Chapter 13: On All Sides

On the tenth of the sixth month…

Shang Xia arrived in the institution as soon as dawn broke. He hurried over to meet with the members of the Protection Division who were part of the replenishment team.

By the time he arrived, they were loading the supplies from the members of the Warehouse Division.

“Hurry up! Didn’t you guys eat breakfast or something?!”

“Why are you guys so slow? Even if you useless bums go to the battlefield between the two worlds, you’re going to send yourselves to your death!”

“You useless fools… How unlucky do we have to be to be stuck with you?”

“What is the institution thinking?! They sent us a bunch of weaklings to head over to the Tongyou Peak. If we run into any danger along the way, don’t expect me to save you. Just get ready to die.”

“...”

Shang Xia heard the curses long before he saw them.

He couldn’t help but walk a little faster.

He saw sixteen students of the third outer division loading huge sacks onto the carriages, and the moment they did, they ran back to the warehouse to take a new load.

As long as they took a little too long, they would be scolded by someone at the side.

Even though the sixteen of them entered the Martial Realm, they didn’t dare to talk back. Their faces were flushed red with anger, but they continued to load the carriages without saying a word.

In the distance, several disciples of the Protection Division were sitting on the carriages leisurely as they yelled at the students from the outer division. Mocking smiles could be seen on their faces, and they were clearly enjoying what they were doing.

The instant he arrived, they discovered his presence.

The curses only became louder with his arrival.

“Do all of you really think that you’re special after obtaining the qualifications to enter the inner division?”

“Let me tell you right now… None of you have experience on the battlefield! All of you are nothing but a bunch of dogshit cultivators!”

“Heh, even if you enter the Martial Realm, all of you are trash!”

“That’s right! You’re so useless we can’t even compare you to dogshit!”

“Hahaha! You don’t even have the qualifications to be cannon fodder on the battlefield!”

“Hahah!” Shang Xia roared with laughter when he heard what they said.

In an instant, the gaze of everyone present turned to him.

Since they were scolding him indirectly, there wasn’t any point in him avoiding detection! Weren’t they planning on intimidating him? He wasn’t afraid in the slightest. In fact, there was a trace of anticipation in his heart!

With a shit-eating grin on his face, Shang Xia snapped his fan open and walked towards the warehouse.

The yelling continued all of a sudden. “Aren’t you bunch of useless fools angry? Don’t you just want to punch us in the face?”

“Hahaha! You can try! I can’t wait for you useless fools to try something! Cowards…”

By the time they were done speaking, Shang Xia had already arrived at the entrance to the warehouse. He looked at his fellow students who were working hard and he leaped on board one of the carriages beside him. He had no intention of helping them at all.

Waving the fan in his hand, a look of ridicule could be seen on his face as he looked at those all around him. He couldn’t help but wait for the rest of their performance.

The disciples from the outer division didn’t notice Shang Xia, but they discovered that the disciples of the Protection Division went quiet all of a sudden.

However, it didn’t take long for the verbal abuse to continue. It became much worse than before.

“Every newcomer to the Protection Division has to go through this! This is so that you can let go of your pride and learn to humble yourself! Train your mentality so that you can survive in the battlefield between two worlds!”

“That’s right! This is a rule everyone has to follow! There are no exceptions!”

Shang Xia could feel that they were looking at him while spouting all the crap coming out of their mouth.

Well, whatever, there were many instances of bullies wherever he went.

The rule in the Tongyou Institution made it such that any disciple entering the inner division had to join an expedition led by the Protection Division in order to hone their real-world experience.

After all, the Protection Division had the authority to deploy disciples in the inner division when an emergency happened.

As such, every disciple in the inner division could be considered part of the Protection Division’s reserve force.

The sixteen students in the outer division might have qualified to join the inner division, but there were two more months before the next semester started.

The moment they entered the Martial Realm and gained the qualification to enter the inner division, they were eligible to be conscripted by the Protection Division.

That was also the reason behind the nasty treatment by the members of the Protection Division.

Of course, everything they did to the sixteen students was merely an appetizer. All they wanted to do was to mess with Shang Xia.

Sniggering in his heart, Shang Xia took out a silver flask from his sleeves and took a nice swig. A contented sigh left his lips as he stared at the clowns in front of him.

The sweet scent of his Hundred Flower Dew filled the air.

With their throats dry after shouting at the sixteen disciples, they gulped down a mouthful of saliva when they caught a whiff of Shang Xia’s Hundred Flower Dew. Those who had been working the entire morning were even more thirsty compared to the disciples of the Protection Division.

Slowly tracking the source of the smell, the sixteen disciples soon caught sight of Shang Xia who was chilling on one of the carriages.

Anger burned in their hearts when they noticed that he wasn’t suffering along with them. Well, no one could blame them. After all, everyone would feel uncomfortable when they were forced to suffer while their fellow disciple enjoyed a better fate.

Shang Xia nodded when he saw the dark expressions on their faces. If he didn’t do what he did, he would be letting down the great director behind the show!

