30: Life imprisonment, without probation
Zhang Sheng's Roving Dragon Movement Technique had reached the Transcendent stage, allowing him to evade the giant serpent's gaze with his agile movements.
Zhang Sheng circulated the Qi and blood throughout his body.
"Open!"
The One Cut Slash, executed at the Perfected State, allowed Zhang Sheng to comprehend Saber Intent. His Qi and blood transformed into a crimson blade aura, adhering to the blade.
"Slash!"
Zhang Sheng put all his strength into a full-power slash towards the giant serpent.
Crack!
The Tang saber, infused with blade aura, was incredibly sharp. Its blade pierced through the tough scales and embedded itself into the Demon Serpent's body.
In pain, the giant serpent quickly twisted its body, searching for Zhang Sheng, the tiny crawler.
Their eyes met!
Although the attack was effective, Zhang Sheng had now attracted the Demon Serpent's full attention.
The serpent's body coiled, seemingly gathering strength.
Not good!
Zhang Sheng quickly grabbed a handful of pebbles from the ground and threw them at the Demon Serpent, but it clearly had no effect.
The enormous serpent head lunged towards Zhang Sheng.
Zhang Sheng quickly used his movement technique to dodge, but found his path blocked by the serpent's tail.
He was caught in a pincer attack, front and back.
Was he doomed today?
If he couldn't escape, then he would kill his way out.
Zhang Sheng gripped his saber with both hands, his eyes resolute, transforming all the power of his Qi and blood into a thick, dark-red blade aura.
"One Cut Slash!"
Demon Serpent, today, either you die, or I die!
Zhang Sheng chose not to defend, having no opportunity to escape. He could only hold his saber and unleash this strongest strike forward.
The serpent's tail was about to strike; if it hit, Zhang Sheng would almost certainly die.
In this moment of life and death, past events flashed by quickly. If he hadn't wasted time on farming and instead cultivated a few more Spells to the Perfected State, perhaps he wouldn't have ended up in this predicament today.
"Brother Sheng!"
Wu Xingyang's pale face was covered in tears.
Just at this critical moment of life and death.
The dark-red Tang saber sliced into the Demon Serpent's head, but the alloy Tang saber shattered.
The Demon Serpent's tail was about to hit Zhang Sheng.
At the critical moment, a spherical shield perfectly protected Zhang Sheng.
At this moment, Zhang Sheng's Tang saber had a shattered blade, and the saber was stuck in the Demon Serpent's skull.
The giant serpent suddenly opened its massive maw and lunged to bite Zhang Sheng!
Crunch, crunch, crunch!
Zhang Sheng's shield couldn't bear the strain and was about to be crushed by the Demon Serpent's bite.
Zhang Sheng had a flash of inspiration, pulled five high-explosive grenades from his waist, and simultaneously pulled their pins.
The moment the shield shattered, he threw all five grenades with full force into the Demon Serpent's gaping, bloody maw.
At the same time, he used the serpent's tail for leverage, jumping with all his might towards the back of the serpent's head.
"Boom!"
A huge explosion!
Five high-explosive grenades exploded simultaneously inside the serpent's mouth.
For a moment, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and with a rumble, the massive serpent's body crashed to the ground.
The serpent's head had completely vanished, turning into scattered flesh and blood.
A white jade plaque glowed in its original spot. Zhang Sheng casually put it into his pocket and simultaneously swallowed several essence food pills.
From the start of the battle to its end, only a few breaths had passed.
"Brother Sheng! Are you okay?" TheFat (Fatty) and the limping Tian Xingxing rushed over. The other students also looked on in shock at the scene before them.
The man who usually went unnoticed in a crowd had, in today's battle with the Demon Serpent, given them immense shock to their Souls.
Even many years later, they would often recall the young man who charged at the Demon Serpent with a saber.
Zhang Sheng looked at Huang Mao in the crowd and smiled, signaling to him.
"Brother! Thank you for your shield! I will repay this debt someday!"
Lin Xiaotian, his face pale, also smiled, "It's nothing! Without you, we wouldn't have been able to defeat the Demon Serpent!"
Before he could finish speaking, Huang Mao's vision went black, and he fainted.
The shield he had provided to Zhang Sheng had drained his last Mental Energy, causing him to fall into a coma from overexertion.
