Chapter 131 - 86: America

Chapter 131: Chapter 86: America

With his current strength, the school’s curriculum was already useless to him.

If he wanted to ask for leave to focus on his Cultivation, the school would likely support it.

He placed the remaining Bone Tempering Pills into a box and set it on his nightstand.

He wasn’t worried about the security of such a vast resource hoard in his home, nor was he afraid of thieves.

Because he had left the Mosquito Avatar at home.

It would not only act as a bodyguard, watching over the box of invaluable Pills.

More importantly,

the Mosquito Avatar no longer needed to go out into the wild to hunt for Demon Beasts.

It only needed to guard this treasure trove of Pills. Whenever Lin Yi had a free moment, it could absorb their Medicinal Power for Cultivation.

After setting everything in order, Lin Yi pushed open the door and walked out.

He strode briskly toward Yang City No. 1 High School.

...

「Yang City No. 1 High School.」

The first day of the new semester.

The biting chill of early spring had not yet completely faded.

The campus, which had been silent for the entire break, was once again filled with clamor.

Students in matching uniforms, carrying backpacks, drifted in small groups through the school gates. Their faces showed a mixture of post-vacation excitement and lethargy as they headed toward their respective classrooms.

Although Yang City had recently experienced the harrowing Pigman siege,

the brutal battle that took place outside the city walls

seemed to be separated from the students’ world by an invisible barrier.

They weren’t Martial Artists who had fought in the battle; they hadn’t personally witnessed the brutal carnage. As a result, instead of a somber and heavy atmosphere, the campus was filled with a vibrant energy, buzzing with curiosity for the new semester and the unknown world.

"See, I told you! How could our Blue Star be the only planet with life in the vast Cosmos? Look! Now it’s confirmed—Star Gates, the Star Realm, and those Alien Races! The aliens really are here!"

A tall, lanky boy waved his arms, shouting at his companions so excitedly that spittle flew, as if he’d predicted it all.

A round-faced boy beside him immediately chimed in, his eyes shining with longing:

"Holy cow! An alien invasion! This is way more exciting than any video game! No way, I’ve got to double down on my Cultivation and become a Martial Artist as soon as possible! When that happens, heheh, I’m gonna catch a few aliens with my own two hands and study them. See if they really have three heads and six arms!"

"Pfft, what’s to study?"

Another voice cut in, tinged with a hint of showing off,

"I didn’t slack off during winter break. I took a temporary job from the Sanitation Bureau to clean up the battlefield outside the city! That scene... man, you had to be there. Those monsters were at least three meters tall on average! Their muscles were like knotted iron!"

He gestured wildly, drawing gasps of amazement from those around him.

"The scariest part was their junk. Damn, it was thicker than a grown man’s arm! No idea how they grow them that big!"

"HOLY SHIT! For real? As thick as an arm? Fucking awesome!!!"

Even louder gasps and roars of laughter erupted from the crowd.

Throughout the entire campus,

similar heated, even feverish, discussions were happening everywhere.

For these students, who had yet to truly set foot on a battlefield,

words like "Alien Race" and "Star Realm" were filled with the allure of novelty and adventure, as if a door to a fantasy world had been thrown open.

They talked excitedly, their faces clearly showing their hunger for power and their yearning for the unknown.

Yet they remained blissfully unaware of the suffocating cruelty and bloodshed lurking behind the "Invasion of the Ten Thousand Races."

Without having gone through the ordeal of the desperate battle to defend Yang City’s walls, their perception of the Alien Races was based purely on hearsay, making them seem overly naive and idealistic.

The opening ceremony was scheduled for nine in the morning.

It was to be held in the school’s main auditorium.

It was still early.

So most of the students first returned to their classrooms.

Inside the classroom of Senior Year, Class 1.

The room had also been filled with a buzzing of discussion.

But when Lin Yi’s figure appeared at the door,

WHOOSH—

All the noise came to an abrupt halt.

