Time seemed to freeze.
The silence outside the cafeteria was terrifying. Only Zhao Hu's intermittent, agonized howls, like a broken bellows being dragged, echoed through the stifling air, each cry harshly scraping against the eardrums and nerves of the watching students.
The heavy stench of blood mixed with the sour reek spilled from the food containers, forming a nauseating aura of death.
For the first time, the cold calm in Su Qingxue's eyes vanished. Clearly reflected in them was Zhao Hu's twisted, deformed right arm, bone fragments jutting through the flesh, along with his face contorted beyond recognition by excruciating pain.
Beside her, Zhou Xiaoya was so frightened that her small face had gone as pale as paper. She clutched Su Qingxue's sleeve tightly, her body trembling like a leaf in the winter wind.
Fatty Wang's mouth hung open wide enough to fit an egg, his eyes nearly bulging from their sockets. His brain had completely crashed.
What had just happened?
What had Brother Xiao done?
He had clearly seen Zhao Hu about to bring that foot down!
Everyone's gaze was drawn as if by a magnet, filled with utter bewilderment, fear, and incomprehensible shock, all focused on the same place—the center of that filthy wreckage.
Lin Xiao lay on the cold ground, covered in greasy wastewater. Every breath tugged at the tearing pain in his chest and both arms.
He felt like a rag doll that had been torn apart and pieced back together, with the sweet, metallic taste of blood filling his throat.
That despairing sense of imminent death still gnawed at his nerves like a maggot burrowing into bone.
But now, another emotion—more surging, more scorching—erupted like volcanic lava from the deepest part of his soul, accompanied by the fading echo of that cold prompt in the depths of his mind!
That hadn't been an illusion!
That pale-blue screen... that scarlet X... that instant backlash when his thoughts touched it...
It was real!
A surge of wild joy, lingering fear, disbelief, and the immense tremor of suddenly possessing the power to decide life and death swept through Lin Xiao like an electric current!
The sensation of power even temporarily overwhelmed the agony wracking his body!
"Heh... hehehe..."
A hoarse, meaningless laugh escaped his throat. Beneath his disheveled hair, his black-and-white eyes suddenly erupted with a chilling ferocity, like a starving wolf locking onto its prey. His face was smeared with blood and grease.
An opportunity! A once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity!
Zhao Hu was crippled! At least that arm was useless for the time being!
The pain had robbed him of most of his fighting strength. More importantly, that bizarre backlash had completely stunned him psychologically!
Strike while he was down and finish him!
The suppressed viciousness and street-thug ruthlessness buried deep in Lin Xiao's bones were completely ignited at this moment by his instinct to survive and the wild joy of tasting power for the first time!
Zhao Hu was nearly fainting from the excruciating pain in his right arm. Beads of sweat mixed with blood rolled down his pallid face.
He heard the commotion and struggled to raise his head. His bloodshot eyes were filled with unbearable pain and bewilderment.
When he saw Lin Xiao—the trash he had considered beneath him, the Lin Xiao he should have crushed to death with one stomp—actually stagger unsteadily to his feet and stare at him with that look in his eyes, an utterly absurd terror suddenly seized him!
"You..." Zhao Hu wanted to roar and demand an explanation, but the agony left him able to make only hoarse, twisted gasps, filled with incredulous horror.
Lin Xiao bared his teeth, stained red with blood. Against his filthy face, that smile looked especially sinister.
Ignoring the stunned gazes around him and the pain radiating from both arms, he advanced step by step, dragging his heavy feet. Covered in wastewater and reeking of sour rot, he slowly but firmly walked toward Zhao Hu, who was kneeling on the ground.
Every step seemed to land on the heartbeat of everyone present.
"Thud... thud... thud..."
His heavy footsteps mingled with Zhao Hu's painful gasps, becoming the only sounds in the deathly silent space.
At last, Lin Xiao reached Zhao Hu.
He lowered his head slightly and looked down at the school bully warrior who, only minutes ago, had seemed as invincible as a demon god.
Zhao Hu instinctively tried to retreat and struggle, but the pain and weakness from blood loss left him unable to move. He could only watch helplessly as that blood-smeared face, wearing a savage grin, enlarged before his eyes.
