Chapter 45: Weird girls
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Mu Qinglan had always been pampered by her parents.
Whether it was cultivation resources or training methods, all she had to do was ask, and she would get whatever she wanted.
Thanks to this, she advanced quickly in her cultivation, and by her first year at the academy, she had already reached the peak of the First Stage of the Mortal Realm.
Reaching this level at just sixteen was considered fast,
well above average, and for that reason, she was praised and held in high regard by both teachers and students.
At first, she enjoyed the attention and the sense of superiority it gave her.
But soon, she started to hate it.
All her classmates and even many of the teachers treated her like someone important, not because of her personal strength, but because of her family.
She realized that without her family's resources, she wouldn't have achieved the results she had, especially since her innate talent was average.
The only reason she progressed faster than others was because of the endless support she'd received since a young age.
It became clear that the way people treated her wasn't out of kindness but for personal gain.
Some wanted to build connections with her family, others sought to use her family's strength for their own ends.
Before long, she saw that almost everyone around her was wearing a mask, just waiting for the right moment to use her.
So, after starting her second year, she began keeping her distance from everyone.
She wasn't rude, but neither was she overly kind or accommodating,
just enough to get through the rest of her years at the academy peacefully.
All of this slowly turned the world around her into a gray, colorless place, one where only a few people managed to bring back a bit of color.
And one of those people was none other than her friend,
Lin Shuiyao.
At first, she treated her like everyone else.
But soon she realized this girl was different from the others.
Though she came from a humble family, Lin Shuiyao never cared about appearances or status.
She lived her life however she wanted and never bothered with those kinds of things.
The more time she spent around her, the more Mu Qinglan started to believe that maybe the world wasn't entirely gray after all.
Maybe there really were people who would appreciate her for who she was.
And so, after all that time, she could finally say she had a true friend,
A friend who, in this dangerous moment, didn't even hesitate to sacrifice herself so she could pass this exam.
'No… this is the end,' despair washed over her as she kept her eyes shut, resigned to what was about to happen.
She hadn't managed to hurt the panther, and now that it had reached her, there was no way to escape.
She could only squeeze her eyes shut in fear and wait for the inevitable… but the pain she was expecting never came.
'Eh?'
Confused, she slowly opened her eyes, uncertain of what was going on.
By now, the beast should have torn into her, and yet, nothing.
Instead, there was only a loud sound, like something heavy crashing, followed by silence.
Her vision gradually adjusted, and her gaze landed on the scene before her.
'Who is he?' she thought, as a figure of a young man with long black hair tied back appeared in front of her.
She stared at him in confusion, while the boy didn't even bother looking her way and instead walked toward the side.
And that's when she saw it, a sight that made her eyes go wide in shock.
The body of the black panther was embedded in the trunk of a tree, completely lifeless.
'He… did this? But how?!'
She didn't immediately recognize him, but a moment later, his face felt familiar, and then she remembered.
If she wasn't mistaken, he was a member of the Zhu family, the one without talent.
That's all she knew about him.
She'd never interacted with him at the academy and only knew what people said about him.
According to the rumors, he was a member of the Zhu family without any cultivation talent, so much so that he hadn't even reached the First Stage.
And yet… now she was staring at the same person who had taken down a Second Stage spirit beast in one blow.
Her face showed clear confusion, but she quickly noticed her friend beside her and turned toward her, asking:
"Sister Yao, are you okay?" she asked, giving her a quick look over.
Lin Shuiyao, who like her was still stunned by what she'd just witnessed, finally snapped out of it.
Without saying a word, she nodded, though her gaze remained fixed on the young man who had now reached the beast.
Zhu Rong, after approaching the panther and confirming it was dead, turned toward the two girls and casually asked,
"Are you okay?"
They both nodded, and just as Mu Qinglan was about to step forward to thank him, her friend stopped her.
Without wasting a second, she rushed over to the boy and said,
"You, how did you do that?" she asked, her eyes sparkling as she also confirmed the beast was indeed dead.
She knew just how strong that panther was, so she couldn't help but be amazed seeing it killed by a single punch from this boy.
A single punch to take down a Second Stage beast.
Who was this person?
Zhu Rong was caught a little off guard by the girl's energetic behavior and wasn't sure what kind of expression to make.
"Woman, it's just a panther, calm down. It's nothing extraordinary to take it down," he said like it was no big deal.
"Just a panther? That's a Stage 2 beast, and you took it down with a single punch!
You must be at the peak of the Second Stage, right?
I didn't know there was a student like you in our year," she said,
and was about to keep going when a hand suddenly covered her mouth.
From behind her, Mu Qinglan appeared, looking a bit embarrassed.
"Please ignore her. She fell on her head as a child, so she can't control herself.
And thank you so much for saving us.
If it weren't for you, we would've had to forfeit the exam," she said,
still holding her friend tightly as the girl started struggling even harder after hearing those words.
Zhu Rong: "…"
'Fell as a child?'
He had no idea what expression to make and felt like the situation would only get more awkward if he let them continue.
"Don't worry about it. It wasn't a big deal.
I was interested in this beast anyway, so I just took the chance to take it down," he said in a tone that wasn't too formal, but not too casual either.
As a man, he couldn't deny it felt nice to have two pretty girls looking at him like that,
but his long experience from his past life told him these two would be trouble, so he decided to keep his distance for now.
Mu Qinglan was a little surprised by his attitude and could tell he genuinely meant what he said.
That said, she also felt like he was keeping a certain distance between them.
She wondered if she'd done something wrong, but didn't have time to think much about it because while she was momentarily distracted, Lin Shuiyao managed to break free.
Right away, she turned to her friend and grabbed her cheeks.
"Sister Lan! How could you treat me like that? And what do you mean I fell as a child!" she said grumpily as she started pulling at her friend's cheeks.
Zhu Rong: "…"
"Well, these two sure turned out differently from what I remembered…" he thought, shaking his head as he chose to ignore them.
Instead, he moved closer to the beast's corpse.
A glint flashed in his eyes as he prepared to extract the core from the creature's dead body.
'A Stage 2 wind element beast… not bad,' he thought, channeling spiritual Qi into his hand.
Without hesitation, he stabbed his hand into the beast's abdomen and quickly pulled out a light blue sphere.
The two girls had also stopped and, watching his smooth movements, couldn't help being amazed again.
"Sister Lan… who is that guy? I'm sure there's no one like him in our year, right?" Lin Shuiyao asked.
"I think… I think he's that guy from the Zhu family," she said, still a bit unsure of his identity.
She didn't know much about him, and what little she did know seemed to completely clash with what she'd witnessed today,
so she wasn't entirely confident in her guess.
"The Zhu family? If I remember right, they only have one descendant in the second year…
Wait, wasn't that guy supposed to be talentless? Are you sure you're not mistaken?" her friend asked, not quite believing what she'd just heard.
The two friends had their doubts, but they didn't have time to think too much about it.
Because soon, their thoughts were interrupted by a voice that suddenly rang out from the side of the forest.
"Hey! Put that core down! How dare you steal our prey!"