Svina packed up his things and, while walking out by the window, fiddled with a small gadget in his hand that looked like an old-fashioned pager.
[11:40 AM — I am currently acquiring the Critical Prop. Once obtained, I will execute the plan.]
[3:05 PM — Critical Prop obtained. Please advise recommended time to proceed with action.]
[3:10 PM — Situation changed. I intend to act immediately. Hope to receive support.]
These were the messages he sent to his superior in the Supreme Society today.
Just like with the Clown Gang, his superior in the Supreme Society only had a communicator, but it was basically one-way. Only the superior could contact him; he couldn’t find or know anything about them.
Just like now, you could send messages, but whether they read or replied wasn’t up to you.
Yet miracles sometimes happen. Just when Svina had lost all hope, the pager beeped, and a line of text appeared:
[Professor Shi Lei, has your wish been fulfilled?]
Svina was overjoyed and quickly grabbed the pager, typing back: [My objective is progressing, but my true wish is to see their reactions afterwards.]
Seeing those people at the Academy, once they learned the truth, filled with shame and regret—that was his genuine desire.
Half a minute later, the pager sent another message: [If you can stay overnight in the forest outside the city, we will send someone to pick you up tomorrow morning.]
That was the last message. Seconds later, the pager automatically cleared all records.
Svina threw it onto the ground, his mood sinking deeper.
He knew how much trouble he’d caused and that hiding out for one night wouldn’t be enough. Not to mention, the Locke Morgan Family wouldn’t let him off easy.
Besides…
Boom!
The clash of metal roared ahead as a miniature steel forest sprouted from the campus floor. Behind him came a heatwave, melting the vegetation on both sides.
With metal in front and fire behind, he couldn’t even leave Freden Academy.
“You’re under arrest,” said the man stepping onto the steel thicket.
Svina glanced at him, then turned to the woman advancing with flames licking at her, and finally at the white-haired girl rushing over with Xu Chuyao.
The wind’s power was no match for steel and fire, but if underestimated, even a breeze could instantly become a storm.
“I have only one question,” Svina said to them, “How does that girl Xu Chuyao know what I did?”
“Good question, but she hasn’t arrived yet,” Yu Jing said, clenching her fist, “So you’d better surrender for now.”
A fire dragon lunged out from behind her.
Time was almost up. Xu Chuyao led Shi Lei and Cheng Li toward the battleground.
Though the Academy was large, the commotion ahead was even greater—fire and iron clashing, the ground shaking, and wild winds raging. Finding the spot wasn’t a problem at all.
However, because they had to pass near the classroom buildings, ruined and crumbling, some pale gray mutant stone figures occasionally emerged, emitting eerie sounds and attacking with outstretched arms.
“Ah! It’s thundering!”
“Why are my eyes rolling downwards?”
“I’m so cold! Can someone stay with me?”
Two boys immediately stepped in front of Xu Chuyao, their Spirit Power surging, eyes burning with determination.
“Leader, we will protect you!”
“Xu Officer, before I fall, you definitely won’t get hurt!”
Then Cheng Li was pushed aside by his thunderous, fierce female officer.
As the highest ranked and only one with skills among the three, Xu Chuyao wore Spirit Power gloves, throwing rapid and precise punches, exploding the mutant heads that lunged at them.
“Those are mid-First Rank enemies giving you a thrill. Quick fight and quick retreat—get out of here fast. If you get surrounded, no amount of passion will save you.”
Under Xu Chuyao’s command, the two boys didn’t dare linger and kept running, barely escaping the encirclement.
“What about the teachers?” the kind-hearted Shi Lei asked.
They had seen the Headmaster and teachers of Freden Academy rush into the ruins to save people, but the ruins were full of those monsters.
“Don’t worry about the teachers,” Xu Chuyao glanced back at the ruins, “Like our Head Teacher, the main combat teachers of Freden Academy definitely have Third Rank Spirit Power.”
“What you should worry about is the students who were in class.”
Classes were going on when the buildings collapsed, and the walls that fell on them turned into humanoid monsters. Who knew what psychological scars that left?
Of course, only the survivors could care about those scars.
Before long, amidst the clashing metal, roaring fire, and howling winds drawing closer, they finally saw the battlefield.
Xu Chuyao led the two boys to take cover and watched the scene from afar.
“Don’t show yourselves. There are three against one on our side. This is a sure win. Anyone who gets close to watch and gets caught in an AOE attack will just be laughed at.”
In truth, they didn’t dare stand up even before she said it. The violent elemental Spirit Power of the Third Rank radiated around the battlefield, suffocating the Second Rank Spirit Power users.
Cheng Li and Shi Lei exchanged glances, reading each other’s thoughts.
“So this is a Third Rank battlefield?”
“Not exactly,” Xu Chuyao seemed to know what they were thinking and explained proactively, “Among the four fighters here, three are at the Peak of Third Rank, fully evolved Third Rank, and half-step Fourth Rank. They’re stronger than normal Third Rank battles.”
