Chapter 447: Transfer Student, A Sudden Challenge (Combined Chapter)

"The specific arrangements are as follows: Instructor Lu Qian will serve as Dean of the Combat Academy, and Instructor Ning Bizhen will serve as Vice Principal, in charge of education, finance, trade, and competition!"

No one expected that Ning Bizhen would skip the position of Dean entirely to become the Vice Principal of Yuanling Academy, and be in charge of the four most important functions of the Academy at that.

These four functions were even split off from Xu Wenhua's own duties; what was Xu Wenhua trying to do?

Some people had already vaguely guessed something; they all became excited, watching Xu Wenhua on the high platform with expectant eyes.

Xu Wenhua paused for a moment, and after waiting for the students and instructors present to digest the news, he continued: "Three years ago, I once said, 'I will only assume the position of Principal when Yuanling Academy returns to its former glory.' Now that our Yuanling Academy has returned to the seat of the second-ranked Academy, and with Vice Principal Ning Bizhen and Dean Lu Qian promoted to the upper echelons, along with outstanding talents like Miao Yinfeng, Luo Jing, Li Changsheng, and Zhao Shuyi, I have decided to officially assume the position of Principal of Yuanling Academy to preside over the Academy's overall work."

During that crushing defeat three years ago, Yuanling Academy suffered heavy losses. At the time, Xu Wenhua, who could have taken over as Principal, resolutely refused the proposal, leading to the vacancy of the Principal position at Yuanling Academy for the past three years.

However, although Xu Wenhua did not have the title of Principal, he possessed the authority of one; he was merely a Vice Principal in name.

Now that Xu Wenhua felt the timing was ripe, he officially assumed the position of Principal.

A single stone stirred up a thousand waves; the students and instructors present were stirred with excitement. After more than three years, Yuanling Academy finally had a Principal again, which greatly boosted their morale and spirit.

After waiting for a long while, the field finally quieted down a bit.

"Ahem!"

Xu Wenhua feigned a cough twice and continued: "I have come to announce the second piece of good news. Let us congratulate First Grade student Li Changsheng with warm applause for advancing to the Fourth Rank. He has created history; not only is he the first First Grade Fourth-rank student in the history of our Yuanling Academy, but he has also broken the record for the youngest Fourth-rank Monster Tamer in the Langya Kingdom since its founding!"

Xu Wenhua did not say who the previous record holder was; after all, 'Butterfly King' Luo Qingning was an Emperor Rank, and on the surface, one still had to give enough face.

However, Xu Wenhua believed that some people would definitely take the initiative to look up this record and make it a topic of conversation among themselves.

"Now announcing the third piece of good news: welcome former Royal Academy Second Grade Elite Student Wang Xinyi to transfer to our Yuanling Academy!"

The third piece of good news shocked almost everyone present, even Li Changsheng was no exception.

Transferring schools could be said to be a very normal operation, but the subject of this transfer was an Elite Student from the Second Grade of the Royal Academy, someone Li Changsheng had almost never heard of.

Not far away, Zhang Yi asked in confusion: "Why would he want to transfer to our Yuanling Academy?"

Although Yuanling Academy had returned to being the second-ranked Academy, there was still a significant gap between it and the Royal Academy in terms of both strength and influence. The key was that Wang Xinyi was an Elite Student of the Royal Academy, which made this a bit hard to justify.

"First, let's look at the problem from Wang Xinyi's perspective. Among the Second Grade Elite Students at the Royal Academy, Wang Xinyi can be said to be a marginal figure. The Royal Academy's allocation of resources to him is naturally far inferior to that of Dou Yuansheng and others who are also in the second grade."

It was Zhao Shuyi who spoke; she came from the Zhao Clan of Yecheng, so she was naturally more familiar with the Royal Academy.

Zhao Shuyi paused and continued: "As the saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse. Although Wang Xinyi cannot get into matches at the Royal Academy, it is different at our Yuanling Academy. After all, our second grade can't even scrape together three Third-Rank Students. This is probably the intention behind his transfer."

Wang Xinyi was an expendable existence at the Royal Academy, but it was different at Yuanling Academy. One could see from the last Academy Exchange Tournament that Yuanling Academy's second grade was the most problematic.

From Wang Xinyi's perspective, becoming a second-grade student at Yuanling Academy, he could be said to be one of the best given his strength, so naturally, the Academy's resources would be heavily tilted toward him.

For Yuanling Academy, Wang Xinyi's arrival could effectively strengthen the overall level of the second grade, so that they would not appear to be bullied by the top four or even top eight academies like in the last Exchange Tournament.

After finishing the three pieces of good news, Xu Wenhua said some more encouraging platitudes and then announced the dismissal.

Li Changsheng followed his classmates back to the classroom. Although with the Authority he possessed, whether he attended class or not was quite casual, he still hoped that his foundation could be more solid.

