“What do you mean?” he asked.

“This.” I pointed at the chaos.

“Right, I forgot you were new here,” he said. “It’s because of the new students. New year, new hierarchy. They’re only fighting to establish reputations. I heard it’ll cool down and stop after the tournament this weekend.”

“I’d hope so,” I said.

“Welp, I gotta get back to protecting those kids.” He dashed to a table of students, all of which looked older than him.

I looked at the map in my hands, regretting sending Hui Ming away. Can’t I eat in peace?

“You think you can protect all of them at once?” A girl wearing emerald robes said to Er Yi. The emerald shade was the same as the shade of the Emerald Fire Sect. These people were fighting for their own reputation, but they also fought for their sect’s reputation.

“Prove me wrong,” they both let out second stage auras. Er Yi grabbed her head and smashed it into the ground, then kicked her aside. Er Yi didn’t call himself a genius for no reason. He crushed somebody on his stage in the blink of an eye.

A guy with Blue Fire Sect robes came half a minute later. Apparently, he didn’t see what happened to the first contender. Er Yi greeted him with a huge smile and a battle stance, “you should bring your sect head.” The table he was protecting laughed.

I walked between them and grabbed a table to anchor myself. “Don’t embarrass yourself,” I said to the boy from the Blue Fire Sect. He aimed a punch at my face and I caught it, releasing a second stage aura as well. The boy nodded and left.

Er Yi tapped my shoulder, “Which student are you serving? How’d they get a second stage fighter like you to call them master?”

“Mistress, but whatever. She’s at the fourth stage.”

His jaw dropped. “Oh damn. So she’s square ranked? Impressive. But anyway, you made me miss a fight, so I’ll make it up for myself.” Tendrils of lightning arced off of him, lighting up the cafeteria. “I’m fighting for my amazing master, who will remain unnamed! Anybody who wants a fight, come at me!”

“Don’t get drunk on the atmosphere…” I said, but it was too late. Three cross ranked students sauntered up to him.

Er Yi released his aura as well. His wasn’t angry but not peaceful either. It was haughty, as if he was looking down on them.

“You’re insane if you think you can beat all of us,” one of them said. Er Yi’s aura grew haughtier, inviting them for a fight.

They attacked in a disorganized charge. Er Yi grinned and the onlookers gasped. The lightning grouped around him, forming a layer of armor.

He tore through them like a hurricane through a wooden shack. Anybody who touched him yelped and dropped to the ground. He walked between them, tapping each of them and letting them fall.

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The crowd watched, wide-eyed, as a single cross class student took out three.

He looked down at the three bodies and sent an extra bolt of electricity through them, making them twitch. Er Yi had the same amount of Qi as the rest of cross class students. By math, he should’ve been crushed in a three on one match. Pure skill more than closed the gap.

I bought lunch and sat at Er Yi’s table. The cafeteria had seen his power, so nobody bothered our table.

I stopped by my mansion after lunch. I flipped through my wardrobe and put on “camo” pattern robes and a green mask. I set off to find the houses marked on the map. The map was marked with pentagons, squares, and triangles. Each symbol represented a rank. I traveled across the school by hopping through the trees, using the subjugate skill on every tree I came across.

The trees hid my presence perfectly. The branches didn’t shake, and the leaves didn’t make a sound.

I snuck into the places marked with squares. Two were inside their houses, so I couldn’t observe them. I went to the last house.

My bare feet wrapped around cold branches. I watched as a tall young man swung a giant cleaver. It looked like an enlarged kitchen knife, almost as long as he was tall. His swings didn’t make noise despite their speed. Over twenty life-sized statues lie in pieces around him, cut apart.

I couldn’t tell who they depicted. They weren’t well carved to begin with, and they were scrambled on the ground in pieces. Somebody had carved names into the foreheads of each sculpture. Most were sliced so much I couldn’t read them, but others were legible. I recognized one name, “Li Hui Ming”.

There was one statue that wasn’t knocked down or cut apart. There was no name on its head. Instead, a piece of cloth wrapped around where the statue’s eyes should’ve been.

A tall young lady walked out of the house behind him. She wore a white tunic and stiff headdress. I couldn’t find a badge on her. “Out here again?” she said.

“As always,” he answered. He pointed his cleaver at her. “Why’d you come out? Want to fight?”

“We can’t, remember?”

“We’re allowed if we both agree to it.”

“Then I don’t agree. You can’t beat me anyway.” She bent down and picked up one of the sculpted heads. It was a bad carving, but the head bore some similarity to the woman’s features. “Is that my name?” she frowned, pointing at the three words written on its forehead.

“Obviously.” He cut the head in two. The two halves of the face dropped from her hands onto the grass.

“Our king isn’t going to be happy if he finds out about this,” she waved at the shattered statues, “Clean it up before he comes out.”

“So you can be considerate.” He slammed the side of the blade against the ground. The earth trembled, sending tremors into the ground and up the tree I sat in. I held onto the bark so I wouldn’t fall off.

The soil under the broken statues flipped, burying the sculptures. The lady shook some dirt off her dress and glared at him, “keep that up and you’ll destroy this place. And I’m not being considerate for you, I’m being considerate for his majesty.” She folded her hands behind her back. “I’ll make sure you see hell if you break the walkways and the king trips.”

He seemed bothered by this. The woman saw his expression and gave him a scornful smile.

A King? From what I read, there was one human king in this part of the world. The king was the King of Raisin, Raisin being the country I was in. There were monster kings, but those were monsters. There were also demon kings, but one couldn’t be here… I hope.

This king couldn’t be a fake either. A square class student wouldn’t address him as a king if he was a phony. But any king that came here without creating a big fuss had to be here in secret.

I tried to sneak closer. The student spun in my direction. I stopped and held my breath. The leaves shifted to block my masked face. Did he sense me? My stealth should’ve been able to hide me from anybody without a sensory Dao.

He turned away and I relaxed. My back began to tingle, like a cold breeze was blowing against me. I looked behind me. A flurry of snow gathered and formed a wall of ice.

I looked back in front of me. The gleam from the cleaver hit my eyes.

He swung the blade down. I took a sharp breath and grabbed the blade with both hands. The branch below me broke and I hit the ground. He pulled it back and swung the cleaver again, this time with much more power.

This was no square class student. Square class students were all at the fourth stage. His first swing had the power I would expect from the fourth stage. This swing was different. This one was at the sixth stage, approaching the seventh.

I punched the cleaver with my bare hands. He flew into the mansion, smashing into the third floor. It left a small cut in my hand.

The woman pulled the pins out of her hair and threw them at me.

The air became drier. A dome of ice formed above us and crashed down. The woman pulled out two fans.

The sides of her fans gave off a silvery shine. I’ve seen many knives, but I haven’t seen ones put in fans. I kicked the ice dome. As planned, it shattered. Not as planned, the recoil shot me into her. Her bladed fans cut at me but weren’t able to penetrate my skin.

Released from her dome, I pushed her aside and jumped into the trees. I subjugated every tree I passed and maintained my connection with them. I felt them following me through the plants. They stopped after they lost sight of me.

None of this was normal. A sixth stage expert disguised as a student. An equally powerful woman with a powerful ice Dao. An unknown king. They had to be here for something.