Chapter 62

On the night of July 1st, the green-clad person did not come.

Not only did he not come on the night of the 1st, but for the next three days, the green-clad person did not appear either.

At first, Xu Jin even thought it was because he had changed courtyards and the green-clad person couldn't find him; he even went to stay in his original dormitory, Yi-42, for half the night, but he still didn't come.

Not only did the green-clad person not come.

During these few days, Xu Jin didn't even see the instructor Ning Yuchan.

He went to Ning Yuchan's small courtyard several times in a row, wanting to ask a few questions—questions about cultivation, as well as questions about the Star-Plucking Token, etc. —but whether it was noon or night, no one opened the door.

It wasn't just Ning Yuchan; for several days in a row, the academy's instructors and teachers were nowhere to be seen.

Even Master Gan from the elixir room only appeared in a hurry, saying that the originally scheduled seven-day assessment had been postponed.

Many disciples thus had some rare leisure time.

It was called leisure time, but for all the disciples, the morning and evening cultivation lessons would not be interrupted.

Even those who didn't have strong perseverance before would be infected by the attitude of other senior and junior brothers who insisted on morning and evening lessons every day.

Xu Jin's morning and evening lessons only intensified; it was absolutely impossible for them to be interrupted.

When he was studying in high school in his past life, he slept at one or two in the morning and got up at six in the morning, with at most forty minutes of sleep at noon; that was still a mortal body, and he had persisted for more than a year.

And in this world, Xu Jin, who had cultivated to the fourth layer of Meal of Mist, had physical fitness and mental aspects that far exceeded ordinary people; it was just morning and evening lessons—it couldn't be easier.

Of course, Xu Jin also had leisure time.

Xu Jin's leisure time was lying on his newly bought lounge chair after morning and evening lessons, and then entering the Star Lamp in the Arena Platform to either practice or inscribe the Great Gathering Star Pattern.

On July 3rd, after practicing in the Star Lamp for several days, Xu Jin's Basic Star Art "Star Gleam" reached Grand Perfection and could be instantly cast at will.

On July 5th, Xu Jin's Basic Star Art "Star Ring" reached Grand Perfection and could be instantly cast at will.

Subsequently, Xu Jin changed the solidified Star Art in Star Lamp One from Star Ring to Star Light Cover.

From this moment on, theoretically, Xu Jin could instantly cast each of the five Basic Star Arts.

During these four days, Xu Jin entered the Star-Plucking Tower Practice Arena Secret Realm to practice every day.

After practicing six times a day, his spirit would feel tired, and Xu Jin would exit the Practice Arena Secret Realm.

These four days, twenty-four practice sessions, were all consecutive victories.

With the accumulation of practice times, Xu Jin became increasingly familiar with the application of these Star Arts, especially after all five Basic Star Arts could be instantly cast, winning challenges wasn't difficult.

The only problem was that his cultivation was still quite low; when encountering some opponents at the seventh layer of Meal of Mist or even Grand Perfection, Xu Jin's Star Shield appeared relatively weak.

It would be slashed and shattered directly.

However, the instant casting of the Star Light Cover perfectly made up for this shortcoming.

His Practice Arena Secret Realm points reached 90.

His Practice Arena Secret Realm ranking reached a staggering 75,443rd.

He had broken into the top 100,000.

During the morning lesson on July 5th, as a Star Blast erupted from the tip of Xu Jin's left leg, it signified that Xu Jin's cultivation had broken through to the fifth layer of Meal of Mist.

The tempering of his legs was completed.

From then on, normal tempering ended, and the improvement results were also very gratifying.

Especially the improvement in speed after the tempering of his legs was completed gave Xu Jin a feeling like a little superman.

When he ran, with a light exertion of force under his feet, he was like a whirlwind.

With a light leap, he could jump three meters high.

With a light bound, he could jump a distance of seven or eight meters; if he jumped with all his might, he could cross up to ten meters in one step.

It was much higher than the world record of his past life.

And the distance the Star Arrow could leave his body also surged from four feet to five feet.

It was just that he couldn't find the head instructor Ning Yuchan, so the subsequent tempering of his head couldn't be carried out.

Ning Yuchan had said before that all disciples who broke through to the fifth layer of Meal of Mist had to find her once.

The tempering of the head was extremely dangerous; if one wasn't careful, it would severely damage the head, leading to injury at best and becoming an idiot at worst.

On the night of July 5th, the night Xu Jin broke through to the fifth layer of Meal of Mist, the first of this year's Star-Pointing, Yue Daqi, completed the tempering of the Six Yang Crown and broke through to the sixth layer of Meal of Mist, beginning his march toward the seventh layer of Meal of Mist.

Also on the night of July 5th, Xu Jin inscribed the Great Gathering Star Pattern ten thousand times in the Star Lamp and finally succeeded once.

But after the first success, he failed five times in a row afterward before succeeding again.

And if he wanted to try inscribing the Great Gathering Star Pattern on his own body, he had to succeed every time in the Star Lamp before trying.

But after the first successful inscription, a 100% success rate wasn't far off.

On the morning of July 6th, the Jin Shan Academy suddenly opened its gates wide.

The Academy Head Dong Zhao, Vice Academy Head Feng Shu, Supervisor Cao Chun, and Commandant Tian Zhang—the four high-ranking officials of the academy—personally welcomed them outside the gates and waited for about half a quarter of an hour before a group of people arrived.

