The Composure of the Strong

A girl sat upright by the window. She wore a fitted pure-white T-shirt, light-colored skinny jeans, and white canvas sneakers. Her posture was impeccable, so perfectly proper that no fault could be found with it. As a result, her hips were taut, outlining an alluring curve.

Her long, straight black hair was so silky it could have been used in an advertisement. It was tied into a High Ponytail with a white hair tie, falling to her waist. Beneath her bangs, her eyes were calm and focused as they rested on the book in her hands. Every so often, her neatly trimmed fingers gently turned a page.

Perhaps she was too absorbed in reading, because Xue Jing's arrival drew no reaction from her.

Qing Da student? Judging by her age... probably not.

Xue Jing gave the girl two surprised glances, his gaze lingering briefly on her beautiful, faintly violet eyes.

She was not wearing a uniform, so she probably was not a student from the affiliated high school. Maybe she was a college student with a youthful face.

He did not dwell on it and instead turned toward the bookshelves.

The seventh floor had four rows of sixteen double-sided wooden bookshelves. In addition, wall-mounted shelves covered three entire walls, leaving only a rest area. Every shelf was packed full—more accurately, crammed full—with dense rows of old books and documents.

The collection was astonishingly vast.

Without computer searches or even categorized holdings, finding the information one wanted in such a sea of books was like searching for a needle in a haystack. No wonder this place was ignored year-round.

Xue Jing casually picked a shelf and stopped near its middle, looking at the disorderly old documents before him with a slight headache, unsure where to begin.

He randomly picked up a book that looked relatively intact and wiped away the dust. The dark wine-red hardcover had no patterns. A line of white Song font formed the title in the center, while the author's name and publication date were written in smaller white letters at the bottom right.

"Theories on the Overlapping Phenomenon," author: Ning Furen. Published: New Era 87.

An antique book from nearly two hundred years ago...

The Overlapping Phenomenon was a special occurrence that had appeared on Earth Star after "God" died.

Just as the name implied, it referred to "two worlds overlapping."

If the world were a car constantly driving down a road, then the Overlapping Phenomenon would be two cars crashing into each other.

This phenomenon caused part of each world to become embedded in the other's "body." The overlapping area was known as an Intersection Zone.

As for why this phenomenon occurred, the globally accepted explanation was that the "driver" had died.

Without God, the driver, controlling the direction, cars barreled recklessly down the road and naturally collided with other cars that also lacked drivers.

"..."

Xue Jing opened the book and casually read a few pages. Its theories were riddled with flaws by modern standards, but they had been cutting-edge research at the time and had laid an indelible foundation for current research into the Overlapping Phenomenon. Though outdated as theoretical material, it was extremely valuable as historical material.

He returned the book to its place and continued searching through the vast collection for clues that might be related to Divinity Substance.

More than an hour later.

He roughly flipped through a few pages of the file titled "Eternal Night War Records" in his hand, then put it back on the shelf.

Xue Jing shook his head. Just as he had expected, he had found nothing.

Since he had expected as much, he was not disappointed.

After collecting himself, Xue Jing checked the time on his phone. It was already seven thirty. Time for class.

Just as he was about to leave, he saw the girl from the rest area walking toward him with a book held in both arms.

Xue Jing's gaze fell on the girl's rather well-developed chest—but he was not looking at that. He was looking at the book she held there.

It was about three fingers thick, bound in black hardcover, with a strange painting on its cover.

A glowing humanoid figure with a halo above its head and countless wings from top to bottom radiated light all over its body. It cradled the blue Earth Star in its hands. Its faceless head was raised as though it were shouting something, while light flowed down its body like blood and fell from its feet into an unknown abyss.

No one in the world could fail to recognize what that cover represented: the "Death of God," or in more accurate and formal terms—the "Death of the Divine."

Xue Jing had seen similar imagery in countless paintings, films, and games.

He looked at the title.

"If God Had Not Died."

He politely nodded and stepped aside to let the girl pass. At close range, Xue Jing saw her face clearly. She was quite delicate and clean-looking, not the type to stun people at first sight, but the kind whose beauty became more apparent the longer one looked.

The girl nodded back at him, then tried to stuff the book into an empty space on the top shelf. However, she was not quite tall enough, and even standing on tiptoe looked difficult.

