Zhang Wen’s persistent refusal to bow his head within the encirclement had already provoked intense anger among the Themis students surrounding him. When Zhang Wen, under the watchful eyes of everyone present, cut the surveillance device handed over by the girl wearing earrings, the long-suppressed fury of the Themis students finally erupted!
However, their anger was not because Zhang Wen had “bullied” their companion. It was because the attitude Zhang Wen displayed made them feel their authority had been challenged, provoking their fury.
All of these students from the Physical Arts Department at Themis Academy are considered top-ranking individuals. They have always been revered as geniuses, yet they have never in their lives experienced such humiliation before! Even the instructors in the Physical Arts Department at Themis Academy must be cautious when dealing with these students, considering their family backgrounds and the influence they hold among their peers.
As for the “trash” from the Almeyth Academy’s visiting delegation, the long-haired boy and his followers had long grown accustomed to their ridiculous appearances. The moment Zhang Wen fell into Ram’s trap, the students of Themis had already regarded him as a piece of meat landing on their chopping board. They all eagerly anticipated that Zhang Wen would, just like those Themis faculty members before him, upon realizing they were in a desperate situation, turn into pitiful creatures and put on various pathetic displays to entertain them.
However, they did not get to witness Zhang Wen’s disgraceful side. Instead, Zhang Wen’s attitude made them unconsciously feel as though they had become a group of mischievous children who clearly hadn’t grown up yet, but were insistently pretending to be adults. This striking contrast was utterly unacceptable to the extremely proud students of Themis, whose arrogance had reached its peak.
The long-haired man stood there for a while, then suddenly snapped back to his senses.
“Damn it, since you insist on drinking the penalty wine, then let’s all gang up on him! Let this bastard taste our strength!” he shouted furiously, raising his crystal energy sword high above his head.
“Listen to Senior Griffith and take him down!” a long-haired man shouted, raising his arm in rallying cry. The other students of Thoth also burst into excited and furious cheers. In their anger, they completely forgot to keep hiding their identities and instinctively shouted out the long-haired man’s real name.
“Wuwu!” Amid the roaring of the Thaumus students, the anxious whimpers of three girls could also be heard.
However, of course, Timith’s disciples would not let Zhang Wen go just because of Xiaoxi and their anger. As the long-haired man Griffith lunged toward Zhang Wen, they had already begun drawing their respective weapons. In an instant, the hall of Training Hall No. 3 was filled with the blinding glow of numerous crystal energy swords simultaneously igniting with combat energy.
Just by observing the brightness of the crystal energy swords radiating from over twenty students, Zhang Wen could tell that the physical arts students from Themis Academy were indeed superior to those from Almace Academy. Among the “kidnapper students” present, not a single one was below the fifth rank. Particularly the warrior who initially spoke to Zhang Wen had even broken through to the seventh rank!
According to common sense, Zhang Wen, who couldn’t use battle energy, wouldn’t even be able to handle any one of these fifth-stage martial artists, let alone face them all at once.
However, when Zhang Wen saw Griffith charging forward wielding the crystal energy sword, he did not show the slightest panic; instead, he smiled with satisfaction.
The reason he now spoke such provocative words to these young Thamis trainees was not merely to vent his anger. His more important purpose was precisely to provoke these hot-headed young men.
After all, even though Zhang Wen had absolute superiority in techniques and was confident in handling attacks from fifth or sixth stage martial artists, there were still more than twenty Thalmes students around him. If they all rushed at him at once, even if Zhang Wen had three heads and six arms, he wouldn’t be able to deal with attacks coming from all directions. Therefore, Zhang Wen deliberately provoked them, attempting to incite their anger.
When people are in a state of anger, they become impulsive. And a group of impulsive individuals can no longer act in coordination. Zhang Wen’s plan was to break the tacit understanding among the Thymus students around him, causing them to lose their composure. Only under such circumstances would Zhang Wen have the chance to escape unscathed from tonight’s trap.
Of course, although deliberately provoking the opponent was exactly Zhang Wen’s plan, even Zhang Wen himself hadn’t expected the other side to be so cooperative. Griffiths, charging forward at the forefront, was practically offering himself as a shield!
Before Griffiths could complete his thrusting move, Zhang Wen had already rushed forward to meet him. At the same time, Zhang Wen once again deftly rotated his wrist, allowing the sword in his hand to glide along the crystal energy blade Griffiths had not yet managed to fully extend.
