Immediately following this, Li Tianpao's eyes turned crimson.
"Bastard, I'll make you die."
Li Tianpao scrambled to his feet, and his already tall frame seemed to grow a fraction larger in that instant.
The innate talent Li Tianpao had awakened was strength enhancement.
Now, unleashing his innate talent, his entire aura underwent a dramatic transformation.
...
Liu Xiaoxiao couldn't help clutching Han Jing's arm, her small eyes burning with eager anticipation.
"Jingjing, did you see that?"
"Earlier, Brother Pao was definitely holding back against Su Yang."
"No, wait, it wasn't holding back—it should be called toying with him, just like a cat playing with a mouse..."
Zhang Tai stood beside Liu Xiaoxiao, equally baffled.
Not only had they previously measured their vitality values, but they also had combat classes every week.
Ever since Su Yang's vitality value had dropped below 85, he had essentially become a punching bag.
How could he possibly send Li Tianpao flying with a single punch?
Now, hearing Liu Xiaoxiao put it that way, he nodded repeatedly.
Right, it must be like that.
...
Su Yang wore a look of disdain.
With that previous punch, he had probably only used about sixty percent of his strength.
In other words, he could still throw three more punches of that caliber.
Bang...
Li Tianpao had come at him fast, but he went down even faster.
After stumbling backward several steps, his massive frame finally gave out, and he collapsed onto the arena floor in a heap.
This time, his face was filled with sheer terror.
"Impossible! How could you possibly suppress me in terms of sheer strength?"
"Did you use a performance-enhancing drug? It has to be, I'm going to report you."
Su Yang couldn't be bothered to deal with him anymore and glanced over at Teacher Cang.
The meaning was abundantly clear: things had reached this point, shouldn't she announce the result already?
Teacher Cang wore an expression of utter bewilderment.
Su Yang was her student, and she was naturally well aware of his combat prowess.
Let alone the current Su Yang, even Su Yang at his absolute peak stood no chance of surpassing Li Tianpao in strength.
Thus, the bizarre scene unfolding before her left her completely stunned, to the point that she failed to announce the match result in time.
Only upon catching Su Yang's gaze did she snap back to reality.
She walked to the center of the arena and announced:
"First match, Su Yang wins."
If anyone had still suspected earlier that Li Tianpao was acting and deliberately toying with Su Yang,
they were now completely dumbfounded.
Su Yang had actually won?
This turn of events left everyone utterly paralyzed.
"What the hell? Someone tell me this isn't real."
"Su Yang actually beat Li Tianpao? Has the world gone completely mad?"
...
The students broke into a flurry of discussion.
Up in the spectator stands, all the senior-year teachers were equally shocked.
Vice Principal Zhang Weiguo smiled warmly as he looked over at Yang Gang.
"Old Yang, not bad at all. You certainly gave everyone a surprise."
Yang Gang was still somewhat dazed.
A surprise my foot!
Just yesterday, he had been trying to persuade Su Yang to give up the martial arts exam.
And today, he ends up receiving a massive gift.
At that moment, the coach of the school team also chuckled. "Teacher Yang, you're holding out on us a bit here."
"Keeping such an outstanding talent all to yourself—aren't you afraid of burying his potential?"
📱 "Since Su Yang defeated Li Tianpao, why not let him take Li Tianpao's place and join the school team?"
Yang Gang was taken aback.
If Su Yang could join the school team, that would naturally be a great thing. Setting everything else aside, the resource allocation alone was enough to make anyone green with envy.
Yet there was only one month left until the martial arts exam, and on top of that, he was completely clueless about how Su Yang had managed to win in the first place.
Let alone the school team members refusing to accept it, even ordinary students would likely feel unconvinced.
Most importantly, this guy also shared the surname Li, and was actually Li Tianpao's uncle.
Would he be so selfless as to give up Li Tianpao's spot?
Either way, Yang Gang didn't believe it for a second.
"Teacher Li, I think we should be a bit more cautious. Perhaps there's more to this than meets the eye?"
Li Kuiwei smiled and adjusted his glasses.
"It's not entirely out of the question; Li Tianpao sustained some injuries yesterday when he went outside the city to hunt fierce beasts."
"But that's no excuse."
"Besides, I doubt Teacher Yang even knows what extra rewards the school has promised."
Yang Gang indeed had no idea what the extra rewards were, though you couldn't really blame him for not asking around.
Probably no head teacher would be arrogant enough to believe any student in their class could defeat a member of the school team.
