Lin Moyu looked up to see a crowd surrounding a burly man as they walked over. The man stared at him for a moment before saying, "You're Lin Moyu? Thinking you're some big shot trying to muscle in?"
Lin Moyu looked at him with disdain and said, "Were the injuries on her body caused by you lot?"
"Ha! A transfer student, are ya? Never heard of my name, Xiaolong, back in the day?" Xiaolong said, curling his lip and crossing his arms.
Lin Moyu closed his eyes, suddenly feeling disinclined to converse with them. Wouldn't it be much simpler to just beat them all up in one go?
Seeing Lin Moyu close his eyes, Xiaolong stopped playing the fool and grinning—after all, so many of his underlings were watching him.
"I'm telling you, break your own arm right now, and then go to the hospital to apologize to A-Hao, and I'll let this matter slide." Xiaolong knew this transfer student had some background, but he didn't care at all. In their minds, no matter how formidable a student at this school might be, just how tough could they possibly get?
Right as Xiaolong was about to say more, a sharp pain wracked his body and he crashed heavily to the ground.
"Too much chatter." With a single kick, Lin Moyu sent Xiaolong flying five or six meters. Although there was blood all over the ground, Lin Moyu had measured his strength—as long as the man wasn't dead, it was fine.
"Boss Xiaolong, I'm about to be crushed to death by you." Xiaolong's underlings had originally expected to watch this transfer student get beaten up, but the next second, their own boss came flying onto one of them.
Faced with such a comical scene, not a single person could laugh. Lin Moyu swept his gaze across them and said, "I asked whose beating left those injuries on Yun Rumo?"
No one dared to speak. After all, Hao-ge and Xiaolong, the two strongest fighters among them, were now lying flat on the ground.
Seeing them all stammering and too terrified to speak, Lin Moyu ignored them and walked right up to the so-called Xiaolong. Looking into those terrified eyes, he said, "Let me tell you, I'm taking Yun Rumo under my protection. Call out everyone who hit her and this is settled, otherwise feel free to try me."
With that, Lin Moyu scooped up the unconscious Yun Rumo and simply left.
After Lin Moyu departed, Xiaolong's expression turned dark and grim, though what was going through his mind was anyone's guess.
"Boss, what do we do now?" someone asked in a panic.
Hearing that, Xiaolong flew into a rage and roared, "You fucking asking me? Who the fuck am I supposed to ask?!"
After cursing for a moment, perhaps due to a ruptured internal organ, Xiaolong coughed up a mouthful of blood right then and there.
"Quick, call an ambulance!" shouted one of the calmer underlings.
"Someone's... someone's dying!" Naturally, alongside the calm ones were the panicked ones; seeing Xiaolong vomit blood all over the floor, they shrieked in terror.
At that moment, the ambulance that had been called earlier finally arrived. A group of paramedics rushed over, took one look at Xiaolong and the blood pooled on the ground, and hoisted him onto a stretcher. Then, one of the underlings yelled, "Wait, there's... there's one more person!"
***
After leaving the school with Yun Rumo in his arms, Lin Moyu looked down at the frail, petite girl in his embrace and sighed with a headache, "Why on earth did my head just get hot and make me bring her away with me?"
After a long hesitation, Lin Moyu ultimately decided to take Yun Rumo home. Leaving aside the bullying she had suffered previously, the brutal beating she took today was indeed related to him.
Upon returning home, Lin Moyu tentatively called out, "Mom, are you home?"
Seeing the silent, empty house with no reply, Lin Moyu first laid Yun Rumo gently on the sofa, then went to his own room to search for some healing pills provided by his previous school.
While Lin Moyu was in his room, Yun Rumo drifted back to consciousness, dazed and disoriented as she gazed at the unfamiliar surroundings before her.Yun Rumo didn't dare to move recklessly either; curled up on the couch, she actually began to weep again.
Unfortunately, Yun Rumo cried very quietly, and Lin Moyu, who was frantically rummaging through boxes and cabinets in the room looking for that bottle of Blood Spirit Powder, couldn't hear a thing.
After quite a while, Lin Moyu finally fished the bottle of Blood Spirit Powder—a rankless medicinal pill that even mortals could consume—out from under the bed. Having found what he was looking for, Lin Moyu hurried out to treat Yun Rumo's injuries, only to open the door and see Yun Rumo curled up on the couch, sobbing softly. Standing right at the doorway was his mother, a Qi Refining Level 9 cultivator, looking at him and Yun Rumo with a peculiar expression.
"Mother, please let me explain!" Lin Moyu said to his mother in extreme embarrassment.
At that moment, Yun Rumo also raised her head and saw Lin Moyu, then turned to look at Lin Moyu's mother, her eyes turning even redder.
...
Lin Moyu walked over to Yun Rumo, looked at her tear-reddened eyes and her bruises all over, handed her the Blood Spirit Powder, and said, "Swallow what's inside this bottle."
Hearing what Lin Moyu said, Yun Rumo gave a start, tears sparkling in her eyes as they threatened to fall again. Lin Moyu frowned and said coldly, "I'm doing this for your own good, hurry up and eat it!"
Looking at the ice-cold Yun Rumo and Lin Moyu's mother, who was puttering around with things on the other side, Yun Rumo nodded fearfully and poured the blood-red powder from the bottle into her mouth.
Upon tasting the rust-like flavor of the blood-red powder, Yun Rumo shuddered, yet she forced herself to swallow the powder in her mouth despite the nausea and revulsion.
Not understanding Yun Rumo's reaction—which looked as though she were taking poison—Lin Moyu asked with some puzzlement, "Is it really that hard to swallow?"
Yun Rumo hurriedly shook her head, not daring to meet Lin Moyu's eyes. Just then, Lin Moyu's mother brought over a cup of spirit spring water and said, "Blood Spirit Powder is refined from demon blood, so a bloody taste is completely normal."
Yun Rumo hesitated slightly as she looked at the cup of water Lin Ruyu brought over. Seeing Yun Rumo's reaction, Lin Ruyu immediately said, "Drink it. With me here, this little brat wouldn't dare do anything to you."
Lin Ruyu smiled as she handed the spirit spring water to Yun Rumo. With the water spiritual qi inherent in the spirit spring water activating the medicinal properties of the Blood Spirit Powder, the bruises on Yun Rumo's body quickly vanished.
Unfortunately, Yun Rumo didn't notice this at the moment; she was secretly observing Lin Moyu and his mother whispering to each other.
Strangely enough, the two of them were standing not far from her, and although they clearly looked like they were talking, not a single sound could be heard, and even their lip movements were impossible to read.
"I didn't even want to lecture you about sending a classmate to the hospital, but how could you beat a fine young female classmate up like this?" Lin Ruyu asked with some anger. Although cultivators held a lofty status in the world of Shenzhou, those wicked, unorthodox cultivators were still reviled by everyone and possessed no status whatsoever.
"No, I really didn't do it!" Lin Moyu wanted to explain, but Lin Ruyu didn't give him the slightest chance to do so.
"If you weren't the one who beat her, would a young girl be this terrified of you?" A single remark from Lin Ruyu left Lin Moyu utterly speechless, though how was he supposed to know why Yun Rumo was so terrified of him in the first place?
Lin Moyu suddenly looked over at Yun Rumo and noticed that she had been keeping her head down the whole time. However, even though he was only at Qi Refining Level 2 as a cultivator, he had noticed earlier that Yun Rumo kept sneaking glances at him.
Lin Moyu walked up to Yun Rumo, placed a hand on her shoulder, and said with a helpless frown, "Why have you been trembling this whole time?"