In the enormous and towering classroom building, students of different grades with books in their arms weaved in between the various classrooms.
There was a lot of freedom in the teaching style here. Other than a few compulsory foundational courses, students could choose any course they wanted to take. If one was up for it, one could even enroll in more than ten different courses.
Other than the few compulsory courses like Literature, Mathematics, and Basic Foreign Language, Tang Qi also selected Archaic History, Archaic Art Appreciation And Analysis, World Geography, Basic Biology, and a niche course called "Mysterious Legends".
A well-behaved Tang Qi spent the whole day following the crowd and going from classroom to classroom.
He didn't make any friends, nor did he do anything inappropriate, perfectly playing the part of an incredibly well-behaved Asian student who listened to lectures seriously. Making use of this stiff and inflexible image, he managed to truly blend into the student body.
Of course, at the same time as Tang Qi blended with the students, he was also constantly experimenting with the Derived Skill that he had just obtained.
This was an unexpected surprise!
Furnace's Eyes!
After a good half a day of experimenting, Tang Qi came to have a vague understanding of the function of this skill.
Just like what that unique interface indicated, when he focused the spiritual energy he got from cultivating the Meditation Method into his eyes, his pupils would temporarily turn gold. The intimidation effect it produced was something very difficult for regular people to withstand.
As for the so-called "calming the mind" effect, Tang Qi was still in the process of figuring it out.
Although this was barely enough to be considered a combat support technique, it was already a huge surprise to the current Tang Qi.
One must understand that the Sword of Damocles was hanging over him constantly. At the moment, he thought of that mother of his mentioned in Old Morgan's diary — Samra, someone who possessed creepy nicknames such as the Guardian of Ukuru and the Black Snake Witch.
Just a few vague mentions were already enough to fill Tang Qi with horror.
An old woman yet possessing the evil power to kill a hundred people.
The most critical point here was that Tang Qi had killed her son.
Tang Qi wasn't someone who was blindly optimistic. He didn't have any excessive expectations that this clan would never come after him.
The only external power which Tang Qi could make use of was Holy Thorns High School's protection, which he didn't even know whether it was real or not. There was nothing else other than that.
As for that Mr. Curry, after having him help Tang Qi handle the inheritance and the two other small favors, he had already exhausted whatever favors he could get from him.
In the end, Tang Qi still needed to rely on himself.
"Meditation Method, Furnace's Eyes."
"Oh, and some Saha Continent combat techniques that I learned from the diary."
"These are clearly not enough. I hope there is still some more time."
In the corridor, Tang Qi followed the student crowd as he thought about the power in his hands. No matter how he thought about it, Tang Qi knew very well that even though he could hold his ground against a few normal people at this point, he was still far from being able to fight a clan specializing in black magic.
Tang Qi was very anxious deep down. However, he was able to maintain absolute calmness and rationality on the surface.
He already had a vague plan now. He just needed time to put it into action.
Suppressing the sense of crisis in his heart, he followed the few male and female students in front and walked into the classroom for the last lesson for the day.
The subject for this lesson was "Mysterious Legends".
A very niche course, it mainly touched on the mysterious legends from all parts of Origin Blue Star, no matter domestic or foreign, ancient or contemporary.
Tang Qi found it very dubious that a high school which looked like it was a school for the nobility would offer such a strange course.
However, Tang Qi, who desired to enter the supernatural realm, couldn't help but select it after just a mere glance at the course introduction.
He had only just entered the classroom when Tang Qi noticed an unexpected person out of the corner of his eye.
It was Unlucky Sally with her head of eye-catching and messy blonde curls, the girl whom Tang Qi bumped into earlier and the female lead of the school bullying case that he was dragged into.
There weren't many students in the classroom. With just a few students inside, no matter how ordinary Tang Qi was, people would still notice when he walked in.
The girl named Sally raised her head slightly. When she caught sight of Tang Qi, she was visibly taken aback. Then, as if something had occurred to her, her face flushed as red as a tomato right away.
"What a timid girl."
Tang Qi sighed deep down while maintaining a polite disposition on the surface, giving Sally a kind smile.
Perhaps because it had been a long time since she was treated like that by someone, Tang Qi's smile made the girl rather flustered. Her face hidden by the black-framed spectacles turned even redder, and she hung her head so low that her face was almost buried all the way into her own chest.
Fortunately, a scraggly old man that looked like a teacher walked in at this moment.
He didn't make any small talk or take attendance. The old man merely cast a glance at the miserably few students and then started the lecture on his own.
"Today is the first day of school, so I'll talk about something completely new. It's a collection of files which records all the demons and monsters that a few holy warriors of the Condor Federation slayed back then — The Monster Files. This book can be found in its entirety in the Moses Library."
