Return to the City

The four shields left everyone looking at one another.

They watched as a swarm of Star Demons gnawed and clawed at them. Not only did they fail to cause the slightest damage, their fangs and talons snapped instead.

Everyone had complicated feelings—Kexiang especially.

This defensive power had already surpassed the battle armor they wore.

The students from both schools were now completely at ease, and many of them began to recover in peace.

Tang Ruoxi's eyes shone with strange light. She wanted to ask, but did not dare disturb him.

Seeing that he was fine, Ji Ziling and Ying Yanxue let out sighs of relief and focused on recovering.

As Jiang Changkong recovered his Star Power and stamina, he did not forget to check his current condition.

Jiang Changkong: Peak Nebula Level

Low-grade, mid-tier martial arts:

Copper Skin Iron Bone Technique: Perfected 1/64000

Taiji Fist Classic: Great Accomplishment 2/16000

Traceless Three Blades: Perfected 23583/64000

Essence, energy, and spirit: 11

Fighting his way in with Taiji Fist just now had actually added one point.

As for Traceless Three Blades, his constant hard work over the past few days had not been in vain. It was almost halfway improved.

The Star Power in his body was dense, and his comprehension of Traceless Three Blades had deepened as well.

He was confident that if he faced Chen Sanyan again, even in his prime, he would have no problem killing him instantly with a single slash.

Next, he planned to allocate part of his essence, energy, and spirit to improve Copper Skin Iron Bone and the Taiji Fist Classic.

It was not realistic to fully perfect Traceless Three Blades.

He would divide out part of his essence, energy, and spirit to improve those two martial arts. Right now, he needed to use them.

After resting for half an hour, Jiang Changkong stood up and continued the slaughter.

His consumption had not been that great to begin with, and in that half hour, he had already fully recovered.

Once he confirmed that they were in no danger, he let loose and killed to his heart's content.

However, he still killed for only an hour or two, charging back and forth through them, before resting.

He would not let himself run out of energy and strength again. Who knew where the Star Demons would drag him next?

If they dragged him in front of a Star Sea Level Star Demon, he would have nowhere to cry.

Ji Ziling and the others occasionally opened their eyes, looked at the screen, then closed them again to rest.

Those with lighter injuries, after recovering, watched the screen with extremely complicated expressions.

Envy, jealousy, and resentment. Was this guy made of alloy or something?

But even alloy would be torn apart by this many Star Demons.

The Star Demons outside were rapidly decreasing. Occasionally, a few Star Demons were drawn over, but there were not many, and they could not cause any trouble.

Time flowed by bit by bit, from late night until dawn.

He killed his way in and out of the Star Demon horde again and again, and the horde was no longer what it had been before.

When the first ray of light on the horizon tore through the darkness, the Star Demons outside the shields were few and far between, with only a dozen or so left.

The shields opened. When the group saw the ground, they were so shocked they could not speak. Minced flesh covered the earth, without a single complete corpse.

A cold wind blew over, and everyone shuddered, their hairs standing on end as a chill ran through them.

This savage guy!

There was also a pile of Star Stones stacked there, almost like a small mountain.

Everyone swept it with a glance and knew that there were no fewer than three hundred Star Stones.

Bang!

Another Star Demon was blown apart. It was at the Star Qi Peak. As soon as its Star Stone flew out, it exploded.

Even the Star Stone had been shattered!

Rip!

Sword light flashed. Ji Ziling cut off a Star Demon's head with one strike and dug out the Star Stone. "Lend us your backpacks."

"Take them." A student tossed over a backpack.

The others also hurriedly attacked, finishing off the remaining Star Demons.

Ying Yanxue carried several backpacks and packed away the small mountain of Star Stones.

"Senior." Jiang Changkong stopped, his clothes ragged and stained with quite a bit of blood.

Although he had the Taiji diagram protecting his body, he had not had it while recovering last night, so it was inevitable that he had gotten stained with blood.

"Good brother."

Ji Ziling clapped him hard on the shoulder and said, "You've got loyalty. The Kexiang students said just now that if you have any requests, just name them!"

Jiang Changkong blinked. Just name them?

