mousepad-d2 Chapter 105 : Chapter 105
Chapter 105 : Chapter 105
Chapter 105: Then I’ll Give Them What They Want
The moment Song Yan spoke, Song Chuhe’s expression changed.
Her meaning was already obvious.
She had become interested in Li Mu.
At the peak, a master was always lonely.
Song Yan’s strength had grown at an astonishing pace.
In the Abyss First Battle, she had claimed first place with a score fifty percent higher than the second-place finisher. Her strength was unquestionably formidable.
For the sake of improving herself, she had fought plenty of battles.
But she had never found an equal opponent.
So she had probably seen that Li Mu was no ordinary person as well.
And precisely because of that, she wanted to probe the depth of his strength and fight him herself.
The surrounding students immediately began chiming in.
“That’s right. With Goddess Song here, Song Chuhe, you’re being way too paranoid.”
Zheng Kuan was also afraid that Song Yan might personally step in and steal his chance to shine.
So he took the initiative and said, “Exactly. Goddess Song, don’t worry. I’ll go test Li Mu out for you first!”
“Let’s see whether he’s really the real deal or just putting on an act.”
Many of the students began raising their hands in agreement.
There were still some who felt Song Chuhe’s reasoning made sense.
But the overall trend had already been decided, so they all kept their mouths shut.
Song Chuhe laughed at himself, lowered his head, and gave it two faint shakes.
That night.
Li Mu returned to the Military Residential District.
He first went to Wang Longcheng’s house.
Bai Tiewei did not seem to be home.
Wang Longcheng had already awakened by then. He was sitting in the living room in his sleepwear, drinking tea.
Several internal military briefings were spread out on the table.
His brows were shadowed with worry.
Only when he saw Adjutant Zhang bringing Li Mu inside did a faint smile appear on his face.
He slowly raised a hand and beckoned to Li Mu, signaling for him to sit beside him.
“Uncle Wang, are you feeling better?” Li Mu asked as he sat down across from him.
“Mhm.” Wang Longcheng nodded.
Then he said with approval, “Your performance in this battle even had Red Moon Military District sending people over personally to report your merits.”
“And the reservist teams’ performance this time could be called absolutely pivotal.”
“When they award merit this time, your rank will definitely be enough for Junior Tiger Marquis.”
“Under normal circumstances, it would not be an exaggeration to say your promotion speed is the fastest in history.”
“But your cultivation absolutely has to rise as soon as possible.”
“Otherwise, there’s bound to be a delay in the final settlement.”
Li Mu nodded to show he understood, but he did not become smug because of it.
Wang Longcheng then stood up and said, “Come on. Take a walk outside with me.”
“All right!”
Wang Longcheng took Li Mu outside, while Adjutant Zhang followed from three or four meters behind.
“The purpose of this monster siege was most likely the Mother Crystal.”
“Whether it was because of the Mother Crystal’s natural attraction to them, or because they feared that we would become even stronger after obtaining it...”
“Either way, it is good news for us.”
“And it also proves just how important the Mother Crystal is.”
“But the price of this victory was unimaginably severe.”
“In this battle, our two military districts lost a total of 1,698 people.”
“Of those, 71 were above the Fifth Grade.”
“That has only made our already stretched combat power even worse.”
Li Mu listened quietly. He knew all of this was classified.
Wang Longcheng usually had no one he could speak to, so he needed someone to confide in.
But when he heard that the army was short-handed, Li Mu asked the question that had been bothering him the whole time.
“Why did Ironhand City’s military academy shut down in the past?”
“And why was it never rebuilt?”
Wang Longcheng smiled in satisfaction.
“I’m glad you thought of that.”
“In truth, that also counts as a classified matter, but enough time has passed that it does not matter if I tell you.”
“About ten years ago, Ironhand City did have a military academy.”
“But after its principal rose to a high position, he joined the Heaven Society.”
