Chapter 309: The Uncharacteristic Xie Renyu

Xie Renyu suddenly laughed.

“Well done,” he said loudly. “People like him, who don’t know how to respect war heroes, don’t deserve to hold office in Liuhe Base City. Take him away.”

Immediately, two guards rushed in and dragged the unconscious official out. Li Xiaofei watched coldly without any comment.

Xie Renyu, however, approached him enthusiastically. “Student Li, you're a hero of our base city. I had already heard of your great feat in slaying the Bull Demon even before I arrived. You're a model for all human warriors.”

Li Xiaofei remained seated, showing no intention of standing up.

“I’m here at this meeting to tell you a few things, City Leader Xie,” he said calmly. “First, you don’t need to worry about cleaning up the gang scene. We’ll handle that ourselves.”

Xie Renyu didn’t seem offended in the least and replied, “Very well, no problem at all.”

Li Xiaofei continued, “Second, I don’t have any particular opinion about you, and you’d better not have any about me either. If things get out of hand, I might lose control and do something drastic, and it’ll only get awkward once there’s bloodshed.”

Xie Renyu chuckled softly, “I only have admiration for you, Student Li. At such a young age, you’ve accomplished things I couldn’t dream of. If I have any thoughts, it’s only to hope that you’ll continue to shine for the city and protect its citizens.”

Li Xiaofei’s expression remained cold. “Lastly, keep your subordinates in check. I’m taking Secretary Song with me, and I don’t want to see your chief secretary messing around. I’m hot-tempered, easily angered, and impulsive, and you should know I don’t care about consequences. It’d be best if we stay out of each other’s way. You can govern the city and I’ll go to school and manage my people. But if anyone tries to pull something behind the scenes, I won’t hesitate to burn it all down.”

After speaking, Li Xiaofei stood up and began to walk out. After a few steps, he paused and pointed at the nameplate on the table. "And stop with these childish games. Don’t call me to any more meetings. I’m very busy."

He strode out of the room. The conference room fell into an eerie silence.

Li Xiaofei’s audacity and arrogance left everyone stunned. The new city leader hadn’t even gotten a chance to flex his authority before being hit with a public humiliation from this local powerhouse. It was as if Li Xiaofei had slapped Xie Renyu across the face, metaphorically.

Yet, Xie Renyu’s expression showed no trace of anger.

"Heh, I’ve heard for a while now that Student Li has quite the temper. It seems I got a chance to see it for myself today. Perhaps only someone with such a fiery spirit could advance so steadily on the martial path, or enter the wilderness alone and slay a Bull Demon." The young city leader remarked, still smiling calmly.

The crowd looked at Xie Renyu with undisguised surprise in their eyes.

What is going on? Is he actually showing admiration for Li Xiaofei?

Then what was the point of humiliating Secretary Song and orchestrating the nameplate stunt? Is this all just a game to him?

Xie Renyu turned to the head of the administrative office and said, "Replace my chief secretary. Yang Changhe is too foolish to be pulling these petty, underhanded tricks."

"Yes, I’ll arrange it immediately," Zhang Liancheng, the administrative head, responded.

Xie Renyu turned to address the room, "I wasn’t aware of everything that happened earlier, so if there have been any misunderstandings, I ask for your understanding. I didn’t come to Liuhe Base City to ride on my family’s influence for pleasure. I genuinely want to do a good job as city leader and bring prosperity to the people. City Leader Tan Zhenwei is a role model I intend to follow, and all the policies he implemented will remain unchanged. I have no plans for any sweeping reforms. I hope everyone will cooperate with me."

It was a straightforward declaration. This was Xie Renyu’s first public stance in such an informal setting. His words left everyone shocked.

Zhao Bufan and Du Longshan, who had been hoping that the new city leader would stand up for them and punish Li Xiaofei properly, were taken aback. Both of them felt as if their hearts had sunk into a frozen lake.

***

Back at the Cloudy Sky Gang headquarters, Li Junjie swaggered up with a sly grin.

"Boss, what position are we giving Secretary Song?"

"Hmm? A position?"

"Yeah, didn’t you bring him back? Gotta say, boss, that slap you gave today was so satisfying. Really hit the spot."

"Get lost. That was tactical."

"Tactical? What kind of tactic?"

"Don’t ask. Just make sure Secretary Song is looked after. Keep him away from gang affairs, and don’t let him wander around. Also, send a few brothers to bring his family over and make sure they’re well taken care of."

"Got it, boss."

When it came to serious matters, Li Junjie knew how to get things done. He quickly turned and started giving out orders. Meanwhile, Li Xiaofei was deep in thought. He suspected that Secretary Song might have betrayed Tan Zhenwei at some point. Otherwise, how could he have known about the assassination attempt on Tan Zhenwei?

That text message was likely a fleeting moment of conscience. But there was no doubt that Secretary Song was hiding secrets. It was also very possible that those secrets were connected to the enemy.

Keeping someone like him around would be unsettling.

Since Secretary Song was pretending to be crazy. Li Xiaofei decided to let him stay hidden for the time being. He would slowly dig deeper to uncover who else had been involved in the decision to take down Tan Zhenwei.

Li Xiaofei entered his training room and resumed his cultivation. Now that several of his powerful backers were gone, a sense of urgency had begun to weigh on him. He had to make the most of his time and get stronger.

At any rate, the path ahead was clear.

First, he needed to participate in the High School War God League, win the championship for Red Flag High School, and then apply to Xiajing University, where he planned to reconnect with his young lady. After that, he would join the Longya Group’s Online Martial God Tournament and face the best warriors from outside the base city. Finally, he would focus on breaking through to the Five Spirits Realm, fulfilling the promise he made to Little Aunt.

Everything else was secondary. Time waits for no one. Cultivate!

***

In no time, a week had passed. After using the Secret Time Pavilion twice, Li Xiaofei had finally broken through the tenth shackle and was ready for the Acupoint Opening Realm. However, Red Flag High School could no longer provide him with anything useful when it came to cultivation techniques.

Principal Chen Fei, with his charming eyes, and Dean, who had his own split-personality issues, both had experience in cultivation. Yet neither was willing to share their techniques with Li Xiaofei.

The techniques they had used for the Acupoint Opening Realm were basic military techniques. Those techniques were practical and steady, but unsuitable for someone as talented as Li Xiaofei. Moreover, they weren’t quite sure how to handle Li Xiaofei’s immense potential. Thus, they both advised him to focus on refining his energy and stabilizing his Limit Breaking Realm. They suggested that he should wait until university to find a more advanced technique for the Acupoint Opening Realm.

Li Xiaofei didn’t agree with their advice but chose not to argue. Instead, he secretly began searching for a more suitable Acupoint Opening technique on his own.

As another month flew by, Red Flag High School continued to dominate the War God League. Li Xiaofei only participated in a few matches, holding back most of his strength. In fact, he even offered pointers to his opponents during the matches.

By the end, rival schools, who once feared facing Red Flag High School, began eagerly looking forward to matches with them. Losing was one thing, but getting personal guidance from a powerhouse like Li Xiaofei? It was like getting manna from heaven.

As expected, every student Li Xiaofei had offered advice to quickly broke through their bottlenecks and saw significant improvements. At this point, it was only a matter of time before Red Flag High School claimed the championship. Meanwhile, the former championship contenders, Duxing High School and Quanye High School, were struggling.

Duxing High School’s performance had plummeted after the Ye family’s downfall, leaving the students shaken and uncertain. At Quanye High School, two of their star female students from Jiepeng had mysteriously not competed for an entire month, which seemed highly suspicious.