Campus Storm Rises

The morning sunlight filtered through the tall Chinese parasol trees, casting mottled shadows along the tree-lined path of Tianhai Third High School.

But today, an unusual restlessness permeated the campus.

The air seemed filled with invisible charges. Buzzing discussions brewed and fermented in every corner.

"Did you hear? Su Qingxue! Su Qingxue broke through to Martial Warrior! Just yesterday!"

"Seriously? Wasn't she stuck at Martial Disciple peak all this time? How did she suddenly..."

"It's absolutely true! Several people from the martial arts classes saw it with their own eyes! At the cafeteria entrance, that aura... Whoa! It was bone-chilling! It was definitely a genuine Martial Warrior's aura!"

"My god! How old is she? That talent is terrifying! No wonder she's from the Su family..."

"Tsk, tsk. Looks like the Branch family of the Su family can finally hold their heads high..."

Like a drop of water thrown into boiling oil, news of Su Qingxue's breakthrough swept through Tianhai Third High School at explosive speed overnight.

The entrance to Senior Class Three, Class One, was especially crowded.

Curious, envious, and jealous gazes focused like searchlights on that cool, slowly approaching figure.

Su Qingxue was still wearing her spotless white martial arts uniform, her figure straight as a green pine standing in snow.

But unlike before, a faint, indistinct chill seemed to linger around her.

Under the morning light, her skin looked even more lustrous and translucent. Her gaze remained cold, but now held a restrained sharpness, keen as ice crystals.

Every step she took seemed to carry an invisible aura, instinctively lowering the volume of the noisy discussions around her.

Without looking sideways, she walked straight through the passage the crowd opened for her. Wherever she passed, the students subconsciously held their breaths, their eyes filled with awe.

In this high school, which was still at the low-martial stage, being a Martial Warrior represented absolute strength and status!

"Qingxue! Congratulations on breaking through!"

Several girls who usually got along fairly well with Su Qingxue crowded around her, their faces filled with undisguisable excitement and ingratiation.

"Sis Qingxue, you're amazing!" "You have to look after us from now on!"

Su Qingxue paused slightly. Her cold eyes swept over everyone, and she merely gave a faint nod without saying much.

The joy of breaking through had long been diluted by last night's earth-shattering experience and the complicated, bizarre "deal" between her and Lin Xiao. It had even been shrouded in a lingering shadow.

She only wanted to return to her seat as quickly as possible and get away from these probing gazes.

However, an even more explosive and unbelievable "ingredient" was soon added to this boiling discussion.

"Hey, hey, hey! That's not the main point!"

A tall, thin boy raised his brows and made a face, his voice brimming with exaggerated excitement. "Do you know what's even more explosive? The campus belle Su admitted it herself yesterday! She's friends with Lin Xiao!"

"What?! Lin Xiao?! The Lin Xiao from Senior Class Three, Class Seven?"

"You mean that dirt-poor punk who acts like a thug all day and was almost beaten to death by Zhao Hu yesterday?"

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How could Su Qingxue have anything to do with him?"

"It's absolutely true! Lots of people heard it at the cafeteria entrance! Su Qingxue said it herself! And after breaking through, the first person she went to find was Lin Xiao! Someone saw her coming out from the gymnasium, looking flustered!"

"Holy crap! What a bombshell! The ice goddess and a bottom-level thug? What kind of combination is that?"

"Boom—!"

If news of Su Qingxue breaking through to Martial Warrior had been an explosion, then confirmation of her "friendship" with Lin Xiao was practically the detonation of a nuclear bomb!

The entire campus boiled over!

Countless gazes instantly shifted from Su Qingxue toward another direction—the corridor where Senior Class Three, Class Seven was located, in a remote corner of the teaching building.

Shock! Stupefaction! Disbelief! Jealousy! Contempt!

Every emotion was like paint from an overturned bucket, mixing and twisting across everyone's faces.

"Lin Xiao? What right does he have?!"

"Could he have used some underhanded method?"

"Could it be that the young lady of the Su family has unusual tastes? Is she into thuggish types?"

"Bullshit! That brat must've gotten lucky and somehow latched onto her!"

The clamorous discussions surged like waves, washing over every corner of the corridor.

Amid that surging tide of discussion, Lin Xiao dragged his still-weary, heavy steps and sauntered slowly into the teaching building.

Fatty Wang had rewrapped the brace on his right arm with a relatively clean strip of cloth. Lin Xiao had barely concealed it beneath a loose old coat, but the traces of grime and vegetable leaves still clinging to his face, along with his unmistakable pallor and the weariness buried deep in his eyes, all revealed how miserable his night had been.

Countless gazes instantly focused on him, like tangible needlepoints.

There was curiosity and scrutiny, but even more obvious contempt, jealousy, and schadenfreude.

"Look! That's him! Lin Xiao!"

