Chapter 61

Song Yi, who had led a whole class of classmates onto the peak of life, was currently in a Schrödinger’s promotion.

Because Song Yi and the others had previously performed far too “outstandingly,” the principal had always been paying close attention to their later school life and studies. After hearing about this matter, she pondered briefly. “Then let them manage the school’s discipline together.”

The school had written rules and regulations, but there was no dedicated department in charge of that area.

After all, every class already had teachers responsible for them, clubs had advising teachers, and the dormitories had life teachers. Security guards and teachers also patrolled the campus regularly, so there was no need to create a separate department just for this.

However, the principal felt that having students handle it themselves might indeed be much more convenient than teacher management.

Information flowed faster among students. Some things took time before they reached the teachers’ ears.

Song Yi’s homeroom teacher, however, was a little worried. “They’re still so young. Will they get bullied?”

“…Do you think they look like the kind of people who get bullied?” The principal felt that the homeroom teacher’s filter was a little too thick. If anything, they needed to guard strictly against those kids running wild.

As soon as they heard the news, the children of the Work-Study Club became excited.

Song Yi felt that they could already turn the entire school into their main base for spreading the sword Dao, while Li Wenwen’s ideas were even more fantastical. “If we’re in charge of discipline, teacher, does that mean we’ll be colleagues from now on?”

After hearing this, the homeroom teacher very much wanted the principal to immediately take back the announcement.

They had not even started managing anything yet, and they were already thinking of standing on equal footing with the teachers?

The principal said with a beaming smile, “However, this is currently a trial period. Within one week, prove your value first.”

The people of the Work-Study Club would try doing the job first. If they could do it well, it would be handed over to them, including later personnel arrangements. But if they could not do it well, or if there was little difference between their existence and nonexistence, then they would just pretend this proposal had never happened.

In other words, the current Song Yi was merely a commander without troops. The only people she could use were the students of the Work-Study Club.

Song Yi and the others came out of the principal’s office rubbing their palms together, then belatedly reacted. “Did we just get sold an empty promise?”

There were no benefits at all. They were just supposed to work first, and the results would be observed afterward.

“These evil adults! Their hearts are too black!”

But even knowing it was an empty promise, they still could not help having their appetites whetted.

Because this promise smelled far too good.

Before long, they discovered that the biggest problem now was not whether they wanted to do it, but whether they could.

Thanks to First Grade Class One crushing the higher grades, the school atmosphere had been very good lately. Even friction and conflicts had decreased. Song Yi and the others had absolutely no chance to take action.

There were only a few trivial matters, such as cutting in line or not wearing the school uniform properly… If this continued, they would have no way to claim credit, and no way to prove that their existence was necessary.

“How about we write our own script and create a big incident?” Li Wenwen suggested.

Lin Ze said, “…Do you really think the teachers won’t find out?”

Li Wenwen instantly wilted. “Then what do we do?”

Lin Ze did not have any better ideas for the moment either. “I’ll check the latest popular bills around school and see if I can spot any clues.”

Just as they were at their wits’ end, Song Yi saw a sneaky figure wandering near the school gate.

Their classmate Li Yang?

Never mind all that. Catch him first!

“What are you doing here!” The three of them surrounded him from different sides.

Looking at his panicked appearance, they felt that their “promotion” should be secure this time.

Li Yang was only an ordinary little kid in First Grade Class One. He did not cause trouble, and his studies were also very ordinary. He did not even care who became the disciplinary committee member, because he would not stir up trouble anyway.

He had gone to join Song Yi’s sword technique practice because many classmates in the class had gone, so he had simply followed the crowd.

His personality was relatively introverted, and he was deeply aware of his own ordinariness, so he did not like clashing with others.

But after he started practicing the sword, he slowly changed.

Song Yi divided them into several small groups for training to make it easier to perform the sword array.

Somehow, he ended up becoming the core of their group. For example, in Plan Number One that Song Yi taught them, he was the one in their small group responsible for shaving heads.

In Song Yi’s words, the sword Dao valued both talent and endurance and carefulness.

Talent was the upper limit, but endurance and carefulness were the lower limit. Leaving talent aside, she felt that Li Yang still had the potential to enter the path.

“The sword can give you courage. You have to believe in yourself, believe in the sword in your hand, and then go do it. Once you do, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

But at the time, Li Yang had not taken her words to heart.

When he learned that they were going to clash with the higher grades, the hand holding his sword had already begun to tremble. He had no confidence at all. Those higher graders had taken far more Martial Dao classes than they had. How could they possibly beat them?