“By the time the matter was exposed, that principal had already been with the Heaven Society for several years.”
“He sold out and betrayed a great deal of resources back then.”
“And all the elites from every field who had come out of that military academy were investigated.”
“Everyone who had once gathered under his wing was reassigned elsewhere, and the school itself was uprooted.”
Li Mu nodded. He understood now.
A military academy was a university. Ironhand City did not have one, but Linyuan City and Bloodpool City did.
So in Pearl Military District, Li Mu really had not seen many university-level reservists.
After graduating high school, those who did not plan to join the Abyss-Suppressing Army would enter civilian vocational universities.
And those who did plan to join the Abyss-Suppressing Army would test into the military academies in Linyuan City and Bloodpool City.
Those who could not get in simply dropped out and joined the Abyss-Suppressing Army directly.
Some of the students who attended military academy would be reassigned back to Ironhand City after joining the army.
But even that still could not solve the shortage of combat strength in Ironhand City’s Abyss-Suppressing Army.
After all, it still could not compare to having your own military academy within your own district, where personnel could be mobilized much more conveniently.
One had to know that a single military academy could train up half a military district’s fresh forces in just one class year.
Even if some of them were reassigned elsewhere after graduation, while they were still students, they were still under the local military district’s control.
“Then why wasn’t it rebuilt during the ten years afterward?” Li Mu asked again.
Wang Longcheng took a deep breath and straightened his back.
“A military academy is generally under the direct authority of the local military district’s Deputy Commander-in-Chief.”
“I brought it up to Zhang Qing before, but he didn’t dare do it!”
“Because he was afraid. Afraid the higher-ups would mistake him for part of that old principal’s leftover faction.”
“He was afraid of being investigated!”
“His own backside wasn’t clean, so he didn’t dare let anyone investigate him.”
“But now, I am the Deputy Commander-in-Chief.”
“So this is something I intend to do!”
“I, Wang Longcheng, stand upright and sit straight. I’m not afraid of being investigated!”
Li Mu smiled.
When it came to remnants of the Heaven Society, Wang Longcheng really was the leader in all of Ironhand City who had the least to fear from an investigation.
He had a blood feud with the Heaven Society, after all.
As the two of them talked, a figure suddenly came jogging over from not far away.
It was Wang Yinhuan.
She was carrying a coat in her hands, and a faint fragrant breeze accompanied her as she approached.
“Dad, put on a coat.”
“Haha, all right, all right.”
Wang Longcheng immediately broke into a radiant smile, transforming from an ambitious Deputy Commander-in-Chief into an ordinary middle-aged father.
Li Mu raised his brows at her.
Then he gestured at his waist as if outlining a gourd.
Wang Yinhuan instantly flushed red all the way to the roots of her hair. Lowering her head and pressing her lips together, she took Wang Longcheng’s arm.
Wang Longcheng’s mood had clearly improved quite a bit.
So he took the two of them for a stroll through the garden.
The next day.
After waking up, Li Mu stretched lazily and glanced at the time. It was already rather late.
After coming back the night before, he had entered the Blessed Field and spent several hours planting crops, then digging and turning the channels for the Spiritual Spring River to irrigate them.
He had been exhausted.
Li Mu got up and headed straight for Blackwater High School.
On the way, he received a call from Zhang Zhiwei.
Zhang Zhiwei told him to go straight to the meeting room in the Training Center once he got to school.
As soon as he entered the campus, a whole crowd of students greeted Li Mu.
Large numbers of students were streaming in and out of the brand-new, imposing Training Center.
The Training Center had already been renovated by Zhang Group.
It was spacious and luxurious.
The Training Rooms, Pressure Rooms, training dummies, force testers, fitness area, and everything else were all A-Grade quality.
The Student Council even had a small private meeting room there.
Li Mu soon found Zhang Zhiwei and the others in the meeting room on the second floor.
Lin Yuya and Xiao Lingtong were there as well.
