ASER - Chapter 49
Chapter 49: The Cui Family's Dog
From Cui Yun +1888!
From Cheng Zhang +999!
From Xu Luo +777!
From Zhao Lingyun +…
From…
From Song Ling +3200!
From everyone, including the Tian siblings and even Song Ling.
It wasn't about good or evil; they were simply terrified.
Unable to control their emotional fluctuations.
Emotional power fluctuations ranged from several thousand to mere dozens.
Burying one person yielded nearly a hundred thousand points of emotional power. How terrifying!
"Audacious! Chen A'Diao, you dare to kill someone!" Wang Hai roared furiously, raising his hand. A rotating Spiritual Vessel appeared in his palm—it was indeed a Spiritual Vessel. Surprisingly, it was a golden, heavy seal, spinning as it pressed down heavily towards A'Diao.
In that instant, A'Diao knew who he was.
The person who had tried to assassinate her in the restroom.
It could only be Wang Hai.
Just a moment ago, almost all the teachers and examinees had contributed emotional power; only Wang Hai, only Wang Hai had not.
Something shredded potatoes couldn't achieve, nor could Cui Yun being buried alive.
This man was formidable indeed; no wonder he dared to accept the Cui family's contract to kill her.
A'Diao knew she was no match for him, so she took a step back, raised her hand, and slapped out a talisman she had previously drawn beneath her fingers.
"Freeze!"
A Body-Fixing Talisman from the Corpse Driving Arts!
When it landed on Wang Hai, his body indeed stiffened for a second or two, but the Body-Fixing Talisman quickly burned and broke, and Wang Hai broke free from its control. His pupils turned cold as he was about to strike and kill A'Diao again.
But A'Diao suddenly coughed up blood, looking as if she were at death's door, and asked in a dazed and innocent voice, "What… what happened to me? Teacher, why are you trying to kill me?"
Having been immobilized and then recovering, he had actually missed the best opportunity to kill her. And A'Diao's feigned appearance was such that one almost expected someone to bring her a pillar to lean on.
Frail as if unable to withstand a gust of wind, seemingly on the verge of death, innocent, pitiful, and helpless.
Wang Hai's eyes darkened. Seeing that the other teachers showed no killing intent, he grew anxious. He said in a low voice, "Everyone, the technique she just used looked like some sort of dark art. The principal has issued strict orders: if any cult members infiltrate the academy's student body, the consequences will be dire. I'll apprehend her first; you all go and save Cui Yun quickly!"
He raised his hand to attack again. A'Diao was about to say something to expose this scoundrel's identity and get the other teachers to protect her, but unexpectedly…
"Wang Hai!"
A low shout, and then a golden light streaked across the sky. Zhou Jiang, piloting a flight device, leaped down from the sky, drew his waist saber, and slashed at the seal.
Everyone had seen their share of the world; after all, they were accustomed to interstellar-level thermal weaponry, and light cannons and the like were not uncommon. This kind of relatively traditional martial combat shouldn't have caused such amazement or terror. But the problem was that the waist saber had flown there, and after the seal was struck and sent flying, it crashed into the ground, creating a sizable one-meter diameter pit, even shattering some of the stones beneath.
And a faint golden light appeared on both of them.
That was Spirit Power.
"Captain Zhou." Wang Hai's eyes flickered, and he quickly saluted. The other teachers also felt relieved.
Zhou Jiang, who had descended on his flight device, was about to handle the matter when he suddenly heard a piercing sound in the air, like a night owl screeching as it broke the sound barrier, like a sharp arrow splitting the air.
"Who killed my brother! You're courting death!"
Before seeing the person, one saw their sharp weapon, and then heard their voice.
But the voice carried a peculiar tremor that subconsciously drew the attention of those who heard it, even causing a momentary confusion in their minds. So, even though several teachers saw the sharp glint flying towards A'Diao, their reactions were slow.
Zhou Jiang had just been dealing with Wang Hai and was positioned closer to that side, his gaze catching it. In his astonishment, he maneuvered his long saber to fly over, but it was still some distance from the sharp glint.
Therefore… A'Diao only knew that Wang Hai was suspicious and had intended to use the Body-Fixing Talisman as a precaution, but she hadn't expected such a sudden danger and lacked the means to deal with it. Moreover, the opponent's skill level was likely no less than these teachers. In that split second, she truly thought she was going to die.
In that instant, she was filled with regret.
She had calculated and recalculated, yet an accident still occurred. Was she ultimately too weak, or had she overestimated Jinling Academy?
But there was no turning back.
Her life had fallen into the shadow of death, shadow, sha—
There was a shadow behind her.
This shadow carried a faint, elegant scent of cedar.
Before this, when no one had noticed, a young man in a flowing green robe had hurriedly strode out from the outer corridor, his breath somewhat ragged. But after pushing aside a few obstructing pine branches at the corner, his gaze swept across and he saw the sharp weapon launched by the distant flying person. He rushed forward, reached out, and pulled A'Diao by the shoulder behind him, while he himself stepped forward to face the attack.
There was a bit of wind, and he had arrived in a hurry; A'Diao thought she heard the sound of his wide sleeves rustling.
But she didn't know that the sharp weapon in front hadn't changed its trajectory, and the tall figure was blocking her. One hand was raised slightly, and a ring worn on his middle finger released a strange membrane.
Upon contact with air, this membrane expanded and solidified, becoming hard.
Clang!! Just as the membrane formed a sheet, the sharp weapon struck a newly formed fragment of it, emitting a crisp spark, and seemed about to fall. But the figure piloting the flight device in the distance saw the membrane, and his eyes sharpened fiercely!
Chen Xun, you came after all!
