To be honest, they were a bit surprised. The top new student this time was actually such a pretty girl, easily on the level of a Campus Belle.
She had both talent and beauty—enough to make anyone envious.
“Come out. We have something to say to you.”
Huangfu Wenqing recognized that phrasing and tone all too well. She held her patience and replied, “If you have something to say, spit it out. I don’t have time for your beating around the bush.”
“The top new student really lives up to the title—quite the arrogant temper! Your seniors came all this way to see you. Is that how you talk?”
Huangfu Wenqing had already tuned them out. She’d encountered types like these back in her previous life, right when she and her master first arrived at the Evergreen Holy Land. They were nothing more than clowns putting on a show.
They acted all high and mighty, but in truth, they were bottom-tier trash, only able to bully newcomers to satisfy their twisted sense of self-worth.
Her words cut sharp: “While I’m still in a good mood, get lost.”
“You little brat! Looks like you won’t learn your place without a taste of hardship—this is Holy Land Academy, not some backwater you crawled out of!”
Huangfu Wenqing swept her gaze over them and let out a cold chuckle. “A bunch of one- or two-star Mystic Masters, and you think you can boss me around? I’ll say it one more time: scram on your own, or I’ll send you flying.”
“You had your chance! Time for a proper lesson so you learn the rules around here!”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than the girl who seemed to be the ringleader lunged forward, slapping a palm toward Huangfu Wenqing.
Huangfu Wenqing was just about to strike back when a surge of blazing heat erupted from behind her. It collided with the attack in a solid clash.
Boom!
Mystic power exploded outward. The heavily made-up ringleader flew back, clutching her hand and howling in pain.
“Aaah! My hand—my hand!”
Yan Zhen slowly withdrew his palm, thinking to himself how fortunate he’d prepared ahead of time. Otherwise, Huangfu Wenqing would’ve stolen the kill, and he couldn’t have completed his system task.
“A Mystic Master?” The group of older students gaped in shock, pointing at Yan Zhen in disbelief. “How could there be a Mystic Master among the new students in the East Academy District?”
Mystic Academy’s graduation requirement was the Mystic Scholar Realm, so Holy Land Academy’s freshmen were mostly one- or two-star Mystic Scholars. The stronger ones might reach five or six stars, and the absolute best topped out at nine-star Mystic Scholars. Mystic Masters were exceedingly rare—especially in the East Academy District representing the eastern region, which hadn’t seen a Mystic Master freshman in nearly a decade.
And the oppressive aura radiating from Yan Zhen wasn’t even that of a one-star Mystic Master. It was at least three stars!
Before they could recover, Huangfu Wenqing unleashed her own cultivation as well. The pressure of a five-star Mystic Master bore down on them, twisting their faces in horror.
This one was even stronger!
A five-star Mystic Master? Why hadn’t she applied for the special exam to enter the Inner Academy directly? What was she doing messing around in the Outer Academy?
“Scram or not?”
Of course they’d scram!
They opened their mouths to respond, but Yan Zhen cut them off. “Scram? Nah, we need to beat them senseless first, or they won’t learn.”
The task required thrashing them all before tossing them out, so Yan Zhen had no intention of letting them off easy.
Under their terrified stares, flames bathed Yan Zhen’s body as he charged forward.
Ten minutes later, a dozen older students—men and women alike—lay bruised and battered outside the New Student Dormitory. A crowd of curious freshmen surrounded them, pointing and whispering, leaving the beaten group utterly humiliated.
Yan Zhen had successfully completed the task and claimed his reward on the spot.
【Special Trump Card: Beast Senpai Mode—Upon activation, the host temporarily transforms into Beast Senpai. It can unleash ‘Humming Aah Sound Waves’ attacks and exhale ‘Fainting Breath’ with a black tea scent. Damage to the same sex doubles; damage to the opposite sex halves.】
It seemed pretty powerful, but this card felt a little… off. Yan Zhen wasn’t eager to use it.
He pocketed the trump card silently and turned to his fiancée. “You okay, Wenqing?”
Huangfu Wenqing gave a light shake of her head. Her beautiful eyes gazed at him, sparkling with speechless delight. She looked quite pleased.
“Thanks for protecting me, Yan Zhen~”
“No big deal. Even without me, they couldn’t have hurt you.”
“That’s true, but it feels different when it’s you… I prefer being protected by you~”
Yan Zhen scratched his head awkwardly. Just then, his messaging talisman beeped. It was a message from Mentor Yu Xuan, saying she’d settled in and inviting him and Huangfu Wenqing over for a celebratory dinner to mark their enrollment.
Huangfu Wenqing leaned in close and saw the message too. She refused outright. “I’m not going. You go by yourself.”
She had zero interest in cozying up to the women who’d gone green with jealousy over her man.
She’d thought she could at least get along with Mentor Yu Xuan, but it turned out the mentor was the deepest green-eyed schemer of them all.
It was infuriating!
“Oh, right—if you end up doing anything with them, you have to report it to me.” Huangfu Wenqing puffed out her cheeks. “I’m your fiancée. I have a right to know.”
Yan Zhen was speechless but nodded stiffly before making his escape from her room.
As he stepped out of the New Student Dormitory, he spotted Mentor Yu Xuan waiting outside. They met up and headed together to her Independent Dormitory.
Mentor Yu Xuan had no qualms about hooking her arm through his, pressing close in an intimate display worthy of lovers deep in the honeymoon phase. Heads turned all along the way as students and mentors alike stared.
Even though Mentor Yu Xuan had been away for two years, her status as the Yu Family’s Eldest Miss kept her fame in the Outer Academy undiminished.
In the Dean’s Office, the Outer Court Dean had already witnessed the scene through her Scrying Technique. Her mature, beautiful face—bearing some resemblance to Mentor Yu Xuan’s—darkened slightly. Her slender brows furrowed.
“Who’s that kid?” the Outer Court Dean, also known as Little Aunt Yu Qing to Mentor Yu Xuan, murmured to herself. “He looks about fifteen or sixteen. Could he be Xuan’er’s prized disciple?”
Their intimacy suggested it was more than just a disciple-mentor bond.
As they walked, Yan Zhen vaguely sensed a prying gaze from the void. He snapped his head up, his eyes instantly turning gray, shifting into sinister vertical slits. The evil projection reflected right in the Outer Court Dean’s light mirror.
The Outer Court Dean felt an invisible mental shock slam into her like a roaring beast. A ferocious Evil Dragon silhouette seemed to claw at her from the mirror. Shaken to her core, she flicked her sleeve and shattered the projection.
“Such powerful spiritual power!”
As a Mystic Ancestor expert, the Outer Court Dean hadn’t refined her Divine Soul yet, but it was already undergoing natural transformation. Her spiritual power was no weaker than the Hidden Realm’s. Yet she’d been caught off guard and rattled.
That meant the boy’s spiritual power was at least at the Manifest Realm—comparable to a Mystic Master’s!
And his mystic power cultivation was at the two- or three-star Mystic Master level!
Even his vitality felt robust and full, clearly the result of Body Refining.
At such a young age, to cultivate his body, Divine Soul, and mystic power in tandem—that was no small feat.
“…Yan Zhen, is it?”
The Outer Court Dean glanced at the file in her hand and fell into thought.
