"I Said Shut Up"

A short while later. "Underclassman, please wait—" "Let Senior check your academic performance!" In the churning mist, Bai Zhou's shout echoed. He was genuinely delighted with every new underclassman he encountered. One, two, three... Led by Blue of Pride and Black of Sloth, the outstanding returning alumnus and newly minted "Exam King," Bai Zhou, engaged in warm, friendly, and close exchanges with numerous cadres of the student council. *Crunch, crunch!* Bai Zhou crouched on the ground, his lips chewing as though he were munching on roasted soybeans. The surrounding gray mist surged. Translucent motes of light, visible only to Bai Zhou and the likes of Blue of Pride, converged into Bai Zhou's body, swallowed whole and thoroughly devoured. His aura surged dramatically once more. All two hundred and six bones throughout his body felt as though they had undergone another round of tempering, popping and cracking with crisp, rapid snaps like roasting beans. "Good! You two did well!" Bai Zhou turned his head and gave a thumbs-up to his guides, Blue of Pride and Black of Sloth, revealing a bright, satisfied smile. "Th-thank you, Senior..." Yet Bai Zhou's praise and encouragement only sent a chill straight from the tops of their heads down to their heels. To them, this Senior Zhou's praise felt as if he were unabashedly telling them: *Underclassman, you taste delicious!* How terrifying! This school had always eaten people; many students studied and studied until they simply vanished. They were man-eaters as well; any rebel who threatened the order of the student council was ruthlessly devoured by them. Now that it was their turn to be eaten, they were utterly unwilling. So they had taken the initiative to lead the way for Bai Zhou, hoping only to be spared. They wanted to eat others, yet feared being eaten themselves. Thus, they studied Bai Zhou with intensely suspicious eyes, forcing themselves to appear composed even while their legs trembled uncontrollably. Save the children... "Still, what a pity." Bai Zhou seemed not yet entirely satisfied. From the underclassmen, he had gleaned a rough sense of the teachers' and principal's strength. Every single one of them operated on a level completely distinct from the students, likely starting at Level 5 or higher. If Bai Zhou pulled out all the stops as a Level 4 Adventurer, relying on the Nine Basic Slashes and extraordinary weaponry, he might not be entirely unable to clash with a Level 5. However, Bai Zhou did not want to expose any of that in front of others. "..." Thinking this, Bai Zhou's gaze inadvertently swept across the camera mounted on Number 9's chest. He had noticed it long ago, which was why he had masked his face and refrained from using weapons, refusing to reveal a single identifying trait of Bai Zhou the wanted criminal. Even so... Bai Zhou's appraisal of the camera startled the trio of Number 9 and her companions. "He's looking at us!" As if her ponytail were about to flare out, Number 9 instinctively took two rapid steps back. They could not see Bai Zhou devouring the underclassmen. What they could see, however, was this violent Senior Zhou striking out with heavy fists against one underperforming student after another! —Striking out in the most literal, physical sense, pounding them into bloody mist. "I—I'm actually decent at studying, Senior!" After a long pause, Number 9 managed to squeeze out an awkward, sheepish smile: "I'm... even my teachers said I could get into Tingda!" Hearing this, both Bai Zhou and the likes of Blue of Pride were filled with solemn respect for Number 9. "Tinghai University? That's truly impressive." Even Bai Zhou, who was unfamiliar with Tinghai, knew that Tinghai University was legendary within the city. Once, when passing by the campus, he had seen gates so magnificent they were almost absurd. Back then, he had even calculated whether the Major would dare come looking for trouble if he set explosives around Tinghai University. Crow had been frightened out of her wits, hastily explaining to him that Tinghai University harbored hidden dragons and crouching tigers, with no shortage of retired high-ranking Extraordinaries serving as guest professors. Only then had Bai Zhou's reckless scheme been regretfully abandoned. As for Number 9 and her group, there was even less need for words. As students of Yuanmeng Middle School, they were expected from childhood to set firm goals for the university they would attend... and getting into Tinghai University was, in Tinghai, a child's ultimate dream