At the Medic Hall of the academy...

Fenglian sat down silently. Then Mo Qinghe arrived, and saw the situation of Chen Ming. His face twitched with an angry expression.

"What happened, Fenglian?" Mo Qinghe inquired, darting his eyes towards Fenglian. "How did Chen Ming end up in this condition?"

"Zhang Wei and Xiao Ch—"

THUD! THUD!

A loud sound of footsteps interrupted Fenglian’s reply. At the entrance, a man arrived. He is Lin Yuan, his robe was messy grey and blood red in color, his eyes devoid of emotion. In his right hand, Lin Yuan held the hair strands of Zhang Wei, who was brutally punched to death.

Mo Qinghe’s face spasmed in pure rage. "What the fuck...? Did you kill him?"

"Yes, master! But I don’t feel any guilt. He tried to kill me and Chen Ming with Xiao Chen. I reacted in time and killed Xiao Chen first." Lin Yuan stepped in, dragging Zhang Wei and threw forward. "This bastard injured Chen Ming, and as I don’t have beast essence left... I beat him to death."

’What the hell...? Beat him to death?? How the hell is this brat so calm saying that?’ Mo Qinghe frowned, seeing Lin Yuan’s face.

"How can I believe what you said is not a lie? Do you have any witnesses?" Mo Qinghe walked, stopping in front of Lin Yuan.

"I am," Fenglian raised his hand. "Zhang Wei and Xiao Chen are in my group. They said they will steal the beast cores from Lin Yuan’s group, even by killing them. But I refused to go. After some time, I walked towards Lin Yuan’s group and saw Lin Yuan killing Zhang Wei – who injured Chen Ming brutally."

"Actually, he tried to kill Chen Ming," Lin Yuan continued after Fenglian. "As I interrupted and punched Zhang Wei his attack directed to Chen Ming’s death. And master, if I don’t react like this, we would be in their places now! Here is my Rank 2 beast core."

Lin Yuan gave the shimmering green beast core to Mo Qinghe and went to an empty bed to sit. Then an Apothecary came to check Lin Yuan’s condition. And healed Lin Yuan’s bloody hands. The Apothecary name is Dan Zhenren, a Core Beast Realm - Mid stage cultivator with an epic core beast named Flame Panther.

"Don’t worry, Lin Yuan. You will be healed," Dan Zhenren smiled softly, rolling a white bandage around Lin Yuan’s hand.

"Where is Xiao Chen then?" Mo Qinghe questioned, turning his towards Lin Yuan.

"He was in the forest... I can’t carry both of them at the same time, master. Sorry! So I left him in the forest."

Mo Qinghe sighed, gesturing to two of the guards to come with him. He started to walk towards Outer Beast Ridge.

After a 40 minute walk, Mo Qinghe found the corpse of Xiao Chen.

"What the fuck....?" Mo Qinghe screamed in pure terror. "How can a 15-year old boy kill like this? Does he have a heart? And he said he was not guilty."

"Guards, take the corpse to the academy, carefully," Mo Qinghe commanded.

The two guards took out a cloth and wrapped the bisected face. Then they carefully carried the corpse towards the academy.

’Lin Yuan...’ Mo Qinghe thought, seeing towards the trees. ’What kind of monster are you? Without feeling guilty, and you even gave the beast’s core to register as a winner in that intense situation.’

The walk towards the academy felt too silent for Mo Qinghe.

****

At the medic hall in the academy.

Every student returned to the academy, but they all assembled outside the medic hall.

"The new joiner killed Xiao Chen and Zhang Wei."

"Lin Yuan brutally killed them."

"They tried to kill him, so he had to kill them."

Murmurs of Lin Yuan are lingering across the academy like wind. Lin Yuan got first aid on his hand and he got out of the medic hall.

"How are you Lin Yuan?" Li Xun frowned, stepping in front of Lin Yuan.

"I am fine!" Lin Yuan whispered, his voice low from exhaustion.

"Why did you kill them?"

"Is it real that they tried to kill you? Or else, you killed them for beast cores and blamed them?"

After hearing the last question coming from the right side of Lin Yuan, he darted his head toward the right and glared with a deadly look towards the students. Then the murmurs came to an end, not because they wanted to stop, but because they were scared to speak after witnessing the glare of Lin Yuan.

"I didn’t kill them for beast cores!" Lin Yuan announced, his head held up. "I killed them because they tried to kill us for our beast cores. If you all have any doubt ask the witnesses: Fenglian and Chen Ming after they recovered."

