-hui.'
Chen Linlin's expression became smug.
'We have already made out. I don't think you exchange spit with your friends, do you?'
Her words caught Xue Hui completely off guard.
"Guh!"
He choked on air and immediately erupted into a coughing fit.
The sudden commotion interrupted Shen Xiu's lecture once again.
Her face turned furious.
She pointed directly at Xue Hui.
"THAT'S IT! YOU TOO, GO STAND AT THE BACK!"
Shen Xiu's shriek echoed through the classroom.
End of Chapter 39