Chapter 1429: Memories of the Past (III)

What happened next proved hard to forget for Li Hao. It wasn’t that he encountered the Human King, but that after departing from the Sword Sovereign’s residence, Zhang An and his younger sister were sent to do hard labor.

As he wandered through Demonic Martial’s campus, Li Hao grew more and more intrigued by what he saw.

Cries of “Principal Fang is mighty!” and “Grandmaster Fang is the shit!” and “Felicitations to Grandmaster Fang” could be heard all over. So this was the mythical Demonic Martial of legend?

It was more like a den of sycophants and a nest of bandits!

No matter how young the students were, they all swaggered around with an air of robbers. They were overweeningly proud and didn’t seem inclined to bend to knee to anyone but Ole Fang. Puffed out chests and a cocky tilt of their chin was the uniform around here!

All of them brimmed with blood qi and killing intent!

Whenever they saw Zhang An, they regarded him with a look of having seen a child. Despite knowing who Zhang An’s grandfather was, many students and teachers all considered him with an air of impending pity. The young Human King had said that he would seek vengeance on the supreme’s grandchildren!

Indeed, that was how petty the Human King was. He even made his intentions public, due to how often Supreme Zhang conned the young Human King.

Seeing as he didn’t wish to disturb this era, Li Hao had no one to chat with.

“Senior Zhang,” he transmitted to the only person he could talk to. “Was this the most famous hall of learning during New Martial?”

Zhang An blinked. So... they could converse with each other during this experience?

I see!

“Correct, this is Demonic Martial!” he transmitted back.

“You were targeted as soon as you enrolled?”

“Yes... and this was only the beginning...” Zhang An smiled ruefully. “The Human King hadn’t returned at this point, he wouldn’t until the welcoming ceremony. I have very deep memories of that welcoming ceremony...”

How deep was deep?

Zhang An didn’t need to explain because the welcoming ceremony quickly began. This time, Li Hao saw the Human King.

The young Human King!

He descended upon the podium in an exceedingly flamboyant fashion, as if deathly afraid that people wouldn’t know how amazing he was. He wanted nothing more than everyone to see him arrive at Demonic Martial with full fashion and flair!

“That one is the Human King... The one standing next to him is the Exalted Hard-Headed Emperor from Capital Martial. He’s here to form a team with the Human King...”

Li Hao saw many personages who would be famous in the future. They were all future exalted emperors. The Exalted Hard-Headed Emperor, Human King, and Sword Sovereign...

“Mister Qin, let us begin!” announced the ostentatious Human King.

However, Li Hao and Zhang An heard another command from the Human King instead.

“Ole Qin, shut the doors and let the dogs out. Direct them all at the two Zhang kids! How dare that old Zhang fart put me through hell, I’ll have that brother and sister duo suffer for what he did!”

The old Zhang An transmitted wearily to Li Hao, “So this is what happened... I thought it was an accident!”

A clean-cut and fresh faced man appeared in the void. He cut a handsome and ferocious figure, but he was so handsome that he almost looked dainty.

“That’s Exalted Emperor Qin!” Zhang An explained.

“Exalted Emperor Qin?” Li Hao digested the unfamiliar name with surprise. It wasn’t mentioned much in history books. His eyes widened when he took a closer look. There was... something special about this person!

The heavenly will was attached to him!

A son of heaven?

“This one... is famous for not knowing when to quit,” Zhang An introduced. “He thinks of himself as the greatest in the world and doesn’t bend the knee to anyone. The Human King’s beaten him up again and again, but he refuses to accept the outcome. He’ll only go away or be willing to call you daddy if there’s something in it for him. Otherwise, he won’t concede even if you kill him!

“He has excellent potential and is perfectly willing to charge into the battlefield. He’s not afraid of anything and is just as much of a troublemaker as the Human King. He’s just a bit... shameless. It’s his usual state of being to owe someone money—he’s much like Southern Fist of Silver Moon, but he’s way more shameless!

“Ah, the aura of invincibility that’s recorded in New Martial history also comes from him! He’s invincible if he wins and invincible if he loses. He is defiant of heaven and earth in the true sense of the notion...”

Li Hao’s interest was piqued. What an interesting person! He’d read about the aura of invincibility in several Silver Moon’s secret tomes, but he’d never really understood it. The young man had always thought that this aura was the result of triumphing over everything and anything in battle!

“You can be invincible even when you lose?”

“Yes! Regular people can’t do it, but he can because he truly believes from the bottom of his heart that he’s invincible. It’s not just self comfort, but true belief. Even if he loses in battle, he will only think that it’s a trial in the long path of life. He will still think that he’s invincible and fight again. If he loses, he fights again, and again, and again. When he survives one hundred battles, he is truly invincible!”

Li Hao took in a sharp breath, now this was really interesting!

To be honest, comforting oneself was easily done. But to ensure that one’s faith remained unwavering in one’s own invincibility... that they were still invincible after repeated failures... that this was just a challenge and one could defeat the enemy so long as one remained alive...

This kind of mentality was well worth learning from!

As expected, anyone who could become an exalted emperor was quite a character.

