Chapter 72: Why Do You Force My Hand

The stone pillar Li Luo was on was unusually tall, and the ground below was littered with sharp, jagged rocks. Of course, he wasn't truly unable to jump down—it's just that the arrow from earlier had drained every last bit of his strength. Right now, there were still many eyes watching him from the shadows, and if he showed any sign of weakness when he jumped, there was no telling what thoughts might arise in others. After all, there were far too many easy points to be had here.

So Li Luo simply sat up there, striking a pose to intimidate those people.

Lv Qing'er swept up, bringing a waft of fragrance as she arrived beside Li Luo. Her beautiful eyes lingered on him for a moment, then she extended a small hand.

"You're wearing gloves, right?" Li Luo glanced over. Good, she was. Otherwise they might both end up tumbling down.

Lv Qing'er's gaze swirled as she shot him a sidelong glance, her girlish charm as lovely as poetry. Then she simply grabbed Li Luo's hand and gracefully swept down from the top of the stone pillar.

When his feet touched the ground, Li Luo immediately felt much more grounded. He looked at Xiang Liang, Zong Fu, and the others whom Lv Qing'er had trapped and said with a smile, "You three got taken down too?"

Xiang Liang and Chi Su looked listless and said nothing, but the wariness in their eyes as they looked at Li Luo now surpassed even what they felt toward Lv Qing'er.

After all, the scene before them was simply too terrifying.

Zong Fu, however, sighed and said, "I told you before, Li Luo—you might be the biggest variable in this Grand Examination. Looks like I wasn't wrong."

Xiang Liang and Chi Su fell silent. Before, they had dismissed Zong Fu's speculation with a laugh, never truly regarding Li Luo as a threat. But looking at it now, Zong Fu's caution had been right. If they had carefully planned beforehand and thoroughly gauged Li Luo's strength, the situation wouldn't be as miserable as it was now.

Li Luo waved a hand, then went over and dragged Song Song Yunfeng, who was pinned to the wall, over and tossed him next to Shi Kong.

At the same time, he considerately helped stop Shi Kong's bleeding, to avoid him losing too much blood and dying on the spot, which would only add unnecessary trouble.

Shi Kong opened his weak eyes, stared at Li Luo, and said through gritted teeth, "Li Luo, you really know how to hide your strength."

Li Luo smiled, then said with a look of deep sorrow, "Why did you have to force my hand? I clearly only wanted to get into the top ten. Why did you have to push me to this point?"

Zong Fu, Xiang Liang, and the others behind him swallowed hard. This was just too cutting—way overboard.

Sure enough, Shi Kong was so enraged that his whole body began to tremble, and he couldn't help but spit out another mouthful of fresh blood.

"Don't rush to spit blood just yet."

Li Luo hurriedly stopped him, then used his crystal tablet to check the scoreboard. He found that there were still thirteen people left on the scoreboard—no, wait, even as he spoke another person disappeared, so that left twelve.

"Oh dear, good thing, it almost wasn't going to work out," he said with a smile.

"Do you know what I'm going to do next?" Li Luo looked at Shi Kong and Song Song Yunfeng and smiled faintly, though the chill in that smile was extremely intense.

"I said I'd have the two of you eliminated before the top ten."

Shi Kong's face turned ashen, a flash of fear crossing his eyes, and he snarled, "Li Luo, you're so ruthless!"

Being eliminated before the top ten meant losing the priority admission quota. He might not even be able to get into the Sacred Mystic Star Academy, which for Shi Kong was undoubtedly an extremely heavy price to pay.

Song Song Yunfeng beside him also roared, "Li Luo, you can't do this! You're provoking our Song family and the Governor's Office!"

"Naive."

Li Luo shook his head and said in a gentle voice, "If you do something wrong, you have to pay the price. And now, it's time for you to pay the price for your previous actions."

He took out his crystal tablet and directly siphoned all of Shi Kong's points, then took Zong Fu's crystal tablet and siphoned Song Song Yunfeng's points—after all, people from the same academy couldn't rob points from each other.

Shi Kong and Song Song Yunfeng's points instantly dropped to zero.

At this point, Li Luo even started clapping: "Let's congratulate Shi Kong and Song Song Yunfeng here on boldly claiming eleventh and twelfth place in the Grand Examination!"

Shi Kong and Song Song Yunfeng's faces turned ashen.

Xiang Liang and the others nearby were silent as cicadas in winter, trembling, feeling that Li Luo at this moment was truly terrifying.

Lv Qing'er, meanwhile, quietly gazed at Li Luo. For some reason, seeing Li Luo in this state actually made her feel a hint of joy.

Li Luo was usually too low-key, looking all harmless and innocent, but Lv Qing'er loved watching him when he was radiating dazzling brilliance—just like when he had first entered the South Wind Academy and had lectured her on physiognomy, scolding her until she was utterly aggrieved.

"The Grand Examination should be entering its countdown now," Lv Qing'er said with a smile.

Li Luo's gaze shifted to Xiang Liang, Zong Fu, and the others, and he frowned, saying, "You three got off easy."

Because in the end, he could only eliminate two people outside the top ten, and in terms of hatred, Shi Kong and Song Song Yunfeng clearly had absolute priority.

This meant Xiang Liang and the others still made it into the top ten. Even if their points were cleared now, they'd at most just be ranked at the bottom.

Xiang Liang, Zong Fu, and Chi Su immediately put on ingratiating smiles upon hearing this: "Brother Luo, we were forced too. Mainly it was the higher-ups of the academy behind it. We've taken so many resources from the academy, we had to listen to them."

"But don't worry, once we get into the Sacred Mystic Star Academy later, you'll be our boss. Whatever you tell us to do, we'll do it!"

Li Luo didn't bother with them, but looked at Lv Qing'er and said, "Clear their points first. I just can't stand the sight of them."

Lv Qing'er heard this, but smiled faintly: "No."

Li Luo was stunned, momentarily unable to process what she'd said.

Zong Fu beside them calmly offered a reminder: "Brother Luo, what she means is that if she takes our points, she'll overtake your current score and become first place in the Grand Examination."

Xiang Liang and Chi Su's eyes both lit up, their gazes shifting between the two of them. Lv Qing'er had defeated them, so their points naturally belonged to Lv Qing'er. Yet with such a perfectly legitimate reason to become first place, she actually preferred to stay behind Li Luo—what kind of relationship was this?

There's something going on here?!

Even Zong Fu looked at Li Luo with some admiration. Brother Luo is awesome—he's engaged to an absolute prodigy like Jiang Qing, and yet he can still fly other colors?

Hearing what Zong Fu said, Li Luo only now noticed that after taking Shi Kong and Song Song Yunfeng's points, he had actually become first place. He immediately panicked: "Qing'er, hurry up, I kind of have a fear of being first place right now."

"You'll get used to it," Lv Qing'er said with a light laugh.

Li Luo said in grief and indignation: "Lv Qing'er, don't go too far. What grudge, what grievance do I have with you, that you'd want to harm me like this?"

"Hurry up, hurry up, I don't want first place, I'm begging you."

Lv Qing'er sat down on a nearby jagged rock, letting the evening sunlight pour down, draping her slender, graceful figure in rosy light. She rested her chin on her crystalline hands, watching with a smile as Li Luo angrily denounced her.

And at that very moment, a melodious bell chime rang out across White Spirit Mountain.

In White Spirit Ruins, everyone breathed a sigh of relief at this moment, wild joy surfacing on their faces.

Li Luo, however, turned pale. This was the bell marking the end of the Grand Examination.

Unfortunately, he had gotten first place.