Chapter Nine: Salted Fish and Shoes
It was the time when school was over, and the campus was filled with the rare relaxed atmosphere. Laughter and cheerful voices floated along the tree-lined paths, and in the sky, many luxurious private flying shuttles slowly descended—parents who had come to pick up their children. There were also many students like Li Yao, dragging their tired bodies, slowly walking towards the school gate.
Just about to walk out of the school gate, Li Yao suddenly felt a tightness on his body, and a tall figure blocked his way: "Your name is Li Yao, and you were just with Si Jia Xue, right?"
Li Yao's pupils shrank suddenly, as if a hundred thousand needles were pricking his body, his heart rate instantly accelerated, and a chill rushed from the base of his spine to the top of his head. The pressure brought by this person was too great. He was like a mouse staring at a venomous snake, unable to move at all, and even swallowing saliva became extremely difficult.
"It's He Lian Lie, the 'number one master of Chi Xiao No. 2 Middle School,' I'm done for this time!" Li Yao screamed in his heart, wanting to explain, but he couldn't say a word.
He Lian Lie stood casually, holding a crystal brain in his right hand, and was buried in solving an application problem, not even looking at Li Yao, and said casually, "Don't be afraid, I of course know that with your caliber, it's impossible to have any kind of situation with Xiao Xue, so I'll let it go this time, I'm too lazy to deal with you."
He lightly tapped the light screen and switched to the next problem. He Lian Lie continued, "However, it is now the critical moment of the 'Hundred Days Dash,' and both Xiao Xue and I are aiming for the 'top scorer in the Fugou City college entrance examination.' During this time, I don't want to have some miscellaneous trash to harass Xiao Xue and distract her. Do you understand?"
Li Yao's eyes narrowed, and he clenched his teeth tightly: "You say I'm trash?"
He Lian Lie didn't even lift his head and said lightly, "Don't get me wrong, I'm not deliberately targeting you. In my eyes, all of you 'ordinary class' miscellaneous fish, one by one—are all trash!"
When he finished the last word, he finally looked up and glanced at Li Yao.
Just one glance, and Li Yao felt as if his chest had been hit hard by a heavy hammer, and he couldn't help but take two steps back and cough violently.
He Lian Lie snorted coldly, his face full of disdain, and turned away.
Li Yao was bent over, coughing like a big lobster, and even tears were coughed out. It took a long time before he straightened up, gasping for breath, and stared at the direction He Lian Lie had left.
"Damn it!"
"Is it that these days, as long as you are tall and mighty, elegant and handsome, handsome and heroic, with a sword eyebrow and starry eyes, and you are born in a wealthy family, with a fortune of 100 to 80 billion, and you also have a strong cultivation talent and domineering strength—you can be so arrogant?"
...
Half an hour later.
"Lost, lost, this time I really lost to my grandmother's house. In order to repair the crystal brain for Si Jia Xue, I actually offended He Lian Lie. If I had known this—definitely I would have raised the price, at least 200,000 to make up for the loss!"
"And He Lian Lie, this damned guy, relying on himself to be rich, eats heavenly materials and treasures every day as if they were meals, drinks strengthening agents as if they were tap water, and has meditation masters to help him strengthen his spirit and martial arts masters to forge his physique, raising his spiritual root development to more than 70%, and he is so arrogant! Trash? I'm not trash! One day, I will become a real refining master and beat you into a pig's head and stuff you into the trash can!"
On the way home, the young man walked alone, gritting his teeth, his expression as if he were possessed, and from time to time he kicked the small pebbles on the side of the road fiercely.
He Lian Lie's appearance made him clearly realize the gap between himself and the cultivation genius, and also made him understand how slim the chance was to "be admitted to the Nine Elite United Schools, embark on the road of cultivation, and become a refining master."
In Li Yao's mind, there was a scene that he had seen repeatedly in his dreams, which seemed to be a movie screen.
