Not Considered a Violation of the Rules

The news that Tianxing Academy was getting a new teacher spread like wildfire throughout the entire campus in just half a day.

Rumors of all kinds exploded on the student forums.

"Did you hear? The new teacher’s name is Su Qi, and apparently, he was parachuted in directly!"

"No way, seriously? What’s his deal? Must be someone important, right?"

"And the course he’s teaching is weird too—something called 'Practical Sourceflow Construction.' Never heard of it. Could be a scam."

"Scam or not, I’m signing up! What if it’s some hidden, legendary technique? Gotta take the gamble—you never know!"

In no time, the newly listed course was flooded with curious students eager to enroll.

Meanwhile, among the faculty, the atmosphere was far more subdued—tinged with something unspoken.

In the dean’s office, a stern, broad-shouldered middle-aged man frowned at the documents in his hand.

This was Zhao Hong, the academy’s notoriously strict and iron-fisted dean of discipline.

"Principal, what exactly is going on here?" He slapped the papers onto the desk, his tone laced with frustration.

"Some unknown young man with zero teaching experience gets parachuted in as a special professor? This goes against protocol!"

Across from him, Xiao Ya remained unflappable, sipping her tea with practiced calm.

"Dean Zhao, this is a decision from the highest levels. Our job is to execute it."

"The highest levels?" Zhao Hong’s frown deepened. "Even they can’t just bulldoze over our rules! Tianxing Academy isn’t their personal playground. We have standards!"

"And what do you propose?" Xiao Ya glanced up, her gaze steady.

"I demand an evaluation of his teaching abilities!" Zhao Hong declared, unwavering. "If he’s unqualified, I won’t allow him to stay and mislead our students!"

Xiao Ya smiled faintly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"Fine."

"Wait until after his first class. Then you can assess him all you want."

She set down her cup, a glimmer of intrigue in her eyes.

"I’m also curious what kind of… 'surprise' Professor Su has in store for us."

——

The villa assigned to Su Qi and Liu Yuan was nestled in the quietest corner of the campus, boasting breathtaking views.

Inside, the decor was luxurious yet comfortable, outfitted with every high-tech amenity imaginable. The fridge was stocked with premium ingredients from around the world.

"Bro, this place is amazing!" Liu Yuan cheered, rolling gleefully across the plush carpet.

Su Qi, meanwhile, sprawled across the living room sofa like a lazy emperor, flipping on the massive holographic TV.

"Eh, it’s alright."

To him, any place was fine as long as it had Wi-Fi and air conditioning.

That afternoon, the academy delivered his teacher’s uniform and teaching materials.

Su Qi tossed the uniform aside without a second glance, while Liu Yuan curiously picked up the so-called textbook—Introduction to Sourceflow Construction—only to find it was just a blank notebook.

——

The next day, Su Qi’s first class.

The 200-seat lecture hall was packed to the brim.

The students who showed up were a mixed bunch.

Some were purely there out of curiosity.

Others, drawn by the "parachuted professor" hype, were hoping to latch onto a rising star.

And then there were the top-tier students—confident in their abilities and eager to test the new teacher’s mettle.

In the front row, a tall, handsome young man with an air of arrogance sat with his arms crossed.

This was Shi Lei, a second-year student at the peak of sixth-tier strength and widely recognized as Tianxing Academy’s top second-year.

He was here to see just who had the audacity to teach something as "mystical" as this.

Beside him, a burly, bear-like young man with a simple face but sharp eyes whispered to his friend,

"Lei, you think this guy’s legit? Feels kinda like a pyramid scheme."

"Who knows? We’ll see," Shi Lei muttered, skepticism written all over his face.

Meanwhile, in the most inconspicuous corner of the room, a quiet girl with short, neat hair and a calm demeanor observed everything silently.

Her name was Lin Jing, an average student who rarely stood out. She’d chosen this course because something told her this new teacher might be different.

The bell rang.

The room fell silent.

Every pair of eyes locked onto the door.

One minute passed.

