Ch. 30
Chapter 30: I Will Be the Li Family’s Nightmare, and It Will Not End Until One of Us Is Dead
“Vivid? Oh, it was very vivid indeed!”
After watching the video, the Deputy Minister of Resources looked at Liang Hai with a cold sneer.
If the phone in his hand had not belonged to someone else, he would already have thrown it in Liang Hai’s face.
It was one thing to belittle a student’s worth to his face.
But the key was that he had already made his choice.
What right did he have now to try dragging the student back?
“Li Mu, what do you choose? Tell me, and I’ll make the decision for you!”
The Deputy Minister of Education spoke with absolute firmness.
He looked every bit like he was ready to arrange it on the spot if Li Mu wanted to go to any school at all.
“Although I’ve only been at Blackwater High School for four days, the only offensive cultivation art I currently know was given to me by Blackwater High School. They also gave me ten thousand yuan in cash so I could prepare for military training and the opening battle.”
“Whatever small achievements I’ve had are inseparable from Blackwater High School’s support, so I choose to stay at Blackwater High School.”
Li Mu’s words were half true and half false.
But they still left Zhang Teng roasting over an open flame!
The only offensive cultivation art he knew had been given to him by Blackwater High School?
The moment Zhang Teng heard that, his face went pale.
The Deputy Minister of Resources coldly questioned Zhang Teng.
“Principal Zhang, it is a mandatory rule that every student who awakens a talent must be issued one ordinary-grade offensive cultivation art free of charge.”
“You wouldn’t happen to have... failed to give one to Li Mu, would you?”
Zhang Teng immediately began to stammer.
“I-I-I... when Li Mu first awakened his S-grade talent, we were originally planning to solemnly prepare two high-grade cultivation arts for him.”
“But later, after his talent was swapped, we just...”
He could not continue.
All along, he had known that Li Mu was not favored by the Li Family, so he had treated him with extreme harshness, partly out of a desire to curry favor with the Li Family.
After Li Mu’s talent was stolen, he became even less willing to waste cultivation arts on Li Mu, so he truly had not given him anything.
“So you simply weren’t planning to give him one anymore, were you?”
The Deputy Minister of Resources finished the sentence for him coldly.
“Zhang Teng, you’ve got a lot of nerve! I will absolutely settle this account with you properly!”
Zhang Teng felt the world go black before his eyes. He lost consciousness on the spot and toppled backward, only to be caught by the surrounding school leaders as chaos broke out.
The big shots from the two departments had no interest in watching such theatrics.
With matching cold snorts, the two deputy ministers strode out of the Multimedia Hall with their entourages.
The people from Blackwater High School and the other principals naturally hurried after them to see the leaders off.
Out in the plaza, the Deputy Minister of Resources offered Li Mu a few more words of encouragement before getting into his car and leaving.
The leaders of Blackwater High School, meanwhile, all let out a long breath.
When they looked at one another, they all felt as though they had lived through another lifetime.
Blackwater High School had been stuck at the bottom for years.
Yet just before the Abyss opening battle, Li Mu had transferred in.
He broke through to Second Grade before military training.
He suppressed two S-grade prodigies and forcefully seized first place.
Jinhua High School tried to poach him and failed.
Soaring Dragon Martial Academy tried to snatch him back and failed.
Could it be that heaven had taken pity on Blackwater High School and dropped a heaven-defying kid like this right into their laps?
“Principal, teachers, my family is over there, so I’ll head over first.”
Li Mu said this to Yin Changming.
He pointed at Chen Jiafeng and Chen Jiaqi, who were jumping up and down and waving at him in the distance.
“Oh, right, right, right, of course. Go on, hurry and go!”
Yin Changming immediately replied with a smile.
Li Mu had only just taken two steps away when Yin Changming called out with another smile, “Oh, right! Don’t forget tomorrow morning’s school celebration assembly! You’re the star of it!”
“Got it!”
Li Mu raised a hand to show he had heard.
After leaving the group of Blackwater school leaders, Li Mu walked toward his mother and his aunt’s family.
At that moment, he had a strange feeling, as though an entire lifetime had passed.
His mother’s eyes were slightly red, full of tender love.
His younger cousin and cousin were lively and adorable, bouncing up and down.
His uncle looked at him with clear approval, giving him a thumbs-up.
His aunt was crying with joy, proud beyond words.
They felt so unfamiliar, and yet so familiar at the same time. The familial warmth Li Mu had never experienced before wrapped tightly around him in that moment.
Li Mu jogged all the way over to Yang Suying.
“Mom! Didn’t I tell you there was nothing to worry about?”
Yang Suying nodded, reached out, and squeezed Li Mu’s face hard.
Then she fiercely wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes and smiled.
“Of course I’m not worried! My son is amazing!”
“Cousin! You liar! You actually had a Monsterblood Warhorse, and you didn’t tell me!”