Walking at the very front were three people walking side by side; the one in the middle, wearing the official uniform of a third-rank official of Great Chen, was Yao Yuanzhi, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice of Great Chen; following on Yao Yuanzhi's left was a middle-aged man with star-like eyebrows and bright eyes, a tall and straight figure, very handsome, worthy of being a model for middle-aged uncles—this person was none other than Lu Chenfeng, the Head of the Yan Prefecture Academy of Great Chen. As for the one accompanying on the right, it was an acquaintance of Dong Zhao and the others—Hu Xuechuan, the Head of the Yan Prefecture Branch of the Heavenly Sun Star Palace.

Over the past few days, Hu Xuechuan had thought of many ways and kept increasing the stakes, but Dong Zhao was simply immovable.

In the end, he could only bring in Yao Yuanzhi, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice of Great Chen.

It wasn't that bringing in Yao Yuanzhi, a high-ranking third-rank official, could suppress Dong Zhao.

Within the academy system, whether it was against the imperial court or the military, they had to suppress normal officials by a head, or even more than a head.

After all, this was an era where great power belonged to oneself.

The reason for inviting Yao Yuanzhi, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, was Dong Zhao's idea.

Zhou Qingzhu had wantonly killed the common people of Great Chen, committing a crime against national law.

Dong Zhao could hand the person over, but he couldn't hand him over to Hu Xuechuan of the Heavenly Sun Star Palace; he had to hand him over to the Ministry of Justice or the Prefecture Academy or the National Academy to be dealt with by superiors.

But how the superiors dealt with it wasn't something Dong Zhao could manage.

This was the only concession Dong Zhao could make.

Originally, the initial idea was to hand him over to the National Academy.

But the National Academy's attitude was quite tough; Hu Xuechuan estimated that if Zhou Qingzhu entered the National Academy, he would only have a dead end.

He could only pressure the Great Chen imperial court.

In the end, the Great Chen imperial court issued an order through the Star-Plucking Tower: ordering Dong Zhao to hand over the group of criminals to the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Yao Yuanzhi.

However, before transferring the criminals, the three of them—Dong Zhao, Lu Chenfeng, and Hu Xuechuan—came to a quiet room in the Lecture Hall.

"Head Lu, Head Dong, I have already done as you requested, and I have invited the person; hurry up and transfer the person, and this matter will be over," Hu Xuechuan urged.

"What about the conditions discussed earlier?

How will they be implemented?" Dong Zhao glanced at Lu Chenfeng and asked.

"I promised, so I will implement it," Hu Xuechuan said.

"Words alone are not proof!" Dong Zhao insisted.

In an instant, Hu Xuechuan stiffened his neck, "Dong Zhao, are you doubting my character? I, Hu Xuechuan, keep my word."

"Zhou Qingzhu also kept his word before, but when he impersonated a demon to kill the common people of my Jin Shan Prefecture, he didn't hold back at all!"

Dong Zhao's one sentence directly left Hu Xuechuan speechless.

"Black and white, set it down in writing, affix the seal, and imprint the star power aura!" said Lu Chenfeng, who had not spoken until now.

Hearing this, Hu Xuechuan was angry again, "Some conditions can be set down in writing, but if I set some conditions down in writing for you, wouldn't I be stupid? Giving you evidence against myself!"

Dong Zhao and Lu Chenfeng looked at each other again, then said, "The others are easy to talk about, but there are two points you must set down in writing for me. Otherwise, I will kill Zhou Qingzhu now and then post his confession all over the city."

"You!"

Hu Xuechuan slapped the table and stood up, glaring at them.

"I have already printed one thousand copies of Zhou Qingzhu's confession, and I can print another ten thousand at any time!" Dong Zhao sat by the table, smiling, but that smile gave Hu Xuechuan the urge to slash him.

Hu Xuechuan glared at Dong Zhao and Lu Chenfeng for a long time before saying, "Fine, I'll set it down in writing!"

"Hmm, I'll speak, you write."

"The first point: due to internal reorganization, the Heavenly Sun Branch will stop recruiting disciples in the autumn Star-Pointing season this year, and for the two Star-Pointing seasons in the spring and autumn of next year, it will only recruit twenty disciples each," Dong Zhao said.

Hu Xuechuan glanced at Dong Zhao and could only pick up his pen to write.

"The second point: the Yan Prefecture Branch of the Heavenly Sun Star Palace, due to internal reorganization, voluntarily abandons the quota for selecting the best within Yan Prefecture this year," Dong Zhao said.

Hu Xuechuan glanced at Dong Zhao and suddenly said, "Dong Zhao, why do I feel like you've hidden a top-tier genius this year?

Writing it like this is just to prevent us from selecting the best and snatching people?"

"Every year I get pinched by you, I have to resist a little," Dong Zhao laughed.

Hu Xuechuan was helpless and could only write it on the spot, then affix his seal and imprint his own star power aura, only then leaving in a rage.

In the Lecture Hall, Academy Head Dong Zhao transferred all the confessions and criminals face-to-face to the Ministry of Justice police brought by the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice.

After reading the confession, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, according to Hu Xuechuan's opinion, released the Vice Academy Head Liu Yelan, Supervisor Wang Qiang, and several instructors and teachers who were not deeply involved on the spot.

This was also one of Hu Xuechuan's requirements.

With these two released.

The Heavenly Sun Branch could basically operate.

In the afternoon, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Yao Yuanzhi, who had a simple meal, and the Prefecture Academy Head, Lu Chenfeng, left quickly, escorting Zhou Qingzhu and the other criminals.

Academy Head Dong Zhao, Commandant Tian Zhang, and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In the afternoon, the academy's ban was not yet lifted, but the academy disciples finally received orders from the servants.

Practice in the Martial Arts Hall in the afternoon.

Xu Jin was also happy to hear this; he could finally see Ning Yuchan!

(End of chapter)