“What’s going on? Why is the atmosphere so serious?”
Xiao Lingtong took his phone with a troubled expression and handed it over.
“Boss Li, look at the local news!”
The top story on the local news, of course, was yesterday’s air-raid siren.
People were all speculating about what had happened.
But the Abyss-Suppressing Army’s confidentiality agreement was no joke.
And the media was absolutely forbidden from spreading news of a battle before the military district had issued an official notice.
The media still had not received any notice from the military district, so they did not dare report recklessly. They could only continue speculating in a mild tone to reassure the public.
And regardless of what happened on the battlefield, capital would always be the master of traffic.
The second local news item was:
“The Ironhand City Four-District Elite Tournament has been halted for the first time in its history. Will it continue?”
“Jinlin High School took seven of the top ten, while Blackwater High School took three.”
“Is it a seventy-thirty split between Blackwater High School and Jinlin High School?”
“Two contestants from Blackwater High School never made a move.”
“Jinlin High School’s Zheng Kuan has challenged Li Mu and hopes to continue this unfinished duel!”
“Does Blackwater High School dare accept the challenge?”
And that was only the news coverage itself.
The replies below from netizens were even more spectacular.
“Jinlin High School was clearly aiming to sweep the rankings as a group, and now the whole thing’s turned awkward.”
“The top ten should have been one neat family, but instead three disgusting eyesores got mixed in!”
“It would be one thing if they had secured their spots through strength, but they didn’t even fight!”
“Everyone with obsessive-compulsive tendencies has collapsed on the spot.”
“Jinlin High School really is strong and really worked hard, and yet this had to happen.”
“Honestly, what a pity for Jinlin High School this year. A perfect situation got ruined.”
“Are you blind? Li Mu is an officer! Didn’t you see him lead the reservists to reinforce the Abyss?”
“What nonsense! What officer? He just has a few more Merit Points, and the military district happened to need the reservists for something big.”
“He’s waving a chicken feather around like it’s an imperial edict!”
“I say he just used that as an excuse to dodge the match so he wouldn’t lose his third-place ranking.”
“He’s hanging on the top-five list on purpose just to disgust our little Yan-baby!”
“Li Mu’s the really smart one! If he doesn’t fight, then the rankings don’t change! Winning without even shedding blood—what a genius!”
The comment section was full of sarcasm, fury, and abuse.
Of course, there were also people speaking up for Li Mu and Blackwater High School.
But they were quickly drowned out beneath the flood of insults.
After reading all of that, Lu Chenfeng cursed angrily, “What the hell? They’re still coming after us over this?”
Zhang Zhiwei said calmly, “You’re mistaken.”
“Jinlin High School isn’t targeting us on purpose.”
“They’ve been planning this for a long time. Their goal was to dominate the Elite Tournament rankings as a group and draw the attention of all the major capital forces.”
“We just happened to be standing in their way.”
Li Mu said, “Hmph. One look at the rhythm of this tells me Jinlin High School’s paid commenters are the ones stirring it up.”
“The media and the organizers want traffic too, so they’re just going with the flow.”
“But those capital forces aren’t stupid. They’ve already seen Jinlin’s strength.”
“Jinlin High School has already achieved its goal of attracting capital, so why are they still manipulating public opinion?”
Zhang Zhiwei shrugged.
“Maybe they’re perfectionists, and the three of us eyesores hanging on the rankings really are ruining the screenshots they want to post.”
“Or maybe that Zheng Kuan really, really wants your third-place ranking in the whole city!”
Li Mu let out a cold laugh.
“Hmph!”
“Then I’ll have no choice but to give them what they want!”
Zhang Zhiwei smiled helplessly.
Jinlin High School really had calculated everything well.
Their planning was good, their strength was good, and their publicity strategy was good.
But no matter how good all that was, there was one thing they had not accounted for.
Li Mu was in a bad mood.