Although Griffith’s physical combat skills reached the seventh level, surpassing many bounty fighters in the arena, his lack of real combat experience as a student who had never faced life-or-death battles made his responsiveness far inferior to the opponents Zhang Wen had previously encountered.
When Zhang Wen brought his long sword into contact with Griffith’s crystal energy blade, Griffith had clearly realized that Zhang Wen was employing an unexpectedly unconventional technique. However, his combat experience was insufficient to respond accordingly. In other words, in that brief moment, Griffith had no conscious awareness of adjusting his technique to counter Zhang Wen’s move. Instead, he mechanically continued executing the textbook-style thrusting motion.
Under a state of not exerting full force, Griffith’s seventh-stage battle energy was at most only half as powerful. And at this very moment, Zhang Wen’s long sword happened to be positioned precisely at Griffith’s balance point of power exertion!
For a warrior, balance has always been an essential element that he must master and give the utmost attention to during combat. If a warrior loses balance in his strength, his power will sharply diminish; if he loses balance in his skills, he will become flustered and disoriented. However, if a warrior’s balance is completely taken control of by his opponent during battle, his fate will end up exactly like that of Griffith before his eyes.
As Zhang Wen once again deftly twisted his wrist, guiding the long sword in his hand slightly to the side, Griffith immediately felt as though his strings had been pulled like a puppet, completely unable to resist as he spun around in sync with Zhang Wen’s movement.
After Zhang Wen experienced that battle with Wang, his understanding of the Spring Water Technique’s control over balance deepened significantly. It’s easy to imagine that even a peerless powerhouse like Wang could not resist Zhang Wen’s control—how then could Griffith possibly stand against a combat skill that embodies five thousand years of civilization?
“What… what’s going on?!” The moment he felt his body losing control, Griffith was so shocked that he froze completely.
Originally, he had been full of confidence in his full-powered strike at his seventh-stage combat ability. When launching that piercing attack, Griffith never expected that Zhang Wen would be able to block his assault. His mind was occupied entirely with thoughts of how he would properly humiliate Zhang Wen after piercing his body, and then show off in front of his companions. In fact, Griffith had even considered whether he should hold back just slightly upon hitting Zhang Wen, so as not to accidentally kill the teacher from the Almystus Academy’s visiting delegation outright.
In summary, as Griffiths thrust his sword toward Zhang Wen, many thoughts crossed his mind, but the one thing he never considered was what would happen if Zhang Wen managed to parry his attack.
In Griffith’s mind, it was absolutely impossible for a useless person who couldn’t even use the War Cry ability to withstand his attack! It was an absurd fantasy, even more ridiculous than the clichéd jokes the Empire people loved to tell, like “land-beasts flying.”
But now, right in front of Griffith… “The land-beast really flew!” For some reason, this thought suddenly popped into Griffith’s otherwise blank mind. It should have been utterly ridiculous, yet it was something that made him unable to even crack a smile.
Although Griffith himself was so astonished that he was stunned and lost the ability to think, his thrusting move, trained hundreds of times, could still be executed without conscious thought. As a result, Griffith’s long-proud seventh-stage power unexpectedly became Zhang Wen’s best shield at that moment.
Under Zhang Wen’s complete control, Griffith naturally turned around, and the crystal energy sword in his hand confusedly stabbed toward the direction where he originally had been. In that direction, several students from the Thymis Academy, who had responded to Griffith’s call, were just charging forward with their crystal energy swords.
“Griffith, what are you–” Seeing that Griffith’s crystalline energy sword was actually being swung toward them, his companions from the Temis Academy who had charged forward alongside Griffith to attack Zhang Wen were instantly thrown into chaos, scattering in all directions like a flock of startled chickens and frightened dogs.
These young noble students of Thymis Academy who spent every day hanging around with Griffith certainly knew how formidable his seventh-stage combat ability was. None of the Thymis students present dared to confront Griffith head-on. As a result, those Thymis students who had been blocking Griffith’s path didn’t dare to charge toward Zhang Wen any longer. All of them shouted curses loudly, withdrew their half-executed attacks, and leaped aside to both directions.
Following Griffith’s “help,” Zhang Wen easily cut through the encirclement of over twenty Thoth disciples and carved out a bloody path.