Lin Xiao raised his right foot—that shabby sneaker, washed pale and just as filthy as the rest of him.
There was not the slightest hesitation!
"Bang!"
With the ruthless force of venting his rage, Lin Xiao slammed his right foot down on Zhao Hu's only relatively intact left shoulder!
The immense pressure forced Zhao Hu's already kneeling body sharply downward. His left shoulder emitted the groan of bone pushed beyond its limits!
"Gahhh!"
Zhao Hu let out another agonized howl. The overwhelming humiliation instantly drowned out the physical pain. His eyes bulged with rage as he glared at Lin Xiao, wishing he could tear him apart and swallow him whole. "Lin Xiao! I'll f—"
"Shut up!"
Lin Xiao suddenly barked the words. His voice was not loud, but it carried a chilling killing aura forged at the edge of life and death, almost tangible.
He increased the pressure beneath his foot and ground it down. The rest of Zhao Hu's words were immediately choked off by pain, leaving only a miserable whimper.
Lin Xiao bent down slightly, bringing his face, smeared with blood and grease, close to Zhao Hu's contorted face. Their noses were almost touching.
He could clearly smell the blood and fear on Zhao Hu's breath.
The corners of his mouth pulled into an even wider, more roguish grin, brimming with limitless mockery and savage wildness.
"Brother Hu?"
Lin Xiao's voice carried a deliberately drawn-out, flippant tone. Every word was like a venom-coated ice needle, stabbing viciously into Zhao Hu's ears and into the hearts of every onlooker around them.
"Weren't you acting all mighty just now? You were going to stomp me to death like an ant, weren't you?"
He pressed down harder. Zhao Hu's left shoulder gave off a teeth-grating crunch. His whole body shook like a sieve, veins bulging on his forehead, yet he could not even scream. Only hoarse gasps escaped him.
"Why aren't you shouting now?"
The smile vanished from Lin Xiao's face. His gaze instantly turned as cold and piercing as a bottomless pool. He stared fixedly into Zhao Hu's eyes, filled with resentment and fear, and spoke each word distinctly. His voice was not loud, but it carried clearly across the silent cafeteria entrance:
"Flat on the ground, like a sick cat with a broken spine!"
The words "sick cat" were like two invisible slaps, striking Zhao Hu across the face and lashing the hearts of every student who had once feared him like a tiger!
Zhao Hu's entire body shook violently. A humiliation and rage even more intense than his severed arm's pain, the humiliation of his dignity being utterly trampled, shot straight to the crown of his head.
A beast-like growl rumbled from his throat. His remaining left hand shot up, fingers curled into claws, and with the last of his ferocity, he viciously raked at the leg Lin Xiao had planted on his shoulder!
"Looking to die!"
Lin Xiao's eyes sharpened!
This was exactly what he had been waiting for!
The instant Zhao Hu raised his left hand, Lin Xiao's right foot, planted on his shoulder, suddenly kicked off. Borrowing the force, he hopped half a step backward, narrowly avoiding the grasping claws.
At the same time, he endured the tearing pain in his right arm and shot out his left hand like lightning!
It was not an attack!
Instead, he grabbed Zhao Hu's exposed right-arm stump with perfect precision, clamping down hard on the blood-soaked wound where bone fragments jutted out!
"AAAGH!"
A howl ten times more shrill than before, as if erupting from the deepest depths of hell, exploded from Zhao Hu's throat!
The cry was sharp enough to nearly pierce the eardrums, filled with indescribable agony!
Lin Xiao's fingers dug mercilessly into the mangled flesh and savage bone fragments of the stump!
He could even feel the cold touch of the broken bone beneath his fingertips and the tearing of the muscle fibers!
The pain struck like a tsunami, instantly destroying all of Zhao Hu's will!
The small spark of ferocity that had just risen in him was crushed completely. His body convulsed violently as if all its bones had been removed. His eyes rolled back, and drool mixed with bloody foam spilled uncontrollably from the corners of his mouth. He was about to lose consciousness entirely.
"Trash!"
Lin Xiao spat out the two words coldly, his eyes devoid of even a trace of warmth.
He abruptly released his hand. Zhao Hu's twisted, severed arm hung limply, and his whole body collapsed like mud, completely losing consciousness. Only involuntary spasms still rippled through him.
