Dragon Proud: There's a Cheat

Shan Heng’s breath caught in his throat. He looked toward Chen Guan, only to find that the other man was merely watching, with no intention of stepping in.

Bang!

A dull, thunderous impact interrupted Charles’s casting.

It was the sound of a fist smashing into metal.

A fiery red figure descended from the sky, carrying the force of wind and thunder. He crashed down between Charles and the two Beishi Academy students, sending shattered concrete flying in every direction and leaving behind a vicious shallow crater.

“Who gave you permission to lay a hand on people from Huaxia?!”

Long Ao raised his head and shook out his fist. Grease still clung to his knuckles, while fury blazed in his eyes.

The smile on Charles’s face froze.

At the other end of the street, An Changqing and Su Yuehe appeared as well.

An Changqing’s expression remained as gentle as ever, but the sword in his hand had already left its sheath, its tip pointed directly at Charles.

Su Yuehe hurried to the side of the two injured Beishi Academy students. She murmured a soft incantation, and a gentle green glow flowed over their bodies. Their wounds began healing at a rate visible to the naked eye.

“You can go.”

Su Yuehe had no intention of kicking them while they were down. They were all academies from Huaxia, after all—there was no need for an internal conflict to break out so early.

“Chen Guan.”

An Changqing’s voice carried over. He had long since noticed Chen Guan hiding in the shadows.

Only then did Chen Guan step out.

“Where the hell have you been?” Long Ao immediately shouted when he saw him. “You had us worried sick looking for you.”

“Sorry. I ran into Hiiragi Aoba.”

Chen Guan answered casually. Charles’s expression darkened until it seemed as though water could drip from it. He had not expected the Huaxia Academy group to assemble so quickly—and for their strongest members to arrive at that.

Ordinary students might not know it, but as captain of the squad, Charles knew perfectly well that Huaxia Academy’s strongest students this year were not the fourth-years, but this group of second-years.

His gaze swept past Long Ao, lingered briefly on An Changqing’s sword, and finally locked onto Chen Guan.

He had heard it just now: this kid said he had encountered Hiiragi Aoba.

Since Chen Guan was still here, Hiiragi Aoba was most likely in grave danger.

“Leave.”

Charles made his decision without hesitation and swiftly withdrew with his two teammates.

Long Ao wanted to give chase, but An Changqing reached out and stopped him.

Charles was, after all, a top-ranked student. They still had to show him a measure of respect. Their immediate priority was to regroup.

An Changqing sheathed his sword, walked over to Chen Guan, and patted him on the shoulder.

“It’s good that you’re all right.”

Then he turned to Shan Heng, smiled warmly, and gave him a nod.

“Junior Shan, you’ve had a difficult journey.”

A little embarrassed by all the attention, Shan Heng waved his hands repeatedly.

“No, not at all. Senior Chen has been taking care of me the whole way.”

“All right, all right, enough with the mutual praise.” Long Ao moved closer, sizing Chen Guan up from head to toe. “You ran into Hiiragi Aoba? How strong was he?”

Chen Guan considered it for a moment.

“He was pretty strong.”

If he had not suddenly powered himself up at the last minute, he probably would not have been able to defeat him so easily.

Long Ao nodded solemnly.

“Well, he is two years older than us. It’s normal if you couldn’t beat him.”

Naturally, he assumed Chen Guan had not been a match for Hiiragi Aoba. Still, he believed just as firmly that Hiiragi Aoba would not have been able to do much to Chen Guan either.

Chen Guan smiled but didn’t explain. No need to make Long Ao shut down again.

【Poor Brother Ao. He still has no idea that Hiiragi Aoba got farmed like a low-level mob by Brother Coffin.】

【To this day, we still don’t know Chen Guan’s true upper limit.】

【That Charles guy is pretty smart. At least he knew he wasn’t a match for this bunch of cheaters.】

“Alright. Let’s find somewhere to rest up and exchange information.”

An Changqing swept his gaze across the dead-silent city, his expression turning grave.

...

A thick layer of dust covered the floor of the abandoned bank lobby. After briefly clearing out an open space, the group sat down in a circle.

Su Yuehe took several bottles of water from her storage space and handed them out. Lastly, she placed one in front of Shan Heng, who instinctively drew back his shoulders.

“Thank you, Senior.”

Shan Heng accepted it with both hands and thanked her softly.

“No need to be so formal.”

Long Ao sat cross-legged, one arm resting on his knee. He stared at Chen Guan and got straight to the point. “By the way, what exactly happened on your end? How did you run into that conman, Hiiragi Aoba?”

Everyone’s eyes turned to Chen Guan.

Chen Guan unscrewed the cap and took a sip of water, unable to understand why Long Ao was so fixated on this matter that he kept pressing him about it.

“Random teleportation. Our landing spots just happened to be close.”

“And then?”

Long Ao pressed on. In his mind, he had already imagined a whole drama in which Chen Guan fought desperately for a long time before barely escaping with some hidden trump card.

“Then he got sent back,” Chen Guan stated matter-of-factly.

You’re the one who insisted on asking. Don’t blame me.

“...”

A deathly silence fell over everyone.

Long Ao’s mouth opened and closed several times, but he couldn’t squeeze out a single word.

He... hadn’t misunderstood, had he?

“Y-you eliminated him?”

This was a hundred thousand miles away from the script he had imagined. He knew Hiiragi Aoba’s strength all too well.

“Yeah. And Ross from Zero Academy—I sent him back too, while I was at it.” Chen Guan added casually, “You could say I got revenge for last year.”

“Pfft!”

Long Ao immediately choked on the mouthful of water he had just swallowed. He hunched over and pounded his chest, coughing until his face turned red. When he looked up again, the way he looked at Chen Guan had completely changed.

“When the hell did you become this inhuman?”

“Just got lucky. If we ran into each other again, I might not win.” Chen Guan attributed the credit to sheer luck.

Though luck had indeed played a part. Hiiragi Aoba had been too arrogant—he could have ganged up on him, yet insisted on a one-on-one fight. In the end, he was sent packing before he could even unleash his ultimate move.

Having just scammed a meal out of Su Yuehe, Baobao obediently trotted over, rubbed his head against Chen Guan’s pant leg, and let out a satisfied burp.

【Brother Coffin: Basic stuff. No need to hype it up. Sit down, everyone.】

【Brother Ao’s CPU is about to melt down. He was still wondering how Chen Guan escaped alive, but Chen Guan just insta-killed the BOSS.】

【Can someone calculate the area of Brother Ao’s psychological trauma right now?】

“So that means Kamitani Academy is basically finished this round,” Su Yuehe swiftly analyzed the current situation.

“That Charles ran fast. Otherwise, I wanted to keep him there too.” Long Ao clicked his tongue, looking disgruntled.

“No rush.”

An Changqing waved a hand, signaling for him to calm down. “There’s still no word from Senior Qin Wu and the others. We can’t act rashly.”

An Changqing understood the situation well enough. The four of them were considered the main force; losing even one would be a problem. Among the second-years, the four of them were practically steamrolling everyone.

He turned to Shan Heng, who had remained silent the entire time, his tone softening.

“Junior Shan Heng, did you notice anything on your way here?”

Shan Heng adjusted his glasses. When An Changqing called on him, he instinctively sat up straighter. “I... I stayed hidden in the woods the whole time. I didn’t dare enter the city until I ran into Senior Chen.”

An Changqing pondered for a moment, then looked at Chen Guan. “Chen Guan, what do you think?”

Chen Guan stroked Baobao’s head and lifted his gaze toward the outside.