“Waaah! Waaah!” Hearing the sounds of Zhang Wen and the Thaemis students engaging in battle, the three blindfolded girls became even more anxious and screamed frantically.
Unfortunately, their mouths were blocked, so they could only make “muffled” sounds; no one could tell whether they were actually cheering for Zhang Wen or trying to convey something else.
Neither Zhang Wen, who had just broken through the encirclement, nor the confused Temis students—thrown into disarray by Griffith’s sudden and inexplicable betrayal—had any interest or time to spare for the thoughts of the three “hostages.”
Although Zhang Wen had managed to break through the encirclement, the entrance to the training hall had already been locked shut with a steel chain by two Thamis disciples right when he had first entered. Without the ability to use his combat energy, it would likely take Zhang Wen quite some time to sever the chain, which was nearly as thick as a thumb.
In other words, Zhang Wen was still locked inside a closed training hall—roughly the size of four basketball courts—alongside more than twenty dangerous Thymes trainees. His crisis had not eased in the slightest.
As for the other side, the students of Thymos Academy, after a brief moment of shock, became increasingly furious. They already felt it was an overreaction to mobilize so many people to attack Zhang Wen, a “useless teacher” from Almex Academy who couldn’t even use battle energy. Yet the result of their overwhelming assault was that their opponent actually broke through their encirclement! Zhang Wen’s actions were nothing short of a loud slap across each of their proud faces.
If the visible Thamis apprentices had previously only harbored a playful mindset toward Zhang Wen, merely wanting to tease him a bit, now these proud young Thamis nobles were truly furious and deeply embarrassed.
“Griffiths, what exactly happened just now?” Several hotheaded Thymes students shouted angrily at Griffiths, who had just greatly helped Zhang Wen. They raised their crystal energy swords again and, with fierce determination, surrounded Zhang Wen from multiple directions, forcing him back to the center of the training hall.
“Damn it! Just now… that wasn’t really me! That guy was acting strangely!” After finally recovering from shock, Griffith, filled with rage and anger, shouted again, clenched his teeth, and lunged once more toward Zhang Wen.
Among the group of “troublesome young lords” at Themis Academy, Griffith had always been the de facto leader due to his superior strength. This not only brought him a prominent and glorious status within the academy, but also allowed him to easily win the admiration of most of the girls there.
However, it was precisely because being a leader came with such wonderful benefits that Griffiths’ position had never been very stable. Among his companions, there were many ambitious individuals eager to seize his position. Therefore, Griffiths, who had just made a fatal mistake, was more eager than anyone else to regain his dignity.
After pushing his seventh-stage combat energy to the limit, Griffith’s speed clearly surpassed that of the other Thamis students by a significant margin. He easily overtook the first few companions who had rushed toward Zhang Wen, once again surging ahead of everyone else.
Griffith glared at Zhang Wen with gritted teeth. His right arm, gripping the crystal energy sword, was fully charged with power and stretched back to its limit. Griffith exerted every ounce of strength in his body, determined to deliver a thunderous strike that would teach that detestable Almishus, a good-for-nothing teacher, just what it meant to oppose him—Griffith!
Zhang Wen saw Griffith’s face twisted with rage, as well as the radiant crystal energy sword in Griffith’s right hand. Yet, facing Griffith who came filled with hatred, Zhang Wen secretly smiled in his heart.
He really doesn’t know how to learn from his mistakes… Zhang Wen’s lips curled up slightly. Suddenly, just like slamming on the brakes, he slid to a stop mid-sprint toward the depths of the training hall. Then, accelerating abruptly, he charged straight back at Griffith, who was already only five or six meters away!
“Damn it! Don’t think the same move will always work!” Seeing Zhang Wen counterattack, Griffiths also smiled smugly and shouted with all his might. At the same time, Griffiths’ posture suddenly changed. He swiftly extended his right arm, which had originally been bent and drawn back, outward in a flash, transforming the original thrust into a powerful horizontal slash.
Griffith, thinking himself clever, believed that his sudden change of tactics would completely catch Zhang Wen off guard. No matter what strange technique Zhang Wen had used earlier to make his body lose control, this time he was certainly not going to escape from his grasp.
However, when Griffith swung his crystal energy sword toward Zhang Wen with a standard, textbook-like posture, he was incredibly frustrated to discover that Zhang Wen’s sword was once again already waiting at the precise spot along his attack path!
