Crushed

Ye Yingluo was furious, but beneath her anger lay an even deeper helplessness.

As the seconds ticked by, Wu Changkong swiftly drew near. He was moving fast.

The moment he arrived, his gaze swept over Wei Xiaofeng and Zhang Yangzi. Seeing the swords lodged in their chests, he raised a hand.

A surge of Extreme Cold Power struck the Ice and Snow Long Swords.

The swords instantly shattered, and the two boys fell out of their Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

Only when Wu Changkong stepped closer did he realize how badly they were hurt.

They had been pierced while their martial souls were fused. Now their abdomens and both arms had been run through.

Worse, a terrifying chill still lingered inside them.

That chill—or rather, that power of ice and snow—was an ability unique to the Snow Empress. Wounds like these were extremely difficult to heal.

Unless Li Qingxun personally removed the cold energy from their bodies, even an ordinary healing-type Soul Master would struggle to mend their wounds.

It was as though a special power had been left inside each wound, making healing exceptionally difficult.

Wu Changkong was a veteran Soul Emperor. With a single glance, he had a rough idea of what had happened.

He looked at Li Qingxun. Li Qingxun fell silent for a moment. He would not have done this for just anyone.

But Wu Changkong was a decent teacher, and there was no bad blood between them.

Li Qingxun silently raised a hand. Behind him, the Heavenly Snow Woman raised hers as well.

With a slight curl of her fingers, the extreme cold inside the three boys slowly gathered into needles of ice crystal, then swiftly broke apart and vanished.

As the cold disappeared, the three boys' groans grew noticeably quieter, and their conditions improved a little.

Freed from the torment of that extreme cold, all three began to recover somewhat.

Even so, their injuries remained serious.

Within minutes, an ambulance drove in, its siren wailing. The three boys were carried aboard and rushed straight to the hospital.

Ye Yingluo remained where she was. She did not look at Li Qingxun; instead, she fixed Wu Changkong with an icy stare.

"Teacher Wu, those students are all yours."

"I expect the school to explain this unauthorized fight—or at least tell me why it happened."

"All three used to be in my class. They didn't go to Class Zero to be bullied."

Ye Yingluo gave a cold snort. Her expression was glacial.

Wu Changkong listened, then silently glanced at Li Qingxun. He did not ask him what had happened.

Instead, he turned to several girls nearby.

The girls hesitated under Wu Changkong's icy gaze, but they stepped forward and recounted what had happened.

One person might lie or embellish the story. But once several people had spoken and their accounts were compared, the truth became clear.

Ye Yingluo frowned when she heard that Wei Xiaofeng had started the provocation. She knew his character well.

He was petty and narrow-minded, with a devious streak.

Still, she had not expected him to challenge Li Qingxun in front of such a crowd.

And challenging him was one thing. Wei Xiaofeng had even tried a sneak attack—and after all that, he had still lost.

Ye Yingluo's face darkened further, and her fingers curled into a fist.

Having students from her class lose to Wu Changkong's was humiliating enough.

Now the last student left from her class had attacked a new student by surprise and still failed to beat him.

When this boy had enrolled, he had only one soul ring. Clearly, he had reached two rings within the last couple of days.

A boy who had only just reached two rings had faced Wei Xiaofeng, a Soul Master who had been at that level for months.

Yet Wei Xiaofeng had been crushed without the slightest chance to fight back.

Ye Yingluo sighed. Wu Changkong, however, paid none of that any mind.

As the girls continued, Wu Changkong pieced together the rest. Wei Xiaofeng and Zhang Yangzi had attacked first.

They had failed. When Li Qingxun's palm strike was about to gravely injure them, Tang Wulin had stepped in and taken the blow for them.

Only then did Wu Changkong notice Tang Wulin. Standing amid the crowd, he had been easy to overlook.

Tang Wulin still gripped his arm tightly. Wu Changkong saw the injury on it and looked back at Li Qingxun.

This time, Li Qingxun's gaze turned colder. He did not remove the cold from Tang Wulin's arm. Instead, he stared at him.

"You knew they attacked me first. You saw the whole thing."

"They came at me three against one and tried to hurt me badly. Then you joined in too. Do you think that was right?"

Li Qingxun held Tang Wulin's gaze. For the first time, the two looked directly into each other's eyes.

Faced with the chill in Li Qingxun's eyes, Tang Wulin fell silent. His lips parted slightly, but he could not find anything to say.

Of course the three had been in the wrong. But Li Qingxun had seemed so strong that Tang Wulin had instinctively overlooked that.

Wang Jinxi and Zhang Yangzi were also his friends. That was why he had stepped in to stop the blow.

But stopping it was one thing. Deep down, Tang Wulin knew who had been right and who had been wrong.

After a moment, he lowered his head slightly. "I'm sorry. I was wrong. I apologize."

Tang Wulin gently rubbed his arm, looking at the faint red tint on his skin.

Helplessness crossed his face. Li Qingxun gave him one more cold glance.

As Li Qingxun raised his hand, the icy power dissipated once again.

The redness on Tang Wulin's arm slowly began to fade.

Sensing Li Qingxun's power, Wu Changkong studied the boy. Both of them had ice attributes.

But he could readily feel just how terrifying the boy's Ultimate Ice was.

Whether it was the lingering power that was so difficult to remove or the strength he had displayed with only two soul rings, the boy far surpassed others at the same level.

From the accounts alone, Wu Changkong understood how vast the gap was between this boy and the others.

Three Soul Masters at the same level, one of them using a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, had faced him. They had not been a match.

Had it been a fight to the death, the three might already have been corpses.

Wu Changkong sighed, but said nothing.

The matter was ultimately Long Hengxu's to decide. With that thought, Wu Changkong turned his head and saw Long Hengxu hurrying over from the entrance to the Athletic Field, panting as he ran.

Seeing the three boys being taken away, Long Hengxu's face darkened.

He swept his gaze over the scene but held back his anger. "Teacher Ye, Teacher Wu, Li Qingxun, and Tang Wulin—the four of you, come to my office."