Like the last semester, there were only half-day classes every day.

It was just that the teaching instructors had changed slightly; after all, Lu Qian had become a school leader, so naturally, other instructors had to replace him.

The one replacing Lu Qian was an old acquaintance of Li Changsheng: Instructor Qian Yuanfei, who possessed a top-grade unicorn.

The morning classes were taught by Instructors Qian Yuanfei and Zhu Zhibin. As for Instructor He Yan, she had taken a month's leave and still had to follow Li Haoqiong to garrison Liyang City.

Otherwise, if He Yan were missing, it would be inevitable that some petty people would want to play a trick of a strong dragon failing to suppress the local snake, such as the Liyang City City Lord Mansion, which possessed a Fifth-Rank Expert, or the several County-level Clans located near Liyang City.

With two Fifth-Rank Experts personally garrisoning, plus Li Changsheng's fame, the Li Clan could suppress the petty people and successfully acquire some of the Cai Clan's industries at bargain prices. Otherwise, the small movements of other forces alone would be enough to give the Li Clan a headache.

Wealth moves people's hearts. As the news of Cai Yangqian's fall spread, the Cai Clan could be described as being in a state of panic. All other forces, like the Li Clan, wanted to take the opportunity to get a piece of the pie from the Cai Clan.

The difference was that the Li Clan drank the first broth of the Cai Clan.

When class ended at 11 o'clock, Li Changsheng was walking on the main road, about to return to the Number One Courtyard, but he was stopped by a guard halfway.

"Li Changsheng, someone outside is looking for you!"

From school leaders down to servants, everyone at Yuanling Academy knew Li Changsheng; the guard naturally could not fail to recognize him.

Li Changsheng was a bit strange. Someone was looking for him on the very first day of school; it shouldn't be someone from his family.

Could it be about the Starry Sky Auction House? Or perhaps Lin Wan and her daughter?

Li Changsheng did not move immediately and asked: "What is her name?"

"She said her name is Tian Jingling."

"A woman?" Li Changsheng looked at the guard in confusion; he was certain he did not know this person.

"Yes, she looks about the same age as you. By the way, she was afraid you wouldn't come to see her, so she asked me to bring a token."

After speaking, the guard respectfully handed a token to Li Changsheng.

Li Changsheng examined the token. It was an Identity Token. On the front was a lifelike large tree with the character 'Tian' carved on it, and on the back were the two characters 'Huizhou'.

"Huizhou Tian Clan!"

Seeing the style of the token, Li Changsheng recognized it immediately.

Regarding the major forces of the Langya Kingdom, Li Changsheng naturally had a certain understanding of them, which naturally included the Huizhou Tian Clan.

The Huizhou Tian Clan was a Famous Clan of a thousand years; for a thousand years, their Sixth-Rank Experts had never been interrupted, and this generation even possessed three Sixth-Rank Experts, which could be called the most powerful force in Huizhou.

In addition, among the major Famous Clans of the Langya Kingdom, the Huizhou Tian Clan could also firmly occupy a position in the top five.

Most importantly, the Huizhou Tian Clan and the Yecheng Zu Clan monopolized the only entrance in the Langya Kingdom that could lead to the Elf Plane.

Unless Li Changsheng went abroad, within the Langya Kingdom, if he wanted to obtain the corpse of a Moon Elf, he had to deal with these two Famous Clans.

"Strange, what does she want with me?"

Li Changsheng was a bit puzzled, but he still decided to go see this Tian Jingling; perhaps he could even obtain a stable channel for Moon Elf corpses from her.

Of course, this was just wishful thinking.

Soon, Li Changsheng arrived at the main gate. Even though he didn't know Tian Jingling, he locked onto her at a glance.

Some people, even standing in a crowd, would still appear very conspicuous; Li Changsheng was like this, and Tian Jingling was the same.

Among the group of people waiting at the gate, there was only one young girl whose appearance, figure, and temperament were all excellent, especially since she was about the same age as him.

Of course, compared to Ning Bizhen, she was still a notch behind.

Tian Jingling comes from the Tian Clan; her strength is not only not poor, but on the contrary, like Li Zhangsheng, she is also at the Fourth-rank level.

It is said that their ages are similar, but in reality, Tian Jingling has a baby face and looks a bit more youthful, though her age is naturally greater than Li Zhangsheng's, being about eighteen or nineteen years old.

"You are Li Zhangsheng. I didn't expect you to have broken through to the Fourth-rank. That's perfect, it saves people from saying I'm bullying the young with my seniority!"

Like Li Zhangsheng, this was also Tian Jingling's first time seeing Li Zhangsheng, yet she recognized him at a glance.

Some people are like fireflies in the dark night, bright and dazzling; no matter where they are, they can always attract others' gazes at the first moment, and Li Zhangsheng is such a person.

