Chapter 105: Xu Xiangzhi: Rough on the Outside, Fine on the Inside

"I am revealing this to you in advance because it mainly concerns my own selfish thoughts. I hope you will grow up as quickly as possible to lead the Academy out of its predicament, and perhaps even go a step further!"

Resources are limited after all. If you want to become a Stronger, you must fight for them, and dare to fight!

Once we are kicked out of the ranks of the Four Great Academies, the resources the nation tilts toward the Academy will inevitably decrease significantly. When that time comes, we might end up like those elite academies that aspire to the title of a Four Great Academy, sacrificing the interests of most students to concentrate resources on cultivating a few elites until we return to the ranks of the Four Great Academies. Without a doubt, this is a consequence that many students would find hard to bear."

After a slight pause, Instructor He Yan continued: "Although your strength is not great, you are also an important link in deciding whether we can maintain our status as one of the Four Great Academies. Therefore, I hope you can become stronger as quickly as possible, for the sake of the Academy, for your classmates, and even more so for yourselves.

Now I can tell you a piece of news in advance: in half a month, each of the four grades will establish its own Elite Class. Among them, the Newborn Elite Class will have about 20 spots in total, and any newborn who is selected will receive a tilt in the Academy's resources!"

Two months from now, the four Elite Classes will compete to determine the most outstanding students to represent the Academy in the Academy Exchange Tournament and face the challenges from other academies!

For you, this is an opportunity. As long as you become an Elite Class Member, your growth speed will inevitably accelerate significantly. Even if you cannot represent the Academy in the Exchange Tournament, you will still be able to pull ahead of the newborns who were not selected for the Elite Class."

After saying this in one breath, Instructor He Yan stopped speaking and watched the newborns below quietly. Having shared so many secrets in this class, she was truly afraid they might not be able to handle it.

They needed to properly 'digest' it; either they would be crushed and just muddle along, or they would forge ahead with courage and grow at a faster speed.

Call it selfish or call it cruel, from the Academy's standpoint, as long as one class can cultivate a few powerful Elite Students, even if it means sacrificing the others, it is very much worth it.

The importance of one Elite Student to the Academy far exceeds that of a group of ordinary students.

The content of this class filled the newborns with mostly negative emotions—fear, hesitation, nervousness, and even excitement, all different. This was also a process they had to experience, only Instructor He Yan had accelerated this process.

Li Changsheng took a deep breath. To be honest, he was afraid of death, which was only human nature, but if he lost his motivation to move forward because of the fear of death, that was an impossible thing for him.

No matter which world it is, a Stronger is forged, not protected. On the road to becoming a Stronger, there are always thorns at every step, filled with tempering and setbacks.

If a person can avoid sinking due to worldly corruption, remain steadfast in their ideals and beliefs, and struggle unceasingly toward their goal, they have the possibility of becoming a Stronger.

For those who have lost their fighting spirit within, even if they are outstanding enough, they still cannot become a Stronger.

A Stronger does not just refer to individual strength; their willpower is also extraordinarily firm, and it is almost difficult to find any flaws in them.

Li Changsheng took a deep breath. He began to firm up his beliefs, not to be influenced by negative emotions. At this moment, he was walking on the right path, but there was still a long way to go to truly become a Stronger.

With his current strength, he had a high hope of securing a spot in the Elite Class, and even representing the Academy in battle was a distinct possibility.

However, there was still a certain probability of failure. He had to continue to strengthen himself. As long as his strength became powerful enough, he could completely sweep away the opponents blocking his path by crushing them all the way.

In fact, the biggest worry was representing the Academy in battle. If they won, it would be fine; having maintained the status of Yuanling Academy, they would undoubtedly become heroes. But what if they lost? If Yuanling Academy were expelled from the ranks of the Four Great Academies, they, as the representatives, would likely be condemned by thousands and forever nailed to a pillar of shame.

In these two months, he had to improve his strength as quickly as possible!

