Mad God - Volume 2 - Chapter 1

Teacher Zuang stood on top of the platform, facing all the students and said: “In one more month, it’ll be the Annual Schoolwide Fighting Tournament. In this remaining month, I hope everyone will try their best and step up their game, I will pick the two strongest students from the whole class to represent our class in the competition.”

Hosin asked: “Teacher, if we get ranked, are there any prizes?”

Teacher Zuang smiled: “Of course, the top three entrants of every grade will be rewarded with a piece of good equipment from the school, the higher one’s rank, the better quality equipment they will receive. At the same time, if any one of you guys become the champion, I will also be giving a prize, but only if you are the champion. As for what prize is, currently it’s a secret, but it won’t be cheap. My expectations of you all are very high. Students, do not disappoint your teacher!”

Teacher Zuang’s words stirred up the students’ excitement, and everyone tried to outdo the other to show off their efforts.

I saw the flames in Hosin’s eyes, but he didn’t know Teacher Zuang had already decided on the participants long ago, his chance of getting the equipment is close to zero.

Fenjan stood up and proudly said: “Teacher, don’t worry, if you send me to fight, I will definitely become the champion of the grade!” Seeing her proud chubby face, I couldn’t help but laugh, this fat girl is pretty competitive.

After class, Fenwan looked for me and said: “Layson, how come I feel like you changed a lot after your confinement?”

I looked at him surprised, no wonder he is as strong as I am, he actually saw my growth, I calmly said: “Oh? What kind of change? I don’t feel as though anything has changed.”

Fenwan said: “There must be some change, although I can’t say what I feel you aren’t as cold as before, and in its place is more of an imposing manner, now I’m afraid I’m no longer a match for you.”

I smiled: “Perhaps you’re being sensitive, I don’t feel as if I had any change.”

Fenwan looked at my smile, stunned: “You never smiled before, but now you do, how can you say that you did not change?”

I unconsciously touched my face, and realized that I was smiling. I realized that Jisue’s influence on me was not small, even changing the way I act. I patted his shoulder: “Work hard, I hope that we will meet in this year’s competition (the participants from the same class will be separated into different groups, they will only meet in the finals).”

Fenwan asked: “Layson, you’re so confident you’ll make it to the finals? You should know, our martial-magic class had always been at the bottom. The martial and magic specialized students usually fare better, since their concentration has been focused, their progress in combat ability is farther than ours.”

I glanced at him: “Confidence is the best weapon, you’ll see during the competition.” These three months I have not only increased my strength, but also my confidence. In my heart there is only one opponent, and that is the fifth year’s Liwa. Only he can truly call out my fighting spirit, perhaps I am not his match yet, but I have to see how big the gap is between us.

Fenwan said: “You chap, your arrogance is back, let’s go eat together.”

I shook my head: “I can’t, already have an appointment.”

Fenwan understood in a flash: “Ah, right, you are the first in school to chase after a girl so brazenly, you really impress me, if you have a chance, introduce a beauty to your brother, hue hue, I will not bother you anymore, I’ll go look for Fenyun instead.” It’s all that big mouth Fenyun’s fault, in the future I will not tell him anything.

I walked towrds the dining hall, and saw that Jisue was already waiting outside under a tree. Her figure standing next to the tree was like a clean and pure lily, I hastened forward and apologized: “Just now a classmate and I had a little chat, sorry to make you wait.”

Jisue gave me a sweet smile: “No problem, let’s go.”

I extended my hand to hold Jisue, but Jisue blushed and avoided it: “There are so many people here, don’t be like this, ok? Also the school doesn’t allow…”

I frowned and looked at her, helplessly sighing: “Alright, I’ll respect your choice.”

Jisue smiled: “Let’s go in and eat.”