However, upon discovering that Li Zhangsheng had advanced to the Fourth-rank, Tian Jingling was still full of shock; when she was at this age, she had only just reached the Third-rank level.

"This Miss Tian, do you have business with me?"

Li Zhangsheng got straight to the point; he really could not guess Tian Jingling's purpose in looking for him.

"You can call me Jingling. The reason I came to find you this time is mainly related to the Hidden Dragon Ranking."

Tian Jingling seemed to think of something unhappy and could not help but pout her little mouth; in her hand, she held a copy of "Langya Guo Dage Bangdan".

"The Hidden Dragon Ranking?"

"Your ranking is ahead of mine, and at the time, you were still ranked ahead of me with the status of a Third-rank Monster Tamer, which put me in a bad mood, so I came here mainly to challenge you."

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Tian Jingling pointed at Li Zhangsheng, her eyes filled with fighting spirit; she is the Heavenly Pride ranked 46th on the Hidden Dragon Ranking, and the one ranked ahead of her is precisely Li Zhangsheng.

Tian Jingling's voice was not soft, and people near the main entrance could hear it; they revealed excited expressions one after another. Most of them recognized Li Zhangsheng and naturally wanted to join in the fun to add to their post-meal conversation topics.

"If I accept your challenge, then in the future, if any Tom, Dick, or Harry comes to challenge me, should I accept or not? Besides, I am not interested in your challenge; please forgive me for not accompanying you!"

Li Zhangsheng resolutely refused; even if this would damage his reputation, he had to avoid this kind of trouble as much as possible.

Of course, that was what he said, but Li Zhangsheng believed that Tian Jingling would definitely not give up easily; he chose to retreat to advance, pretending to turn and leave.

"Wait!"

Seeing that Li Zhangsheng was about to leave, Tian Jingling was naturally anxious; she had traveled thousands of miles from Huizhou to challenge Li Zhangsheng, and the journey alone took more than a day, so how could she give up easily.

Li Zhangsheng, who had already finished turning, stopped his steps, pulled a smile at the corner of his mouth, and then turned around with an expressionless face, pretending to be aloof as he asked: "Is there anything else?"

Tian Jingling took a deep breath and said: "Since you won't accept an unconditional challenge, then a wagered fight will do!"

"I heard that your Tian Clan controls the entrance to the Elf Plane. If you are willing to use the corpses of Moon Elves for a wagered fight, I can accompany you to the end!"

This was Li Zhangsheng's goal; he still wanted to let Kailan evolve again.

"Fine, I happen to have a few on me. Since it's a wagered fight, what are you willing to put up for the wager?"

"If we're going to bet, let's bet big. How many Moon Elf corpses do you think this Thunder Element Crystal is worth?"

Li Zhangsheng thought for a moment and took out that fist-sized Thunder Element Crystal.

Among the items he did not need, this Thunder Element Crystal had the highest value; judging by its size, even if it didn't reach 100,000 Soul Crystals, it would at least be worth 80,000.

"This..." Seeing the Thunder Element Crystal, Tian Jingling could not help but feel a bit troubled, but she still braced herself and said: "It can probably be exchanged for 30 Moon Elf corpses, how about that?"

Tian Jingling is not Li Zhangsheng; if she loses, she can only sell the valuable treasures on her person to scrape together enough Soul Crystals to purchase the Moon Elf corpses.

The clan is the clan, and the individual is the individual; the two cannot be lumped together, and even the Clan Leader could not do that, let alone Tian Jingling, who is merely a direct descendant.

But Tian Jingling also has an advantage, which is that she can obtain Moon Elf corpses from the clan at a discounted price; on the market, a Moon Elf corpse is about 3,000 Soul Crystals, and she is confident she can get them for 2,000 Soul Crystals.

"Agreed!"

Li Zhangsheng nodded in agreement and then took Tian Jingling to a combat venue located outside the Academy. There was a fairly professional referee here, and one only needed to pay a Low-grade Soul Crystal as a venue rental fee.

The combat venue was square-shaped, consisting of a rockery, a pond, and a patch of grass, suitable for the combat of Demon Pets of all attributes.

The two floated up one after another and landed lightly on the stone platform, staring at each other, waiting for the duel to begin.

Li Zhangsheng remained calm and composed, full of confidence in himself.

Tian Jingling was filled with fighting spirit, faintly carrying a sense of excitement.

Before the battle began, more and more people gathered spontaneously; they had all come upon hearing the news, mostly students from various Academies, and in an instant, they surrounded the venue tightly.

On one side was the youngest Fourth-rank Monster Tamer in the history of Langya Kingdom, and on the other was the somewhat famous direct descendant of the Tian Clan, Tian Jingling; in their view, the two had similar rankings on the Hidden Dragon Ranking, and this would likely be a scene of a dragon-and-tiger battle.

(End of this chapter)