Yang Sheng Takes Action

That slap left not only Wang Meng stunned.

Even the students watching from the teaching building were dumbfounded.

After asking around, they had roughly learned what had happened.

They all knew that a few days ago, Yang Sheng, a Lower-Registry Commoner who had yet to reach Lesser Completion of Bright Force, had become one of the first students the school had urged to withdraw.

And yet a student who had not even reached Lesser Completion of Bright Force dared to stand up to Wang Meng, who had reached that realm, just to keep his father from being bullied.

Naturally, he had won the students' goodwill.

But goodwill was one thing.

The gap in strength was right there, and with Li Yan's intimidation, no one dared to help Yang Sheng.

They could only pray that the teachers would arrive quickly enough to save Yang Sheng before Wang Meng beat him to death.

Yet this slap had exceeded everyone's expectations.

A student who had once been utterly inconspicuous had actually caught Wang Meng's full-force attack, then slapped him backhandedly.

Reality did not have the Stellar Martial Arts Match System's reduced pain.

Moreover, Yang Sheng's Cloud-Crushing Strike had already reached proficiency.

The damage from that blow had actually achieved Force Penetration.

Wang Meng's vision went black, and he staggered back two steps. If Li Yan had not caught him,

he would have nearly fallen to the ground.

Yang Sheng looked at his own hand.

Cloud-Crushing Strike emphasized swift, direct counterattacks. Its power was not especially great, nor was its physical destructive force strong, but in his hands, it was exceedingly humiliating.

Li Yan's expression darkened slightly.

He said quietly to Wang Meng, "Go all out. Don't hold back."

Even Li Yan had not expected Jiang Tian to have actually taught Yang Sheng something.

But that was all there was to it.

Upon hearing Li Yan's words, Wang Meng gradually came to his senses.

"Ah!"

He roared and charged at Yang Sheng again with a punch.

But in Yang Sheng's eyes, this punch was riddled with openings.

He had fought fifty or sixty real matches in the Stellar Martial Arts Match System.

With the Martial God Soul's enhancement, that efficiency had been amplified a hundredfold.

It was equivalent to fighting five or six thousand matches against other people.

He had digested and absorbed countless insights from actual combat.

He had already fully mastered every detail of combat at the Lesser Completion of Bright Force stage.

Although Wang Meng had advanced to Lesser Completion of Bright Force more than a year ago,

in Yang Sheng's eyes, he was far inferior to the North Sea Divine Fist.

Yang Sheng easily blocked Wang Meng's first punch with Whirling Wind Hand. Just as he grabbed Wang Meng's wrist and prepared to counterattack,

he keenly noticed that Wang Meng was hiding a dagger in his other hand.

The dagger stabbed toward Yang Sheng's ribs from a tricky angle.

The move was both covert and fast.

An ordinary person without their guard up would have been highly likely to fall for it.

But after so many rounds of real combat training, Yang Sheng had already simulated every possibility before each match.

Just as Wang Meng was about to thrust out the dagger,

Yang Sheng unexpectedly drove a knee upward.

His knee struck Wang Meng's wrist squarely.

Before Wang Meng could react, Yang Sheng fiercely forced his wrist back.

By the time he realized what was about to happen,

he tried to pull back, only to discover that Yang Sheng still had a death grip on his other wrist.

With one pull and one wrench, Yang Sheng's knee slammed solidly into Wang Meng's lower abdomen.

Wang Meng groaned, clutched his stomach in pain, and collapsed to the ground, unable to rise.

At that moment, Yang Sheng's former homeroom teacher, Zhao Huan, finally arrived.

"Stop!"

He barked at Yang Sheng.

Zhao Huan was a very different kind of teacher from Jiang Tian.

He was tall and thin, and when teaching students, he placed more emphasis on technique than strength.

For that reason, he held Jiang Tian's teaching style, with its pure worship of strength, in utter contempt.

But as an old teacher who had entered Bay City Martial Arts High School in the same period as Jiang Tian,

Zhao Huan's class performance had been utterly ordinary.

That was until he encountered a student like Li Yan, who possessed some talent.

In order to surpass Jiang Tian, Zhao Huan had poured all his effort and resources into Li Yan.

Their class had more than forty students in total.

In Zhao Huan's eyes, all of those students were merely resources for Li Yan's cultivation.

They were stepping stones on his path to improvement.

As long as something could help Li Yan improve his cultivation, Zhao Huan supported it wholeheartedly. But once it lost its value, he would kick it aside without hesitation.

That was how he had treated Yang Sheng.

However, when he announced Yang Sheng's withdrawal, Jiang Tian had unexpectedly stepped in and taken Yang Sheng away, which surprised him somewhat.

It also changed Zhao Huan's attitude toward Yang Sheng.

Previously, he had simply ignored Yang Sheng. Now, he felt a measure of displeasure toward him.

He had several students behind him step forward to help Wang Meng up.

As the students lifted Wang Meng, Zhao Huan suddenly noticed that Wang Meng's face was deathly pale and that a dagger was embedded in his abdomen.

Blood quickly stained Wang Meng's clothes red.

The surrounding students also gathered around at that point.

"Yang Sheng, you openly violated school rules by taking a controlled weapon out of the training hall, and you even used it to stab a fellow student!"

Just then, Jiang Tian arrived with Liu Chang.

Liu Chang jogged over to Yang Sheng's father and began examining his injuries.

After confirming that his ribs were injured but his internal organs were unharmed, she gave Jiang Tian a thumbs-up.

Jiang Tian nodded in understanding.

He slowly walked over to Zhao Huan, crouching beside him.

He muttered, "Oh dear, what happened? How did things end up like this?"

Zhao Huan snorted coldly at Jiang Tian.

"Teacher Jiang, take a look. This is the fine student you taught. He has none of the proper methods of a righteous martial artist, yet he resorted to every despicable means possible to stab a fellow student!"

"Not only will I report this to the school, the Board of Trustees, and the Bay City Public Security Bureau!"

"Any student who injures someone with a blade must be expelled from Bay City Martial Arts High School. A dangerous scum like this cannot be allowed to remain at the school."

The more Zhao Huan spoke, the more agitated he became.

He had thought this would provoke Jiang Tian, and he wanted to see Jiang Tian suffer.

But unexpectedly, Jiang Tian nodded again and again.

"Teacher Zhao is absolutely right. We must deal sternly with students who carry dangerous items on them. Hurry and call Principal Tang!"

That only left Zhao Huan more confused.

Just as Jiang Tian spoke with righteous indignation, Principal Tang, who had received word long ago, finally arrived.

After briefly understanding the situation, he organized the students and sent them back to their classrooms, telling them not to keep watching.

Meanwhile, Zhao Huan was still complaining to Principal Tang.

"Principal Tang, Yang Sheng was originally an underperforming student I intended to urge into withdrawal, but Jiang Tian stubbornly insisted on transferring him into the High-Aspiration Class."

"Look at him now. He has committed such a vile act as injuring someone with a blade. I ask the school to handle this seriously, and I will not allow anyone to shield such a criminal!"

At that moment, Liu Chang walked to Principal Tang's side and said quietly, "Principal Tang, we've retrieved the surveillance footage..."

After hearing Liu Chang's words, Principal Tang said to the indignant Zhao Huan, "Teacher Zhao, everything you said is correct, but there is one matter you still seem not to understand."

Zhao Huan said, "What? Isn't the truth clear enough?"

Principal Tang said, "What you don't understand is that the one holding the dagger was not Yang Sheng, but Wang Meng."