As a Monster Tamer, there are many ways to improve strength, but it is mainly focused on improving the strength of one's Demon Pet.

Of course, the Monster Tamer cannot lag behind either. Right now, Li Changsheng was holding his Demon Pets back; because his realm was insufficient, the strength of his Demon Pets was subject to certain limitations.

"Sigh, sometimes having a Demon Pet that is too outstanding can also make a Monster Tamer feel troubled!" Li Changsheng felt a happy kind of trouble.

Listen to that, what kind of talk is that!

After the newborns had initially digested this information, Instructor He Yan continued: "Our current situation is very grim. Those elite academies that want to compete for the title of a Four Great Academy have us as their main target. The Academy Exchange Tournament is their best opportunity, and it is also our hope to maintain our status as one of the Four Great Academies!

I hope everyone will guard against arrogance and impetuosity and improve your strength as much as possible. Only by being powerful enough can you better grasp your own destiny!"

This class brought great pressure to the newborns. Even now, there were still many newborns who were dazed, trapped in a muddled state.

In fact, Instructor He Yan also had hidden worries. On one hand, she was afraid of bringing too much burden to the newborns, but on the other hand, she was helpless. For the future of Yuanling Academy, she could only increase their burden, just like raising Gu—survival of the fittest, eventually selecting the strongest newborns.

"Alright, let's discuss future matters later. Since this is an open class, I will now talk about knowledge regarding Monster Tamers!"

He Yan did not continue to talk about the Abyss and the Exchange Tournament, and began to get down to business.

Her teaching experience was very rich, and her lectures were quite interesting. Under her influence, the originally tense nerves of the crowd were more or less relieved; at the very least, they were no longer as nervous as before.

The open class taught basic knowledge, such as how to care for Demon Pets, how to correct the bad habits of Demon Pets, how to interact with Demon Pets, and so on.

Li Changsheng was relatively familiar with this basic knowledge. He had learned these basics in his family school, but because he hadn't reviewed them for a long time, and the level of the school's lecturers was far inferior to Instructor He Yan, Li Changsheng did gain something from it.

Yuanling Academy's open classes were held only once a day, two hours per class, and were taught only in the morning, which also allowed students and instructors to have sufficient time for cultivation.

Blindly studying will never make one a Stronger.

Even if one's theoretical knowledge is rich, it is only knowledge. If one learns a lot but does not practice, one can at most become a 'keyboard warrior' Stronger. Only by combining knowledge with training and actual combat can one grow better and faster.

Ding-a-ling~

Soon, the bell for the end of class rang, and the first open class officially ended!

Instructor He Yan took her lesson plan and hurried out of the classroom.

She was desperate to know which King had fallen. If Langya Kingdom lost another King, the situation of the entire country would completely deteriorate and fall into a precarious state.

She could only pray that it was a King from a neighboring country who had fallen, but even so, Langya Kingdom would still suffer certain negative effects.

Li Changsheng followed closely behind Instructor He Yan as she left.

"Phew!" Only at this moment did the effect of the Immobilization Technique finally disappear. Luo Jie subconsciously let out a sigh of relief, but because of the long 'one-legged stance', his supporting leg was so sore and numb that it had almost lost all sensation. If he hadn't been quick-eyed and fast-handed enough to grab the desk beside him, he would have likely fallen to the ground.

Luo Jie's disheveled appearance actually lightened the heavy atmosphere in the classroom.

After class, many newborns did not leave. They gathered in groups of three or four to discuss the topics of the Abyss, the Elite Class, and the Academy Exchange Tournament.

Some were excited and agitated, but more were worried and fearful.

Zhao Shuyi propped her head with her left hand and said casually: "I used to find it strange why clansmen were dying in battle every few days, and sometimes even their remains couldn't be found. Every time I asked my father, he would always hide things and not tell me the truth. Looking at the current situation, those clansmen who died in battle were very likely participating in the war against the Abyss!"