Now, he was surrounded on all sides!

Glancing at the disciples of the Protection Division from the corner of his eye, Shang Xia noticed him giving one of the sixteen disciples a signal. The next moment, the disciple slammed the supplies he was carrying into the ground and he pointed at Shang Xia, “Didn’t you guys say that going through all of this is a rule set by the institution?! Why isn’t he doing anything?!”

Here it was…

Shang Xia remained completely indifferent and he ignored the disciple who was yelling.

Their way of doing things was too damn amateurish!

Shang Xia turned to look at the disciple from the Protection Division who jumped off his carriage on cue as he started his performance. “Zhang Wei, are you going against the rules?! Pick it up right now!”

With someone leading the charge, many of the sixteen disciples tossed the supply they were carrying and ran over to stand by Zhang Wei’s side.

Now that he had several people on his side, he seemed to grow even more confident. He yelled, “None of you dare to pick on him! Instead, you take out all your anger on us! What’s wrong? Are you afraid to enforce the rules on him because his grandfather is the deputy patriarch?!”

“Why does he get to enjoy his drink up there?!”

“Yeah! Since you guys said that it’s the rules, why is he exempt?”

Seeing as things were going according to plan, Zhang Wei started round two. “Since all of us are new to the inner division, Chief Shang should also be doing his fair share of work!”

“That’s right!”

“Yeah!”

The disciple of the Protection Division smiled as he returned to his carriage. He turned to look at Shang Xia with a mocking expression.

Even his fellow disciples were clamoring for him to carry the supplies to the carriage! Wasn’t he the leader of the outer division? There was no way for him to weasel his way out of it now…

The moment he joined them, he would suffer endless humiliation.

That was the plan. The disciples of the Protection Division and the upper division wanted to make a good show of strength. Now that Shang Xia’s performance had threatened them, they wanted to make him look as bad as they could! Since he was the grandson of the deputy patriarch, making him bow and scrape before them would greatly enhance their status!

If he refused, his reputation as the leader of the outer division would be dragged through the mud. The news of his refusal to help his fellow disciples would spread through the ranks quickly.

A light chuckle left Shang Xia’s lips and he slowly got to his feet.

“Are you guys actually stupid? If you use your brain a little, you might be able to put up a better show…” Even though he sounded like he was joking, his gaze turned serious. He looked at the sixteen disciples of the outer division forced to carry the supplies and he sneered, “I’m extremely disappointed in you guys. None of you dared to stand up for yourselves when they were bullying you. Instead of standing up for yourselves, you chose to single out a fellow disciple and pressure them into suffering with you guys. What are you thinking?!”

Many of the disciples lowered their heads in shame.

“Bullshit! Why should you get to rest while we have to go through that?”

“Hehe, you really do have the mentality of a loser.” Shang Xia chuckled.

“What…”

Zhang Wei avoided eye contact with Shang Xia, but he continued to complain, “This… This is the rule we have to follow!”

“Rule?” Shang Xia snorted. “They came up with this nonsense themselves! When did the institution implement a rule that states that all new disciples have to be bullied? Go ahead and ask any of your seniors. See which one of them admits it.”

Silence filled the air. There was no way Zhang Wei would go around asking them, and neither would the disciples of the Protection Division admit to anything.

“Come on… Use your brains! Think about how they were cursing at you when you were forced to carry the supplies.” Shang Xia continued, “I was planning to cooperate, but ever since I arrived, no one dared to order me around.”

The expression on the faces of the disciples of the Protection Division fell instantly.

“Isn’t that because of your status?” Zhang Wei sneered under his breath.

“You’re right!” Instead of refuting it, Shang Xia nodded his head and sighed at their stupidity. “Why else am I calling you guys stupid? None of them from the Protection Division have the guts to call me out, but here you are cussing at me. Have you thought your actions through?”

The disciples of the third outer division weren’t stupid either. All of them realized that they became tools for the disciples of the Protection Division.

As for Zhang Wei who was working together with them, he felt beads of cold sweat dripping down his forehead.

He could even feel the sharp gazes from his fellow disciples stabbing him in the back.

Clap, clap, clap.

The disciple of the Protection Division got off his carriage and spoke to Shang Xia. “Amazing! You’re definitely the only disciple who can swagger around the institution and use his background with no shame!”

“Many thanks!” Closing the fan in his hand with a loud snap, Shang Xia ignored the insult. “Oh right, what was your name again?”

Waving his hand, the disciple from the Protection Division sneered, “I’m Guo You from the inner division.”

“Alright, I guess I’ll address you as Senior Brother Guo then.” Shang Xia waved his hand and continued, “I saw you winking at Zhang Wei a long time ago…”

“Heh…”

Giggling came from the disciples of the Protection Division behind Guo You, and they tried their hardest to suppress their laughter.

However, Guo You didn’t think it was funny. His face flushed red and he glared at Shang Xia.

Raising an eyebrow in surprise, Shang Xia realized that their sense of humor was pretty bad…