Ch. 24
Chapter 24: Where Is the Principal of Blackwater High School??
After completing her military training, Li Xiaohong naturally did not dare enter the Abyss.
After losing her nerve at the last minute, she too was among the Li Family members watching the battle.
She cursed furiously, “What the hell is going on? How did that piece of trash make it into the top eleven?”
“It must be admitted that Li Mu did inherit some talent from his father,” Second Uncle said blandly.
Fourth Aunt, however, curled her lip in disdain.
“Bah! Weren’t his parents both useless pieces of trash too? What talent could they possibly have? If you ask me, it’s just dog luck!”
“I still haven’t settled accounts with him for that slap he gave Xiaohong!”
“When he comes out, I’m going to make him kneel in front of Xiaohong and pay it back!”
At the mention of that slap, Li Xiaohong unconsciously clenched her teeth.
Ever since Li Mu had framed her, Sun Long’s attitude toward her had completely changed. He mocked her coldly and barely paid her any attention anymore.
For this opening battle in the Abyss, Sun Long had not dared participate, claiming serious injuries. She had originally wanted to stay by his side.
But Sun Long had told her to get lost, leaving her feeling as though her heart were being cut by knives.
But compared to Li Mu’s sudden rise, Li Xiaohao’s parents were obviously more concerned about their own son.
Li Xiaohao’s team had also appeared on the giant screen.
They were ranked ninth.
But Li Xiaohao’s performance, let alone compared to the other two S-grade prodigies, did not even look as strong as the other four people on his own team.
And anyone with eyes could tell that Li Xiaohao’s combat experience was truly terrible.
He was simply relying on the overwhelming offensive power of his S-grade talent to heavily injure monsters.
But most of the opportunities for him to deal damage were created by his other four teammates.
Those four worked together flawlessly, with both offense and defense covered.
Even when they encountered Second Grade monsters, the group could quickly entangle them and do their utmost to pin them down.
Then Li Xiaohao would wait for an opening and strike, finishing the monster off.
The difficulty of it was basically equivalent to four people pinning down a pig so he could slaughter it.
“Good! My son is amazing!!”
Second Aunt clapped happily and cried out in delight. Naturally, she could not see through what was really happening.
All she saw was her son looking mighty and heroic, the core of the team.
But Second Uncle could not laugh at all.
As a martial artist himself, he could see everything very clearly.
If Li Xiaohao were separated from those teammates and had to face monsters alone, he would be a complete wreck!
He would probably struggle to defeat even monsters of the same grade.
Then he looked again at the first-place Zhang Zhiwei.
He too used a spear.
With a single man and a single spear, he was basically one-shotting every First Grade monster he encountered.
Even when he ran into Second Grade monsters, he still killed them with ease in just a few exchanges.
Calm and composed, his goal was clearly the red zone.
That area was filled with Second Grade monsters, and even Second Grade peak monsters. The challenges there were much greater.
On the second floor, the leaders from the two departments were also full of praise for Zhang Zhiwei.
“What an S-grade Golden Lances and Iron Cavalry! It truly deserves its reputation as a top-tier offensive talent!”
“Indeed. Not only is this child talented, but his spear technique is also first-rate. His aptitude runs deep!”
“The one in second place is not bad either. His defensive S-grade talent, Thousand-Tempered Iron, makes him hard as a lump of forged steel!”
“I heard this kid is obsessively devoted to tempering his physique. His progress in defensive cultivation arts is astonishingly fast. Truly terrifying.”
“But what exactly is going on with that cape-wearing kid in eleventh place?”
“Ever since he got onto the screen, he still hasn’t killed another monster. We can’t tell yet. We’ll have to wait until he makes a move.”
Li Mu had never gone into the Multimedia Hall.
So he did not know that every move he made was already being broadcast live inside the hall.
In his understanding, at the very least, only those who made it into the top three would receive attention.
So Li Mu opened his watch and checked the map.
The map on the technology watch had been built up little by little from the regions humanity had already explored in the Abyss.
The area Li Mu was currently in was still a yellow zone, meaning the danger level was average.
Further ahead was the red zone, where the danger level was high and the weakest monsters were already Second Grade.
Li Mu resolutely advanced toward the red zone.
And among the school leadership, Liang Hai, the dean of discipline who had personally expelled Li Mu, quietly swallowed.
He had been the one to expel Li Mu himself. The principal would definitely come looking for him later.
If Li Mu had remained obscure, that would have been one thing.
But now he had climbed to eleventh place in the East District.
