Chapter 143 Call Me Little Uncle

"The tasks are indeed difficult!"

Hearing Yang Xiao's words, Lin Fan nodded. He was well aware of the task grading system. Blood Crystal, S, A, B, C, and D were the classifications of missions available to disciples of the Book of Heaven Academy.

Take first-year freshmen, for instance. With their cultivation at the Qi Condensation realm, they were restricted to D-grade tasks. Leaving aside the various tedious and troublesome chores, even a D-grade assassination mission—such as killing a fierce beast or an enemy—required the perpetrator to have at least the peak of the Qi Condensation realm, with the more capable ones already stepping into the Qi Vein realm.

For C-grade and B-grade missions involving assassinations, the targets possessed strengths reaching the peak of the Qi Vein realm and the early stage of the Pulse Connecting realm, respectively.

As for A-grade assassination missions, the target's strength would reach the middle stage of the Pulse Connecting realm!

Yet, consider this: disciples of the Book of Heaven Academy only reached the Pulse Connecting realm by their third year. By then, accepting C-grade and B-grade missions no longer yielded significant merit points; they were forced to undertake A-grade missions just to earn enough merit points to barely scrape by.

However, students newly entering their third year were merely at the early stage of the Pulse Connecting realm, yet the targets they were assigned to eliminate possessed a minimum cultivation of the middle stage of the Pulse Connecting realm. How arduous was that!

Naturally, the merit points rewarded varied according to the strength of the target.

It was rumored that among the Blood Crystal missions on the notice board of the Book of Heaven Academy, there was one to assassinate the Emperor of the Hulan Kingdom. The reward offered was three billion merit points, a sub-venerable artifact, the title of a kingdom marquis, and the position of an honorary elder of the Book of Heaven Academy.

Unfortunately, this task had been hanging there for decades, and no one had ever been able to complete it!

"Let's go. I'll take you to complete the test. The test is located right inside that secret realm."

Yang Xiao reached out and pointed into the distance. Lin Fan followed the direction of his hand and saw a towering monolith in the distance, resembling a sharp sword peak, with several large characters inscribed upon its surface.

"Tandu Secret Realm!"

Lin Fan read the characters aloud, and Yang Xiao smiled. "That's right, the Tandu Secret Realm. The headquarters of the Gods and Demons Alliance is also located there, unlike other organizations whose domains are confined to their respective faction's secret realms!"

"Remember, the more outstanding your test results are, the greater the rewards you will obtain. Once you become a member of the Gods and Demons Alliance—which means joining the Academy's Law Enforcement Department—you will receive varying merit point rewards based on the grade of your completion!"

"Back then, our leader, Liu Qi, won one hundred thousand merit points right here!"

While speaking, Yang Xiao led Lin Fan toward the secret realm. Soon, the two arrived before the Tandu Secret Realm. Yang Xiao presented a spiritual tally, and they stepped inside.

As soon as Lin Fan stepped into the Tandu Secret Realm, a vast landscape unfolded before his eyes: a deep blue sky, green meadows, and numerous youths running across the grass. Judging by the heavy armor worn by those youths, Lin Fan knew they were training in weight-bearing armor.

Sweaty youths pushed forward continuously, some looking excited, others resolute. With every footprint they left behind, their figures surged dozens of feet forward, and the ground beneath their feet was deeply depressed by the impact.

Seeing Yang Xiao enter, a youth as robust as a little calf waved his fist and shouted at Yang Xiao, "Come on, Yang Xiao! Let's have a fight. This time, I'm confident I can beat you until you call me daddy!"

"Talk to me when you've broken through to the late stage of the Pulse Connecting realm. I can't afford to keep sealing my cultivation to be your sparring partner every time. I have business to attend to—I'm bringing him here for the test!"

Yang Xiao waved his hand, flatly rejecting the youth, and then pointed at Lin Fan.

Hearing this, the youth's eyes lit up. "A newcomer? Come, come, let's have a round!"

With those words, he sprinted over from afar, looked Lin Fan up and down, and said, "Our test is very simple. Have a match with me, and the first hurdle is cleared!"

An expression of excitement gleamed in his eyes, leaving Yang Xiao utterly exasperated. Yang Xiao reached out, grabbed the youth by the collar, and hoisted him into the air. With a deep shout, amidst the youth's loud yells and screams, Yang Xiao hurled him far into the distant horizon.

With a loud thud, the youth crashed heavily to the ground.

"Wait until you reach the middle stage of the Pulse Connecting realm before talking big. This guy here laid Wu Di of the Heavenly Dynasty Society flat on his back with a single slap. Your strength isn't enough yet!"

Yang Xiao shouted at the youth, then, without waiting for a reply, he shrugged at Lin Fan to signal him to follow and continued walking forward.

"Holy shit, that fierce?"

The youth scrambled up from the ground, quickly dashed back to Lin Fan, and asked, "Wu Di is at the peak of the middle stage of the Pulse Connecting realm, and you flattened him with a single blow? Is that for real?"

Hearing this, Lin Fan nodded and said, "True, and I gave him over a dozen heavy slaps across the face as well."

"Hahaha, awesome! The freshmen of this batch are truly ferocious, I love it! Come on, come on, I'll accompany you to the test and see what kind of score you can achieve!"