on par with "growing up to be an astronaut!" "Getting into Tingda..." Standing behind Number 9, Number 31 and Number 42 hesitated to speak. Finally, they exchanged a glance, pressed their lips together, and maintained a rigid silence. Tingda? Having grown up together, how could they not know what their older sister was actually capable of? "It's an ambition, just an ambition!" Having bluffed her way through, Number 9 laughed awkwardly. Seeing Bai Zhou look away, she finally let out a long breath, then shot a fierce glare at Number 31 and Number 42, whose expressions were bizarrely stiff. In name, they were currently "freshmen" of Yuanmeng Middle School, but in truth, they were already university students. Number 9 was indeed a student of "Tingda"; she had almost let the truth slip. Normally, "Tingda" referred to Tinghai University, the premier institution where Tinghai City's finest talents gathered, renowned throughout the Eastern Federation. However, the Tingda that Number 9 attended was actually Tinghai Agricultural Engineering Management University. Abbreviated as "Tingda"! "..." Thereafter, amidst successive calls of "Underclassman, please wait," Bai Zhou's strength skyrocketed as if hurtling down an express lane! As the gatekeeper rank before "Senior Extraordinary," advancing to Level 4 was immensely difficult, and accumulating strength afterward was an extraordinarily drawn-out process. This was because the journey required absorbing and converting external spirituality from heaven, earth, and the cosmos bit by bit, turning it into one's own spirituality, and then infusing it with pre-natal essence to achieve the final sublimation. In other words, it was painstaking grind work meant to fill one's bucket; under normal circumstances, shortcuts were practically nonexistent. Depending on the depth of their accumulation, the gap between Extraordinaries of the same rank could be greater than the gap between a human and a dog. For instance, if Anguissola were to deal with Van Gogh in a one-on-one duel, it would be no harder than downing two bowls of pork trotter rice in a single sitting. Throughout this process, one often had to resist assimilation and erosion by the world. Many high-ranking Extraordinaries suffered from emotional detachment or mental abnormalities, which were frequently the lingering aftereffects of coming into contact with the world at Level 4. It was perilous, protracted, and completely ordinary for most Extraordinaries to squander half their lives at Level 4. ...Yet at this moment, the little rat named Bai Zhou had arrived at his most faithful kitchen. "Nom, nom, nom!" One underclassman white and plump, two underclassmen tied in a clump, three underclassmen look so cute... What was this talk of absorbing and converting external spirituality, or igniting it with pre-natal essence? Why bother with such trouble? What was the quickest way to fill an empty bucket? It certainly wasn't accumulating drop by drop, waiting for the benevolence of a rainy day! —Why not simply pour the water from other people's buckets directly into one's own? Anywhere else, for anyone else, such a thing was impossible. Yet Bai Zhou, who had vaguely transformed into the new Exam King and become a native student of Yuanmeng Middle School, happened to be uniquely positioned to accomplish this miraculous feat within the school's grounds. Even right in front of Number 9 and her group, broadcast through the camera, nobody could comprehend what Bai Zhou was actually doing. They merely assumed this school inside the Reflected Ruin Realm was overly "hardcore" and "cruel"—that failing to study properly meant being beaten to death on the spot... What was even more delightful was that every student council cadre was a Level 4 anomaly whose spirituality had already been sublimated, perfectly meeting Bai Zhou's needs. The publicity department, the sports department, the secretarial department... The cadres of the student council were nearly completely sold out by the sociable Blue of Pride and Black of Sloth. Amidst one call of "Underclassman, please wait" after another, they dissolved back into some underlying essence of the school's rules, which was then absorbed by the school uniform. Leaping thousands of miles forward from merely scratching the surface, the motes of spirituality within Bai Zhou's body surged from two hundred and sixteen to two hundred and ninety-one. These two hundred and ninety-one motes formed an internal circulation within Bai Zhou, vaguely corresponding to the alignment of the stars in