Lin Yuan brutally killed Xiao Chen even before he attacked. He just killed him for a doubt that Xiao Chen will attack them. But he didn’t lie to the academy either, he told the truth in his convenient way. And luck on his side, Fenglian came after the incident which helped Lin Yuan more when Mo Qinghe interrogated Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan slowly walked to his home. He was tired, but he had won his first trial. He reached home, and his elder brother — Lin Fengyu — frowned upon seeing the blood soaked, dirty robe of his brother and his hand with a white bandage.

"What happened, Lin Yuan?" Lin Fengyu asked, stepping in the way of Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan explained the things that happened at the academy to Lin Fengyu.

"You joined the academy..?" Lin Fengyu argued, ignoring all other things about the trial and Zhang Wei’s incident. "You didn’t even say to our father.. Why?"

"Huhh.. No one in this house cared for me when I came to say I got a beast acquired and I found out my cultivation pathway on my own." Lin Yuan grunted, darting his eyes onto Lin Fengyu’s eyes. "Now you are coming and asking me ’Why did I join the academy without asking?’ I don’t need anyone’s permission when they do not care about me. Leave me alone, brother."

"Father didn’t care about your own cultivation... because self cultivation process is weak compared to river’s prophet, and he didn’t care about the beast... because it was an uncom—"

"It’s not uncommon," Lin Yuan interrupted. "Leave it. You won’t understand, brother. Let me rest sometime."

Lin Yuan went into his room, and changed his robes to light-layered ones. He sat on the bed, and swung his legs up to lay back flat. Lin Yuan stared at the ceiling with a blank look on his face. Suddenly he remembered that he has a Rank 1 Beast Core.

Lin Yuan commanded the beast core to appear by extending his hand. The pale-white beast core materialised in the hands of Lin Yuan. He also summoned his turtle, and it appeared right away. He fed the beast core to the turtle, carefully. After the turtle consumed the beast core, Lin Yuan held the turtle gently with his two hands, and concentrated his mind on cultivation.

Turtle resonating with Lin Yuan’s aperture. The beast essence increased from 5.0% to 6.2% instantly.

Lin Yuan sighed, and commanded the turtle into the ring. He slowly leaned back and fell asleep.

****

Morning at Academy.

Chen Ming’s eyes fluttered, and groaned slightly before fully opening his eyes. Mo Qinghe was beside him, his eyes locked on Chen Ming.

"How are you feeling now, Chen Ming?" Mo Qinghe smiled, his face calm and elegant.

"I am fine, master..."

Suddenly Chen Ming remembered Lin Yuan. "How was Lin Yuan? He was attacked by Zhang Wei, he was the one who saved me."

"He is fine, Chen Ming. Take a rest now. Once Lin Yuan comes, he will come to see you," Mo Qinghe soothed.

’Then the things Lin Yuan said are true... Even if they are true, Lin Yuan is a ruthless monster.’ Mo Qinghe thought, walking outside of the medical hall. ’No child can kill another child that brutal.’

As he was thinking about Lin Yuan, Mo Qinghe saw Lin Yuan coming inside from the gate.

"Lin Yuan," Mo Qinghe called out, his eyes sharply focused on Lin Yuan. "Chen Ming was awake. He wants to see you."

"Coming, master!" Lin Yuan halted for a second before sprinting towards the medical hall. And he walked near the bed of Chen Ming. Chen Ming sensed that someone came and slowly opened his eyes.

"Lin Yuan, Are you okay?" Chen Ming worried, his face tired. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"I am fine.." Lin Yuan replied.

"What you’ve done is brutal... but they deserved it. If you didn’t kill him, we would be on death bed yesterday!" Chen Ming elucidated, darting his eyes towards the ceiling. "You saved my ass, Lin Yuan. I owe you one!"

Lin Yuan smirked. "Just get well soon, arrogant bastard. We need to train together."

Lin Yuan and Chen Ming smiled together.

"Okay. I will go for now. Take care! Rest well, Chen Ming!" Lin Yuan walked out, waving his hand.

Mo Qinghe was standing outside the medic room. And Lin Yuan came to a halt near Mo Qinghe.

"Lin Yuan..." Mo Qinghe grinned, placing his hand on Lin Yuan’s shoulder.

Lin Yuan thought Mo Qinghe will ask some questions about yesterday again.

"Here is your reward for winning the trial... 20 essence stones." Mo Qinghe said, giving a bag of essence stones along with a beast core to Lin Yuan. "And the Rank 2 beast core you have won."

"Thank you, master." Lin Yuan exhaled, and left the medic hall right away.