Ch. 29
Chapter 29: Was This Lesson Vivid Enough?
“Huh??”
A question mark practically popped up over Li Mu’s head.
Lu Chenfeng jumped up excitedly and said with a flattering grin, “Hehehe, just one hit. Let’s see whether your staff is harder or my defense is tougher!”
Li Mu was speechless.
He had long heard that Lu Chenfeng was a battle maniac, and was especially obsessed with tempering his body.
With a top-tier defensive talent on top of a top-tier defensive cultivation art, hardly any martial artist of the same rank, or even above his rank, could break through his defense.
“Use the same strength as that strike just now! Come on, hurry up, I can’t wait!”
The more Lu Chenfeng spoke, the more excited he became, planting his feet firmly into a horse stance.
Zhang Zhiwei spoke calmly, “Lu Chenfeng, I advise you to think this through...”
After saying that, Zhang Zhiwei instinctively glanced at Li Mu.
“Maybe some other time. I’m not interested right now.”
Student infighting was forbidden during the Abyss opening battle.
If Li Mu really injured him, that would only be troublesome.
“Hey, don’t be like that! Brother, why be so stingy? You won’t even spare me a single strike?”
Lu Chenfeng’s broad face fell, and he even looked at Li Mu with a hint of pleading.
Even Zhang Zhiwei felt numb listening to that...
The corner of his eye twitched as he looked at Lu Chenfeng.
“You really are bizarre.”
“Huh?”
Lu Chenfeng looked at him in confusion.
“Didn’t you see his hand is injured? If you want to spar, at least wait until he recovers!”
Zhang Zhiwei pointed with his chin toward Li Mu’s bandaged right hand.
“Oh, right! I didn’t notice. Fine! Then we’ll talk about it later!”
Lu Chenfeng quickly scratched his head and leaned in to take a look at Li Mu’s hand.
Li Mu shook his head speechlessly and was the first to step into the teleportation array.
By then the teleportation array had already activated, and Zhang Zhiwei and Lu Chenfeng stepped in as well.
They returned to the plaza where everyone had originally entered the portal.
At that moment, large numbers of students had already gathered there, boarding the Abyss elevators batch by batch to return to the surface.
Countless people cast envious looks toward Li Mu and the other two.
Especially toward Li Mu!
Among today’s top three, the most dazzling one was not either of the two S-grade talents.
It was Li Mu!
With an F-grade talent, he had one-shot a Third Grade monster and forcefully taken first place!
No one had seen that coming.
The Multimedia Hall was bursting with activity.
On the enormous scoreboard, it was written in crystal-clear terms.
First Place in the East District Abyss Opening Battle: Li Mu, Blackwater High School!
And within the crowd, Li Xiaohao stared at Li Mu with fire in his eyes, his gaze full of sinister malice.
Clearly, he was the one who possessed the S-grade talent.
So why?
Why was he still inferior to Li Mu?
He refused to accept it!!
A few days ago, when he stole Li Mu’s S-grade talent, he had practically felt like he was ascending to the heavens with joy!
He himself had awakened a lousy F-grade talent and had thought his life was finished.
But then, after every cloud came a silver lining, and he ended up swapping for Li Mu’s S-grade talent.
He had felt that he was the chosen one.
That he was destined for a glorious future.
This Abyss opening battle was supposed to be the first time he made his name known.
Win the championship. Become the focus of everyone’s attention.
Then rise all the way from there.
But now, this script was nothing like what he had imagined!!
After taking the elevator back to the fortress plaza, the square erupted with earth-shaking cheers from the Blackwater students.
The big shots from the Ministry of Education and the Resources Department urgently convened a meeting and all went into the private conference room.
They needed to discuss the rewards for this opening battle, as well as the arrangements for compensating the families of the students who had died.
The school leaders all immediately left the hall.
They were preparing to go out to the square to greet the students from their own schools who had earned rankings.
The people from Blackwater High School had already surged to the exit.
The moment they saw Li Mu emerge, the place instantly exploded.
“Li Mu!”
“Li Mu!”
“Li Mu!!”
The thunderous cheers rose wave after wave.
Li Mu covered his ears with a wry smile. The moment he had just stepped out of the crowd, the students of Blackwater High School instantly lifted him up and threw him high into the air!
The crowd tossed Li Mu upward again and again, venting all of their excitement.
Before today, no one had ever dared dream that their school would one day claim the top spot and enter the sight of the Ministry of Education and the Resources Department.
At this moment, he was the hero of Blackwater High School!
Yang Suying and the others were not in a hurry.
So long as Li Mu had returned safely, she was already thanking heaven and earth.
After his classmates finally put him down, Yin Changming smiled and said to Li Mu, “Come on. The leaders from the Ministry of Education and the Resources Department want to see you.”
Li Mu was somewhat puzzled.
Ordinarily, once the Abyss opening battle rankings were finalized, everyone could just return to school and celebrate.