No one.

Three minutes.

Still no one.

Five minutes.

Just as murmurs of frustration began to ripple through the crowd—

The door creaked open.

Su Qi strolled in, yawning, a freshly bought milk tea in hand.

The stark contrast between his nonchalance and the students’ tense anticipation was almost comical.

The entire room froze.

Every student was dumbstruck.

This was their mysterious, parachuted professor?

Su Qi set his tea on the lectern, scanned the sea of bewildered faces, and cleared his throat.

"Alright, class."

His opening line was blunt.

The students straightened, ears perked.

And then came the words they’d never forget.

"Today, we’ll start with…"

He took a slow sip of his tea.

"Self-study."

With that, he dragged a chair onto the podium, plopped down, and pulled out his phone—launching a game with practiced ease.

The cheerful game jingle pierced the silence like a needle.

The entire class turned to stone.

Their brains short-circuited, unable to process the sheer absurdity unfolding before them.

Self-study?!

Two hundred students fought tooth and nail to get into this course, and this was what they got?

And he’s playing games up there?!

What kind of joke is this?!

Silence.

Deafening silence.

Time itself seemed to stop.

Every single student sat wide-eyed, mouths agape, like fish gasping on dry land.

Their worldviews were being ruthlessly, unapologetically trampled into the dirt.

They’d seen irresponsible teachers before—but this level of audacity was unprecedented.

This wasn’t just a teaching mishap.

This was an outright insult.

Finally, someone snapped.

"Professor!"

A voice thick with suppressed fury shattered the stillness.

Shi Lei shot to his feet, his handsome face flushed crimson, fists clenched so tight his knuckles cracked.

As Tianxing Academy’s top second-year, he’d never been disrespected like this.

"What the hell is this supposed to mean?"

He glared at the figure on the podium—still engrossed in his phone—and spat out each word through gritted teeth.

"We're here to learn, not to watch you play games!"

"If you don't have the ability to teach us, get the hell out of Tianxing Academy right now!"

His voice was firm, brimming with an arrogance that brooked no argument.

In the classroom, many students subconsciously nodded, their faces etched with indignation and agreement.

Exactly!

Are you making fools of us?

Su Qi finally reacted.

Reluctantly, he tore his gaze away from the game screen and looked up, lazily casting a glance at Shi Lei.

"Learn?"

He yawned, as if still half-asleep.

"What do you want to learn?"

"What do I want to learn?" Shi Lei let out a cold laugh, as if he'd just heard the biggest joke. "Me, Shi Lei, peak sixth-tier, ranked first in the academy's sophomore combat rankings! What I want to learn is how to break through to the seventh tier, how to surpass my limits, how to become a true supreme powerhouse!"

He puffed out his chest, unleashing an overwhelming aura that made several weaker students nearby turn pale.

He was using this as a demonstration—a challenge to this unreliable teacher.

"Oh."

Su Qi's reaction was as flat as if someone had commented on the weather.

"Sounds... kind of impressive."

He slowly rose from his chair.

Every heart in the room leapt into their throats.

What was he going to do?

Was he about to make a move?

Would he and Shi Lei duel right here in the classroom?

Even Lin Jing, sitting in the corner, unconsciously held her breath, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the lectern.

Su Qi didn’t perform any elaborate motions.

He simply extended a single index finger in Shi Lei’s direction.

Then, gave it a light tap.

No earth-shattering energy fluctuations, no dazzling light effects.

Nothing happened at all.

Shi Lei froze.

The students below the podium froze too.

What... was this?

A pressure-point strike from a distance? Or just showing off?

Just as Shi Lei was about to scoff again—

His expression abruptly changed.

An indescribable, bone-chilling terror seized his heart in an instant!

He realized he couldn’t move.

Not that his body was restrained—but his very existence had been "locked" by a higher-dimensional force.

His proud, mountain-shattering sixth-tier peak strength now lay frozen within him, like a stream trapped in ice, utterly unresponsive.

He couldn’t even feel his power anymore!

