The King's Return

Half an hour later, after the members of Yellow Class Nine had finally managed to treat their life-threatening injuries with the help of the "Life-Creating Pill," a third-tier healing sacred medicine capable of bringing the dead back to life and mending broken bones, they regrouped at the cave entrance. Under Lin Xiao's cold, unquestionable command, a brutal forced march officially began.

This was a team filled with contradictions and a sense of dissonance.

Judging by their pale faces, weak auras, and the fact that hardly any part of their skin was intact, they looked more like a pathetic defeated army that had barely crawled back to the human world from the depths of hell.

However, judging by their upright, spear-like postures, their orderly and silent footsteps, and the twenty-nine pairs of eyes, though filled with exhaustion, burned with a fierce fire capable of melting steel, they looked like an undefeated royal army that had just drunk its fill of divine and demonic blood and returned victorious!

They did not carry the head of the once-arrogant overlord Wu Tianxiong in their hands, but they dragged a "trophy" that was even more chilling and terrifying to the world than killing him directly—a cripple with all four limbs broken, his dantian shattered, his cultivation completely abolished, and who lay unconscious like a dead dog!

A former legend who, not long ago, stood high above, hailed as the "Number One Person of the Outer Court"!

They began their journey back to the academy with such a silent, domineering, and bloody demeanor!

Cloud Creek Academy, Outer Court.

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

However, the "epic" terrifying storm they had personally ignited showed no signs of subsiding; instead, it was intensifying!

The more than 100,000 students in the entire Outer Court, whether freshmen or seniors, ordinary students or core members of major factions, were almost all discussing the same thing—would Yellow Class Nine be able to return alive?!

"It's been a day and a night! Still no news! I think those ignorant fools have probably already been torn to shreds by the wolves of the Black Wind Mountain Range, leaving not even a bone fragment!"

"Does that even need to be said? That's a high-level B-grade death mission that even the top teams in Heaven Class wouldn't dare to touch lightly! And with them, a bunch of trash whose average cultivation is not even at Body Refinement Fifth Level? It would be an act of ancestral virtue if they could last half a day in there!"

"What a pity for Lin Xiao! He clearly possesses world-shattering talent comparable to Guild Leader Wu Tianxiong, yet he's a complete lunatic! Not only is he going to his death, but he's also dragging his twenty-nine unfortunate companions to accompany him! How incredibly foolish!"

Similar discussions filled with schadenfreude and pity echoed from every corner of the academy.

Almost no one had high hopes for Yellow Class Nine, a team full of controversy. In their eyes, the fate of Lin Xiao and the others was already sealed.

Even the ordinary students who had felt a flicker of fervent admiration for Lin Xiao due to his bold words, after experiencing this long day and night of waiting, found the small spark of hope in their hearts gradually extinguished by the cruel reality.

A miracle is called a miracle precisely because it is almost impossible to happen.

However, just as everyone had tacitly accepted the tragic outcome of Yellow Class Nine's complete annihilation, a shocking piece of news, enough to silence the entire Outer Court, struck everyone's hearts like a doomsday meteor from beyond the heavens, without any warning!

"Th-they're... back!"

"Yellow Class Nine... they... they're back!"

Someone, somewhere, at the academy's main gate, was the first to spot the bloody army returning victoriously from hell, letting out a hoarse cry filled with endless shock and disbelief!

One stone stirred a thousand waves!

"What?!"

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible! Am I dreaming?!"

After a brief moment of deathly silence, the entire Cloud Creek Academy instantly erupted like a detonated megaton powder keg!

Countless students, as if driven mad, surged from all directions of the academy towards the already overcrowded main gate!

They all wanted to see for themselves what kind of pathetic state that team, which everyone had already sentenced to death, had returned from that deathly mountain range!

However, when they finally pushed through the crowd and saw the true appearance of the team, the curiosity and amusement on everyone's faces froze in an instant!