A Noble Family is second only to a King Family, with a Sixth-Rank Expert sitting in command all year round. In the small territory of Langya Kingdom, there are only a handful of Noble Families, so naturally, no one would easily offend them.

Although there are often some grudges between Noble Families, because they are wary of each other, they almost never engage in all-out fighting.

Yuan Yongyan's soft voice sounded: "Shuyi, your father was surely worried about you, trying to prevent you from being crushed by the pressure!"

"Who knows! Forget it, with our current strength, we don't need to worry about the Abyss for now. The most important thing now is to improve our strength. As for the spots for the Academy Exchange Tournament, I am determined to get one!"

Zhao Shuyi clenched her fist. Her eyes were burning with brilliance, full of confident spirit. The White Fox in her arms raised its head to glance at its master, found a comfortable position, and continued to sleep soundly.

"Hmph, that's not necessarily true! There are already four newborns who have reached the Second Rank. In two months, who knows how many there will be? I actually think I should be the one to represent the newborns in the Exchange Tournament!"

Not far away, Xu Xiangzhi heard Zhao Shuyi's words and immediately retorted loudly. He was the grandson of Vice Principal Xu; if he were outdone by a girl, it would be a complete humiliation.

Xu Xiangzhi's voice was very loud, attracting the attention of many people, including Zhang Yi and Luo Jie.

Zhang Yi had a steady personality. He didn't speak, showing an expression of watching a good show; no one knew his true thoughts.

"Hmph ╯^╰, as for the newborn representative, who else but me!" Even if he had just advanced to the Second Rank, he was still a Second-Rank newborn. Luo Jie naturally wouldn't lose to anyone, even if it was just in terms of momentum.

While speaking, Luo Jie opened his Thousand Mechanism Fan, and the words on the fan face changed to 'Determined to succeed'!

After the farce this morning, almost everyone realized that Luo Jie was a clown who loved to show off!

"I live in Number Two Courtyard, what about you all?" Zhao Shuyi held her head high, looking arrogant, much like a proud peacock.

However, this was just Zhao Shuyi's Camouflage; her main purpose was to lure the snake out of its hole and understand the background of her main competitors as soon as possible.

In Zhao Shuyi's heart, there were only four people who could pose a threat to her for the time being: Xu Xiangzhi, Zhang Yi, Luo Jie, and Li Zhangsheng.

The first three were in the same rank as her, and their strength was naturally not bad. The last one was the owner of Number One Courtyard, and she especially remembered that during the courtyard assignment yesterday, her Three-Tailed Snow Fox was full of wariness toward Li Zhangsheng.

This time, Zhao Shuyi's main target was the seemingly reckless Xu Xiangzhi, as she wanted to guide Xu Xiangzhi to challenge Li Zhangsheng.

Unexpectedly, Xu Xiangzhi did not answer; instead, Luo Jie shouted angrily, "Is Number Two Courtyard so amazing? I'm going to challenge Number One Courtyard right now. Once I become the owner of Number One Courtyard, let's see what you have to say then!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Jie immediately left the classroom, fearing that others would beat him to challenging Number One Courtyard.

"Idiot!" Watching Luo Jie's back, Xu Xiangzhi let out a sharp, barbell-like laugh. Don't let his always reckless appearance fool you; he was actually coarse but detail-oriented, with his own calculations in mind.

Unlike that clown Luo Jie, who, after being slightly goaded by Zhao Shuyi, rushed off in high spirits to challenge Number One Courtyard.

A new student capable of moving into Number One Courtyard must be excellent in all aspects and likely a tough nut to crack. As for Luo Jie, he didn't even remember the other person's name, let alone their background. Rushing off to challenge them without knowing anything—if that isn't stupid, what is!

Taking a step back, even if Luo Jie succeeded in his challenge and became the owner of Number One Courtyard, they could still challenge Luo Jie! Luo Jie, who might have revealed his trump cards, would easily be targeted.

Mystery is what is most daunting.

After Luo Jie left, many people revealed expressions of wanting to watch a good show and followed after him.

(End of this chapter)