Chapter 282 - 197: Gazing at Plums to Quench Thirst (Part 2)

Chapter 282: Chapter 197: Gazing at Plums to Quench Thirst (Part 2)

Jiang Nianwei was dressed in a silver and white combat uniform today, complete with a shimmering silver cape. Embroidered on it were the words "Divine Might, All-Conquering."

"You’re just in time, but you’re the last one. Oh, and weapons have to go on the checked luggage rack. You get on the plane first; I’ll take care of it."

Yu Fei quickly unslung his longsword and its belt. "I can get it!"

But Jiang Nianwei grabbed the hilt, her eyes alight with excitement. "This is Name-Severer, right? The weapon Lord Honglian gave you?"

Yu Fei nodded. Seeing how eager Jiang Nianwei was, he found it hard to refuse and let go. "Be careful, it’s pretty heavy!"

Jiang Nianwei thought nothing of it. It was just a heavy weapon. While she couldn’t wield it in a fight, she figured just lifting it wouldn’t be an issue.

The moment Yu Fei let go, she purposefully gripped the hilt with both hands, but the tip of the sword still plunged toward the ground.

"Ugh... It’s this heavy?"

Caught off guard, Jiang Nianwei had to immediately channel her Inner Qi just to steady Name-Severer. Then, with heavy steps, she carried it over to the luggage rack.

She made sure to explain the situation to a staff member, who then brought out a heavy-duty weapon case and placed Name-Severer inside.

The airport staff had dealt with similar situations many times before. Quite a few Martial Artists favored heavy weapons, so they kept various types of weapon cases on hand. It was just that this was usually more common among Gang Qi and Grandmaster level Martial Artists.

Jiang Nianwei sized up the situation in her mind. ’Having advanced to the Inner Qi Realm, Yu Fei has already left us in the dust.’ The fact that he brought Name-Severer to this exercise clearly meant he intended to use it as his primary weapon. What’s more, he’d carried it effortlessly all the way from the dorms to the airport, a distance of dozens of kilometers.

She, on the other hand, couldn’t use Name-Severer at all with her own physical strength. And if she had to channel Inner Qi just to lift it, using it in battle would be pointless.

On the battlefield, if you were facing an opponent wielding that monster of a weapon, you would be dead if it came smashing down on you and you couldn’t dodge. There would be no way to block it.

And it was important to remember that as a genuine S-rank prodigy, Jiang Nianwei was by no means weak. In fact, her abilities were among the very best in their class.

If she couldn’t do it, no one else could.

Jiang Nianwei’s heart soared. The stronger Yu Fei was, the happier she felt. Facing the upperclassmen, their side had a real heavy hitter. Even though she knew winning would be difficult, a flicker of hope ignited within her.

Aboard the plane, the students’ voices filled the air with a nervous clamor. Faced with the impending military exercise, they were all terrified and restless.

Even prodigies were afraid of a good old-fashioned beatdown.

The moment Yu Fei and Jiang Nianwei stepped onto the plane, the crowd fell silent. All eyes turned to him, filled with hope.

Jiang Nianwei suddenly spoke to him. "Mr. Yu, why don’t you say a few words to everyone? Boost morale a little? To be honest, none of us, myself included, are feeling very confident right now."

Yu Fei nodded, and Jiang Nianwei quickly found a seat.

Meeting their eager gazes, Yu Fei smiled. "Brothers, are you scared?"

Qin Hao immediately piped up, "Scared? We’re scared to death, Mr. Yu..."

A chorus of agreement rose from the others.

They had originally been excited to face the second-year upperclassmen, but then their instructor, Shui Yiqiu, had the bright idea of showing them the footage of last year’s class getting absolutely annihilated. After that, no one was smiling anymore.

Putting themselves in the upperclassmen’s shoes, they couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of twisted desire for vengeance the sophomores had been nursing for the past year.

Yu Fei nodded, his tone empathetic. "I’m scared too. I think that’s exactly what the school wants. But the reality is what it is. What good does being scared do?"

Before anyone could answer, Yu Fei’s voice dropped. "None. There’s a 99% chance that we’re about to get the ever-loving crap beaten out of us."

The moment he said that, the cabin fell deathly silent.

Everyone knew he was telling the truth. They were basically just being sent up as lambs to the slaughter. But hearing it from Yu Fei himself extinguished the last flicker of hope in their hearts.

The general education assessment, the martial arts tournament on the Determination Platform, the record-shattering performance at the shooting range—Yu Fei had been number one every single time. Now, he had even broken through to the Inner Qi Realm. Everyone had seen him arrive just moments before, carrying Name-Severer on his back.

No matter how you looked at it, at least eighty percent of the class believed Yu Fei was the strongest among the freshmen.

