"Dahui!"
Seeing his younger brother's limbs broken and hearing his miserable wails on the ground, Xie Daguang felt as though his heart was being torn apart.
He desperately wanted to go to his brother's rescue, but he managed to restrain himself. Rushing in now would only make the outcome worse, which led him to think back on his original plan.
In that plan, the one lying on the ground wailing should have been Mufeng, left entirely helpless with no one to answer his cries. He himself should have been on the verge of plucking the fruits of victory. Why had things turned out like this?
"I don't know who gave you the courage to plot against me, but that doesn't matter. If I don't teach you a proper lesson today, won't just anyone think they can come and step on me in the future?"
Muxue's icy voice rang out, snapping Xie Daguang out of his dazed disbelief.
"Muxue, what do you think you're doing? I'm warning you, resorting to violence like this is against the rules, and you will pay the price!"
Shaking with panic and uncertainty, Xie Daguang shouted aloud, his tough front masking a cowardly heart.
Muxue's expression remained completely unchanged. With a single wave of her hand, Xie Daguang vanished into thin air.
"Audacious! How dare you resort to violence right under this old man's nose?"
An elderly man rapidly flew in from behind, barking angrily at Muxue.
"It seems you are the safety net the Xie Family arranged. I've known you were hiding there all along. A Tier 6 elite professional whose vital energy is failing, yet you dare try to stop me."
Muxue flicked her hand, casting a spell that enveloped both of them.
Moments later, the panicked voice of the Tier 6 elder rang out: "Impossible! It's only been two years, how did you reach Tier 7 so fast?"
Shortly after, both Muxue and the Tier 6 elder disappeared.
"Quickly, something terrible is happening! Go get the City Guard!"
The terrified voice of the head teacher echoed through the loudspeaker.
Having dealt with the three members of his own team, Mufeng turned his gaze toward Lin Ningyang and the other three, heading straight for Lin Ningyang without the slightest hesitation.
Panicking, Lin Ningyang ran and shouted:
"Mufeng, it's a misunderstanding! Xie Dahaio made me do all this, it has nothing to do with me! Please spare me, I'm begging you, I'll never dare do it again!"
Mufeng quickly caught up to Lin Ningyang and drove a blow right through him, dropping him to the ground.
"To be honest, I didn't really care what you wanted to do to me. It's just that your mouth is too foul, and trouble always starts from the tongue."
With that, he broke Lin Ningyang's legs.
"Ah! Mufeng, you can't treat me like this! My father is the vice president of the Linjiang Province Professionals Association, and my older brother is the president of the Linjiang University Student Union. If you dare lay a hand on me again, you're a dead man!"
Mufeng had no intention of stopping. Their feud was already set in stone, and stopping now wouldn't change a thing. He might as well indulge himself first.
"Agh!!!" Lin Ningyang wailed powerlessly as his limbs were broken.
When Mufeng looked back up at the remaining three, they screamed in terror and scattered like birds and beasts, each fleeing for their lives.
The first to fall was the short-legged knight, whose legs were both broken.
The remaining assassin and archer had agility stats similar to Mufeng's, but the assassin's shoes provided a speed boost that Mufeng couldn't match, leaving him with no choice but to hunt down the archer.
Trapped within the confines of the arena, the archer was quickly cornered by Mufeng and had both legs broken as well.
"I won't chase you. Come over here on your own and let me break one of your legs, or else we can just drag this out. You might be able to afford the wait, but the guys lying on the ground definitely can't. If any of them end up with permanent disabilities because you stalled, it'll all be your fault."
Mufeng said to the assassin with complete composure.
Adding insult to injury.
Hearing Mufeng's words, the six people lying on the ground began frantically urging the assassin to hurry over and let Mufeng break his leg, offering a mix of threats and temptations that made Mufeng find the spectacle utterly hilarious.
Soon, the assassin cracked under the pressure and walked over with a bitter expression.
"Go easy on me, I'm scared of pain!"
"Relax, I'm a professional."
Mid-sentence, Mufeng kicked and snapped the assassin's lower leg.
Mufeng prided himself on keeping his promises and following through on his words.
Victory and defeat were decided. The match was over.
Medical personnel, who had been standing by in advance, rushed onto the competition grounds to administer first aid on the spot.
