Chapter 117: The Rookie King Returns, Causing a Shock!

Chapter 117: The Rookie King Returns, Causing a Shock!

Hearing this explanation, Qian Duoduo and Shi Potian finally snapped out of it, and then, joy of reunion spread across their faces.

“You little rascal! You’re finally back!”

Qian Duoduo rushed forward in a single bound and gave Qin Feng a big hug.

The three sat down and began to talk about their experiences over the past year.

Qin Feng briefly recounted the matter.

“Teacher Lin Yue took me away to carry out a long-term combat mission. On a planet called Purgatory-VII, I fought against the Greenskins… for a whole year.”

“Fought against the Greenskins for a year?!”

Qian Duoduo and Shi Potian both gasped in shock upon hearing this.

Although they had never been to a real racial battlefield, they understood the terror and tenacity of the Greenskins from various materials.

“No wonder you’re carrying such a heavy killing aura.”

Qian Duoduo suddenly realized, “So what’s your strength now… your Vitality Index should be at 30.0, right?”

Qin Feng nodded.

“What about you two?”

He asked in return.

“Ah, don’t even mention it.”

Qian Duoduo looked utterly dejected, “I’ve been busy every day with club activities and private domain battles, working hard, and now my Vitality Index is only 18.21. Compared to you, I might as well not be alive.”

Qin Feng’s gaze then turned to Shi Potian.

Shi Potian said succinctly, “24.3.”

This number was already quite astonishing.

Clearly, Shi Potian had never slackened off in the slightest over the past year.

“A match?”

Shi Potian looked at Qin Feng, battle intent rising in his eyes, “The Imperial Arena—let me see just how far your strength has come.”

“Alright.”

Qin Feng readily agreed.

“Let’s go, let’s go! Watch the match, watch the match!”

Qian Duoduo immediately grew excited, “I’m telling you, Old Shi’s Imperial Arena rank points are even a bit higher than yours from a year ago, Old Qin! Who knows, he might just crush you!”

The three immediately entered their own rooms and linked to the Imperial Arena.

A sparring match between friends thus began.

The battle started quickly, and ended even faster.

Shi Potian launched his fiercest assault from the very beginning.

His Ninefold Thunder Blade was sharper and swifter than a year ago.

Yet no matter how violent his attacks, they were like mud oxen entering the sea before Qin Feng, effortlessly neutralized.

Qin Feng didn’t even move a single step; standing still, he casually parried and deflected with his long spear, dissolving all of Shi Potian’s attacks into nothingness.

After just one minute, Shi Potian voluntarily stopped his assault, stepped back, and said bluntly:

“I concede.”

He knew that continuing to fight was pointless.

The gap between them was even larger than he had imagined.

The three exited the arena.

Qian Duoduo looked at the calm Qin Feng and the thoughtful Shi Potian, and guessed, “I reckon Old Qin’s killing techniques must all be perfected by now, right? Otherwise, there’s no way he could defend so easily.”

Shi Potian shook his head at this, looking at Qin Feng with a hint of shock and deep admiration in his eyes.

He slowly uttered two words.

“Mastery.”

“What?”

Qian Duoduo was taken aback.

“It’s the ‘Mastery’ realm,”

Shi Potian explained, “In that fight, I couldn’t tell at all whether he was using techniques from ‘Thousand Army Spear’ or ‘Fierce Bird Fist.’ Every move seemed plain and unadorned, yet perfectly rounded, effortless, and without any trace. The only explanation is that he has cultivated both killing techniques to the ‘Mastery’ realm, and has infused his own ideas into them.”

Hearing Shi Potian’s analysis, Qian Duoduo’s mouth dropped open into an “O” shape.

Qin Feng looked at their stunned expressions, smiled, and said modestly:

“Mm, I lucked into mastery.”

“…”

Silence once again fell over the dormitory.

Qian Duoduo and Shi Potian exchanged glances, seeing endless emotion in each other’s eyes.

They didn’t need to think to know that behind that simple word “lucked” lay the immense effort and brutal hardship Qin Feng had endured.

It was something forged bit by bit, with life and will, amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood!

“Let’s go!”

After a long moment, Qian Duoduo suddenly leaped up from the sofa and shouted.

“Let’s go, let’s go! To the cafeteria! Celebrating Old Qin’s kingly return!”

“It’s been so long since we ate together!”

“Let’s go!”

Qin Feng and Shi Potian also stood up with smiles.

The three walked shoulder to shoulder, pushed open the door, and strode toward the familiar cafeteria.

The central cafeteria of Qiming No.1 High School was still the most bustling and noisy place on campus.

Tens of thousands of students came and went, picking up meals, eating, laughing loudly, full of youthful vitality.

When Qin Feng, Qian Duoduo, and Shi Potian, carrying three pure black B-grade energy meal trays—symbols of top-tier treatment—sat down by a window, the surrounding noise formed a strange “silence circle” about ten meters in radius centered on them.

Several students who had been walking toward this area suddenly halted their steps the moment they saw Qin Feng, as if hitting an invisible wall of air.

