Ultimate Rice System 28 Golem

"Detected hostile ent.i.ty. Proceeding to battle mode."

Huh? Xin Fan was quite confused. He did not even think about attacking the scarecrow in the first place. The scarecrow quickly glided forwards slamming it's metal arm down. Xin Fan blocked the attack with his arm only to regret it a second later. Xin Fan was pushed back by the force with a numb feeling throughout his entire arm. The scarecrow was after all still school property and Xin Fan did not want to bother with the consequences of breaking it. Xin Fan released a low powered 'Harvest Slash' at the scarecrow. A barrier of energy appeared in front of it and blocked the blade of energy.

"Huh?"

Xin Fan released blades of energy from his arms and charged forwards at the scarecrow. The scarecrow glided back and rotated it's torso to swing it's arm like a whip. Xin Fan easily dodged it by ducking low. However, the joints on the arm dislocated and Xin Fan felt a blunt force to the back of his head.

"Energy warning 10%"

The scarecrow's arm relocated itself and once again slammed down onto Xin Fan's head. Xin Fan rolled to the side to give himself some breathing s.p.a.ce. Xin Fan returned to an upright position to see the scarecrow just missing it's attack. It's red eyes glowed for a second before turning a darker shade of red. It's arms are no longer rigid in the T position. It arms now resembled that of a person. Xin Fan charged forwards slas.h.i.+ng down with his blades. However as expected the energy barrier popped up in front of it and blocked the attack. The scarecrow punched forwards. .h.i.tting Xin Fan square in the chest launching him across the field.

*Khk*

Xin Fan felt all the air escaped from his lungs. By compulsion, he started to breath heavily as he watched the scarecrow approach. He grit his teeth as he tried to endure the pain.

"Ahh that hurt."

"Energy warning 9%"

"Energy? I can waste it's energy!"

Xin Fan quickly retreated as the scarecrow loomed. He sent waves of energy slowly chipping at the barrier protecting the scarecrow. He could see the eyes of the scarecrow becoming a deeper and darker shade of red.

"Energy warning 5%. Switching to emergency combat mode."

The scarecrow's speed tripled and instantly appeared in front of Xin Fan. It sent a flurry of repeated punches to Xin Fan's chest. Xin Fan barely blocked it with his arms before being launched into the air. The scarecrow predicted where he was going to land and glided to the predicted landing spot and readied a punch towards the descending Xin Fan. Xin Fan flailed his arms readjusting his position in the air. He aimed the blades on the energy on his arms at the scarecrow. As he landed the screeching sound of the barrier against the blades emanated throughout the field. Before the scarecrow could finish it's attack, it's eyes turned black and everything stopped. The barrier suddenly dissipated leaving an empty husk. Xin Fan deactivated his blades and fell to the ground.

*Huff Huff*

"Why did n.o.body tell me it was this strong?"

Xin Fan slowly moved towards the scarecrow. He took off the hat and peered inside the 'skull'. Inside was a rusty ball like object. It looked almost identical to the core that Jun Fan gave him. He carefully took out the object inside the scarecrow's head. The core was dull with most of the formation markings faded. Xin Fan inserted the new core back into the scarecrows's head. He put it back on and then it jolted back to life. The eyes glowed a bright green and stood there as if it was loading up.

"Recognition Software Activated. Combat System Activated. Communication's System Activated. Surveillance System Activated. Golem Model PP3 has activated,"

The scarecrow floated off from the ground and inserted itself back to it's original position. A static voice was emitted from the scarecrow.

"Xin Fan! You there?"

"Yes. I'm here."

"Oh Thanks. You didn't get too hurt I hope. Don't worry mate, I'll treat you to some food next time."

"Ok...Thanks."

Xin Fan dusted the dirt off his clothes disgruntled. What could he do. The other party was a teacher. Xin Fan put the used core into his inventory.

[ Grade 0 Core (0%) has been added to inventory ]

Afterwards, he searched around the school to look for Chang Mo. He searched everywhere. However, he did not seem to find him anywhere. He looked around in the library, the dorms, the courtyard and even the gym.

"Where on earth is he. They said he lived at the school."

As Xin Fan was walking across the hallway of the second building for the fifth time, he saw a familiar figure sneaking around. Chang Mo seemed to be looking for the hidden room. Xin Fan tapped him on the shoulder.

"What do you want?"

"The scarecrow is a golem. It beat me up an hour ago."

It took Xin Fan an hour just to find him and he wants to return as soon as possible.

"I..Is it really? So...It's not part of THEIR plan? How can I believe your words?"

Xin Fan honestly is quite tired. All he wanted was to lie in bed. He didn't want to investigate more mysteries. If anything, he could just ask Princ.i.p.al Yao for the answers. He was after all the princ.i.p.al and should have the answers to everything.

"Get it through your thick skull! There is no THEM!"

From his sudden outburst, people nearby turned around to look at him. From the beginning, Xin Fan already knew that he wouldn't like Chang Mo. They had the complete different ideologies. Xin Fan believed in an absolute explanation whereas Chang Mo believed in fantasy. Coupled with the fact that he was beaten down hard by the golem and it took an hour just to find Chang Mo, Xin Fan had just enough. If it weren't for the quest, he wouldn't have even tried. Xin Fan tried to regain composure. Chang Mo was honestly quite surprised. He didn't expect this scrawny first year to snap like that.

"I'm sorry. I need to take a break."

As soon as Xin Fan returned to the dorm, he collapsed onto his bed. He entered his domain and returned to training. He sp.a.w.ned in a few training targets and furiously hacked them down with all his energy.

"You seem a bit down. What happened?"

"It's nothing."

Xin Kong seemed genuinely worried for Xin Fan. He came into the domain later two nights in a row. He felt as if something was wrong.

"Come on. Let it out. Your worries are my worries."

"Haa...It's nothing really. I just feel so weak. Don't get me wrong. I defeat most of my peers. But there are times when I just feel like I could be more."

Xin Kong stood up and patted him on the head as if he were a father.

"From my experience...Letting it go is the easy way out. That feeling of uselessness. Break it and throw it away. After all, what you think truly matters. How about this. I will teach you something."

Xin Kong sp.a.w.ned in an ordinary pebble in his palm. He held it out for Xin Fan to see.

"Look at this. This is the embodiment of you negative emotions."

He then threw it in the distance. Simultaneously, he deleted it while it was still in the air.

"Now...It is gone. This was the first lesson my master taught me"

Strangely enough, Xin Fan did indeed feel a bit better afterwards. He thanked Xin Kong and earnestly trained as he did before. Xin Kong returned to his meditation under the tree.

"Soul...What is it truly?"