"Mm, you have a point."
"Could you stop eating that stuff in my office? The whole place reeks of scallions."
Du Qinggang stuffed the rest into his mouth in one bite and said indistinctly, "I heard something happened in Sea of Clouds City?"
Li Zhengming nodded, his expression grave. "Something did happen, but the city was saved. It's just a shame..."
Du Qinggang asked, "A shame about what?"
Li Zhengming sighed. "I just got word myself. Fifteen students from the last graduating class went, and not one came back."
Du Qinggang's expression turned grave at once. Suddenly, the scallion-oil cake in his mouth didn't taste so good anymore.
"They only just graduated. How could they send them?"
Li Zhengming said, "You should know that once students graduate, they're no longer under the school's control."
"If I could have made it there, I would have rather gone into battle myself than let them go."
"As for what happened, it was probably too sudden and they were short-handed. The students happened to be nearby, so they sent them."
"It's been six hundred years. Ever since monsters suddenly appeared in the human world six hundred years ago, our homes have been destroyed one city after another."
"If not for Divine Power Masters like them fighting on the front lines, human civilization would probably have been wiped out long ago!"
"The wind blows bleak, the Yi River runs cold; the valiant warrior departs, never to return!"
"With this cup, I salute them!"
As he spoke, the principal picked up his cup and poured it onto the floor.
"Principal, that was the goji berry tea you were drinking..."
"Would it kill you to keep quiet? Bring the mop over and mop the floor."
"Uh..."
All noon, everyone practiced Qi under Du Qinggang's supervision.
"The harder you work now, the better your chances of surviving in the future!"
"Being a little tired now is nothing. As long as it doesn't kill you, work yourselves to death!"
"Fuck, who'd have thought this sloppy uncle could be so harsh!"
"He's the captain of the Divine Mark Association Third Mobile Squad. What did you expect? None of the people who make captain are pushovers."
When it came to training, Du Qinggang had no intention of going easy on them.
The opponents they faced in the future would show them even less mercy than he did.
He hoped these kids would understand the painstaking care behind his actions.
None of them had weathered great winds and waves yet.
Compared with the dangers elsewhere, they, who lived in Jiang City, could indeed be called flowers raised in a greenhouse.
"Hey, you, the boy with a blade of grass sticking out of your head. What are you doing?"
"Teacher Du, I'm too tired."
"You're tired? Aren't the others tired too? If you don't practice properly now, are you planning to hold your teammates back later?"
Du Qinggang fixed his eagle-like eyes on the student before him.
"You've only been here a week. If anyone thinks it's too tiring and wants to leave, get out now and go back to school."
"From now on, you won't have to worry about anything. You can become an ordinary civilian protected by Divine Power Masters."
"Whether you want to be a Divine Power Master who protects civilians or a civilian protected by Divine Power Masters, I hope you'll think it through for yourselves."
"With your scrawny little bodies, you still don't want to train properly? When monsters eat you in the future, you'll get stuck in their teeth!"
"Teacher Du, do you want us to build up a bunch of muscles?" a girl asked timidly.
"Am I talking about muscles? Look at Class 2. Not a single one of them is complaining about being tired."
"That's because they rest for three minutes after every five minutes of practice. Unlike us, who only get one minute of rest for every ten minutes of practice."
"That's because they haven't had me yet. Just wait until I teach them tomorrow. I'll work them to death!"
The students of Class 2, who heard this nearby, all wore miserable expressions.
"In short, if you don't train properly now and raise the Qi in your bodies, you could very well be the ones holding your teammates back in the future!"
"When that happens, even if you die, the people on your team will still curse you for being a shitty teammate!"
Du Qinggang instructed the students before him in a humorous yet serious tone.
But it had to be said that his training would produce very noticeable results in the future.
He would rather have these students call him a damned pervert behind his back now
than have them find their hearts willing but their strength lacking when they faced monsters in the future!
Everyone was suffering under the scorching sun, sweat pouring down their faces.
Du Qinggang stood with his arms crossed, watching the twenty students practicing Qi before him without moving.
Whenever the Qi around a student suddenly disappeared, he would rain curses down on their head.
Du Qinggang's profanities rang out across the entire field without pause.
Duan Ming knew it wasn't that the people in their class were too useless.
Rather, practicing Qi for a long time really was an ordeal.
With every passing second, the suffering in their bodies grew worse.
Even he ached all over now.
Although he was standing, it felt just like holding a plank.
No, it was even more grueling than a plank.
But it had to be said that although only two hours had passed, everyone's Qi was noticeably stronger than before.
At first, some people's Qi had been so faint that it was impossible to make out.
But now, everyone's Qi had reached the point where it could be seen.
Duan Ming's persistence kept drawing the attention of Du Qinggang and Lin Qiao.
The two of them thought the most likely explanation was that Duan Ming had learned Qi before.
But for some secret reason, he was hiding it from them.
Several classes resting nearby also looked at Class 1 with sympathy.
"That guy's a pervert, right? Who treats people like that?"
"Fuck, that's brutal!"
"Three minutes of practice is already my limit. They have to practice for ten minutes before they get a break."
Du Qinggang said with his arms crossed, "Do you know why I make you keep going even though I know you can't last that long? It's so you'll keep breaking through your own limits!"
Listening to Du Qinggang's long-winded lecture, quite a few people had already begun cursing him in their hearts.
People in the group kept losing their Qi, only to hurriedly get back into it under Du Qinggang's watchful gaze.
Even Lin Qiao, who was standing to the side, could hardly bear to keep watching.
She was faintly worried that training like this would cause problems with their bodies.
Time passed, minute by minute, second by second.
Five-thirty in the afternoon.
"All right, that's it for today. Class dismissed!"
Smack, smack, smack-!
Almost everyone sat down on the ground at the same time as soon as Du Qinggang said that.
"I can't fucking take it anymore."
"I need to pee, but I don't even have the strength to stand up now."
"Save your strength and piss your pants."
"What the fuck kind of thing is that to say?"
"This day is finally over."
"Yeah, today's over, but we'll have to be tortured by him once every week from now on. Ghosts know when it'll end."
"Don't we have another class tonight?"
"Yeah, foreign languages."
"Someone kill me, please."
"Huh? Fuck! How come Duan Ming's already leaving? Did he recover that fast?"
While none of the boys or girls even had the strength to stand, Duan Ming had finished resting and was already far away.