"Now, I'm going to recite the first chapter for all of you. The great Saint Axe warrior, the honorable Justice Lincoln slayed a monster in the Jersey Swamp. It was shaped like a gigantic bat, with the head of a dog and the face of a horse..."
Hearing just these few lines alone let Tang Qi somewhat understand why such a strange course existed.
If his guess was correct, this was a historical issue.
Holy Thorns High School was originally just a church school. Naturally, what it advocated was the greatness of God and the wonders of religious faith. Doing some brainwashing was thus necessary.
In the so-called Monster Files, the monsters took a backseat. What was more important were the warriors inside who had pledged allegiance to God and how great and mighty they were when slaying monsters under the guidance and strength of their religious faith.
With the advance of modern civilization, it was more than normal that this type of course would lose favor. It wouldn't be surprising if it was canceled in the near future.
The original Tang Qi was a believer, but unfortunately, the current Tang Qi wasn't.
No matter how fancy or illustrious the old man's story was, Tang Qi's attention was only on the descriptions of those monsters.
After listening for a while, a fascinating feeling welled up within him.
Realism!
Yes, it was a sense of realism.
In the 1841st year of the old calendar of Condor, Mrs. Ritz from the state of Jersey gave birth to her thirteenth child. Unhappy with how she was getting pregnant repeatedly, she shouted, "I'm sick of children. Let the devil take him away!"
The moment the words left her mouth, the infant transformed into a winged monster. In no time, it ate all of Mrs. Ritz's other children and then flew away through the chimney.
This legend sounded very ridiculous to normal people, but for some reason, when Tang Qi heard it, it gave him an incredibly odd sense of realism.
Shaking his head, he suppressed this strange feeling.
Tang Qi continued listening to the old man's story about the second monster, the "snow monster of the mountains". The main character of the story this time was a Saint Spear warrior, Morrogh.
...
Time flew by. Tang Qi was still engrossed in the stories when the bell indicating the end of the lesson rang.
Although the old man had just reached a critical point, he had no intention of dragging the lesson at all. Picking up his books, he left the classroom like a whirlwind. The few students in the classroom also got up lazily and left.
As Tang Qi got up, he mentally filed the "Moses Library" into the list of places to visit.
The last lesson for the day had ended. Holding his books, Tang Qi followed the other students and headed out, just like what he did when he came.
Although this was just the first day, it still met Tang Qi's expectations overall.
Other than the unpleasant encounter in the beginning, Tang Qi had almost perfectly blended into Holy Thorns High School and achieved his desired result. Who would take note of such an ordinary and normal male student?
Unfortunately, this sense of satisfaction had only just welled up in him when it was immediately destroyed.
The moment Tang Qi walked out of the classroom building, he immediately sensed a wave of malice. Lifting his head and looking past a few obstacles blocking his vision, true enough, he noticed a few tall and well-built teens standing in the field not far away. Their leader was the captain of the Traditional Fencing team who was intimidated by Tang Qi earlier.
After going around the school for a day, Tang Qi had also gotten wind of who those two influential figures in the morning were.
Just like what he thought, the girl named Angela was the captain of Holy Thorns High School's cheerleading team. Her father was a member of the city council, while her mother was a lawyer. She had an outstanding family background, a sexy figure, a good-looking face, and a mean personality.
As for the Traditional Fencing team captain, Ryan Clooney, his father was a multi-millionaire, while his mother was the director of the school and the board president of the Moses City Hospital. He himself was the captain of the school's basketball team, the captain of the Traditional Fencing team, and the president of the boxing club. He could be said to be the perfect boyfriend in the eyes of the female students.
If it had been some other normal student instead, they would have loved to curry favor with such influential figures and definitely wouldn't want to offend them.
Tang Qi, however, had offended both at the same time.
What was about to happen was probably the whole shtick of stopping someone from leaving after school and then ganging up on the victim to beat him up.
If Tang Qi had really been a teenage boy with overactive hormones, he might have been interested in taking part. Unfortunately, he wasn't.
Tang Qi was rather troubled. He wasn't worried about being badly beaten up by a few high school students. Even if the body constitution of the original Tang Qi was average, the combat techniques that he had learned from Old Morgan's diary looked very practical for use.
It was just that those techniques were more vicious than needed.
Just as Tang Qi couldn't make up his mind, a figure that was already somewhat familiar by now suddenly approached him from the side. Messy blonde hair flew past the tip of Tang Qi's nose, and he heard a pleasant and very soft voice.
"Follow me."
After saying that, she went through a path at the side of the classroom building and headed towards a secluded corner.
A surprised Tang Qi stood where he was for a moment before his lips quickly turned up into a slight smile. He followed after her without any hesitation.