It was still at the moment when Griffith’s power was about to be unleashed; the long sword still casually brushed against the crystal energy blade. Then Griffith, like the most dedicated ballet dancer, began to “dance” according to the script written by Zhang Wen.
Ding! Ding ding ding!
Amidst the crisp clinking sounds of the four Crystal Energy Swords colliding, Griffith seemed to transform into Zhang Wen’s ideal partner. He circled around Zhang Wen, and with a powerful slash, he not only failed to injure Zhang Wen but also perfectly shielded him from the initial four Thymis students who had rushed towards him. Because these four Thymis students had been overly eager to distinguish themselves and charged at Zhang Wen too quickly, they couldn’t dodge Griffith’s mighty horizontal strike in time.
The crystal energy blades clashed together, and the gap between Griffiths and the other trainees became immediately apparent. The combined efforts of the four Thamis trainees were not enough to withstand Griffiths’ horizontal slash. Their all-out attacks were effortlessly deflected by Griffiths, sending them flying backward. Moreover, the two who had engaged Griffiths first were struck down by his powerful battle energy and remained on the ground, unable to rise for quite some time.
Then, as if still not satisfied, Griffiths stumbled and rushed into the crowd that was charging toward Zhang Wen, causing a great uproar among everyone.
“Damn it! Griffith, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Griffith, I know you’ve never looked kindly on the rest of us. But are you out of your mind, causing internal conflict right in front of outsiders?” The four Thamis students who had been knocked away were already the ones who disliked Griffith the most. Seeing Griffith repeatedly commit inexplicable “basic mistakes,” they immediately and furiously turned their anger toward him without hesitation.
“That’s right. Griffith, you can settle the score between you two after dealing with that guy.” Even some of Griffith’s most loyal supporters began persuading him.
“I didn’t! I told you, that guy was acting strangely! He must have used some kind of black magic or something, making me unable to control my own movements!”
Although Griffith shouted desperately to explain that attacking his comrades was never his intention, how could the Thymis students, who had never personally experienced Zhang Wen’s combat techniques, believe Griffith’s words?
“Tsk! Griffiths, you’re a man, aren’t you? If you dared to do it, why won’t you take responsibility?” The Temple of Tymes trainee, who had been struck first by Griffiths’ horizontal slash, managed to rise to his feet with difficulty, spitting out those words with a sneering expression on his face.
As the first party involved, this Thamis student naturally understood the immense force contained within Griffith’s attack. In his opinion, Griffith’s claim that Zhang Wen could cause his movements to lose control was an utterly absurd and ridiculous argument.
“A seventh-stage physical adept’s full-power attack going out of control because of a useless good-for-nothing who can’t even use a single combat skill… Griffiths, don’t you think saying something like this is an insult to our intelligence?” Another Temis student, also injured by Griffiths, couldn’t suppress his anger and began sarcastically mocking Griffiths.
As the words of the two wounded men fell, even the Thamis disciples who trusted Griffiths the most couldn’t help but cast doubtful glances toward him. Indeed, Griffiths’ explanation sounded simply too incredible to be true.
“Damn it! Whether you believe me or not, what I’m saying is the truth! Who the hell knows what kind of black magic that bastard used? Since all of you doubt me, I might as well quit today—let whoever wants to take over do it!” Griffith, enraged by their suspicion, shouted furiously, spewing a string of curses. Then, he forcefully slammed his crystal-energy sword onto the ground and actually quit on the spot.
The two Thamis students, who had also been pushed away by Griffiths with a single move but remained unharmed, immediately lit up with realization. They exchanged a glance, then simultaneously shouted again and charged toward Zhang Wen.
For the past few minutes, the Thamis trainees had been busily trying to persuade Griffiths, temporarily ignoring Zhang Wen. But when Griffiths announced he was quitting, and the two companions turned to confront Zhang Wen again, the group suddenly realized that their main target for today had been left untouched all along!
At that moment, the more than twenty Thamis trainees suddenly snapped out of their daze. One after another, they followed the two Thamis trainees who had taken the lead, and in a rush, they charged toward Zhang Wen, who was more than ten meters away from them.
Seeing the Thymos students rushing toward him again, Zhang Wen’s mouth slowly curved into a wider smile. While those Thymos students had been busy fighting among themselves moments ago, Zhang Wen had already taken the opportunity to observe them carefully.