The dining hall was as lively as usual, I had already became a celebrity within the school (for someone who dared to accept the number one fighter’s challenge, it would be strange not to be well-known, and also there’s also the thing with Jisue), once we entered the dining hall, many eyes turned over to look. I nonchalantly went to order my meal, I bought the best dishes for Jisue and bought myself two medium quality meals.

Seeing Jisue eating her food in small bites, I frowned “You eat too little, eat more, how can you have a healthy body otherwise? Look at me, one of my meals is almost what you eat in a week.” Saying so, I pointed at the mountain of food in front of me.

Jisue covered up her mouth and laughed: “If I eat as much as you do, how can that work? You’re bigger so you have to eat more, I am a girl, if eat too much and I’ll become fat, then you’ll not like me anymore.”

My complexion dimmed: “What kind of person do you take me, Layson, for?”

Jisue saw that I was not happy and hurried to say: “I shouldn’t have said that, I’ll eat more, OK?”

Hearing her say so, my face relaxed and I asked: “Right, what about that unruly girl who always followed you?”

Jisue looked around before saying in a small voice: “Lower your voice, she went back home to eat, but if she knew you said that about her, she’ll become angry again, yesterday you don’t know how difficult it was for me to comfort her. Also, how much like a child can you be, still needing me to coax you, hehe.”

I smiled: “You are older than me, what’s wrong with coaxing me? That Jin whatever’s natural disposition is to be obstinate, and she won’t let anyone say that? It’s all because she was pampered from a young age. Why would you all go home to eat, are the food here not appetizing? I think it’s good enough.”

Jisue wrinkled her cute little nose: “The dishes at home are a little better than the food here, but the most important thing is that we don’t want to show our face in public too much. If we’re here, a lot of people look at us and we can’t comfortably eat our meals.”

I snorted: “Who would dare to look at you, I’ll tear him apart if they so much as glance at you.”

Jisue pressed my hand and hurriedly said: “What are you doing? You are being too reckless again. You can’t stop everyone’s eyes. Originally my older sister asked me to go home with her to eat lunch together, but you had already asked to meet with me.”

I doubtfully said: “Older sister? Which one?”

Jisue looked at me as if I am a freak and after a long time she said: “You don’t even know my great sister’s name? Are you ill-informed?”

I indifferently smiled: “Is you sister very famous? The school’s number one fighter doesn’t seem to be her.”

Jisue proudly said: “Of course she’s very famous, even though she’s not the number one fighter, but she is the schools’ number one beauty.”

I stared blankly, the school’s number one beauty, this seems a little exaggerated. If it is true, then this duke sure knows how to select his genes, both of his daughters are beauties. I ask “How many children do you have in your family? don’t tell me you still have some other ranked beauty?”

Jisue lightly hit me and lightly laughed: “No more, it’s only my older sister and me, there are many suitors asking for my sister, many who aren’t afraid of the school’s rule. In the school they all chase after my sister openly, especially that Liwa, he’s the most fierce of them all.”

I suddenly realized: “No wonder yesterday he was so polite to you, so it seems that it was related to your sister. By the way, what’s your sister’s name?”

Jisue said: “My older sister’s name is Jiyan, she is a third year student, and she practices light magic, she’s also the favorite pupil of the vice-principal.”

I was stunned, light magic, the more I hear the more uncomfortable I feel, I reckon it has to do my with dark magic, naturally they are opposing elements.

…

Not bad, today I didn’t run into any trouble and successfully ended a sweet meal with Jisue.

In the afternoon there were no classes, so I returned to the dorm to practice my arts of the Berserk God, Since I broke through the first level, the progress has been quite fast, although I am still a ways off from the second level, I am confident that I can break through before the start of the tournament. But the thing I was happiest about was the progress of my Demonic Arts, compared to my pace before, I could only use lightning speed to describe it, the third stage was supposed to be more difficult than the second, but my progress is even faster than before. At this rate, my transformation into a Fallen Angel will be a reality, what Liwa, I was not afraid. (Too bad this could not be used easily.)

