Chapter 74: Song Song Qiuyu

In the night, South Wind City was bathed in a cool, gentle breeze.

Yet the city remained bustling and lively, as the large crowds leaving White Spirit Mountain had poured into the city, making the clamor within even more intense.

Li Luo and the others had booked their grand examination celebration at Clearwind Tower in South Wind City.

Clearwind Tower was built along the Clearwind River, hence its name. The surroundings were beautiful, making it the most upscale restaurant in South Wind City, and this gathering was independently sponsored by the little rich girl, Lv Qing'er.

The little rich girl booked out an entire floor of Clearwind Tower, where a crowd of young men and girls celebrated to their hearts' content — quite the lively affair.

Li Luo sat together with Lv Qing'er, sipping a couple of cups. The girl, whose skin was fair and crystalline, had a faint blush on her pretty face, and under the soft lamplight, she outshone everyone in the room.

A classmate came over to toast, laughing: "Luo-ge is still the man — joining forces with Qing-Zhong Jie, you took first and second in the grand examination. In the future, it'll surely become a legendary tale of our South Wind Academy."

Li Luo heard this and glared at the guy. Such words were fine here in South Wind City, but if they were spoken in the Great Xia royal capital, he'd get a beating the moment he got home!

Lv Qing'er beside him merely smiled sweetly and gently clinked glasses with the other party.

"Dammit, that traitor Song Song Yunfeng — clearly one of our South Wind Academy's own, yet he helped other academies set up Qing-Zhong Jie! What a bastard!" Some classmates, having drunk too much, began cursing with red faces.

The cursing immediately drew agreement from the others, each one indignant — after all, this kind of betrayal was truly hard to swallow.

Among the crowd, Ti Ti Faqing came over holding her wine cup to find Lv Qing'er, her cheeks full of shame: "Qing'er, I'm truly sorry about what happened before. If I hadn't left that mark, you wouldn't have been ambushed by them."

Lv Qing'er shook her head with a faint smile and clinked cups with Ti Ti Faqing, offering some comfort. But Li Luo keenly noticed a hint of coldness in her gaze. Clearly, Lv Qing'er had noted this against Ti Ti Faqing — perhaps in her heart, she had already placed Ti Ti Faqing among those unfit for friendship.

After all, regardless of whether Ti Ti Faqing had done it on purpose, that level of stupidity alone was not something Lv Qing'er could stand.

When making friends, this kind of fool always brings you endless trouble without meaning to, then puts on an innocent, pitiful face at the end — utterly off-putting.

"Li Luo, I used to always target you before. Please don't hold it against me — that was just my lack of foresight. With your performance today, I think you absolutely deserve to be with Senior Sister Jiang." Ti Ti Faqing turned to Li Luo and said softly.

Li Luo smiled and waved his hand, not saying much more to her.

After apologizing, Ti Ti Faqing seemed to sense Lv Qing'er's somewhat cold attitude and tactfully withdrew.

Li Luo looked at Lv Qing'er and noticed that after Ti Ti Faqing apologized to him, her expression had grown inexplicably colder. Puzzled, he asked: "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just find that fools are truly annoying." Lv Qing'er said expressionlessly.

Li Luo grew even more puzzled, but a girl's heart is not to be guessed, so he changed the subject: "That Song Song Yunfeng was eliminated outside the top ten, but doesn't that mean he can still get an admission slot by tagging along with us?"

In the pre-examination rankings, Song Song Yunfeng was second. If slots were distributed according to that ranking, Song Song Yunfeng would definitely get one.

"In theory, yes."

Lv Qing'er thought for a moment, then said: "But our old headmaster is famously stingy and petty. Song Song Yunfeng betrayed us and nearly cost South Wind Academy its golden reputation as the number-one academy of Tianshu Prefecture. I doubt he'll let Song Song Yunfeng have his way so easily."

Li Luo nodded. If that's the case, then it was a bit more satisfying.

Otherwise, after all his blood, sweat, and tears, he'd still have to drag someone like Song Song Yunfeng into Holy Mystic Star Academy — just thinking about it made the breath feel stuck in his chest.

But as things stood now, Li Luo found the old headmaster's petty trait rather endearing.

While Li Luo, Lv Qing'er, and the others were celebrating merrily, one floor above in Clearwind Tower, a table of people cast their gazes down through the railing with a hint of amusement.

At the center of that table sat a girl in yellow. She was delicate and pretty, with refined features, and a pair of slender, slightly thin brows that gave off a cold, sharp air.

She listened expressionlessly to the faintly rising ugly curses toward Song Song Yunfeng from below, and a flash of anger crossed her eyes.

The girl was named Song Song Qiuyu — Song Song Yunfeng's own elder sister at Holy Mystic Star Academy. She had just arrived in South Wind City that day when she received some unpleasant news.

"Who would've thought the first place in this Tianshu Prefecture grand examination would actually be that useless young lord." On either side of Song Song Qiuyu sat two young men. The one speaking now was a short-haired man in green, who toyed with his wine cup as he spoke with a smile.

"Jingming, he's no longer useless now. Being able to take first in the grand examination shows this young lord does have some skill." Song Song Qiuyu said.

The man she called Jingming had the full name Ti Jingming — he was Ti Ti Faqing's elder brother.

"Still, Tianshu Prefecture's strength really isn't up to much. I heard that in some of the stronger prefectures this time, people at the Ten-Seal Realm have already appeared in the grand examination." The other young man said with a light laugh.

"Mo Ling, I know your North Hill Prefecture has deep foundations and enough strength to rank in the top ten among the prefectures. Tianshu Prefecture is only mid-tier among Great Xia's hundred prefectures, so stop mocking us Tianshu folk." Song Song Qiuyu said with some helplessness.

This Mo Ling came from a prominent clan in North Hill Prefecture, which carried considerable weight. North Hill Prefecture, whether in scale or strength, far surpassed Tianshu Prefecture, so when he looked at Tianshu Prefecture, a faint sense of superiority was inevitable.

The young man called Mo Ling laughed twice upon hearing this and said: "I didn't mean to mock. The fact that Tianshu Prefecture produced a Jiang Jiang Qinge alone is enough to make anyone think twice before looking down on it."

It was obvious Mo Ling had designs on Song Song Qiuyu, and accompanying her back to Tianshu Prefecture this time carried a whiff of playing the gallant protector.

They were all students of Holy Mystic Star Academy.

Mo Ling could tell Song Song Qiuyu was somewhat displeased with the gathering of these brats below, so he smiled and said: "Speaking of which, these little ones down there will be our juniors in the future. How about we go say hello?"

As he spoke, he had already stood up.

Song Song Qiuyu said: "Let it be. They're just a bunch of little ones."

Mo Ling waved his hand and said: "As their future senior, I think it's necessary to let them get familiar with the style of Holy Mystic Star Academy first."

With that, he turned and headed down to the next floor.

Seeing this, Song Song Qiuyu seemed to smile helplessly and warned with a hint of annoyance: "Don't go too far. It wouldn't be good if you scared them."

Ti Jingming drained his cup in one gulp and laughed: "The long night stretches on — watching a good show isn't bad either."

Neither of them worried about Mo Ling going alone. After all, he was at the second stage of the Diviner Realm, the "Pattern-Born Stage," so in Mo Ling's eyes, those little ones below who hadn't even reached Ten-Seal level were truly nothing more than fledglings fresh out of the nest.

The gap between the Ten-Seal Realm and the Diviner Realm would be the most vivid lesson these little ones would learn before entering Holy Mystic Star Academy.

(End of this chapter)