the heavens, lacking only a small fraction. Through this spirituality aligned with the celestial stars, Bai Zhou felt his connection with the world deepening, his perception of the world advancing another step. It was an indescribably wondrous state, a concrete manifestation of the unity of heaven and man. Having accumulated his spirituality to this point, he was vaguely brushing against the entry requirements for the Fifth Form of the Nine Basic Slashes. For the Fifth Form seemed to involve a method of arranging and combining the spirituality in one's body according to a ritual, ultimately achieving a unified resonance that would unleash one's power like an overwhelming mountain collapsing into the sea. This was profoundly obscure and intricate knowledge that required Bai Zhou to find a quiet place to study in earnest... at least, not right now. Bai Zhou even had an inkling that if he could fully comprehend and master this, unleashing his full power under that amplified resonance, even a weaker Level 5 Extraordinary— Might be cleaved to death with a single strike! "How magnificent." Bai Zhou was almost intoxicated by this feeling of rapid spiritual accumulation. A faint crimson tinged his eyes, his expression greedy, yet tinged with an arrogance of inevitable victory and consumption; undisguised desire and the slothful wish to take shortcuts were written plain across his face. A faint buzzing sounded in his ears. Bai Zhou felt starved. Right now, he wanted only to eat, eat, eat, eat... He wanted to feast; he wanted to gorge himself! "S-Senior, you..." The bizarre states manifesting on Bai Zhou left Blue of Pride and Black of Sloth shivering in dazed terror. In a daze, they saw the silhouettes of their many resurrected comrades upon Bai Zhou... They saw the shadow of the entire student council cast over him! What arrogance! What envy! What sloth! What greed! What lust! What gluttony... Clearly, he was the true demon king! A sinner incarnate who concentrated the essence of the student council's original sins into a single vessel! Just what did Yuanmeng Middle School intend by "nurturing" such a senior out of nothing?! "Something wrong?" Bai Zhou merely cast a sidelong glance, and both underclassmen snapped their mouths shut. Still, Bai Zhou did not pay them much heed. The sheer pleasure of guaranteed progress simply by devouring had already swept him away. Clenching his fists, he could hear the surging resonance of spirituality. Bai Zhou felt better than he ever had before. This inexplicably reminded Bai Zhou of some past events in Wancheng— In Wancheng, people always claimed that steamed buns dipped in the blood of executed convicts could cure all ailments. Eating one supposedly granted a long, healthy life free of illness, and even a fool would gain instant enlightenment. To that end, people would even bribe the Black Robes, hoping they would covertly drain a little blood before the crucifix execution took place. If Bai Zhou remembered correctly, when the Black Robes were being executed at the Special Control Bureau base, there were even folks from Wancheng eyeing the blood pooling across the ground with covetous hunger. Then the soldiers of the Special Control Bureau had treated them as severely contaminated lunatics, quarantining them and dragging them away... —Bai Zhou had never believed in such nonsense. Sister Hua from Corner Street had suffered from consumption; even after eating a "steamed bun," she had still passed away. He found such things thoroughly repulsive, detesting them with all his heart. At the end of the day, a person needed a bottom line... What fundamental difference was there between dipping steamed buns in human blood and those bastards from the Special Control Bureau who "ate people"? "—Wait!" Bai Zhou shuddered violently. *Detesting?* He snapped his awareness inward and realized with sudden horror that something was wrong! Anomalies were not human. They were not even alive; when killed, they simply resurrected in their initial states within the ruin realm, acting as nothing more than concrete projections of the world's rules. Devouring them carried no psychological burden for Bai Zhou. Doing so was no different from slaying monsters, or slaughtering pigs and dogs. After all, these anomalies harbored a natural, vicious malice toward humanity. Yet how could he... How could he be so greedy? So ravenous? So arrogant? —This was not like him! —It wasn't him at all! Restlessness surged, his temples throbbed, and a splitting headache tore through Bai Zhou's skull. He felt as though his psyche were fracturing. At his ears, a dark Bai Zhou and a bright Bai Zhou babbled incessantly on either side. In the end, seeing that words were useless, they simply threw tantrums and came to blows with each other. He felt his mind was like a runaway train plummeting off the rails—unstoppable, unbrakable, with no one knowing where it would crash. "Stop!" "I said—stop!" *Soothe!