This Is Murder

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire venue went into an uproar.

Everyone's eyes were fixed on Chen Guan.

"We must thank him... for that irreplaceable, miraculous luck."

Instructor Jing pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and said in a sing-song, praising tone, "It is precisely this luck that allowed the squad to perfectly avoid several crises that would have wiped them out, that struck fear into the hearts of demonic beasts at critical moments, and even... made victory come so easily."

He spoke every word with utmost gentleness.

Yet, strung together, they turned into invisible blades, piercing flawlessly into Chen Guan's weak spot.

Killing with flattery.

The most vicious kind of flattery.

He was painting Chen Guan as a mascot who was completely useless except for his luck, entirely carried by his teammates.

His tone was also extremely passive-aggressive and highly punchable.

[Holy crap, this instructor is a master of passive-aggressiveness.]

[Praising on the surface, stepping on him in secret. My bro Guan is being roasted on an open fire. I miss you, Coffin God.]

[Person above, you're thinking too small. Didn't you see the expressions on his two god-tier teammates? The good show is about to start.]

Chen Guan lowered his eyes slightly. In his heart, he had already raised Instructor Jing's danger level once again.

This guy's twisted sense of humor was exactly the same as White Tiger's. He might as well be White Tiger's brother from another mother.

Did he have some sort of grudge against him?

"Alright, dismissed. Gather at the training ground at 2 PM."

Instructor Jing waved his hand and turned to leave, leaving behind a field filled with invisible gunpowder smoke.

Before the crowd could disperse, a silver figure blocked Chen Guan's path.

It was Yin Chen.

His eyes, which always carried a hint of laziness, were now serious.

"On the final floor, the fear of that human-faced bat wasn't an illusion."

He didn't ask; he used a declarative tone.

Chen Guan lifted his eyelids. "Maybe it saw your face and felt ashamed of its own ugliness."

"Its mental attack was ineffective against you."

Yin Chen pressed step by step, his voice lowered so much that only the two of them could hear.

"Maybe I'm just heartless and mindless."

Chen Guan answered with pure nonsense.

Yin Chen looked at him deeply, as if wanting to dissect him from bone to skin.

He fell silent for a moment. He didn't believe a word coming out of Chen Guan's mouth. Both he and Hong Yuan came from the Magic City Academy. Although it couldn't compare to the veteran powerhouse schools like Huaqing and Beishi, it was not to be underestimated.

Yin Chen considered his own judgment to be quite good; he wouldn't fail to distinguish between luck and true strength.

Just at this tense moment, a loud bang interrupted their standoff.

Thud!

A massive battle axe was heavily slammed into the ground.

The ground cracked with spiderweb-like fine lines, and gravel flew everywhere.

Hong Yuan walked over with great strides, carrying her axe, and squeezed between the two of them.

She completely failed to notice the weird atmosphere. Instead, she threw an arm around Chen Guan's shoulders and patted him hard.

"Hey, silver hair, are you interrogating a prisoner? Why are you scaring my person!"

Yin Chen raised an eyebrow. "Your person?"

"That's right!"

Hong Yuan tilted her face up, striking a protective pose like an animal guarding its food, and righteously announced, "From today on, he is my exclusive lucky charm! In the future, when I fight, he just needs to stand on the sidelines and cheer for me!"

She turned to Chen Guan, grinning to reveal a mouthful of white teeth, her expression incredibly radiant.

"Hear that, lucky boy? From now on, big sis has got you covered. Whoever dares to touch you has to ask my axe first."

Chen Guan: "..."

Yin Chen: "..."

[Pfft! What the hell, lucky charm.]

[Hong Yuan: What are brains? Can you eat them? Just fight!]

[Yin Chen: I'm doubting my life. Chen Guan: I choose death.]

The scrutiny in Yin Chen's eyes gradually dissipated.

It was replaced by a look of sheer speechlessness on his face.

