"Hey, those guys from Class Ten keep coming over looking for trouble lately. I heard they've even teamed up with Sun Xiaoqiang and his bunch from Class Seven. They want to challenge us to a match in a few days."
"Then we'll fight. What, are we supposed to be scared of them?"
In Class One, Liu Sidao and the others were discussing the latest crisis.
Wherever there were people, there was a jianghu. Forming factions was human nature.
Fortunately, the school rules allowed ordinary exchanges of martial arts, but prohibited crippling or killing anyone.
Of the ten classes, only Classes One, Three, Four, Six, and Ten were particularly lively.
Ever since Liu Sidao had brought Yin Tianqi into the fold, Class One had become a solid iron plate.
"Bad news! Bad news!"
While Liu Sidao and the others were chatting, a student suddenly ran in.
"What happened?" Seeing him scrambling blindly in panic, practically crawling on his knees, Liu Sidao hauled him up. "What's going on? Has someone fought their way in?"
"No, it's Class Ten! Class Ten brought people over to fight us!"
"How many?"
"I didn't count. Probably at least a hundred. Class Ten's boss, Liu Che, brought people from Classes Eight and Nine. He says he's going to beat you up!"
"Beat me up?" The pretty little boy sprang upright with a carp kip-up, his gaze firm, not the slightest bit flustered, and even faintly excited. "Go to Class Two and get Ma Shou. Let's get them!"
"Okay."
Once the student had gone to fetch help, Liu Sidao looked around and told Xiao Yan and the others, "Stay behind me in a minute. Once the fighting starts, Brother Yan, you deal with the Eight Great Vajras. Tianqi, jump in wherever you see fit. Leave Liu Che to me. To catch the bandits, first catch their king!"
"Got it!"
Everyone agreed and followed Liu Sidao straight toward the martial training ground.
Halfway there, Ma Shou arrived with over seventy students from Class Three.
"Brother Shou."
"Sidao."
The two classes successfully joined forces. Liu Sidao dispensed with formalities and said directly, "Thanks, Brother Shou."
Ma Shou smiled. "Don't mention it. I've been sick of the sight of them for ages."
"Good. Then the two of us will go after Liu Che. Once we take him down, the rest will be easy."
"Yeah."
On the martial training ground, the two sides numbered four or five hundred altogether.
Liu Che was thirteen, tall and burly, a head taller than Liu Sidao and the others.
He counted as a second-generation martial artist. His father ran a martial arts school in Ripple Water City, and his family dealt with all sorts from every walk of life. Growing up immersed in that world, he positively brimmed with jianghu swagger.
After arriving at the Tianyang Sect, he felt he was older than most and learned faster than everyone else, so he founded Class Ten's Heavenly Dragon Association, aiming to become the top dog of their year.
The Eight Great Vajras under him had quickly beaten Classes Eight and Nine into submission.
He had previously come to provoke Class One, and Liu Sidao had fought him. The teachers had disciplined them afterward.
Today, he intended to bring Class One completely under his heel.
The school had said healthy competition was allowed, so they were using a martial arts match as an excuse to pick a fight.
Kids were like that at school. Every school had people like these.
Liu Sidao's father was a constable. He was talented and outgoing, like a little big brother.
As for Ma Shou of Class Two, everyone now knew his mother was Class Two's homeroom teacher.
He was also very talented. Perhaps he took after his father.
He was a loyal fellow, too. Previously, he had taken out Class Ten's Eight Great Vajras single-handedly in an instant.
For a brawl, they couldn't bring-couldn't bring weapons, so everyone had come empty-handed.
Liu Che tilted his head, his eyes shifting between Liu Sidao and Ma Shou.
"Liu Che, itching for another beating?"
On the martial training ground, four or five hundred half-grown children stood in two sharply divided groups, facing off. The air brimmed with that restless mixture of excitement and nervousness unique to youngsters.
On Class Ten's side, Liu Che folded his arms and raised his chin slightly, surveying the allied forces of Classes One and Three with what he imagined was a thoroughly jianghu look. He was the tallest, and standing at the front of the crowd, he rather resembled a crane among chickens.
"Liu Sidao," Liu Che began, his voice carrying the distinctive rasp of puberty as he deliberately drew out his words. "Not bad. You've learned to call for backup. You even invited Young Master Ma. What, too scared to take us on yourself?"
Liu Sidao stood straight, his little face expressionless and his eyes clear, with a naturally steady bearing. Before he could speak, Ma Shou scoffed beside him. Tilting his head, a reckless, roguish grin hanging on his lips, he cut in:
"Liu Che, why do you sound like a drake? Who are you trying to scare? You brought this handful of people to make trouble on our turf? Itching for another beating, huh? Didn't learn your lesson when the teachers hauled you off for a lecture last time?"