Only after doing all this did Lin Xiao slowly straighten.
He shook his left hand, covered in blood and viscous tissue. His face showed no discomfort, only an almost ruthless calm.
He swept his gaze around, passing over the faces filled with terror, shock, and disbelief.
When his gaze swept over Su Qingxue, it paused for a moment.
Her cold eyes were now filled with indescribably complicated emotions—shock, wariness, and even a hint of probing curiosity?
Beside her, Zhou Xiaoya had long since been frightened into closing her eyes.
The signature roguish smile returned to Lin Xiao's lips, carrying three parts teasing and seven parts carefree insolence, as if the cold, Asura-like man from moments ago had not been him.
"What are you looking at?"
He spoke lazily. His voice was hoarse from the life-and-death struggle he had just endured, yet it carried clearly into every ear. "Never seen someone beat up a sick cat before?"
He paused, then swept his gaze over Zhao Hu's few underlings, who were equally petrified and pale. His eyes suddenly sharpened, and his gaze scraped across them like a tangible blade. "Why aren't you carrying him away? Are you waiting to collect your Brother Hu's corpse?"
The icy killing aura made the few underlings shudder. They came to their senses as if waking from a dream and scrambled over, rolling and crawling, hastily lifting Zhao Hu, whose body was limp as mud, whose arm was twisted, and who was completely unconscious.
They did not even dare to utter a threat. Like stray dogs fleeing their ruined home, they hurried away from the scene, leaving behind only the wreckage and glaring bloodstains.
Only after Zhao Hu had been carried away and vanished from sight did the suffocating oppression shrouding the cafeteria entrance seem to dissipate somewhat.
Fatty Wang finally recovered his senses. He rolled and crawled to Lin Xiao's side, his voice completely out of tune. "Brother Xiao! Brother Xiao, how are you? Your hand! And what exactly happened just now?"
He looked at Lin Xiao's clearly unnatural, dangling right arm and blood-covered body, so frightened that even his voice trembled.
Lin Xiao did not answer him.
He had no time right now.
Because the instant Zhao Hu was carried away, that pale-blue screen in the depths of his mind silently appeared once more!
At the center of the screen, a new line of glowing text, even clearer than before, flashed:
Target: Zhao Hu - Status: Seriously Injured and Unconscious.
Battle settlement complete.
Source Energy Points: +1.0 (Target threat eliminated).
Current total Source Energy Points: 1.5.
The cold prompt flowed through his overheated consciousness like a clear spring.
Source Energy Points! 1.5 points!
Although he did not know what these "Source Energy Points" were or what they could do, it had been this very thing that allowed him to turn the tables at the brink of life and death!
This was definitely more important than money or power!
It was the source of strength!
An immense, indescribable ecstasy instantly swept away all of Lin Xiao's exhaustion and pain!
He felt his heart pounding wildly, his blood surging through his veins!
Power! This was what power felt like!
The feeling of controlling another person's life and death!
He instinctively "looked" toward the screen in his mind.
Aside from the settlement information, the screen seemed to have gained something else.
Along the bottom edge of the screen, the outlines of several extremely dim, almost gray icons or options seemed to be present, flickering indistinctly as if shrouded in mist.
What were those?
Lin Xiao's heart gave a violent thump. Greed and the desire to explore grew wildly like weeds!
"Brother Xiao? Brother Xiao, say something! Don't scare me!"
Fatty Wang's tearful shout pulled Lin Xiao back from his ecstatic thoughts.
Lin Xiao drew a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the excitement that nearly burst from his chest.
He looked at Fatty Wang's face, full of anxiety and fear, then glanced at Su Qingxue in the distance, who was still standing where she was, her expression impossible to read.
He bared his teeth in a grin mixed with exhaustion and agony, yet filled with boundless wildness and excitement. In the setting sun, his teeth gleamed with blood.
"I'm not going to die."
His voice was hoarse, carrying the weakness of surviving a catastrophe, yet also an indescribable exhilaration. "Fatty, give me a hand. Damn, I took a huge loss this time, but..."
He paused and looked in the direction where Zhao Hu had disappeared, as if his gaze pierced through the void and landed on the pale-blue screen only he could see. His smile grew deeper and more dangerous.
"It was worth it!"
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