"Tsk, tsk. Judging by the look of him, he must've been beaten badly last night. He actually has the nerve to come to school?"

"I really wonder what Su Qingxue sees in him. Is it because he can take a beating?"

"Shh... Keep your voice down! He's Su the Martial Warrior's 'friend' now!"

Fatty Wang followed behind Lin Xiao, his chubby face flushed red. His tiny eyes nervously swept over the unfriendly gazes around them, his body tense like a mother hen protecting her chicks. He continued muttering under his breath, "What are you looking at... Never seen a handsome guy before..."

Lin Xiao, however, acted as though he hadn't felt those piercing gazes at all.

That trademark lazy, roguish grin remained on his face. He even raised his brows with interest at several girls pointing and whispering about him, earning contemptuous snorts and swiftly averted gazes in return.

"Heh. People fear fame like pigs fear getting fat, huh, Fatty?"

Lin Xiao's voice carried a hint of hoarse amusement, without the slightest trace of nervousness.

"Brother Xiao! How can you still laugh at a time like this?"

Fatty Wang stamped his feet anxiously and lowered his voice. "Look at the way those people are staring at you! And Zhao Hu's bunch..."

At the mention of Zhao Hu, the roguish smile at the corners of Lin Xiao's mouth faded slightly. A cold glint swept through the depths of his eyes.

Zhao Hu was finished and lying in the hospital, but his lackeys were still around.

In the shadows of a stairwell corner that everyone had to pass on the way to the Class Seven classroom, several eyes filled with resentment and hatred stared fixedly at Lin Xiao like lurking venomous snakes.

They were none other than Yellow Hair and the others whom Lin Xiao had extorted yesterday!

Watching Lin Xiao's smug, roguish look, hearing the people around them discussing his relationship with Su Qingxue, and recalling the money and belongings they had been forced to hand over yesterday, along with the bone-deep fear they had felt, a wicked fire mixed with humiliation and jealousy blazed madly in their chests!

"Damn it! That bastard!"

Yellow Hair ground his teeth, his fingernails digging deeply into his palms. "Just because he's latched onto Su Qingxue, he really thinks he's somebody now?"

"Scarface Qiang said that we have to avenge Brother Hu! Su Qingxue's protecting him? Hmph, can she keep her eyes on him twenty-four hours a day?"

A thug beside him, his face marked with bruises, spoke viciously.

"Just wait. Once the attention dies down a little, Scarface Qiang will have his arrangements! When the time comes..."

Another lackey drew a finger across his throat, murderous intent blazing in his eyes.

Lin Xiao's footsteps paused slightly at the corner.

He clearly sensed those venomous gazes clinging to him like bone-devouring maggots.

He did not even turn his head. Only the roguish smile at the corner of his mouth seemed to grow colder and more dangerous in the shadows.

He continued forward as though nothing had happened, but his left hand, tucked into his trouser pocket, silently clenched around the few fragments and scraps of low-grade Energy Stones remaining inside—pieces that had nearly been drained of energy.

Source Energy Points: -1.3.

The warning of overdraw continued to pound deep in his soul like a low drumbeat.

His physical weakness and the pain in his right arm constantly reminded him of the cruelty of reality.

Su Qingxue's aura was a double-edged sword.

For now, it had intimidated the petty villains in plain sight—Yellow Hair's ilk, for example—but it had also pushed him into the eye of the storm, attracting even deeper jealousy and the hatred of the venomous snake lurking in the shadows: Blood Wolf Gang's Scarface Qiang.

This title of "friend" was indeed not easy to bear.

Still, the effect of using her as a shield had begun to show.

Lin Xiao's gaze passed through the noisy crowd and landed on the cool, aloof figure standing at the entrance to Senior Class Three, Class One, at the end of the corridor.

As if sensing something, Su Qingxue, who was about to enter the classroom, also paused slightly.

She slowly turned her head. Her cold gaze crossed the raucous corridor and passed through countless complicated gazes before finally meeting Lin Xiao's roguish eyes, which made no attempt to hide their scrutiny.

Their eyes met.

Su Qingxue's gaze remained complicated. It held the powerful confidence that came with her breakthrough and the cool aloofness of a Martial Warrior, but at a deeper level, there was also an indescribable wariness, apprehension, and helplessness at being forcibly bound to him.

She looked at Lin Xiao's disheveled yet utterly shameless appearance and the roguish smile that inexplicably irritated her. Her brows drew together almost imperceptibly. Then she quickly looked away, as though seeing him one moment longer would soil her eyes, and turned to stride into the classroom.

The smile on Lin Xiao's face deepened, carrying a hint of amusement and the pleasure of being in control.

He withdrew his gaze and, under the countless contemptuous, curious, and gleeful stares at the entrance to Class Seven, sauntered lazily into the corner at the very back of the classroom that belonged to him, walking with a sway every few steps like a king inspecting his territory.

The center of the storm had already taken shape.