Chapter 295: The Closing of the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm

"Oh, really! I was wondering why you disappeared the moment I passed out! So you went off to flirt with other women!" Duan Ling gritted her teeth, a dangerous glint flickering in her eyes.

"I've been wronged, that really didn't happen!" Ye Lin hurriedly explained.

"Then tell me, what did you go do?" Duan Ling pressed.

"Uh..." Ye Lin was momentarily speechless. He couldn't exactly tell Duan Ling that he had gone off to frame Xie Zhanshin and incidentally get him killed, could he?

"Hmph! Can't say, can you? It's fine, I'll just check for myself to see if you've been flirting with other women!" Duan Ling quickly pressed close to Ye Lin.

"How will you check?"

"By checking the ammunition inventory, of course!"

"Right here??? What if someone comes by later?"

"It's fine, I'm not taking anything off anyway!"

The morning sun tore through the hazy mist, dyeing the Human Emperor Hall a golden yellow.

Before the Human Emperor Hall, the Great Xia Human Emperor stood with his hands behind his back, standing quietly before the great hall, majestic yet benevolent.

Behind him, the deans of the various academies sat and stood restlessly, their expressions varied, all filled with anticipation and worry for the students about to return from the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm.

After all, it wasn't as if students hadn't unfortunately perished in the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm in previous years.

As for the calmest dean in the entire place, it had to be Yun Xintong of the Supreme Academy. After all, as the perennial first place, Yun Xintong had absolute confidence in Feng Tianyu and the others; the strength of Feng Tianyu and his group was a cliff-level lead.

As long as Feng Tianyu wasn't foolish enough to provoke people from the Five Great Families, their Supreme Academy team could walk sideways within the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm.

Everyone waited until noon, with the sun hanging high in the clear sky.

As the Human Emperor spread his hands, a massive portal appeared on the plaza before the Human Emperor Hall.

As the exit to the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm opened, students began to walk out from within. Their faces were full of exhaustion, and some had serious injuries on their bodies, yet they could not hide their excitement.

Clearly, the month inside the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm had been a rare trial for them.

The Human Emperor's gaze was like a torch, slowly sweeping over every green, youthful face that returned, and then he nodded.

"You have done very well. You have worked hard. Once you have rested, you may go and hand over the Mountain and Sea Secret Seals you have obtained. I will award you based on your academy's ranking."

As the Human Emperor raised his hand, a powerful and warm force brushed over the crowd like a spring breeze. Under the influence of this power, the injuries and exhaustion on everyone's bodies were significantly relieved in an instant.

The various deans hurriedly ran over to claim their students. These were good seedlings who had come out of the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm; if nothing went wrong, they would surely become the backbone of Great Xia in the future!

As the teams from the various academies kept walking out of the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm, the ranking work was also proceeding in an orderly manner.

What made the various deans somewhat strange was that, for some reason this year, the number of Mountain and Sea Secret Seals obtained by each academy was about the same—three for the most, two for the least. After counting nearly ten academies, not even one had obtained four.

Soon, Yan Lanbing also saw the Great Xia Academy team. His brows furrowed slightly, and when he saw that one of Zhang Xing's fingers was missing, his brows furrowed even tighter.

"Why are there only three of you? Where are Ye Lin and Duan Ling? And how did you end up in such a sorry state?"

The expressions of Hu Baiqing and the other two were very ugly. Hu Baiqing's eyes turned red, and she took the initiative to speak.

"Dean! Please uphold justice for us!"

"What happened?" Yan Lanbing pressed.

"After we entered the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm, Ye Lin and Duan Ling were unwilling to cooperate with us and very selfishly left the team without authorization. I hadn't taken it to heart at first, but I didn't expect that, after that, we would encounter the Supreme Academy's team!"

The more Hu Baiqing spoke, the more aggrieved she felt.

"Because we were missing two people, just the two of us, Zhu Yuquan and Zhang Xing, couldn't even escape from the hands of the Supreme Academy. This led to Zhu Yuquan and me being seriously injured, and Zhu Yuquan even had a finger cut off by Feng Tianyu of the Supreme Academy! Please, Dean, uphold justice for us! Severely punish Ye Lin, the culprit!"

There was no expression on Yan Lanbing's face; one could not tell if he was happy or angry. He then looked at Zhang Xing and Zhu Yuquan.

"Is the truth the same as what Hu Baiqing said?"

"Ye Lin was indeed very determined to leave the team, but I think... the matter with the Supreme Academy cannot be blamed on Ye Lin; it is that we were too weak." Hatred filled the depths of Zhang Xing's eyes. "One day, I will personally settle this score with Feng Tianyu!"

"Heh, what empty boasting."

A mocking voice rang out. Yun Xintong walked over unhurriedly and sized up Hu Baiqing and the other two.

"Just relying on the three of you, no matter how many more years you work hard, you will never be able to catch up to Feng Tianyu. That is the student with the strongest talent in my Supreme Academy. If hard work were useful, what would we need geniuses for?"

Yun Xintong's words revealed thick sarcasm.

Yan Lanbing raised his eyes and glanced coldly at Yun Xintong, then asked.

"Professor Shen of my Great Xia Academy has been quite free lately. I just don't know if the septic tank at your Supreme Academy has been repaired yet?"

Once these words were spoken, Yun Xintong seemed to recall something, and his complexion turned green instantly.

Yan Lanbing did not say anything more, but instead looked at Hu Baiqing and the others.

"How many Mountain and Sea Secret Seals did you bring out?"

Hu Baiqing and the other two were all silent, and expressions of shame appeared on their faces, because they didn't have a single Mountain and Sea Secret Seal on them! When Ye Lin was distributing the Mountain and Sea Secret Seals, he had deliberately bypassed the three of them, and they couldn't find any themselves.

"Dean... we didn't bring out a single one..." Hu Baiqing hurriedly started making excuses. "After Ye Lin left the team without authorization, we were beaten into serious injuries. Just recovering from our injuries took up a huge amount of our time, which is why we didn't find any Mountain and Sea Secret Seals!"

Yan Lanbing's complexion instantly turned even greener than Yun Xintong's.

He had thought that since Hu Baiqing and the other two were seriously injured, the number of Mountain and Sea Secret Seals they could bring out shouldn't be many, but he hadn't expected that there wouldn't even be one!

Good news: Great Xia Academy isn't the perennial second place this year.

Bad news: This year, it's the absolute last!

Yan Lanbing even felt the world go black before his eyes. What the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm decided was the resource allocation for the various academies for the coming year!

If they were in last place, then many of the resources currently possessed by Great Xia Academy would be taken back. At the thought of this, Yan Lanbing almost spat out a mouthful of old blood!

"Hahahaha!" Yun Xintong laughed gloatingly. "Zero? Yan Lanbing, your Great Xia Academy has really made something of itself!"

Yun Xintong looked triumphantly at the livid Yan Lanbing.

"Now that the teams from the various academies have almost all come out, yet fewer than fifty Mountain and Sea Secret Seals have appeared, it is evident that the majority are in the hands of my Supreme Academy. How about this: beg me, and if you coax me into a good mood, I'll give you ten Mountain and Sea Secret Seals, how about that?"