After running for dozens of miles, Ling Chen was already far from the urban area.
He looked back and saw that the stubborn dwarf was still biting at his heels.
"Is he part dog?"
Ling Chen gasped for heavy breaths, his anxiety peaking. He quickly pulled a recovery potion from his Space Ring, gulped it down, and started running again.
The dwarf was even more anxious. As a dignified Wind-Riding Realm expert, he couldn't even catch up to a rookie in the Awakening Realm.
If word got out, he would die of laughter.
After who knows how long, the dwarf panted his way into a desolate clearing in the wilderness.
He lowered his head and looked at a line of characters carved into the damp soil:
[Keep chasing and your whole family will die.]
"Little bastard!"
"I swear I'll cut off your mouth and feed it to the dogs!"
The dwarf gritted his teeth, furious.
He squatted down, pinched a bit of wet soil with his fingers, and tasted it in his mouth, trying to gauge how long ago Ling Chen had left by the moisture of the mud.
The next moment, his face turned green.
"You beast! Little beast!"
"You're eighteen years old, and you actually mixed pee with mud!!"
In his wildest dreams, the dwarf never expected Ling Chen to do something so utterly devoid of conscience!
...
Night fell.
Ling Chen hid deep in the mountains.
After scouting around for a long time and seeing no sign of the dwarf, he casually found a cave to stay in.
He took out his phone and saw a missed call from Sun Shuaishuai.
He called him back.
"Hey! Chen-ge, I heard your place was exposed. Are you doing okay now?"
"I'm fine, not dead yet," Ling Chen said.
"Chen-ge, you definitely shouldn't go back. I heard people online are taking turns camping outside your door," Sun Shuaishuai warned.
Before Ling Chen could reply, he continued, "Don't go back to school either. You've been suspended for three months, and there are still people crouching in the bushes at the school gate waiting for you!"
Oh great.
He had really turned into Yasuo this time.
Ling Chen was somewhat speechless.
"Don't worry though, bro always stands by your side. I even helped whitewash your image online today!"
"Then I really have to thank you, huh," Ling Chen said with a smile.
The impression of that kid Shuaishuai in his mind instantly rose by a notch.
Although he was destined to walk this dark path to the end and could never be whitewashed, Shuaishuai's actions were still worthy of praise!
After hanging up, Ling Chen opened the Hongbo Forum.
As expected, almost all the topics were about him.
He casually clicked on a discussion post titled: [Is Ling Chen even human?]
A pinned comment instantly caught his attention.
*First Handsome of Haicheng University:*
Chenchen is a kind and good child. He once crossed the street three times without entering his home just to help an old granny, and didn't even get to drink a sip of water. (This comment costs five yuan, remember to delete the content inside the parentheses when copy-pasting)
/
Below it were a bunch of people cursing him out, saying Ling Chen hired internet trolls and had no shame at all.
Ling Chen: ???
That double-crossing bastard Sun Shuaishuai!
Damn it all.
He actually thought that kid was really helping him clear his name.
Turns out he went online to play both sides and draw hatred toward him.
"Hey, what's up, Chen-ge?"
"I'm on a date with a goddess. Eating Japanese food, drinking Maotai, life couldn't be better."
"How about you, Chen-ge? What are you up to?"
Ling Chen's mouth twitched furiously.
He roared in anger, "I really want to peel off the top of your skull and see if it's stuffed with shit!"
With that, he hung up directly.
He figured he'd have to properly teach this kid a lesson later; he actually dared to piss him off!
This was completely turning Tiangang upside down!
Ling Chen looked at the bare, gloomy cave and listened to the occasional roars of beasts echoing in the forest, finding himself unable to sleep.
There was one month left until the provincial competition.
He needed to seize the time to cultivate, strive to show his face, and earn some anger points.
After sitting cross-legged and beginning to practice breathing exercises, the primal energy in the forest surged wildly toward his body.
His SR-grade talent was no longer what it used to be.
His cultivation speed was now dozens of times faster than before!
...
For the next half month, Ling Chen lived in the mountains.
When hungry, he picked wild fruits; when craving something savory, he roasted a rabbit; when thirsty, he drank mountain spring water, making him no different from a wild man.
The rest of the time, he spent cultivating.
Today, he opened his personal info panel.
Name: Ling Chen
Age: 18
Realm: Awakening Realm 7th Stage
Weapons: None
Martial Arts: Slip Away (Immortal Grade)
Treasure Chest Progress: Golden Treasure Chest (1800/200 million)
The four Garen skills—Silence Technique, Shield, Spinning Technique, and Judgment—all belonged to special skills.
They had no grade classification and were not displayed on the panel.
One had to open more details to view them.
"Not bad, I improved by four major stages in half a month. This speed is truly terrifying," Ling Chen muttered excitedly.
Back when he had a B-grade talent, trying to improve by four stages would have taken him at least the better part of a year.
Ling Chen planned to rest for a bit and lay in the grass playing on his phone.
Half a month had passed.
News about him online had faded quite a bit.
Partly because everyone's anger had mostly subsided.
And partly because a more important event was about to take place: the Jiangnan Provincial Competition.
The harsh words Ling Chen dropped at the briefing session last time had drawn the attention of students and onlookers nationwide to Shaohua University and Haicheng University.
The online approval rating was 99.9% to 0.1%.
That 0.1% came from Haicheng University's own people, and word had it the teachers forced them to vote so they wouldn't lose too much face.
All public opinion leaned heavily toward Shaohua University; no one favored this perennial bottom-feeder Haicheng University.
Mainly, the public's hatred toward Ling Chen had spilled over somewhat onto Haicheng University.
Since they couldn't do anything to Ling Chen, they had no choice but to vent their grievances on the innocent Haicheng University, which also caused Ling Chen's senior schoolmates to utterly despise him as an attention seeker!
Under a post titled [Comparison Table of Both Sides' Combat Power], the competition rosters and brief introductions of the two universities were posted.
Haicheng University had twenty contestants, the highest talent being only Gu Mingxuan at the SS-grade, while the rest ranged from S to A-grade.
Shaohua University also had twenty contestants, but even the lowest were S-grade, and the highest was an SSS-grade peerless prodigy at the Boulder-Breaking Realm Peak!
"What's the point of even fighting this? Haicheng University might as well forfeit!"
"In past competitions, Shaohua University made Haicheng University's contestants cry. This time they'll probably humiliate them doubly!"
"I'm laughing, Ling Chen's damn name is actually on there too."
"What is this B-grade talent Awakening Realm Third Stage guy going up there for? To get abused?"
Everyone was utterly baffled.
Could he be someone pulling strings through connections?
To be that weak and still manage to snag a spot to show his face.
How was this any different from certain ball sports?
Since they were going to be at the bottom anyway, Haicheng University was just letting it rot, huh?