Chapter 21: The Summoning Squad Leader

It was a tall, thin male aberration with short hair, sharply defined features, and an armband marking him as the Sports Squad Leader. His expression was grim, yet he possessed a confidence that the other students lacked.

His name was Li Jian.

“Teacher Zhao Lu,” his voice was steady, carrying an official, administrative tone. “Both you and student Xiaoqi have violated school regulations.”

Xiaoqi remained in her seat, not even lifting her head. She rested her chin in her hand, her gaze fixed on the desk, though it was unclear what she was looking at. Hearing Li Jian’s words, she simply curled her lips slightly and uttered two words.

“Yes, I did.”

Her tone was light, as if stating an obvious fact.

Li Jian faltered, his face flushing with embarrassment, before he quickly countered: “Student Xiaoqi, I respect you in terms of pure strength, but that is no reason to act so wantonly. Zhao Dayong is an elite in our Sports Squad. Now that this has happened, I might let it slide, but the Sports Teacher certainly won’t.”

Zhao Lu raised an eyebrow, tapping her pointer against her palm twice as she prepared to speak.

By this point, Jiang Xiaoyu had grasped the situation: Xiaoqi was a sneaker-head who had taken Zhao Dayong’s shoes and hadn’t returned them. He sighed and said to Li Jian, “Oh… Li Jian, is it? My cousin took Zhao Dayong’s things, I’ll return them. I’ve got a few collector-grade A-class pairs at home…”

Before Jiang Xiaoyu could finish, Li Jian roared: “What the hell do you think you are? You’ll return them? With your life?”

Jiang Xiaoyu grinned. “Just a moment ago, I was thinking I’d persuade my Xiaoqi nicely after class, but now? Forget it! Whether it’s you, Zhao Dayong, or anyone else, bring whatever you’ve got to me. I’ll say this once: pick on me all you want—we’re all adults, we can talk it out—but touch my cousin, and things won’t end so easily.”

Silence fell over the room, followed by the buzzing sound of people whispering.

“Damn… what’s he counting on?”

“He’s making an enemy of the entire Sports Squad. They’re all physical-type aberrations; they’re terrifying.”

“Exactly. No matter how strong Xiaoqi is, facing a whole group of them, even she would have to scramble away in defeat…”

Zhao Lu listened, deep in thought, when suddenly, her eyes lit up.

‘Could it be… Jiang Xiaoyu is confident he can handle a group of physical aberrations? If that’s true, the Summoning Squad is about to rise. The biggest obstacle for Summoning has always been physical aberrations—because possession counts as a form of physical manifestation, yet the summoner’s body isn’t as strong as a true physical aberration’s, leaving them suppressed ever since.’

With this thought, combined with the information from the principal, Zhao Lu’s resolve hardened.

“Jiang Xiaoyu is now an official student of Class Seven,” she stated, her voice calm and measured, as if declaring a fact everyone should already know. “Zhao Dayong violated school rules first; he has no one to blame but himself.”

The moment these words left her lips, a low murmur rippled through the classroom. Everyone was thinking the same thing: Teacher Zhao Lu was openly siding with Jiang Xiaoyu and Xiaoqi. It was true that Zhao Dayong had violated the rules, but according to school code, assaulting a classmate was at most a disciplinary matter for a teacher to handle—it was not a capital offense. Zhao Lu’s words clearly implied: Zhao Dayong deserved to die.

Why would the homeroom teacher openly defend a new transfer student like this?

What kind of background did this Jiang Xiaoyu have?

Everyone’s eyes turned back to the new student on the podium, who was squinting and pulling at his collar. At this moment… he still looked as dazed as ever, seemingly completely unaware of what had just transpired in the classroom.

Li Jian’s mouth twitched, though he maintained his composure.

“As the Sports Squad Leader,” he said, enunciating every word, “it is my duty to report this matter truthfully to Teacher Chen Jun. I hope Teacher Zhao Lu will forgive me.”

Zhao Lu looked at him for two seconds of silence.

