Volume One: A First Glimmer of Greatness Chapter Eighty-Seven: You Know Each Other?

By half past nine that night, Wang Jue had lingered at the Martial Association long enough to fleece it twice over, and his interest in staying any longer had vanished at once.

Seeing that his experience was still more than ten thousand short of one hundred thousand, he decided not to remain at the martial hall any longer and left instead.

Half an hour later, the bus arrived. Wang Jue had barely taken a few steps after getting off when his younger sister secretly called him.

“Bro, I want roast duck. When you come back, buy two; I only want one of them,” Wang Xiaoyu said matter-of-factly.

Her words clearly implied that she was not trying to hog it all for herself, and was even leaving him a share.

Wang Jue paused and glanced toward the roast duck shop, which was not even on his way. “Eating meat late at night makes you gain weight, and look what time it is. The roast duck shop may already be closed.”

“I’m not scared!”

Wang Xiaoyu replied without hesitation. “Don’t try to fool me. The place we used to go to stayed open until midnight.”

“Heh, you girl really are…” Wang Jue chuckled. “If you want me to buy it, say something nice first.”

“I…”

Wang Xiaoyu bristled, suppressing her anger, then called sweetly, “Can my world’s most handsome brother buy roast duck for his world’s cutest little sister?”

“Mmm, I’ll see how I feel.”

Click.

The call ended.

At home, Wang Xiaoyu was utterly stunned.

“Wang Jue!!!”

She had lived this long and never once met someone so shameless!

Wang Jue slid his phone back into his pocket and walked off in a good mood.

To save time, he deliberately chose a more secluded side street, though it happened to be very close to the roast duck shop.

By then it was nearly ten at night. Even in daylight the road would have felt desolate; under the streetlamps it was downright eerie, and there were scarcely any pedestrians to be seen.

Then suddenly—

Clang...

Faint sounds of fierce weapon clashes drifted from an abandoned open square nearby.

Wang Jue stopped in his tracks.

He scanned the barren surroundings suspiciously, and his gaze finally settled on the square, whose gate was long gone and whose interior was already overrun with sparse, wild weeds.

Driven by a strong curiosity, Wang Jue controlled his footsteps and quietly slipped inside.

Since the abandoned square had no lights, and only a few dim streetlamps drifted in from the distance, it was hard to make out what exactly was happening within.

Only the night wind howled through the place, carrying a few scattered fragments of speech.

“A year ago...”

“If not for...”

“Revenge...”

The moment Wang Jue heard those two words, revenge, his whole body tensed.

So he had stumbled into some vendetta again?

Though he was fairly strong now, he had no desire to bring this kind of unnecessary trouble on himself because of his own curiosity.

Thinking this, Wang Jue was about to leave.

Then the sounds of another exchange rang out.

“Haha, I looked you up. You’re a teacher at Peace Tenth Middle School, right? You’re no match for me, so just surrender. After I kill you, I’ll go to your school!”

“Dream on! I’d rather die than surrender!”

Wang Jue’s eyes immediately filled with uncertainty.

Why did that voice sound so familiar?

Wasn’t that Old Liu?

So Wang Jue carefully drew closer, and soon the familiar figure came into view.

It really was Old Liu!

Under his opponent’s pressure, Old Liu’s long blade failed to withstand the force. The immense impact sent him stumbling back a step, where he clutched his chest and coughed up blood, then leaned weakly against the stone pillar behind him.

His opponent was a man with blood on his cheek. The jacket on his upper body had already been blasted into strips in the earlier fight, so he simply ripped it off, revealing knotted, twisted muscles and several hideous gashes.

Compared with Old Liu, he was clearly no better off.

Still, Wang Jue could tell that the two of them were almost evenly matched.

Old Liu’s defeat did not need much explanation. The other man must have gained the advantage by ambush at the beginning, which was why he could now keep Old Liu pinned down.

Wang Jue knew his homeroom teacher, Old Liu, fairly well. Though not especially strong, he was at least of the Red Star Realm. Not only was he fit to be a teacher, he would have been more than qualified to run a martial hall of his own.

The blood-soaked muscular man stood where he was, breathing steadily while staring fixedly at Old Liu. His hoarse voice came out cold and grim. “Liu Mao, do you have brothers?”

At first, Old Liu said nothing. After a pause, he raised his head, spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, and replied expressionlessly, “Jin Hai, how many children did your brother kill back then? How many families did he destroy? Don’t tell me you don’t know. In my eyes, he deserved to die a thousand times over.”

“That’s not my concern. I only know that this life of mine was given to me by my brother!”

Jin Hai’s face twisted with madness. “There were several people who killed my brother back then. I’ll kill you first, then go kill the others and avenge him!”

“Jin Hai, I don’t want you to follow your brother’s old path,” Old Liu said, a trace of pain flashing in his eyes.

Jin Hai had finished gathering his breath. He stepped forward, his long spear thrusting out like a dragon, the tip aimed straight for Old Liu’s chest. “Die!”

Old Liu closed his eyes and said nothing, secretly gathering his strength.

Crack...

Suddenly, a faint sound came from the corner.

Under ordinary circumstances, it would not have been easy to hear such a noise. But in a dead-silent, desolate place like this, even the smallest sound was magnified infinitely.

Damn, someone was there!

Jin Hai narrowed his eyes. “Who’s hiding there? Get the hell out!”

As he spoke, he thrust his spear.

Whoosh!