Hit where it hurt, Liu Che's face darkened as he pointed at Ma Shou. "Ma Shou! Quit showing off! Don't think I'm scared of you just because your mother's a teacher! This is between students. If you've got any guts, don't go telling the teachers!"
Ma Shou snorted, folded his arms, and stepped forward, rolling his shoulders. "I need to tell a teacher to deal with you? I could pound your bullshit Eight Great Vajras all over again by myself! Don't believe me? Try me!"
Liu Sidao spoke then, too. His voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly, carrying an unquestionable calm. "Liu Che, at school, we're competing to improve our martial arts, not forming gangs and fighting over who's boss. If you want to spar, we'll oblige. But if you think you can use numbers to make Class One bow down, forget it."
Watching the handsome one and the rogue work together so seamlessly while leaving him out in the cold, Liu Che's temper flared. Seeing some of the Class Eight and Nine students behind him apparently waver at Liu Sidao's words only made his embarrassment turn to fury.
"Cut the fucking crap!" Liu Che roared, trying to regain the upper hand. "Liu Sidao, just tell me whether you're submitting today! Are you joining our Heavenly Dragon Association or not? Are you acknowledging me as your boss or not?"
Ma Shou immediately cut in, speaking rapidly. "Submit, my ass... submit to what, your big head or your thick skin?
"Boss?
"Go piss yourself a mirror and take a good look at yourself!"
"You're fucking asking for it!"
Liu Che was thoroughly enraged. Ma Shou's roguish demeanor and knack for picking the nastiest things to say in particular pushed him beyond endurance.
With a furious roar, he charged straight at Ma Shou, whose mouth most deserved a beating, and swung a fist.
"Get them!"
Seeing their boss attack, someone on Class Ten's side shouted, and the whole mass surged forward after him.
"Go!"
Liu Sidao's gaze sharpened, and he gave a low shout. His small figure moved with extraordinary agility. Instead of retreating, he advanced, meeting Liu Che's charge head-on. Ma Shou let out a strange yell, an excited grin on his face, sidestepping Liu Che's furious punch while sticking out a foot to trip him.
In an instant, the martial training ground descended into chaos.
"Ow!"
"Don't pull my hair!"
"Who stepped on my foot?"
"Take my Black Tiger Steals the Heart!"
"Qilin Probes the Sea!"
"Fuck, no biting..."
Zhang Qingyuan was giving ten second-year teachers a tour of the campus. These teachers hadn't been easy to recruit; he only wanted talented people.
He had finally managed to fill all the positions. After a day's delay, he was taking them sightseeing.
Well, the main purpose was to introduce the educational philosophy of the Tianyang Martial Dao Academy.
"At our Tianyang Martial Dao Academy, we focus on targeted training. Why did I, the sect master, select elites like yourselves? Because I want your help nurturing a batch of outstanding disciples.
"Our Tianyang Sect is an eight-hundred-year-old establishment. You've all read the contracts carefully, haven't you?
"You need only focus on teaching, guiding the students in cultivating internal power and combining internal and external arts.
"Most of our Tianyang Sect's disciples come from poor families. They're simple, steady, unpretentious, and kind. They haven't seen much of the world, so I'll also be asking all of you teachers to give the students plenty of psychological guidance."
After Zhang Qingyuan and Old Fifth had shown them several important locations, including the accommodations, the library pavilion, and the dining hall, they led them onward toward the martial training ground.
The ten teachers were very satisfied with all the conditions. After all, the work was stable. They wouldn't have to lick blood off a blade's edge or dine in the wind and sleep beneath the dew. They could even read the Tianyang Sect's secret manuals, and in the future, their students could blossom like peach and plum trees all across the land.
This job was simply wonderful.
After rounding the dormitory area, while still some distance from the martial training ground, they suddenly heard an uproar ahead.
"What's going on?"
"No idea."
Zhang Qingyuan inwardly sensed trouble and hurried toward the martial training ground, the ten second-year teachers following behind him.
When they arrived, they saw hundreds of half-grown boys tangled in one enormous brawl, dust flying everywhere.
"Holy fuck!"
"What the fuck!"
At first, they had still used proper moves and forms, but once the fighting got going, most students had gone back to wildly flailing their fists.
Only a small number of elites were still using martial arts techniques.
The ten new teachers looked at the scene before them, then turned astonished gazes toward Zhang Qing, unable to help thinking, These are the plain, unassuming, well-behaved children you were talking about?
They don't fucking need any guidance from us!
Zhang Qingyuan was deeply embarrassed.
When did this place turn into a hot-blooded high school?
Earlier, I'd written a hundred thousand words and still hadn't gotten the debut push. At a hundred and ten thousand, there was still no debut push. I thought this book was done for and was already planning to start a new one. Who knew the traffic was just arriving a few days late? Fuck!