It was a young man in a red vest, raising his eyebrows, staring wide-eyed, and saying loudly, "If a person has no dreams, what's the difference between him and a salted fish!"
This scene has always deeply stimulated Li Yao, making him bravely move forward on the road to his dreams, fearless.
Until this moment, he finally remembered that after the young man in the red vest said this in his dream, others responded:
"You don't even have shoes, so you are just a salted fish, right?"
Li Yao stood still and subconsciously looked at his feet.
He was wearing a pair of basic practice shoes picked up from the garbage heap. Because of the crazy cultivation, they were already excessively worn out. Not only were the patterns on the soles worn bald, but even the tip of the left shoe was worn out with a big hole, revealing a dirty big toe.
He recalled that just now he saw He Lian Lie wearing the latest training shoes, the "Superstar IX," handcrafted from the toughest monster skin, with a surface covered with highly wear-resistant scales.
It is said that there are airbags made from the swim bladders of deep-sea demon fish in the soles, which not only increase jumping power but also protect the leg joints. Just this pair of shoes costs tens of thousands!
On the fierce battlefield of the college entrance examination, there are countless rich children wearing "Superstar IX" like He Lian Lie, with endless resources!
Can this poor boy who has nothing, like Li Yao, be able to stand out in this cruel bloodbath and make his dreams come true?
Li Yao's heart is particularly confused, and his steps are particularly heavy. The road ahead seems very, very long.
As night fell and the city lights came on, he finally moved out of the main urban area.
Ahead is a crystal rail bridge, which is exclusively used for the "ultra-high-speed crystal rail train," and after passing through the culvert under the bridge and walking a mile, it is Chaoyang New Village.
This is the suburbs, which is relatively desolate and seldom visited.
Li Yao was about to pass through the culvert when a sharp roar suddenly came to his ears, and the light was dazzling in front of him. It was an ultra-high-speed crystal rail train about to pass through the bridge.
Li Yao suddenly stopped, rubbed his eyes, and looked up at the bridge.
At the moment when the light came just now, he seemed to see a person standing on the bridge!
This is a railway bridge exclusively for trains!
The "ultra-high-speed crystal rail train" is one of the ten ultra-large-scale magical treasure systems known as the "national treasure," with a maximum speed of over two thousand miles per hour. In order to prevent the destruction of monsters, each crystal rail train is equipped with the highest level of defensive magic array. Under high-speed impact, the destructive power is no less than a full-force blow from a high-order cultivator!
To prevent accidents, ultra-high-speed crystal rail trains usually gallop on dedicated tracks dozens of meters above the ground, and there are closed prohibitions around the tracks - how did this guy climb in?
Yes, Li Yao saw clearly that there was indeed an old man standing on the railway bridge.
This is a very strange old man, with white hair and a simple appearance, just like the human figures Li Yao once saw in the museum, which were unearthed tens of thousands of years ago.
But on his body, he exudes an extremely rich "aura." Even if he is a hundred meters away, Li Yao seems to be able to hear his strong heartbeat.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It's like a huge hammer is constantly pounding on an anvil!
Compared with his vast and boundless aura, He Lian Lie's oppressive force is simply pitiful, and the difference between the two is much greater than the gap between the sun and a firefly - and Li Yao also has a feeling that compared to He Lian Lie's pretentiousness, this old man did not actively exert his aura at all. What he felt was just a trace of fluctuation that overflowed inadvertently, just the tip of the iceberg!
The old man was wearing a simple and plain set of coarse cloth magic robes, just like he came out of the classical cultivation world forty thousand years ago!
"Hey -" At the critical moment, Li Yao didn't care whether this old man was a madman or any kind of weird person. Seeing the train approaching, he waved his hands and shouted loudly.
The old man turned a deaf ear to Li Yao's shouting and continued to look at the expanding light in front.
He seems to be very curious about everything around, especially the crystal track laid on the bridge and the whistling crystal train, which makes a childlike joy appear on his face when he finds a new toy.
The next second -