After a thousand years of cultivation, he returns at the pinnacle!

Faced with an absolute disparity in strength, fleeing is a strategic measure.

What A-level talent? What top scorer in the entire school in the college entrance examination? What future star?

In front of a C-rank monster, it's all bullshit.

Only by living can we have a future!

They ran desperately, tumbling and crawling, wishing their parents had given them two more legs.

Behind it, the black-scaled wolf's roar shook the leaves to their very core, but it did not give chase.

It simply stood at the edge of the open space, its crimson eyes fixed on the group of figures fleeing in disarray, a grin spreading across its face as if it were laughing.

Zhou Minglang was running in the lead.

He ran for over a hundred meters in one breath, until the roar behind him grew farther and farther away, until the trees around him became sparser and sparser, until he finally saw that familiar clearing.

He stopped, put his hands on his knees, and gasped for breath.

"Damn, I survived."

He looked up and glanced back.

Behind them, the boy with the pointed face and monkey-like cheeks, along with other classmates, also ran out one after another. They were all pale-faced and covered in sweat; some simply collapsed on the ground, unable to get up for a long time.

"Brother Minglang".

The boy with a pointed chin and monkey-like face gasped for breath: "We...we survived?"

Zhou Minglang took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down.

He turned and looked into the depths of the forest.

The black-scaled wolves did not pursue them.

He suddenly laughed.

The laughter was filled with the relief of surviving a disaster, and a hint of inexplicable pride.

"That stupid wolf, it didn't even chase!"

He stood up, patted the dirt off his clothes, and straightened his crooked combat uniform.

"Damn, that scared the hell out of me. I thought I was going to die here today."

"That's right!" Another student got up and wiped the sweat from his face.

"My legs went weak when that thing just appeared. A C-rank monster! We actually escaped from the mouth of a C-rank monster!"

"That's right!" The boy with the pointed face and monkey-like features perked up as well.

"What does this show? It shows we reacted quickly and ran fast! Anyone else would have been killed long ago!"

The group started talking all at once, the excitement of surviving the ordeal overshadowing their earlier fear.

As Zhou Minglang listened to their words, the smile on his lips grew wider and wider.

He suddenly remembered something.

"By the way, what about Jiang Chen?"

Everyone was taken aback and looked at each other in bewilderment.

"It seems he didn't manage to escape?"

"I glanced back as I ran, and he was still standing there."

"I saw it too, it was completely still, like it was frozen in fear."

"Hahaha, is that good-for-nothing's legs too weak to run?"

"Possibly! After all, he's a powerless individual; if he saw a C-rank monster, he'd probably wet his pants on the spot!"

Several people burst into laughter.

Zhou Minglang laughed the loudest.

"Serves you right!"

He stopped smiling, his eyes filled with smugness.

"I gave him a chance. I told him to come with us, but he wouldn't listen. He even said something like, 'If I were you, I'd take your men and leave right now.' What a load of rubbish!"

He mimicked Jiang Chen's tone, speaking in a sarcastic manner, and then laughed.

"Now he's all alone there. The Blackscale Wolves aren't chasing us; they're probably just enjoying him!"

"Haha, yes, yes, yes!"

"That piece of trash is probably chewed up by now!"

"For a C-rank monster to eat someone without abilities, it's like it's broken its fast!"

Laughter echoed at the edge of the forest.

Zhou Minglang clapped his hands and called to everyone.

"Alright, forget about him. Let's hurry up and find the teacher to report that there's a C-rank monster here. We'll say we fought bravely and escaped at the cost of our lives, and we can even get a commendation for our heroic act."

"Great idea!"

Just as the group was about to turn around, a blinding light burst forth from their waists.

The teleportation talismans on their waists, which should have been ineffective, suddenly burst forth with a blinding white light.

What happened?

Zhou Minglang frowned. It had failed just now, but now it was suddenly glowing again?!

However, before he could react, the teleportation array activated, and Zhou Minglang and the others disappeared in a dazzling white light.

When Zhou Minglang reappeared, the open space around him disappeared, replaced by a dense forest and a strange killing intent that enveloped him.

He recognized the two boys standing not far in front of him.

One is Wang Kai, an inconspicuous student in Class 5, who is known for his good relationship with Jiang Chen.

The other one is Jiang Chen, the most outstanding prodigy in the history of Jiangzhou Academy before he awakened his true potential.

Jiang Chen stood calmly a short distance in front of him, a slight smile playing on his lips, as if mocking his own ignorance.

