Chapter 20

Chapter 20: When Aberrant Beasts Attacked, You Had to Hide Beside the Gleaming Big Golden Dragon

“Alert, alert! Twenty-five Level 5 aberrant beasts have smashed through the school’s back gate and entered campus. All units, pay attention. All units, pay attention!”

The shrill alarm repeated three times, sharp and urgent enough to slice through every hallway, classroom, and dorm.

The Royal Military Academy’s leadership didn’t even have time to wipe the sweat off their brows. They rushed to Chong Ming and blurted, “Your Highness, a large number of Level 5 aberrant beasts have breached campus. It’s too dangerous. Please move to the academy shelter pod. We will do everything we can to ensure Your Highness’s safety.”

How had the back gate defenses failed at a moment like this? They had inspected them again and again—how could something still go wrong?

If anything happened to Your Highness on their grounds, they could grind their bones to dust and still never repay the debt.

Chong Ming’s voice dropped, the pressure in it impossible to resist. “Principal Wu, you want me to go to the shelter pod. Are you indirectly telling me that the Royal Military Academy can’t even clear twenty-five Level 5 aberrant beasts?”

Principal Wu folded so low it looked like his spine might snap. “No, Your Highness, that’s not what I—”

“Enough,” someone snapped. “Why so much nonsense? Go kill them!”

Sui Xuan Chu cut the principal off, temper flaring. He turned and barked at the surrounding cadets, “S-rank and above, with me. We’re wiping out these aberrant beasts.”

The cadets the academy had summoned to receive Chong Ming were all top students—department chiefs, ability levels no lower than A-rank, most of them S-rank and above. To a pack of hot-blooded youths like that, twenty-five Level 5 aberrant beasts were practically gift-wrapped, a perfect chance to show off in front of their male idol.

Sui Xuan Chu’s words hadn’t even finished landing before voices surged up in a wave.

“Right! It’s only twenty-five Level 5 aberrant beasts!”

“Your Highness, don’t worry—we’ll take them down and drag the corpses back!”

“Move, move! Protect Your Highness, protect school property, and kill every last one!”

The S-rank and A-rank cadets surged forward together, sprinting into the academy with the kind of speed that felt like sunlight flashing off steel—bright enough to make you squint.

“What are you doing?” Jiang Tea Tea asked.

She grabbed Huang Da Zhuang by the arm as he tried to run after them. “You don’t have abilities. You’ll just get in the way.”

Huang Da Zhuang looked like he was about to burst into flames. “I don’t have abilities, but I’m still a man. Protecting Your Highness is my duty.”

“And who says I’d only get in the way? If I shift into beast form, I’m 1.8 meters tall. I’ve got sharp teeth. I can bite them to death!”

A 1.8-meter yellow dog. The image was almost too ridiculous to take seriously.

Jiang Tea Tea eyed him flatly. “Being tall won’t help. Level 5 aberrant beasts are bigger, stronger, and more vicious.”

“If you go, you’ll be a snack—one bite per beast. Stop causing trouble. The safest place is behind your male idol.”

“I won’t! I’ll devote myself to my male idol, I’ll work until I—”

Smack.

Jiang Tea Tea slapped the back of his head, then jabbed a finger at his nose. “Do you understand human language or not?”

Huang Da Zhuang’s head rang. The heat in him went out like a candle snuffed in water. He shrank into himself and muttered, “I understand. I’m not going.”

“Good.” Jiang Tea Tea shook her hand like she’d just swatted a fly. “Come on. Stay behind your male idol.”

Huang Da Zhuang mumbled an “oh” and trailed after her like a scolded spouse. Inside, he was howling. He’d just sworn to Your Highness that he’d live for him, die for him, smash his head into a wall for him… and now he was backing down. What if Your Highness decided he was a coward?

Chong Ming’s gaze flicked over them. He lifted a hand and made a small, precise two-finger gesture toward his escort guards.

They split immediately—one group staying to shield him, the other breaking off to support Sui Xuan Chu’s team.

The academy leadership hovered nearby, sweating but silent, too terrified to speak. Somehow they looked even more pitiful than Huang Da Zhuang after getting smacked.

Then the alarm screamed again.

“Alert, alert! In addition to the twenty-five Level 5 aberrant beasts that breached the academy five minutes ago, thirty-one Level 6 aberrant beasts and forty-five Level 4 aberrant beasts have entered campus!”

“They include mutant foxes, mutant tigers, and mutant cheetahs. Cadets with abilities, assist cadets without abilities into the shelter pods. Campus security, be advised—arm yourselves, prepare to engage, hunt aberrant beasts, and protect cadets and academy property!”

Chong Ming started walking into campus as if the announcement hadn’t been meant for him. His presence remained restrained, controlled—and still suffocating. The academy leadership hurried after him, along with a cluster of lower-ranked ability students.

His escort guards moved with calm precision, ignoring the shrieking alarms like background noise.

After roughly twenty minutes, the chaos of the battlefield reached their ears. Upperclassmen and first-years alike had poured into the fight. A-rank and above cadets and all campus security were hunting aberrant beasts. The scene was wild, yet strangely organized—lines forming and breaking, abilities flashing in bursts.

Huang Da Zhuang’s eyes lit up. He grabbed Jiang Tea Tea’s arm and shook it hard. “Sister Tea! Sister Tea! See? I told you—if I’m in beast form, I can kill these aberrant beasts. Look at them—some of them aren’t even as big as me! I’m going!”

“Wait.”

Jiang Tea Tea swept her gaze across the area and quietly reached out with her magic power to sense. At the same time, she seized the back of Huang Da Zhuang’s collar and yanked him back.

He stumbled. “What are we waiting for? I’m not afraid of danger.”

Jiang Tea Tea’s brows drew together. “The alarm said twenty-five Level 5, thirty-one Level 6, forty-five Level 4. I just looked. There are more than that.”

Huang Da Zhuang blinked at her. “Looked? You’re a pure human with no abilities—what did you use to look?”

Jiang Tea Tea paused for half a beat. “A sixth sense.”

Huang Da Zhuang let out two skeptical laughs. “Sister Tea, if you’re going to call it a sixth sense, why not just say you awakened precognition?”

Jiang Tea Tea cut her eyes sideways. “You don’t believe me?”

He flinched under that look and folded instantly. “I do, I do—”

He didn’t get to finish.

From the surrounding teaching buildings came a sudden eruption of shrieks—high, ragged, and panicked.

“Ahhh! Level 7 mutant rats! Level 7 mutant rats!”

“Run—run! Don’t let them scratch you, don’t let them bite you! You’ll get infected, you’ll lose limbs, you’ll die!”

“Run! There are so many Level 7 mutant rats—there are viruses all over them! Don’t let them touch you!”

One scream became ten. Ten became a chorus.

Cadets with low-level abilities—male and female beastfolk alike—burst out of the buildings and fled. Behind them, mutant rats the size of rabbits poured after them, snapping and swarming, driving them forward like prey.

Huang Da Zhuang went numb on the spot. The heat-sensor alarms hadn’t warned them about Level 7 mutant rats at all, yet Jiang Tea Tea had felt it coming.

“Careful, Huang Big Dog,” Jiang Tea Tea said.

She dragged him back toward Chong Ming, forcing him to retreat. “There are aberrant beasts underground too. Stay close to Chong Ming. He’s the safest place to be.”