But everyone else did not run, so he was too embarrassed to run.

As the fight went on, Li Yang suddenly realized that the higher grades did not seem as undefeatable as he had imagined.

The higher grades had been suppressed by them!

Li Yang became excited. He even had the leisure to look at how the others were doing.

The heads shaved by another group looked very bad. Their spiritual power circulation was not detailed enough, and their hands were not steady enough, which was why it ended up full of pits and bumps. Look at him. His sword qi was silky smooth, and the result he shaved was extremely good.

He suddenly remembered what Song Yi had said to him. He seemed to be a little more impressive than he had imagined.

So when Song Yi asked them what they wanted to do in the future, he subconsciously answered, “A barber.”

Li Yang, who now had confidence, even had a different aura around him.

Li Yang was very grateful to Song Yi for giving him the chance to discover his own talent.

It was just that after hearing his words, Song Yi’s expression became a little distorted: You are more impressive than expected, but the area where you’re impressive shouldn’t be some weird thing like shaving heads, right?

She wanted to pull the child who had stepped onto a crooked path back. “The sword Dao is a very powerful Dao!”

So don’t waste heaven’s gift like this and use the sword Dao to shave heads!

You’d better rethink this!

But Li Yang was a slightly slow little kid, and he did not have much tacit understanding with Song Yi, so he failed to grasp Song Yi’s true meaning.

He himself did not think there was any problem. Shaving heads was a craft! You might think it looked simple, but there were actually many profound mysteries inside.

Look at the ghostly mess other people shaved, then look at his craftsmanship, and you could see the difference.

Li Yang felt that Song Yi meant this: The sword Dao was a very powerful Dao, so he ought to become the strongest barber. This road was long and difficult, and he was still far from enough.

He said firmly, “I will practice my sword technique properly and never slack off.”

Song Yi breathed a sigh of relief. Very good. She had pulled back the child who had almost gone astray.

The two sides were speaking at cross-purposes, but they reached a result that satisfied everyone.

After school that day, Li Yang saw a familiar person at the school gate. “Li Yang, you haven’t come to play at our place for a long time. Do you want to go today?”

The person was talking about the secret base he used to go to often, a place where they played games.

Li Yang had been pulled over when he was still muddleheaded. He did not have many friends, and those people had been especially enthusiastic toward him, so he had gone to play for the time being.

Although every time he finished playing, he would basically lose all the money he had on him, they had not robbed him. It was because he was too bad at the games that he emptied his wallet. There were also quite a few people who made money there.

Besides, everyone there treated him pretty well, and he gained happiness from it. So he felt the money was quite worth spending.

Ever since sword technique practice began, Li Yang had not had time to go there. Thinking about it now, he had a life goal, and that place no longer seemed all that attractive. But an old acquaintance had greeted him, and Li Yang, just like before, did not know how to refuse.

He twisted and turned through the alleys, then entered a small hall. There were already more than a dozen people inside, and several of them wore the same Cloud Elementary uniform as he did.

“Come, come, come! Who wants to compete with me for a round?” someone said with a laugh.

Before Li Yang could step forward, someone else joined the game.

Just then, Li Yang noticed something wrong. The spiritual power circulation of the game box was abnormal.

No one else seemed to feel that anything was wrong. The appearance of that bit of spiritual power was extremely subtle. A single moment of carelessness, and one would miss it.

Because Song Yi had emphasized the importance of spiritual power circulation routes, saying one could predict another person’s moves in advance and find openings, Li Yang had always trained very well in this area.

In the past, he might not have dared to say it, because no one else had spoken up. But he felt he had already become stronger and should not have judged wrongly, so he said directly, “There’s something wrong with this game box.”

Swish, swish, swish. Everyone’s gazes gathered on him.

“What are you talking about?”

“There’s nothing wrong with the game boxes here.”

Li Yang wanted to argue. “Look here… I’m definitely not wrong…”

Li Yang’s reaction was a little slow. He still did not realize that they had tampered with it. He only thought the game box was broken. His original intention in pointing this out was to have them replace it.

As a result, two people with unfriendly expressions surrounded him.

Although the cultivation world cracked down on illegal and criminal behavior, that did not mean there were no gray areas at all.

For example, games like this that scammed children out of their money. They deliberately chose children who looked more introverted and had few friends, then scammed them out of their allowance. The children did not even realize they had been cheated out of money, because this looked like nothing more than an ordinary offline gaming meetup.

The children were kept in the dark, and out of a desire to protect the secret base, they would not tell anyone. Thus, this gray industry had existed for a long time.