Their faces showed confusion and fear, and then, without any signal, they chose to detour to farther spots.

Those already seated nearby unconsciously lowered their voices. Their eyes would instinctively, with a mix of awe and fear, glance at the black-haired boy quietly cutting his steak, then quickly look away.

The whole process was quiet and tacit, with no one giving any orders.

It was a kind of instinctive avoidance of harm rooted in biology.

Because, at this moment, although Qin Feng had tried his utmost to restrain it, the killing aura—condensed into something almost tangible from a full year of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, of life-and-death struggles on the planet Purgatory-VII—still clung to him like a stubborn bone, impossible to fully conceal.

It was a pure, icy, terrifying aura that seemed ready to erupt at any moment and devour anyone in its path.

He just sat there quietly, like a prehistoric beast lurking among a flock of sheep, utterly out of place in the peaceful, serene campus atmosphere around him.

"Teacher Lin Yue is right."

Qin Feng felt the fearful gazes all around him, then glanced at his own right hand, which had instinctively tightened around the dinner knife at the sound of a neighboring table's tray hitting the floor. A wry, helpless smile crept into his heart.

"Looks like I really need a few days of good rest, to completely let go of that tense killing intent and spirit from the battlefield."

He realized it was becoming difficult to fully separate his "combat state" from his "daily state."

The past year had etched vigilance and slaughter into his very bones.

"Heh heh."

Beside him, Qian Duoduo seemed to relish this moment in the spotlight.

He straightened his back, deliberately pushing his B-level tray forward, basking in the awe-filled stares of the surrounding students with a smug expression, as if to say, "See? This beast is my brother."

Shi Potian, on the other hand, showed no reaction at all. He just quietly ate his meal, as if everything around him had nothing to do with him.

Of course, there were also many bold students, or older ones who recognized Qin Feng, pointing at him from a distance and whispering among themselves.

"Is that... that person Qin Feng? The freshman king from a year ago?"

"It looks like him! Didn't he disappear for a year? Why is he suddenly back?"

"Oh my god, the aura around him is terrifying... I just glanced at him, and I feel chills all over."

"What exactly did he go through this past year?"

Curiosity, shock, fear—all kinds of emotions spread through the cafeteria like ripples, rapidly expanding.

...

At the same time.

The campus forum of Qiming No.1 High School, a hub for all student information exchange, exploded instantly with Qin Feng's return.

Within five minutes of him stepping into the cafeteria, a bold, red-highlighted, pinned hot post shot to the top of the forum's front page like a rocket.

[Hot Post 1: The King Returns! The Missing Freshman King Qin Feng Appears at the Central Cafeteria!]

The poster was a sophomore student with the ID "Cafeteria Observer."

Main post content:

"Brothers! Big news! I just saw a legendary figure in the cafeteria—last year's freshman king, Qin Feng!

He's sitting with seniors Qian Duoduo and Shi Potian, also eating a B-level energy meal.

But that's not the point! The point is the feeling he gave me!

Oh my god! I swear, I've never seen anyone so terrifying in my life! He was just sitting there quietly eating, but I was watching him from over ten meters away, and I felt like I was being stared down by a demon crawling out of hell! Every single hair on my body stood on end!

That kind of aura... it doesn't belong to a student at all!

Attached is a long-distance photo I snapped secretly. Feel the vibe for yourselves! (Image)

I'm seriously suspecting that during his year of disappearance, he was secretly recruited and sent straight to the real myriad-race battlefield!"

This post, like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, instantly stirred up a thousand waves.

Replies:

"Holy crap! First! Is what the poster said true? That monster is back?!"

"I can confirm! I'm in the cafeteria too! The poster is absolutely right! Within ten meters of Qin Feng, it's a vacuum zone! No one dares to get close!"

"Oh my god, just looking at the photo, I can feel the pressure. Is this really a student from our school?"

"He's become this terrifying after just a year? What exactly did he go through?"

"Chilling to think about... His return, does it mean... he'll participate in this year's 'Qiming Rising Star'?"

This post instantly ignited the enthusiasm of all the sophomore and junior students.

They flooded into the post, sharing their own sightings and speculations, pushing its popularity to new heights.

Then, a second and third hot post sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain.

[Hot Post 2: Deep Dive! Why Is Freshman King Qin Feng Still on a B-Level Contract After a Year? Stagnant Strength or Hidden Circumstances?]

This post took a more incisive angle, cutting straight to the core of the issue.

Main post content:

"Everyone, I noticed a detail. Based on the poster's description and photos, Senior Qin Feng is still eating a B-level energy meal. This means his resource contract is still B-level.

That's quite interesting.

As we all know, given Senior Qin Feng's performance and talent last year, if he had followed the routine path of cultivation and accumulated merit points, upgrading his contract to A-level within this year would have been no problem.

So why hasn't he?

I boldly speculate two possibilities:

One: He hit some kind of bottleneck this year, his strength stagnated, and he couldn't earn enough merit points to upgrade his contract.

Two: He wasn't even at school this year! The missions he carried out might not be tied to the school's merit point system!

What do you all think?"

(End of chapter)