The next day in the early morning, I pulled Black Dragon to go out of the school and go for a run when we ran into Jisue, I pleasantly said: “Being so good? To look for me so early in the morning, let’s go, we can ride Black Dragon together.”

Jisue came over and lightly caressed Black Dragon’s big head, her face could not conceal her seriousness, I immediately realized something was not right and hurriedly asked: “What’s wrong, did something happen?”

Jisue suddenly threw herself into my embrace and started to cry, I held her soft body and asked “Quickly tell me, what happened, did anyone bully you, I’ll go tear him apart.” Saying so, my whole body emitted with icy killing intent.

Jisue firmly pulled on my clothes and shook her head: “No one bullied me.”

I said surprised: “Then why are you like this?”

Jisue let go of me and lowered her head: “My father found out about us.”

I let go of my breath, and here I thought it was something big: “Something so small, miss, you scared me to death.”

Jisue stared at me with her big eyes: “This is not serious?”

I indifferently said: “What’s wrong him finding out, your parents are going to find out sooner or later, how did your father find out?”

Jisue sadly shook her head: “Maybe he has informers in the school, and you also made such a big fuss… You don’t know, but my father is very stubborn, if he feels you aren’t good enough, no matter what you say or do it’s all useless, yesterday night when I returned home he said dimly to me to bring you home tonight.”

Hearing Jisue’s words, I laughed: “Don’t worry, everything will be alright, with my qualifications, how could your father disagree, right? I’d never have imagined meeting your parents so quickly.”

Jisue said: “You aren’t even the least bit worried? My father is infamous for his violent temper!”

I coldly snorted: “You should also know, I am also not some good-tempered person.”

Jisue almost fainted, she became angry for the first time and was like a little lion, roaring: “You are going to meet my parents with this attitude? That is like going there to pick a fight, he’s my father… can it be you want to fight with him? With your attitude, how can I relax?”

Jisue’s face became a brilliantly flushed red, it was very cute, I pulled her over and deeply kissed her lips, Jisue unhappily struggled but eventually was drowned in my enthusiastic kiss.

After a long time, I let go of a red-faced Jisue and softly said to her: “I promise I will not clash with your father, that is OK, right? Please don’t be angry.”

Jisue leaned on my chest: “You have to be able to do so, this concerns our future.”

I nodded: “Don’t worry, I promise to complete this mission.”

……

Sitting in the classroom, I was distracted by tonight’s opponent – the Duke, this is a Dragon God Empire’s court official, who is on equal standing with a prince. At my side, Hosin suddenly nudged me, I turned to look at him and he whispered: “Layson, focus, Teacher Zuang looked at you several times already.”

I came back to earth, and sure enough, when I looked at Teacher Zuang, she gave me a rebukeful expression, I hurriedly apologized with a smile.

Very quickly, the students were dismissed at noon, Jisue already said she will not eat lunch with me, she needed to go home to arrange a few things, I don’t know what she needs to arrange, I reckon to pull more people onto our sides.

After eating lunch, I returned to the dorm to practice my Berserk God. To me, practice is the most important, because everything is established on true power.

After an unknown amount of time, Fenyun came over running and called me: “Layson, hurry, Jisue is looking for you.”

I finished one cycle of the Berserk God and breathed in deeply, pulling back my battle chi into my dantian then opened my eyes: “What time is it now?”

Fenyun said: “Look yourself, the sky is already dark. Hurry up, Jisue let me call you, she looked very anxious.”

Indeed, the sky outside was already dim, there was a sliver of light across the far horizon, it was already dusk, I nodded: “Thanks.” Changing into the best outfit, I rushed out of the dorm, once outside I saw Jisue’s face full of anxiety.

Jisue said: “Let’s hurry and go, my father hates people who are late.” She pulled me and ran outside.

On the way, Jisue said to me: “Later when you see father, make sure you have a good attitude.”

I smiled: “Don’t worry, I will try to rein myself in.”

