Chapter 86: Fracture

Unnoticed, evening arrived. The setting sun hung low on the horizon, its radiance no longer scorching but like an aging soul, casting a warm, soft glow that bathed the quiet school campus below.

Grade 1, Class 3.

Zheng Bowen was currently lecturing on history with great fervor. The students below listened attentively, just as they did every other day.

"Lili, school is almost over, do you really have to ask for leave again?" Chu Huiyan whispered, her head bowed.

"Yes!"

"You've left half an hour early for three days in a row. If you ask for leave again, the head teacher..." Chu Huiyan looked at Xia Ruli, who wore a face full of sweetness, and didn't know what else to say.

"There's no other way. What if Nangong Yuchen finishes school and doesn't see me, and he just leaves by himself?" Xia Ruli was incredibly firm about her request for leave.

"You are so silly. They say a girl's IQ drops to zero when she's in love, and you're not even Nangong Yuchen's girlfriend yet! I can't imagine how silly you'll be once you two are actually together!" Chu Huiyan’s tone was a mix of worry and resentment. Ever since Monday, Xia Ruli’s mind had been entirely occupied by Nangong Yuchen, casting her best friend to the back of her mind.

"Alright, don't be angry!" Xia Ruli coaxed her, feeling a bit ashamed, then added, "It's almost time. I have to go ask for leave. Hehehe, Nangong Yuchen promised to take me to a movie tonight!"

Every time she thought of this, a happy glow would fill Xia Ruli's face.

"Go on, go on. You might as well go to a hotel after the movie and just give yourself to Nangong Yuchen entirely!" Chu Huiyan turned her head away in annoyance.

Xia Ruli, face flushed with shyness, playfully punched Chu Huiyan, let out a breath, and stood up from her seat.

"Our human residential area is located in the northwest of the Asian Floating Super-Island, referred to as the Northwest Residential Area, also known as the Gravia Residential Area. Within the Northwest Territory, there are four metropolises and twenty-seven cities, totaling thirty-one cities. Among them, three metropolises and twenty-one cities are within the safety perimeter, while the remaining seven are near the safety boundary. Our Ruxia City belongs to one of the three major metropolises, Feng Hai City, which..." Zheng Bowen was speaking with great animation, his voice projecting clearly, when he was suddenly interrupted.

"Head teacher!"

"Xia Ruli!" Zheng Bowen’s face darkened, and he said unpleasantly, "What are you doing? Don't you know we are in the middle of a class?"

"Head teacher... I would like to request leave to go home early." Xia Ruli replied with her head bowed, already prepared for a scolding.

"Requesting leave again? You've requested leave for three days in a row! What could possibly be more important than your studies?" Fury appeared on Zheng Bowen’s face as he continued to scold, "Do you not want to attend school anymore?"

"I..." Xia Ruli was momentarily speechless. Naturally, she couldn't explain that she was waiting for Nangong Yuchen, and since top-tier students were usually allowed to leave a bit early, she stood frozen at her seat, unable to come up with a good excuse.

"Hmph, if you still want to continue your studies, sit down and listen to the lesson!"

"Head teacher, Xia Ruli is having her period and is feeling unwell, so she needs to go to the hospital!" Chu Huiyan stood up from the side to help.

"Having her period? Even if her aunts and grandmothers were all here, it wouldn't matter!" Zheng Bowen was in a fit of rage, and as the words slipped out, the dozens of students below burst into uproarious laughter.

Even Chu Huiyan and Xia Ruli were amused by the remark.

"..." Zheng Bowen realized what he had said and immediately roared, "Whoever laughs again, get out!"

Seeing his anger, the students quickly stifled their laughter.

"Xia Ruli, since you aren't feeling well, you can leave. The rest of you, sit still and continue the lesson!"

"As for our Ruxia City..."

"Chu Huiyan, thank you!" Xia Ruli cast a look of gratitude toward her friend, packed her things, and hurried out of the classroom.

However, this time she did not head toward the school gate. Instead, following Nangong Yuchen's instructions, she prepared to wait at the intersection where the top-tier students' department was located...

Just a few minutes after Xia Ruli left, dozens of patients dressed in white suddenly stormed into the main entrance of Star Academy. Their skin was pale, their frames gaunt, and they stumbled as they ran, appearing exceptionally strange.

"Stop! Who are you, daring to barge into Star Academy?" several guards shouted, stepping forward.

But they did not expect that the leader, despite his gaunt appearance, possessed astonishing strength, sending the guards flying with a single shove. Without waiting for them to get up, he led the group in a sprint toward the interior of the academy.

"Requesting backup! Dozens of strange people who look like patients have run into the academy..."

The guards called for support while giving chase, but their speeds were on entirely different levels. They hadn't pursued them far before those people vanished from sight.

Strangely, however, after the dozens of people sprinted all the way into the teaching area, they didn't run much further before one by one they collapsed to the ground, bodies convulsing.

