Inside the control room, Lei Zhongyuan was rubbing his chin. “I’m liking him more and more.”

Everyone in the room saw that the moment Zhang Hongyu had equipped his armor, Xiang Ning had pounced at the chance. It was letting him fight without holding back. Zhang Hongyu was now pinned down by Xiang Ning. One had to wear his armor, while the other was completely free to hit him however he wanted.

Hanwu Academy’s headmaster, who was sitting opposite to Qi Jiuming, expressed his concerns. “I think that might be going overboard.”

While it might be going overboard, the other headmasters were all thinking the same thing. Why wasn’t he saying anything about his student inciting the students from Qiling Academy? 

Just as they expected, Qi Jiuming wasn’t happy about it and directly confronted the other headmaster. “Wu Zhishen, your student was at fault first. From the beginning until now, look at how many ferocious beasts have been stolen by him. Did I say anything about that?” He was very angry that Zhang Hongyu had stolen the beasts from his students, but he couldn’t say anything because they were too weak to retaliate. But now that the loophole in the rules had been closed, he was feeling extremely satisfied by how Xiang Ning was beating the crap out of Zhang Hongyu.

“Hmph, how dare he go and steal beasts if he’s that weak. Good riddance.” Qi Jiuming continued provoking Wu Zhishen.

The other headmaster kept quiet. He silently remembered Xiang Ning’s name. To think that there was someone capable of pinning down a martial artist who was wearing Roaring Tiger Armor. He silently compared him to Wu Rui.

……

In the wilderness, Xiang Ning stood up after earning more than two thousand Fury Points from Zhang Hongyu. He felt satisfied with the amount.

Without any hesitation, he dumped a thousand Fury Points into increasing his Mental Power. In an instant, he broke through and stepped into the world of a tier one, five-star spiritual cultivator.

Everyone felt that something was happening to Xiang Ning. Lu Shiyu was astonished. “Xiang Ning, did your Mental Power increase again?”

“Yeah, I’m now tier one, five-star.” Xiang Ning smiled a goofy smile. It was pleasant news for his squad, but Zhang Hongyu was pissed beyond reason.

His other squad members hadn’t assisted him; instead, they were looking from afar. To think that not only was their leader beaten like a dog, but the opponent had even increased their Mental Power from it.

When he heard what Xiang Ning had said, he felt so indignant that he almost passed out. Zhang Hongyu gave him one final Fury Point.

As for Xiang Ning, his Fury Points had been continuously increasing, even though it was in smaller increments. Who else is pointing their anger toward me?

The system prompt activated more than fifty times per minute, but he didn’t remember angering that many people.

Little did he know that Wu Rui and Zhang Hongyu's plan was succeeding. Over the past eight hours, the students from Hanwu Academy had been stealing ferocious beasts from Qiling Academy left and right. Every time they did so, they always blamed Xiang Ning.

Everyone felt bitter and blamed Xiang Ning as well, but they couldn’t lift a finger toward the students from Hanwu Academy. 

But for now, the person in question was still in the dark about this.

“What’re they doing?” Fang Rou stood beside Xiang Ning, afraid that his wound would reopen. But seeing how he had fought just now, and even advanced into a tier one, five-star spiritual cultivator, there shouldn’t be much problem.

Xiang Ning shook his head. “I’ve already asked, and they won’t change the rankings for now. But from here onward, if they manage to steal any beasts, then the rankings would change as well.”

“Hmph! They got lucky!” Li Zimo coldly huffed.

Xiang Ning wasn’t too anxious about it. There was still a lot of time, and he was confident they would be in the top ten. For now, the first in the ranking was still Wu Rui’s squad from Hanwu Academy, valued at one hundred and ninety thousand dollars. That meant that they had hunted at least twenty beasts with cultivations of tier one, six-star and above. They were efficient.

As for Xiang Ning’s squad, they had only hunted six beasts, totaling forty thousand dollars. Even then, it was because of the two higher-ranked beasts.

“Let’s go, we should hunt more beasts.” Xiang Ning turned away and ignored Zhang Hongyu.

“Are your wounds alright?” Lu Shiyu quietly asked. She trusted that Xiang Ning would hold back, so she hadn’t said anything during his fight.

“No problem, I’m just slightly tired. I just need to rest.” Xiang Ning smiled. 

Just like that, all five of them left. Zhang Hongyu stood up and angrily stared in the direction they had gone.

“Zhang Hongyu, what should we do now?” one of his squad members asked.

“Go and secure the safehouse. I want to see how they’ll survive a night in the wilderness without it.” 

“What a good idea!”

Xiang Ning and his squad walked toward the garden outside the city. There was a small lake in the garden, but strangely enough there weren’t any beasts nearby.

“This is weird, there’s no ferocious beasts here.” Xiang Ning surveyed his surroundings and increased his alertness to the maximum. He never forgot what Su Muhan had taught him. If the area was too quiet, that meant it was either a forbidden ground or there would be an exceptionally strong beast. They should prioritize their life and run away.

That said, he was curious. There wasn’t much of anywhere for something to hide, and he could see quite a distance thanks to the flat land. He scanned his surroundings but failed to find anything threatening lurking nearby.

Soon enough, they arrived at the small lake. Xiang Ning took the vanguard, since he was the strongest. Just as they arrived at the lake, he heard a tiny croak. A small frog was sitting on the lotus leaf, no bigger than the size of a child’s palm. Its eyes were locked on to him.

“Spitting Frog, its strength ranges from tier one to tier two. On land, it doesn’t have any offensive capabilities, but it's very troublesome once it enters the water. It's capable of sucking in water and spitting it out with a special mucus secreted from its body.” Fang Rou explained slowly. 

“Hmm, and is there anything that it doesn’t like?” Xiang Ning felt like something was off.