It was replaced by a profound shock and coldness that emanated from the depths of their souls!

That... that was not a defeated army that had barely escaped!

That was clearly a group of hellish gods and demons that had just slaughtered gods and demons!

Although they were all in tattered clothes and drenched in blood, appearing utterly miserable, the chilling killing intent that naturally emanated from them, almost solidifying into substance, made every student who met their gaze feel as if their hearts were being fiercely gripped by an invisible giant demonic hand!

Subconsciously, they parted a wide path filled with reverence and fear!

What made everyone's scalps tingle and their hearts crack with fear the most was the bloody figure dragged behind the team like a dead dog, a figure that was already unrecognizable!

Although the person's limbs were broken, their body drenched in blood, and their appearance so horrific that even their own mother wouldn't recognize them, from the sky-blue Mighty Lion armor, which was completely stained by blood and dust but still faintly recognizable for its original domineering and noble aura, everyone immediately recognized his true identity!

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

A trembling roar filled with endless shock and a subversion of common sense echoed from the crowd!

"Boom—"

The entrance of Cloud Creek Academy was plunged into an unprecedented, immense silence!

Everyone's brains stopped functioning at that moment!

They simply stared with dull eyes filled with endless absurdity and shock at the former deity, casually discarded on the cold ground by Lin Xiao and the others, like pathetic mortals who had just witnessed the sun rise from the west.

An invisible, bone-chilling, and piercing great fear, colder and more biting than a Siberian blizzard, instantly enveloped the souls of everyone present!

The sky...

This sky of Cloud Creek Academy's Outer Court...

It was about to change!

Lin Xiao ignored the thousands of shocked and fearful gazes surrounding him.

He didn't even bother to glance again at the former "Number One Person" who lay collapsed at his feet like a dead dog, having completely lost all consciousness.

He calmly turned around and slowly issued an order to the group of companions behind him. Though each of them was heavily wounded, their eyes still held unmasked fervor and trust for him.

"Shi Lei, Monkey."

"Take half the people and escort him to the Disciplinary Hall."

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

"Request the Disciplinary Hall to punish them severely!"

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

"It's time for us 'victors' to claim our rewards."

With that, he didn't hesitate for a moment, leading Su Yue and the remaining dozen or so team members through the human corridor, which parted automatically under countless gazes filled with awe and fear. He strode confidently towards the place they had been mocked and ridiculed just a day and a night ago – the Mission Hall!

Mission Hall, inside the lobby.

Although the peak period for mission handovers had long passed, the place was still crowded and bustling.

Almost all the students who weren't in seclusion had gathered here. Their gazes were fixed on the already dimmed High-level B-grade mission at the very top of the massive mission light screen.

They were waiting.

Waiting for the official announcement of the tragic ending that everyone had already assumed.

However, at this moment, an icy, bone-chilling, terrifying aura filled with endless bloodshed and killing intent swept in from outside the Mission Hall's entrance like a deathly cold current from the Nine Nether Purgatory!

The originally noisy and chaotic lobby fell silent in an instant!

Everyone subconsciously stopped their discussions and slowly turned their heads, following the terrifying aura that could freeze one's soul.

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

Fifteen young boys and girls, dressed in tattered black clothes stained beyond recognition by blood and dust, marched in neat formation with silent steps, like a group of hellish gods who had just returned victorious from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, quietly entering the Mission Hall lobby.

Their appearance instantly seemed to drop the temperature of the entire hall to freezing point!

"Y-Yellow Class Nine?!"

A hoarse roar, filled with immense shock and a complete subversion of their worldview, echoed from the crowd once more!

The entire Mission Hall lobby fell into a deathly silence.

The expressions of schadenfreude and pity on everyone's faces instantly froze!

They were replaced by a great fear, more terrifying and absurd than seeing a ghost!

They... they had actually returned alive?!