Chen Jiafeng immediately hugged Li Mu’s arm, his face practically pressing right up against Li Mu’s.
Li Mu had not shown them his warhorse before.
It had been hard to explain.
Only then did Yang Suying also remember that point, and she asked Li Mu, “Son, this warhorse... did you buy it, or was it issued to you after joining the Abyss-Suppressing Army reserve?”
“Mom, would you object if I joined the Abyss-Suppressing Army?”
Li Mu was a little surprised. His mother actually knew that joining the Abyss-Suppressing Army came with a warhorse?
Yang Suying shook her head.
“No. Walk the path you want to walk. Your mother won’t interfere.”
“Actually, your father wanted to join the Abyss-Suppressing Army back then too.”
“But the Li Family wouldn’t allow it. They were shortsighted. They thought part of the profits your father could earn from exploring the Abyss might have to be turned over.”
“For the sake of that immediate gain, they ruined your father’s future and cost him his life as well!”
Li Mu really had not known much about that.
In his memories, his father, Li Qianfeng, had devoted himself wholeheartedly to the Li Family and laid the foundation for the family’s rise.
Unfortunately, his father had simply been too outstanding back then, causing the Li Family to rise rapidly.
As a result, outsiders all said that the Li Family had been supported by Li Qianfeng alone.
That the rest of the Li Family were mostly nothing but wine sacks and rice bags.
From that time on, everyone in the Li Family came to hate Li Mu’s branch of the family.
On the surface, they relied on Li Qianfeng’s prestige and the profits he brought back from the Abyss to keep expanding the family business.
Yet the moment Li Mu’s father died, they instantly began treating Li Mu and his mother as thorns in their flesh.
Jealousy could truly twist a person beyond recognition.
Old Madam Ma had always favored her second son more.
She had always treated her third son, Li Qianfeng, like livestock. No one knew why her heart could be that cruel.
But the Li Family had taken no shortage of criticism because of it.
“Ah, if your father had joined the Abyss-Suppressing Army back then...”
“He probably would have become an officer by now! His fate would have been completely different.”
Li Mu’s aunt sighed softly from the side, full of regret.
She had always admired her brother-in-law.
Their family had only just gotten this far in the conversation when Yang Suying’s expression suddenly changed slightly as she looked in the direction behind Li Mu.
Li Mu turned around and looked.
It was Old Madam Ma, leading over more than half of the Li Family.
Every one of them wore an arrogant expression.
Especially Li Mu’s Second Aunt. The look she gave Li Mu was venomous, and her teeth were grinding audibly.
Li Mu turned back to face the Li Family, and there was even a trace of amusement on his face.
Old Madam Ma stopped not far in front of Li Mu.
Both hands rested atop her cane.
In truth, there was nothing wrong with her legs, and she was not even that old, only in her sixties.
She mainly carried the cane because she felt it gave her presence.
The Li Family had at least been a family of standing for over a decade now, and she believed they still possessed a bit of foundation.
“Li Mu! Are you blind? You see your grandmother and still won’t come over and greet her properly?”
The moment Second Aunt saw Li Mu standing there without moving, she grew angry and barked the question coldly.
Old Madam Ma lifted a hand, stopping Second Aunt.
“Li Mu, come here. Let Grandma have a look. Are you hurt?”
Li Mu looked at her, and the corner of his mouth slowly lifted.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a spectacle...”
“Li Mu! What do you mean by that!?”
Eldest Uncle shouted coldly.
Old Madam Ma raised her hand again to stop him, took a deep breath, and said to Li Mu in as gentle a tone as she could manage, “I know that you must feel a little upset inside.”
“These past few days, I’ve kept thinking about it. No matter what, you are still blood of my Li Family.”
“It never sits right, having you left outside.”
“Two days ago, I had Xiaohong and Xiaolan invite you back to the Li Family, but you refused.”
“So today I’m telling you myself, child. Come back.”
Within those sharp, mean triangular eyes of Old Madam Ma, she actually squeezed out a trace of grandmotherly kindness.
“Oh?”
Li Mu looked meaningfully toward Li Xiaohong and Li Lan.
Li Xiaohong and Li Lan had never expected their grandmother to suddenly bring this up.
At once, both of them glared fiercely at Li Mu, their eyes full of warning.
They were threatening him not to expose the fact that neither of them had ever come looking for him.
Li Mu let out a scornful laugh.
“You suddenly realized that the Li Family probably can’t rise by relying on Li Xiaohao alone anymore?”
“You want to use me as a stepping stone to open ties with the military?”
The smile slowly vanished from Li Mu’s face as his eyes swept over every face in the Li Family.
Then, word by word, he said, “Remember this feeling of helplessness you have today.”
“This is the easiest feeling you’ll ever experience from now on.”
“Because from this day forward, I, Li Mu, will be the Li Family’s nightmare, and it will not end until one of us is dead!”