The next moment,

dozens of pairs of eyes snapped to focus on Lin Yi.

"Lin Yi’s here!"

"Morning, Lin Yi!"

A few students near the door were the first to greet him.

Immediately after,

more students eagerly gathered around,

unleashing the barrage of questions they’d been dying to ask:

"Lin Yi! You’re a First-Grade Martial Artist! During the Pigman siege on New Year’s Day, did you really get on the city walls? Did you fight?"

"Quick, tell us, are those monsters really as ferocious and bloodthirsty as the legends say? I heard they eat people, bones and all!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Lin Yi, what’s the Star Realm actually like? Is the Spiritual Qi really so dense it’s like a fog? Are there treasures all over the ground, free for the picking?"

As the only officially certified First-Grade Martial Artist in their class—

and moreover, the only one to have personally experienced the defense of Yang City and even followed the army’s counterattack into the mysterious "Star Realm"—

Lin Yi was now the center of everyone’s attention.

The students surrounded him, their eyes fervent, as they bombarded him with rapid-fire questions.

Lin Yi fended off the enthusiastic inquiries while struggling to inch his way to his seat.

"It was alright. Those Pigmen look big, but their overall strength is just so-so. They don’t coordinate as well as us Martial Artists. The Spiritual Qi inside the Star Realm is indeed much denser. Taking a breath feels like all your pores are opening up..."

He answered in as casual a tone as possible, relaying information that had already spread throughout Yang City.

"But the place isn’t big, only around thirty li across. You can see from one end to the other..."

Even though what he was saying was "old news,"

coming from him, an eyewitness,

it still drew waves of stifled gasps from the surrounding students.

Many students’ gazes became more determined. They clenched their fists and swore a silent oath to themselves: ’I have to cultivate like my life depends on it, become a Martial Artist as soon as I can, and visit that legendary Star Realm myself!’

Lin Yi finally managed to break through the crowd.

He had just sat down in his seat,

before he could even catch his breath,

when a figure nimbly pushed through the crowd and plopped down in the empty seat next to him.

It was Luo Qian.

"Lin! You’re finally here! I’ve been waiting forever!" Luo Qian whispered.

Lin Yi took one look at his expression and already had a good idea of what was going on.

He discreetly leaned forward slightly, lowering his own voice as well:

"So? Did you find out anything?"

Luo Qian nodded vigorously, his eyes warily scanning the surroundings.

Confirming no one was paying them too much mind, he leaned in closer and spoke in a voice that was almost a whisper:

"Yep, confirmed! Senior Wang Yiming’s sudden return to Yang City... he’s back to call for backup!"

"What exactly happened?"

Lin Yi’s curiosity was also piqued.

As a legendary senior from Yang City No. 1 High School and a top student at Demon City Martial Arts University, anything Wang Yiming did naturally drew attention.

Luo Qian licked his lips and said quickly:

"Back when Senior Wang Yiming was in high school, didn’t he sign a sponsorship agreement with a large multinational corporation? Now that he’s about to graduate from Demon City Martial Arts University, the corporation made a demand: they want him to go to the American Continent immediately after graduation to expand their business! Senior Wang Yiming absolutely refuses to go, so they’ve had a complete falling out, and now he wants to break the contract."

"A multinational corporation? Break the contract?"

Lin Yi frowned slightly, sensing that things weren’t that simple.

These kinds of large corporations invest resources into cultivating geniuses for one reason: the return on their investment.

Luo Qian nodded, his face serious:

"Senior Wang Yiming, just like you, comes from an ordinary family. The only reason he could get into Demon City Martial Arts University was because that multinational corporation poured a ton of resources into him! Now that it’s time for them to reap the rewards, how could they possibly let him go so easily? But the American Continent..."

Luo Qian’s voice dropped even lower, carrying a hint of trepidation:

"It’s nothing like it is here. It’s incredibly dangerous!"