Suddenly, his fingers formed a seal, using Spirit Power to guide and control the small, shuttle-like arrow. It bypassed the area where membrane fragments were rapidly forming and shot towards their undefended side…
In just one second, truly just one second, the membrane was rapidly filling in and generating. Its original form should have been complete, but forming a full shield probably took between 1 to 2 seconds. And the opponent had precisely seized this gap, shot through, and… the man on the flight device, his eyes chillingly cold, directly pressed a button on his wristwatch.
Beep.
The command instantly reached the small arrow.
In that critical moment, A'Diao saw that the small arrow's triangular tip had a red energy casing, containing liquid energy—it looked like "Red Lithium" explosive liquid. An amount the size of a fingernail could destroy a hovercar, and this small arrow contained about half a fingernail's worth of "Red Lithium" explosive liquid.
If it exploded… A'Diao instinctively raised her hand to cover her eyes, but a hand had already covered them for her.
Her ears were covered too.
BOOM!!
It really exploded.
Billowing heat waves swept across the ground, pushing the air, the scorching heat assaulting their faces. The terrified examinees fled in panic. Only when they were sure the blast's aftermath wouldn't spread did they look at the explosion site, utterly shocked.
Were Chen A'Diao and that person blown to death?
Before they could react, an anxious Song Ling suddenly raised her hand and conjured a hovering crystal sphere from her palm, infusing it with her faint Spiritual Energy… The crystal sphere spun, releasing wisps of cold air. Guided by her fingertips, the cold air rapidly spread and crept over the flame-scorched explosion area, quickly cooling and freezing the searing ground and scorching air.
Afterward, everyone could finally see the two individuals, unharmed, inside the shield as the thick smoke dissipated.
Seeing that they were unharmed, Song Ling's tense, cool little face relaxed somewhat, even though she had exhausted her body's Spiritual Energy in the process, leaving her face pale and bloodless.
However, she quickly tensed up again because the attacker was flying over on his flight device.
He was clad in mechanical armor with a snake-scale pattern, glinting coldly. Besides that, his wristwatch and other accessories were no ordinary items. And the face revealed beneath the armor gave A'Diao a very familiar feeling.
This face seemed familiar; she had seen it some time ago, perhaps even very recently—Cui Run, whom she had sent to prison, and Cui Yun, whom she had buried alive, both bore some resemblance to the person before her.
If A'Diao had previously thought Cui Run was wearing the equivalent of a provincial capital mansion worth tens of millions, then this dapper-looking young man was flying around wearing the equivalent of a Tang or Song dynasty capital mansion worth tens of millions.
It must be very heavy. Isn't he tired?
I wish I could be that tired too.
But this scoundrel wants to kill me.
Another dog of the Cui family? No wonder they look so similar.
A'Diao's thoughts raced, but she didn't say anything. It wasn't that she hoped the tall person in front would handle it for her, but purely because she saw Zhou Jiang's actions.
Zhou Jiang did not sheathe his saber.
Zhou Jiang's saber blade glinted with spiritual light, and he piloted his flight device to the edge, looking at the newcomer from the Cui family. He said calmly, "Third-year student Cui Liang, apprehending those who violate school regulations and national law is the authority of Jinling Academy's faculty and the government. You are merely a student, not an official. Your actions just now were an overreach."
As the head of Jinling Academy's security department, Zhou Jiang could pay attention to any student with potential, but he wouldn't be intimidated by any student because of it. Even if the other party was some peerless prodigy, as long as they were a student under the academy's jurisdiction, he had no need to bow his head.
Having Chen Xun and A'Diao nearly die on the spot just now was already a huge slap in the face for him.
He greatly disliked this audacious Cui Liang.
Cui Liang knew what was good for him. His eyes flickered, and he didn't dare to act presumptuously in front of Zhou Jiang. After all, Zhou Jiang was a direct subordinate of Jinling Academy's principal. So he cupped his hands in a salute and said, "Captain Zhou, my apologies. I only just learned of my brother Cui Yun's tragic death and was overcome with grief, hence my overreach. But this person is vicious and cruel, to have so brutally killed my brother. Regardless of her aptitude, she cannot possibly be accepted as a student of our Jinling Academy, can she? If she cannot be executed on the spot, please hand her over to me. I will naturally deliver her to the Ministry of Justice for interrogation and sentencing."
Zhou Jiang was no fool. Judging from the timing of Cui Liang's arrival and the ruthlessness with which he followed up after his first attack failed, this didn't look like someone who had "only just learned" of it.
There was definitely something fishy going on behind this.
But the current situation was indeed complicated. It was a fact that Chen A'Diao had killed someone, making it difficult to protect her. After all, to the academy, both she and Cui Yun were examinees; it was hard to distinguish who deserved to die and who didn't. The academy had to treat the matter impartially.
A thorough investigation was paramount.
Cui Liang alone was one of the most outstanding students in the academy's third year, with considerable prestige. He was also the Cui family's direct eldest son; in any case, not an ordinary person.
Zhou Jiang was about to pass the buck to the principal when he lightly glanced at the young man in front of A'Diao.
In fact, some people had already noticed this young man.
This person was very low-key, but highly intelligent students like Cheng Zhang had noticed that while Cui Liang appeared to be dealing with Zhou Jiang, his gaze was actually fixed on the young man in front of Chen A'Diao.
And Cheng Zhang also noticed Xu Luo staring intently at that young man.
This person should be a year or two older than them, but the impression he gave… was like that of someone from a different generation.
He didn't interfere in the conversation between Cui Liang and Zhou Jiang. Only after Zhou Jiang came over did he twist the ring on his middle finger, retracting the shield. Only then did everyone get a clear look at him.
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