Chapter 26: Protection Fee
The sun was out as Jian Chen walked across the sports field, where quite a few students were already exercising. Sparing a glance at those students, Jian Chen proceeded to move on towards the library. During the past 3 days, Jian Chen was constantly cultivating his Saint Force and did not have the time to go to the library at all. In Jian Chen’s eyes, the only thing the academy had to offer that really attracted him was the library. When it came to the classes taught by the teachers, Jian Chen didn’t have a single speck of interest, and he personally felt that it was a waste of time. The teachers didn’t have anything worthwhile to teach him, but the library did. After all, the library had records of everything that had happened on the Tian Yuan continent.
“Hey look, isn’t that Changyang Xiang Tian? I heard he beat the Saint, Ka Di Yun, while he was only at the 8th Saint Force layer…”
“It is, it is! I even watched Changyang Xiang Tian fight in the freshmen competition, but I didn’t get a chance to see him fight against Ka Di Yun, what a great shame…”
On the sports field, two males who saw Jian Chen were pointing from afar, while looking at him with a huge amount of respect.
“Wow, Changyang Xiang Tian is so cool and so strong. For him to beat the Saint, Ka Di Yun, while at the 8th Saint Force layer; he really is my idol…” Another first year minor noble girl cried, as her eyes sparkled with emotions.
More and more people started to gather on the field. As Jian Chen walked across the sports field, many of the surrounding people started to notice him. Ever since he had beaten Ka Di Yun three days ago, his name had spread around the academy in a mere few hours, and his reputation had skyrocketed to the point where even the teachers of Kargath Academy knew him by name.
Jian Chen quickly crossed the field into a shady area which would lead him to the library. Because there weren’t many people at the library, the path towards the library was fairly serene and quiet. With almost no people in sight, all Jian Chen could see was the scenery of nature, as the wind scattered countless leaves into the air with a rustling sound.
Just then, the shadows of a few people suddenly appeared in front of Jian Chen. It was a group of four people who were laughing and talking amongst themselves, each one of them looking to be around ** years old. A simple look at their school uniforms could identify them as students of the academy as well.
Jian Chen didn’t pay any attention to the group of students in front of him, and proceeded to walk past them. But as he just crossed them, the four students suddenly stopped talking, and then quickly surrounded Jian Chen.
Stopping, Jian Chen looked at the students surrounding him and noted that they were all seniors. With a cold smile, he asked, “Dear seniors, what is the meaning of this?”
The four students stood tall and proud as they circled Jian Chen before one of them spoke up.
“Kid, you look unfamiliar, you must be a freshmen.” The one in front of Jian Chen smiled with an unfriendly stare at him.
Jian Chen did not show any emotion as he stared at the speaker, speaking to his face, he gave a faint smile, “That’s right, this one here is a freshman. What do these seniors want with a freshman like me?”
Hearing this, the senior chuckled, “If you want to live peacefully at Kargath Academy, then it’s important that you have people like us protecting you. But if you want our protection, then you need to pay us. Since you’re a freshman, then you just need to pay us 10 Purple coins; how about it, a good deal right?” The student had a confident smile on his face; in his mind, he had already intimidated Jian Chen. To him, Jian Chen was smaller, and therefore weaker in terms of strength, and he felt that he had definitely overpowered him already. He was confident in his skills as well, since he had already pulled this off many different times, making him an experienced veteran. If he had met a stronger student, then of course he would have thought twice before pulling this scam off, but Jian Chen didn’t seem like a strong student, so this would definitely be a total success; resistance would be futile.
If Jian Chen was just another commoner student, then the four students would not dare extort a protection fee from Jian Chen if they wanted to remain in the academy. After all, all the upperclassmen in Kargath Academy knew that the headmaster always sided with the commoners of the academy. But these four students have been living in the academy for some time now, and they could tell which student was a commoner and which student was a noble. So when they saw Jian Chen, they could clearly tell that Jian Chen was a noble, and therefore dared to extort him for money.
Hearing him, Jian Chen internally snorted; he hadn’t thought that people would try to collect protection fees from him.
“Seniors, I am very sorry, but I will have to refuse your protection,” Jian Chen stated. Before they could even respond, he shouldered his way past the older students and resumed to walk towards the library once more.
Jian Chen’s actions caused the four students to be startled. This situation had gone against their expectations, and none of them had expected to see Jian Chen so straightforwardly decline their protection.
The four students immediately turned towards Jian Chen, who was walking away from them. Their eyes flashed dangerously. The one student who had his shoulder pushed aside snarled, while his face turned unsightly.
