Chapter Eighty-Six: Withdrawal from School

In the county seat of Six Rivers, Xue Zhenhai walked through the crowded streets with a blank face, moving among the throng.

The chill radiating from the martial instructor of the schoolhouse made passersby shrink away from him in fear.

No one dared come even slightly close, lest misfortune should follow!

As for Xue Zhenhai, there was no one else in his eyes at all.

On the road to the county seat, countless venomous thoughts had crossed his mind.

An endless succession of vicious and ruthless methods had already been rehearsed in turn!

And every one of those dark schemes was aimed at the same two people.

Fang Xiao and Lin Chong.

It was because of those two that Xue Zhenhai had suffered the greatest humiliation of his life.

If he did not find a way to recover the face he had lost, then this opening-pulse martial master would become a laughingstock whispered about by countless people in secret.

So Fang Xiao and Lin Chong had to die.

And not merely die, but die in a sufficiently miserable fashion.

Only then could Xue Zhenhai thoroughly wash away today’s disgrace.

Passing through a clean, spacious alley, the martial instructor saw before him a grand estate.

Above the vermilion gate hung a plaque, on which the two gilded characters for the Gao Residence shone conspicuously.

Xue Zhenhai drew a long breath.

For the moment, he suppressed the frenzy and gloom in his heart and stepped toward the Gao family’s main gate.

He did not take Fang Xiao seriously.

Though Fang Xiao had displayed remarkable martial talent, he was only a newly advanced condensate stage cultivator.

Xue Zhenhai had plenty of ways to crush him with ease.

What truly alarmed him was still Lin Chong.

Xue Zhenhai had never imagined that Lin Chong, so unremarkable in ordinary times, would possess such unfathomable strength.

He had no confidence at all that he could bring the man down.

He would need helpers.

And the Gao family of Six Rivers was exactly the ally Xue Zhenhai had in mind.

After all, Gao Hong was still lying in the academy’s healing hall receiving treatment.

But Xue Zhenhai also understood clearly that he first had to make the Gao family believe him.

Otherwise, all his planning would be a joke.

“Stop there!”

A young warrior stationed at the gate was about to block him, only to be yanked aside by his companion.

The latter smiled ingratiatingly at Xue Zhenhai and said, “Instructor Xue, the new boy has no eyes. Please do not take offense…”

Xue Zhenhai did not even spare him a glance. With a sweep of his sleeve, he stepped over the high threshold and strode straight into the estate.

Before he had gone far, a distinguished middle-aged man came hurrying toward him from the front.

Dressed in a brocade robe and wearing a jade belt at the waist, the man had a leopard’s eyes, a high nose, and a commanding bearing, walking with the vigor of a dragon and tiger, formidable even in silence.

“Instructor Xue?”

Recognizing the man who had just entered the residence, the brocade-robed figure’s expression changed at once. He asked in a deep voice, “I just received word that something happened to Hong’er at the academy?”

Though inwardly frantic, Gao Hong’s biological father still maintained a basic measure of composure on the surface.

Xue Zhenhai halted and silently nodded.

He looked at the head of the Gao family before him and was just about to explain when, in the next instant, the grief on his face shattered abruptly. His eyes nearly bulged from their sockets, as though he had seen something incomparably bizarre.

At his throat, something sharp and keen seemed to suddenly thrust outward from within.

In an instant, flesh split open.

A great spray of bright red blood burst forth.

The brocade-robed man across from him was caught completely off guard, and in the blink of an eye his face and hair were drenched.

At that moment, Xue Zhenhai had no time to care about the bloody shock of the Gao family head.

Tremendous agony and terror were swallowing him whole like monstrous waves on a furious sea.

His throat rattled wetly, and the abundant strength in his body ebbed rapidly away along with the blood gushing from the wound.

He tried to clamp a hand over the injured spot.

But blood continued seeping through his fingers.

Then it flowed down his esophagus into his stomach.

There was no way to stop it.

