Li Qingshan vaulted over the podium railing, his soles slamming onto the rubber track as he landed and sprinted toward the center of the training ground.
"Everyone stay where you are! Security team, seal off the airspace above the campus! Medical team, count the injured!"
Several martial arts teachers split up and moved through the crowd, driving students near the corpses back into their class formations. The security teachers raised their terminals and connected to the defense system. Six combat drones rose above the rooftops, their gun barrels swiveling in unison toward the clouds.
Jiang Yuan remained where he was. The crimson glow on his broken sword faded segment by segment, and the missing blade vanished with it, leaving only a forty-centimeter fragment in his hand.
Four Iron-Winged Vulture corpses lay scattered across the training ground. The cuts across their chests, bellies, and wing roots had already been scorched black. A thin layer of blood seeped out onto the rubber ground, sending up wisps of fine white smoke.
Guo Hongtao shoved aside two students blocking his way, squeezed up to Jiang Yuan, and grabbed his shoulder.
"Yuan, you hid this way too well. You said you only started practicing swordsmanship recently. You call this recent?"
Jiang Yuan placed the broken sword into its wooden case and closed the lid.
"I practiced and practiced, and naturally learned it."
"Who are you trying to fool?"
Guo Hongtao raised an arm and pointed at the corpses more than ten meters away.
"Those three were still flying in the sky, and you took them apart in three strikes. Even if the school's swordsmanship teacher came over, he wouldn't have the face to claim he could practice his way into this."
"Saving you just now took quite a toll."
Hearing that, Guo Hongtao hurriedly released his shoulder and circled Jiang Yuan to inspect him. His gaze moved from Jiang Yuan's chest to his arms, not even overlooking the tears in his school uniform.
"You're injured? Where's the wound?"
"I'm hungry."
"My grilled meat all got smashed onto the ground. Go make those mutant beasts compensate you for the meal."
While the two were still talking, the battle footage recorded moments ago had already been sent into the class group chat. From Jiang Yuan drawing his sword to the three Iron-Winged Vultures crashing down, it had taken barely over ten seconds, yet the forwarding count had already multiplied more than a hundredfold.
The dean of academic affairs pushed through the crowd, his fingers tapping rapidly across his terminal as he accessed the campus network's administrative backend.
"Shut down wireless transmission in the training ground. Suspend all students' permission to send information outside their terminals. Seal every piece of content already uploaded to campus platforms. No one is allowed to spread it privately."
Hundreds of terminals flashed permission restriction notices one after another. Some people grumbled under their breath, while others hurriedly stuffed the videos into private storage. More and more gazes fell toward the center of the field, and the empty space around Jiang Yuan widened further and further.
Zhou Hu bent down to pick up his terminal. The recording page was still lit on the screen. He had only just exited the video when the dean of academic affairs stopped in front of him.
"Hand over your terminal."
"Dean, I didn't send the video outside."
"Hand over your terminal for inspection."
Zhou Hu glanced once toward Jiang Yuan, then pressed his thumb against the identification pad to unlock the permissions and placed the terminal in the dean's hand.
Jiang Yuan saw all of it. The campus network could be cut off, but it was impossible to keep several thousand witnesses' mouths shut.
His damage-reflection ability could still be attributed to a supernatural power, but swordsmanship at the Subtle Realm could not be separated from a complete inheritance and years of arduous training.
Li Qingshan had already approached and reached for the wooden case.
"Give me the sword."
Jiang Yuan gripped the handle and did not hand over the wooden case.
"Teacher, I bought this sword in the Old City District. It is my personal property."
"I'm only inspecting it. I won't confiscate your belongings."
Li Qingshan stepped half a pace closer, lowering his voice until only the two of them could hear.
"The principal saw those strikes from beginning to end. Are you still planning to hold onto half a sword and stay here while everyone crowds around you, guessing?"
Jiang Yuan released the handle and handed over the broken sword along with the wooden case.
The moment the hilt entered Li Qingshan's hand, the weight dragged his arm halfway down. He hurriedly supported the wooden case and switched to gripping the sword with both hands.
Vitality and blood surged into his palm, but the guard gave no response, nor did crimson sword light rise from the break. No matter how he examined the battered blade, its rust not yet fully faded, it was nothing more than a piece of astonishingly heavy scrap iron.
"Where did you learn your swordsmanship?"
"When I bought the sword, I found a damaged sword manual in a hidden compartment of the wooden case."
"Where is that sword manual?"
"After cultivating it, I burned the manual."
Li Qingshan stared at him for a moment, the muscles in his cheek twitching twice in succession.
"If you're going to make up an excuse, could you discuss it with your teacher beforehand?"
"There was a problem with the material of the sword manual. It started crumbling not long after I opened it. I could only memorize the contents first, then dispose of the remaining pages."
"You read through it once, spent only a few days on it, and trained the swordsmanship to the Subtle Realm?"
Jiang Yuan did not answer.
Li Qingshan stuffed the broken sword back into the wooden case, pressed a hand against Jiang Yuan's shoulder, and led him away from the watching students.
"When the principal asks later, don't mention a few days. Say you got the sword manual during winter break and have been cultivating it in private ever since."
"Teacher, does this count as helping me fabricate a story?"
"I'm helping the school protect one of its students."
Li Qingshan did not slow down, his palm remaining firmly clasped around Jiang Yuan's shoulder.
"If word gets out that you mastered Subtle Realm swordsmanship in your teens, the first batch of people to come knocking may not be carrying admissions forms."
An open space had already been cleared beneath the podium. The principal and the head of the security team stood guard beside the Iron-Winged Vulture corpses, while the dean of academic affairs had also returned. Staff members were using instruments to test the crystal cores and bloodline strength.
A scanning beam swept over the first corpse. The data on the screen flickered several times, yet no standard result was generated.
The security team leader adjusted the parameters twice more, but the value representing energy intensity still clung to the lowest mark.
"Strange. None of the four Iron-Winged Vultures' crystal cores are damaged, yet all their fire-attribute energy has vanished."
Jiang Yuan's fingers tightened. The handle of the wooden case dug into his palm. The process by which Blazing Sun Sword Intent absorbed the intent of fire had, in the end, still left traces on the corpses.
The principal lifted his head from the instrument display. His gaze crossed the crowd and settled on the wooden case in Jiang Yuan's hand.
"Leave the broken sword for now. Jiang Yuan, come with me to the conference room."
Guo Hongtao chased after them for two steps, his soles stepping through blood that had not yet dried.
"Principal, he just saved the entire school!"
The principal stopped and turned to look at Guo Hongtao.
"Precisely because he saved people, the school must protect him first. Today's news can no longer be contained. At least seven off-campus addresses have received footage from the scene."
The dean of academic affairs brought up the tracking results and projected them onto a floating light screen. The earliest leaked video was only eight seconds long, but when the crimson sword light pierced the Iron-Winged Vulture, Jiang Yuan's full face was clearly captured in the center of the frame.
The forwarding count at the top of the page continued to rise.
The next instant, an encrypted message bypassed the campus system's interception program and directly occupied the entire light screen.
Just as the dean of academic affairs prepared to sever the connection, the sender's identification unfolded in full.
New Star Martial Arts Admissions Joint Center.
At the center of the light screen, only a single line of text remained.
[Jianghai No. 1 High School is to immediately transfer all records of student Jiang Yuan. The special investigation team will arrive in two hours.]
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