The Darkened Kikyo Kushida

Xia Mu's paused figure slowly turned around, a strange smile on his face. "Kushida, to tell you the truth, I was only using you."

"Now that you have no more value to me, stay away from me. Understand?"

Using you, using you...

Just to use you...

Xia Mu's words kept echoing in Kushida's heart.

Her expression was no longer sweet; it was filled with a fierce and sinister malice. "Xia Mu, it seems you want to go against me?"

Since Xia Mu already knew, there was no need for her to keep up the act.

"Go against you?"

Xia Mu paused for a moment. "Don't you think you're overestimating yourself?"

"You don't even have the qualifications to go against me."

With those words, Xia Mu knocked on Sakura's door.

Every word and action deeply stung Kushida's heart; it was the first time she had been looked down upon like this.

The feeling Xia Mu gave her was just as detestable as that bitch Horikita Suzune.

"I will make you regret this," Kushida threatened, "I promise!"

Xia Mu did not respond to her, instead stepping into Sakura's room.

"Eh? That seemed to be Kushida-san. Should we invite her in?"

"Ah, no need, she was just passing by."

Creak. Kushida stared at the tightly closed door, clenching her fists like a cat with its fur standing on end.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Yamada finally woke up and reported what had happened to Long Yuan.

"Crash!"

When Long Yuan heard the news, he smashed the cup in his hand onto the floor, his brow furrowing into a deep frown. "What?"

Kaneda, his subordinate with golden mushroom-cut hair standing nearby, had heard the whole story. He said with a dark face, "Should we lure him to that area behind the mountain where there are no security cameras?"

Long Yuan listened to Yamada's account, crossing his hands under his chin to think. After a moment, he slowly closed his eyes. "That guy isn't stupid enough to fall for our trap. Furthermore, if Albert (Yamada) is no match for him, it means his combat ability is quite decent."

"Then, what should we do?" Yamada, who had buck teeth similar to a field mouse, continued to ask.

"Wait," Long Yuan suddenly smiled. "Wait for the perfect opportunity. I will sanction him."

"Xia Mu, don't let me down."

His tone was filled with manic excitement; the stronger the opponent, the more it stirred his fighting spirit.

Being too weak would only be boring.

He had originally thought Class D was just a group of cattle waiting to be slaughtered, but it seemed that wasn't the case.

"Achoo!"

Far away in his dormitory, Xia Mu couldn't help but sneeze.

He had a premonition that he was being targeted again.

Was it Kushida, Long Yuan...

Or someone else?

Forget it, he was used to it anyway.

He had realized that the probability of living a peaceful life in this school was almost zero.

Regardless, as long as one was a student at this school, all sorts of troublesome matters would inevitably come knocking, forcing one to face them.

It could be said to be semi-compulsory.

However, the school had their reasons for doing this; they couldn't have students graduating as useless wastes.

According to the subsequent developments, it was indeed necessary to test the students' comprehensive abilities. Those who were too incompetent would only end up like puppets, manipulated by others.

But no matter what, life had to go on.

Xia Mu rested his hands behind his head and slowly drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, he woke up as usual, brushed his teeth, washed his face, put on his sportswear, and went to the track to run.

Unlike other days, besides bickering and competing with Suzune, the fat guy had also joined in.

Although he was left far behind by the two of them.

Xia Mu wanted Suzune to convert the month's worth of luxury meals into points and give them to him, but Suzune refused.

She claimed that she had agreed to treat him to luxury meals, not to transfer the points directly to Xia Mu.

Xia Mu naturally understood her intentions.

It was just that whenever something came up, she could use treating him to a meal as an excuse to bother him.

"Next time, I should just take points instead; it feels more secure when they go straight into my own pocket." Xia Mu felt quite helpless about this.

However, during this period, Horikita Suzune had gradually changed quite a bit.

From being arrogant and conceited at the beginning, she now understood how to seek help from others.

It could be considered a small improvement, even though she still looked down on other people.

He reckoned that in her eyes, there was only the older brother she respected.

Arriving at the classroom, Xia Mu noticed that the group of girls was in a bit of a stir today.

Lifting his gaze to look, he saw them surrounding Sakura, chattering away in discussion.

"Eh, Sakura, aren't you nearsighted? Why aren't you wearing your glasses?"

"Wow, you're so much cuter without glasses."

"Yo, you're blushing, lift your head and let me see."

The boys were not to be outdone either, staring at Sakura with wide eyes; it turned out that Sakura was actually so pretty without her glasses.

For a moment, many of them brought snacks and all sorts of random things to try and curry favor with Sakura.

These actions frightened the naturally introverted Sakura, who hurriedly put her glasses back on and waved her hands repeatedly to refuse, sealing away her beauty once more.

Xia Mu watched the steadily rising Correction progress bar, feeling very satisfied.

This was an order he had given Sakura last night—ah, no, it was a task.

That wasn't quite right either, it was...

This, letting her improve her own way of thinking; he hadn't expected her to actually carry it out.

At this moment, the Correction progress bar had already reached 70%, and he believed it wouldn't be long before she was completely corrected.

Unlike Kushida, who would self-repair, Sakura's progress bar kept rising steadily.

One could say she was very obedient, but this actually made Xia Mu like her a little less.

Sigh, after all, he couldn't farm Skill Points from her anymore.

Of course, since Sakura had agreed to Xia Mu's request to take off her glasses in front of everyone to test the waters, Xia Mu also had to agree to one thing for her.

That was to go to the laboratory building to take JK-style student photos.

She truly loved photography.

Or rather, she just liked to immerse herself in her own world, enjoying things alone, and photography was just a way to please herself.

But Xia Mu's appearance had pulled her out of this world that only contained herself, and he didn't know if that was right or wrong.

"What have you been doing lately? How come so many people have their eyes on you?" Horikita Suzune, sitting to the side, read her book, her thin lips moving slightly as she multitasked.

She had noticed that Sakura, the Trio, Kushida, and if she counted herself, there were at least five people who liked to observe Xia Mu for no reason at all.

Even Karuizawa Kei, who was in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with Hirata, would occasionally glance over toward Xia Mu's side.

As for herself, she wanted to see what he was thinking about all day long, but what about the others?

It could only be because of Xia Mu himself.

"None of your business." Xia Mu's tone was as cold as ever.

Horikita Suzune was already used to it and didn't retort further.

If she looked at it this way, Xia Mu might provide quite a bit of help on her path to reaching Class A.

It was just that he seemed like a ticking time bomb, not very easy to control.

Was there any way to make him obediently listen to her?