Even without the assistance of the Spring Water Battle Technique, Zhang Wen could still sense that when the next wave of attack began, if Griffiths wasn’t the first to charge forward, then those few guys who had been slashed away by Griffiths’ sword would definitely be the ones leading the assault.
After making the judgment mentioned above, Zhang Wen deliberately chose his position while retreating. The spot where he now stood was about ten meters away from the people who had been sent flying by Griffith, yet it was significantly farther from the main group of Temis disciples who remained in the distance.
In this way, Zhang Wen artificially created a time gap for his pursuers. The two Thymis students who rushed to his side first would arrive one or two seconds earlier than the main group. And within that one or two seconds, Zhang Wen would already have enough time to execute his most proficient sword technique.
After the two Thymes students who had simultaneously lunged toward Zhang Wen rushed forward two or three steps, Zhang Wen also sprang into action, keeping his eyes fixed on his opponents. Naturally, Zhang Wen did not, like most people encountering such a situation, turn and flee. Nor did he rush forward as he had previously done against Griffith. Instead, he swiftly slid several steps to his right, positioning himself at the side of the group of Thymes students.
As Zhang Wen moved, the Thymes students rushing toward him naturally changed direction as well. The two Thymes students who had originally been running side by side toward Zhang Wen now fell into a single-file line, one following the other.
However, those two Thamis students didn’t seem to care about this minor change and continued charging toward Zhang Wen with full force. After all, in their opinion, no matter what tricks Zhang Wen might pull, he couldn’t change the fact that he was unable to use battle energy. Their sixth-stage battle energy might not match Griffiths’, but it certainly wasn’t just for show!
A distance of about ten meters could be covered in the blink of an eye for a sixth-stage martial artist. Indeed, the two Thamis students took less than a second to reach right in front of Zhang Wen.
A Thymis disciple who was running ahead sneered and thrust his crystal energy sword toward Zhang Wen. However, just as he was imagining the scene of receiving cheers from the crowd after defeating Zhang Wen, he suddenly realized that Zhang Wen’s sword had somehow already come into contact with his own blade.
Right after that, this unfortunate Thymos trainee was terrified to realize that he had actually encountered the very situation Griffith had mentioned! His body had gone out of control!
Damn it! The panicked thaumaturge apprentice exerted all his strength, desperately trying to regain control of his body. Unfortunately, he soon realized once again that the harder he tried, the more obvious his loss of control became!
Could that guy actually… really use magic? When this unfortunate Theros Academy student realized that he had somehow flipped 180 degrees and was now thrusting his crystal-energy sword toward his own comrade, this was already the only thought left in his mind.
The companion following closely behind the tragic Thymos student was naturally thrown into a panic upon witnessing this scene. After all, there was only a distance of one or two meters between him and the Thymos student ahead. Over such a short distance, when the student in front suddenly turned his spear and thrust his sword forward, the companion right behind had absolutely no time to dodge!
“Ahh!” The follower let out a scream of agony as he watched his companion thrust a sword toward him. But in an instant, the follower found himself in disbelief, realizing that the tragic scene he had imagined—where both apprentices would fatally impale each other—did not occur. At the very moment his companion’s blade was about to strike his body, the crystal-energy sword entangled with the longsword suddenly lifted upward, clashing with the crystal-energy sword in his own hand. In that instant, the follower understood exactly what Griffith had meant by “losing control of one’s body.”
Two sixth-stage disciples of Themis spun around together, staggering like drunkards, and finally turned their heads back. Without hesitation, they unleashed their most powerful techniques toward the large group of companions following behind them.
Hey! A bunch of fools! As he watched those two guys who had doubted themselves meet the same fate as he had just experienced, Griffith couldn’t help but feel a sense of pleasure known as “schadenfreude.”
The Thaemus students, who had originally gritted their teeth and rushed fiercely toward Zhang Wen, all stopped in confusion, unsure of what to do next. Meanwhile, the three beautiful young girls, bound tightly in the corner of the training hall, had long since ceased their struggles.
Although all three girls had their eyes covered, they could still tell from the conversation among the Thamis students that the person now clearly gaining the upper hand was actually Zhang Wen!
“What? After self-proclaiming himself as a ‘War God,’ he actually left more than twenty body artists of levels five, six, and seven utterly helpless? Impossible! That’s just unbelievable!” All three girls struck cute poses, perking up their ears high, afraid of missing even a single word from Thamis’s student.
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