The Heavenly Dao Academy overseer and the experts of the Temple Seminary stood around the stone platform, surrounding Luoluo in the center. Any one of them could easily subdue her, but the problem was that she was standing right in front of Tianhai Ya'er, only several feet away. Her fist was tightly clenched, a thunderstorm within.
Once this fist fell, Tianhai Ya'er would die or be crippled.
The Heavenly Dao Academy overseer and the experts of the Temple Seminary all had very grim expressions. They did not dare to take one step forward nor did they retreat. They maintained the current state of affairs, hoping to intimidate her into staying her hand. They thought that with the passage of time, Luoluo would emerge from her fighting state and become much more cool-headed.
All was quiet. No one wanted to excite this girl, nor did anyone wish for an even more gruesome scene to occur.
Tianhai Ya'er himself had no awareness of this. He looked at Luoluo, coughing blood, his voice trembling and tears streaming as he spoke, "Don't kill me…I beg you…don't kill me, I'm really scared, so scared…hahahaha!"
This pathetic begging tinged with tears suddenly became a laugh of unbridled arrogance!
The boy with his face covered in blood had an abnormally ruthless expression and seemed particularly sinister. He fiercely stared at Luoluo and howled, "You believe I'd really be scared of you! I'm just playing with you! Because you're done! The Orthodox Academy is also done! Look around you at these shameless old fellows, their bellies filled with sewage. Whether I beat you into a cripple or it turns out like now, you're both done! Because no one can treat me this way!"
The Heavenly Dao Academy overseer's complexion turned somewhat unsightly.
Luoluo slightly wrinkled her brow and raised her fist even higher. Bright specks of light circled around her fingers, very beautiful and also very frightening.
Tianhai Ya'er's expression suddenly changed. He shrilly screamed, his two legs kicking about and his expression growing crazed to the extreme. He looked just like a child who had just had its milk snatched away!
"What do you plan to do! Could it be that you actually dare to strike me! The Divine Empress is my grandaunt! In this continent, who would dare to strike me!"
There was a deathly stillness. Everyone knew that this little monster of the Temple Seminary spoke the truth. Let alone the fact that he was rumored to be the Pope's disciple, solely because he had a grandaunt like this meant that no one dared to make things difficult for him. Thinking about the frenzied reprisals that would occur after this incident, the crowd turned to Luoluo with gazes of pity and empathy.
Surrounded by senior experts and threatened by this repulsive boy, what would Luoluo do next?
She gazed beyond the stage at a certain corner, at that youth.
This was her subconscious, or perhaps habitual, action. She might not require Chen Changsheng's opinion, but she felt that she should comply with Chen Changsheng's view.
Everyone's gazes followed her gaze to the corner, to Chen Changsheng.
...
...
Chen Changsheng at this moment felt rather complex.
He was not at all surprised, nor was he anything close to pleasantly surprised. After these days of instructing Luoluo in cultivation at the Orthodox Academy, he knew that, though strong, the little monster of the Temple Seminary was no match for Luoluo, or else he would have definitely stopped her from stepping onto the stone platform. However, he had not imagined that the Temple Seminary's little monster would be such a fool and actually dare to directly contest with Luoluo on strength of true essence and ultimately suffer such a miserable defeat, now requiring Luoluo to make such an important choice.
He knew what choice Luoluo would make because several days ago, a grain of sand had gotten into her eye. The girl had taken half a day, insisting on getting that grain of sand out, before she was finally willing to continue studying. Ultimately, she succeeded. With red eyes, she happily ran around the lake.
He knew why Luoluo was hesitating, why she had turned to him. She was concerned that she might stir some sort of trouble for the Orthodox Academy. In addition, she had grown used to asking for his opinion before doing anything, and no matter what he chose, she would always obey.
That little monster of the Temple Seminary had been defeated by Luoluo, and Luoluo was seeking his opinion. Upon confirming these two facts, Chen Changsheng knew what he should do: he decided to very straightforwardly give his opinion, in accord with the path Luoluo had originally wanted to choose.
This was very good. Chen Changsheng thought to himself, this responsibility should be mine to bear. He stood and gazed at the Heavenly Dao Academy overseer and the crowd waiting with bated breath. After a period of silence, he said, "A moment ago, he said that he wanted to cripple Tang Thirty-Six."
His voice was rather hoarse and halting, so he seemed very clumsy. It wasn't because he was afraid, but because he just wasn't used to speaking in front of so many people. Frankly speaking, today's Ivy Festival was absolutely the first time he had met so many people in his entire life.
And what he was doing was very unyielding, yet he was not skilled at speaking unyielding words.
He thought it over, deemed this reason sufficient, and then he spoke, "Tang Thirty-Six is my friend, so…"
...
...
Luoluo understood his meaning and then suddenly realized that she had made a mistake. She should not have looked to her teacher. That look had been out of habit, out of respect, but it was also the equivalent of placing the power of choice and all the consequences that would follow on her teacher. This was an extremely wrong thing to do.
She turned away and placed her gaze once more on Tianhai Ya'er.
Now, Chen Changsheng had just said that Tang Thirty-Six was his friend.
Tianhai Ya'er saw the look in her eyes and understood her intentions. His face turned exceptionally pale and his eyes showed an expression of utter loss, not understanding why things were happening this way. Then, he shrieked in fear and unease, "Quickly save me!"
He shrieked very loudly, drowning out the words following Chen Changsheng's 'so'.
But it could not drown the terrifying gale stirred by the fist and the crackle of lightning.
