The air in the lecture hall didn't just feel still; it felt pressurized. When Alex Silvester stood up, the screech of his wooden bench against the floor sounded like a clarion call. Every student in the tiered hall braced themselves, expecting a flare-up of E-rank desperation or a clumsy, physical lung towards the front.
But Alex didn't lunge. He began to walk.
He didn't move with the frantic energy of a teenager or the arrogance of a noble. He moved with a grounded, predatory stillness. His aura, though lacking the shimmering mana of a Mage, felt impossibly heavy. Each footfall was silent yet resonant, as if his Rank 20 Mud Embryo foundation was sinking into the very bedrock of the university.
As he passed the Talent Class, James White instinctively recoiled, his chair skidding back an inch. James's eyes widened, a flicker of raw, subconscious fear crossing his face. Realizing he had retreated before a "trash" class, James's expression curdled into something ugly and venomous, but he remained paralyzed by the sheer weight of Alex's presence.
Alex stopped at the base of the podium. He looked up at Professor Stephan, his gaze level and unblinking. There was no hatred in his eyes, only a cold, analytical hunger for the truth.
"Teacher," Alex's voice was a low grate that cut through the silence. "You said that for three thousand years, no Warrior has reached the Seventh Realm. Why?"
Stephan gripped the edge of his podium, his knuckles white. He looked into Alex's eyes and felt a strange vertigo, as if he were staring into a deep, dark well. "Because the records were turned to ash," Stephan answered, his voice uncharacteristically solemn. "The once-prosperous and strongest Martial Artist School—the Extreme Martial Sect—was exterminated. Their scriptures were burned, their halls were leveled, and their legacy was wiped from the stars."
"With no techniques passed down," Stephan continued, "the Martial Artist profession naturally withered. Without the 'Fires' to temper the soul, you fell to the bottom. You became E-rank because you lost your heart."
Alex tilted his head. "Why was it exterminated?"
The silence that followed was suffocating. Stephan looked away, his pupils trembling behind his gold-rimmed glasses. This was a question that touched upon the "Silent Era," a period of history edited by the winners.
"That," Stephan whispered, "is not important."
Alex smiled. It wasn't a happy smile; it was the smile of a man who had just seen the invisible strings of a puppet show. "Understood," he said softly. He turned on his heel and began to walk toward the exit. He had heard enough.
"Wait."
The voice was light, like the chime of a silver bell, yet it froze everyone in the room.
The Revelation of the Roy Clan
From the first row of the Talent Class, Sujata Roy stood up. Sunlight poured through the massive windows, plating her in a shimmering armor of gold.
No one—not the Professor, not the students, and certainly not James White—expected the "Goddess of the Freshman Year" to break her silence for an outcast. She didn't look at the crowd; she looked only at Alex. Then, she shifted her amber gaze to James White.
"You said earlier that Warriors have no future," Sujata began, her voice gaining a sharp, metallic edge. "Then tell me, James. One hundred thousand years ago, when the Nameless Ancestral Master of the Extreme Martial Sect repelled the Void Army with a single strike, what were your ancestors doing?"
The room went cold. James White's smug grin froze.
Professor Stephan's hands began to shake. He hadn't received any dossiers on Sujata's family background, but a girl who knew the "Forbidden Annals" of the Great Change was not a mere student. She was a scion of a power that transcended the university's reach.
"According to the True Records," Sujata continued, her eyes terrifyingly calm, "humanity's defenses had collapsed. The 'Noble' classes were fleeing. It was the Nameless Ancestral Master who stood alone. With one person and one punch, he pierced the Great Rift and sealed the monsters for ninety thousand years."
She took a step toward the center of the hall. "At that time, the White Family—the 'Lords of Lightning'—were surrendering. They were kneeling in the mud, begging the Demon Race for their lives. They offered to betray humanity just for the privilege of becoming a puppet regime. They traded their honor for the lightning you now use to bully those who stayed loyal."
"You... you're lying!" James's face turned a violent, bruised red. Electricity sparked wildly around his shoulders. "That's propaganda! Where is your evidence?"
Sujata didn't blink. "The evidence is in the sealed vaults of the capital, hidden behind the shame of your lineage. If you are skeptical, ask your Teacher. He knows the weight of the ink he chooses not to use."
The entire hall turned toward Professor Stephan. The elderly man looked aged, his shoulders slumped under the weight of a truth he had spent a career hiding. After a long, agonizing silence, Stephan didn't speak. He simply nodded his head—a slow, heavy admission.
James White's mouth fell open. He looked like a man who had just discovered his royal blood was actually poison.
Sujata turned to the girl who had mocked Alex's lack of magic tools. "You say Warriors have no treasures. Do you know what treasure the Ancestral Master used to crack the sky?"
The girl stammered, unable to find a word.
"Nothing," Sujata said. "He used his fist. And do you know what Realm that single punch would be equivalent to today?"
The silence was absolute.
"It was the Fourteenth Realm," Sujata stated, her voice like a hammer on an anvil. "So, James... tell me again. Tell me that a path leading to the Fourteenth Realm is a 'trash class' just because you were born too weak to walk it."
The Gift of the Extreme Path
The silence in the hall was no longer just quiet; it was a vacuum. Sujata Roy stepped out from the rows of the Talent Class and walked toward the back.
She stopped exactly one meter in front of Alex Silvester. Between them, the sunlight on the floor formed a golden border. She was a vision of celestial elegance; he was a grit-stained shadow.
"My name is Sujata Roy," she said.
Alex looked into those amber eyes. "Alex Silvester."
"I know," she replied.
She reached into her blue-ribboned hair and produced an old, weathered book. The cover was cracked, the leather peeling, but the characters inscribed on it pulsed with a faint, residual heat.
[ FIST OF LAW-BREAKING ]
Alex's pupils contracted. His system interface flickered in the corner of his vision:
[Prerequisite for Major Breakthrough: Complete one 'Fist of Law-Breaking'!]
"This was preserved by my ancestors," Sujata said, handing the book forward. "It contains the insights of those who once walked beside the Extreme Martial Sect. I think... it belongs with you."
Alex didn't reach for it immediately. "Why give it to me? I'm an E-rank. You're the S-rank genius everyone is chasing."
Sujata smiled. It was a faint, beautiful curve of the lips that made the sunlight seem dull. "Because when the Professor asked about the path's disadvantage, you said four words that no one has dared to utter in three millennia."
"No disadvantages," she whispered. "You are the first one with the heart to believe it. And the Extreme Path only responds to the heart."
Alex reached out. As his fingers brushed hers to take the book, he felt a jolt—not of electricity, but of pure, freezing jade-like cold from her hand, met by the burning, grounded heat of his own.
In that moment, James White looked as though he might physically combust. His SS-rank lightning crackled with such fury that his desk began to char. Seeing his "goddess" hand a sacred text to the "trash" he hated, and watching their hands touch, ignited a nameless, murderous fire in his soul.
Alex gripped the book. He didn't say thank you; he didn't need to. He simply nodded, his eyes reflecting the ancient power held within the pages.
The lecture was over, but the war had just begun.
System Update:
[ Item Acquired: Fist of Law-Breaking (Ancient Insight) ]
[ Condition Met: Technique Manual located! ]
[ New Goal: Master the First Strike to reach 'Bone Tempering Realm' ]