At 12:20, Fu Wanli left the cafeteria to go find Rong Xin.
At 12:40, the two stepped onto the combat arena. The rules of their fight were exactly the same as when Qin Siyang and the other five fought Rong Xin.
At 12:41, the battle ended.
Just as Qin Siyang and the others had expected, Rong Xin shut out Fu Wanli with a score of 30:0.
When they walked out of the arena, Rong Xin looked at Fu Wanli's dejected face, his expression turning a bit strange.
"I thought when you said you were Sequence Level Four and didn't have any Tier-3 God-hunting equipment, you were just pretending, trying to trick me into letting my guard down. Didn't expect you were actually fighting me empty-handed across levels?"
Fu Wanli felt even worse after hearing that. His face twisted together, and he didn't answer.
Facing the slightly mocking, disdainful looks from the crowd outside the arena, bitterness filled his chest beyond words.
The top five of the same rank had all managed to defeat Rong Xin.
But he, ranked sixth, couldn't even take a single point from Rong Xin.
Not only had he failed to show off, he had instead become the target of everyone's ridicule.
But when he thought back to his earlier conversations with Qin Siyang and the others, Fu Wanli didn't feel as upset anymore.
Those five could casually take out Tier-4 God-hunting equipment as betting stakes, and could even research Tier-4 equipment themselves. They were simply on a completely different level from him.
A bird that follows phoenixes will soar high. As long as he could keep learning and improving alongside Qin Siyang and the others, he believed that one day he too would become someone in the spotlight.
Thinking of this, Fu Wanli set himself a new goal. Actively hunt gods, earn money, move into the guesthouse, and live and eat together with Qin Siyang and the others.
———
Meanwhile, Qin Siyang and the group, who were discussing course selection in the lobby on the tenth floor of the guesthouse, quickly saw news of Fu Wanli's defeat on the school forum.
After the start of the semester, as students returned, the school forum had clearly become more active.
Qin Siyang noticed that some posts on the forum now carried the prefix [South Glory News Department].
Posts with this tag were obviously more standardized in both title and content, standing out like a fully equipped regular army compared to the casual tone of most posts.
[South Glory News Department – Freshman Rank #6 Shut Out by Rong Xin, Will Rong Xin Become the "Prodigy Quality Inspector"?]
The content of the post was similar to a news report, clearly laying out the time, people, location, and the cause, process, and result of the event.
It also included a concluding evaluation at the end:
[All of the top five freshmen in South Glory's point rankings defeated second-year honor student Rong Xin on the combat arena, leading many freshmen to believe that one year of education at South Glory is nothing special. Many were eager to try, wanting to challenge Rong Xin to prove themselves. Some even made bold claims, saying that South Glory's senior students are nothing but empty names and useless.]
[However, Rong Xin cleanly defeated the sixth-ranked freshman Fu Wanli, proving a fact to everyone: it is not that second-year students are weak, but that this batch of freshmen has produced five peerless prodigies. Just as Qin Siyang said in his pinned post on the forum, Rong Xin never held back, he only lost to people he couldn't beat. Therefore, calling Rong Xin a "Prodigy Quality Inspector" is quite appropriate.]
[It can be anticipated that this year's freshmen at South Glory University, under the leadership of these five prodigies, will write an even more brilliant chapter.]
[Editor: South Glory University News Department member, Xu Qingnan]
Qin Siyang sighed, "This news department is pretty capable. The fight ended at 12:41, and they posted this at 12:42?"
Hu Chan said, "They probably started drafting multiple versions as soon as they found out Fu Wanli and Rong Xin were going to the arena, then picked which one to publish based on the outcome. That's how they managed to be this fast."
Gu Yunpeng put down his phone and looked at Hu Chan, "Holy Son Hu really has experience."
Qin Siyang scrolled through the post, "'Prodigy Quality Inspector', that nickname's kind of interesting."
Zhao Sifang scratched his beard and shook his head, "Still not rigorous enough. They lumped me and my brother-in-law in as prodigies too. Compared to you three, there's still quite a gap between us."
Chu Baxing, who had been silent the whole time, fixed his gaze on Qin Siyang and suddenly spoke, "There should only be one prodigy."
Qin Siyang smiled, "If there's only one, that should be called destiny. No need to argue over this. Being prodigies together is fine. Saves us from fighting over meaningless things."
Zhao Sifang laughed, "Brother Qin really is magnanimous!."
Hu Chan corrected him, "He's not magnanimous. He just wants to pull a few of us in to share the heat."
"Hu Chan, if you don't know how to talk, then keep your mouth shut."
"Boss Qin, why are you getting worked up?"
While they were chatting, Gu Yunpeng said, "The news department just posted another thread."
Qin Siyang refreshed the forum and glanced at it.
[South Glory News Department, Professors Hong Liang and Jiao Zhijie Missing in District 134, Their Families Also Unaccounted For]
Qin Siyang frowned and clicked into the post.
It had only been posted a few minutes, but there were already dozens of replies.
[I heard Hong Liang and Jiao Zhijie's disappearance is related to Qin Siyang. Is that true?]
[Who knows. I heard it might be related to Professor Lu.]
[Then what about their families? Where did they go?]
[All the people replying must be freshmen, right? What's there to be so shocked about? Every year in the safe zone, it's not like fewer than a dozen or even twenty professors go missing. Whole families disappearing together isn't rare either. Just focus on yourselves.]
Chu Baxing and the others stared at Qin Siyang, as if trying to read something from his reaction.
But Qin Siyang calmly scanned through the replies, his expression unchanged from start to finish.
Having understood the whole situation, he already knew what was going on.
Hong Liang and Jiao Zhijie had made their move at the Zhao family clubhouse. This matter had definitely already been discovered by the major factions.
Ignoring the Zhao family's presence and letting greed take over was basically like pissing on the Zhao brothers' heads.
Anyone with half a brain could figure out that the Zhao family had taken action to clean things up, killing a few to warn the rest, and reinforcing their authority.
Only, Qin Siyang noticed that Zhao Sifang also looked confused.
'Forget it, his father probably didn't bother discussing things with this son when handling matters anyway.'
As for Hong Liang and Jiao Zhijie, Qin Siyang felt no guilt.
There are rules in times of order, and rules in times of apocalypse.
In an unstable environment that changes rapidly like the apocalypse, everyone lacks a sense of security.
So when it comes to defeated enemies with deep grudges, people don't stop at sparring like gentlemen. For the sake of self-preservation, they eliminate the root completely.
From Zhou Yang and Li Jingwen, to Du Wei and Wang Defa, and now to Hong Liang and Jiao Zhijie, this method of settling accounts, where one person's mistake implicates the whole family, had been adopted across all levels, almost becoming an unspoken rule within the safe zone.
Naturally, it has its reasons.
Zhao Sifang sighed, "I've always felt that when one person does something wrong, it shouldn't have much to do with their family. After the apocalypse, it feels like everyone's become a lot more hostile."
"You can't change how society operates," Qin Siyang replied calmly, "If you care about your family, you should think about the consequences before you act, not beg for mercy after you fail."
Zhao Sifang nodded after hearing that, "Brother Qin's right."
"Let's drop this meaningless topic. We should talk about course selection instead."
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