Why did I come back here?! Why is Jiang Chen looking at me like that?!

He dared not think about it, much less look back!

Roar! ! ! !

A roar that echoed throughout the entire forest rang in my ears.

"How...how is this possible..."

Zhou Minglang's voice was as dry as sandpaper.

They've already run away!

I can clearly see the way I came from!

Why, why are you back again?!

"No, no!"

The boy with the pointed mouth and monkey-like face frantically tried to pinch the teleportation talisman at his waist.

Click.

The jade talisman shattered.

But there was no response.

If it's broken, it's broken.

It wasn't activated; it simply turned into a pile of fragments.

Other students also reached out to touch their teleportation scrolls.

Some were crushed, some remained intact, but regardless of whether they were crushed or not, there was no reaction.

All teleportation tokens are now invalid.

The black-scaled wolf behind them moved. It was so fast that no one could react in time, and its claws left a black afterimage in the air.

The boy with the pointed snout and monkey-like face didn't even have time to let out a scream before that claw smashed his head.

The body fell to the ground, twitched twice, and then stopped moving.

Blood splattered on Zhou Minglang's face.

Warm, foul-smelling, his face was filled with fear as his classmates around him died one after another, while he stood there, his legs trembling.

His gaze was fixed on Jiang Chen in front of him, and for some reason he had a terrifying intuition.

Jiang Chen did all of this!

Jiang Chen's eyes remained completely calm. He showed no sadness, anger, or even the slightest fear because of the deaths of his classmates.

He had nothing, as if he were just watching a trivial farce!

Jiang Chen's appearance only strengthened Zhou Minglang's resolve.

"It was...it was you who did it!!! Right!!!?"

His eyes were filled with resentment, but before he could utter another word, his voice abruptly stopped, claws whistled past, and Zhou Minglang's head shot straight into the sky.

Wang Kai's pupils suddenly contracted.

The head tumbled through the air, its face still bearing the expression of its dying moments: resentment, fear, disbelief—all emotions twisted together, making it look like a monstrous demon from hell.

Blood gushed from the severed neck, like a scarlet fountain, blooming into an eerie and bewitching flower against the dark red forest backdrop.

The body swayed and then collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Wang Kai's stomach suddenly clenched.

He had seen dead people.

Although he didn't see the bodies of his classmates that night at the Emperor Hotel, the screams, the shattered windows, and the faint cries coming from the thick smoke were enough for him to imagine the horror of that night.

But imagining and seeing with your own eyes are two completely different things.

The scene before him was a hundred times more terrifying than anything he had ever imagined.

Seven corpses lay scattered across the open ground.

Some skulls were shattered, white and red blood flowing all over the ground; some bodies were cut in half at the waist, with internal organs gushing out from the wounds; some limbs were incomplete, the cuts were bloody and fleshy, revealing white bone fragments.

Blood soaked the entire open space, forming small pools that meandered across the uneven ground, eventually pooling into a shocking dark red stain in a low-lying area.

The air was thick with the stench of blood, mixed with the putrid smell of entrails and a nauseatingly sweet odor, like an invisible hand gripping Wang Kai's throat.

He felt nauseous, but he forced himself to hold it in. He couldn't help but look at Jiang Chen beside him.

If what Zhou Minglang said is true, and the reappearance of the escaped people was all Jiang Chen's doing, then it's too bizarre. He had been staying by Jiang Chen's side the whole time, and even just now he was trying to persuade Jiang Chen to run away together, but Jiang Chen refused. Remembering what Jiang Chen had said to him, he ultimately chose to stay by his side, but he never expected to witness such a strange thing.

Jiang Chen did nothing; at least within Wang Kai's field of vision, he simply stood there, calmly observing everything before him.

"Brother Chen, what should we do now?" Wang Kai's heart jumped into his throat as he looked at the monster with its sharp fangs bared in front of him.

"Wang Kai, do you remember two days ago I told you I was going to teach you something? Watch it and see if you want to learn."

Wang Kai was stunned. Of course he remembered what Jiang Chen had said to him a couple of days ago, and he had even been looking forward to what Jiang Chen would teach him these past few days.

If he could, he wouldn't want to make it a profession and live an ordinary life.

He also wanted to become a powerful figure like countless predecessors, capable of facing the demon race head-on.

Upon hearing this, he nodded excitedly.

Seeing this, Jiang Chen stopped hiding it.