The youth hopped up and down with excitement, resembling a mischievous monkey. He even walked ahead of Yang Xiao to lead the way for Lin Fan.

Lin Fan cast a questioning glance at Yang Xiao, who spread his hands and said, "Everyone inside the Gods and Demons Alliance is a martial arts fanatic, and this kid Jiang goes without saying. He's not much older than you, just entered the academy a few years earlier. He has immense talent and is constantly picking fights everywhere. Although he always gets beaten up, he's the type who grows stronger with every battle."

"Even though he's currently only at the early stage of the Pulse Connecting realm, he has no rivals left among all the students at the early stage of the Pulse Connecting realm across the entire Book of Heaven Academy. There are plenty of people in the Gods and Demons Alliance who can fight opponents above their rank, but all of them in the early stage of the Pulse Connecting realm have fallen in defeat to him!"

"His true combat power should be comparable to the peak of the middle stage of the Pulse Connecting realm!"

At this point, as if remembering something, Yang Xiao suddenly slapped his forehead and said, "Ah, by the way! He's actually from the same prefecture as you. It seems he's a scion of the Jiang family from Qingxue Prefecture."

He had reviewed Lin Fan's files earlier in the Law Enforcement Department and knew he hailed from Qingxue Prefecture.

"You're also from Qingxue Prefecture? How come I've never seen you before? Which major family do you belong to?!"

Hearing Yang Xiao's words, Lin Fan was somewhat stunned. Could it really be such a coincidence? Meanwhile, upon hearing Yang Xiao, the Jiang-surnamed youth turned his head with a puzzled look. By all logic, there wasn't a single genius in Qingxue Prefecture that he didn't know.

After all, whether they were a few years older or younger than him, virtually all of them had tasted a beating from his hands. How could he have never laid eyes on Lin Fan?

"Uh!"

For a moment, Lin Fan didn't know what to say. Looking at this blockhead of a youth, he tentatively asked, "Could your name happen to be Jiang Xuesheng, the little demon king of Qingxue Prefecture?!"

"Huh? You know my name?"

Jiang Xuesheng was taken aback. He looked at Lin Fan and said, "Everyone in Qingxue Prefecture calls me the little demon king. It seems you really are from Qingxue Prefecture. Which family are you from anyway? What's your surname?"

"Well... my surname is Lin, and my given name is Lin Fan!"

Lin Fan stroked his chin, gazing at Jiang Xuesheng. Seeing the youth frozen in a daze, Lin Fan hesitated and said, "It seems you should be calling me Little Uncle..."

"Damn it! So you're the one who, at the age of seventeen, swore oaths of brotherhood with my old man and my second uncle?!"

Jiang Xuesheng leaped back several feet, his knuckles cracking as he clenched his fists tight. Back then, his old man had sent word instructing him to take good care of his Little Uncle, who was also coming to the Book of Heaven Academy.

At the time, he had wondered where on earth he had gotten a Little Uncle from. After communicating with his old man via the sound-transmission jade talisman, he finally learned the whole story.

Though he was grateful to this kid named Lin Fan for saving his old man, the bastard was only seventeen—the exact same age as him—and possessed merely the cultivation of the Qi Condensation realm. Yet, he had sworn brotherhood with his old man and second uncle! This made his teeth itch with lingering hatred, as it effectively lowered his own generation by an entire rank out of nowhere!

Most importantly, coming to the Book of Heaven Academy with only Qi Condensation realm cultivation meant that if word got out that he, the little demon king of the Gods and Demons Alliance, had a Little Uncle who was a freshly enrolled Qi Condensation freshman, wouldn't people laugh their heads off?

Therefore, although he had agreed to his old man on the surface, in reality, he hadn't bothered to pick Lin Fan up at all.

He simply couldn't afford to lose that kind of face!

Yet, never in his wildest dreams did he expect that the principal himself would appear right before his very eyes now...

"Uh, no mistake about it. That's indeed how it is!"

Watching Jiang Xuesheng gnashing his teeth in fury, Lin Fan nodded and began rummaging through his spatial ring. "My Big Brother and Second Brother prepared some things for you. I had just entered the academy and only had time to cultivate, completely slipping my mind. I'll give them to you right now!"

"No need! Let's have a fight first. If you want to be my Little Uncle, you at least need to have strength that wins my approval. Previously, I couldn't bring myself to deal with you because your cultivation was too low. Now that you've beaten Wu Di, let me witness your true capability!"

Jiang Xuesheng waved a hand, cutting off Lin Fan's motion. To be honest, Lin Fan's rapid improvement in strength—to the extent that even Wu Di had fallen in defeat to him—came as quite a shock to him as well.

However, that did not mean Lin Fan was qualified to act as his Little Uncle. He was confident that in a battle against Wu Di, he wouldn't lose either; even if Lin Fan possessed the cultivation of the late stage of the Pulse Connecting realm, he was ready to clash.

At the very least, landing a few punches on him would vent some steam!

After all, he knew that once his old man made a decision, no one could alter it. He was destined to address Lin Fan as Little Uncle, but he still wanted to let out the pent-up frustration he had harbored in his heart all this time...