—Is it too late to transfer schools now? I absolutely don't want to admit that she and I are from the same school.

He looked at Hong Yuan, whose face screamed 'I am number one in the world', and Chen Guan, who looked like he had nothing left to live for. Finally, he shook his head, turned, and walked away.

There was no reasoning with a battle maniac. Similarly, he couldn't wake up someone who was dead set on playing dumb.

As for Chen Guan, he was thoroughly labeled as a mascot by Hong Yuan's actions.

Wherever he went, the trainees cast stares in his direction.

Whispers and mutters were endless. Chen Guan, who was already highly noticed for his appearance, became even more conspicuous now.

"See him? That's the guy who got into the first squad purely by luck."

"I heard both Hong Yuan and Yin Chen are protecting him. His background must not be simple."

"Tch, he's just a piece of trash who stepped in dog shit luck."

Chen Guan turned a deaf ear to these discussions. He was so foolish, really. He originally thought Hong Yuan was about the same as Long Ao, but looking at it now, Long Ao was far too smart to be placed in the same category as Hong Yuan.

Just as he was about to find a quiet corner to relax, a figure quietly appeared beside him.

"Student Chen, it seems you've run into some trouble."

Liu Feiyu popped up out of nowhere. Even after changing locations, he was as hauntingly persistent as ever.

Chen Guan glanced at him but didn't speak.

"Some people are just jealous."

Liu Feiyu lowered his voice. "I heard some trainees want to target you. Need any help?"

"Thanks."

Chen Guan's reply was concise and to the point. "But, I'm used to it."

After speaking, he walked straight away. If he accepted Liu Feiyu's help, it wouldn't be easy to repay later.

Leaving Liu Feiyu standing there, the curve of his lips froze for a moment, and a flash of disappointment crossed his eyes.

...

At 2 PM, the cold wind howled.

All the trainees gathered once more. Because there were even fewer people now, the atmosphere was more oppressive than in the morning.

Instructor Jing still had that refined and elegant appearance.

Standing in front of the crowd, he announced in a gentle voice, "The afternoon trial is called the Snowfield Hunting Ground."

The large screen behind him lit up, displaying a vast, boundless frozen snowfield.

"This is a team survival confrontation in a real environment. You will be randomly dropped into various areas of the hunting ground. Your goal is to hunt demonic beasts, collect demon cores, and simultaneously... eliminate your opponents within seventy-two hours."

"Remember, in the hunting ground, everyone except your teammates is an enemy."

His words made the air in the venue turn cold.

"Of course, where there are punishments, there are naturally rewards."

Instructor Jing's gaze slowly swept across the crowd, finally fixing flawlessly on the first squad.

The corners of his lips twitched into a deeply meaningful smile.

"To commend the first squad for their outstanding performance this morning, I have decided to give you a special reward."

He extended a finger and drew a circle right in the center of the light-screen map, an area marked in deep red.

"Your drop point will be the most resource-rich area in the entire hunting ground, which is also... the Beast Emperor's Lair, where the highest-tier demonic beasts are most densely concentrated."

"I hope your luck will be just as good as it was this morning."

As his voice fell, Hong Yuan was stunned for a moment before flying into a rage. "What kind of reward is that!"

She just liked the thrill of battle; she wasn't a fucking idiot.

Meanwhile, Yin Chen's face instantly sank.

For the first time, his gaze toward Instructor Jing carried undisguised hostility.

This guy was trying to get them killed.

The elders in his family had told him that the descendants of the Four Ancient Sacred Beasts were imprisoned within the Northern Frontier First Academy.

Although they might not necessarily be in the exact location they were heading to, it was enough to prove that this place had no shortage of high-level demonic beasts.

Beneath their feet, the teleportation pillars of light flared up simultaneously.

Chen Guan felt a needle-like chill wash over his skin.

It was obvious just from the reactions of those two...

This was no longer just setting him up to fail.

This was murder.