They did not dare do things like kidnapping, murder, or arson. Things like that could not last long and would soon be discovered, after which they would be wanted. They only wanted to earn a little money.

What they had not expected was that after not seeing him for a few days, the easily fooled Li Yang would suddenly turn on them.

Li Yang looked at them, and his brain suddenly became sharp. This was not a malfunction. This was a trap they had set!

His previous allowance had been scammed away like this!

“I think you saw wrong, right?” One person pressed down on Li Yang’s shoulder, his tone carrying an implicit threat.

Meeting these people’s fierce gazes, Li Yang grew a little timid. Perhaps he should just leave directly.

But he thought of those higher graders he had defeated, then thought of what Song Yi had said to him, and infinite courage suddenly surged in his heart.

“Saw wrong, my dad!” He pointed into the air and shouted, “Lightning-drawing talisman!”

Then he threw out a confinement array plate, held his sword, and flipped the entire stall over with speed, ruthlessness, and precision. “Everyone, hurry and take your money back! They’re all scammers!”

Sword qi whooshed out and harvested one person’s hair. Sorry. He was used to it.

Those people reacted very quickly. They wanted to break the array and capture Li Yang, controlling the chaotic scene.

Li Yang shouted, “I’m Barber Hero! I will definitely get justice for everyone!”

Then, taking advantage of the chaos, he directly greased the soles of his feet and ran.

He had the courage to be a hero for one moment, but no more than that. Those people were too terrifying.

After escaping that alley, Li Yang’s heart was still pounding rapidly.

He had not expected that he really could escape completely intact. Looking back on it, he still felt somewhat scared, but there was also a sense of exhilaration.

The commotion on this side soon drew patrolling police officers over, but almost everyone had already run off.

Li Yang did not dare go out and say he was a victim. He had wasted so much allowance and was afraid his parents would beat him. In any case, he would never associate with those people again.

But what he had not expected was that those people whose “business” he had ruined would not let him off so easily. They tried to block him near the school.

Li Yang was a little panicked. Did he still have to tell a teacher or his parents?

He really did not want to say it…

That was why he had been sneaking around near the school gate, confirming it was safe before leaving school. The sudden appearance of Song Yi and the others gave him a fright.

But when he saw Song Yi, Li Yang breathed a sigh of relief. Song Yi had helped him find his Dao. He did not dare say these things to adults, but there was no pressure in telling Song Yi. He poured out the entire situation like dumping beans from a tube.

Only, faced with his tragic experience, the others did not show sympathy. Instead, they cheered. “Really? That’s great!”

Cracking down on criminal gangs was their favorite thing to do.

“We were too narrow-minded before. We focused our attention inside the school, but actually, problems are more likely to occur around the school, right?”

Li Yang said weakly, “Wouldn’t this be very dangerous? When I acted back then, they didn’t expect it, and other people also wanted to get their own money back, so I managed to escape smoothly.”

But Song Yi and the others were not afraid. They only wanted to maximize the benefits.

Lin Ze rubbed his chin. “In other words, they’ve cheated a lot of money already. Can we first cheat the money back—no, earn it back—and then take down their den?”

Song Yi’s eyes shone. They could both make money with their own ability and secure the “promotion.” Maybe they could even add a few more brave-citizen banners to the club.

Multiple wins.

Song Yi became the bait.

Li Wenwen’s and Lin Ze’s personalities were not very suitable for acting as that kind of “target customer,” but Song Yi could be said to be performing in her true colors.

They definitely had changed from their original site, but they had run quickly back then, and on top of that, many people were probably like Li Yang, knowing they had been cheated but not daring to make it public, or too embarrassed to do so. Therefore, they had not suffered much loss. Otherwise, they would not have dared to come block Li Yang.

Since these people were so arrogant, their new “game venue” was definitely already open.

Sure enough, when poor, weak, and helpless Song Yi wandered around alone outside the school gate, she drew their attention. From her clothes and accessories, one could tell she was fairly rich. The snacks in her hand also proved that she had quite a lot of allowance. Her timid appearance suggested her personality was relatively soft.

Someone came over to chat with Song Yi and even wanted to treat her to food to lower her guard.

Unexpectedly, Song Yi nearly failed to continue acting, because she answered firmly and decisively, “No!”

Although it’s still in your pockets, that money is already mine!

Meeting the other party’s surprised gaze, Song Yi realized that she had almost broken character and timidly patched things up. “Mom said I can’t spend other people’s money.”

Did you hear that? You’re not allowed to spend my money!

The woman who had approached Song Yi revealed a kindly smile. “What a good little friend.”

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