Zhang Ruochen was not worried at all about the war between Yunwu County State and Sifang County State. The two county states had been fighting for many years, and if the Yunwu County State was really that unbeatable, it would have already been annexed by the Sifang County State.
Right now, the only thing he was worried about was his mother, Concubine Lin.
With the Queen Mother’s poisonous character, she would definitely not let her go.
“As long as I become an Inner Palace Disciple of the Martial City School Palace, I will be able to bring my own family to the Martial City School Palace and receive the shelter of the Martial City School Palace. I must become an Inner Palace Disciple of the Martial City School Palace as soon as possible!” Zhang Ruochen was secretly determined in his heart.
Zixi prepared to leave and had just opened the door when she saw Huang Yichen and Duanmu Xingling walk in from outside.
Huang Yichen seemed to be in a good mood with a smile on her face, but after seeing Zixi, the smile on her face instantly disappeared.
With a swish, she pulled out her battle sword, emitting a brilliant sword light, and shouted in a deep voice, “Zhang Ruochen, you lecherous/thief, you’ve even repeatedly corrupted the Longwu Palace’s morale, I have to kill you today!”
“Swoosh!”
A whirlwind formed around Huang Yichen’s body, and with his feet off the ground, he swung his sword and chopped out, slashing out a sword qi more than ten metres long.
Zhang Ruochen was slightly startled and immediately grabbed Zixi’s shoulder and executed the Wind-Resisting Flying Dragon Shadow, his body flashed and moved out horizontally in a flash, dodging the sharp sword Qi.
“Rumble!”
Four pillars were chopped off, and the pavilion, which had just been rebuilt, collapsed once again, turning into a ruin.
“Meow!”
Xiao Hei crawled out from inside the ruins, his entire body covered in mud and dust, his head smashed into a daze, and it took half a day for it to clear up.
Discovering that the culprit was Yellow Smoke Dust, it instantly gritted its teeth in hatred, fortunately, it was stopped by Zhang Ruochen, otherwise it would have already pounced on it to fight Yellow Smoke Dust to the death.
“Dodging is quite fast, try to catch my sword again.”
With a cold face, Huang Yichen raised his battle sword and tried to chop over again.
Zhang Ruochen blocked Zixi behind him and calmly said, “Huang Yichen, if you have something to say, can you say it calmly?”
Huang Yichen stared at Zixi and then at Zhang Ruochen, saying, “Who allowed you to bring other trainees into the Dragon Martial Hall?”
“Senior Sister Zi and I have a little matter to discuss, bringing her to the Yellow Character No. 1 doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Senior Sister Huang, does it?” Zhang Ruochen said.
“Discussing something, why are you closing the door? What is it that you don’t want people to know?” These words were just about to go out when Huang Yichen realised that something was wrong, it seemed that this matter really had nothing to do with her.
Right! It doesn’t have much to do with me, why am I acting so angry?
Duanmu Xingling immediately greeted her and stopped Huang Yichen, saying, “Sister Dust, we still have business to discuss, this small matter, in the future, then slowly calculate with them.”
Huang Yichen got a step down and immediately put her sword away, coldly humming, “Remembering that tomorrow is the quarterly examination, I’ll let you off the hook today. Since Senior Sister Zi is also here, it couldn’t be better, come along with me to Earth Character No. 1, I have some things to explain to the two of you.”
Zhang Ruochen looked at the attic that had turned into ruins, gently shook his head and followed.
Arriving at Earth Character Number One, Huang Yichen and Duanmu Xingling sat at the very top, while Zhang Ruochen and Zixi sat on the left and right sides of the living room.
Huang Yichen picked up a cup of freshly brewed Snow Lotus Iced Tea and gently took a sip as he said, ”You guys should know that tomorrow’s Quarterly Examination is divided into two matches. The first one is a match between the freshmen of the four great academies, and the second one is the quarterly ranking assessment within the Western Academy.”
