Forbidden Zone of the Human Race

When Wu Rui felt the formidable force of Xiang Ning's Mountain-Splitting Slash, he understood. Everything up to that point had been fake. Everything he had been proud of was fake. To Xiang Ning, it was all child’s play. He realized that Xiang Ning could have also beaten him before the breakthrough, because there was a true power gap between a person at Peak Mastery and the Awakened level. Though it was just one step in theory, the difference was just too great!

“Heh…hehe.” Wu Rui hung his head as if he had accepted his fate, but he had one last shred of pride keeping him together and his hopes alive.

“So what if you’ve achieved Peak Mastery. I’m Wu Rui... I am a prodigy! I will never yield!” Wu Rui yelled as pride surged in his heart, feeling himself strengthened by his own rallying cry... though it was just all an inner drama.

Boom! The iron rod in his hand bent, then flew high in the air. Wu Rui was blown tens of meters back, rolling seven or eight times on the ground before coming to a halt.

Xiang Ning shrugged. “You overestimate yourself. Do you think you’re the main character of some novel?”

“Wu Rui! Wu Rui!” Zhao Huatai panicked when he saw Wu Rui getting thrown in the air, then rushed forward and madly shook him.

But Wu Rui didn’t wake.

“He didn’t kill Wu Rui, did he?” gasped the other teammates. It was a shocking scene. They had witnessed many fights, but they’d never seen someone being this severely overpowered. His weapon had been destroyed and the owner was tossed in the air like a gunny sack! Could anyone survive that?

“Shut up!” Zhao Huatai sternly roared, though he checked Wu Rui’s breath with a shaky hand and heaved a sigh of relief. Wu Rui was still alive.

“Wu Rui, wake up! Tell me you’re alright!” Zhao Huatai slapped his cheeks. He felt that Wu Rui fainting from the fight was too embarrassing. One must lose a fight with dignity.

However, Wu Rui was as good as dead because he never stirred. At that moment, he was too busy furiously cursing Zhao Huatai out in his heart. Didn’t he know he was pretending to be dead? He had realized he was no match for Xiang Ning the moment he was thrown in the air, and now he did not want to fight him at all. Did they want him to continue facing that monster?

Absolutely not! He didn’t want to be utterly humiliated. If he pretended to be dead, at least he could tell himself he didn’t know what happened.

“Xiang Ning, Wu Rui was holding back during the duel, he never planned to severely injure or kill you! But look what you did! What they said was true—you’re just a violent, bloodthirsty bastard!”

“Yeah, our boss was holding back but you almost killed him with one strike! If he wasn’t powerful enough, he would’ve died!”

Xiang Ning stared at them coldly, then scoffed, “It’s his own fault if he gets killed. I gave him many chances, but he never appreciated it. He couldn’t kill me even if he wanted to! All I did was strike once. Looks like Hanwu Academy isn’t all they say it is!”

Fury Points +344

Fury Points +411

Fury Points +366

…

Xiang Ning was delighted with the increasing Fury Points, because there were five numbers and Wu Rui’s team consisted of five members. That meant Wu Rui was listening too—obviously nothing too severe had happened and Wu Rui was only playing dead.

“You can insult us but you can’t insult our school!” yelled Zhao Huatai indignantly.

“Haha, school? Zhao Huatai, if someone else said that, I'd respect them... but you?” Xiang Ning eyed him with amusement. How many days had it been since he had transferred?

“You!” Zhao Huatai was so furious he could not speak.

“Xiang Ning, you’ve beaten us. First place is yours, is it necessary to insult us and our school? Do you really think you’re the best now?” scolded one of the Hanwu students.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t insulting you specifically. I’m just talking about all of you. You’re all trash! Hanwu Academy must’ve had rotten luck to have students like you. You’re all rotten, don’t you go thinking you’re all high and mighty.”

Fang Rou and the rest stepped forward, wanting to speak up when they heard Xiang Ning, but in the end, they held their tongues.

“You’re being ridiculous!” Zhao Huatai yelled, enraged.

“Hehe, I accept your challenge,” shrugged Xiang Ning. He wanted to humble these arrogant folk. Why did they all think they were better than other people just because they were from a famous school?

Within Fortress Three, Hanwu Academy’s headmaster was fuming. No one mocked him, though, because he had indeed just suffered a humiliation. Wu Rui, a tier two martial artist, had just been beaten down by Xiang Ning with only one strike. He had just sworn that Wu Rui was Xiang Ning’s bane prior to the fight, too, the one who would stop that brat in his tracks. Unfortunately, not only did Wu Rui fail to stop Xiang Ning, he had worsened the situation and lost terribly, even embarrassing the school’s name. Wu Zhishen closed his eyes, his breathing irregular.

When Lei Zhongyuan saw him, he announced in exasperation, “This is officially the end of this year’s wilderness activity. The top three teams are Qiling Academy, Hanwu Academy, and Helios Academy. All winners shall receive generous prizes awarded by the military and ministry of education. Headmasters, please oversee the distribution of prizes. The remainder of the top ten teams will also receive prizes.”

Then, Lei Zhongyuan excused himself and left. When he left the hall, Lei Zhongyuan bitterly smiled. “This kid’s being a bully. Why don’t we keep him in the military and ride out the storm?”

Dong Qianyi, who was leaning on the door with his hands in the pockets of his white robes, grinned. “There’s no need for that, just take him back to the city. If he can’t handle it then there’s no need to waste my time training him.”

“Didn’t you want to take him from me? You think you can toss him to me on a whim?”

Dong Qianyi grinned without a word. Lei Zhongyuan waved him off and said, “Fine, I’ll arrange for the kids to be brought back to the city. To be honest, I, too, would like to see how the kid rides out this storm.”

These days, every school in the city knew of Xiang Ning’s notoriety and lack of values. They had heard how students from the First School and Hanwu Academy had tried challenging Qiling Academy but suffered heavy losses.

As the gossip escalated, even Qiling Academy’s own students were embarrassed by Xiang Ning, treating him as a rotten apple. They hated him to his core.

That was because he also held another identity—he was a part-time student. Part-time students never had a good reputation, especially within schools filled with aristocratic blood.

“Part-time students have always been terrible quality! How dare he drag our school’s name through the mud!”

“He has embarrassed our school! He’s a menace!”

“Without him, we wouldn’t be suffering such humiliation! Other schools are trying to fight us now!”

“I remember he has a little sister in the lower secondary section, should we check her out?”

The crowd erupted in conversation.