"Who Do You Like?"

"Have you seen that Zhou Xingchi movie, Kung Fu Hustle?"

Xia Mi first assumed the stance of Eight Trigrams Palm, then switched to the opening stance of Northern Hung Fist.

As her fists and palms constantly shifted and changed, Xia Mi also tried to distract Li Lin with words.

The boy standing opposite her heard such an abrupt question and, sure enough, could not resist asking.

"What, do you know a palm technique that falls from the sky?"

"I really do have something like that up my sleeve, but I can't use it without a Word Spirit."

Xia Mi said it in an indifferent tone.

She took off her dust-covered combat uniform, revealing the athletic short-sleeved shirt underneath.

The greatest advantage of being pretty was that she could pull off most outfits. Even the plainest clothes looked exquisite and cute on her.

The girl's arms looked exceptionally slender, without much muscle on them. Her skin was delicate enough to seem breakable at a touch, and under the sunlight, it was dazzlingly pale. She did not look at all like someone who had practiced martial arts for over a decade.

There were not even any calluses or scars on Xia Mi's hands. It could only be attributed to the sheer superiority of her Mixed-Blood lineage.

She beckoned Li Lin over. "Little Li, get ready to start serving me tea and waiting on me in Norton Hall tonight."

Li Lin's expression turned solemn at those words, but after the massive brawl in the teaching district and the grueling training of the past few days, he had built up considerable confidence.

Even though Xia Mi had always seemed to hold back in their sparring matches since childhood.

At least on the surface, their martial attainments were now roughly equal.

Besides, his bloodline rank was S-Rank...

Victory was assured.

Li Lin understood this clearly. Thinking back on his brief clash with Xia Mi in the lecture hall, once firearms, explosives, and other factors were excluded, he felt he could utterly defeat her.

It was already noon. The first group of students who had been knocked out by Frigg Bullets had received treatment from the school doctors and were gradually waking up.

Their first reaction upon waking was to ask the doctors whether the Lionheart Society's leader or the Student Union's leader had won Day of Freedom.

Then they learned that Xia Mi had used an RPG to send the leaders of both factions flying, and that she had just arrived at the Student Hospital for an IV drip...

What was there left to say? They had to hurry over and watch the final round of Day of Freedom. A crowd of students, leaning on crutches and wrapped in bandages, surged toward the tree-lined path in front of the gymnasium.

Fingel was somehow mingling among the crowd completely unscathed. Holding a camera high above his head, he shouted for the injured students to keep their distance and not damage the precious thing he had borrowed from Caesar.

So everyone simply shoved this senior who had spent three years as a fourth-year student to the very front of the group, letting his burly body shield them from any stray bullets that might come flying their way.

Fingel walked forward with his heart in his throat. The moment he entered the tree-lined path, a white oak tree snapped in half and came crashing down right in front of him.

Yet he displayed the paparazzi spirit that inspired awe in others. Clutching his camera, he dodged the falling oak, and even as the trunk slammed into the ground with a thunderous boom, he risked everything to record the footage.

At the very center of the path, two figures moving so fast they nearly left afterimages were constantly crossing paths. The dull thuds of flesh and bone colliding beat like rain against a window.

Li Lin and Xia Mi rarely fought seriously like this anymore. They had a clear understanding of the damage they could cause.

From around middle school onward, their sparring had been closer to "roughhousing."

With Dragon Blood enhancing them, ordinary Mixed-Bloods could achieve the physical performance of world champion boxers after only basic training. As for outstanding talents like them, after years of martial arts practice and grasping its deeper mysteries, breaking wooden posts and shattering stone slabs came easily.

Fingel clicked his tongue in secret as he watched. No wonder that, despite the Executive Department's two opposing factions, both sides had gone to great lengths to recruit these two preparatory students into the main campus early.

The headmaster had even stamped the approval over the Board of Trustees' objections, allowing Li Lin and Xia Mi to enroll ahead of schedule.

Although Fingel and the surrounding students had watched plenty of combat footage sent over by the preparatory classes, witnessing these two monsters fight in person was an overwhelming visual experience that left the students sincerely convinced.

If anything, making these preparatory students complete three years of high school before enrolling would only be wasting their time.

At this moment, Li Lin finally tipped the scales of battle in his favor by relying on his absolute physical advantage.

Sure enough, confidence was the best catalyst for victory. As Li Lin's fierce, rapid offense continued, Xia Mi gradually sensed that something was wrong.

This guy's rate of improvement had completely exceeded her expectations.

Li Lin had fully integrated the enhancements brought by Dragon Blood into his fighting. The gap in their bloodline ranks was laid bare at this moment.

Xia Mi was getting desperate, so she suddenly chose a move from Emei—Seven-Star Strike from the Side—sending a wave of commotion through the crowd around Fingel.

Even Fingel himself was left slack-jawed by the countless fist and palm techniques Xia Mi unleashed next, as though she had struck a thousand times in an instant.

But even so, Xia Mi still failed to turn the battle around.

She had used these martial arts fusion techniques many times before. Li Lin's fighting style had always been steady and methodical, responding to endless changes with constancy. Xia Mi's frantic assault was lethally dangerous to anyone else; even if someone luckily blocked one or two strikes, the agonizing pain shooting through their entire body would be enough to make them lose focus in an instant. But against Li Lin, who had long since figured her out and grown accustomed to enduring intense pain, it had no effect at all.

As Li Lin gritted his teeth through the pain and neutralized each move one by one, the final round of Day of Freedom finally came to an end.

More and more students gathered to watch, while Xia Mi was merely a young girl with an A-Rank bloodline who had awakened her lineage less than a month ago.

Although Li Lin had felt countless times during the battle that Xia Mi might suddenly defeat him in an instant, she ultimately did not achieve the "breakthrough in battle" he had anticipated. Instead, she lost by a single move, had her shoulder seized by Li Lin, and obediently dropped to one knee to surrender.

"All right, I surrender! I admit you're the King of Kung Fu today. Let go of me already!"

Xia Mi felt utterly humiliated. Worse still, Li Lin was practically pressing down on top of her, making the young girl flustered and angry as she started making a fuss.

The moment Xia Mi surrendered, thunderous applause erupted from all directions.

Seeing the undisguised admiration and respect the students held for Li Lin, Xia Mi immediately understood that perhaps she would never again be able to defeat Li Lin in full view of everyone.

These Mixed-Bloods believed in elitism and bloodline supremacy. She had lost her chance to make Li Lin feel defeated through martial contests.

Though she had never succeeded in the first place...

Xia Mi rubbed her aching shoulder, then walked over to stand before the thoughtful-looking Li Lin, planting both hands on her hips as she looked at him.

"All right, congratulations on getting your wish and becoming the winner of Day of Freedom. Isn't it time for your victory speech?"

Li Lin could only temporarily suppress his suspicion that Xia Mi seemed to have been hiding her true strength. Grinning, he brought out the idea he had formed from the start.

"To be honest, I've actually fallen for an upperclassman at the school. That's why I trained so desperately before Day of Freedom beg—"

Before Li Lin could finish, Xia Mi's gentle smile made him instinctively shut his mouth.

"You just said... who do you like?"

Xia Mi's Golden Eyes, ignited at some unknown moment, swept across the surroundings, sending all the students who had gathered to watch scattering like birds and beasts.