Seeing this, Xue Jing spoke softly. "Let me help."

He held out his hand, gesturing for her to give him the book. She did not refuse and handed it to him.

Watching Xue Jing effortlessly slide the book into the gap on the upper shelf without even standing on tiptoe, the girl blinked her clear, faintly violet eyes. "Thank you."

Xue Jing gave an affirmative hum, not thinking much of the small favor.

After that, he did not linger. He walked straight out of the library and headed for the affiliated high school's teaching building.

By the time he entered the classroom, morning reading was nearly over and formal lessons were about to begin.

All the students in the class had arrived. Aside from a handful whispering softly, most were silently flipping through books or working through practice papers.

Elite Class students were under considerable pressure.

Xue Jing was fairly well-liked in the class. When they saw him enter, although the atmosphere during morning reading was not suitable for talking, many students still nodded to greet him.

Xue Jing returned each greeting. But when he reached his seat, he stopped.

His desk and chair had been scratched up.

The wooden fiberboard was covered in crisscrossing gouges, a miserable sight. Many words had also been written across the desk, mostly threats like "Kill kill kill," "You're dead," and "Watch out on your way home after school."

"Tsk, this handwriting is ugly."

Li Ge walked over from the side, clicked his tongue at the writing on Xue Jing's desk, and commented.

"What happened?" Xue Jing's expression did not change.

If this kind of bullying happened to someone, even an adult would feel somewhat uneasy, let alone a high school student.

Yet at that moment, just as his outward appearance suggested, there was not the slightest ripple in his heart. He was simply curious about what had happened.

Just as people who regularly engaged in Fitness were generally confident, a strong body naturally fostered a strong mind.

To him, high-school-level bullying tactics felt like a lion watching a kitten bare its claws at him.

"I don't know. It was already like this when I got here this morning." Li Ge leaned against a nearby desk and shrugged.

"They also stuffed disgusting stuff like dead rats and cockroaches in your drawer. I cleaned them out for you, but the words on the desk were written with permanent marker, so there's nothing I can do about them for now."

Xue Jing patted him on the shoulder and sincerely said, "Thanks."

"What are brothers for?" Li Ge replied, then added, "The urgent thing now is to find the culprit. Otherwise, if they pull this every day, it'll disgust us to death sooner or later."

"Have you offended anyone recently?"

Xue Jing thought carefully. He felt that he had kept a fairly low profile and could not recall provoking anyone.

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter. Judging from what they wrote on the desk, this isn't some cowardly prankster hiding in the shadows. It's a threat and a warning."

Xue Jing ran his fingers over the scratched desktop, stopping on the words, "Watch out on your way home after school."

"They'll probably come out on their own during lunch break or after school. We'll just wait."

As long as someone was outstanding enough, even if they did nothing, they would naturally block someone else's path and invite resentment. He had experienced that in both his past and present lives.

There was no need to reflect on what he had done wrong. There was no point in thinking about that. When something happened, solve it. That was all.

Xue Jing sat down. He had intended to put his backpack in the drawer, but stopped midway. It felt a little disgusting, considering there had been dead rats and cockroaches in there earlier, so he hung the backpack on the hook at the side of his desk instead.

Then he crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and rested in preparation for class.

Seeing how relaxed and unhurried Xue Jing was, as though nothing had happened, Li Ge could not help sighing. "You're so cool, Jing Ye."

"But why aren't we telling the teacher?"

Li Ge was somewhat puzzled.

With his eyes closed, Xue Jing casually said, "Just as calling the police isn't a cure-all, teachers aren't a cure-all either. Telling the teacher might solve this, but the process would definitely be troublesome, and there would most likely be lingering consequences."

"I have a simpler solution. There's no need to involve the teacher."

Li Ge gave a hum. After a moment of silence, he could not help saying, "You seem so handsome right now. You have this strange air of an adult... or maybe the composure of the strong? The way you said that was really overflowing with badass vibes..."

As the two chatted, a shout suddenly came from the classroom door. "Xue Jing, someone's looking for you!"

Xue Jing turned to look. A pretty female student in a uniform skirt stood at the door.

She was the junior girl who had brought him a towel during yesterday's physical test.

Please keep reading.