Jisue said: “Also, father will test your skill, you best prepare.”

I said shocked: “What’s your father’s rank?”

Jisue looked at me: “Probably a mid-level Holy Knight, I haven’t seen him battle for a long time.”

I said surprised: “Then your father is not at the level of an ordinary Dragon Knight.”

Jisue proudly said: “Of course, you think my father’s dukedom came so easily? Even though he’s a cultural official, but to reach his current position, naturally he needs the skill to protect himself. Even though it can’t be compared to the 3 big marshals, in the capital he’s a famous expert.”

I frowned: “Then how can I compete with im. My strength doesn’t exceed a Sword Master’s.” Even though I am confident, but I am not stupid enough to think I can contend against a Holy Knight.

Jisue laughed: “You also have times you’re afraid, don’t worry, my father will just test you at most, he will not fight you for real. We’re here, let’s hurry and go in.”

I raised my head and took a look, we were already at the Duke’s mansion. Calming myself, I followed Jisue inside the mansion.

It deserved to be called a place where the Duke lived, it’s hard to tell how big the courtyard is from just looking at it, the walls were 12 feet high, and entering the entrance, there were many patrolling guards. The courtyard could not be called gorgeous but is very elegant. One could tell from one look that the person who arranged this was no ordinary person.

Jisue said pleased: “My home’s courtyard is not bad right, it was all arranged by my sister.” Upon hearing Jisue’s words I couldn’t help but look forward to meeting the school’s number one beauty. After all, a girl who is both intelligent and beautiful is hard to come by.

Jisue pulled a servant aside to ask: “Where is my father?”

The servant politely said: “The Duke is in the drawing-room, he instructed to tell you to go see him immediately.”

Jisue replied: “I know, you can go now. Layson, father is waiting for us.” I could feel her little hand was sweating, she clearly was very nervous.

I firmly held onto her hand: “Don’t worry, I will make sure he approves of me.”

Upon entering the drawing-room, we saw a wide hall, from my estimate, it was about 300 meters squared, there was one person sitting there, he seems to be about 40 something years old, his appearance was stately, I could imagine that when he was younger he must’ve been handsome. On the wall behind him hung a huge picture of nine dragons.. He was probably Jisue’s father.

Sitting at the left of the middle-aged man was a beautiful woman, from looks it’s hard to tell her age, but if someone told me she was Jisue’s sister, perhaps I would believe it, only from her head accessories could I tell she was a married woman, perhaps, she is Jisue’s mother. If so, it easily explained how Jisue and her elder sister could become two of the 8 ranked beauties.

Once I look to the right side, I couldn’t help but be stunned, so beautiful, a beautiful girl wearing a light orchid long dress was sitting there, she was near my age, her looks were somewhat smiliar to Jisue’s but she was even prettier than Jisue by many points, and her height was a little taller than Jisue’s. When she saw Jisue and I walk in, she smiled at Jisue but did not even look at me, no wonder she was the school’s number one beauty, with an air of arrogance and hard to approach, to the point that what I noticed the most about her was that holy air, it was definitely a result of practicing light magic for many years, this was probably Jiyan.

This was what I observed in a split second, Jisue already ran over and said to the middle-aged man: “Father, I am back, this is Layson.”

I hurried over and bowed politely: “Duke, this peasant, Layson, greets you.”

The duke nodded his head, from his expression I couldn’t tell whether he likes or dislikes me, he calmly said: “Lift your head.”

I stood straight with my body, both eyes looking at the Duke. From the Duke’s eyes passed swift and fierce light, he carefully sized me up, Jisue secretly gave her mom a look and the duchess said: “Sir, look at how good this child’s body is, it’s rare to see someone as tall and big as him.”

Seems like the duchess doesn’t have much of a status in this household, the Duke declined to comment and humphed, then said to me: “Layson, I heard you claimed in school that you want to pursue my daughter, is that right?”

