Chapter 78: Meeting

Jing Tian remained unmoved, the dagger in his hand not loosening in the slightest.

Although being surrounded was expected, after all their ultimate goal was still to get inside.

Releasing the hostages would mean losing the initiative.

If you don't make things clear, the tone is set.

If the other side resorts to violence again, our earlier discussion with Wen Ya and Zhang Tie about how to persuade the academy to cooperate would become a joke.

Zhang Tie was still a bit overzealous; even when the fire-system Awakened Ones threatened the ordinary people behind them, he also wanted to strike and kill.

Liang Yu, seeing the Awakened Ones from the academy arrive, felt somewhat excited as if he had seen hope.

"Teacher Zhang!"

"Save me!"

The middle-aged man called Teacher Zhang raised his hand to interrupt him and spoke in a low voice:

"Young man, although I don't know what happened, if you don't release the hostages, don't blame me for being impolite!"

Our people are still in their hands; he's not stupid enough to provoke them. His previous attitude already showed that if they wanted to stay alive...

"You killed our people and openly took my students hostage. Do you really think our academy is easy to bully?"

Zhang Jianlin let out a cold snort, a fierce wind swirling around him—clearly a wind-affinity Awakened One.

Jing Tian and Zhang Tie exchanged a glance, then spoke:

"Bullying?"

"We didn't come here on purpose to provoke you; we have something to discuss with you."

"If your people hadn't spoken rudely and tried to attack us first, we wouldn't have taken the initiative."

Zhang Tie let out a light snort, pointing his right hand at the spot where the fire-system Awakened One had been standing.

The fire-spray skill initially unleashed by the red-haired man left many scorch marks on the ground.

"If you don't believe me, ask your own people—see if it was your side that wanted to attack!"

Zhang Jianlin slightly turned his head, looking at the one-armed beast-hand man hiding beside him; the beast-hand Awakened One's face looked grim, but under his gaze he still chose to admit it.

Zhang Jianlin remained silent; in fact, he had already guessed some of this when he was first informed.

As a fellow member of the academy, he also knew the nature of the fire-system Awakened Ones.

Even students from our own academy could be ruthless enough to kill, almost causing a death; it's therefore not surprising that they would act against ordinary people.

Putting it bluntly, the three Awakened Ones assigned to guard the earth wall are all troublemakers; otherwise they wouldn't have been sent here.

"Fine, we'll set aside the fact that you killed our people for now; we'll naturally investigate it thoroughly afterward."

Although the fault lies on our side, Zhang Jianlin has no intention of letting it go like this.

Even if he agreed, the other people in the academy would not agree!

But he differs from inexperienced young students; from Zhang Tie and Jing Tian he sensed a threat, especially from Zhang Tie.

Currently the academy's strongest fighting force is at the back mountain; if a conflict breaks out now, there will inevitably be casualties.

Awakened Ones are each crucial; if more people die, he simply cannot answer to the academy.

"You say you have something to discuss with us, but what is it?"

Zhang Jianlin was somewhat puzzled; he had thought this group that looked like fleeing elderly, weak, sick, and disabled had heard the broadcast and sought shelter, but now it seems not.

Jing Tian pondered for a moment, then spoke directly:

"I need to meet the person in charge here; it would be best to gather all the Awakened Ones together for discussion!"

"We only have one day to spare; if we can't get unanimous consent and have to notify them one by one, who knows how long it will take."

"Everyone?!"

Zhang Jianlin furrowed his brows; the other side's opening demand to see the highest level and have everyone present is really a big mouth.

But never mind.

He inwardly snorted; he had been worrying about how to keep them, but since they want to come in voluntarily, it suits him just fine.

"I'd like to see what tricks you can pull!"

Having made up his mind, Zhang Jianlin didn't waste words and spoke directly.

"If you truly have something important, I can introduce you."

"But fair warning: if you have any other ulterior motives trying to sneak in, don't blame us for being impolite!"

Academy meeting room, over forty people sat disorderly in the spacious meeting room.

The crowd split into two factions; one side consisted of about nineteen people resembling students, gathered together in clusters with impatient expressions.

The other faction sat in a ring on the platform, appearing to be school leaders and teachers at the forefront, plus eleven students.

On the other side of the platform, Jing Tian, Zhang Tie, Wen Ya, Lin An, and Mo Ling were sandwiched between the two groups.