Then, she nodded.

“Reasonable and fair. My Summoning Squad accepts the challenge,” she said.

“WOW!”

Class Seven exploded!

Things had escalated. It wasn’t just Teacher Zhao Lu taking a stand; the Foreign Language Squad was now involved.

Teacher Zhao Lu’s eyes flashed, and she added:

“Because… I have decided to appoint Jiang Xiaoyu as the new leader of the Foreign Language Squad!”

A wave of gasps swept the room.

“It’s gotten huge now!”

“What started as a dispute over school rules has become a factional war. Teacher Zhao Lu is betting everything on this.”

“By the Ghost King, this is going to be a show worth watching.”

Jiang Xiaoyu was stupefied. “Teacher Zhao Lu, my foreign language isn’t exactly…”

Zhao Lu interrupted: “I will teach you personally. Things have reached this point; do you want to back down now? Do you want Xiaoqi to be punished?”

Jiang Xiaoyu paused, then laughed. “From this moment on, I am the leader of the Foreign Language Squad. Come at me if you have any issues.”

Zhao Lu nodded happily.

Just then, a timid little aberration sitting in the front left corner stood up and asked: “Tea…cher, I was just sitting here minding my own business, how did I lose my position as squad leader?”

Zhao Lu smiled. “Sisi, you’ll assist Jiang Xiaoyu as the deputy leader.”

Sisi acknowledged the order and sat down.

Li Jian bowed slightly and turned to walk out of the classroom.

His steps were steady, and his back was straight, but as he passed the podium, he unconsciously veered a half-step to the side, keeping as much distance as he could from Xiaoqi’s seat.

Right then, Zhao Lu turned back around and scanned the seats in the classroom. Her gaze settled on the center position of the first row—that was Xiaoqi’s deskmate, a male aberration named Xu Tian.

“Xu Tian,” Zhao Lu’s tone was very flat, as if she were stating the most mundane matter, “move to the second row. The remaining students will shift back one by one. Jiang Xiaoyu will share a desk with Xiaoqi.”

Those words landed like a bomb.

If Zhao Dayong’s death earlier had merely brought terror, and Zhao Lu’s blatant favoritism had merely brought confusion, then this single sentence completely blew the roof off Class Seven.

Xu Tian.

No one in Class Seven didn’t know Xu Tian, and no one in the entirety of Huangquan Vocational Institute didn’t know Xu Tian.

A space-type assassin aberration, S-rank, capable of tearing through space in an instant to appear at any coordinate he desired.

His assassination capabilities ranked among the top three in the entire institute; throughout the school, the number of individuals who could reliably defeat him in a frontal confrontation did not exceed five.

And among those five, the one ranking first was Xiaoqi.

Half a year ago, Xu Tian and Xiaoqi had crossed swords once. No one knew the specific details of that duel; they only knew that once it was over, Xu Tian spent three months lying in the infirmary.

After his discharge, he made a public proclamation: “In this lifetime, I, Xu Tian, will marry none other than Xiaoqi.”

From that point on, he took great pains to secure the seat beside Xiaoqi, becoming her deskmate. Whoever dared take an extra glance at Xiaoqi would find his spatial blade greeting them without hesitation.

In Class Seven, and indeed across the whole institute, every single aberration harboring even the slightest design on Xiaoqi had been dealt with by him one by one.

Everyone had tacitly accepted one fact—the seat beside Xiaoqi belonged to Xu Tian, and no one was permitted to touch it.

Yet now, Teacher Zhao Lu wanted a newly arrived, living human who possessed not a shred of supernatural power to sit beside Xiaoqi.

This was demanding Xu Tian’s life.

It was also punching a massive hole through the ceiling of Class Seven.

Xu Tian sneered: “Forget a cousin, I wouldn’t yield it even if he were her biological brother! This seat was fought for and won by me, rank by rank. If he wants it, tell him to defeat everyone behind me first.”

Xiaoqi turned around, staring coldly at Xu Tian: “Roll to the second row!”