Chu Feixiong jumped up like a cat with a stepped on tail.
He curled up and covered his butt, then said to the woman who had been standing silently behind him for three minutes, “If you were willing to take the bet, you have to be willing to lose! You said that once I finished the one hundred-kilometer obstacle course with a three hundred-kilogram load, you wouldn’t attack me again!”
Meng Chao suddenly felt that his best friend’s description of being a determined, hot-blood young man who had launched his counterattack was a little different from reality.
He quietly observed his best friend’s female squad leader, Shao Jianqing, who was the daughter of Dragon City’s Thunder God Shao Zhengyang.
There were quite a number of new people around them, and they observed her curiously but discreetly.
She was a woman who was destined to attract attention.
Very few female soldiers were able to stand gracefully even with a nanotech fighting suit, a strengthened exoskeleton, and two mighty swords that looked like the propellers of a helicopter.
And very few female soldiers had skin as white as snow and without a single blemish even after going through high-intensity training for a few months in the most brutal weather under the summer sun, then joining the battlefield in the wild and fighting for half a month against monsters.
If not for her aggressive, tiger-like eyes, she was not at all like a soldier, but like a fashionable, teenage celebrity who was even more brilliant and charming than Yan Feirou.
But her intense eyes could not hide her ambition and determination, and it cast her awe-inspiring beauty into the shadows. Everyone could only see her heroic gait.
“Don’t worry, Chu Feixiong. I won’t hurt even half of your finger today.” Just like her demeanor, Shao Jianqing’s voice was a little hoarse, making her sound quite gender-neutral. She said faintly, “I only came to tell you that I completed the mission we got to kill fifty Three-eyed Spirit Cats, and I even killed some extra. I killed a total of seventy-six of them, so you can have half of my kills. Go and get your iron-blooded coins later.”
“What?” Chu Feixiong was a little stunned, and he frowned. “Since this is a group mission and we were supposed to hunt in pairs, why did you complete the mission on your own. Wouldn’t I be…”
Meng Chao felt that he wanted to say that this meant that he ended up relying on her to complete the mission, but they were in public, and he felt embarrassed to say this out loud.
“If it were Demonic Halberd Pigs, Iron-armored Rhinoceroses, or any other monster that has thick skin but is slow, I wouldn’t mind leaving behind a few for you to play with, but Three-eyed Spirit Cats are famous for being agile and cunning.
“Fight them with your Army Fist? Ha, are you going to hunt them until midnight? I don’t have so much time to help you practice your Army Fist until it’s the best fist technique in the world. My efficiency is higher if I act alone.”
Shao Jianqing paused, then added, “I will give you half of the rewards from my hunts over the next few days. You can stay in the camp and rest while you think about the suggestion I gave you.
“You should know that you don’t have to stay in the heroic spirit course just because you have a heroic spirit. You can go to the martial arts course, firearms course, commanding course, or even the logistics course. Those places can help cultivate heroic spirit users as well. Besides, your heroic spirit… is too unique. What’s the point of you continuing to stay in the heroic spirit course?”
“You… What’s the meaning of this? Are you looking down on my heroic spirit just because he’s a normal soldier?”
The female squad leader’s words had stomped on some taboo in Chu Feixiong, and rage swirled around him. His expression instantly became different, and he looked quite “stubborn and obstinate”. The shock from when he saw Shao Jianqing was completely gone.
He slammed his fist on the table and got up. “I’m telling you, Shao Jianqing, you can torment me, trample on me, and even torture me, but don’t insult my heroic spirit!” he roared.
“So what if he’s just a normal soldier? No matter how mighty a general is, without thousands of soldiers to fight for him, he’s just a general without an army to command. He’s useless.
“Even if my heroic spirit is the weakest in Dragon City right now, heroic spirits can grow together with their heroic spirit user, and one of these days, my heroic spirit will become even stronger than your Female Battle God, and your father, Thunder God Shao Zhengyang!”
The female squad leader frowned a little, then sighed in resignation. She ignored the raging Chu Feixong and extended a hand to Meng Chao. “I’m Chu Feixiong’s squad leader, Shao Jianqing. You’re his friend, right? Please advise him to change his mind. The heroic spirit course isn’t suited for him and his heroic spirit. There’s no need for him to show off or sulk about this. He’s just staying in the course to suffer at this point.”
Meng Chao’s mind raced.
Thunder God Shao Zhengyang was a resolute general and a major figure in the Red Dragon Army. Naturally, he had the right to join Dragon City’s tactical plans.
Was he the “right person” worthy of Meng Chao revealing some information to him?
But no matter what, Shao Jianqing was someone worthy of getting acquainted with.
For the future of Dragon City and the safety of thousands of his peers, even if he had to sacrifice a bit of his best friend’s pride and… his body, everyone should understand where Meng Chao came from, right?
“Hello, I’m Meng Chao, Chu Feixiong’s best friend. Don’t worry, Shao Jianqing, I don’t think Feixiong is suited for the heroic spirit course either. I’ll definitely persuade him to switch to the logistics course and stop bothering you!”
Meng Chao quickly took Shao Jianqing’s hand and put on a smile on his face. “Do you mind if we exchange contacts so that we can contact each other often? Honestly, I’m filled with admiration for Thunder God Shao Zhengyang. After all, I’ve grown up listening to General Shao leading the expeditionary force in the wild. To me, he’s not just a mighty general, but a legendary and famous general!”
