23: The school beauty hit on him

"You!" The boy with the slicked-back hair wanted to say more, but the playground bell rang, and he had to leave dejectedly.

Class monitor Liu Yuan stood next to Xie Ning and said to him with no small amount of worry, "Xie Ning, it's better if you're careful. Although these rich kids don't have much strength, there's no telling if they'll hire people to take action."

Xie Ning nodded and said, "I'll be careful."

The routine Monday flag-raising ceremony began.

Amidst a solemn atmosphere, the flag-raising ceremony was successfully completed. The old principal, whose hair was half-white yet still full of energy, stepped onto the stage wearing a Tang suit. With a kind smile, he spoke about recent school events before suddenly changing the topic.

"Just last Friday, the same day Flower City encountered a beast tide, our team heading to Hope Forest was also attacked by a beast tide. During this beast tide, our students showed extraordinary character, fighting against the Yao Beasts alongside the warriors of the City Defense Bureau. This was the most precious lesson before graduation."

"Here, I especially want to praise Student Xie Ning from Class 1, Grade 12, and Student Mo Yu from Class 3, Grade 12. With their excellent combat awareness and seamless cooperation, these two students assassinated the beast tide leader and saved everyone."

"Now, let us welcome Xie Ning and Mo Yu to the front with a warm round of applause!"

The students began to clap with surprised expressions, and for a moment, the applause was thunderous. Then, Xie Ning and Mo Yu stepped out of their respective class formations, shared a smile, and walked toward the front of the stage.

The crowd didn't feel much about Mo Yu, but seeing Xie Ning walk onto the stage, they were no longer calm.

"Is that for real? I clearly remember his Demon Tamers Beast was only Black Iron Level 3."

"Exactly, exactly. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been beaten so miserably by Li Zhi's Tawny Tiger. In my opinion, he must have just picked up the scraps, running in to land the finishing blow while the Yao Beast leader was heavily injured."

"Tch, the student above is clearly an Incarnation of a Lemon Spirit. What 'picking up scraps'? He killed that Yao Beast with real skill!"

"If not for Xie Ning, we would have died long ago. You guys have no idea how strong Great God Xie is!"

"The brainless fan has appeared, trying to whitewash him."

"Whitewash your sister! Wash your sister white! You're the brainless fan! Today's Xie Ning is no longer the Xie Ning of the past. You'll find out when he duels Li Zhi at noon!"

"Humph! A bunch of frogs at the bottom of a well!"

"You're the damn frog at the bottom of a well!"

The argument gradually drifted off-topic, but all the students' eyes were fixed on Xie Ning and Mo Yu.

The principal looked at Xie Ning and Mo Yu standing beside him, a gratified smile on his face, and said, "Now, please welcome the representative of the City Defense Force to the stage for the award ceremony!"

"No way, even the City Defense Force is presenting the award!"

A student who personally experienced the forest beast tide sighed, "I'm genuinely envious, but I know Great God Xie deserves this award."

Another student lamented deeply, "Yeah, if not for Great God Xie, let alone us, even the City Defense Force and the Hunter Group—all of us would have died of exhaustion there."

"Hey, hey, what exactly did you guys go through on Friday?" Some students' curiosity was piqued so high they were starting to go crazy.

"Want to know?" that student asked back.

"Yeah, yeah..."

"I'm not telling you!"

"..."

Soon, the student body saw the person coming to present the award and couldn't help but gasp, their eyes filled with shock and adoration.

Girls might not have felt much, but the impact of this figure on the boys was immense.

"The... The One-Armed War God! It's actually the One-Armed War God himself coming to present the award!"

"Damn! For a minor school award, they actually invited the One-Armed General. He's another guardian deity of our Flower City!"

Even the student who had just praised Xie Ning for deserving the award immediately flipped: "I'm salty, I'm salty. Even though Great God Xie saved my life on Friday, I'm salty right now. I'm coming clean! I'm just green with envy!"

"+1. I'm an Incarnation of a Lemon Spirit; I wish I could drown Xie Ning in citric acid and take his place."

"That's enough, you guys! What on earth happened last Friday? You're all just being salty but won't tell the story!"

"I'm not telling you!"

"..."

Walking slowly onto the stage was a burly, one-armed Middle-aged Man. His square face made his expression even more serious, yet his gaze was gentle as he looked at Xie Ning and Mo Yu.

Especially when he saw Xie Ning, he couldn't help but look him over a few more times, nodding slightly with an appreciative gaze.

Not to mention others, even Xie Ning's heart was not calm when he saw this one-armed Middle-aged Man.

One-Armed Major General Bian Hu was also known by the people of Flower City as the One-Armed General or the One-Armed War God.

Having joined the army as a child, he relied on his tiger-like courage to fight his way up from an ordinary Soldier. Through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, he rose to the rank of Major General. From a commoner, he fought until he became a Gold-rank Demon Tamer. With his Black Tiger Blade, he was invincible and all-conquering.

Bian Hu stepped onto the stage, nodding slightly under the fanatical and worshipful gazes of the students, then looked at Xie Ning with eyes full of praise.

Bian Hu first extended his only arm, his left one, to shake hands with Mo Yu and Xie Ning, then took the opportunity to pat Xie Ning firmly on the shoulder. "Young man, excellent! You're much stronger than I was at your age."

Xie Ning scratched his head and smiled, replying, "I'm far behind you. You're the idol of all the young people in Flower City."

"Haha~ What idol? I'm just an old Soldier who was lucky enough not to die." Bian Hu laughed heartily, sounding very heroic. After laughing, he resumed his serious expression, turned to face the students below, and said in a deep voice:

"To show appreciation for the contributions made by Student Xie Ning and Student Mo Yu in the 'Hope Forest Beast Tide Defense,' our bureau has decided to award Student Xie Ning and Student Mo Yu 100,000 yuan in cash each. Furthermore, in view of Student Xie Ning's great act of killing powerful enemies and saving everyone during this beast tide, he is specially awarded an additional 10 points to his total college entrance examination score. I hope Student Xie Ning will continue to maintain this spirit and make greater contributions to the country and the people in the future!"

Bian Hu's words caused a stir among the crowd below!

100,000 cash wasn't much, but what truly shocked everyone was the reward of 10 extra points on the total college entrance examination score.

The Monster Taming College Entrance Examination is like a new starting point. The higher the score, the better the academy one can enter, providing a higher starting point. With these 10 points, as long as one's ability is decent, it would be difficult for their starting point to be low.

Setting aside the reactions of the other students, within his own class, Li Zhi's fire of jealousy burned so fiercely his eyes were bloodshot. He wished he could go up and have a duel right now. Of course, he also knew that if he went up now, he would be the one to suffer, so he could only think viciously to himself, "Laugh all you want. The more glorious you are now, the more pathetic you'll be when I defeat you."

Xie Ning didn't know what Li Zhi was thinking. Suppressing the wild joy in his heart, he said to Bian Hu with a smile in his eyes:

"Thank you, General! I definitely won't let the country down! I won't let the people down!"

After Xie Ning finished, Mo Yu followed suit and said, "Me too, me too! I will definitely bring glory to the country in the future!"

"Good, good, good~"

After Bian Hu finished speaking, he said a few more words on stage. Finally, as he was about to leave, he whispered a few things to Xie Ning. Then Xie Ning spoke a few words on stage before also walking down.

As he passed by Lu Bingyun, she smiled and said, "Congratulations."

Xie Ning nodded and walked back to his class formation, leaving behind a crowd of shocked students.

Holy crap! Didn't he get rejected after confessing?

Why are they chatting now?!