The Blood-Sucking Array!

"Teacher, what exactly is Yan Xuan's story?" Chu Yuan asked.

Worrying about it now wouldn't do him any good. If the sky fell, someone tall would hold it up... And wasn't Qi Da doing exactly that?

"Yan Xuan..." Huang Bo's expression turned complicated, filled with grief, anger, and regret.

"You should know a little about this. He was your senior, actually... though that was ten years ago."

"Ten years ago? So Yan Xuan is only twenty-eight or twenty-nine now?

Why does he look like he's in his forties or fifties?"

"...Something happened back then. His martial arts foundation was destroyed, and his body was left depleted, so he looks older than he is." Huang Bo explained, then continued, "I'd just started teaching at First High School when I first heard Yan Xuan's name.

He was a martial arts prodigy!

From receiving the Essence Tempering Technique to entering the Blood-Qi Realm, he'd needed only one week.

Later, on the eve of the college entrance exams, he reached the middle stage of the Impermeable Realm! He'd shone brilliantly in the exams!

He placed first in Chenyang City and third in Yunan Prefecture, earning admission to Shendu Martial Academy, one of the four great martial academies..."

Many people instinctively looked at Chu Yuan. A martial arts prodigy... Wasn't Chu Yuan one too?

Perhaps, like Yan Xuan back then, he'd already entered the Blood-Qi Realm.

Someone asked outright, "Chu Yuan, have you already reached the Blood-Qi Realm?"

Chu Yuan nodded. "Yeah."

Yang Yi naturally knew Chu Yuan wasn't in the Blood-Qi Realm, so he quickly changed the subject. "What happened after that? How was his cultivation crippled?"

Huang Bo shook his head. "I don't know the details... I only heard that something went wrong while he was on a school mission, training at the Outer-Heaven Frontline Battlefield.

And then...

Back then, our principal wasn't Principal Qi. It was Principal Chen.

When Principal Chen heard the news, he went to Divine Capital in person to bring him back and gave him a place to stay at the school.

I never expected..."

"Teacher, I heard he got a powerful expert's legacy, which drew people's attention and led them to sabotage him?"

Huang Bo answered vaguely, "Maybe. The Outer-Heaven Battlefield has plenty of opportunities, but all kinds of accidents can happen there.

When you go to the Outer-Heaven Battlefield someday, you'll have to be careful too..."

That was true, but Huang Bo knew that most people who went to the Outer-Heaven Battlefield served as ordinary soldiers in the army.

They had little freedom to act on their own... and, of course, they wouldn't run into the kind of trouble Yan Xuan had.

In fact, quite a few students wouldn't even get to go.

They could only stay in Great Qin and join the Public Security Bureau or the City Guard Army, low-level combat units like those.

They were also known as retirement posts.

There wasn't much danger, but there weren't many opportunities either.

Often, the cultivation level they had when they started the job was the same as it was years—or even decades—later.

Just like him...

As they spoke, another furious shout, packed with energy, rang out. It was Qi Da, his voice carrying a hint of panic.

"Yan Xuan! Stop!! Are you really trying to get yourself killed?!"

The classroom windows shattered from the force of his roar. Many people staggered and fell as if they were drunk.

But the sound naturally did no harm to Yan Xuan, who was also in the Supernatural Realm.

The numbness on his face finally faded, giving way to excitement and mania.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! Principal Qi, I much preferred the way you looked just now, calmly in control of everything..."

Qi Da fell silent for a moment, then gritted his teeth. "Leave now, and I'll pretend I never saw you today!"

"How naïve..." Yan Xuan sneered at Qi Da. Without the slightest hesitation, he tore off one of his arms and hurled it to the ground with all his strength!

The arm plunged deep into the earth like a javelin, and blood-red veins spread out from it.

For a warrior of the Martial Realm, losing a limb wasn't a particularly serious injury. There were plenty of ways to regrow a severed limb.

But Yan Xuan's face was pale, and he could barely stand, as if he'd suffered an irreversible injury!

Qi Da knew why. Yan Xuan had poured most of the energy and essence in his body into that arm!

Blood Veins appeared out of thin air and crawled up Yan Xuan's legs...

"I heard about what happened back then too. I know... you resent a lot of people!" Qi Da paused, his voice sincere. "But ordinary people are innocent..."

The sneer on Yan Xuan's face deepened. "Innocent? The weak have no say, and no right to survive!

The weak... only need to offer themselves up!

That's what they taught me back then..."

"They made a mistake, and they paid for it! I think they regret it more than you do..."

"They pushed a few nobodies forward, and that was enough to pay for it? I'm not supposed to resent them?" Yan Xuan sneered again. "Then, once I've sacrificed these ants, I'll apologize too.

I hope you'll forgive me on their behalf when the time comes..."

By then, the Blood Veins had spread across Yan Xuan's entire body.

Red light seeped from the ground all over the school! Through the damaged patches of flooring, they could see Blood Veins writhing beneath the surface like the earth's own network of veins.

Qi Da was frantic. It wasn't that he didn't want to attack; he simply couldn't!

Because he recognized this thing...

The Blood-Sucking Array!

It was extremely complicated to set up, but the rewards were just as great!

Yan Xuan, as the array's core, had activated it with one of his arms. Until the array was broken, Qi Da could do nothing to him.

None of Qi Da's attacks would hit Yan Xuan. The others inside the array would take the damage instead!

Not him, but the students and teachers of First High School...

"Teacher, I feel dizzy..."

"Me too. I feel weak all over... Is this the aftershock of two powerful warriors fighting?"

"Hey, when did you get a tattoo?"

"What tattoo?"

Huang Bo's heart lurched. He was about to speak when a wave of weakness washed over him.

He raised his hand. Blood Veins had somehow spread across the back of it.

The Inner Breath in his body was being greedily devoured by the veins...

Chu Yuan frowned as he looked at the Blood Veins on the back of his own hand. He could feel the essence of his flesh and blood being drained too.

The veins were even trying to draw out the Spiritual Power inside him.

But the latter's quality seemed far superior. It was like trying to move a heavy weight—they couldn't draw it out at all...

Chu Yuan circulated his technique, and his Spiritual Power trembled slightly. The Blood Veins blurred at once, seeming ready to disappear.

But in the next instant, fresh energy flowed in, and the Blood Veins on the back of his hand solidified again!

Sensing the fluctuations in energy, Chu Yuan turned to look at the classroom wall.

He sensed that a large part of the energy sustaining the Blood Veins came from... the Energy Gathering Array?