"Have you heard?"

Among the clustered student group, a dark-skinned athletic student glanced at Jing Tian seated in the front and whispered to his companion nearby.

"It's this bunch that killed Hong Mao and still claims they have something important to discuss."

"Hong Mao is dead?"

The male student looked surprised, but showed no particular emotion.

"Let him be dead; that guy also offended many people. But daring to kill our people—pretty badass."

"Haven't the academy's old fogeys caught them yet?"

"Didn't I tell you? They told Zhang Jianlin they had something important, so they'll probably act after the meeting."

The meeting room was noisy; midway through, a batch of female students came in to watch.

Jing Tian remained silent; the student group on his left discussed without restraint, their voices low but clearly audible.

"Silence!"

On the podium, a middle-aged man with a big belly scowled and began to berate.

The effect was not ideal, except that the teachers and students behind him were somewhat energized.

"An Jing Tian, comrade, I am the principal of Linjiang Academy, Huang Zheng. You can state the purpose of your trip."

The middle-aged man named Huang Zheng spoke politely enough, but there was a hint of impatience in his eyes.

Jing Tian looked toward the podium and spoke slowly.

"Everyone, we have three purposes for this trip."

Getting straight to the point, An Jing Tian did not intend to waste too much talk.

"First, I want to inform everyone that in half a year, the entire Linjiang region will experience a zombie riot, with at least over three million zombies actively tracking and launching an attack on humanity!"

A brief silence.

"What the hell are you joking about!!"

"Three million zombie riot?"

Before An Jing Tian could finish speaking, the entire meeting room erupted in noise.

"Kid? Where did you get that news? A zombie riot, actively attacking? You think we haven't seen zombies?!"

A student in sportswear stood up, face full of malice, pointing at An Jing Tian.

"As long as we don't court death by attracting zombies, that thing will just stay put!"

"Laughable, this is the important information you guys talk about? You can't even fabricate lies properly!"

On the podium, the principal's side still maintained decorum and did not join the laughter, but the impatience in their expression became increasingly evident.

An Jing Tian remained unmoved, silently gazing at the crowd before him.

Indeed, he had no evidence to prove it.

People are always unwilling to believe bad news unless they are on the brink of death.

"This friend, I recall your name is An Jing Tian, right?"

On the podium, Huang Zheng cleared his throat twice, looking at An Jing Tian with interest.

"First, let's assume what you say is true—that zombies indeed have brains and will actively attack us. Then, with so many survivors spread throughout Linjiang, there's no reason they would only target us. If it's just scattered zombie tides, I don't think there's much to worry about."

Behind Huang Zheng, Huang Haitao chuckled lightly.

As a leading figure of the academy's leadership here, he had already grown somewhat impatient.

"Zombies? Even if tens of thousands came, what's the big deal? The academy has so many Awakened Ones; we don't need to worry at all."

An Jing Tian, Zhang Tie, and Huang Haitao exchanged glances, sighing inwardly.

Zhang Tie had previously described to them the power of the zombie tide; Awakened Ones indeed have no fear of scattered zombies, but once the zombie tide exceeds thirty thousand, it becomes extremely terrifying.

Even if you could kill them in batches, the endless corpse horde would drain your stamina and mental strength, ultimately leading to a miserable death in their jaws.

"First, let me explain why the corpse horde would mainly target the academy."

An Jing Tian ignored the mocking looks from the crowd and replied in a deep voice.

"Just as you said, the academy has many Awakened Ones, and zombies and mutants are far more sensitive to Awakened Ones than to ordinary people. Therefore, when the first riot occurs, the academy, with its large number of Awakened Ones, will be the first to bear the brunt."

"The academy lies on a plain; aside from the rear mountain serving as a barrier, imagine what will happen when the zombie tide surges!"

After speaking, An Jing Tian waited for everyone to digest the information; there was actually one more point.

Lin An had previously told them that there is a stable spiritual energy node within the academy, which would attract not only zombies but also a large number of mutants.

Precisely because of this, in my past life Linjiang Academy clearly possessed many Awakened Ones, established the Safe Zone earliest, yet ultimately suffered heavy casualties.

Had it not been for a remarkably powerful Awakened One appearing among the students—one of the Six Kings, the Demon Hunter—who turned the tide, the entire Linjiang Academy would not have lasted a year and would have been destroyed long ago.