Chapter 31: Back to School

After I had gotten home, I immediately read through the manual for beginners. There were a few breathing methods and summoning techniques in there, training regimens to strengthen my poor Magic Carp, and so I put them into practice.

At the same time, I had to study for Gao Kao, so I began to devote more time to my academic efforts instead of my training. Apparently I had reached Black realm, which was a big milestone. According to Ye Wu Tian, it was nothing to be proud of. Furthermore, when I recalled how Ba Bai was at the Heaven realm, I knew I couldn't be complacent or laidback.

Fortunately, I hadn't suffered any attacks from the time-traveling demonic cultivators for a year now. Maybe they were all sent to different time periods. That would give me a fighting chance. I would rather face an enemy that was split up than one who was united.

"Carp, carp!"

Having procured a tank, I placed Magic Carp inside it and allowed him to swim about. My parents were surprised when they saw that I had gotten a fish.

"You want to take care of pets now?" Dad had asked incredulously.

"Yup."

"Ugh…" Mom was not fond of animals, but at least Magic Carp was inside the tank, so she didn't have to worry about physical contact. She still jumped whenever she walked past his tank while he splashed about merrily.

Of course, I didn't allow Magic Carp to laze around. I made sure he trained diligently. While I meditated and practiced, he would also swim about according to the techniques in the book.

"Don't worry, Magic Carp," I told him. "Nobody realizes your potential…yet. But I'll make sure you evolve into the most powerful spirit beast ever! But in order to do that, you need to improve your swimming ability. Once you get enough strength, you'll be able to swim up the water fall and get past the Dragon's Gate! Once you do that…you'll achieve tremendous strength!"

"Carp, carp!"

Magic Carp didn't look convinced. He looked as if he was going to ask me where I would find a dragon's gate, but I had no idea. I was sure there would be one somewhere, though. I just needed to find it.

Until then, we both had to keep training in order to become as strong as possible.

News traveled quickly, though. When school began again on Monday, I dragged myself dejectedly toward the campus building. I was on my way to the classroom when I ran into the person I least expected to meet. I should have expected it – in fact, I sensed her qi earlier, but I didn't think I needed to avoid her. As it turned out, I should have.

In any event, Na Lan Yan Ran was the one who called out to me when she spotted me strolling down the corridor.

"Shu Cong."

I stopped, taken aback. I had never expected Na Lan Yan Ran of all people to call out to me. She had made it very clear since the first day that we were from different worlds.

As it turned out, she intended to do exactly just that again.

"I heard that you tried to join the Divine Dragon Sect," she said. I nodded, wondering if she was here to mock me. For now, I decided to be candid about it.

"I tried. And I failed. I did get a training manual out of it, though, so it was worth it."

Na Lan Yan Ran sighed, almost dramatically. She shook her head.

"Why? Did you think you'll be able to reach similar status as me by doing so?"

"…excuse me?"

I gaped at her dumbly. I totally did not expect the conversation to take such a weird turn. What was this woman on about?

"Remember, it doesn't matter whether you're a disciple of the Divine Dragon Sect or not. You were born into a commoner family. No matter how much you struggle, you'll never step into the same world as me. So don't think that you'll be able to change anything even if you had somehow gained entry into the Divine Dragon Sect."

For a moment, I could only stare at her incredulously, unable to believe what I was hearing.

"You think I tried to join the Divine Dragon Sect just to gain enough status to marry you?" I shook my head. "You flatter yourself too much."

"Why else would you want to join the Divine Dragon Sect?" Na Lan Yan Ran challenged. I buried my face in my palm from exasperation.

"To learn their cultivation techniques, obviously?"

"Do you take me for a fool?" Na Lan Yan Ran folded her arms and sneered. "Do you really think I wouldn't know? A spiritual cultivator like you suddenly wanting to turn into a summoning cultivator? You could have chosen other sects to join, sects that practice spiritual techniques, but you decided to approach a sect with summoning techniques instead. Of course you wanted to join the Divine Dragon Sect for status! To make yourself a more promising candidate for marriage!"

"You think too highly of yourself." I shook my head in disgust. "Why did you email me the contact info for Divine Dragon Sect then, if you thought those were my motives?"

"I…" Na Lan Yan Ran hesitated, then turned away with a huff. "I owed you after you saved my sister! I had to repay my debt!"

"Look, lady, I don't know what sort of deluded fantasies you are imagining, but I didn't even know the Divine Dragon Sect was a summoning cultivator sect. Why didn't you tell me?! Did you know how embarrassed I was when Elder Ye Wu Tian told me that I was in the wrong place?"

Well, that was not technically true. Even after Ye Wu Tian explained the several cultivation types to me, I was still willing to give summoning techniques a try. With my circumstances as they were, I couldn't afford to be picky.

I needed to learn more techniques in order to grow stronger so that I could tackle increasingly more powerful demonic cultivators who would inevitably show up in future to assassinate me.

"Also, you're also Long Ao Tian's fiancée. I'm not so stupid or desperate enough to try and steal someone else's fiancée."

"So you know your place, after all." Na Lan Yan Ran huffed. "The only man qualified to marry me is the first disciple of the Divine Dragon Sect. So don't get any funny ideas."

With that, she turned away and stalked off. I couldn't help but shake my head in exasperation. What a bitch. I had best avoid her next time. I didn't want to have anything to do with her. I still remembered her father's attitude toward me when he learned that I wasn't from the Divine Dragon Sect back then.