I nodded my head: “Yes.”

The duke frowned: “Then you should know, the Sky City Institute forbids romantic relationships.”

I nodded again: “I know.”

The Duke then stood up, and angrily mentioned briefly: “Since you know, I hope in the future you will not come bother my daughter.”

I looked at the duke and replied: “I’m sorry, I can’t do that.” From my body emitted a cold and intense air, let me leave Jisue? Even if you are her father it’s still not possible. My change immediately attracted everyone’s attention, Jisue pulled at my clothes from behind.

The duke immediately became angry: “Who do you think you are, do you think you can match up to my daughter?”

I calmly smiled: “As for matching up, it should be Jisue’s own evaluation. Since you are the Duke, I think you would not belittle me just because of my background, if we go back 30 years ago, and you ended up liking an influential girl, what would you do, would you give up because of her father’s words? People’s status change along with the person, perhaps, 10 years, 20 years later, I would be at a position not any worse than yours.” My tone was neither servile nor overbearing, but everyone was stunned, no one thought I would dare a head on confrontation with the duke.

Jisue said shocked: “Layson, you promised me before.”

I thought, Jisue, how can you understand your father’s way of thinking, if I bow and bend my knees, it will only cause him to look down on me. Even though my current method was dangerous, but at least there’s a little chance.

The Duke extended his hand and prevented Jisue from saying anything further, he acted like I said some matter from his heart. He lowered his head, thinking about something I don’t know about, after a while the duke raised his head: “Good, what you said was very good, since you are so determined, I will see if your strength allows you to say these words, watch out.”

He first wave his sleeve and sent Jisue away from my side, then he gently struck his palm towards me, and a powerful battle chi shrouded me within a 10 feet range, he was trying to force me to take this head on. But I was not alarmed, actually I was happy, I knew he would definitely test me, but with his status as a duke, of course he couldn’t use his full strength against me, since he attacked, my chance to retaliate also came.

I concentrated my chi and sent the Berserk God’s battle chi to my right fist, my left leg stepped out one step, and I sunk my waist preparing to strike, yelling “Hah” and sent a punch over.

The battle chi rushed forth from my right fist, becoming a light yellow pillar hitting against the duke’s right palm.

When the fist struck against palm I realized something was not right, the duke’s battle chi was not sent out and was actually accumulated inside, my battle chi touched his palm but did not cause him any harm. The fist and palm meet, but I feel the duke’s battle chi was calm, from his palm came seven waves of explosions, one stronger than the next, and with us as the center the chi rolled out wildly.

Jiyan at this time was unusually calm, in a light shout came a light shield, enveloping me and the duke in the middle, although the battle chi struck against the shield, which was on the verge of collapsing, none of the chi escaped outside.

I stepped, and stepped, and stepped back continuously for 7 steps until I hit against Jiyan’s shield.

From the duke’s eyes came a trace of surprise and he let out a long laugh, his body quickly moved over and another palm came over, no wonder it’s a Holy Knight’s strength, it is truly very powerful, I hurriedly sent out every type of rank 1 attack magic I could think off (because it’s low level magic, it could be casted quickly) in attempt to disturb the Duke, I also tried to concentrated my Berserk God’s battle chi again, then shouted: “Hurricane.” This time I did not move towards the Duke but instead heavily smashed against the ground, during the moment of danger, I already can’t care about breaking things. Finally, for the first time, I could use the Berserk God’s first form – Hurricane, this is also the only form I can use.

The Duke sent out his battle chi and easily ward off my magic attacks, he found that I did not meet his attacks and was afraid he would really kill me, he couldn’t help but weaken his chi and lessen the strength on his palm by 3/10ths, at this moment, the ground in front of him suddenly cracked open, a powerful battle chi shot upwards in fragments and directly hit against his palm. It’s not that I didn’t want to burst the chi right below him, it’s also not because I didn’t want to strike from behind him, but because if I did this, then with his strength, I might not harm him, instead I might sent him into a fury. If strike from the front and at his hand, not only can it cancel the danger but it can also give the Duke a first impression, he will definitely understand, I am openly and honorably competing against him.