“This year, it is precisely the Western Academy’s turn to hold a joint freshmen competition, and the two of you are the first and second freshmen of the Western Academy, so whether the Western Academy’s freshmen can win the top spot this year in one fell swoop will depend on the performance of the two of you tomorrow.”
Huang Yichen added, “Zhang Ruochen, I know that your cultivation is very high, however, you must not take it lightly. Among the freshmen from the other three houses, there are also top-notch experts whose strength might even be above yours.”
Duanmu Xingling nodded and said, “Among the four great courtyards, the strongest is the East Courtyard, which is the number one freshman almost every year. This year, there is a top expert amongst the freshmen of the East Courtyard, named Dugu Lin, whose cultivation has already reached the Xuanji Realm’s Great Extreme Position.”
“Not long ago, Dugu Lin defeated Hua Xueyi, the tenth ranked expert of the East Courtyard, and became famous in the four great courtyards.”
“The elders of the Academy Palace all agreed that Dokgo Lam has the potential to enter the top fifty of the Xuan Rankings. Right now, an ordinary Xuanji Realm Grand Circle martial artist isn’t even a match for him.”
“His main goal in coming to the Western Academy this time is you. He wants to defeat you, the number one mental power genius in the history of the Martial City Academy, in front of everyone.”
Immediately after that, Huang Yichen said, “Both the South and North Courts have also seen a Xuanji Realm Great Extreme Position freshman respectively, and although his strength is a little weaker than Dugu Lin, he is still your archenemy as well.”
“Zhang Ruochen, although your natural talent is very high and above them, after all, you’ve only just broken through to the Xuan Extremity Realm Minor Extremity Position, and you’re two realms away from them. In a real battle, it’s hard to predict the number of victories and defeats.”
Huang Yichen and Duanmu Xingling didn’t know that Zhang Ruochen had already broken through to the Xuan Extremity Realm Middle Extremity Realm yesterday, thinking that Zhang Ruochen was still at the Xuan Extremity Realm Minor Extremity Realm’s cultivation level.
They didn’t ask, so Zhang Ruochen didn’t say anything, it was just a breakthrough to the Middle Extreme Situation, there was nothing to show off in the first place.
Huang Yichen stared at Zi Xi and said, “Senior Sister Zi, your cultivation has already reached the Xuan Extremity Realm Great Extremity, right?”
Zi Xi gently nodded and said, “I’ve only just broken through in the last two days.”
Originally, under normal circumstances, Zi Xi would still need to cultivate for half a year before she would have a chance to break through to the Xuan Extremity Realm Great Extremity. However, for the sake of the quarterly assessment, she had spent a high price and purchased a fourth grade elixir in the black market. It was only after refining that one fourth-grade elixir that she broke through the realm in one fell swoop.
Of course, the reason why she was able to afford a fourth-grade elixir was also due to the fact that during the first round of the Academy Palace Examination three months ago, she killed nearly a hundred candidates and received a huge sum of millions of silver coins.
If it were before, there was no way she would have been able to afford a fourth-grade elixir.
Huang Yichen nodded and said, “Your talent is slightly inferior compared to Dugu Lin, but it’s comparable to the number one freshman in the North and South Courts, so you’ll at least be able to enter the top five.”
“As long as you and Zhang Ruochen both enter the top five, even if the first place is taken away by Dugu Lin, our Western Courtyard will still have a great chance to become the overall number one freshmen of this term.”
Huang Yichen and Duanmu Xingling talked about some more precautions for the Freshmen Competition until it was dark.
After Zhang Ruochen sent Zixi back, he went to find Zhang Shaochu and Liu Xifeng.
They had already sold all three hundred and forty grains of the Three Clear Zhenqi Pills, as for how much they actually sold, Zhang Ruochen didn’t ask, and only took the money of three thousand silver coins for each grain.
In total, it was one million and two hundred thousand silver coins!
As he was leaving, Zhang Ruochen quietly pulled Zhang Shaochu aside again and handed him five drops of Half Saint True Liquid.