But now, here he was, personally admitting they were just going there to get beaten. It was incredibly disheartening.

Jiang Nianwei looked up at him. She had expected him to give them some rousing speech about fighting hard and aiming for victory. She never imagined he would be so brutally honest.

Yu Fei took a deep breath, then suddenly shot back, "But so what?"

His voice suddenly boomed.

"I’m going there to take a beating today, that’s a fact. But before I go down, I’m taking at least ten of them with me! And I guarantee they’ll have it way worse than I will. They want to use us to feel better about themselves? To wash away their own humiliation? I’ll make sure they’re humiliated for the rest of their lives!"

Liu Ze shot to his feet, shouting excitedly, "Fuck yeah! Screw ’em! Trading one for one is a win in my book! It’s not like we’re gonna die for real. We’ll always have a chance to get revenge!"

BOOM!

The negative emotions in everyone’s hearts were like a compressed spring; pushed to the limit, they finally exploded. The atmosphere in the cabin instantly became electric.

"I’m gonna take down five of them!"

"I’ll fucking take ten..."

"You’re full of it! If you can’t take ten, you can eat shit!"

"If I can’t, *you* can eat it. I’ll even shit it out for you..."

"Get lost! You guys are disgusting!"

...

"Brothers..."

Yu Fei spoke again, and the students, who had been in a heated discussion, immediately quieted down to look at him.

"So our goal is to fight with spirit! Never back down, even if it means defeat! Besides, it’s not like we’ll actually die. In a way, the upperclassmen are good guys, right? Eagerly lining up to give us free experience. And speaking of which, do you guys remember the school’s rewards?"

Wuo Lingxue spoke up in a clear voice, "Defeating one upperclassman gets you 50,000 Contribution Points. A successful fortress defense is worth 5,000,000 Contribution Points. And if we defeat our counterpart sophomore class, we get to split 10,000,000 Contribution Points based on performance...

And, if we manage to defeat three classes... we split 50,000,000..."

By the end, the wide-eyed girl was already lost in a daydream about how they would split fifty million points.

Yu Fei chuckled. "Brothers, do we need Contribution Points?"

"YES!"

The unified shout was so loud it nearly blew the roof off the cabin.

"I need them too, so this is our chance! Taking out just one person earns you 50,000 Contribution Points. I’m just saying, save a few for me, guys. My Body Refining Technique is a real drain on points."

Upon hearing this, Xiang Kun yelled back, "Mr. Yu, don’t you dare fight us for them! We’re even more desperate!"

"Yeah, yeah! Mr. Yu, you can just cripple ’em for us, and leave the finishing blow to your brothers..."

...

Jiang Nianwei suddenly felt a great weight lift from her heart, replaced by a burning desire to claim kills and earn Contribution Points. She couldn’t help but start calculating in her head. ’I’m an S-rank prodigy, after all. I might not be able to beat last year’s S-ranks, but there’s a good chance I can take down a few A or B-ranks. If I perform well, does that mean I have a shot at earning a ton of points, too?’

’It’s just one little beatdown, after all...’

After a moment of reflection, she couldn’t help but laugh at herself. Looking back at Yu Fei, who was still firing up the crowd with the promise of Contribution Points, she realized the gap between them wasn’t just in their strength, but in their mindset as well.

With just a few simple sentences, Yu Fei had completely turned their morale around. Now, everyone shared the same thought: ’So what if we get beaten up? Taking out just one of them is a net gain—a huge one, at that!’ After all, the standard subsidy for an A-rank prodigy was only 50,000 Contribution Points for an entire semester.

"Alright, one last thing. Let me be completely honest with you all!"

Yu Fei clapped his hands, drawing everyone’s attention. Then, he suddenly vanished right before their eyes.

Many of the students who had already studied perception-type Secret Techniques immediately tried to scan the area, but they found nothing.

"Where’d he go?"

"It’s that move again. Mr. Yu’s concealment Cultivation Technique is insane..."

More than ten seconds later, Yu Fei reappeared, as if he had been standing there the whole time.

His eyes now held a piercing glint. Infused with his Sword Intent, anyone who looked directly at him felt a sharp, stinging pain in their own eyes.

"Before the main battle officially begins, I’m going to give our dear upperclassmen a big ’welcome present’ so they can feel our enthusiasm. My role on the battlefield will be as a roaming assassin. My goal isn’t to just take out ten of them; I want to make them relive the nightmare of last year’s exercise.

Nabbing a dozen kills for a few hundred thousand Contribution Points is small potatoes. I’m not interested in that. I’m aiming to split that fifty million. Brothers, I’ll make you a promise right here: if our fortress holds, I’ll give you all thirty percent of the points from my kills. If we defeat our counterpart sophomore class, I’ll give you fifty percent!"