Human Nature Is Often the Least Able to Withstand a Test

At school, in a dense grove, beneath the shade of a tree.

Sensing fear points converging from all directions, Fan Daoyi opened his eyes.

His nap had lasted until nightfall, and the sounds of students talking as they returned to their dorms filled his ears.

"The college entrance exam is the day after tomorrow. What should I do? I'm a little scared."

"Don't be nervous. Relax and think about the rewards you'll get after entering Guixu."

The students feared the college entrance exam, yet they looked forward to Guixu with boundless anticipation. To them, Guixu was currently nothing more than a freebie game where they could gain a fortuitous encounter just by going through the motions, without paying any price. Who wouldn't love that?

Fan Daoyi loosened his stiff body, casually picked up the bamboo staff beside him, and stood. His eyes were still a little heavy with sleep.

He had only meant to doze for a while, but he had slept straight through until dark. Apparently, that hadn't been sleep—he had passed out cold.

Ah, life was hard, and the boss sighed.

As he patted the dust off and prepared to leave, he heard an unusual sound from deep in the grove. Curious, he went over to see what was happening, found a perfect spot, and settled in to eat melon.

There were two protagonists, a boy and a girl. Fan Daoyi had seen the boy on the wall of outstanding students. He had heard people say the guy's family was quite wealthy and had donated a building to the school.

As for the girl, Fan Daoyi didn't recognize her. Aside from being somewhat pretty, she was probably just a nobody.

It was easy to guess what they were doing in a grove late at night.

The girl retreated timidly, and the boy pressed closer step by step.

"Don't come any closer..." The girl struggled as the boy seized her wrist.

The boy grinned lecherously. "You can scream your throat raw, but it won't do you any good."

It was a familiar scenario. Perhaps it was time for a hero to save the beauty.

Fan Daoyi watched for a long while, but he didn't see the girl generate even a tiny bit of fear. Was this playing hard to get, a little spice in the way people interacted?

Their clothes were already half off, and just as they were getting carried away, the girl turned her head slightly. In the distance, beyond two weeds, a figure sat atop a grave mound, watching them with a curious gaze.

"Ghost!" the girl shrieked in fright, hurriedly wrapping her clothes tight around herself.

The boy looked in the direction the girl had seen it, condensed a fireball in his hand, and hurled it straight over.

"Hm, another player who entered Guixu ahead of time?"

Fan Daoyi flashed behind the boy and slapped an icy hand onto his shoulder.

"Quit it." The boy thought the girl was playing around with him and warned her aloud.

He looked to his side and saw the girl wearing a terrified expression, her trembling hand pointing behind him. Both of her hands were in his sight, so whose hands were those behind him?!

The boy didn't dare look back. Flames encircled his feet, and fiery pythons took shape one after another, slithering toward Fan Daoyi.

The flames ignited the dead leaves on the ground. The fire grew, and more fiery pythons formed.

"Look, everyone! The grove's on fire!"

The blaze caught the attention of students returning to their dorms.

"Damn, did someone leave another cigarette butt burning?"

They reported it to the school, and teachers with water-related abilities immediately headed to the scene.

The girl timidly watched the figure engulfed by fiery pythons. In the darkness, she hadn't seen the person's face clearly and had simply felt afraid.

Only when she saw the figure engulfed in flames did she come to her senses. Frightened, she grabbed the boy's hand. "Y-you just attacked him? What if it's a misunderstanding? Wouldn't that be murder?"

"Why worry about all that? I can settle it with money anyway."

His family's resources had let him obtain an ability before ordinary people, making him immensely proud.

The boy had no such scruples about killing. All he knew was that he had been frightened, and whether it was a person or a ghost, it had to die.

"You went straight for a killing move? You're a ruthless one." At some point, Fan Daoyi had put on a mask that concealed his face.

The fiery pythons surrounding him parted to either side and climbed the tree trunks, creating a ring of fire that enclosed all three of them. He walked out over the scorched leaves, offering praise, looking every bit the villain.

"Who are you?" the boy asked, watching the masked figure warily.

With his hand behind his back, he tried to control the flames and was astonished to discover that his ability was no longer under his control.

