Although its requirements for use were extremely unusual, so demanding as to be nearly impossible, and it carried the enormous risk of crushing the user's body under the strain,
it could grant someone an additional nearly universal energy reserve, allowing an ordinary participant to leap straight into the ranks of powerful, lofty A-ranks.
The External Core was unquestionably something precious enough to drive people mad in the Night Battle world.
And only Midnight could create something like it.
Considering that he really had been using something so precious as fuel for "Infinity," and that the other party was a Midnight senior whose status was high enough for him to call Shui Linlang "little girl,"
Fang Ran could only obediently accept the beating, resentfully adding his older brother to his little book of revenge.
Of course, he had selectively forgotten that he was the one who had first blurted out Meng Lang's name in an attempt to divert disaster.
"Senior Tian Gong, I've already notified them. Uh, what's going on here?"
At that moment, Li Ze, who had completed his instructions and entered the great hall, stared at the scene before him in temporary confusion.
"I merely taught this brat a lesson."
The burly old man—no, Tian Gong—saw that Fang Ran was at least sensible enough and barely calmed down. Bare-armed, he crossed his arms over his broad chest and turned around, facing Fate's damaged body on the casting platform.
His back looked tough and imposing. With a stern snort, he answered,
"This little brat still smells of milk, yet he spends every day causing trouble everywhere and making people worry."
Using his cover—Klim—to sneak around behind them, Fang Ran tugged at Li Ze's trouser leg and asked in a tiny, startled voice,
"H-he-he's the...?"
Looking at Fang Ran crouching behind