Who Am I? Where Am I? (Part 2)

These high school students should have been in class, yet now they had all turned around, staring at Shi Tiexin in utter astonishment. Shi Tiexin stared back at them, their gazes alike in their shifting mix of shock, bewilderment, and confusion.

Looking down at his feet, he saw a desk in front of him as well, except it had already been knocked over, books scattered messily across the floor. He must have overturned it when he had suddenly risen just now. Analyzing it rationally, he should also have been one of these "high school students." The students had probably been quietly attending class—until he had let out a long howl and risen, flipping his desk...

This was bad...

Though his mind was a complete mess, Shi Tiexin understood one thing no matter what—the situation before him was bad!

In the absolute silence, a thunderous roar of fury suddenly exploded from the very front of the classroom.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

At the sound of that voice, an inexplicable fear surged up within him, as if he had heard a lion's roar and a tiger's howl. That fear came from his body, from his soul, and from a memory that suddenly flashed into being.

He shuddered involuntarily and looked up. A man around forty stood at the place called the "podium," glaring at him in uncontrollable fury.

"What, are you raising the banner in rebellion? You want to revolt?!"

The man slammed his palm down on the desk with a bang, practically bristling with rage, every hair standing on end. Shi Tiexin shuddered reflexively, while thoughts burst forth in his mind like a flock of startled ducks, chaotic and frantic.

Oh no, oh no, it was homeroom teacher Old Jia's class! Heavens, what was I doing? Why was I losing my mind in Old Jia's class?

"You don't want to listen to my lesson, is that it? If you don't want to listen, I won't force you—get out! Get out right now!" Homeroom teacher Old Jia pointed at the classroom door like a furious lion. "From now on, stand outside until school lets out. You are not allowed back in class!"

Without the slightest thought of resisting, Shi Tiexin lowered his head and meekly started toward the door.

"Set your desk straight before you leave!" Old Jia roared again. "Don't you even know how to do that? Are you sleepwalking?!"

He turned back and obediently set his desk upright, then crouched down to gather his books and put them away. Some words seemed to flash before his eyes, but Shi Tiexin was so muddleheaded that he did not react at all. He rose and walked outside. Every student in the classroom watched him with all manner of looks, and murmurs immediately spread through the room.

Those looks held incomprehension, bafflement, disgust, disdain, and even a little pity. But Shi Tiexin paid them no heed. Dazed, he walked out of the classroom and stood against the wall in the corridor.

The moment he stepped out the classroom door, the whispers inside immediately grew louder, a buzzing clamor that went on without end.

"All right, all right, shut up! What time do you have to worry about him? Those with poor grades, if you don't want to fall into the Regular Class, and those with good grades, if you still want to enter the Elite Class, then pull yourselves together and study hard—study like your lives depend on it!" Homeroom teacher Old Jia's roar came clearly through the wall. "Survival of the Fittest, the strong survive. At Fengming First High School, you have to be strong, stronger, stronger still, if you want to soar into the sky in a single flight!"

Homeroom teacher Old Jia's voice entered his ears as Shi Tiexin stood in the corridor, his expression lost and confused. His memories and awareness were like radios with crossed wires, playing this station one moment and that station the next. They were also like two decks of cards being shuffled together, overlapping and mingling, fluttering noisily through his mind.

One moment, Shi Tiexin felt that he had grown up in the Orphanage of Tumubao Space City, studied at Star Engineering Cadet School, possessed the Basic Essence Cultivation Technique and Basic Fist Arts, cultivated all Six Fundamental Mind Arts concurrently, and was a "young pupil" about to face the pressure of the Minor Provincial Examination.

The next moment, he felt that he had been born in Donghua Nation, raised in Southern Zhili, attended first-year high school at the prestigious Fengming First High School, and was an ordinary "high school student" too weak to truss a chicken, with nothing special about him at all.

The two different sets of memories constantly collided and intertwined within him, leaving Shi Tiexin unable to notice time passing. Before he knew it, one class had ended. Amid the ringing dismissal bell, homeroom teacher Old Jia walked out of the classroom with a face as black as a storm cloud, his expression hard as pig iron. As he passed Shi Tiexin, he looked him up and down. Seeing Shi Tiexin's muddled expression, as though he were sleepwalking, Old Jia grew even more dissatisfied. He gave a heavy "Hmph!" and left without saying anything.

Shi Tiexin reflexively shrank back and opened his mouth, wanting to say something. But amid the endless collision and turbulence of his thoughts, he could not get a single word out.

Then came the students, streaming out of the classroom in groups. Some were from his class, others from different classes. Chattering conversation immediately rose to a fever pitch. Students from other classes stared hard at Shi Tiexin, who was being punished by standing outside, while someone from his own class immediately began explaining what had happened.

"Oh!"

"So that's it!"

"No way... Why would he do that?"

"Did he go crazy?"

Many people pointed at him from afar, but no one came over to speak to him or spare him the embarrassment. In his daze, Shi Tiexin understood something. He was usually quiet and withdrawn, with little interaction with his classmates. Now that he was in trouble, it was only natural that these people would not want to get caught up in it.

"Haven't you heard? He's that 'Scholar Stone.'" Someone jerked their chin in his direction and said with a subtle expression, "He was First Guard Champion in the high school entrance examinations and was specially recruited by the school."

"Huh?" The others scratched their heads. "Southern Zhili has three provinces, five prefectures, and twenty-eight guards. Becoming the champion of even one guard is already impressive. And he was specially recruited—he should definitely have been in the Elite Class. How did he end up dropping into the Key Class?"

Fengming First High School's Key Class was naturally full of geniuses as well, but compared to the Elite Class, it was still a whole tier lower.

"Who knows? I vaguely heard from some buddies in the Elite Class that this Scholar Stone really was originally in the Elite Class. For a time, he even had the potential to challenge the top ten. But for some reason, his grades suddenly took a severe plunge. By the final exams of the first semester, he had already fallen to the bottom of the Elite Class. Then, in the midterm exams of the second semester, he could not even keep his place in the Elite Class and was sent straight down to the Key Class."

"How could that happen?" one person said in surprise. "A First Guard Champion getting forced out of the Elite Class—that's a little too miserable, isn't it? By the way, Gu Shaohuai, is he good at studying?"

The person telling the story curled his lip, his face full of contempt. "Hmph. When he came a while ago, I thought some banished immortal had arrived, some dragon crossing the river—at the very least, some top student who would grit his teeth and fight his way back. Who would have thought he would end up looking more like a lunatic? If you ask me, in this final exam, forget fighting his way back. He might not even be able to keep his spot in the Key Class."

A new book begins—please bookmark and recommend it~