"Who am I?" Fan Daoyi chuckled. "Is that question important? You went straight for a killing move without asking who I was."

He snapped his fingers, and a three-meter-long fiery python fell from high above and coiled around the boy.

Under the scorching heat, the boy's skin began to sizzle, and the smell of roasted meat wafted out.

"Ah!" The boy screamed again and again.

Facing the girl, who had yet to recover from her fright, Fan Daoyi asked him kindly, "Do you have any cumin?"

The girl hugged her arms tightly and shook her head timidly.

"That's a shame. Roasted meat smells better with a little cumin." Fan Daoyi smiled wickedly. "I wonder if you're used to eating it like this."

The girl's legs gave out, and she fell to her knees. Weeping bitterly, she begged Fan Daoyi, "Don't kill me, don't kill me! I'll pay any price!"

Fan Daoyi looked up at the sky. Quite a few people were putting out the fire, and it wouldn't last much longer. To avoid unnecessary trouble, he had to end this quickly.

"He's pretty resistant to fire." The bamboo staff in Fan Daoyi's hand transformed into a dagger. He crouched halfway down and met the girl's eyes through his mask, his tone gentle. "Go kill him, and I'll let you go. How about it?"

"R-really?" The girl took the dagger of her own accord, as if she had seen a glimmer of hope.

"Of course. I always keep my promises."

What was so interesting about watching them be lovey-dovey? It would be better to watch them kill each other.

The girl struck decisively, plunging the dagger toward the boy's heart without hesitation.

A tremendous force sent her flying. Her back slammed against a tree trunk, the dagger fell from her hand, and her face twisted in pain.

A blue light emerged from the boy's body, forming a shield around him. A streak of red light appeared and burrowed into the center of the girl's brow, and the boy's body vanished.

"As expected, he had a life-saving measure." Fan Daoyi watched with interest. Fortunately, he hadn't dealt a killing blow at the start. "They say that if you cut the grass without pulling up the roots, it will grow again when the spring breeze blows, but I'm not yet capable of dealing with a whole faction."

"Better to be cautious."

He walked toward the girl again, his tone now filled with pity for her. "How tragic. You're going to be my scapegoat."

The girl looked momentarily stunned. With difficulty, she raised her head and met Fan Daoyi's gaze. "What?"

"That red light has a tracking function. You hurt that guy, so the family behind him probably won't let you off," Fan Daoyi explained to her.

"!" The girl's pupils contracted sharply, and she shook her head in disbelief. "N-no, they won't. He wouldn't..."

"Why wouldn't he?" Fan Daoyi interrupted her, narrowing his eyes. "He saw you attack him with a knife with his own eyes, without the slightest hesitation."

The girl lost all her strength at once. She slumped where she was, her eyes vacant, still mumbling to herself, "No, he wouldn't. I was forced..."

A vicious look flashed across her face, and she shouted at Fan Daoyi, "You forced me!"

That shout used up all her strength.

Fan Daoyi laughed aloud and shook his head helplessly. "You people really like to shift the blame onto others when something goes wrong, don't you?"

He held out a hand and gentlemanly pulled the girl to her feet. "Actually, there's no need for that. I never said I wouldn't help you."

"Help me?" The girl froze. He didn't know what trick Fan Daoyi was planning.

"Of course. We're grasshoppers on the same rope." He stepped back several paces. The fiery pythons above were nearly extinguished by water and were falling in great swathes. "There's a very simple way to erase the tracking traces."

"All you have to do..." He raised one finger, a wisp of flame curling around its tip, and pointed it at the girl. "Is die."

A similar fiery python, the same fate.

Feeling the searing pain, the girl screamed without caring how she looked, "Didn't you say you kept your promises? Didn't you say you wouldn't kill me?!"

Fan Daoyi remained unmoved. The dagger on the ground flew back to his side of its own accord and turned back into a bamboo staff. He held it and stood there watching quietly.

"Of course I keep my promises, but you didn't."

When the fire above was completely extinguished, his figure vanished, leaving behind one final sentence.

"What I said was, if you killed him, I'd let you go."