The Return of a King

Half an hour later, when every member of Yellow Class Nine had finally, with the aid of the third-rank healing sacred medicine, the Life Creation Pill, which could bring the dead back to life and regrow flesh upon bone, barely dealt with their terrifying, potentially fatal injuries and regrouped at the cave entrance, a brutal forced march officially began under Lin Xiao's cold, unquestionable orders.

This was a team filled with contradictions and an unsettling sense of discord.

Judging from their pale faces, weak breaths, and bodies with scarcely an inch of uninjured skin, they looked more like a pitiful defeated army that had barely crawled back into the human world from the Nine Nether Hell.

Yet judging from their spear-straight postures, their synchronized, silent steps, and those twenty-nine pairs of eyes filled with exhaustion but burning within with flames fierce enough to melt steel, they resembled an undefeated royal army returning in triumph after drinking their fill of Gods and Devils' blood!

They did not carry the head of Wu Tianxiong, the once-arrogant overlord, in their hands. Instead, they dragged a "trophy" that struck more terror into the hearts of the world than killing him outright—a cripple whose limbs had all been severed, whose dantian had been shattered, whose cultivation had been completely abolished, and who lay unconscious like a dead dog!

A former legend who had stood high above all others not long ago, hailed as the "number one of the Outer Court"!

In this silent, domineering, blood-soaked manner, they set out on the road back to the academy!

Cloud Creek Academy, Outer Court.

At this moment, a full day and night had passed since Lin Xiao's group left the Mission Hall.

Yet the terrifying, "epic-level" storm they had personally ignited showed no signs of subsiding. Instead, it only grew fiercer and fiercer!

More than a hundred thousand students across the entire Outer Court, whether newcomers or veterans, ordinary students or core members of the major factions, were all discussing the same matter—could Yellow Class Nine return alive?!

"A whole day and night! There's still not a shred of news! In my opinion, those fools who didn't know the height of heaven or depth of earth have probably long since been torn into scraps by the wolves of Black Wind Mountain Range. Not even bone fragments would remain!"

"Does that even need saying? That's a high-level B-grade death mission that even the strongest teams from Heaven Class wouldn't dare touch lightly! Those trash whose average cultivation hasn't even reached the Body Refinement Fifth Level? It would already be a blessing from their ancestors if they lasted half a day in there!"

"What a pity for Lin Xiao! He clearly possessed peerless talent enough to rival President Wu Tianxiong's, yet he had to be a complete madman! Not only did he want to throw away his own life, he even dragged his twenty-nine pitiful companions down to be buried with him! Utterly foolish!"

Similar discussions filled with gloating and pity rose and fell throughout every corner of the academy.

Almost no one held any hope for Yellow Class Nine, this controversial team. In their eyes, Lin Xiao and the others' ending had long since been decided.

Even the ordinary students who had once developed a trace of fervent worship for Lin Xiao because of his wild words found the tiny flame of hope they had only just kindled gradually extinguished by cruel reality after this long day-and-night wait.

Miracles were called miracles precisely because they were nearly impossible to happen.

Yet just as everyone had silently accepted the tragic ending of Yellow Class Nine being wiped out to the last man, earthshaking news that could render the entire Outer Court utterly speechless suddenly crashed into everyone's hearts like a world-destroying meteor from beyond the nine heavens!

"They... they're back!"

"Yellow Class Nine... they... they came back!"

No one knew who first spotted that blood-red army at the academy gates, like soldiers returning victorious from hell, and let out a warped howl brimming with endless horror and disbelief!

One stone stirred up a thousand waves!

"What?!"

"Impossible! That's absolutely impossible! Am I dreaming?!"

After a brief deathly silence, the entire Cloud Creek Academy instantly erupted like a billion-ton powder keg that had been completely detonated!

Countless students rushed madly from every direction of the academy toward the gates, which had already been packed so tightly that not even water could pass through!

They all wanted to see with their own eyes exactly what miserable state that team, already sentenced to death in everyone's eyes, had returned from that death mountain range in by sheer luck!

Yet when they truly pushed through the crowd and saw the team's real appearance, the curiosity and amusement on everyone's faces froze completely in an instant!

What replaced them was immense horror and coldness rising from the depths of their souls!

