Chapter 13
The little episode ended with Lin Lie giving Su Jiu a perfect score.
Watching Su Jiu and her companion walk away, Lu Ke furrowed their brow and glanced at Lin Lie. “Is she really that scary? Aren’t you afraid the principal will chew you out for this?”
“No, Old Huang won’t chew me out... You have no idea how scary the mayor’s daughter is.”
Lin Lie snapped back to his senses, still looking shaken. Relieved that he’d had the good sense to play along, he took the opportunity to give his childhood friend a stern warning. “You should stop provoking her, too. I’m afraid you’ll wind up dead somewhere one of these days.”
“Hah? Her? Lin Lie, are you trying to curry favor with her father, the mayor?” Lu Ke mocked him, though they took his words to heart.
Su Jiu was that scary?
...
Back in the dorm, Su Jiu didn’t bother with any more nonsense. She simply opened the ring and entered the space inside.
“A Blazing Wolf King? Is this really something a low-tier Warrior can challenge?”
She blinked, and the colossal beast towering over five meters tall appeared before her. Her fingers tightened around her sword as she swiftly assumed a fighting stance.
“This is the perfect chance to test out a Warrior-level bloodline skill. Everyone’s skills are more or less the same, but I’m still curious.”
“Transformation!”
Following the textbook’s instructions, she lightly tapped her forehead. In an instant, a pair of enormous wings appeared behind her, and Su Jiu’s whole aura turned dangerous.
“Feather Blades!”
Four razor-sharp feathers appeared between her pale hands.
...
The next day, class began promptly at eight. The first lesson was Monster Studies, and the teacher had been replaced by a rather tall woman: Zhou Qian, Su Jiu’s former homeroom teacher from the class next door.
“Su Jiu, why are you late again? Can’t you take your studies seriously? Teacher Lu Nan used to tell me you had a terrible attitude, but I never expected you to be this bad. Why didn’t you just wait until after class to come in?”
Zhou Qian’s brows drew together. Now she understood the headache of teaching a troublemaker.
“Just look at Liu Lin. She has the Chongming Bird bloodline, she’s clever, and she takes her studies seriously. She’s already figured out the first of the three bloodline skills available at the Warrior level—Transformation. By the end of this week, she’ll probably be able to use it, at least a little.”
“And you? You act like a delinquent every day! You’re late to class and run off the moment it ends.”
The instant Zhou Qian saw Su Jiu saunter in late, she began scolding her without holding back.
Su Jiu merely pursed her lips, unconcerned. She was late because she’d still been fighting inside the ring’s space. The Blazing Wolf King already had human intelligence and was incredibly cunning in battle.
Its attributes were far beyond hers, both in strength and speed. Still, with her powerful bloodline and Quick-Draw Slash, she managed to leave it badly wounded each time before finally going down herself.
“She’s already mastered a basic skill... But I’ve mastered the Ice Chi’s basic skill, Transformation, and Gui Che’s two basic skills, Transformation and Feather Blades... Next, when I have time, I’ll look into the attribute conversion brought on by that green feather.”
Su Jiu felt secretly pleased, but kept it to herself as she sauntered over to her seat.
“All right, open your Monster Studies textbooks. Today I’ll continue teaching you about some of the more common demons. As everyone knows, demons live outside the cities where humans dwell. They’re inherently hostile toward humans, and roam around, fighting one another...”
“So, if you venture into the wilderness and encounter a Blazing Wolf, what should you do?” Zhou Qian had already launched into an animated lecture, ignoring Su Jiu.
Blazing Wolves.
They were demons that lived in the wilderness closest to human cities—and Su Jiu’s old friends. She figured she could take out a whole pack with one Quick-Draw Slash now.
Ordinary people couldn’t deal with these creatures; only Warriors and above could fight them. Of course, for these students, who hadn’t learned a single martial technique yet, encountering even one Blazing Wolf would mean a bloody slaughter.
Naturally, Su Jiu, who was already beyond the syllabus, was an exception.
Blazing Wolves were a major topic in Monster Studies. Zhou Qian had covered them before, but never in such detail. For Su Jiu, who even dared to take on a Wolf King, the lesson was pure tedium.
“Su Jiu, stand up and answer this.” Zhou Qian couldn’t stand the lazy student any longer. Her brows shot up as she called out.
At Zhou Qian’s voice, everyone turned to look at Su Jiu.
“I’d cut it down with one slash. What else would you do?” Su Jiu shrugged and spread her hands helplessly.
“Ha! Su Jiu really hasn’t changed. She’s still full of hot air.”
“One slash? Who does she think she is, a high-tier Warrior?”
The classroom immediately erupted in laughter. They’d all been top students in their former classes, and they thought it was ridiculous that Su Jiu believed a good bloodline meant she could fight demons of the same rank as soon as she became a Warrior.
“Quiet! Teacher Zhou looks like she’s about to blow her top.” One sharp-eyed student noticed the trouble and hurriedly tried to hush everyone, but it was too late...
“Su Jiu! Copy today’s lesson ten times!”
Zhou Qian’s roar echoed through the entire school building. Su Jiu casually scratched her ear. She really wondered if the woman had some kind of tiger bloodline. She was so fierce...
“You weren’t serious, were you?” Since the students could choose their own seats, Bai Qianyu sat not far from Su Jiu. When Su Jiu returned to her seat, Bai asked her out of the blue.
Even now, Bai Qianyu only had a ten- or twenty-percent chance of killing a Blazing Wolf. There was no way it could be as easy as Su Jiu made it sound. Su Jiu was so much stronger than her...
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Su Jiu replied casually. Then she took out her notebook and prepared to copy things down—but what she was copying was information about the Blazing Wolf King from her phone.
She was quite looking forward to the reward for killing the Blazing Wolf King. A Warrior-level reward, after all.
“You’ve killed a Blazing Wolf? But you haven’t left school since your awakening... Unless...”
Bai Qianyu was startled by her own thought. Unless Su Jiu had killed a Blazing Wolf in the mountains while she was still at the Blood Condensation stage!
How could that be? A Blazing Wolf was a deadly threat even to some first-year students. Killing one at the Blood Condensation stage? Don’t make me laugh!
“I’m kidding. How could I have killed a Blazing Wolf? I was just bragging.” Su Jiu was completely absorbed in her fights with the Blazing Wolf King and answered distractedly.
“I knew it...” Bai Qianyu inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief. This was the first time she’d met such a monstrous prodigy, someone even more talented than her own brother. Su Jiu always gave her the impression that she was already far ahead of everyone else.
...
A week passed in a flash. As usual, Su Jiu headed to the snack shop empty-handed, but this time she had someone with her: Bai Qianyu.
Bai Qianyu explained that the back mountain she planned to visit the next day was too far from the city, so she asked Su Jiu to come home with her instead. Su Jiu had initially refused. No matter how wild she was, she was still a girl.
Bai Qianyu had gotten used to hugging the big doll that was Su Jiu these past few days. She couldn’t get enough of Su Jiu’s scent, and remembered the trick her brother used when inviting some older sister over...
She didn’t know why she was supposed to say it that way, but it really worked. Her brother had tried it time and time again, and it never failed.
She tied her school uniform around her waist, then placed both hands on Su Jiu’s shoulders and said with utmost sincerity, “Big Sister Jiu, our cat can do a backflip. If you don’t come, you’ll definitely regret it.”
Hearing this, Su Jiu’s gaze once again fell on Bai Qianyu’s big, pale... face. She pursed her lips and hesitated briefly before saying, with an air of restraint, “Don’t lie to me. I want to see the cat do a backflip.”