The rewards would be distributed within three days.
So Li Mu took out his phone and sent his mother a text message, then followed Yin Changming into the Multimedia Hall.
On the second floor of the hall, the big shots had already finished their meeting and were gathered together talking.
Aside from Blackwater High School’s group of leaders, there was also the group from Soaring Dragon Martial Academy.
Of course, quite a few principals had stayed behind just to watch the excitement unfold.
The moment Li Mu saw the people from Soaring Dragon Martial Academy, he guessed what this was about.
His eyes immediately fell on Liang Hai.
At that moment, Liang Hai looked as if he had just been fished out of the water.
Cold sweat had soaked the few strands of hair hanging over his forehead, leaving them plastered there wet and limp.
He looked utterly ridiculous.
“Li Mu, this is the Deputy Minister of the Resources Department...”
“And this is the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education...”
Yin Changming introduced them to Li Mu.
In terms of official rank, the two deputy ministers were roughly equal, but in terms of actual power, the Resources Department held far more than the Ministry of Education.
Li Mu greeted them one by one.
The Deputy Minister of Resources was a straightforward man. He came forward, patted Li Mu on the shoulder, and praised him without reservation.
“Not bad! Your strength really opened my eyes!”
“But I do have one small question for you.”
“Please ask, Minister.”
Li Mu nodded, neither humble nor overbearing.
When the actual minister was not present, it was still appropriate to address a deputy minister as “Minister” in person.
The Deputy Minister of Resources pointed at Zhang Teng.
“This Principal Zhang Teng says that you used to be a student at their Soaring Dragon Martial Academy. Is that correct?”
“Yes,” Li Mu nodded.
Zhang Teng immediately said anxiously, “Li Mu, what’s with you, child? Tell me, when you were at Soaring Dragon, did I ever mistreat you?”
“If you had a problem, why didn’t you come to me?”
Zhang Teng spoke in a somewhat reproachful tone.
A few days ago, he too had gone through a wild emotional roller coaster. At first, his school had produced one S-grade and one A-grade talent.
Soaring Dragon Martial Academy had seemed ready to soar.
But before he had even had time to celebrate, Li Mu’s S-grade talent was gone the very next day.
No matter how angry he might have been, this was still an internal matter of the Li Family, so he had no way to intervene. He could only accept the bad luck.
After that, he had not bothered paying any attention to Li Mu.
Otherwise, there was no way he would have remained ignorant for days after Li Mu was expelled.
At that point, Dean Liang Hai hurriedly chimed in, “That’s right, Li Mu. Look at you, child, your temper really is too stubborn. I admit I did some things poorly.”
“But I am still a teacher, after all. Well... I had to preserve a bit of a teacher’s dignity, so I was just... a little harsh with you.”
“Try to understand your dean, alright? Don’t be willful anymore. Hurry up and come back to our school.”
As Liang Hai spoke, he kept shooting Li Mu meaningful looks.
From those eyes, it was hard to tell whether he was threatening him or begging him. His face kept twitching, and he seemed not to know how to smile anymore.
The moment the Deputy Minister of Education saw Liang Hai there making faces and signaling with his eyes, he immediately gave a quiet rebuke.
Then he looked at Li Mu with a smile.
“It’s alright. Just tell the truth!”
This was clearly meant to show that the deputy minister would back Li Mu up and that he need not fear retaliation from anyone.
Li Mu took out his phone, opened a video, and handed it to the Deputy Minister of Resources.
“I can’t explain this matter very clearly with words, but I have a recording.”
The others all leaned in as well, watching curiously.
Liang Hai, however, did not need to watch at all.
The moment he heard the voice in the video, he instantly understood.
This was the recording Li Mu had made when Liang Hai expelled him!
Damn it!!
How could Li Mu have been recording at a time like that!?
Who the hell could have seen that coming?
Why would you even record something like that??
For a moment, Liang Hai felt the world go dark before his eyes, and his legs nearly gave way.
Very quickly, Liang Hai’s own forceful, overbearing shouts rang out one after another from the video.
“Li Mu, do you understand the difference in value between yourself and Sun Long?”
“I’m giving you two choices.”
“Class 9, Grade 3, Li Mu. Pull up his file and expel him!”
“There’s no need to report it!! Does Liang Hai not even have this much authority? I said expel him! Right now!!”
“Across the street, Blackwater High School is so desperate for recruits they’ll take any trash they can get!”
When that line played, all the leaders of Blackwater High School immediately turned to Liang Hai with grateful looks.
So it turned out it was you who suggested Li Mu come to Blackwater.
And when Zhang Teng heard that sentence, he wanted to tear Liang Hai apart alive!
You bastard!!
You wouldn’t happen to be a spy Blackwater High School planted in our school, would you!?
But among everything in that recording, there was one line that was the most ironic of all.
It was something Liang Hai himself had said:
“People always have to pay the price for the choices they make! Was this lesson vivid enough?”