Hearing Li Kuiwei put it that way, a flash of inspiration hit him, and his eyes widened in realization.
"Could that extra reward be a spot on the school team?"
Vice Principal Zhang chuckled upon hearing this.
"Why wouldn't it be? Good saplings deserve careful cultivation."
"Teacher Yang, you can go ahead and notify Su Yang shortly."
"Li Tianpao's exclusive training room belongs to him from now on."
Yang Gang nodded, though a wave of concern for Su Yang washed over him.
He finally understood why Li Kuiwei had been acting so selfless.
The man had simply been forced into playing the good guy out of sheer helplessness.
As for Su Yang,
whether this was a blessing or a curse was hard to say.
At the very least, keeping hold of that school team spot probably wouldn't be easy.
He walked back toward his class's arena, and all along the way, the chatter he overheard was entirely about Su Yang.
He couldn't help but offer a bitter smile inwardly; this kid had certainly caused quite a stir this time.
By now, Li Tianpao had already been sent off for medical treatment. Word was he had a fractured arm and would likely need to recuperate for quite a while.
As for the one taking Li Tianpao's place, it was a substitute player from the school team.
Zhang Tai had wanted to seize an easy opportunity and show off his authority as class monitor.
Who would have thought that substitute player had no intention of holding back.
He pinned Zhang Tai down and gave him a brutal beating, leaving Zhang Tai completely unable even to concede defeat.
Yang Gang simply couldn't bear to watch, and his concern for Su Yang deepened all the more.
After looking around and failing to spot Su Yang, he grabbed a random student from his class.
"Where is Su Yang?"
"Su Yang left. He left right after stepping off the arena."
Hearing this, Yang Gang had no choice but to call Su Yang.
Within seconds, the call connected.
"Su Yang, you've certainly given your teacher a massive surprise."
On the other end of the line, Su Yang sounded completely unconcerned.
"Teacher, what kind of surprise is this? Just standard procedure, standard procedure."
Yang Gang let out a few exasperated scoldings before steering the conversation to business.
After finishing, he gave Su Yang a very solemn warning:
"Now that you're on the school team and our strength isn't up to theirs, endure whatever you can and avoid getting into conflicts with them, understand?"
"Put the martial arts exam above everything else."
"Understood, Teacher."
Su Yang replied readily.
...
After hanging up the phone, the corners of Su Yang's curls turned up slightly.
"Looking for trouble? I welcome it, otherwise where else am I supposed to harvest so much emotional value?"
Earlier, he had already checked his attribute panel.
In just that brief span of time, the feedback points he had gained had already exceeded two hundred.
With a few more opportunities like this, he reckoned he would soon break through and become a true Martial Artist.
Throughout the entire Suicheng, aside from those freaks in the Zenith Class, their entire First High School seemed to have only one person who had broken through to Tier 1.
Yet there was still a full month left before the martial arts exam.
If he generated more emotional value during this period, once he broke through as a Martial Artist and acquired a new destiny spirit beast,
he would be able to head outside the city to hunt monster beasts.
That would be the moment he truly took off.
Leaving the school, he headed straight for Suicheng's largest slaughterhouse.
And thus began an afternoon of sweating profusely.
At first, the boss had been somewhat hesitant, until he witnessed Su Yang lift an entire pig with one hand and put it into a sweet slumber with a single punch.
That was when his face finally broke into a radiant grin.
Now that was talent—a genuine genius born to slaughter pigs.
In the span of a single afternoon, Su Yang slaughtered fifty pigs, thirty sheep, ten cows, and three hundred chickens.
Of course, this wasn't his limit, but rather the limit of this slaughterhouse.
If he killed any more, they would end up with an overstock of meat.
Returning home that evening, Su Yang immediately opened his panel.
With his afternoon's harvest, his feedback points had risen to 270.
This made him frown slightly. Since he had already accumulated over 200 points harvesting emotional value at school,
that meant his entire afternoon of labor had only netted him an increase of 50 points.
The feedback points obtainable from slaughtering poultry were simply far too meager.
It seemed he had still been thinking too simply.
These poultry could never compare to actual monster beasts.
Once again, he poured all his feedback points directly into his vitality, raising his vitality value straight to 113.
"How can I manage to scrape together some more emotional value tomorrow?"
Su Yang began plotting again in his heart.
As he pondered, he even felt a faint sense of anticipation for those school team members to come looking for trouble.