Chapter 145 - Temporary Submission
Meng Chao was slightly stunned. He quickly denied it. “That’s impossible. I just helped them a little, and they decided to thank me.”
“What did you do to help the monster controller course?” Duan Lian asked in puzzlement.
Meng Chao thought about it. ‘I don’t think I’d sound very believable if I said I sent Wu Wu back to the monster controller course because she had food poisoning…’
“I helped perform injury examinations for the students from the monster controller course, so they treated me to a meal. It’s that simple,” he said with a shrug.
“What?!” Duan Lian flew into a rage. The students around him started talking to each other as well. “If you perform injury examination for the monster controller course, aren’t you just going to increase their strength? Don’t you know that the monster controller course is the greatest enemy of the martial arts course?!”
“They’re not our enemies, just our opponents. The monster controllers aren’t monsters, you know?” Meng Chao put his hands behind his back and looked at Duan Lian very sincerely. “Duan Lian, do you know what’s the greatest fear of an elite?”
Duan Lian was stunned for a moment, then he said in anger, “What do you mean? Forget about the fact that you didn’t come to cheer for the martial arts course yesterday, you actually went to perform injury examination for them right after we lost? You even went to eat supper with them at night! It was to celebrate with them, right? How are you going to explain this?!”
“The greatest fear of an elite isn’t that their opponent will get stronger. Instead, it’s loneliness.” Meng Chao looked past Duan Lian and stared into the distance. His eyes were full of loneliness, and he said with a sigh, “The higher you are, the lonelier you are. When you don’t have any opponents, life is far too lonely. It’s only when you have someone who is equally matched with you that you will be able to chase after each other and stir up great motivation to cultivate in one another.
“This is a minor year for the monster controller course. Aside from one or two outstanding geniuses, there aren’t many opponents worth you fighting seriously. When you face such a monster controller course, you aren’t really motivated to cultivate or fight, right? Even if you really suppress this monster controller batch, it’s meaningless, boring, and uninteresting!
“So, I thought of a method to make the monster controller stronger. That way, our people will be more motivated to cultivate. Then, we can fight fiercely against each other, and we won’t waste away the few years we spend in university.
“Only the weak hope that their opponent will remain weak, because that is the only way they can win. The strong are delighted when they hear that there are fights, and they become even stronger when they meet someone powerful. Duan Lian, don’t you think so?”
Duan Lian was dumbfounded.
The students were also shocked.
The large field was completely silent.
His reasoning… seemed right, but when those words came out of Meng Chao’s mouth, it just felt that there was something wrong with them. He was someone who slacked off, was often late to classes, always left early, slept in classes, and fought as if he had myasthenia gravis, but became full of energy when he reached the canteen and started barking like a dog with rabies.
He never joined any club activities, but mingled around with the strange middle-aged men in the resource course. And yet, he had the gall to say something like ‘the strong are delighted when they hear that there are fights, and they become even stronger when they meet someone powerful’.
He had clearly gone off to ride the coattails of the monster controller course when the martial arts course lost during the tournament between courses. He had to be thinking about transferring courses. Yes, that had to be the case.
How did he make it sound like he went off to provide guidance to the monster controller course?!
Duan Lian covered his chest like he was about to faint. He could not hold back any longer. “You…”
“There’s no need to say more, Duan Lian. I know what you mean.” Meng Chao stopped him. His eyes sparkled intensely. “You’ve been bothered by the fact that you didn’t manage to win against me during the admission test and suffered a loss because of it, right? You want to take revenge, isn’t it?
“We’re all martial artists. Sparring is a minor thing. You don’t have to look for so many reasons for it.
“No matter what, the freshmen protection period is over, and the tournament between courses is over too. Even if you didn’t come to me, I’d come to you!”
The students’ gazes instantly became sharp.
The atmosphere filled with hostility as well. The air seemed to have frozen up at that second, but in the next second, it boiled over with passion.
It was just as Meng Chao said. The students in the martial arts course sparred even more diligently compared to eating their meals. When the students saw that there was already hostility in the two’s eyes, they showed great teamwork by clearing out a huge space for them.
“Duan Lian is going up against Meng Chao. Say, who do you think is going to win?”
“It’s definitely Duan Lian. He has been cultivating even more madly than Sun Ya and Xie Feng over the past month. His Lion Frenzy isn’t a joke!”
“But he had indeed lost to Meng Chao during the admission test.”
“That’s because Meng Chao tricked him. He had his arm stuck in a hole in the ground. Duan Lian’s arm is thicker than our thighs, so it was definitely stuck in the hole. He even had a bunch of monster coins in his other hand. That’s the same as someone handcuffing him to the ground. It’s only natural that he couldn’t win against Meng Chao!”
“But Duan Lian hasn’t completely recovered yet.”
“So what? Duan Lian’s strength has increased by more than 150% since he entered university. Even if he fights with one arm, he can still win!”
Just as the students discussed matters, a cold gust suddenly blew behind them, and it felt like needles. Goosebumps broke out on their skin.
When they turned their heads around, their gazes trembled a little.
Meng Chao and Duan Lian noticed the cold killing intent as well. They were stunned and looked outside the field.
The killing intent belonged to a young girl with a cold gaze who gave off a presence that stated she was not to be bothered.
She brought with her a Ghost Leopard with savage looking claws and fangs and which was surrounded by black fog.
She slowly walked into the martial arts course’s department.
“It’s Wu Wu!”
“Why is she here? Could it be that she didn’t have her fill in fighting like a lunatic yesterday and wants to bite more people?”
“She came alone to the martial arts course? How audacious!”
The students sucked in sharp breaths. They were surprised as well as angry.