Chu Feixiong did not expect that Meng Chao would “betray” him so willingly, and he was instantly flabbergasted.
His dumbfounded expression made Shao Jianqing break into laughter.
When she smiled, her sharp, tiger-like eyes crinkled. The sharp glare she had disappeared, and only a beauty that would make heads turn remained. It caused quite a lot of boys around them to suck in sharp breaths.
But that smile only lasted for half a second before her expression instantly turned stiff and wary. “You… You said you’re Meng Chao. Are you from Agricultural University?”
“That’s right. Please take care of me, Ms. Shao.” Meng Chao smiled faintly.
Ever since he killed the Bloody Moon Wolf King during the national college examination’s practical test, a lot of media corporations fell over each other to interview him, and he could be considered quite famous. It was not surprising then that Shao Jianqing would recognize him.
If that were the case, she might take the initiative to become his friend, and they might have the chance to sit down together to have a meal to talk about the current situation in the world as well as the tactical strategies employed by Dragon City, right?
But to his surprise, Shao Jianqing took her hand back at the speed of lightning. Contempt that she did not bother to hide appeared in her eyes. She first glared at Meng Chao before she cast a scornful look at Chu Feixiong and shook her head as if she was saying “Birds of a feather flock together, I guess.”
She turned around and left, and when she walked, she even flung her hand, as if the skin Meng Chao touched was bitten by a toad.
“What’s going on?” This time, it was Meng Chao’s turn to feel gloomy. “I don’t know her at all. Just how did I offend her now? No matter how much she hates you, there’s no reason for her to be angry at me as well, right?”
“Don’t look at me. It has nothing to do with me. She just hates you.” Chu Feixiong delighted in his misery and said, “Think. Your reputation is down the drain right now. And you thought to win that tigress vixen’s favor by betraying your friend? Impossible!”
“What do you mean?” Meng Chao was puzzled. “Bad reputation? Who? Me?”
“Duh. Why are you pretending to be innocent? I’ve been wanting to ask you about it, but I didn’t get the chance just now,” Chu Feixiong said. “Right now, there’s a rumor going around in the alliance of the five universities that there’s a freshman in Agricultural University’s martial arts course who practises an evil martial art called the Ultimate Style just so that he can sneak into places he shouldn’t and do despicable things that would enrage both heaven and earth.
“And he actually managed to fulfil his goals. Of course, in the end, he had his criminal acts unmasked and received a notice of criticism. There was a picture of that notice posted on the university’s website.
“Most of the groups in the alliance of the five universities know about it. In some screenshots, that person is known as Meng Something, and in other screenshots, that person is known as Something Chao. Isn’t that you?”
“What?!”
“I didn’t know that you’re this sort of person— Ah, fine. Honestly, I can believe you being that sort of person. But I didn’t expect you to be so daring, so efficient, and this evil Ultimate Style to be so powerful. You actually managed to sneak into the girls’ dorms despite the fact that their defence is so tight?”
“No. Listen to me. The Ultimate Style is actually a profound and legitimate—”
Chu Feixiong did not wait for him to finish. “Right now, the expressions of most of the girls in the alliance of the five universities change when they hear your name, and all of the boys are indignant. They want to put a shameless dog like you through the most severe interrogation and make you hand over the ways to practice this evil martial art so that they can criticize it. Then, they’re going to cut you up so that they can vent their anger!”
Meng Chao said, “You’ve truly mistaken. How would I do something so shameless, boring, and perverse? The reason behind this accident is— Hang on, what did you just say? Repeat that for me, will you?”
Chu Feixiong did. “They’re going to cut you up so that they can vent their anger!”
Meng Chao shook his head. “No. The one before that.”
Chu Feixiong went straight to the start of the conversation. “The expressions of most of the girls in the alliance of the five universities change when they hear your name.”
Meng Chao shook his head again. “Not that one either. The one in the middle.”
So, Chu Feixiong said, “The boys in the military school want to put a shameless dog like you through the most severe interrogation and make you hand over the ways to practice this evil martial art so that they can criticize it.”
Meng Chao’s eyes lit up, and his delight was greater than his disappointment. “Really? You want to criticize this evil martial art?”
Chu Feixiong spoke severely and with a sense of justice. “Of course it’s true. Many of the boys in the military school heard that you and I both came from Ninth High School, so they tried to interrogate me too so that they can learn the truth of this evil martial art. If it’s really dangerous, we will delve deeper into it to explore it fully so that we can learn how to counter it. That’s the only way we can uphold justice and maintain peace!
“We’re all friends, so tell me honestly. Is this Ultimate Style really sinister, despicable, shameless, and underhanded?”
Meng Chao had to say, “… Yes. It’s indeed sinister, despicable, shameless, and underhanded.”
“Then you have to give up the ways to practice it so that the boys in the military school can criticize it.”
Meng Chao agreed to it. “No problem. Anyway, all the boys from the alliance of the five universities are going to stay in the base now. We can make an Ultimate Style Study Group, just like we did in high school. Aside from the boys in the military school, we can also gather all the hot-blooded boys with a great sense of justice from the University of Technology, Medical University, and the University of Science. I’ll take the lead and have everyone criticize the Ultimate Style!”