Luoluo's noble and tyrannical bloodline made her utterly loathe cowardly beings.
At Tianhai Ya'er's fearful and urgent cry for help, her eyebrows leapt up and her eyes became abnormally bright.
An image flashed, a young tiger leaping over a stream!
Her fist fell upon Tianhai Ya'er's stomach!
With a smack, Tianhai Ya'er's shrieks suddenly came to a halt!
After a moment, the silence was finally broken by countless alarmed cries and yells.
Tianhai Ya'er lay unconscious in a pool of blood, his ribs completely shattered and his meridians completely ruptured, already a cripple.
Luoluo drew back her first, violent winds howling around her small body.
Whoosh!
Her black hair blew across her small and beautiful face like catkins in the wind.
Not catkins, but traces of grass.
She gazed at the surrounding crowd, her expression cold and calm.
It was like she was in the north, standing within a mighty gale amidst the bent grass, constantly waiting for the moment where she could deliver the killing blow.
An indescribable power and prestige naturally formed around her.
...
...
There was absolute silence as the crowd stared with stupefied expressions at the platform.
That girl…had actually crippled Tianhai Ya'er! Did she know who Tianhai Ya'er was? Did she know what she was doing?
Chen Changsheng deeply wished to tell the entire world, I was the one that made her do it, but at this time, the gazes of the entire world were focused on Luoluo, none of them at him. For instance, Zhuang Huanyu's gaze only had space for Luoluo's petite figure as he was filled with boundless appreciation and admiration.
With a shaking of light, the Heavenly Dao Academy overseer and those experts of the Temple Seminary quickly rushed to Tianhai Ya'er's side to check on his pulse and breath. They confirmed that he was still alive, but…his meridians were all shattered, crippled until they could be crippled no more, making him incapable of cultivation for the rest of his life. The people from the Temple Seminary carried Tianhai Ya'er down from the platform as quickly as possible and to the Imperial Palace, hoping that the Guardians or imperial doctors would be able to preserve a final hope. If it really turned out to be no good, there was truly a chance for this incident to disturb the Divine Empress.
The bishop and teachers of the Temple Seminary departed with them. Before leaving, they shot a glance at the Heavenly Dao Academy overseer, their meaning crystal-clear: you carried out this matter behind the Temple Seminary's back, you were using Tianhai Ya'er, so you will be the one who must give an explanation.
The Heavenly Dao Academy overseer gazed at Luoluo, his face like a sheet of frost, his voice as piercing as the edge of a blade. "To strike with such viciousness, you really are an incredibly cold-blooded little girl."
Luoluo thought, what did that Tianhai Ya'er say to this Heavenly Dao Academy overseer after injuring and crippling Xuanyuan Po? She remembered. At the time, the Heavenly Dao Academy overseer had said that Tianhai Ya'er's attack was too harsh, and Tianhai Ya'er had replied that he had only promised to not kill Xuanyuan Po but had never said anything about not crippling him.
"I never promised that I wouldn't kill him, let alone the fact that I only crippled him."
Luoluo felt her argument very reasonable, so she boldly and confidently turned around and walked off the platform.
The Heavenly Dao Academy overseer froze. Recalling his conversation with Tianhai Ya'er and believing Luoluo to be intentionally ridiculing him, he couldn't help but grow angrier. His long beard danced rapidly in the night wind and his complexion turned extremely nasty as he sternly yelled, "You think you can just leave like this!"
Luoluo stopped.
The Heavenly Dao Academy overseer stared at her back and emotionlessly said, "I don't care what your background is or who your real teacher is, but let me make it clear to you that this is the capital of the Great Zhou, this is the Heavenly Dao Academy. You've committed violent assault before the crowd. Do you think you can just run away?"
His statement was one thing, but everyone understood the true meaning of his words. No matter how mysterious Luoluo was, the Tianhai Ya'er that she had severely injured was the Pope's disciple, the Divine Empress's grandnephew, and so there was no one in the entire human world that could protect her.
The Heavenly Dao Academy overseer gave her a forced smile, saying, "Little girl, you truly…have a lot of nerve."
Luoluo was somewhat displeased, asking, "What sort of thing are you to actually dare speak to me in this way?"
The entire scene was quiet. Nobody could have imagined that at this sort of moment, not only was this girl not afraid, she was actually so forceful.
Only very few people were able to sense that something was strange because the aura exuded by this girl was truly very powerful.
She confronted the Heavenly Dao Academy overseer like a lord confronting a subject.
What sort of family or teacher could produce such a female student?
The Heavenly Dao Academy overseer was stunned. He began to smile out of his anger, an exceptionally cold smile.
He was now very sure that this girl's background was assuredly not ordinary, but just as he had said, her crippling Tianhai Ya'er…meant that there was no one in all of the human world that could change her fate.
With a harsh shout, his right hand casually waved.
No wind or rain, only a straight line of stalwart Qi, a stalwart Qi that not even meteoric iron could block!
This was a strike of a Star Condensation expert!
This Heavenly Dao Academy overseer was this sort of personage!
Luoluo could be even stronger, but she was still just a girl.
The crowd seemed to hear the sound of death, seemed to hear someone say that this girl's death was assured.
Who could change this situation?
A person turned towards the Orthodox Academy's corner, wanting to see that girl's companion.
Only a lonely table set with food and wine.
No person.
(TN: 虎虎生风 is a Chinese idiom. It basically means that heroes will appear as they are needed, and when they do appear, they will have a massive effect on society.)