However, before they could recover from this surreal, immense shock, the young man at the forefront, with a clear complexion but eyes as cold as ice, walked directly up to the elder in charge, who was already stunned speechless, his soul seemingly having fled his body.

He calmly placed a Chief Instructor's jade token, slightly stained with dark red blood, and a blood-colored Beast Core, as large as a baby's fist, within which a ferocious wolf's shadow seemed to be roaring silently, onto the counter.

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

"We completed it."

Lin Xiao's voice, calm and without a ripple, struck everyone's hearts like a judgment hammer from the divine realm!

Shattering their last shred of luck and reason!

"Gulp."

The elder in charge swallowed with difficulty. His old eyes, already clouded by excessive shock, stared intently at the third-tier Beast Core emitting a heart-stopping, terrifying aura!

His body trembled violently!

He didn't even dare to imagine what kind of terrifying, brutal, bloody battle these seemingly miserable youths, who looked like they had crawled back from hell, had endured in that deathly mountain range to finally gnaw down this hot potato that the entire Outer Court was helpless against!

"G-G-G-Good..."

He said "Good" three times before he finally slowly recovered from the immense shock, as if the sky had fallen and the earth had caved in.

He no longer dared to be negligent, and quickly and clumsily picked up Lin Xiao's jade token, rapidly operating it on the light screen in front of him.

"Beep!"

A crisp, pleasant sound!

Immediately after, under the gaze of hundreds, even thousands, of eyes filled with immense shock and fervor in the entire hall, a line of brilliant, gilded characters, enough to be recorded in Cloud Creek Academy's hundred-year history, slowly appeared at the very top of the massive mission light screen!

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

[Completion Team: Yellow Class Nine!]

[Mission Rating: Perfect!]

[Rewards Issued: Sixty thousand Merit Points (base thirty thousand, doubled for perfect rating), one Profound Grade Upper Grade martial art Rushing Thunder Swordplay, one special Inner Court 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 lobby erupted into unprecedented, frenzied excitement!

Sixty thousand Merit Points!

Profound-grade Upper Grade martial art!

And that special inner court assessment recommendation spot, enough to make all the geniuses of Heaven Class fight tooth and nail for it!

They've hit the jackpot!

The members of Yellow Class Nine, who not too long ago were all considered "trash" by everyone, have truly ascended to heaven this time, striking it rich!

However, just as everyone was immersed in the crazy shock brought by the immense wealth that would make even gods jealous, an ancient laugh, filled with endless majesty and relief, slowly drifted in from outside the mission hall's entrance without any warning.

"Hahaha! Good! Well done, Yellow Class Nine! Well done, Lin Xiao!"

"You truly didn't disappoint this old man!"

Hearing the voice, everyone turned to look.

They saw the Outer Court Vice Dean—Chu Tianxing—striding in majestically, surrounded by a group of academy higher-ups whose auras were equally powerful!

A genuine, unreserved, immense joy and pride was plastered across his face!

He walked straight to Lin Xiao, who had already become the absolute center of attention, and heavily patted his slightly thin but incredibly upright shoulder.

His cloudy old eyes were filled with endless admiration, as if he were appreciating a peerless uncut jade!

"You're doing great, kid!"

"Very great!"

"Not only did you complete our 'three-month pact' ahead of time, but you also exceeded the agreement in a perfect way that even I didn't anticipate!"

He slowly turned around, his majestic eyes sweeping over the thousands of students present, who had already been silenced into utter fear by his terrifying presence. In a booming voice that brooked no argument, he announced to the crowd!

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

"From today onward, the designation Yellow Class Nine will forever become history!"

"In its place will be a brand new, independent class, surpassing all of 'Heaven, Earth, Profound, Yellow'!"

"Its name—"

He paused, casting his gaze, filled with endless anticipation and admiration, back towards the young man who had remained calm and composed, neither servile nor overbearing, from beginning to end.

"—'Rebel Mortal'!"