The opening-pulse martial master, instructor of the martial hall of Six Rivers Academy, soon rolled white-eyed and was unable to breathe.

His knees went weak.

Uncontrollably, he dropped to the hard, cold floor tiles.

Before he was choked to death by his own blood, a bedraggled figure suddenly rose in his mind.

Lin Chong.

“Aah!”

A shrill scream burst out.

A passing maid from the Gao residence had just witnessed Xue Zhenhai’s gruesome death.

Terrified nearly out of her wits, she was thrown into chaos.

The Gao family fell into utter disorder.

At the same time, in the utility room of Six Rivers Academy, the kindly-faced He Zhizhou was still chatting amiably with Fang Xiao.

“Those last five jars of Drunken Blossom Brew were exchanged for a place at the academy and half of the Azure Sun Dragon-Tiger Art!”

The academy’s chief instructor sighed. “I never imagined that in just two or three months, you would cultivate this orthodox inheritance art to the point of manifesting the true forms of dragon and tiger.”

“Such martial talent—this old man has never seen another like it in all his years.”

“You were right. Xue Zhenhai truly is blind and heartless.”

“He brought humiliation upon himself.”

He went on and on: “It is a pity you have no aristocratic background, and Friend Pang is such an unreliable fellow, otherwise you could surely go to the imperial capital in the future!”

Hearing this, Fang Xiao could not help but interrupt, “Chief Instructor, Daoist Priest Pang is a good person!”

He Zhizhou glanced at the youth. “Of course I know he is a good person.”

“Pity that in this world, good people seldom receive good reward!”

“Fang Xiao, you never saw what Friend Pang looked like when he first came to Six Rivers County.”

“Worn spirit, exhausted vigor, the house deserted after the thieves had left!”

“I thought he would not live through that winter.”

Fang Xiao fell silent.

The Pang Daoist he had first met was much better than the state this chief instructor described.

The priest really had it hard.

In his heart, Fang Xiao silently made up his mind.

Since Daoist Priest Pang liked Madam Qin, then let him remain bewitched, then.

Big Brother Li Yuanchao had once told Fang Xiao that a person ought to have some kind of hobby.

That was the only way life would not be spent in a daze, without any aim at all.

The priest’s hobby was probably widows.

From now on, Fang Xiao would pretend he had seen nothing.

While he was pondering this, a streak of yellow light suddenly flew into the room and hovered before He Zhizhou.

It was a talisman.

He Zhizhou pursed his lips and blew lightly. The talisman instantly burned to ashes without a sound.

He smiled and said, “Friend Pang has sent back his reply.”

“He says your affair is for you alone to decide; he will not interfere in any way!”

The priest understands me well.

Fang Xiao nodded. “I’m withdrawing from the academy!”

His tone was final.

After speaking with the chief instructor, he was even more resolved to leave the academy.

Instructor Lin was gone.

There was no point in staying here any longer.

“All right then.”

He Zhizhou waved a hand listlessly. “Go on.”

This white-haired old cultivator had once considered keeping Fang Xiao and cultivating him further.

But he was already too old.

So old that he had little interest in anything anymore.

Since Fang Xiao was unwilling, there was no need to force him.

He Zhizhou also understood very well that the Six Rivers Academy had wronged this young prodigy.

But he was only a martial student, after all.

Yet Fang Xiao did not leave right away.

He looked at him with bright, sparkling eyes.

He Zhizhou frowned in confusion. “What is it? You do not want to go?”

“No.”

Fang Xiao held out his hand. “Chief Instructor, you still have not refunded my tuition and meal expenses!”

No one’s silver grows on trees.

Fang Xiao was asking for the remaining fees with perfect righteousness.

Even for He Zhizhou, with his deep cultivation and excellent self-restraint, at that moment he nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood on the spot.

He flicked out a faintly gleaming low-grade spirit stone.

“Keep the change!”

“That won’t do.”

Fang Xiao shook his head. “Brothers settle accounts plainly. I never take advantage of others.”