History did not speak much of this character, but there was much to learn from him. No wonder Silver Moon tomes recorded the aura of invincibility. This really was an unusual construct!

After that came a period of torment for the young Zhang An. Large numbers of monster spirits were tossed at him. They threw him around like a rag doll. This was both the Human King’s revenge and trial for the youngster!

As Exalted Emperor Qin chucked monster spirits toward the young man for all he was worth, someone could help but transmit, “Fengqing, I think you should hold back a little. Aren’t you afraid of Director Zhang coming for your head?”

“Pfft, why would I be afraid of him? He’ll just beat me up. What he does doesn’t matter so long as I remain alive. Ole Fang said that I’ll get plenty from this. So long as I survive whatever old bat Zhang does to me, I’ll get him back tenfold!”

Li Hao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry; old Zhang An was also extremely resigned. To be honest, this was his first time hearing these heavyweights’ mindsets. It was his first understanding of what they thought of his grandfather.

I’m not afraid of you! I’m taking full advantage of the fact that you won’t beat me to death. So long as you can’t, then I’ll beat up your kids, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren in the future... It doesn’t matter if I can’t fight you!

“And here I was thinking back in those days that with my grandfather being around, I would receive preferential treatment, if not outright be a king in Demonic Martial. So my seniors were champing at the bit to get vengeance on me... Seriously...” The aged Zhang An was quite resigned.

I had no idea this was going on.

Among the Demonic Martial freshmen in the distance, someone yelled, “Sisters of Evenround, kill the enemy with me!”

A group of freshmen led by a young girl rushed the monster spirits. Even Li Hao couldn’t help but give her his attention.

“You’re both freshmen, but that girl has a lot of courage...” he said softly. “It seems to me that senior and the rest are very much afraid...”

Zhang An was lost in thought and paused for a while before responding, “That’s right, everyone says she made it to her heights through luck. But in reality, she really was much stronger, courageous, and decisive than all of us!

“She’s younger and was only sixteen then. Zhang Xue and I were eighteen, but she was the first to round everyone up and form a team against the monster spirits. My sister and I could only take shelter...”

Li Hao blinked. Zhang An’s tones... were a bit off.

“I’ve always felt that it was only to be expected that she could make it to exalted emperor. Everyone is just distracted by her elder brother’s identity and thinks that she depended entirely on her brother. That’s not the case.

“In the other world, she was the one who led everyone in battle and rampaged through the land. We were so ferocious that the master of the world had no choice but to send us away...”

“She’s the Human King’s younger sister?” Li Hao started with realization.

“That’s right, that’s her! You see it yourself too. She joined Demonic Martial at the youngest age of sixteen, but her performance is the most exemplary. She was the most outstanding student of our year, ranked just after the Human King and the others. You tell me, would there be any logic left in the world if she didn’t become an exalted emperor?”

Li Hao looked over, seeing a slim and graceful girl. There was some baby fat on her cheeks, which only imparted an adorable air to her. She was fierce and decisive, showing no mercy at all when going against fearsome beasts.

The Human King’s younger sister did indeed possess courage and resolve. Although fear lurked in the depths of her eyes, she stood valiantly at the forefront. She acquitted herself much better than Zhang An, but her strength was less than the young Zhang An.

“As expected, those who become exalted emperors all have something special about them...” Li Hao spoke approvingly. “My parents had just died when I was sixteen and I spent a period of time being depressed. I didn’t have the ability to kill monster spirits. Even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to organize so many people in joint action.

“If it was up to me, I would choose to wait until no one paid attention to me and quietly kill one of the beasts, getting something out of it...”

Zhang An was utterly speechless!

Are you complimenting the Human King’s sister or yourself? I was terrified out of my wits at this point in time, alright?? It was the first time I’d ever seen anything like it!

“Weren’t you afraid the first time you fought someone?”

“I was, so I made sure to kill them! They even gave me a silk banner in thanks!”

Zhang An stared.

“Have you seen that silk banner, senior?” asked Li Hao. “I’ll show it to you next time. It was my first fight ever, so I was scared witless! Good thing I killed them, or I would’ve been in so much trouble!

“......”

Are you even listening to yourself? It was your first fight ever and you killed your opponent, but now you say that you were scared. The hell were you afraid of?!

“Then... when was the first time you saw a monster spirit? What was that like?”

“Panth? He was my dog!”

“Other than Panther?”

“I don’t remember... I probably killed them?” Li Hao wasn’t certain either. Apart from Panth, the first time he’d seen a monster spirit was at Ash Mountain, wasn’t it? Had he outright killed them? Who remembered?

“Weren’t you afraid?”

“I’d killed a ton of people by then, why would I be afraid of a monster spirit?”

“......”

We have nothing in common.

“Senior, you really are a bit of a... scaredy cat. You seem reliable in regular times, but you shy away in critical moments. You’re less than the Human King’s baby sister! No wonder she became an exalted emperor and you didn’t!”

The hell?!

Zhang An cursed.

How dare you say that?!

But to be honest, it was indeed mortifying. When he looked back on his younger self, even he felt embarrassed!

Damn it, why had he been so cowardly then??

Li Hao’s watching me make a fool out of myself! This sucks!