Th-that... how could they be a defeated army that had barely escaped with their lives?!

They were clearly hellish ghosts and gods who had just slaughtered Gods and Devils!

Though every one of them was ragged, drenched in blood, and miserable beyond measure, the frigid killing intent naturally radiating from their bodies, nearly condensing into substance, made every student who met their gaze feel as if an invisible demonic god's giant hand had ruthlessly clenched their heart!

Instinctively, they gave them a broad path filled with reverence and fear!

What made everyone's scalps tingle and their livers and gallbladders split with terror, however, was the bloody figure at the very end of the formation, dragged along like a dead dog!

Though that person's limbs had been severed and his body was drenched in blood, leaving him in such a horrifying state that even his own mother likely would not recognize him, everyone identified his true identity at first glance from the sky-blue lion battle armor on him. Though it had been thoroughly soaked in blood and dust, its original domineering and noble aura could still faintly be discerned!

"Wu... Wu... Wu Tianxiong?!"

A trembling howl full of boundless shock and worldview-shattering disbelief rang out from the crowd!

"Boom—"

The academy gates of Cloud Creek Academy sank completely into an unprecedented, immense silence!

At that moment, everyone's minds stopped functioning entirely!

Like pitiful mortals who had witnessed the sun rise in the west, they could only stare blankly, with endless absurdity and horror in their eyes, at the former god casually discarded by Lin Xiao and the others onto the cold ground!

An invisible terror, colder and more bone-piercing than a Siberian cold current, instantly enveloped everyone's souls!

Heavens...

The sky over Cloud Creek Academy's Outer Court...

Was about to change!

Lin Xiao ignored the thousands upon thousands of horrified and fearful gazes around him.

He could not even be bothered to spare another glance at the former "number one," sprawled at his feet like a dead dog and already completely unconscious.

He simply turned around calmly and slowly issued orders to the companions behind him. Though every one of them had suffered severe injuries, their eyes remained filled with undisguised fervor and trust toward him.

"Shi Lei, Monkey."

"You two take half the men and deliver him to the Discipline Hall."

"Tell them that the Heavenly Martial Society disregarded academy regulations and maliciously ambushed fellow students in Black Wind Mountain Range. The evidence is conclusive."

"Request that the Discipline Hall punish them without leniency!"

"The rest of you, come with me to the Mission Hall."

"It is time to claim the rewards belonging to us 'victors.'"

After saying that, he did not linger for even a moment. He led Su Yue and the remaining dozen or so team members, striding proudly through the passage that automatically opened in the sea of people beneath countless reverent and fearful gazes, straight toward the Mission Hall—the place where they had been mocked and ridiculed by countless people a day and night ago!

Mission Hall, main hall.

Though the peak period for submitting missions had long passed, the place was still packed with people and buzzing with activity.

Almost every student who was not in seclusion cultivating had gathered here without prior arrangement. Their eyes were fixed upon the high-level B-grade mission at the very top of the enormous mission light wall, which had long since dimmed.

They were waiting.

Waiting for the final announcement of that tragic ending everyone had already accepted.

Yet at that very moment, a freezing, blood-soaked, slaughter-filled terrifying aura swept in from outside the Mission Hall's gates without warning, like a deathly chill from the Nine Nether Hell!

The previously noisy hall fell silent in an instant!

Everyone instinctively stopped their discussions and slowly turned toward that terrifying aura, which seemed capable of freezing even a person's soul.

Then they saw a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

Fifteen young men and women, dressed in tattered black clothing so thoroughly stained by blood and dust that its original color could no longer be seen, entered the Mission Hall in neat formation and with silent steps, like hellish ghosts and gods returning triumphantly from a mountain of corpses and sea of blood.

Their arrival made the temperature in the entire hall seem to plunge to freezing point!

"Yellow... Yellow Class Nine?!"

Another warped howl filled with endless horror and shattered beliefs sounded from the crowd!

The entire Mission Hall sank into deathly silence.

The gloating and pity that had once hung on everyone's faces froze instantly!

What replaced them was immense terror, even more horrifying and absurd than seeing a ghost!

They... they had actually returned alive?!