* Bai Zhou roared fiercely in his heart, activating the glyph upon the Sea of Ignorance. *Hum—* Ripples spread outward, sweeping through every corner of Bai Zhou's body. The light of the mind ignited, banishing the heavy shadows within his heart. *Crash! Swish—* The Sea of Ignorance tossed up towering waves, churning endlessly. Only then did Bai Zhou finally discover that the root of it all lay within the Sea of Ignorance. As the glyph for "Soothe" vibrated, a pitch-black monster entangled in countless malicious thoughts gradually rose above the ocean's surface. The monster faintly resembled the Exam King, yet bore an even stronger resemblance to Bai Zhou's own silhouette, its entire form swathed in billowing black miasma. Beneath the surface of the sea, it had crept silently toward the position of his Fate Principle. Without his noticing, it had already drawn within arm's reach of it, the black miasma sprawling near the Fate Principle and hissing as it corroded the pure white brilliance of the Fate Principle sun. It wanted to pollute Bai Zhou's Fate Principle! It wanted to— Usurp Bai Zhou, becoming the new Bai Zhou! Becoming the new Exam King! "It's the uniform!" Bai Zhou jolted, suddenly coming to his senses. —It was erosion from the school uniform! The side effect of wearing the uniform was no longer merely the low-level harassment of its initial laziness, stress, and guilt. After absorbing so many student council anomalies, the uniform had quietly completed an evolution, beginning to affect and reshape Bai Zhou with higher-level traits such as "Pride" and "Sloth"! Perilous! Fortunately, he had Soothe— Bai Zhou's gaze sharpened, his eyes cutting across the vast, dark sea to land upon the pitch-black monster walking across the water. *This is my Fate Principle space...* "Just what kind of thing are you supposed to be!" *Hum!* As Bai Zhou's intent surged, the glyph for "Moon" floating upon the sea suddenly blazed with light. The silhouette of a silver-white direwolf bounded forth, descending from the sky and tearing toward that pitch-black shadow with gnashing teeth. Amidst the roars of both combatants, a slaughter unfolded across the sea. —And as all of this reflected outward into reality, Bai Zhou's uniform underwent an abrupt, violent mutation! "Senior, y-y-you... you've gone dark!" Under the stunned, bewildered gazes of the trio of Number 9 and the pair of Blue of Pride, endless black miasma abruptly erupted from Bai Zhou's body. This black miasma was thoroughly infused with undisguised malice, swirling around Bai Zhou and framing him like a demon king! A colossal, pitch-black monster rose terrifyingly in full view of everyone, towering behind Bai Zhou. Extreme evil! Pure darkness! Its massive frame was deformed and twisted, yet it distinctly bore a blurred face that looked several parts like Bai Zhou! "Roar!" The monster let out a low growl, drool dripping from its maw, muttering under its breath: "I have returned." "The familiar scent, the familiar school, the familiar everything... This is my home ground, the domain of the Exam King!" "I will devour you all. I will seize this man's body..." As it muttered, the monster cast its openly malicious gaze, burning with avid greed, upon Blue of Pride, Number 9, and the others, causing goosebumps to erupt across their skin: "What... what is that thing!" Number 9 and the others scrambled back in terror, yet had nowhere to run under the monster's suffocating pressure. Right then, however, Senior Zhou's voice rang out: "Shut up!" Compared to the monster's shrieks and roars, the voice seemed small, yet it was undeniably, piercingly clear. "I told you—" "Shut up!" The moment the words fell, silver-white radiance surged with wild ferocity. *Howl!* The colossal phantom of a wolf manifested beside Bai Zhou and instantly pounced toward the monster that was about to strike at Number 9. The wolf raised its head and threw open its cavernous maw. It was as though a boundless black hole had suddenly opened, yet within that black hole swirled mysterious moonlight. *Rippp—!* With just a single bite— Half of the monster's massive, twisted body was completely pulverized!