The chubby man spat viciously on the ground and said to Sphinx with a ferocious expression: "Damn it, you monster dare to disobey me? Watch how I teach you a lesson!"

  After saying this, the chubby man suddenly swung the thick branch in his hand, striking hard at Sphinx's body. Sphinx lay on the ground motionless, not dodging or evading.

  The bowl-thick branch struck heavily on Sphinx's back. With a "crack" sound, the thick branch broke into two pieces and fell to the ground, while Sphinx remained perfectly fine, lying on the ground without making a sound. There was not a scratch on his back.

  "Well, not bad. This monster's got some skills. Here, watch me." The skinny boy narrowed his eyes and smiled, taking out two black spheres from his pocket. He tossed these two small black balls into the air.

  With a "bang," the two black balls transformed into two orange-red fireballs the size of soccer balls. The fireballs floated in mid-air. The skinny boy waved his hand, and immediately those two fireballs flew towards Sphinx, hitting him. Sphinx's body and the feathers on his back were ignited by the fireballs, emitting black smoke and catching fire.

  "Haha, burn, burn!" The chubby man shouted excitedly, clapping his hands. Others joined in the cheering, gleefully watching Sphinx on fire.

  Sphinx's face showed pain. He let out a beast-like growl and suddenly stood up from the ground. The wings on his back opened, and a cold whirlwind appeared out of nowhere, surrounding his body. The icy whirlwind extinguished the flames on his body within seconds. The power of the whirlwind was so strong that it also blew away the surrounding crowd, knocking them to the ground.

  "You... you guys are going too far!" Sphinx glared, somewhat angrily addressing the group lying on the ground.

  "You monster dare to attack us?!" The chubby man got up from the ground and shouted furiously at Sphinx, "Do you know that my dad is very familiar with the principal of this school? With just a casual word from my dad to the principal, he can drive you, this monster, out of school. See how you'll die then!"

  Hearing this, the anger on Sphinx's face immediately disappeared. His eyes showed timidity, and his face showed a pleasing smile as he looked at the crowd around him, saying: "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to just now. Are you all okay?"

  "Don't move again, don't resist, or you'll be kicked out of school immediately. Understand?" The skinny boy also jumped up from the ground and shouted at Sphinx in rage.

  "Okay, I won't move." Sphinx obediently lay down on the ground, his head touching the ground. He folded the wings on his back and became motionless just like before.

  "Beat him! Throw stones at him! Kill this monster!" The chubby man shouted, picking up stones from the ground nearby and throwing them at Sphinx. Others also picked up stones from the ground, throwing them hard at Sphinx while cursing him loudly.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  This time, Sphinx did not resist. His face showed an expression of submission, lying on the ground motionless, allowing these people to curse him and hit him with stones.

  "These bastards, just bullying others with their power." Seeing this scene, Rulu felt angry. He wanted to help Sphinx and stop these delinquent youths, but then thought that he could help this time but not the next. Besides, Sphinx had the ability to resist these people but chose to submit out of fear of their influence.

  "Forget it, I haven't even solved my own problems, why should I mind other people's business?" Eventually, Rulu didn't intervene. He also wasn't interested in watching these people bully Sphinx, so he wanted to leave. Just then, a clear, young female voice filled with reproach came from the nearby forest: "What are you guys doing here?!"

  "Hmm, this voice..." Rulu felt this voice was familiar and quickly turned to look in the direction of the sound. Those who were throwing stones at Sphinx also stopped and turned to look. They saw a young woman with orange-yellow hair, wearing a white and blue dress, appearing in the nearby forest and walking towards the crowd.

  This young woman had fair skin, regular features, a slender figure, and long orange-yellow hair that fell to her lower back. She was about 5'7" tall and approximately seventeen years old. This girl frowned, looking a bit angrily at the crowd in the clearing as she quickly walked towards them.

  "Well, who is it? Isn't this Shari, the discipline committee member? What wind blew you here?" The chubby man said with an irritating smile.

  "Wang Daxiong, so you know I'm on the discipline committee?" The girl called Shari became even angrier after hearing this. She walked to Sphinx's side and shouted at the chubby man, "You should know that fighting and causing trouble is forbidden in the school. You have seriously violated the school's regulations and will be severely punished."

  "What are you talking about?" The chubby man named Wang Daxiong acted as if he didn't care at all and said, "Who said we were fighting? Who has evidence that we were fighting?!"

  The skinny boy beside him also had a sly smile and said in a shrill voice to Shari: "Discipline committee member, you shouldn't wrongly accuse good people. We weren't fighting. We saw Sphinx alone here and thought he was bored, so we were just playing with him."

  Shari put her hands on her hips and said assertively: "Wang Daxiong, Liu Jiu, don't try to fool me. I just saw with my own eyes you all throwing stones at Sphinx. Apologize to Sphinx immediately and promise not to do this again. If you do, I might consider letting you off this time."

  "But we really didn't do anything. Why don't you ask him yourself?" Wang Daxiong had an unrestrained smile on his face, completely disregarding Shari's words.

  "You won't admit it? Fine..." Shari turned to Sphinx in frustration and said, "Sphinx, tell me, did they throw stones at you just now?"

  Sphinx looked timidly at Shari, then at Wang Daxiong, Liu Jiu, and others, stammering: "They... they..."

  Just then, Wang Daxiong shouted loudly: "Oh my, when I saw the principal last time, I heard him say that the school's expenses are very high now. The principal wants to clear out some people. Isn't that right, Little Liu?"

  Liu Jiu immediately nodded in agreement: "Yes, I heard from the principal that those monsters staying in the school don't pay a penny in tuition fees, just eat all day long, eat a lot, and are stupid. Many monsters can't even read. Keeping them only wastes money. He really wants to drive these monsters out of school."

  Wang Daxiong said: "That's right. If it weren't for my dad being both rich and having a good relationship with the principal, offering to pay for the monsters' upkeep, these monsters would have been driven away long ago."

  "Don't talk nonsense! I haven't heard about such things!" Shari saw that Wang Daxiong and Liu Jiu were intimidating Sphinx and immediately scolded them loudly.