The silver spear cut through the night like a bolt of lightning, turning into a streak of blinding brilliance that fiercely slashed toward Wang Jue’s hiding place.

At the same time, Old Liu, who had been leaning against the stone pillar and secretly building up strength, suddenly opened his eyes, light bursting from them.

He sprang up.

The instant Jin Hai charged toward Wang Jue, Old Liu unleashed everything he had gathered in secret, his long blade coming down with savage force.

Old Liu’s full-strength strike carried a resolute momentum that could crush the rotten and decayed alike. With countless afterimages flickering past, the shriek of the wind it stirred sounded like a volcano erupting.

“Seeking death!”

Jin Hai was shocked and enraged that Old Liu still had such a move hidden away.

In the blink of an eye, he twisted the spearhead and thrust fiercely toward Old Liu’s sweeping blade.

Clang...

Old Liu’s long blade hacked hard against the spear.

The two torrents of immense star power collided as though fire and water could never coexist, exploding outward like crumbling boulders.

Pfft!

Pfft!

Both men were struck by the force at the same time and coughed up blood.

Old Liu had already been gravely injured, and he was sent flying on the spot. After crashing heavily to the ground, his whole body grew even more feeble.

Jin Hai, meanwhile, was driven back two steps by the fierce current of force. He forcibly suppressed the bloody taste rising in his throat, seized his spear, and charged again.

At this moment, Old Liu, lying in a pool of blood, had no strength left to resist.

That previous strike had exhausted the last of his strength.

Now he could clearly feel the star power within his body fading at an alarming speed.

When he sensed the killing intent sweeping toward him, fear appeared in his face. He took a shallow breath, and the world before his eyes began to darken.

And just as he was losing consciousness, he seemed to catch a glimpse of a figure descending from the sky...

Sshk!

Wang Jue leapt out, sword in hand, and brought it down. The sword light burst like thunder, heading straight for Jin Hai’s head!

“Get out of my way!”

Jin Hai narrowly dodged the sneak attack, his face filled with fury as he whirled and stabbed back with his spear.

Yet Wang Jue was even faster than he had imagined.

The first strike had missed, but without a word he followed with a second.

Clang!

Sword and spear clashed, and the sparks bursting from the impact instantly illuminated the dim, abandoned ground.

Pop, pop, pop...

After landing, Wang Jue staggered back several steps.

Bang!

Meanwhile, the ground beneath Jin Hai’s feet was blasted apart as though struck by irresistible force. Countless fragments of brick and stone flew outward, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. Jin Hai licked it away indifferently, then fixed Wang Jue with a gaze full of murderous intent and said in a cold voice, “Little brat, you’re the mouse that was snooping around here just now, aren’t you?”

Wang Jue did not answer. He glanced at Old Liu, who lay not far away on the ground, life and death unknown, and his eyes could not help but hold a trace of concern.

“You know each other?”

Seeing Wang Jue’s reaction, Jin Hai let out a sinister laugh. “Perfect. Then I’ll kill you first, and him after.”

“Anyone can talk big.”

Wang Jue said disdainfully, “But do you still have the strength for it now?”

Jin Hai: “...”

His expression darkened at once.

Wang Jue’s words had indeed hit his pain point—no, his weakness.

The earlier battle had drained far too much of his stamina and star power, and on top of that he was now carrying serious injuries...

Jin Hai wanted nothing more than to buy time and quietly recover his breath.

But Wang Jue gave him no such opportunity.

The next moment, sword light flooded the air like a sky full of stars, crashing down on him in a storm of ferocious attacks.

Seeing this, Jin Hai was furious to the point of nearly grinding his teeth. He wanted nothing more than to tear this meddling little mouse into pieces.

So he could only endure the pain throughout his body and hastily thrust his spear forward.

But its power was far weaker than before. After blocking Wang Jue’s sword, the tremendous shock nearly sent the spear flying from his hand.

“Damn it, how can this little mouse be so strong?”

Jin Hai was shaken. “And his martial technique can’t be below mastery either. Where the hell did he come from?”

Wang Jue’s swordsmanship was far more exquisite than he had expected.

He had never imagined that this seemingly ordinary middle-school boy who appeared out of nowhere could hold out against a Red Star Realm warrior like him for so long.

Even now, when he was badly wounded.

And how many people of Wang Jue’s age could have trained their swordsmanship to such a level?

Had he been practicing from the womb?

Wang Jue watched Jin Hai fall briefly into a daze, apparently unwilling to waste time, and pressed forward with sword after sword, like a gale and torrential rain, leaving little room to breathe.

Pfft!

After barely blocking several strikes, Jin Hai’s injuries finally erupted in full. He spat out a mouthful of blood mist, and his complexion instantly turned pallid.

As he evaded in embarrassment and saw Wang Jue charging again with raised sword, he retreated in haste. The calm mask on his face could no longer hold, and a trace of flustered anger appeared. “Kid, there are some things you shouldn’t meddle in so casually. I’m giving you a chance to leave now.”

Damn it, not only was this brat strong, but his physical force was also terrifyingly great!

Wang Jue stopped, though not because of Jin Hai’s words. He had halted to deepen his insight into the martial technique.

Seeing Wang Jue suddenly stop, Jin Hai narrowed his eyes and watched him warily, ready for another strike.

At this point, he could clearly sense that with every exchange they had fought so far, Wang Jue’s mastery of swordsmanship and inner force had become increasingly refined.

Most importantly, he realized that the danger Wang Jue posed to him was growing stronger and stronger...