Chapter 6
Zhiyuan High School, evening.
Rain fell silently like smoke and mist, drifting over the empty grounds and the dead leaves and branches. It soaked the earth and the trees, pattered across the quiet sports field, and fell upon the solitary umbrella.
“Damn! I’m going to be late. Is Old Lu going to make me stand guard at the gate?”
Just then, a petite figure flashed past the school gate. It was Su Jiu, arriving at the last minute. With a piece of bread clenched between her teeth and no umbrella, she sprinted toward the classroom.
As she passed the sports field, she slowed and turned to look at the person holding an umbrella there—or, more precisely, at the expressionless face beneath it.
“Little Bai, have you been waiting for me?”
After confirming it once more, Su Jiu stopped, took the soggy bread from her mouth, blinked, and asked.
Under the streetlights, her companion’s hair was just as damp from the rain as her own, despite the umbrella.
“Big Sister Jiu, couldn’t you have been any slower?”
Seeing Su Jiu drenched from head to toe, Bai Qianyu couldn’t be bothered to scold her. She rolled her eyes, tossed her the bottle of mineral water in her hand, then continued, “I can’t drink too much of this at once, but someone at the Warrior level like you should be able to drink as much as you want.”
“Huh? The Warrior level? I’m a high school student just like you. How could I be a Warrior?” Su Jiu replied instinctively, edging under Bai Qianyu’s umbrella without a hint of shame.
“You’re not a college intern?! You’re a high school student like me? But it’s almost seven thirty...” Bai Qianyu looked briefly surprised. Then she lightly patted Su Jiu on the head and burst out laughing.
“Big Sister Jiu, stop joking. That kind of strength is definitely at the Warrior level. To reach it during the Blood Condensation stage, you’d have to be over ninety percent...”
When she suddenly met Su Jiu’s unusually serious gaze, Bai Qianyu swallowed involuntarily. The corner of her eye twitched as she asked with a strange expression, “Don’t tell me you really are...”
“Don’t tell anyone else... I don’t want to be gawked at like some kind of spectacle.”
Su Jiu nodded. Once their awakening was complete later that week, she and Bai Qianyu would be going to look for the dragon egg anyway. She couldn’t be bothered to hide her strength, especially since the other girl didn’t know who she really was.
Zhiyuan High School was the largest school in Huayang City. It had a full twenty senior classes, each with more than sixty students. With Bai Qianyu’s cool personality, there was no way she would search through all of them one by one.
“Don’t worry. I won’t say a word.”
Sure enough, Bai Qianyu quickly regained her usual aloof expression. She glanced down at Su Jiu, who was sheltering beneath her umbrella, and sighed quietly. Her brother had called her a genius, yet even the first person she’d happened to meet was a monstrous genius.
The world was full of students, and outstanding ones were as plentiful as carp crossing a river. Perhaps the only advantage she could count on was the bloodline her father had left her.
“Message me on QQ if anything comes up.”
The rain fell in silence. The two walked quietly toward the teaching building and soon reached the first floor. After they parted, Su Jiu took off her damp little leather shoes at the foot of the building and padded barefoot to the back door of Senior Class A.
She glanced inside. Everyone was meditating during self-study, and Su Jiu breathed a sigh of relief. She was just about to go in when hurried footsteps came from behind, followed by a shout of “Stop!” She rolled her eyes and turned around.
Old Lu again...
“Forget it. It’s self-study for the next few days. Go wherever you want.”
Lu Nan looked at Su Jiu with disappointment. He seemed to want to say something, but couldn’t get the words out. With a helpless wave of his hand, he turned and went into the classroom.
Looking at Lu Nan, who was so much like the person she used to be, Su Jiu didn’t know what to say. Everything she was doing now was to escape the original host’s life path. This was the only way she could do it.
Once the college entrance exam was over, she and Bai Qianyu would go their separate ways. Most likely, she wouldn’t have much to do with the siblings after that. Only then could she begin a life that truly belonged to her.
In the end, Su Jiu didn’t join the other students for evening self-study. She went back to the dorm, changed her clothes, then flopped onto her bed, picked up her phone, and searched the web for the hot topic “Huayang Ruins,” adding “auction” as a search term.
Her eyes swept over one useless result after another. After who knew how long, they finally settled on an article titled “Mysterious Scale Sold at Auction to a Tycoon for 100 Million.”
Su Jiu abruptly sat up, staring fixedly at the scale in the picture. It was half a meter long, with tiny magical patterns on it. What on earth was it?
As for anything in the novel that sounded similar... That was the guardian god of a nation, an existence even more terrifying than a Battle God. Could the egg they were going to retrieve this time have something to do with it?