At this moment, a roaring sound reached everyone's ears. Hundreds of fully armed soldiers were arriving on battle motorcycles.
Reinforcements had finally arrived.
"Who is Grey Wolf?"
"I am." The heavily injured Grey Wolf struggled to his feet with the support of two classmates.
Ignoring Grey Wolf's miserable state, the leading soldier said coldly:
"This is utter foolishness!"
"We'll take over here. You all evacuate the Secret Realm as quickly as possible."
Zhang Sheng noticed that Xu Anmin was not among the reinforcements.
Among the students, some were injured, some unconscious, and others pale-faced. Fortunately, their basic physicalquality (quality) was good, and with the threat of the Yao Beast gone, they quickly left the Secret Realm... Upon returning to school, several people immediately applied for withdrawal after this incident.
Back at his apartment, Zhang Sheng rested for half a day before his Qi and blood recovered, and his complexion returned to normal.
He only found out after inquiring that Xu Anmin had continuously used Teleportation on the way to call for reinforcements, resulting in severe Mental Energy exhaustion, and he was still in a coma.
This was an extremely serious teaching incident, and Xu Anmin was directly expelled from the school's teaching team.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole!
At the same time, Zhang Sheng also became a celebrity in his class.
The school took this incident very seriously, not only carefully questioning everyone about what happened in the Secret Realm but also analyzing Grey Wolf's recorder and all the recorded videos.
After Zhang Sheng and the other students left the Secret Realm, the subsequent army completed thecrusade (extermination) of the Secret Realm's Yao Beasts, ultimately setting the Rank of this White-Grade Secret Realm as White-Grade Top-tier.
After analyzing Grey Wolf's video, the Demon Serpent's strength was extremely close to the first layer of the Qi Sea Realm.
The next day, Zhang Sheng noticed that some people were missing from the class group chat. He later learned that students who performed poorly in the Secret Realm had been advised to withdraw from school.
Most of these withdrawn students were those who had lost their composure, accidentally injured teammates, or even stolen spoils of war from others.
After waking up, Xu Anmin received a suspension from the school, but this Secret Realm incident also made the school realize that towering trees cannot grow in a greenhouse. Subsequent teaching would be more focused on practical combat.
As Zhang Sheng was Cultivating in his apartment, his phone suddenly received an unfamiliar text message.
"Hou Wu: Student Zhang Sheng, congratulations on qualifying to participate in the White-Grade Secret Realm extermination! I am currently downstairs at your apartment building."
After sending the message, Hou Wu looked at Yan Xueli beside him, "Do you think this kid won't know who I am?"
"It's quite possible. This guy has been Cultivating almost constantly since he came to the First University."
Zhang Sheng looked at the text message on his phone. He really didn't know who Hou Wu was until he saw Dean Yan's message, then Zhang Sheng realized that Dean Yan and the Dean of War God Academy were currently downstairs at his apartment building.
He quickly ran downstairs.
"Hello, Dean Yan, hello, Dean Hou," Zhang Sheng said respectfully.
"Excellent young man, we all saw your performance in the Secret Realm. Dean Yan and I happened to meet, so we stopped by to ask you: are you willing to join our War God Academy?"
"This?" Zhang Sheng looked at Dean Yan.
"Go, War God Academy needs you more. There's no shortage of you for farming, but there are places that need you more!" Yan Xueli said.
"Dean Hou, Dean Yan, thank you for your recognition. I am willing to join War God Academy."
After yesterday's battle, Zhang Sheng also understood that strength was everything!
Moreover, the First Cultivation Academy had only just been established, and the benefits of each academy were similar, except that War God Academy had priority in participating in Secret Realm exterminations.
Given Zhang Sheng's performance, he obtained the qualification to participate in White-Grade Secret Realm exterminations. He could now check for newly appearing Secret Realms on his phone and sign up to participate in White-Grade Secret Realm exterminations.
An Shenhu, Lin Xiaotian, and several others in his class also obtained White-Grade Secret Realm extermination qualifications.
In addition to this qualification, Zhang Sheng also received an excellent monthly assessment and a school reward of ten thousand academic credits.
Although Zhang Sheng could refine essence food pills, it was still a very large amount of academic credit.
Evening,
"Tian Xingxing: Brother Sheng, want to eat together tonight? I also invited Brother Xingyang."