Chapter 659: Hongyi

Under the cover of night, a small black boat sped through the air.

This boat was completely integrated with the surrounding night; seen from the outside, its form was entirely invisible, and not a single sound could be heard.

It was like a phantom in the dark of night.

"Cough, cough, cough—"

On the boat, Ye Zhao coughed violently and slowly opened his eyes.

"Awake?"

Zhu San, who was piloting the black boat, turned his head to glance at him.

At this moment, Ye Zhao's white clothes were tattered and stained with blood everywhere, and a large gash had been torn into the protective gear on his chest, making him look extremely disheveled.

"The internal energy Li Fei forced into your body is very vicious and causes immense damage to the human body; your internal organs have already begun to fail. Before you regained consciousness, I used medicine to barely stabilize your injuries. Now, you must seize the time to heal."

Zhu San said.

Ye Zhao possessed a core-level extraordinary self-healing ability, and his own internal energy also carried certain healing effects, so as long as he regained consciousness, he no longer needed to worry about his injuries.

A martial artist at the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm still possessed very strong vitality.

Ye Zhao lay there in a daze for a while; the sharp pain in his body brought him back to his senses, and the scene from before he lost consciousness immediately surfaced in his mind:

That black figure stood by the lakeside, looking at him with such a disdainful gaze:

"In the future, when you see this Marquis, lower your head and behave yourself."

"Li Fei!!"

Ye Zhao gritted his teeth, triggering his injuries once more, and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Zhu San looked at this peerless genius who was self-important but just didn't have very good luck, feeling a bit of sympathy:

"Don't think too much, just focus on healing."

"."

Ye Zhao was silent for a moment, "Where are we going next?"

"To the provincial capital of Feng Province."

"What are we going to the provincial capital for?"

"Since we have already become enemies with Li Fei, such a terrifying enemy must naturally be eliminated by any means necessary."

Zhu San said indifferently.

Ye Zhao's eyes lit up: "How should we do it?"

Zhu San did not speak.

Ye Zhao spoke to himself: "Li Fei is the Green-Faced Ghost, and the Green-Faced Ghost is the Blood-Faced Ghost. The Blood-Faced Ghost previously publicly raided the execution ground, hijacked a special train, and killed imperial officials! As long as we make this news public, Li Fei won't be able to remain the Marquis of Jing'an, let alone the Special Envoy of the Blue, and it will be easy to kill him then!"

Zhu San shook his head: "You are thinking too simply."

Ye Zhao was very unconvinced: "Isn't that the case?"

Zhu San sighed: "Not to mention that the Blood-Faced Ghost case has long since had a final verdict; this was the Datong Prefecture's explanation to the central government. To overturn this case is equivalent to opposing the entire Datong Prefecture!

Even if you could really find some conclusive evidence to prove Li Fei is guilty, Li Fei currently enjoys the Emperor's favor, and it is clear the Emperor intends to make great use of him; he certainly won't move against him over such a matter at this time."

Speaking to this point, Zhu San sneered:

"When it comes down to it, what do the things Li Fei has done even amount to? Among those powerful figures, how many are clean? How many haven't violated the laws of the Great Blue Dynasty? The only difference between them and Li Fei is that one operates in the shadows, while the other does it openly."

Ye Zhao gritted his teeth: "Then how are we to deal with Li Fei?"

Zhu San laughed: "Such a sharp blade doesn't just threaten us alone."

Feng Province, provincial capital.

The newly built thirteenth university, Hongyi University, was located in the east of the provincial capital.

Given that there was already a university in Feng Province, the fact that Hongyi University was also placed in Feng Province actually drew a lot of criticism.

Even though the Lu family had begun laying the groundwork more than a decade in advance, preparing the full support of a great martial arts sect and a newly promoted Grandmaster.

Later, following an order from the central cabinet, Hongyi University was set up only with a Department of Stopping Conflict, with no other departments.

Only then did the heated debate barely subside.

Hongyi University was officially established in July of last year and began enrollment in September.

Unlike the other twelve universities, Hongyi University had two types of enrollment:

One was the same as before, recruiting from the local middle school Departments of Stopping Conflict.

The other recruited civilian students who had no family background and could not afford the high tuition fees.

For the second type of student, the school could waive their tuition and even provide them with a certain amount of financial aid.

But in exchange, these students had to endure even more cruel trials!

Simply put, this was actually the model of a jianghu sect.

If one joined a sect and became an inner or official disciple, it was equivalent to selling one's life to the sect.

The sect gave you resources and taught you martial arts, and when the need arose, you had to put your life on the line!

And martial arts cultivation was never a smooth path; absorbing implants carried the risk of losing control, practicing martial arts carried the risk of qi deviation, and wanting to break through realms required one to actively experience life-and-death tempering.

Almost all jianghu sects in this world had bloody and cruel ways of tempering their disciples!

Even a Daoist holy land like the Great Luo Sect required its disciples to walk on iron chains to temper their temperament and will.

And beneath the iron chains was a bottomless abyss!

This was the essence of martial arts cultivation; one wrong step could lead to being smashed to pieces!

The previous twelve universities trained students who were all very precious, almost all children of the powerful, so it was naturally impossible to adopt this teaching model.

Grand Secretary Ye Ze established the new university precisely to try a new path.

Now that Hongyi University had begun its "pilot program," the students recruited through the second method all signed life-and-death waivers upon enrollment!

Hongyi University began enrollment in September and recruited a total of 300 civilian students.

Now, only five months later, 26 had died, 11 were disabled, and 7 had their implants go out of control, with their beastly nature overwhelming their humanity, and they were locked up waiting to be dealt with.

In contrast, the more than 100 students from powerful families were like the students of the other twelve universities, obtaining resources by completing tasks and enjoying the safest educational model.