Still confused, Su Jiu picked up the bottle of mineral water beside her. At first glance, it looked like ordinary water, but when she held it beneath the incandescent light, it reflected a bright, pearly white glow.
She opened it and drank almost half the bottle in one go. In less than half a minute, her body did indeed begin to change. Su Jiu carefully sensed what was happening, but couldn’t pinpoint what had changed.
“Was it too little? Or is my blood-condensation level too high?”
Su Jiu frowned slightly and shook her head. She couldn’t be bothered to dwell on it, so she picked up her phone, lay back on the bed, put on her headphones, and started watching anime.
The ring’s cooldown hadn’t ended yet, and she really couldn’t be bothered to do anything else.
...
“What’s your blood-condensation level?” a clear female voice asked.
“Seventy-five.”
“Seventy-eight...”
The dormitory door swung open, and several girls walked in. When they saw Su Jiu sprawled on her bed playing on her phone, they fell silent.
Their eyes immediately filled with disdain. This was supposed to be a dormitory for top students, but because of her family background, Lu Nan had arranged for the spoiled Su Jiu to live with them.
He’d even dressed it up as, “Those who stay near vermilion become red, and those near ink become black,” saying they could help her study.
Just then, a tall-looking girl spoke up. She walked to the head of Su Jiu’s bed, frowned, and said, “Su, this is a place for studying. Please stop playing on your phone.”
The other girls watched with amused expressions. The tall girl was called Lu Ke, daughter of the chief of the law enforcement team stationed in Huayang. With her family background, she really wasn’t afraid of Su Jiu.
“Huh? You want to use my phone?”
Su Jiu was wearing headphones with the volume turned way up. She was enjoying the silly cartoons of this world when Lu Ke came to stand beside her with her arms crossed. Su Jiu took off one earbud and asked her that.
“I mean, stop playing on your phone! Don’t you think you’re disturbing everyone’s cultivation? Not everyone wants to be a good-for-nothing like you.”
Lu Ke’s eyelid twitched. She’d long been annoyed by this catlike, restless girl. The dorm had always revolved around her, but ever since Su Jiu arrived, she’d done as she pleased and paid Lu Ke no mind at all.
“But I don’t see how I’m disturbing you. I’m on the top bunk, and I’m wearing headphones...”
Su Jiu didn’t like dorm life with other girls. Honestly, if that old man at home hadn’t insisted she live at school, she’d probably be practicing martial techniques and fighting monsters on the outskirts of the mountains right now.
“I said turn it off! Why are you talking so much?” Lu Ke looked down at Su Jiu’s petite frame and shouted contemptuously. She climbed the bunk ladder, ready to snatch the phone away.
Su Jiu merely pursed her lips and shifted aside, letting Lu Ke grab at empty air. Then she said with a helpless expression, “Why not just pretend I’m not here? Why do you have to be so aggressive?”
“Heh...”
Lu Ke sneered, no longer bothering to hide her intentions. She leaped onto the empty bed beside Su Jiu and shot toward her like an arrow. This clearly wasn’t just about taking her phone.
Then she kicked hard at the phone in Su Jiu’s hand. Her foot swept up a gust of air; if the kick landed, it could probably punch a hole through a wooden box. The top-student dorm certainly had some capable people in it.
“What a bunch of brats, making such a fuss.”
Su Jiu just rolled over, turned sideways, and smoothly climbed down from the bed, landing steadily on the floor...
“Bang!” A loud crash rang out.
But Lu Ke had kicked right through the bed board. The quilt’s stuffing was exposed to the air, drifting slightly. It looked like Su Jiu wouldn’t be able to sleep there anymore.
The few girls nearby stifled their laughter. They came from ordinary families and didn’t dare go too far with Su Jiu.
“There, now you don’t have to play on your phone. You can sleep in the bathroom instead.” Lu Ke was surprised Su Jiu had dodged her kick, but she clearly enjoyed the other girl’s isolated and helpless predicament even more.
Serves you right for not listening to me!
Watching this, Su Jiu was genuinely getting angry. Her fist slowly clenched. Had she been giving them too much leeway?
A trace of frost slowly gathered at Su Jiu’s fingertips, and her expression turned completely cold. She was ready to teach these people a lesson.
By then, the doorway was packed with onlookers, all drawn by the loud crash. Fights in the girls’ dorm were rare, and girls were much quicker than boys when it came to rushing over for the gossip.
Just as everyone was watching to see how Su Jiu would react, a figure pushed past several girls and grabbed her from behind. “Come sleep with me, Big Sister Jiu... Don’t make a scene. That girl’s the law enforcement chief’s daughter. We can’t afford to offend her.”