The chubby white man spat hard on the ground and snarled at Sphinx with a savage expression: "Damn it, you freak — you dare disobey me? Let me show you what happens!"

  With that, the chubby white man swung the thick branch in his hand and brought it crashing down hard onto Sphinx. Sphinx y motionless on the ground, making no attempt to dodge or flee.

  The bowl-thick branch struck Sphinx squarely across the back with a loud crack, snapping clean in two and falling to the ground. Yet Sphinx remained perfectly still where it y, without so much as a whimper, not a single mark left on its back.

  "Well, well — not bad, this freak's got something after all. My turn." The scrawny little boy narrowed his eyes and smiled, reaching into his pocket to pull out two bck spheres. He tossed the two small bck balls into the air.

  With a bang, the two bck balls transformed into two orange-red fireballs the size of footballs, hovering in midair. With a flick of his hand, the scrawny boy sent both fireballs hurtling at Sphinx. They struck Sphinx's body, and the feathers on its back caught fire, sending up bck smoke as fmes took hold.

  "Haha, burn! Burn!" The chubby white man shouted with excitement, cpping his hands, while the others cheered along, watching the burning Sphinx with delight.

  An expression of pain crossed Sphinx's face. It let out a low, beast-like roar and suddenly rose from the ground. The wings on its back spread wide, and a cold whirlwind materialized out of nowhere, enveloping its body. Within seconds, the icy whirlwind snuffed out the fmes. The force of the wind was tremendous, sending everyone in the surrounding crowd flying and crashing to the ground.

  "You…… you've gone too far!" Sphinx gred, somewhat angrily, at the people sprawled on the ground.

  "You dare attack us, you freak?!" The chubby white man scrambled to his feet, furious, and shouted at Sphinx: "Do you know my dad is close friends with the principal of this school? All my dad has to do is say one word to the principal and he can have you thrown out. Let's see how you survive then!"

  At these words, the anger that had briefly fred on Sphinx's face immediately faded. A look of timidity filled its eyes, repced by an ingratiating smile as it looked around at the crowd and said: "I'm sorry — I didn't mean it just now. Are you all alright?"

  "Don't you move. Don't you dare fight back — or you'll be kicked out of this school immediately. Do you hear me?" The scrawny little boy leapt to his feet, raging at Sphinx.

  "Alright. I won't move." Sphinx obediently pressed itself back to the ground, its face resting against the earth, its wings folded ft on its back, once again lying perfectly still as before.

  "Hit him! Throw rocks at him — stone this freak to death!" The chubby white man bellowed, snatching up a stone from the ground nearby and hurling it at Sphinx. The others followed suit, picking up stones and pelting Sphinx one after another, shouting abuse at it as they did.

  This time, Sphinx did not resist. A docile, submissive expression settled over its face as it y on the ground, motionless, allowing these people to curse at it and pelt it with stones without reaction.

  "These bastards — nothing but bullies," Rulu muttered from his perch in the tree, irritation rising in his chest at the scene below. He wanted to step in and help Sphinx, to put a stop to these troublemakers — but then he thought: even if he helped this once, he couldn't help the next time. Besides, Sphinx was clearly capable of fighting back; it was simply too afraid of these people's power and connections to do so.

  "Forget it. I haven't sorted out my own problems yet — why should I go sticking my nose into someone else's business." In the end, Rulu held back. He had no interest in watching these people bully Sphinx any further and was about to leave when, from the nearby woods, a clear, young woman's voice rang out with reproach: "What do you lot think you're doing here?!"

  "Hm — that voice……" Rulu felt a jolt of recognition. He quickly turned his head toward the source of the sound. The young men and women who had been throwing stones at Sphinx also stopped and turned to look, and there, emerging from the trees, was a young woman with orange-yellow hair dressed in a white-and-teal long skirt, striding toward the group.

  The young woman had fair skin, well-proportioned features, and a slender figure. Her long orange-yellow hair fell to the small of her back. She stood roughly 170 centimeters tall and appeared to be around seventeen years old. She approached with a furrowed brow, looking at the crowd in the clearing with barely concealed anger.

  "Well, look who it is — if it isn't Shari, the discipline committee member. What brings you all the way out here?" The chubby white man said with an irritating grin, addressing the young woman.

  "Wang Daxiong — so you do know I'm on the discipline committee?" The girl called Shari grew even more agitated upon hearing this. She walked to Sphinx's side and raised her voice at the chubby white man: "You should both know that fighting and causing trouble on school grounds is strictly prohibited. You've seriously vioted school rules and will be subject to severe disciplinary action."

  "Oh, come on." The chubby white man known as Wang Daxiong said with the air of someone utterly unruffled. "Who says we were fighting? Who's got proof we were fighting?!"

  The scrawny boy beside him broke into a sly grin and said in a sharp voice: "Discipline committee member, you'd better not go around wrongly accusing innocent people. We weren't fighting. We saw Sphinx all alone here with nothing to do, and we were keeping him company."

  Shari put both hands on her hips and said with authority: "Wang Daxiong, Liu Jiu — don't try to fool me. I saw with my own eyes just now — you were throwing stones at Sphinx. Apologize to Sphinx right now and promise you won't do this again, and I'll consider letting this go just this once."

  "But we really didn't do anything — why don't you ask him yourself?" Wang Daxiong said with a brazen smile, completely dismissing what Shari had said.

  "So you won't admit it — fine……" Shari turned to Sphinx in exasperation and said: "Sphinx, tell me — did they just throw stones at you?"

  Sphinx gnced timidly at Shari, then at Wang Daxiong and Liu Jiu and the others, and said haltingly: "They…… they……"

  Just then, Wang Daxiong suddenly called out loudly: "Oh, right — st time I saw the principal, I heard him say the school's expenses have been enormous tely and he's been looking to cut some people loose. Isn't that right, Little Liu?"

  Liu Jiu hurried to nod in agreement: "That's right. I heard the principal say that the freaks living at the school don't pay a single yuan in tuition, yet they eat all day long — and eat a lot, too. They're slow-witted, a lot of them can't even read, and keeping them around is nothing but a waste of money. He's been wanting to drive all the freaks out of the school."

  Wang Daxiong added: "Exactly. If it weren't for my dad being rich and on good terms with the principal — if it weren't for him agreeing to cover the cost of keeping the freaks here — those freaks would've been thrown out long ago."

  "Stop making things up — I've never heard anything of the sort!" Shari saw through Wang Daxiong and Liu Jiu's attempt to intimidate Sphinx and rebuked them sharply.