“Motherf*cking brat, stop right there!” He yelled angrily. Stomping towards him, he immediately cut Jian Chen off from his path, as the other 3 followed him and formed the circle, once more confining Jian Chen in the middle.
“You dared to knock against me, are you tired of living?” The initial speaker cried before fiercely reaching out to slap Jian Chen across the face with his palm.
Seeing the hand approach his face, Jian Chen’s blank stare instantly became sharp, and his eyes flashed with a deep coldness. He lifted his own right hand up to block the incoming hand, so quickly that the other students couldn’t react in time. After intercepting that student’s hand that was halfway to his face, Jian Chen lashed out with his foot, and his kick connected with the student’s chest. With a small gasp, the student was sent flying backwards, before he heavily fell down onto the ground some distance away.
The situation had suddenly escalated, surprising the other 3 students. None of them would have thought that their previously easy target to bully would suddenly become like this. Before they could even react, Jian Chen had kicked their companion across the place.
But they soon regained their wits and started to sweat. Without even needing to discuss it amongst themselves, they all concluded that they needed to dispose of Jian Chen.
Although they knew Jian Chen’s strength wasn’t normal, these four students had run rampant in Kargath Academy and were not afraid of him. Even if Jian Chen was that strong, the four of them combined could take him on, so they had nothing to fear. Not only that, but they all had strong clans backing them up, thus, they had a strong shield with them throughout the entire academy.
Sensing that the three other students were exuding out their Saint Force, Jian Chen looked at them with a hint of disdain. The moment the three prepared to fight, the levels of their Saint Force had been revealed to him; the three of them were roughly at the 10th layer of Saint Force.
The three went into motion very quickly, and in a blink of an eye, they were in front of Jian Chen. However, at the crucial moment, Jian Chen’s body swayed and dodged each one of their attacks.
While the 3 attacks failed to make contact, Jian Chen didn’t wait for them to recover, and immediately slammed his fist into one of the students’ forehead so quickly that none of them could react.
“Peng!” The student who had his forehead hit immediately fainted onto the floor. At the same time, Jian Chen’s right leg kicked one of the other students in the chest.
Following the dull thud, because the youth had long been prepared, he managed to endure and only stumbled back a few steps after receiving the kick from Jian Chen, and quickly steadied himself. Despite that, his complexion had turned pale as the two huge forces of energy hidden in Jian Chen’s kick had jolted his internal organs. Furthermore, faint strands of Saint Force had also flowed through Jian Chen’s leg into the youth’s body, wreaking havoc among his internal organs.
Just as the youth had stabilized himself, Jian Chen’s second leg had already once again kicked out. Leaving behind afterimages in the air, the leg landed onto the chest of the youth once again. Moreover, the second kick landed perfectly on the same spot as the first, beautifully superimposing themselves on each other.
Having received two heavy hits in a row on the same spot, the damage the youth suffered was not as simple as adding one plus one. When Jian Chen’s second kick landed on the youth’s chest, even if he had the strength of a 10th layer Saint Force, he would still suffer serious injuries. Waves of acute pain emitted from the vital organs within his body, instantly turning the youth’s face white. His internal Qi was also blocked, causing him to have extreme difficulty breathing. He staggered back a few steps before one last unsteady step brought him crashing to the ground, and left him unable to stand back up again.
Seeing Jian Chen effortlessly dispatch a comrade who had a strength comparable to his own in the blink of an eye, the remaining youth’s complexion changed. The foot that was just about to rush towards Jian Chen suddenly stopped in its place, it was as if the soles of his feet grew roots which extended deep into the ground. The youth did not dare to take a step forward. Eyes filled with vigilance, the youth stared at Jian Chen with an expression that had lost the smugness from before, and was instead now filled with an intense concentration.
Jian Chen’s calm gaze turned to glance at the youth, the corners of his mouth betraying traces of a sneer. Without a word, he turned and left towards the direction of the library.
After Jian Chen left, the two youths who had been beaten to the ground by Jian Chen raggedly crawled up from the ground, eyes seething with a poisonous hatred as they bore holes into Jian Chen’s back. One of them grumbled in a low voice, “Who is he, to be so strong that even all of us together were far from his match? Is this really a new student who had enrolled this year? How can he be so strong?”
“Who cares who he is; since he dared to offend us, we absolutely cannot forgive him.” In a furious tone, another person also cursed. His tone was also somewhat weak, as if he was gasping for breath. This was the youth that had been kicked twice by Jian Chen; presently, his internal organs had already received a serious jolt. If it were not for the fact that his strength was originally above that of Jian Chen’s, he wouldn’t even have the strength to stand at this point.