What a pity that Na Lan Yan Rou was born into their family. I hoped she wouldn't follow the bad example set by her sister and father. Humility was a virtue and arrogance a vice. Unless you were the main character of a cultivation novel and protected by plot armor, then you could do whatever the hell you want, kill whoever you want and offend everybody on the planet without worrying about the consequences. The ultimate power fantasy.

Too bad reality wasn't so kind…

"You okay?" Tong Xue asked, hurrying to approach me when I resumed my journey back to the classroom. "What was that all about?"

I realized that everyone was staring at me. Along the corridor, my fellow schoolmates were whispering and gossiping amongst themselves. The girls in particular were giving me disgusted stares. I caught the words "stalker," "creep," "disgusting," and "pervert" being bandied about.

Did these bitches have nothing better to do than spread false rumors about? They didn't even bother to find out the truth. Then again, they probably couldn't care less about the truth. The moment they saw a juicy topic, they would latch onto it like an octopus onto its prey and sucked the living juices out of it until it went dry.

How revolting.

"Some arrogant girl whose ego was so swollen she flattered herself too much," I replied sourly. And loud enough for the other girls to hear it too, but obviously none of them took note. They took way too much delight in slandering me, and of course now I caught snippets of how I was a sore loser who turned black and white, or sour grapes, who decided to insult the school's number one beauty because she dumped me.

Oh, and how I deserved to be dumped because I was like a toad lusting for a swan and all that nonsense.

Like I said, nobody cared about the truth. They just sought cruel delight in the suffering of others.

"Cong, over here."

Tong Xue, noticing the nonsense that everyone was spouting, quickly guided me to the classroom and beyond those malicious stares. I couldn't care less, having suffered the gazes of much more terrifying things.

Demonic cultivators. I had seen things in the dark and fought against evil that these fools never knew existed. All just to protect them. Well, technically I had only ever fought Ba Bai, but even so I had caught a glimpse of horrors that were never meant to be experienced by mortals.

And these very mortals mocked me, even though I risked my life to protect them from malevolent entities that ruled the underworld.

"Cong? Are you all right?" Tong Xue sounded concerned. He placed a hand on my shoulder. "Ignore them. They are just talking nonsense. I don't know what happened, but I know for sure that you're not that kind of guy."

I took a deep breath and forced myself back to reality.

"Thanks," I told my friend, a sad smile on my face.

Yup. This was why I put up with this nonsense. This was why I was willing to risk my life to fight demonic cultivators and protect humanity (in the future). Not for those fuckers out there, only thinking of their own entertainment and indulging in malicious gossip, but for my friends. Friends like Tong Xue. Like the late Pang Zi. I was determined not to lose another friend like Pang Zi again.

"What are you looking at? Is this your classroom? Go back to your classroom!"

At the door, Ban Zhang was snapping at the other schoolmates and shooing them away. He looked annoyed as he barred their way, effectively using his body to block them from view. I realized that he was deliberately chasing them away when they came to stare at me and spread even more rumors.

"This isn't a circus! There's nothing for you to look at! Classes are going to start soon, so you had best return to your classroom!"

Ban Zhang waved his hand, trying to kick out the other schoolmates who weren't from our class. He was doing a good job of it, in fact.

Yeah. It was friends like these who I was willing to fight for. Even if the world was filled with horrible people, there were always a few friends who would stick by my side and fight for me, no matter what.

Most of the classmates in my class were people I had gotten along with, people who knew me well enough to not believe in those stupid rumors, and I could see them plainly ignoring what was going on outside. Some of them were even blocking the way of the other schoolmates or shouldering them aside.

"You want to come to our class? Then you had best pay for tickets to come in." Hen You Qian reached out with a hand. A few girls fled, flustered by his demands, muttering darkly under their breaths. As much as they wanted material for their gossip, they weren't willing to pay a single yuan for it. What stingy bitches.

Even the girls in my class took a stand.

"What are you doing? Only know how to talk nonsense. Why don't you spend all the time you waste gossiping on social media on studying for the Gao Kao instead? You might get better grades, you know?"

Jin Bai He struck an imposing figure. When the female schoolmates saw that their "prince" had taken my side, they simpered and scampered away, chagrined.

"Do you even know who Shu Cong is? What right do you have to judge him when you don't even know the truth?"

Shi Xiao Nian was just as angry. For a moment, I wondered if she had suffered similarly in the past. There was a trace of sadness and empathy in her voice that I easily detected.

The other girls joined in as well.

"We've known him long enough, and he has never once mentioned that he has any interest in Na Lan Yan Ran. Isn't she getting ahead of herself? Does she think that every guy in school will like her just because she is so beautiful?"

Whoa…girls were scary. If anything, they were scarier than guys. Tong Xue was right. There was no way men could win a war of words against women. I remembered my disastrous loss against Na Lan Yan Ran just a few minutes ago, and I was glad to have the girls in my class on my side. We might not be close, but we had always maintained a cordial relationship. Apparently I had been helpful enough that they had a favorable impression of me, even if I was socially awkward.

"Thanks, guys." I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Nothing to thank us for." Tong Xue grinned and leaned back in his chair. "We got your back."

"I always thought that Na Lan Yan Ran was too uppity for her own good," Ai Tong, a female classmate, complained. "She's always putting on airs and hogging all the boys."

"Even so…thank you."

These people were who I was fighting for. Even if the rest of the world turned against me, I was going to continue fighting to protect humanity…because I still had many true friends among them.