The First Order

The mood in town turned heavy due to the issues surrounding Zhang Baogen. Even though everyone was accustomed to living under the rule of the stronghold, when they realized that their right to life was not within their control, they grew gloomy.

Ren Xiaosu had something on his mind all day. Based on what Wang Fugui had told him, Zhang Baogen was more or less done for the moment he got captured and sent to the psychiatric hospital.

After the people from the stronghold finished conducting thorough research on him, he would surely have suffered terribly even if he did not die. Most importantly, Zhang Baogen had lost his freedom from this day onwards.

As for Ren Xiaosu himself, his secret was much bigger than Zhang Baogen’s.

He had unlocked many features of his mind palace, but there were still many other features left waiting for Ren Xiaosu to explore. Even Ren Xiaosu himself did not know how deep the palace interior went and what level it would elevate him to eventually.

If his secret were revealed, it wouldn’t be surprising if he got taken away by the people from the stronghold and had his brains taken out and sliced apart.

Ren Xiaosu had gone to school earlier and found Yan Liuyuan. He somberly instructed him to not reveal his secret to anyone and told him that this concerned their life and death.

The two brothers did not have the ability to take on the stronghold yet.

Inside and outside of the stronghold, thick and continuous trails of white smoke were spewing out through the factory chimneys into the sky. The clock in the stronghold was still ringing on time. It was as though nothing had happened.

Today, Mr. Zhang seemed a little downtrodden. Sometimes, his mind would wander as he delivered his lessons. Whenever his students reminded him that he was losing his focus, he would bow and apologize to them.

Finally, Mr. Zhang said, “Students, I’m sorry. I can’t teach well today due to some personal issues. Class, study by yourselves. We won’t be having any more lessons today.”

Ren Xiaosu did not go back straight to the clinic. He wanted to calm himself down at a “quiet” place like the school and think about the future of Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and him.

When Ren Xiaosu took over the lessons in the afternoon, he did not teach anything new either. Frankly, his mind was not present at all today.

By the time school ended, Ren Xiaosu surprisingly did not make the class stay late. He was only concerned with getting Yan Liuyuan home early.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Class dismissed. I won’t be teaching y’all about other things today.”

“All rise!” the class monitor said.

“Thank you, Teacher!”

“Gratitude received from Li Youqian, +1!

“Gratitude received from Wang Dalong, +1!

“Gratitude received from…”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned by this. There were only 24 fucking students in the entire class, but he managed to gain 23 gratitude token coins when he dismissed the class?

Yan Liuyuan was the only one he didn’t earn a gratitude token from. Yan Liuyuan had also noticed that Ren Xiaosu was a little absent-minded today, so he was more concerned about what was happening with his brother rather than thinking about going out to play after school.

Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at the little bastards as they ran away and disappeared without a trace. So they didn’t like his lessons after all?

‘Y’all better fucking watch out! What is so bad with my teaching!’

It was a very fascinating day. Ren Xiaosu had worked very hard for nearly a fortnight just to earn 12 gratitude tokens. But in just one day today, he managed to gain 23 gratitude tokens.

The total amount of his gratitude tokens had reached 35. It seemed that he was another step closer to unlocking the weapon.

After Ren Xiaosu carefully weighed the pros and cons, he decided that if they did not like his lecture, then so be it. It was good enough as long as they let him earn those gratitude tokens.

For the following day’s lessons, Ren Xiaosu went straight to school instead of attending to patients at the clinic. He understood what he needed to do. What was his reason for opening the clinic? Was it to make money? That was definitely not the case!

Now that he had found a method to quickly earn gratitude tokens, how could he miss out?

The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang Jinglin, was not even finished with his lesson when he saw Ren Xiaosu already standing outside the classroom. The students followed Zhang Jinglin’s gaze to Ren Xiaosu. For some reason, when they saw him, a shiver ran down their spines.

Today, Ren Xiaosu did not teach his usual wilderness survival lessons. Instead, he taught them about where to deal a fatal blow to another person during a fight or how to make an opponent instantly lose control of their motor functions.

Ren Xiaosu himself had not actually received any related training in this field, and there were no places in town where he could learn something like this either. Therefore, everything he was teaching was accumulated from his years of experience in being involved in ruthless fights with others.

Zhang Jinglin frowned when he heard Ren Xiaosu teaching them how to fight other people. He did not like to teach such things to the students and usually taught them about how to combat nature.

There would be a psychological suggestion that humans were the enemies if you taught the students how to fight against other humans. Similarly, if you taught them how to take on wolves, they would regard wolves as their enemy as well.

At heart, Zhang Jinglin never hoped for his students to become violent extremists. But for some reason, when he thought about Zhang Baogen’s incident, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh. In the end, he did not interfere with what Ren Xiaosu was teaching.

Ren Xiaosu said to the students from the lectern, “Which are the most vulnerable parts of a human? If I have to list them, I’d list them in order of importance. Let’s start with the one that most people know… the neck.

“In fact, this area is not particularly easy to aim for when you are fighting someone. That’s because a person will subconsciously protect it the most. The entire neck and trachea are made up of bone and nearly 20 fragile rings of cartilage. By crushing any one of them with an attack, you can instantly cause your opponent to lose their will to fight. The fragmented bones will quickly block the delivery of oxygen, which will then lead to them suffocating to death.”

The classroom was silent. Ren Xiaosu looked over everyone. “Are there any questions?”

Wang Dalong asked meekly, “How do you know that there are nearly 20 fragile rings of cartilage in the neck….”

There were no relevant books in school, and no one in town specialized in this subject either. If Ren Xiaosu had not counted them himself before, how could he possibly know something like that?

But how did Ren Xiaosu count them? Whose cartilage did he count? Thinking of this, everyone felt a little nervous.

Ren Xiaosu did not answer this question. He looked out at the sky as the stronghold’s clock rang to signal that it was 4 PM. Ren Xiaosu said cheerfully to everyone, “Class dismissed.”

“All rise!”

“Thank you, Teacher!”

“Gratitude received from Wang Dalong, +1!

“Gratitude received from…”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly frowned when he realized that the number of gratitudes was incorrect. Shouldn’t he be seeing an increase of more than 20 gratitude tokens? Why were there only nine tokens?

These little bastards had gotten used to him not making the class stay late this quickly? They didn’t even give him any sincere gratitude now?

‘I’m afraid that y’all haven’t faced the harsh realities of society yet!’

Just as the students were about to rush out of class, they heard the sinister voice of Ren Xiaosu reverberate from behind them, “Everyone, get back here right now! Today, I’m gonna teach y’all how I came to learn how many rings of cartilage there are…”

Wang Dalong and Li Youqian were speechless.

So was the entire class.