"Mufeng, you're finished! Teaming up with others for the very first time, you've brutally mutilated your teammates for no reason, using utterly vicious methods that have created an atrocious impact.
I will record this accurately in your file and report it to the Professionals Association as well. From now on, the label of a teammate-sabotager will stick to you for the rest of your life. Let's see who would ever dare team up with you again. Without teammates, how is a Healer supposed to survive?"
The head teacher hurried over to Mufeng, pointing a finger at him and lecturing him loudly.
Mufeng waved a hand as if swatting away a fly.
"Why waste so many words over such a small matter? Now that I've won the match, it's time to hand out the prize. What? Do you dare violate the rules and wrongfully withhold my scholarship? I'm warning you, the consequences are severe, and you can't afford to bear them."
"You!!! You are completely lawless! Do you even realize a catastrophe is upon you? And your sister too—resorting to unauthorized violence like this. Right now, the City Guard is fully prepared, and the moment she steps out, imprisonment awaits her."
Just as the head teacher finished speaking, a flash of light cut across the spot where Muxue had vanished moments ago. Muxue reappeared in her original place, leaving two battered and bruised figures lying on the ground—none other than Xie Daguang and the Tier 6 elder.
The Tier 6 elder's fate was unknown, while Xie Daguang wailed in agony, his limbs broken as well.
"Miss Muxue, you are suspected of deliberately using violence between professionals resulting in casualties. Please come with us to assist with the investigation, please!"
Before the City Guard commander could finish, he saw Muxue calmly pull out a token and wave it before his eyes. Terrified, the City Guard commander instantly dropped into a salute and shouted:
"Greetings, Governor's Token! Welcome, Envoy! What are Miss Muxue's orders?"
"Clean this place up."
"Yes!"
At that moment, Muxue received a system notification:
[The plot of the Xie Family has been thwarted. Completion rate: Beyond expectations! Not only is your younger brother Mufeng completely unharmed, but his strength has also greatly increased. Reward: Three Tier 6 Six-Patterned Vitality Pills.]
Muxue was in high spirits. For every extra pattern added to a pill, its effects doubled.
Normally, such a simple minor quest would yield at best a Tier 6 Two-Patterned Pill, which only slightly shortened one's training time.
Now, having won effortlessly without lifting a finger, the results had exceeded expectations, netting her three Six-Patterned Pills. This would save her at least two months of cultivation time.
It seemed that having Mufeng as a teammate was a thoroughly reassuring choice.
The bizarre incident came to a close. As onlookers who had just witnessed a grand spectacle, the teachers and students of No. 1 High School excitedly analyzed every detail, swapped various inside stories, and shared underground gossip.
While the rumors varied wildly, only one legend won unanimous acceptance: The Mufeng siblings were not to be messed with, and they harbored a deep fondness for breaking their opponents' limbs.
...
On the rooftop of the No. 1 High School teaching building.
A young man and a young woman stared intently at each other.
They remained frozen in posture, neither daring to move first, as if whoever moved first would lose.
"If I heard correctly, you're already a Tier 7 Hero Class professional, and your strength is practically on par with a professor at Imperial Capital University. And yet they're still that strict with you? They only approved three days of leave?"
Mufeng cracked first, breaking the silence.
He wore an expression of utter disdain, making it clear that Muxue's excuse was pathetic—if she just didn't want to stay home and do chores, she should have said so. Who was she trying to fool with a three-day leave story?
Muxue was quite satisfied with this outcome. She had never lost a game of statues.
"If my eyes didn't deceive me, your Healing Spell skill must have mutated, and it seems to carry some kind of metallic attribute. I certainly don't remember the Traditional Chinese Medicine profession having a skill like that."
"I..."
"You don't need to explain it to me. Back when the Ruins Realm first descended, it was very hard to tell many Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners apart from another elite class, Qigong masters. They shared many similarities. Qigong masters have a skill called the Golden Bell Shield, which is very similar to your mutated skill."
Mufeng caught on instantly, nodding as he said, "That's right. I simply combined the Qigong skill Golden Bell Shield with my Healing Spell."
Muxue nodded with satisfaction. "As expected of my younger brother, just as exceptional as me!"
"You two siblings played a magnificent hand, but unfortunately, it was seen through by me."
A voice rang out abruptly, interrupting the siblings' mutual self-praise.