They thought Xu Chuyao was quite impressive too—to withstand such a powerful pressure and still stand to observe.
“Of course. Because we’re about to win. If the tide turned, I definitely wouldn’t dare watch.”
As Xu Chuyao said, battles weren’t just about comparing numerical cards, but when the gap was this large, two equally strong Third Rank Peaks pressed Svina so hard he could barely breathe, with a Third Rank early stage glaring at him from the wings.
Shen Ning couldn’t fully unleash the power her rank should grant because she lacked skills. However, Broken Shadow taught her to use Second Rank skills to slightly tap into the power of wind elements.
“Gather your power and condense your wind Spirit Power. Use the old method to fire it out.”
The fire dragon bit into Svina’s Rock Armor, its long body coiling around him. The fire and scorching air blocked his sight. Shen Ning seized the moment, pointing her finger at the target.
Ssss~, ssss~, ssss~
The sound of condensing Spirit Power was no longer the throat-like hum of Second Rank but more like a cutting machine in a tree mill speeding up rapidly. Within seconds, it reached maximum speed and began to tremble as if the disc was about to fly off.
“Now! Fire!”
Shh—!
A compressed, needle-like vortex shot out, slicing through the air toward Svina with a sharp whoosh, followed by Broken Shadow’s sigh:
“Second Rank skills still fall short. They can’t hold too much elemental Spirit Power. When you get back, you need to do more missions to improve your skills.”
Only missions? Can’t I practice on my own? Shen Ning thought.
“You can, but how long will it take?” the oppressive reflection said. “By the time you practice one skill yourself, you could have completed the full Third Rank skill set through missions.”
…Makes sense. What does Nai Ningta say?
“Don’t know. Yaoyao didn’t say.”
The girl’s exchange with her reflection was instantaneous, and so was the vortex needle strike. The fire dragon wrapped around him, indistinguishable as friend or foe, slightly weakening the damage, but it still tore through the wall of flames and pierced Svina’s shoulder.
“Hit!”
The wind sliced flesh and blood; the vortex widened the wound, causing unbearable pain. Svina collapsed halfway to the ground, finally giving up resistance.
Steel Thorns rapidly climbed over his body, immobilizing him.
“Svina, you’re under arrest.” Form Teacher Cheng Chen’s tall figure approached and said gravely, “Because of that… uh, Supreme… anyway, because you’re suspected of involvement in Heng Yi’s attack activities, you will be taken back… taken to… taken for trial!”
He hadn’t expected things to escalate so much beforehand and wasn’t sure where Svina would be taken for trial, what charges, or if his authority would even allow him to know.
But on second thought, it didn’t matter. This was Xu Chuyao’s problem to handle.
Svina looked up at him with a self-mocking smile.
In fact, when those three appeared before him, he already knew he was no match and didn’t even understand why he kept fighting until now.
Maybe, just like at the beginning, he only wanted to know one thing—how exactly did that girl Xu Chuyao see through him?
But until the end, he never got an answer.
Because Xu Chuyao never appeared!
So where was Yaoyao? Of course, she was still hidden behind cover, quietly watching Svina’s downfall, feeling both relieved and inexplicably annoyed.
This main storyline boss was supposed to appear years later, fighting Shen Ning, mid-Third Rank, one-on-one, a fierce life-or-death battle.
Due to level advantages, Svina once dominated her, but in the final moments, Shen Ning unexpectedly linked to the stone people’s network—that is, the X Crystal mutant network—injecting other elements into the mutant legion’s command and causing it to lose control, splitting Svina’s attention and turning the tide.
But now, years early, Shen Ning, along with two Third Rank Peak teachers, ganged up on Svina and beat him to a helpless state.
Why was it like this?
Xu Chuyao cradled her small belly with one hand, thinking carefully. First, the heroine’s power in this timeline was questionable. A few years later, she would be well beyond mid-Third Rank, probably aiming for Fourth Rank, whom Svina couldn’t beat.
So the question was, why could Svina act ahead of time? Although the preparation was insufficient and the scale much smaller than the original, he still successfully launched an attack far surpassing all the Clown Gang’s achievements.
Hmm, emmm, uh, could it be because of me?
The Supreme Society, frustrated by the rampant Clown Gang arrests, decided to skip the First Phase and speed up the Second Phase. Revealing the truth behind Ya Ha Tower forced the Locke Morgan Family to seize the tower from the Ya Ha Financial Group, gaining precious experimental data and verification results.
Leading the team directly to conduct arrests, driving Svina into a corner…
Hmm.
Yaoyao silently stuffed her small hand back into her bag and took something out.
“Too tense. Didn’t expect our Head Teacher to be this strong, and Teacher Yu is powerful too.” Shi Lei sighed, catching sight of the thunderous, fierce female officer’s movement, curiously asking, “Leader, are you eating ketchup right now?”
“Pfft.”
Xu Chuyao dropped that line, stuffed two packets of ketchup into her bag, then briskly walked away.