As if he had always been nothing more than an ordinary person, weak and helpless.

No—worse than ordinary.

He was like a butterfly pinned to a specimen board, his thoughts the only thing still functioning, while everything else lost all meaning.

Fear.

Unprecedented, soul-deep fear drowned all his pride and fury in an instant.

He wanted to beg for mercy, but his vocal cords refused to make a sound.

He tried to signal with his eyes, but even his pupils wouldn’t budge.

The classroom remained dead silent.

But this time, the silence wasn’t born of confusion—it was awe.

Everyone saw it.

Shi Lei, the unrivaled top-ranked sophomore of the academy, stood rigidly in place, frozen mid-challenge, completely motionless.

His face still bore traces of his earlier arrogance and anger, but his eyes were now filled with sheer terror.

What had happened?

No one knew.

But everyone understood—it was the doing of that new teacher.

All he had done was raise a single finger.

The doubt on Shi Lei’s face had long vanished, replaced by pure horror.

His companions nearby paled, not daring to even breathe loudly.

Su Qi retracted his finger, sat back down, and picked up his milk tea.

He took a sip, then looked at the petrified Shi Lei and said in a casual tone:

"If you want to learn, first learn to be quiet."

"Sit down."

The moment the words left his mouth—

The invisible force binding Shi Lei disappeared.

Regaining control of his body, Shi Lei’s legs gave out, and he collapsed back into his chair with a dull thud.

He gasped for air, drenched in cold sweat as if he’d just been fished out of water.

His eyes, now fixed on the young man at the lectern who had resumed playing on his phone, held not a shred of arrogance—only endless, bone-deep fear.

For that brief moment, he had felt death breathing down his neck.

No—something worse than death.

A sensation of utter, annihilating nothingness.

The classroom remained silent as a tomb.

No one dared question Su Qi’s teaching methods ever again.

Every student sat ramrod straight, even their breaths deliberately softened, afraid of disturbing the "teacher" engrossed in his game.

The next forty minutes became the longest, most surreal experience of their lives.

They simply watched their teacher play games.

Yet no one grew impatient.

Instead, it felt... right.

The strong could do no wrong.

"Ding ling ling—"

The bell finally rang, signaling the end of class.

Su Qi reluctantly put down his phone.

"Ah, lost again."

He stood and stretched.

"Alright, class dismissed."

Under the weight of nearly two hundred pairs of awestruck eyes, he sauntered out of the classroom.

Only after his figure vanished beyond the door did the room thaw, erupting in a collective gasp.

In the corner, Lin Jing quietly observed everything. Her usually calm eyes now shimmered with an unprecedented, brilliant light.

She’d known it all along.

This teacher... was different!

Su Qi’s first class spread through Tianxing Academy like a category-twelve hurricane within an hour.

"Neglecting duties! Bullying the weak!"

The explosive topic instantly dominated the academy’s internal forums, shooting to the top of the rankings with a blazing red "HOT" tag.

The posts were rife with exaggerated retellings.

......

In the Dean of Discipline’s office.

Zhao Hong’s face was darker than a stormcloud.

Reading the forum posts that spiked his blood pressure and hearing the students’ chatter outside, his cheeks burned with humiliation.

Shi Lei was his proudest protégé, groomed by his own hands.

This wasn’t just a slap to Shi Lei’s face—it was a slap to his!

"Outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!"

He slammed his palm on the desk, rattling the teacup.

"Playing to the crowd! Mystifying tricks!"

He immediately dialed Principal Xiao Ya’s internal line.

"Principal! That Su Qi openly provoked and suppressed students in class! A man without professional ethics like him must be fired at once!"

On the other end, Xiao Ya’s voice remained calm.

"Dean Zhao, I’ve reviewed the surveillance footage."

"He did teach."

"That move he used to suppress Shi Lei—he executed it in slow motion."

"And they deliberately lingered for a long time."

"Yet no one paid any attention."

"Every teacher has their own unique teaching style."

"It doesn't count as breaking the rules."