"Stop! What are you doing? If word of this gets out, our school's reputation will suffer!"
A voice rang out, and Jia Wenshang emerged from the crowd in a hoodie.
His expression was rather grim. Looking at Liu Tong and his companion wailing nonstop, along with the unconscious third boy, he felt his eyelids twitch.
Lu Wu naturally stopped. "Mr. Jia, they were the ones who attacked first."
"No matter what happened, fighting on school grounds is absolutely forbidden." In all Jia Wenshang's years of teaching, nothing like this had ever happened among his students.
Quite a crowd had already gathered, and everyone began whispering among themselves.
"Move along, move along. What's there to see?" Jia Wenshang tried to get the surrounding students to leave.
If this went badly, he could forget about his bonus this month.
Even so, few of the students left. Every last one was watching the spectacle, unafraid of making things worse.
Lu Wu knew his reputation was as good as ruined.
Ah, I should have called the three of them outside and beaten them up there.
"Lu Wu, you've skipped so many classes that you've become a school celebrity. Now you've only just come back, and you pull this on me?" Jia Wenshang looked at Lu Wu, his head practically swelling to twice its size.
He had indeed heard some rumors early on. Later, he discovered that the boy wasn't as fond of fighting as the rumors claimed, but he skipped classes like nobody's business.
Today, he had finally come back.
And he had barely taken a stroll around school before getting into a fight!!
"Mr. Jia, I wasn't causing trouble." Seeing that Mr. Jia was angry, Lu Wu felt utterly helpless.
On the first day of awakening, after he had fallen unconscious, Mr. Jia had been the only person besides Mu Nujiao to go looking for him.
It was just that he had later gone to Fresh Food City. He hadn't told Mr. Jia about what happened that time, so Mr. Jia didn't know.
Skipping classes afterward had indeed been his own fault.
"I hope you haven't fallen behind in your cultivation," Jia Wenshang said helplessly. "Will you be able to take part in the upcoming assessment?"
Not everyone could participate in this assessment.
Less than a year had passed since their awakening. Even though Magic City Seventh Magic High School had students of good caliber, not everyone could cast magic.
Only the assessment in the second semester of their second year would include magical practice for everyone.
Although he wasn't hopeful, Jia Wenshang asked anyway. After all, only one person from his class was participating.
In previous years, around twenty first-year students participated in each assessment.
This time, he had heard that several geniuses had emerged.
The school would select five to join the second-year students in practical training and assessment.
"I will." Lu Wu nodded.
At those words, Jia Wenshang raised his eyebrows.
Only those who had already gained control over seven Stars and formed a Star Path could participate in the assessment, whether they could barely cast magic or do so proficiently.
"So you lot were the ones provoking my student? What class are you in? Who's your homeroom teacher? Stop wailing here. Keep it down!!"
Liu Tong and his companion were still wailing when Jia Wenshang shouted at them.
His tone sounded harsh, but Jia Wenshang was now all smiles, with quite a few more creases on his face.
It seemed that Lu Wu skipping classes wasn't such a big deal after all.
"Although you didn't get to use a Stardust Magic Tool because you weren't attending classes before, as long as you perform well in the assessment, you'll get at least four months of access to one." Jia Wenshang's tone had grown much gentler.
In fact, anyone who participated in the assessment and was confirmed to be genuinely capable of casting magic would receive at least two months of cultivation time with a Stardust Magic Tool.
Those who performed well could receive four months of access to a Stardust Magic Tool.
"I'll work hard," Lu Wu said upon hearing that.
Four months-that already covered an entire semester. It really wasn't a short time.
No wonder, in school, the stronger students generally grew even stronger as their cultivation time increased. After all, those strong enough received more cultivation resources, further widening the gap.
Jia Wenshang was very pleased to see this.
Before long, the school's security personnel arrived, along with a teacher from the infirmary.
After Lu Wu explained what had happened, news that he, who had skipped practically all his classes, had returned to school and beaten people up spread throughout Magic City Seventh Magic High School.
Returning to the classroom after so long, he found his classmates rather unfamiliar.
After all, he rarely spent time in the classroom, so Lu Wu really wasn't very familiar with these people.
"Lu Wu, I hear you're quite the badass. You only just got back to school and already got into a brawl." A girl approached Lu Wu. His own desk was practically empty, with nothing but a few books.
The girl speaking had short hair and wore sportswear. She looked very much like a handsome guy.
Her hairstyle and clothes both seemed very deliberate, and her face bore no trace of girlishness. If not for her voice, Lu Wu would even have thought she was a handsome guy whose looks rivaled his own.
"What brawl? It was a completely one-sided crushing. He was so damn cool." An admiring voice rang out.
Lu Wu turned to look and discovered a dark-skinned boy who sat at the back of the classroom with him. His eyes were now filled with admiration. "I saw the whole thing. Liu Tong and those other two charged at Lu Wu. It was seriously dangerous."
"Just when I thought Lu Wu's two fists wouldn't be a match for six hands, that he'd suffer a crushing defeat and need me to save him, before you could blink, Lu Wu went bam, wham, pow and took down all three. He was seriously cool as hell."
Wu Ya'er grew very excited as he described it, standing beside his desk and throwing punches and kicks.
"Shut up!" the short-haired girl snapped when she saw Wu Ya'er's antics.
Wu Ya'er shrank back in fear at her words, glanced at Lu Wu, and didn't dare say anything else.
"Let me introduce myself. Wu Xiaoxiao." Wu Xiaoxiao was bold and direct. "I don't know how you convinced our homeroom teacher to let you skip classes for so long, but he told me you're taking part in this assessment?"
"Just don't ask for leave when you skip class." Lu Wu was quite experienced in this regard.
As long as he didn't ask for leave, there was no question of approval or rejection.
Much less any question of convincing anyone.
"As for the assessment..." Lu Wu paused. "I'll be taking part."
"Do you know the requirement for participating in the assessment?" Wu Xiaoxiao stared at Lu Wu. Even if he had spent all his time skipping classes cultivating, that still wasn't very likely.
Everyone's soul could only withstand a limited amount of cultivation time.
No matter how talented Lu Wu was, five hours would already be pushing the limit, wouldn't it? Yet he had been skipping classes all along.
Normal people attended classes when they were supposed to, then cultivated, and still had plenty of time to rest and recover.
Before this assessment, time allotted for using a Stardust Magic Tool had been based on a combination of entrance scores and regular grades.
If Lu Wu had been around, her allotted time with a Stardust Magic Tool would have been less than his.
Because he had skipped classes for too long, Lu Wu had lost his eligibility to use a Stardust Magic Tool.
Yet now, she could take part in the assessment, and so could Lu Wu?!
Wu Xiaoxiao found it somewhat hard to believe, which was why she had come to ask Lu Wu.
"Of course I do." Lu Wu nodded, and that single confirmation sent the classroom into an uproar.
When Lu Wu awakened, a faint wisp of flame had appeared on the arm he had placed on the Awakening Stone. Everyone knew he had awakened the Fire Element.
Although its attack power was very strong at the Basic Level, it wasn't something to praise to the heavens.
But being able to connect seven Stars into a Star Path now-that was truly top-tier talent.
"Lu Wu, you're fucking awesome!" Wu Ya'er shouted. "From now on, you're my idol!"