"Teacher Ling!"
Jiang Fan braced himself and stood up, already regretting coming to the classroom.
The person on the platform was their homeroom teacher for Class 2 of Senior Three, Ling Dongsheng.
He had not come to class that morning. He had originally planned to go to the office to explain the situation to Ling Dongsheng, but he could not find him when he got there, so he had simply come to the classroom first.
Who would have thought that he would be caught red-handed the moment he arrived?
"I had something to deal with this morning, so I didn't get here in time..."
Before he could finish, Ling Dongsheng cut him off.
"A student should act like a student. The college entrance exams are right around the corner. Your cultural-subject scores may be excellent, but look at how little qi and blood you have!"
"You've already failed to awaken twice, yet you still have no sense of crisis. If you fail to awaken again, you're finished!"
"With your grades, perhaps you could get a clerical job, but wouldn't everything still be in service of Martial Artists?"
"..."
Lei Ming's attention was drawn to Jiang Fan, and the pressure on him instantly dropped.
Under the desk, he lightly tugged at Jiang Fan's clothes, gloating. Jiang Fan immediately swatted his hand away.
"What? You're still unhappy about it?"
"Come to my office after class!"
Jiang Fan's face instantly darkened.
After nearly three hours of endless nagging, class finally ended.
"Jiang Fan, come with me!"
Ling Dongsheng glanced at Jiang Fan and walked out of the classroom.
Jiang Fan was just about to follow when Lei Ming grabbed him.
"Thanks, Xiao Fan!"
Lei Ming grinned.
Jiang Fan rolled his eyes at him.
"You can't even memorize the contents of the first page of the first Martial Arts History lesson, and you still have the nerve to say that!"
"Uh... well..."
Lei Ming was rendered speechless.
The moment Jiang Fan stepped out the door, the classroom erupted into discussion.
"Jiang Fan's really planning to smash the pot and break it now! He even dares to skip class!"
"Heh, if you had excellent cultural-subject scores but couldn't awaken, wouldn't you do the same? The top student in the grade! How glorious he was when he had just started Senior One. The teachers all fawned over him, but now... heh heh!"
"Everyone beneath a Martial Artist is an ant. So what if he's excellent? If he can't become a Martial Artist, we'll surpass him sooner or later!"
"Hahaha, stepping on a genius feels pretty damn good, I've got to say!"
"..."
As they continued talking, they suddenly heard an angry roar.
"Shut the hell up!"
Lei Ming's sharp gaze swept across everyone.
"What, are you all trying to show off?"
"Xiao Fan hasn't awakened, but have you?"
"The awakening rate among ordinary people is less than five percent. At Third High School, it's ten percent. Only one in ten of you might awaken. What gives you the right to talk about Xiao Fan?"
The classroom instantly fell silent.
Lei Ming was Jiang Fan's good brother, so they were not afraid of Jiang Fan.
But Lei Ming's family ran a martial arts school.
He had awakened just after entering Senior Two, and his qi and blood had now reached 1.2. He was not someone they could afford to provoke.
Jiang Fan followed Ling Dongsheng to the office.
Ling Dongsheng poured himself some tea, crossed one leg over the other, and, after taking a sip, turned his chair to face Jiang Fan.
"Tell me, what happened today?"
Jiang Fan made up an excuse and fobbed him off.
Ling Dongsheng then switched back into lecture mode.
"Jiang Fan, I'm not trying to criticize you, but you really need to start thinking about your future!"
"What I said in the classroom about you becoming a clerk was just something I said in a fit of anger!"
"Now that it's just the two of us in this room, I'll be frank with you. If you really can't awaken and can't take the Martial Artist path, becoming a clerk would be pretty good too!"
"At least you'd get to sit in an office. You wouldn't have to be like those people whose cultural subjects and qi and blood are both lacking, leaving them with no choice but to go outside and do hard labor!"
Jiang Fan's head began to ache from listening, and at the same time, he felt faintly puzzled.
How had Ling Dongsheng's attitude changed so quickly?
But when he thought about how, during his three years at Third High School, his teachers and classmates had gone from approving of and admiring him to turning cold and mocking him because he could not awaken, he felt that he could accept anything by now.
"There's something I want to tell you. Listen, and if you're unwilling, then forget it!"
"You ranked first in the grade last week. To encourage you, the school rewarded you with a bottle of gene potion!"
"Look at your current situation. You still haven't awakened, so you don't have any use for it!"
"Someone asked me to sound you out. Do you plan to sell that bottle of gene potion?"
Jiang Fan froze, then immediately understood what Li Dongsheng was plotting.
He said calmly,
"Teacher Li, that bottle of gene potion... I've already given it away!"
Li Dongsheng's brows immediately furrowed when he heard that.
"If you don't want to sell it, I won't force you!"
"I was only asking on someone else's behalf!"
"There's no need to fob me off with an excuse like that!"
A gene potion was so precious. How could anyone possibly give one away?
Now that he knew Ling Dongsheng was after the gene potion, Jiang Fan had no desire to remain here any longer.
"Teacher Li, if there's nothing else, I'll head back first!"
Seeing Jiang Fan's attitude, Ling Dongsheng slammed his palm on the desk.
"Jiang Fan!"
"What kind of attitude is that?"
"I'm thinking of what's best for you!"
"With qi and blood of only 0.8, if you can't awaken, you'll never become a Martial Artist in your entire life. What use is that thing to you?"
"If you sell it, you can at least get a sum of money and live comfortably for a while!"
"You've earned quite a bit of money from the school over the past few years..."
The moment Jiang Fan heard that, his expression turned cold, and he cut him off.
"Teacher Li, however much money I earned from the school, I earned through my own ability!"
"I haven't done anything against the rules, have I?"
"When you put it that way, it sounds as if I swindled the money from the school!"
At this point, Jiang Fan no longer cared whether he was a teacher or not.
A teacher had to possess professional ethics. Without them, he was just an old bastard!
Li Dongsheng slammed the desk so hard that it rang.
"What did you say?"
"You skipped class without reason this morning. Isn't that a violation of school rules?"
Jiang Fan could not be bothered to say anything more to him.
"If I violated the school rules, then punish me according to the school rules!"
"Give me a warning or even a demerit, I don't care!"
"That has nothing whatsoever to do with whether I sell the gene potion!"
Jiang Fan paused, then added,
"I'll say it again: I've already given this bottle of gene potion to someone else!"
"If there's nothing else, I'm leaving!"
After saying that, Jiang Fan walked out of the office without looking back.
Li Dongsheng was so furious that he trembled in his seat!
"Xiao Fan!"
"Did Li Dongsheng give you a hard time?"
Not long after Jiang Fan left the teaching building, he reached the main gate and saw Lei Ming waiting there.
"No. He just wanted me to sell him the gene potion. I didn't sell it!"
Lei Ming nodded.
"You did the right thing!"
"Don't sell it to him!"
"He's asking to buy the potion for nothing more than the chance to take advantage of you!"
Jiang Fan nodded slightly.
"I told him I'd already given it away."
Lei Ming laughed.
"Good!"
"That's right, don't sell it to him!"
"Come on, let's go back and cultivate!"
Before you continue