Before they could recover from that massive shock, which seemed as unbelievable as a fantasy tale, the handsome youth at the front, whose eyes were cold without a trace of emotion, had already walked straight up to the steward elder, who was likewise so frightened that he stood dumbfounded, as though his three souls had lost seven spirits.

He calmly placed a Chief Instructor jade token stained with a few dark-red bloodstains and a blood-red beast core the size of an infant's fist—within which seemed to be sealed the savage shadow of a wolf silently roaring—upon the counter.

"High-level B-grade Mission, Clear Black Wind Mountain Range."

"We completed it."

Lin Xiao's calm, rippleless voice was like a hammer of judgment from the divine realm, ruthlessly smashing into the hearts of everyone present!

It shattered the last remnants of their wishful thinking and reason!

"Gulp."

The steward elder swallowed with difficulty. His aged eyes, already somewhat clouded by excessive shock, stared fixedly at the third-rank beast core radiating a terrifying aura that made one's heart palpitate!

His body trembled violently!

He did not even dare imagine what kind of horrifying, brutal, bloody death battle these miserable-looking youths, who seemed to have crawled back from hell, had gone through in that death mountain range to forcibly chew through this hot potato that had left the entire Outer Court helpless!

"Good... good... good..."

Only after saying "good" three times did he finally slowly regain his senses from that earth-shattering shock.

He no longer dared show the slightest neglect. Hastily and clumsily, he picked up Lin Xiao's jade token and rapidly operated the light screen before him.

"Ding!"

A crisp, pleasant sound rang out!

Then, beneath the gazes of hundreds and thousands of people filled with endless shock and fervor, a line of dazzling golden words that would be recorded in Cloud Creek Academy's hundred-year history slowly appeared at the very top of the enormous mission light wall!

[High-level B-grade Mission: Clear Black Wind Mountain Range, completed!]

[Completion team: Yellow Class Nine!]

[Mission rating: Perfect!]

[Rewards issued: 60,000 merit points (base 30,000, doubled for perfect rating), one volume of the high-grade Profound-rank martial art Rushing Thunder Swordplay, one Inner Court special assessment recommendation slot!]

Boom—!

The moment that string of terrifying rewards, enough to drive any normal person completely insane, appeared on the light screen, the entire Mission Hall erupted into unprecedented frenzy!

Sixty thousand merit points!

A high-grade Profound-rank martial art!

And an Inner Court special assessment recommendation slot that every Heaven Class genius would fight until their heads broke for!

They had struck it rich!

Yellow Class Nine, those people whom everyone had viewed as "trash" not long ago, had truly soared to the heavens in a single step this time. They had become rich beyond measure!

Yet just as everyone was immersed in the mad shock brought by such enormous wealth, enough to make even gods jealous, an aged laugh filled with endless authority and gratification slowly drifted in from outside the Mission Hall gates without warning.

"Hahaha! Good! What a Yellow Class Nine! What a Lin Xiao!"

"You truly have not disappointed this old man!"

Everyone turned toward the sound.

They saw Outer Court Vice Dean Chu Tianxing striding in with the gait of a dragon and tiger, surrounded by a group of academy higher-ups whose auras were likewise immensely powerful!

His face bore undisguised delight and pride that came from the bottom of his heart!

He walked straight up to Lin Xiao, who had already become the absolute focal point of the entire hall, and heavily patted his somewhat slender yet incomparably straight shoulder.

His cloudy old eyes were filled with boundless appreciation, as though he were admiring a peerless piece of Uncut Jade!

"You brat are good!"

"Very good!"

"Not only did you complete our 'three-month agreement' ahead of schedule, you even exceeded it in a perfect manner that even this old man had never anticipated!"

He slowly turned around. His authoritative gaze swept across the thousands of students present, who had already been cowed silent by his terrifying aura, and he publicly announced in a booming voice that allowed no doubt!

"I, Chu Tianxing, hereby officially announce in the name of the Cloud Creek Academy Outer Court Vice Dean!"

"From this day onward, the designation Yellow Class Nine shall forever become history!"

"In its place shall stand a new, independent class above all 'Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow' classes!"

"Its name shall be—"

He paused and cast his gaze, filled with boundless expectation and appreciation, upon the youth who had remained calm and neither humble nor overbearing from beginning to end.

"—'Defy Mortals'!"