With students of two different family backgrounds and completely different upbringing experiences in the same university, the conflicts between them grew deeper day by day.

"Zhang Yan, don't be ungrateful!"

On campus, beside a playground.

Several students had surrounded one student.

The person surrounded was named Zhang Yan, a civilian student at Hongyi University.

The four people surrounding him were all children of the powerful, and one of them was even a member of the Lu clan!

Zhang Yan stood silently in place, not saying a word.

"Zhang Yan, don't think you're arrogant just because you have a little ability. No matter how well you train, the most you'll ever get in the future is a chance to be a dog for us; that is the limit for people like you, understand?"

One of the powerful children said mockingly.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yan's eyes moved, and he turned to look at the other party.

It was such a simple action, yet it made the powerful child who had been speaking recoil a step instinctively, as if he had been startled.

But he quickly reacted, feeling insulted, and flew into a rage:

"You motherf..."

He stepped forward, wanting to attack Zhang Yan, but was stopped by a taller man beside him.

The man was named Lu Yiquan, a member of the "Canglin Lu Family."

Although not of the main line of the Lu family, he was already more formidable than many children of the powerful.

Lu Yiquan looked at Zhang Yan, revealing a smile he considered friendly:

"Zhang Yan, as long as you are willing to lose one match, you can gain my friendship. Are you really not going to reconsider? You know, such opportunities are truly rare."

Every so often, internal confrontation matches were held between the children of the powerful and the civilian students.

This was a rule set by the Grand Secretary himself; he wanted to use this to compare the pros and cons of the two educational models to prepare for the future.

Zhang Yan was one of the most outstanding among this batch of civilian students, and Lu Yiquan and the others had found him to propose that he intentionally lose to Lu Yiquan in the next confrontation match.

Zhang Yan met Lu Yiquan's gaze; the other party looked at him confidently, waiting for his answer.

Zhang Yan twitched the corner of his mouth: "Actually, I'm quite happy to be able to come here to study."

"You should indeed feel fortunate."

"But watching my companions fall during training makes me very sad; every time we train, my heart is in agony."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Having been at this university for so long, do you know when I am happiest?"

"."

"It's every time we have a confrontation match, because I can beat the hell out of you self-righteous trash!"

"?"

Lu Yiquan was stunned, thinking he had misheard.

"You motherfucker, you're courting death!"

The few companions on the side could no longer hold back and immediately rushed up to attack Zhang Yan.

And so, the five young men began to fight on the playground.

They had all only recently entered the Body-Breaking realm and had limited strength; even if they possessed profound martial arts, they couldn't fully display them, so Zhang Yan did not fall behind the other four in martial techniques.

The final result was that he alone beat all four of them to the ground!

The commotion of the fight here quickly alerted others, and a group of people ran quickly toward this side.

"Big Brother Yan, are you alright?"

The first to arrive were a group of commoner students.

Zhang Yan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, a look of satisfaction appearing on his face as he pointed at Lu Yiquan and the others on the ground: "They are in trouble."

"Big Brother Zhang Yan is awesome!"

"Well done!"

"I've wanted to beat them up for a long time!"

"."

Soon, Zhang Yan left, surrounded by the crowd.

Zhang Yan told everyone to disperse first, leaving only one young man by his side in the end.

"Big Brother Zhang Yan, you beat up people from the Lu family this time; is it really okay?"

The young man asked with a worried look on his face.

It would be fine to beat up other children of the powerful, as this was a university after all, and the school wouldn't let the powerful from the outside reach their hands directly inside.

But the Lu family...

Who doesn't know nowadays that this Hongyi University was only established because of the Lu family?

Having offended the children of the Lu family, it would likely be impossible to move an inch in this university!

Zhang Yan heard this and laughed indifferently.

He ruffled the hair of the companion beside him:

"Don't worry, it's fine."

"Okay!"

The companion also started to laugh.

In his eyes, Big Brother Zhang Yan was the most formidable person.

"By the way, Big Brother Zhang Yan, Zhang Changming almost lost control again today. We are all worried that if this continues, he will be taken away..."

The companion said suddenly, his expression dejected.

The so-called loss of control meant the implant had lost control, and the bestial nature hidden within it had erupted.

Zhang Yan, who hadn't cared at all about beating up the children of the Lu family, now also had a somber expression.

A moment later, he looked at the sky in the distance and said:

"Do you know why those children of the powerful rarely experience implant loss of control?"

"Why?"

"It's not because their talent is better than ours; it's because they have had specialized medicine to nourish their bodies since childhood, and after they receive their implants, the medicine they take can also effectively suppress the bestial nature of the implants."

"Then why..."

"You want to ask why these medicines aren't given to us?"

"Yes."

"Heh."

Zhang Yan sneered: "Because these medicines are very precious, and the quantity is limited."

"."

"Do you know why, in the first enrollment of Hongyi University, there were 300 of us commoner students, but those children of the powerful only recruited a little over 100?"

"Why?"

"It's not because those above are willing to give us more opportunities; it's just because our lives are cheap."

"."

"The resources used to cultivate one child of the powerful are enough to cultivate ten commoner students like us!"

"Big Brother Zhang Yan..."

"Those powerful people control over ninety percent of the resources. People like us can only risk our lives to have a glimmer of a chance. This is the reality of this world!"

Zhang Yan looked at his companion, his eyes as cold as a block of ice.

The companion looked at the murderous Zhang Yan before him and was somewhat frightened.

"This world shouldn't be like this."

Zhang Yan patted his companion's shoulder and muttered.

Then he turned and walked in another direction.

"Big Brother Zhang Yan, where are you going?"

"To the Lu family."

"Ah?"

"To have a talk with them."

"."

(End of chapter)