If Li Mu went no further than this, Liang Hai could at least barely scrape together an explanation for himself.
But Li Mu had actually entered the red zone.
That meant only two possible outcomes awaited him.
Either he would be killed by a Second Grade monster.
Or he would kill a Second Grade monster, continue climbing the rankings, and reveal even more brilliance.
“Li Mu, you’d better die in the red zone!”
Liang Hai gritted his teeth and cursed silently.
Because the higher Li Mu climbed, and the more attention he attracted, the more uncertain Liang Hai’s own future became!
The moment Li Mu stepped into the red zone, the students of Blackwater High School erupted once more.
“Holy shit! The red zone! Daddy Li Mu has entered the red zone!”
“That’s guts! Damn it, before leaving home today, I never would have imagined Blackwater’s school uniform would show up in the red zone!”
“Go, go, go! Li Mu, come on!!”
A group of hot-blooded youths lay sprawled against the glass outside the Multimedia Hall, roaring themselves hoarse.
It was as if the Li Mu in the footage were themselves.
And under the eager gazes of everyone watching, Li Mu finally encountered another monster!
Inside the Abyss, Li Mu was rushing forward when a huge dark shadow suddenly shot out diagonally from ahead, charging straight at him.
In the Abyss, monsters did not waste time making dramatic entrances or giving you a chance to prepare.
Especially not one like this!
A Yellow Rank, Second Grade ferocious beast: the Golden-Hide Centipede.
Its body was more than ten meters long. Its countless legs were so densely packed that they made one’s scalp crawl just by looking at them!
Its dark, gleaming armored plates made it extremely difficult to distinguish while it moved through the Abyss.
Its four ghostly blue eyes shone with cold light, radiating a terrifying presence.
The instant the Golden-Hide Centipede appeared, Chen Jiaqi cried out in alarm from the audience seats in the Multimedia Hall.
“A Second Grade monster!”
Yang Suying shot to her feet.
This was the first truly powerful monster Li Mu had faced since appearing on the screen.
And it was a Second Grade monster right away!
Watching someone else’s team fight a Second Grade monster for ages, with every moment full of danger, was one thing.
Watching her own son face a Second Grade monster was an entirely different feeling.
But in the very next second, a golden shield floated up in front of Li Mu.
It was thick and dense.
The Golden-Hide Centipede lunged forward and bit viciously into the golden shield.
The shield blazed with golden light and exploded with a thunderous blast!
The powerful shockwave from the explosion hurled the Golden-Hide Centipede backward, throwing it off balance.
Li Mu charged straight in.
He poured Iron-Cleaving Form into the Thorn Staff, and the staff body faintly emitted a cyan glow.
At that moment, the Golden-Hide Centipede had only just barely regained control of its body and was about to counterattack.
“Freeze!”
The Golden-Hide Centipede instantly stiffened in place.
Li Mu’s Thorn Staff came crashing down straight toward the centipede’s head!
Because the Golden-Hide Centipede was only immobilized for an extremely short moment, on the screen, it looked as though the centipede had merely blanked out for an instant.
Even while immobilized, a patch of golden radiance suddenly appeared over the Golden-Hide Centipede’s head,
trying to resist Li Mu’s Thorn Staff.
The reason it was called the Golden-Hide Centipede was because it had a unique defensive mechanism.
Before suffering an attack, a golden radiance could appear over a specific part of its body, greatly strengthening its defensive power.
Even martial artists of the same grade found it extremely difficult to break through its Golden Hide defense without using a finishing move.
Coupled with the overwhelming pressure created by a centipede suddenly rearing up like a human, the Golden-Hide Centipede was a kind of monster that gave martial artists an enormous headache among Second Grade creatures.
But
in front of a 300-jin Iron-Cleaving Form strike, it was useless!!
Crack!!
With a sharp shattering sound, Li Mu’s Thorn Staff smashed straight through the golden radiance and sank into the Golden-Hide Centipede’s head.
The centipede’s body folded in half at a grotesque angle, and its head was slammed heavily into the ground.
Instant kill!
On the second floor of the Multimedia Hall, in the section reserved for the big shots, the people who had just been chatting and laughing all fell silent.
The Deputy Minister of Education, who had been sitting with one leg crossed over the other, suddenly sat upright.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Resources sprang to his feet.
An occasion like this did not require the ministers of the two major departments to attend in person, so the two deputy ministers were the highest-ranking officials present.
The Deputy Minister of Resources turned around excitedly, swept his gaze across the assembled principals, and asked in a ringing voice, “Where is the principal of Blackwater High School??”