Tang Ruoxi smiled faintly. "That's right. As long as it doesn't exceed the third-rank range, whether it's weapons or battle armor, we'll agree to it."

Jiang Changkong pondered for a moment and said, "Let's talk about this when we get back. It's still dangerous here right now. We should leave first."

He didn't know what he should ask for, or what deep-pocketed Kexiang could give him.

Better to wait until they got back and figure things out first.

For something this big, involving so many people, Kexiang couldn't go back on their word.

"That works too."

Tang Ruoxi nodded lightly and waved. "Move out."

When everyone opened the energy shield, they had already packed up their things.

They shouldered their backpacks and left straight away.

Ying Yanxue had filled three backpacks with Star Stones and tossed them all to Jiang Changkong. "Yours."

"Thank you, senior. Some of them are Late Nebula Level. You can keep those."

Jiang Changkong took the backpacks and spoke as they walked.

"Just take them. Don't absorb them recklessly this time. Save them for school, or sell them for money."

Ji Ziling said, "Once you enter the school, bring these Star Stones back and you can directly complete the college entrance exam requirements. They're worth about two or three years."

Jiang Changkong: "..."

Completing several years of college entrance exam requirements as soon as he enrolled—wasn't that a little fast?

Ying Yanxue's expression was cool. "We don't need the Star Stones. We had some before, and we're not short right now."

Jiang Changkong knew what she meant—the Star Stones they had scammed from Zhang Hua and the others. "I'll go get my backpack. Wait for me a moment."

"Let's go together."

Ji Ziling and Ying Yanxue followed him.

Zhang Hua followed beside Cao Ye, his expression dark as water. "His strength—how could it have improved so quickly?"

If they hadn't seen Jiang Changkong's strength for themselves, they would have suspected he was a Star Sea Level martial artist.

Even someone at Peak Nebula Level couldn't have charged in and out of a pack of Star Demons last night like that, unless they were a Star Sea Level martial artist.

Cao Ye said expressionlessly, "Don't overthink it. You should first think about how you're going to face the punishment after we get back."

After picking up his backpack, Jiang Changkong returned to the school with everyone.

"Are you interested in coming to Kexiang School?" Tang Ruoxi walked over and asked in a low voice.

"Tang Ruoxi, what are you doing?" Ji Ziling and Ying Yanxue glared at her at the same time.

"Miss Tang Ruoxi, top student Changkong belongs to our Martial Arts School. He's Senior Ziling's brother."

The people from the Martial Arts School were displeased too.

How could such an amazing top student be poached away?

When they came to the Star Wilderness Grassland together in the future, those from the same school would definitely look out for one another.

As for the Martial Arts School and Kexiang, under normal circumstances, it was already good enough if they didn't kick each other while they were down.

"I..."

Jiang Changkong had just started to speak when Ji Ziling tugged him and whispered by his ear, "Say you don't have any thoughts of joining a school yet."

Jiang Changkong paused slightly, then said, "I haven't decided which school to join yet. I only know a little hand-to-hand combat, nothing worth mentioning."

How could he not know Ji Ziling was doing this for his own good?

If he hadn't decided which one to join, then they could make their offers. He would go wherever the better offer was.

Tang Ruoxi's eyes lit up. There was a chance.

"Hurry up and go. Let's return to the city as soon as possible," Ying Yanxue said coolly.

The return trip to the city was fairly uneventful, because they didn't take the initiative to hunt Star Demons or lure them over.

They didn't run into any more packs of Star Demons. When they encountered scattered Star Demons, they were killed before Jiang Changkong could even act.

No one said anything about the Star Stones from the previous pack of Star Demons. They all belonged to Jiang Changkong.

As for the scattered Star Demons on the road, Jiang Changkong didn't interfere again.

He also returned Zhang Xiaoyu's phone to him. He didn't return the Primordial Martial Compass for the time being; he would do that when they got back, since it was still useful on the road.

He walked together with Ji Ziling and Ying Yanxue, chatting with them off and on.

Tang Ruoxi came over occasionally to talk about Kexiang's matters, and also discussed the issue of his previous reward.

Jiang Changkong listened to Ji Ziling and didn't rush to say anything. Instead, he chatted with Tang Ruoxi about Kexiang.