At the school's Academic Affairs Office, Zhang Bin's parents wore furious expressions.
"My son's Divine Realm Core has been shattered, with no possibility of reconstruction. Shouldn't the school give me an explanation?" Zhang Bin's father, Zhang Gang, roared angrily.
Director of Studies Xu Mei explained from the side, "As far as we know, this invasion battle was caused by your son, Zhang Bin. Moreover, student Zhang Bin has multiple disciplinary records of bullying fellow students..."
Zhang Gang abruptly rose to his feet, his demigod aura surging forward.
"What? Are you saying my son deserved to have his Divine Realm Core shattered? That the school bears no responsibility at all? You teachers have no responsibility either?"
Xu Mei was also a demigod, but her specialty lay in logistical support. In terms of aura, she was far inferior to Zhang Gang.
"Mr. Zhang, that isn't what I mean. Regarding the accident in which student Zhang Bin's Divine Realm Core was shattered, the school has decided to offer a bit of divinity as compensation. Though it cannot make up for the loss, it represents the school's goodwill."
"Not enough!" Hearing that there would be a bit of divinity as compensation, Zhang Gang's anger subsided somewhat, but he remained dissatisfied.
A bit of divinity was equivalent to one hundred million divine power, or ten quintillion units of Faith Power. For a demigod like him who specialized in invasion, it was hardly a particularly precious resource.
Zhang Bin's mother, Du Rong, also said, "Besides the compensation of a bit of divinity, the student who shattered my son's Divine Realm Core must also be punished! He must be expelled!"
Xu Mei frowned. Expulsion would mean stripping Han Wu of the school's protection. By then, wouldn't Han Wu, with neither power nor influence, be at the mercy of this couple?
Had they made this demand before she noticed that Han Wu had cultivated the Elite Lifeform Explosive Locusts, she would have expelled Han Wu without a second word.
A student with neither power nor influence, nor any ability, was dispensable to the school.
But now, the video of Han Wu crushing Zhang Bin had spread throughout the entire grade.
The vast majority of teachers believed Han Wu was a promising talent. As long as the number of Explosive Locusts increased, his potential would be beyond measure.
He might even squeeze into the top twenty of the grade.
That was why Xu Mei hesitated over whether he should be punished.
After all, looking at the entire incident, Han Wu's actions had been somewhat aggressive, but he was not at fault.
After pondering for several seconds, Xu Mei replied decisively, "I'm afraid I cannot agree to your request."
"What? You're actually shielding a bad student who shattered another student's Divine Realm Core. Is this your school's educational philosophy?" Du Rong stood up furiously and pointed at Xu Mei's face as she cursed.
Xu Mei's expression turned stern. "Ms. Du, please do not distort the facts. Student Han Wu has always been a law-abiding good student. We have ample evidence proving that your son, Zhang Bin, repeatedly bullied him."
"Don't tell me that useless nonsense. I'll ask you one thing: will you punish Han Wu or not?" Du Rong snarled.
But she was not a demigod after all, and the aura she possessed had no effect on Xu Mei.
"I'm sorry, but we cannot do that." Xu Mei refused cleanly.
Du Rong could only turn to Zhang Gang. "Gang, say something! Zhang Bin is your son too. Can you really bear to watch your son suffer injustice and do nothing?"
Zhang Gang took a deep breath. "Director Xu, I can accept the school not severely punishing Han Wu. But as the victim, I must vent this anger! If you cannot even agree to this small request, then I will no longer have to spare the school's face."
Zhang Gang's words were quite tactful, but their true meaning was that if Xu Mei did not agree to his small request, he would disregard the school's warning and directly make a move against Han Wu.
With his status as a demigod, even if he killed Han Wu in reality, he would only need to symbolically pay some money to settle the matter.
Han Wu had no background. Even if he died, who would seek justice for him? In the end, the matter would simply be swept under the rug.
But as the Director of Studies, Xu Mei greatly admired Han Wu, this talent who had emerged out of nowhere. She did not wish to see him killed.
"Then what does Mr. Zhang intend to do?"
"It's very simple. I'll send a thousand-man squad to invade his Divine Realm. Regardless of the outcome, we will not pursue the matter any further," Zhang Gang said.
A thousand-man squad did not sound like much.
But one must not forget that this was a thousand-man squad belonging to a demigod.
Its strength was absolutely not something a rookie like Zhang Bin, who had only recently opened his Divine Realm, could compare to.
Seeing Zhang Gang's resolute attitude, Xu Mei knew he would not yield any further.
"I will inform student Han Wu. As for whether he agrees, let him decide for himself," Xu Mei could only say.
"My time is limited. I'll wait only one day. If there is still no result tomorrow, I will take action myself." After Zhang Gang finished speaking, he took his wife and son and vanished from the office.
Xu Mei let out a long sigh. "A demigod's thousand-man squad is enough to rival an ordinary student's army of fifty thousand. Han Wu, can you withstand it?"
Elsewhere, Han Wu had acquired ample land resources and food supplies.
As long as the environment could bear it, he repeatedly used Growth Acceleration, causing the number of Locusts in his Divine Realm to soar by leaps and bounds.
After tallying them up, the total number of Locusts in his Divine Realm had already reached the astonishing figure of 4.812 billion.
Of those, 4.8 billion were ordinary Locusts, 5.7 million were ordinary Locusts enhanced with the Fire Attribute, 5.8 million were Elite Lifeform Explosive Locusts, and another 500,000 were Bursting Locusts that had undergone dual enhancement.
Beyond that, nearly ten billion Locust eggs within the Divine Realm were awaiting hatching.
If not for the fact that the Divine Realm's environment could not support the survival of ten billion Locusts, Han Wu would certainly have accelerated those eggs to maturity as well.
Just as Han Wu was preparing to use Life Sacrifice once more, a video call request appeared.
The note on it read: Director of Studies Xu Mei.
Out of respect for Xu Mei's position as a school leader, Han Wu chose to answer.
Xu Mei appeared on the blue screen. She relayed Zhang Bin's father Zhang Gang's demand and stated that this was already the greatest degree of protection the school could offer him.
Han Wu knew in his heart that Xu Mei was telling the truth.
If the school truly had no intention of protecting him, it could simply have sent him an expulsion notice. Why would it force Zhang Gang to seek revenge under the guise of making a request?
But was a thousand-man army raised by a demigod really so easy to handle?
Even though Han Wu now had a full 500,000 Bursting Locusts, he did not dare guarantee that he could successfully resist.
But matters had reached this point. Han Wu had no right to refuse.
Otherwise, what awaited him would be an assassination by a demigod.
"Thank you for your help, Director Xu. I'll go to the school tomorrow and meet this challenge," Han Wu replied before ending the video call.
The current time was 11:30 p.m. in the real world.
It was time for the second Life Sacrifice.
Han Wu raised his hand, and the massive ritual array of Life Sacrifice appeared.
4.8 billion ordinary Locusts, along with 5.7 million Locusts enhanced with the Fire Attribute, transformed into Life Energy and surged into the ritual array.
When the sacrifice ended, three rewards appeared before Han Wu.
Upon clearly seeing the descriptions of the three rewards, Han Wu's eyes lit up.
"The treasures exchanged for 4.8 billion Locusts really aren't bad."
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