Several classmates heard and first looked towards the speaker, a stout and chubby individual with small eyes and a face wearing disdain, appearing quite troublesome.
Then they looked at Jiang Ning, who was expressionless, as if he hadn't heard anything.
So the classmates easily concluded that Jiang Ning was someone who preferred not to seek trouble.
Jiang Ning had indeed heard; he knew who the speaker was—Song Sheng, a boy from their First Year Class 8.
Although Fourth Middle School was among the top three high schools in the urban area, it still filled with students of various qualities. People like Song Sheng typically relied on their size to bully others.
Song Sheng had decent grades, ranking in the top ten of his class, and he was a native of Yuzhou City. Such people could be troublesome when they chose to misbehave.
Song Sheng often caused disturbances in the back of the class. He frequently sought physical contests like wrestling, and sometimes in the heat of it, he would violently knock over several desks, leaving a chaotic mess. He never cleaned up after himself, instead taking pride in the disorder.
And he felt that bullying others could establish a kind of "authority" for himself.
Such incidents couldn't be fully eradicated even in 2013, let alone ten years later.
Eventually, a significant incident led to Song Sheng being severely disciplined by the school. He did restrain himself somewhat afterward—his mouth was still foul, but he was less physically aggressive, maintaining his composure until the college entrance exam, after which he attended a Project 211 university.
Two years after graduating, Jiang Ning once heard about Song Sheng from an old classmate.
The classmate spoke with schadenfreude, "Song Sheng fought someone at work, his family was willing to pay compensation, but the victim refused and insisted on a lawsuit, which landed him in jail for two years, ruining much of his life."
Reflecting on his memories of Song Sheng, Jiang Ning recalled they seldom interacted, except once during a conflict when Song Sheng's roughhousing had knocked over his desk and phone.
He picked up his phone and found the screen was unbroken. Knowing Song Sheng was trouble, he had decided to let it go.
Now reliving his life, Jiang Ning was no longer concerned with past grievances.
As for Song Sheng's behavior today, Jiang Ning found it amusing, reminiscent of an ant showing off, blissfully unaware of his own insignificance.
Still, Jiang Ning felt somewhat irked.
He activated Divine Sense, intending to test it out.
In his previous life, he had mastered the "Golden Mysterious Separation God Technique" of the Divine Sense Secret Method at the Great Achievement Realm, which allowed him to convey thoughts over thousands of miles or kill with a mere thought—it was merely the basics. He could also multiply his Divine Sense, almost achieving immortality.
Sadly, the Divinity Transformation Tribulation, encapsulating the laws of nature, ensured that even divided Divine Sense could not evade obliteration.
In this life, he was rapidly progressing in re-cultivating this secret method. In just a few days, he was already capable of executing the attached "Shocking God Stab."
As Jiang Ning's thoughts turned, Instructor Li continued as usual:
The formation advanced.
Song Sheng, covered in sweat, thought to himself that Instructor Li was simply inhumane. If the instructor weren't so robust, he would have gone up and smacked him in the face.
As for the boy just now, he mused, "Trying to stand out, huh?
Can't he see his own weak arms and legs won't hold up?"
Song Sheng planned to use the boy for practice after military training was over; he would mock him in front of the whole class. If the boy dared to resist, Song Sheng would pin him down to establish his authority in the class.
Then he'd cover him in dust, making him lose face, and no girl in the class would fancy him after that.
He had done the same in middle school; it was a tried and true method to establish "authority."
While Song Sheng was fantasizing, a dark and overwhelming shadow attacked his mind, causing sudden intense pain as if a sharp nail had been driven deep inside from the shadows, making him scream loudly.
Several male classmates nearby jumped in fright, their steps faltering as they hastily looked over.
Song Sheng clutched his head, rolling on the ground in agony and causing a scene both tragic and somewhat comical.
Nearby, Ma Shicheng thought of a pig rolling around.
Instructor Li, with a frown, walked over. By then Song Sheng was no longer in pain; the agony had lasted only a moment, and he was back to normal. He quickly got up.
"What are you doing?" Instructor Li had initially been worried, but seeing him acting normal, his temper flared.
"Are you just rolling around on the ground?"
Song Sheng cursed Instructor Li internally, but was also filled with confusion. What had just happened to him?
"Instructor Li, my head suddenly hurt terribly, but now it's fine," Song Sheng explained.
Instructor Li saw that Song Sheng was dripping with sweat and decided not to trouble him further.
Class 8's formation lined up again.
"Next, we'll practice turning!"
Ma Shicheng turned right, only to find himself face-to-face with a classmate from the opposite side. Suspecting he had turned wrong, he quickly turned back.
"Wrong, wrong!" Instructor Li yelled,
"Which way is right? Can't you distinguish left from right?"
"Attention, right turn!"
As he spoke, Jiang Ning once again activated the "Shocking God Stab."
In an instant, Song Sheng felt a chill to his bone; he recalled the fear dominated by that inexplicable pain as if a dreadful nail was about to pierce into his brain the next second...
"Ah!" Song Sheng cried out abruptly.
This startled the nearby classmates again, who collectively exclaimed:
What puzzled Song Sheng was that, as soon as he cried out, the nail did not pierce his brain but vanished without a trace, causing a false alarm.
Song Sheng stood in place, overwhelmed by embarrassment.
Nearby, a dark-skinned and somewhat rogue-looking Guo Kunnan commented,
"It sounded like killing a pig."
Someone laughed and said, "It's clearly the pig being killed."
A classmate whose family sold pork countered:
"It's like a pig just put into boiling water to remove its hair!"
"Ha ha ha ha!" Both classes burst into laughter, brightening the atmosphere.
Song Sheng's face turned ashen, his fists tightly clenched, with nails digging into his palms without him realizing.
He bitterly memorized the faces of those who had just mocked him, preparing for revenge.
Then, Song Sheng felt a darkness before his eyes as Instructor Li appeared in front of him, unapologetically saying,
Hearing this, Song Sheng felt murderous, his tone extremely hostile, "Instructor, I didn't do it on purpose just now!"
"Ten laps." Instructor Li's eyes were icy cold.
Song Sheng's forehead twitched, clearly on the edge of exploding, then he obediently began to run.
With the continuous disturbances, Instructor Li's training plan was disrupted:
"Dismissed, rest in place for fifteen minutes."
Then, the freshman boys from Class 8 sat on the grass watching Song Sheng run.
After a while, the neighboring girls' formation also took a break. Since they weren't far, they had also heard Song Sheng's scream.
Some cheerful girls, or those who knew some boys well, came over to ask about the situation, prompting quite a few boys to complain:
"Don't even mention it; there was just an idiot earlier, his brain probably short-circuited."
"It's the first time I've seen such a thing, unlucky!"
"Don't say that; we got a break because of Song Sheng's contribution!"
"Ha ha, true that, we should really thank him later!"
Amidst the boys' laughter and teasing, Song Sheng's reputation spread to the girls, and he quickly became the butt of the joke.