When Wu Wu brought her Ghost Leopard near them, they subconsciously took half a step backward and opened up a path for her.
Duan Lian swallowed with great difficulty.
Once he saw that the other three from the Four Great Kings were not around yet, he could only brace himself and step forward. “Wu Wu, what are you doing here? If you haven’t had your fill of fighting yesterday, I don’t mind fighting you at any time!” he said darkly.
Wu Wu stood in front of him for a while to examine his face.
Then, she shook her head lightly. “You don’t taste good. I don’t want to fight you.”
She bypassed Duan Lian, and right in front of the martial arts students’ incredulous gazes, she stopped Meng Chao just when he was about to blend into the crowd.
“I give back to you.” She held a wrinkled rag.
“What’s that?” Meng Chao could not understand what was going on.
“Your clothes,” Wu Wu said.
“Huh?” It was only then that Meng Chao remembered. Yesterday, when he bandaged Wu Wu’s wounds while she was under the effects of the muscle relaxants and could not stop bleeding, he tore up his shirt into rags to serve as bandages.
“It’s already torn. There was no need for that, right?” Meng Chao could see that the gazes of the students around him were becoming really strange, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
“I sewed it.” Wu Wu flung open the rag.
“…”
His shirt had turned from rags into a mop. Meng Chao activated the Jade Assessment Skill and had his spirit energy enter his eyes through his branch meridians. He observed it for half a minute carefully, but he still could not figure out which part was the sleeves, the collar, or the hem. How was he supposed to wear this “shirt”?
“I never sewed. It’s first time.” Wu Wu’s face turned red, and she whispered, “You know I don’t like wearing clothes.”
Her words caused the people around them to suck in sharp breaths.
Meng Chao was near tears. ‘You can say whatever you like and cause a ruckus however you like, but why did you blush?
‘Also, everyone knows that you came from the wild and was raised by Ghost Leopards. It’s only logical that you don’t like wearing clothes. So why on Earth did you have to put an emphasis on “you know”?! I don’t know anything!’
Wu Wu did not care about his thoughts. She stuffed the rag she had sewed into his arms and took a step forward.
It seemed like she suffered from arrested development, because she was really tiny. Her head just reached Meng Chao’s chest.
Meng Chao felt that something bad was about to happen.
Before he could register what was going on, Wu Wu grabbed his right hand. Then, she placed his right hand gently on her head and nuzzled against it.
Meng Chao felt like he had just been struck with lightning. He could not move.
The students’ eyes went wide, and the puzzlement on their faces grew to shock. Then, from shock, it turned into speechlessness, and finally, from speechlessness, it turned into words that have to be censored.
Meng Chao jolted, as if he had been electrocuted. He grabbed Wu Wu and rushed out of the crowd. He dragged her until they reached a corner of the field.
“What are you doing?! Is this revenge for my strategy yesterday?” he asked in exasperation.
“No. This is Ghost Leopard tradition,” Wu Wu said seriously. “A Ghost Leopard lowers its head for another Ghost Leopard to put its claw on its head. Shows submission. You are my king.”
Meng Chao thought about it and remembered that it was indeed the habit of Ghost Leopards.
The weak would lower their heads so that the strong could touch the vitals at the back of the head with their claws. This was a show of submission and obedience to the strong.
The problem was…
“I’m not a Ghost Leopard. Please don’t do something that will easily cause misunderstandings, okay?! Also, don’t say something like ‘you’re my king’ so easily, it’s embarrassing! I’m not interested in becoming ‘your king’ at all!
“… Hang on a second. Also, I remember that the Ghost Leopards have the tradition of having their new kings eat their former kings so that they can get the former king’s legacy. You ate an old leopard king before, right?”
Wu Wu shook her head. “No.”
Meng Chao sighed in relief.
“It’s not one. It’s two,” Wu Wu explained. “I ate the former king and became leader. Then, another Ghost Leopard wanted to become leader. It challenged me, so I ate it too.”
Meng Chao looked at her with great worry. “So, if I accept you being my subject and become ‘your king’, there’s no benefit in it at all. I might even get eaten by you, is that it?”
Wu Wu thought about it very seriously.
“There’s benefit. I help you sew clothes,” she said.
Meng Chao was absolutely speechless.
“I won’t really eat you,” she added. “One day, I will defeat you, and you will submit to me. Then… I bite you a few times?”
Meng Chao found himself extremely troubled.
He was beginning to regret provoking Wu Wu.
After much difficulty, he finally sent the young girl and her biochemical beast back to the monster controller course. When he went back to the midst of the martial arts course students, their gazes and expressions had become seriously weird.
Meng Chao coughed driedly and tried to put on an imposing air. “My apologies. We had an uninvited guest break our mood just now. Duan Lian, let’s continue!”
“Wait.” Duan Lian looked absolutely puzzled. There was a profound look in his eyes. “Meng Chao, what’s your relationship with monster controller course’s Wu Wu?”
“No way. Duan Lian, are you that much of a gossip too?” Meng Chao felt really gloomy now.
At that moment, Xie Feng and Sun Ya dropped by together.
“What’s going on? I just saw monster controller course’s Wu Wu leaving our field.” Xie Feng was puzzled. “Why was she here? To flaunt?”
Everyone silently stared at Meng Chao.
Xie Feng looked at Meng Chao, and his eyes gradually turned wide. He stammered, “N-no way, Meng Chao, she came to you? Was what they said last night true?!”
Meng Chao felt that something bad was going to happen again. “What happened last night? Tell me!”
“Someone said that they saw you and Wu Wu going into the grove last night, and you two only left the grove after a long time had passed. You were even cuddling when you left.”