1948: Poaching

Poaching

The second round of the academy's ranking competition was set to be held at the Shenghua Battle Arena of Great Shenghua City, the city nearest to the waters around Blinsheet Island.2

In past years, the second and final rounds of the academy ranking competition were mostly held at Shenghua Battle Arena.

For one, it was tradition. Secondly, since Great Shenghua was not under the Six Prefectures' jurisdiction, the referees at Shenghua Battle Arena would be impartial.

Three, it was in a prime location. After the competition ended, the victorious students would immediately be able to board a boat for Blinsheet Island.

The participating students were all from teams that distinguished themselves after the first round of preliminaries.

Everyone was naturally proud.

***

By the time Zhou Danjin and Apex Academy's students hurried to Great Shenghua City, it was already nearly midday of the second day.

Their group had to first deal with lodging.

The inn they picked was naturally near the Shenghua Battle Arena. That way, it would be more convenient to go to and from their matches each day.

There were a lot of inns around Shenghua Battle Arena. So when it came time for the ranking competition was when every inn racked their brains to attract guests.

Qiao Mu and them found a rather large inn and reserved all the rooms on the entire third floor. That way, everybody would be able to relax more comfortably.

Anping Inn also provided food, but it was extremely pricey.

After trying the dinner they offered, everyone unanimously decided that they weren't going to waste their spirit currency. It was better to eat Miss Qiao's food…

The day after, everybody dressed and gathered bright and early on the first floor of the inn in high spirits.

The sound of steps continued from the stairs. A lot of teams had come down from the second floor, and some students glanced curiously at Qiao Mu and them.

They had already heard when they checked in that a filthy rich academy had reserved the entire third floor. So it was them?

"Haha, tsk. Isn't this Mentor Wei Xu? I really didn't expect a lousy academy like Apex Academy would actually have the resolution to reserve the entire third floor? You must've borrowed money!" A slightly piercing voice came from the bottom of the stairs.

Mentor Wei Xu, Zhou Danjin, and the other mentors just so happened to walk down the stairs. Their expressions immediatley darkened when they saw the young man who ridiculed them.

Qiao Mu and company naturally did not know the man who was mocking them.

She sized him up and saw that the man had regular facial features, but his eyes were filled with taunts when he looked at Mentor Wei Xu.

"Zhao Li." Mentor Wei Xu spoke in a deep voice. "You have no right to concern yourself with Apex Academy's matters. Scram aside."

On the other hand, Qiao Mu and the other students were a bit supriried.

From their understanding, even though Mentor Wei Xu was taciturn and sometimes even silver-tongued, he definitely did not treat people this rudely.

It looked like this man called Zhao Li had a considerable conflict with Mentor Wei Xu.

Zhao Li turned a deaf ear to Wei Xu's scolding.

He even shrugged his shoulders lackadaisically. "Luckily I left your Apex Academy early, otherwise… Yo, isn't this the number one prodigy of the academy, Duanmu Qing? Tut, you're still in the academy!"

"Ah, right. You guys have to accumulate 3000 credits in one year in order to graduate. Otherwise, you'll have to keep studying without taking breaks. How could I forget this?" Zhao Li laughed out loud as he walked up to Duanmu Qing and put a hand on his shoulder. "Duanmu, have you considered switching over to another academy?"

Duanmu Qing slapped his hand away.

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