At the moment the Duke felt the ground split apart, he felt something was not right and immediately changed his attack to strike down, going against my Hurricane.

A powerful recoil made my whole body ache and split in pain, if not for my unusually high defense, I’m afraid I would have already been madly spraying blood.

This time because of his inadequate preparation to defend, the Duke was also shocked and stepped back once. A wild chi flow and the fragments successfully broke through Jiyan’s barrier, the whole living room became enveloped in smoke.

I was wholly guarding, to prevent him from striking again, if he comes again, I’m afraid I would have to use the Demonic Arts, otherwise it would be hard for me to defend. That is a situation I least hope for.

The duke stood at the original spot and his body emitted a thick battle chi, forming a shield, isolating himself from the surrounding dust and smoke.

Jiyan immediately casted a defence magic to envelop herself and Jisue, from her eyes came an extraordinary splendor. The duchess used battle chi, a light orchid chi protected her.

The duke nodded towards me: “No bad, you can take 2 palm strikes with 5/10ths of my strength, in the young generation this is excellent. You should be one grade lower than Jisue, I estimate, your future potential is not lower than Liwa.”

Fuck, Liwa again, why is everyone comparing me with him?

I said: “Thank you for your praise, now can you entrust Jisue to me?”

The duke laughed clearly: “When did I say I would entrust Jisue to you, your thoughts are too simple.”

I angrily said: “You, you were just testing me, weren’t you?”

The Duke said: “That was only a test of your skill, if you want to go out with my daughter, then you have to pass my test just now. Now you barely pass, but, my daughter is still young, and the school doesn’t allow romantic relationships, so, in the future you can’t be excessively intimate with my daughter, do you hear?”

Hearing him say I barely passed, I couldn’t help but sigh, at least he didn’t oppose us.

I bowed politely: “Then thank you very much. In the near future I will not have ‘excessive’ closeness with Jisue.”

The Duke nodded satisfied: “I am only temporarily giving you my approval, don’t be happy too early, the future the development depends on you, if you can’t satisfy my requirements, I can sever your contact with Jisue anytime.”

I was shocked and foolishly asked: “Satisfy what requirements?”

The Duke chucked: “It’s not that easy to become my son-in-law, although your gift is not bad, your roots are very strong, but there’s a gap between your actual strength. The future it depends on your hard work. Also, you wouldn’t want me to let my daughter marry a commoner, right? Alright, we will not entertain you, someone, see off our guest.”

Being sent out of the Duke’s mansion by a servant I thought of the Duke’s words, after a long time, I finished reflecting, I realised that I was tricked.

This XXXX, what kind of duke is this, he’s basically an old fox, what did he say? He temporarily approves of me, what’s the difference between that and not approving of me? And he still wants me to raise my strength, and then also become a court official, I’m about to faint, who knows what his standards are, he wouldn’t want me to become a Dragon Knight, right?

Full of gloominess I returned to the dorm, to let my heart feel a little better, I practiced my Demonic Arts like normal. An ice-cold piercing feeling instantly calmed my heart.

The next day at noon, I saw Jisue at the dining hall and I complained to her: “Your father is too crafty, yesterday, he clearly had already tested me, why did he also add so many requirements?”

Jisue smiled: “You think becoming official is so easy? For father to reach today’s position, I don’t even know how much effort he had to put in, if he went all out against you, you would not even be able to fight back. But don’t be angry, yesterday, after you left, father expressed to me that he admired you.”

I coldly snorted: “I don’t care whether he admires me or not, if you only admire me then it’s all good, if at that time he still doesn’t approves of us, then I’ll elope with you.”

Jisue became red: “Annoying!”

My complexion changed: “Can it be you’re not willing to leave with me?”