Chapter 13: Selection of the Four Great Academies

Time flew by, slipping away like a shuttle.

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

A lot happened that week. The first was the Five Schools Alliance teaming up with martial arts high schools from other cities for a challenge tournament.

Last year, Third Middle School had finished dead last.

On the eve of the tournament, Principal Wang contacted Jiang Qin specifically, hoping he would take part and bring glory to the school.

However, Jiang Qin refused.

First, the tournament required traveling to other cities, which would take up at least three days.

And the prize for first place was too meager—basically pills for Mortal Embryo Realm Martial Artists, along with one cultivation method and one spirit artifact. None of the three were things he needed, so Jiang Qin refused.

With that time, he might as well stay home and work on perfecting Wind-Stepping Steps sooner.

In the end, the tournament results were…

Although Jiang Qin didn't participate, fortunately Li Yunyan, an S-grade Talent, was there and smoothly broke into the top three.

Two students from First High School also made it into the top ten. Jiang Tian originally had a high chance of breaking into the top ten as well, but Jiang Qin had crippled him—he wouldn't recover without lying in bed for two or three months.

In short, Tianyun Shi could be said to have wiped away last year's shame this time, shaking off the title of dead-last.

And after that came the most important event—the Academy Selection…

——

This time, Tianyun Shi's selection venue was set at the Third Middle School gymnasium.

Everyone knew the reason in their heart.

After all, their Tianyun Shi had produced an SSS-grade Talent. In the past, even a single S-grade Talent was enough to set the major academies fighting over them, let alone an SSS-grade one—it would surely draw even fiercer competition.

The gymnasium was packed with noise, the area around the field standing room only.

Today was only the Four Great Academies' selection. Before arriving, they had already sent Selection Letters to those seed students—only students who received a Selection Letter could come to take part in the selection, but that didn't stop other students from coming to watch the excitement.

At the very front, a temporary high platform had been erected. The principals of the five schools and the admissions teachers from the Four Great Academies had all arrived.

They were chatting among themselves.

Ten figures stood in the center of the soccer field.

They were the students participating in this selection; Li Yunyan was among them.

Now, only the last one had yet to arrive.

At that moment, the students sitting near the entrance seemed to sense something and looked toward the entrance. A young man in black with tousled hair was strolling in, the Spirit Power faintly diffusing around him startling everyone.

"Look, Jiang Qin's here!"

"It's Ghost Slash Jiang Qin! I've long heard Third Middle School produced an SSS-grade Talent, and today I finally get to see him in person."

"Pfft, apart from being a bit handsome, there's nothing special. I heard his Talent is a support type—he probably couldn't even take two moves from Jin Zhan."

"Damn! Brothers, we've got a mole in our school—how dare he slander Jiang Shen!"

"Kick him out!!"

"What kind of trash is Jin Zhan? Jiang Shen just couldn't be bothered to enter the tournament, otherwise he'd have beaten the crap out of him!"

……

Jin Zhan was this year's tournament champion, an S-grade special Talent, with a heaven-defying advantage for cultivation.

During the tournament, he was already at the second layer of Spirit Drawing Realm, and he also possessed a B-grade Attack Martial Skill. At the time, he defeated Li Yunyan—who was still only at Mortal Embryo Realm—in a single move. His brilliance was beyond doubt.

Just yesterday, he had been personally recruited by a Modu Academy teacher into Modu Academy, and he was also in the gymnasium now.

On the platform, the admissions teachers from the Four Great Academies also noticed Jiang Qin.

Zhou Lian, the Modu Academy admissions teacher, showed a look of appreciation: "Awakened less than half a month ago and already at the fifth level of Spirit Drawing Realm—the SSS-Class Talent truly lives up to its reputation. I just don't know what the specific effect of his Talent is."

"This boy, my Dijing Academy must have him!" a female teacher said with a solemn expression.

As for the teachers from Frontier Academy and Spirit Suppressing Academy, they said nothing, though bitterness lingered in their hearts.

In recent years, most geniuses had been snatched away by Modu Academy and Dijing Academy; only the leftovers those two academies didn't pick were left for them. Though unwilling, there was nothing they could do.

Who could blame them? Those two had deep pockets.

Jiang Qin walked to the center of the soccer field and stopped, apologetically saying to Principal Wang on the platform: "Sorry, Principal Wang, I lost track of time while cultivating, so I'm a bit late."

"No matter, you've come, that's what matters." Principal Wang nodded, his face glowing.

Such a talented yet humble and steady student—who wouldn't like him?

Jin Zhan, the tournament champion, and Lv Qi also stared at Jiang Qin's face, as if trying to see what was so special about this genius who stood above them.

"So that's Jiang Qin. Seems apart from his realm being a bit higher than ours, there's nothing special."

"What's the use of a higher realm? In a same-realm real fight, martial skills are the key to victory. Focusing solely on raising your martial realm is the stupidest approach. If it really came to a real fight, I wouldn't need more than two moves—I would definitely Slash him down."

Jin Zhan's words were full of contempt. He had the capital to be arrogant—born into a wealthy family, he looked down on students like Jiang Qin who came from poor districts, from the bottom of his heart.

Lv Qi, on the other hand, didn't have so many prejudices; his eyes were full of curiosity: "How about we go over and say hi?"

"With his Talent, he's bound to join Modu Academy or Dijing Academy. We'll all be classmates in the future, so building a good relationship in advance can't be wrong."

Jin Zhan crossed his arms and snorted coldly: "You go if you want. He reeks of poverty all over—I don't have the interest."

He made no effort to keep his voice down from those around him, letting Jiang Qin hear every word clearly, as if doing it on purpose.

What a foul mouth!

Just because his family has a couple of stinking coins, he looks down his nose at people from the bottom, throwing his family's resources around, acting like he's second only to the heavens themselves.

Without his family's resources poured into him, he wouldn't even be a match for Li Yunyan.

Most importantly, his attempt at provocation was so clumsy—standing there with his big mouth, challenging people to his face, afraid others wouldn't notice him.

For this kind of trash, Jiang Qin naturally wouldn't indulge him.

He raised his hand and unleashed a Slash, giving no one time to react. The Slash struck Jin Zhan's body, but instead of the bloody scene one might imagine, a clashing ring of metal rang out.

As the eldest young master of the Jin family, how could Jin Zhan not have Protective Armor?

Even so, he was still sent flying by the tremendous force of the slash, slammed hard into the wall, and passed out with his head lolling to one side.

The protective armor on his body, which could withstand attacks from Spirit Sea Realm martial artists, was severely damaged and beyond repair.

In the quiet gymnasium, Jiang Qin's flat voice rang out:

"Running your mouth isn't your fault, but running your mouth without the strength to back it up—that's on you. I thought you were some kind of expert, but turns out you can't even take one hit from me. You only kept your life thanks to that armor. A hollow trash, strong on the outside, dry within!"

Zhou Lian came to his senses, hurriedly pried Jin Zhan out of the wall, and breathed a sigh of relief after checking his injuries.

Though the armor was ruined, thankfully his body had only suffered some superficial wounds, which wouldn't affect his cultivation.

But looking at the damaged inner armor, he felt another wave of dread.

This Jiang Qin—his methods were vicious. If Jin Zhan's armor had been even slightly worse in quality, his martial arts foundation would have been crippled. At that point, forget entering a first-rate academy, his martial path would likely have been stalled for life.