When he saw his team’s fury, Xiang Ning smiled and stood in front of them. “As I said, it only counts as our defeat if all ten of us are out. That’s why I’ll begin the first duel of the day.”

“No… no, I cannot suffer the humiliation any longer, I want to fight them to death.” Li Zimo was evidently still under the influence of the Taunt skill. 

Xiang Ning patted his shoulder. “Keep that attitude and wait for your chance.” This was the point of his visit. He must personally fight in the duels—for Fatty Wang, Xiang Xiaoyu, and also to show them what it meant to bounce back from rock bottom. 

As he spoke, Xiang Ning took three steps forward, his iridium sword in hand. He gathered his breath, then activated Taunt once more. “Let’s begin then. Show me how strong Third School’s martial artists are!” 

The Taunt skill was like magic, it was as if his shout had insulted everyone’s ancestors. One only had to see every student’s reddened eyes and bloodthirsty expression to know how effective it was. 

Ding Maoxiong squinted at Xiang Ning, then pointed a finger at a student. “Zhao Jun, you first. If you can beat him, I’ll give you a chance to pick a tier four skill.” 

Many students were disappointed when Ding Maoxiong named his first pick, because one skill was already gone. 

“I’m Zhao Jun, a tier one, eight-star martial artist, nice to meet… right, I was involved in beating up that fat guy two days ago. He was quite squishy, I enjoyed it. I liked your sister, too, she’s very pretty,” Zhao Jun sneered. 

Initially, Zhao Jun thought that announcing his cultivation level would be enough to intimidate his opponents, but the entire group immediately looked at him like he was an idiot. 

“Now where’d this idiot come from? Tier one, eight-star? And he still has the guts to be here?” Li Zimo condescendingly snickered. This idiot would be a decent opponent if he was the one dueling him, but he was nothing to Xiang Ning. 

“What did you say? Are you a tier two martial artist?” Zhao Jun glared at Li Zimo, who shrugged. 

“Nope.” 

“Shut up then,” Zhao Jun huffed. 

“Heh… hehe. I’m not, but the guy you’re fighting is. Also, the fact that you mentioned his sister… you must have a death wish,” growled Li Zimo. It wasn’t loud, so Zhao Jun didn’t hear him, but since he was holding his phone with the livestream, his voice was picked up. 

“What? Is that true? Xiang Ning is a tier two martial artist?” 

“It’s true. During first period, Xiang Ning beat everyone in the special training class. So what do you think?” 

“Oh my god, so that’s why he had the confidence to storm Third School.”

“Hehe, yes, he’s powerful but he lacks a brain. He might be able to fight two, five, or even ten people, but does he think he can beat twenty or thirty?” 

Although Xiang Ning was powerful, he would still be weak in the face of seventy people. Furthermore, Third School must have their own strong students, too. 

“So your team won first place. Don’t disappoint me then. And I really do think your sister is pretty, could you introduce her to me?” Zhao Jun laughed. 

The students of Third School laughed. 

Xiang Ning smirked. “Will a rat be fit for a tigress?” 

“Fuck, who do you think you’re calling a rat?!” Zhao Jun raged, then unsheathed his sword and charged at Xiang Ning. “I’ll teach you a lesson today.” 

“Lightning Slash!” Zhao Jun roared, a surge of power radiating from his body. 

Ding Maoxiong privately nodded when he saw the attack. He was in late-stage Assimilation, which meant he could achieve the Awakened stage. Zhao Jun was one of his best students; if Xiang Ning was hit, he would be injured! 

“Keen Observation.” Streams of data appeared about Zhao Jun—a total of seven flaws. Xiang Ning was too lazy to activate Combat Instinct at this point. He held his sword out horizontally and when Zhao Jun was about to hit Xiang Ning, before everyone could react, he turned into a shadow and took three consecutive steps forward and struck his sword on Zhao Jun’s neck. 

Since it was just a sword made of a special rubber, it didn’t slice Zhao Jun’s head off. Zhao Jun just felt a dull strike on his neck. If he hadn’t been a tier one, eight-star martial artist, therefore having a stronger physique, his trachea could have been broken. However, he collapsed in pain, clutching his neck as he struggled to breathe with his face turning purple. Everyone reacted as if they had seen a ghost. What happened? 

They only saw Zhao Jun strike, then Xiang Ning holding his sword horizontally to block. Then Zhao Jun’s neck was suddenly struck. 

“Remember, your words could be the death of you.” Xiang Ning lifted a foot and kicked. Seven or eight teeth flew out and Zhao Jun fainted. 

Ding Maoxiong’s pupils constricted as he rushed forward to check on Zhao Jun. He had suffered a mild concussion and was temporarily unconscious, though his bloody state was painful to see. 

“That… was the first one!” Xiang Ning’s tone was flat like he was announcing a normal count of people he beat. Also, this was the first person he took his revenge on! 

In an instant, a string of ‘666’ flew across the chat in the livestream. It was just too shocking, as if Xiang Ning had changed into a completely different person. A violent one. [1]

“Xiang Ning, Zhao Jun was obviously incapacitated, why’d you have to be so unreasonable?” Ding Maoxiong furrowed his brows and glared at Xiang Ning. 

“Unreasonable? This is real combat, if you want to play pretend, I suggest you admit defeat!” Xiang Ning scoffed. He respected Ding Maoxiong, who was a dedicated teacher, but he refused to be swayed. From the beginning, he wanted to build an image of himself as someone to be feared. Especially here. Zhao Jun, who beat up Fatty Wang and even harassed his sister, had voluntarily stepped forward, so why should he show any mercy?

Ding Maoxiong understood, too. If it had been a true duel, Zhao Jun wouldn’t just have lost his teeth, but his head. 

“What a man! But isn’t he afraid he’s going to be brutally dealt with later?” The livestream chat now revered Xiang Ning. He was impressive; after just one strike, the entire conversation about the duel suddenly changed. 

Initially, there had been hope that both sides would be reasonable, but now the duel would only end with bloodshed. 

1. ‘666’ is internet slang for something extremely awesome/cool/impressive. ☜