At that moment, one of their bodies began to change. First, the skin turned red, then it split open in a terrifying fashion, and finally, even the head twisted and cracked apart!

"Roar!" In the blink of an eye, it had transformed into a two-meter-long, red-furred, one-eyed wolf demon!

At that moment, the others finished their transformations as well. Half of them, like the first, were wolf demons; the other half were massive, four-meter-tall black spiders with eight long legs!

As soon as they appeared, they scattered and charged into the teaching area in different directions...

Shangguan Luohua had been reviewing student files all day. She had just taken off her glasses and leaned back in her soft chair for a nap when she heard a deafening "boom," followed immediately by frantic, piercing screams!

"What is happening?" Alarmed, she rushed out of her office, but as soon as she reached the corridor, her pupils contracted sharply. Her eyes widened as she looked across the hall at a blood-red wolf demon, its jaws clamped around a dead male teacher!

"Crunch, crunch..." The wolf demon, appearing ravenous, snapped the man's neck and swallowed his entire head, chewing loudly.

It wasn't just there; the building housing the first-year general students was filled with harrowing screams and the thunderous sounds of collapsing floors.

"...I don't want to be eaten!"

"Teacher... save me..."

"Ah... how can there be demon beasts!"

...

The entire teaching area was instantly plunged into a world of terror. Screams and cries spread like a storm, sweeping across the entire campus.

"Demon... demon beasts?"

Shangguan Luohua's voice began to tremble, and her delicate frame shook. This was not fear, but the overwhelming hatred born from the depths of her soul!

The wolf demon heard the noise, turned around, its single eye radiating ferocity and malice. It opened its blood-stained jaws and lunged at Shangguan Luohua.

"Thud!"

The gore and shrieking assaulted Shangguan Luohua's mind. At that moment, her entire soul trembled violently; the vows she had once made shattered the instant those demon beasts appeared before her eyes!

She had once said that the fate of Ruxia City no longer had anything to do with her. Yet, after all these years, upon seeing them again, she realized she could never forget the blood feud of her husband!

"Roar!" The wolf demon’s speed was blinding. In the blink of an eye, its blood-stained jaws were above Shangguan Luohua, intending to bite her to death!

Shangguan Luohua remained motionless, but in the next instant, she suddenly raised her head and roared, trembling: "Demon beast!"

"Ah!" As the sound erupted, a silver light glowed on her graceful neck. In an instant, flame-colored crystalline shards surged out, condensing, intertwining, and taking shape! Finally, a fist and arm wreathed in flames appeared on her right hand.

"Die!" Shangguan Luohua’s aura was magnificent. With a violent punch from her right hand, she shattered the two-meter-long wolf demon entirely!

She then burst through the red mist of blood, her hair flowing behind her like a goddess of war, and rushed to the first-year grade zone.

Before her eyes, classrooms had collapsed, students were fleeing in every direction, and several teachers had already been dismembered. The scene was chaotic. The situation in the other eleven classes was slightly better because their head teachers were present, but her own Class 12 had already suffered nearly fifty percent casualties—and that was only because Liu Wen and Mo Liwei were guarding them together.

There was no helping it; there were over twenty demon beasts in sight, and aside from Mo Liwei, Liu Wen, and the respective class teachers, the other instructors possessed little combat capability. Just then, four spiders nearby finished eating the corpses and turned their sights toward the students of Class 3.

"Click-clack!" The four spiders' massive bodies did not affect their speed at all; instead, their eight blade-like legs allowed them to move with terrifying quickness, and in the blink of an eye, they charged into the crowd of Class 3 students.

"Ah, Teacher Mo Li, save me!" Le Han looked at the four-meter-tall black spider behind him, terrified out of his wits.

The other students were even worse off. Seeing such horrific demon beasts for the first time, their legs turned to jelly and they collapsed to the ground.

Mo Liwei was covered in blood himself. He was fending off two demon beasts alone and could barely protect himself, so he could only watch in rage as the four spiders charged into the students, harvesting lives with their sharp legs.

"Run, everyone, run!"

"Waaah... someone save me!"

"Teacher Liu!"

"Everyone, get out of the way!"

Just as the crowd fell into despair, they suddenly heard Shangguan Luohua’s high-pitched voice. Before they could react, they saw her leap into the air, ten meters high, and then, wielding a flaming fist magnified several times over, she hammered down toward the earth below.

"Boom!"

A massive sound echoed. Students within a ten-meter radius felt their ears ring, followed by the ground beneath them trembling violently, instantly charring and collapsing!

"Fracture!" Shangguan Luohua shouted coldly. Centered on her right hand, a pitch-black, cross-shaped fissure instantly split the ground, and the students and the four spiders within the radius were thrown into the air!

Such a massive disturbance naturally drew the attention of the other eleven classes. Before they could even recover from their shock, they witnessed the scene of the flame-encrusted fist shattering the four spiders into a bloody mist as if destroying dry weeds...