Zhang Shaochu was moved to tears and refused to take the five drops of Half-Saint True Liquid with anything he said.
“It’s only five drops of Half Saint True Liquid, if I want it, I can still buy a lot more. This time, if I manage to win first place in the four great courtyards’ joint freshman competition, I’ll be able to get another ten drops of Half-Saint True Liquid. Fourth brother, you don’t have to be polite with me at all.” Zhang Ruochen laughed.
Zhang Ruochen knew that although Zhang Shaochu’s natural talent was quite good, it was rather mediocre in the Martial City Academy where geniuses gathered.
Only by taking the Half-Saint True Liquid could he enhance his physique and go farther on the road of cultivation in the future, becoming stronger.
“Ninth brother …… thank you.”
Zhang Shaochu tightly squeezed the five bottles of Half-Saint True Liquid in his hand, very clear about their value, his heart was both happy and touched.
Five bottles of Half Saint True Liquid, in the black market, are worth more than two million silver coins. Only Ninth Brother would give him something so valuable, it would be impossible for anyone else.
Zhang Ruochen took out the Life Snatching Scythe again and handed it to Zhang Shaochu, saying, “This is a Fifth Order True Martial Treasure, in the future, take it and use it!”
Gently patting Zhang Shaochu’s shoulder, Zhang Ruochen turned around and left, returning to the Dragon Martial Hall.
The next day, just as the sky dawned, the sound of a flooding bell came to mind in the West Courtyard.
The bell sounded, nine times in a row.
All the students of the West Courtyard, all of them gathered at the West Courtyard’s martial arts field, all of them were wearing white martial arts robes, their spirits were high, their spirits were soaring, there were more than eight hundred people.
The way of standing order, according to the ranking of the trainees, the first ranked Luo Shuihan, stood in the first position of the first column, followed by Huang Yichen, Duanmu Xingling, and Duo Mu Zi ……
After Zhang Ruochen defeated Feng Zhilin, he was ranked at the one hundred and eighty-fourth position of the Western Academy’s trainees, standing in the centre of the many trainees.
It wasn’t long before the array formation on the periphery of the Western Academy opened.
The new students from the East, South, and North Courts, led by one of the Vice Courtyard Masters, also arrived at the West Courtyard Martial Stadium.
On top of that, the three great courtyards also had some veteran students following along, each courtyard had no more than ten veteran students, all of which were top strong, the vast majority of which were Xuan Ranked Martial Artists, appearing to be full of valour.
Among the East Courtyard’s freshmen camp, a freshman who looked to be around twenty years old, snorted and laughed out, ”I had heard before that the West Courtyard had a yin and a yang, and today, when I saw it, I realised that the rumours were indeed true. The male cadets of the West Courtyard are really unimpressive.”
The ears of martial artists were all very sharp, and many of the West Courtyard’s cadets heard that one East Courtyard’s new student’s ridicule.
The female trainees were just fine, but the male trainees had a feeling of being humiliated, and all of them revealed angry looks.
One of the male cadets who was ranked in the top ten of the freshmen rankings, named Chi Minghai, with a cultivation level of the middle extreme position of the Xuanji realm, coldly said, “This is the West Courtyard, when you speak, you better be careful.”
That one freshman from the East Courtyard laughed once again and said, “Could it be that what I said is wrong? Everyone, please look, the hundred people standing at the very front of the West Courtyard’s martial arts field are the West Courtyard’s top one hundred ranked experts, of which at least seventy of them are female cadets, and there are only a measly twenty or so male cadets. Everyone is looking at the three hundred people at the very back of the Western Courtyard martial arts arena, of which more than two hundred are all male trainees, and there are only dozens of female trainees.”
“What does it mean? It only shows that the Western Academy doesn’t have no male cadets, only that the male cadets are all goons. One by one, they don’t think about making progress, so they definitely can only rank at the back of the list. C’mon!”
