Chapter 21: The Wager

“Ahem!”
A cough abruptly cut through the tense confrontation between the two.
The City Lord said helplessly, “Gentlemen, isn’t this wager of yours a bit too much?”
A Level Five weapon!
Even the City Lord felt his heart leap with alarm.
As the most powerful figure in Flower City, even he would have to pay a steep price to acquire such a weapon.
Had these two lost their heads?
“City Lord, why not act as a witness for us?”
Principal Sun smiled faintly, “What do you say, Principal Zhang?”
“Agreed!”
Principal Zhang nodded emphatically.
He had already thoroughly investigated Fang Qingyun’s background.
Child of Fang Zhiheng!
Within the martial artists of Flower City, he did indeed wield some influence, but compared to Zhou Yi from Second High, the gap was vast.
Zhou Yi was truly scion of a renowned family, raised under the strictest tutelage, afforded the best resources, and was in fact Zhang’s own disciple.
How could he possibly lose to an ordinary person?
The two sat at their respective places, regarding each other coldly.
Before each of them, a screen was displayed, showing Fang Qingyun and Zhou Yi.
The two confronted each other, as steady as mountains and deep as the abyss.
The other principals exchanged glances and shrugged.
A screen also appeared before them, each showing the best-performing student of their own school.
In terms of numbers, First High School was ahead.
But in terms of quality?
Perhaps they still stood a chance.
Many principals’ eyes flashed with anticipation.
This year, they too had some aces up their sleeves.
The brightest star of this year was not yet decided.

…

With a heartrending shriek, a giant wolf was beheaded by Fang Qingyun’s blade.
The other two wolves lunged at him.
Fang Qingyun pushed off with his feet, his body twisting with uncanny agility, threading the gap between the two wolves like a phantom.
He swung his blade backhanded, cleaving into the side of one wolf.
Blood sprayed forth as the wolf howled in agony.
“Save your breath!”
Fang Qingyun swung again, and the wolf’s head rolled to the ground.
In the blink of an eye, only one wolf remained—the Wolf King!
It was the largest and most formidable of the half-demon, half-fiend beasts.
At the start of the battle, Fang Qingyun had wanted to deal with it first, but it had repeatedly slipped away, even nearly wounding him by joining forces with the other wolves.
Helpless, he had to eliminate the others first.

[Spirit Power +1]
[Spirit Power +1]
[Spirit Power +1]

With three wolves slain in succession, three streams of light surged into Fang Qingyun’s body, altering his statistics once more.

[Spirit Power: 27]

That familiar feeling of heaviness descended upon him again.
Taking a deep breath, he declared, “Now, it’s just you left!”
He raised his nicked longsword, “As the leader, go and join your pack.”
The Wolf King howled and turned to flee.
“Running? You think you can escape?”
Fang Qingyun sneered, hooked a sniper rifle up from the ground with his foot, and fired without even aiming.
Intermediate marksmanship was that powerful!
Bang!
The Wolf King howled in pain, collapsing.
His hind leg bled profusely—Fang Qingyun’s shot had struck the vulnerable crook of its knee.
Watching this scene on the screens, many exhaled in astonishment.
Even Principal Zhang’s brow twitched.
To land such a shot under this gravity!
In terms of firearms skill alone, Fang Qingyun was the top candidate this year.
The City Lord couldn’t help but laugh, “If the military’s people discovered this kid, they’d snatch him away in a heartbeat—there’s a touch of a sharpshooter’s flair in his marksmanship.”
His smile froze mid-sentence.
A soldier, expressionless, appeared in the hall, nodded curtly to the crowd as a greeting, then quietly found a corner seat.
Damn!
Many cursed inwardly, especially those from the admissions offices, already fuming.
The army had actually sent someone?
What for?
To recruit straight from high school?
Or… a military academy?
Who was the target? Fang Qingyun, or someone else?

…

Bang!
With another gunshot, a bullet plunged into the Wolf King’s eye, and a torrent of blood gushed forth.
The Wolf King let out a dying roar and gradually fell silent.
Two streams of light appeared, merging into Fang Qingyun’s body.
The Wolf King had granted him two more points of spirit power.

[Spirit Power +1]
[Spirit Power +1]
[Spirit Power: 29]

“Good grief, that’s heavy!”
Fang Qingyun grimaced.
He had to be careful now—he could sink into the ground at any moment.
Even without weapons, the weight he bore was close to two thousand pounds.
Adding in the weapons, it was definitely more than two thousand.
If not for all his attributes being above ten, with a physique as high as twelve, he would have been dead by now.

Outside.
Old Li watched Fang Qingyun on the screen in silence, muttering to himself: Damn it, so you know it’s heavy? If you know it’s heavy, why don’t you stop? If you can sit tight until the next tidal shift, I’ll take your surname.
Sure enough!
After a brief pause, Fang Qingyun began collecting the weapons left behind by Xu Tao’s group.

Especially the bullets.
In the end, after gathering them all, the sniper rifle was nearly full, the light machine gun’s drum was more than half-loaded—about a hundred and fifty rounds in all.
The pistols had two full magazines.
As for melee weapons, there were two longswords—just ordinary single-handed blades.
Fang Qingyun preferred two-handed swords.
Heavier, longer, greater killing power—more satisfying in the hand.
“These will have to do!”
Two pistols, two longswords, a sniper rifle, light machine gun in hand—Fang Qingyun was armed to the teeth, glaring fiercely at the forest with a savage grin.
“With this arsenal, I’ll sweep the secret realm today.
“Half-demons or fiends, whoever dares cross me, I’ll gun them all down!”

City Hall.
Watching the formidable Fang Qingyun, Principal Zhang felt a pang in his teeth.
For the first time, his faith in his own disciple wavered.
He began to doubt the outcome.
Was this kid’s physique really that monstrous?
Looking at the weapons he carried, thinking of the increased gravity of the secret realm, Principal Zhang shifted uneasily in his seat.
With more than twenty points of spirit power and such a load of heavy weapons, even a seasoned martial artist would struggle to move.
Was this boy raised on cattle feed?
Fang Qingyun’s next actions made his eyelids twitch even more.

…

The stench of blood in the forest easily attracted predators—half-demon, half-fiends were no exception.
To exploit this, Fang Qingyun skinned and bled eight giant wolves, then hung their carcasses from the trees.
He himself climbed a tree, set up his sniper rifle, checked the wind direction, and waited silently for prey to arrive.
Half-demon, half-fiends possessed a certain intelligence—a trap this simple would not fool them.
But with Fang Qingyun on the rifle, any animal entering his line of sight would never escape.
Many principals watched with mixed expressions.
The City Lord and the soldier, on the other hand, revealed looks of admiration.
Fang Qingyun’s technique was rough, betraying his lack of experience.
But his overall strategy was flawless.
The blood of eight wolves would certainly draw beasts.
But could Fang Qingyun himself endure?
Even Principal Sun couldn’t help but show a trace of concern.
Fang Qingyun’s spirit power had already reached an astonishing level—at least twenty-six or twenty-seven, by conservative estimate.
Could he really last until the end with such a massive reserve?
Don’t forget, two more tidal shifts remained.
After two more, his spirit power would surpass thirty—a truly staggering figure.
If he really managed to survive three tidal shifts…
Every time Sun thought of this, he was seized by a breathless sense of anticipation.