With Jiang Nan’s words, all the classmates relaxed.
After all, his nickname “Dragon Crossing the River” was well earned.
There was not a single student in the entire year he had not “guided”.
When it came to intensive training and physical drills, everyone knew who ruled the roost. Ask around and find out who the boss was.
At that moment, Jiang Nan felt like the hope of the whole village.
As for Jiang Nan himself, he was not worried at all about tomorrow’s competition.
The students at Pioneer Academy were the elite of the elite. Skipping levels in combat was as routine as eating and drinking.
They were simply not on the same level as that bunch of rubbish from the metropolis.
Yet Jiang Nan did not believe he would lose.
On the way back to the villa, Zhong Yingxue and Xia Yao edged closer, full of curiosity.
“Hey! First place, Xiao Nan, how on earth did you manage it?”
“Was Little Dimple flashing her dimples and blushing to send you secret signals?”
“Do you really know every curse script?”
Little Dimple replied sweetly, “I was not sending signals to Master at all. Master took first place purely through his own ability.”
Jiang Nan puffed up proudly. “Exactly. Pure skill.”
Haha!
Little Dimple was just too perfect, was she not?
She even knew how to cover for him.
With a spirit pet like this, what more could any man want?
How could he ever have considered eating her? What kind of monster was he?
The two girls rolled their eyes. As if anyone believed him.
“Still, we need to prepare properly for tomorrow’s melee elimination round. There are plenty of strong students in the other classes.”
“Xiao Nan, you must not get complacent.”
Jiang Nan grinned. “Don’t worry. When have I ever let anyone down?”
Night fell, and everyone prepared for the next day’s ranking tournament.
The previous year’s seniors were holding their ranking matches on the same day.
Inside the toy house, space was never an issue. Han Menglu would handle everything.
The seniors, however, skipped the melee phase and went straight to one-on-one elimination bouts.
For various reasons, only a little over three hundred of them remained.
The night grew deep.
In the pavilion of the small garden behind the dormitories, nine figures gathered furtively.
Six men and three women. Among them was the hooded, pale-faced Gao Xingyu.
A young man with a trendy perm spoke softly. “Everyone here? No one followed?”
“Relax, Dong ge. No tails.”
“I made excuses back at the dorm and slipped out.”
“I haven’t told a soul in my class. Too risky. We’ll brief them tomorrow morning.”
“I’ve put up an air sound barrier. Dong ge can speak freely.”
Only then did Wang Dong relax. He rubbed his hands together.
“No need for long speeches. The whole point of this meeting is Jiang Nan.”
“We thought South God would still be stuck in America harvesting corn and miss the rankings. Now he’s back, and that ruins everything.”
Xu Qingliu added, “No one can beat that freak one-on-one. A couple of days ago, senior Wei Teng lasted three minutes before going down. We don’t stand a chance alone.”
Gao Xingyu stirred as if to speak, but stayed silent for some reason.
The others chimed in. “To get as many of us as possible through the melee elimination, we have to limit South God. I say we team up.”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Strength in numbers. No matter how strong South God is, he can’t fight the heavens. We’re not pushovers either.”
Wang Dong scanned the group. “Since we’re agreed, let’s make it real. First we take down Class 10. After that, whatever places we earn are down to individual skill.”
Everyone nodded.
Wang Dong pulled a printed joint declaration from his pocket.
“Come on, sign and pledge. Blood oath. Fingerprints. No backstabbing until Class 10 is dealt with.”
“Otherwise we’ll all turn on the traitor. Struck by lightning, and when you have kids they come out with no…”
“Shut it. My hands are freezing. Hurry up.”
They exchanged glances, nodded, bit their fingers, and pressed prints onto the paper.
Wang Dong, who had just pulled out red ink paste, froze.
“Er… how do you write the ‘xie’ in ‘blood oath’ again?”
“Kill with a vertical knife beside it?”
“Get lost. That’s the ‘sha’ in brake.”
“Oh? Really? What if I wrote it wrong? If I cross it out and rewrite, does it still count?”
“Just write pinyin. Fewer strokes.”
Gao Xingyu watched the group bickering over the stone table and felt his face darken.
Could this lot possibly be reliable?
Three minutes later, Wang Dong tucked the contract away, satisfied. “Keep your mouths shut. Don’t let Class 10 find out. We’ll announce the alliance tomorrow morning.”
“Meeting adjourned.”
The pavilion gathering ended quickly. The nine class leaders slipped away into the night.
Meanwhile, Jiang Nan was blissfully unaware, happily bathing Little Dimple in the bathroom and making her smell lovely.
He had no idea the others had held an entire pavilion meeting just to plot against him.
Early the next morning.
Jiang Nan and his group were fully equipped and ready.
Xiong Er carried two blood-red double-bladed battle axes on his back. Wu Liang hefted his shield.
Xia Yao wore her beloved arm and leg guards. Zhong Yingxue had her chain mail on underneath.
The toy house gates opened early. The group was teleported beneath the lighthouse.
The dense forest that once surrounded the lighthouse had been replaced by open flat ground.
A colossal arena built entirely of marble now stood there.
The central competition area spanned thirty thousand metres in every direction.
For Han Menglu, who controlled the toy house core, constructing such a vast arena took only one night.
It was rough, but perfectly serviceable.
This was the real reason the higher-ups valued spirit ruin cores so highly.
Whoever held the core controlled the entire spirit ruin.
Of course, one first had to decipher the curse scripts on the core to perform any operations.
The arena was split into two sections.
The smaller half was for the seniors’ one-on-one ranking matches, which had already begun.
Many seniors not yet called to fight sat in the stands, watching with keen interest.
Mentors and staff had taken their places in the stands.
Even the elderly folk from the nursing home were there, cracking melon seeds. Watching the matches was far more entertaining than morning news.
The twice-yearly ranking tournament was one of the few large-scale events at Pioneer Academy, so it drew huge attention.
All 501 students of Jiang Nan’s year had arrived.
The ten classes formed neat squares. Each class leader stood at the front.
Every student wore a red headband marked with their class number.
Jiang Nan and his classmates wore number 10.
Jiang Nan looked puzzled and glanced at the other nine classes.
For some reason, all morning he had felt people stealing glances at him.
Odd.
Up in the stands, Tao Xinyi and the other nine mentors watched the ten formations below with anticipation.
“Haha. Looks like old Liu won’t keep his top spot this time.”
“Oh? So confident? Come and take it then. I have full faith in my students.”
“I remember Taozi’s class did well in the written test. Third place average, wasn’t it?”
Tao Xinyi gave a modest smile. “Oh, just average. They studied hard, that’s all.”
Yet her grin threatened to spill over.
The other nine mentors looked exasperated. They had only mentioned it in passing, not to praise her.
“Still, Taozi, your class levels are a bit low overall, aren’t they? Most of ours are Gold 5 and above.”
“Exactly. Your highest is Ye Xinghe at Gold 6, right?”
“They came straight from high school, so there’s an age gap. Perfectly normal. With effort this time, you might snag top five, eh, Taozi?”
“Top five is possible. You’ve got standout students like Jiang Nan to pull the average up.”
The mentors smirked. No matter how strong Jiang Nan was, class ranking depended on overall performance.
Tao Xinyi gave a little hum.
Keep laughing at us.
Just wait and see.
She shouted down, “Jiang Nan, jiayou! Class 10, jiayou!”
Jiang Nan looked up at Tao Xinyi and grinned. Was Xinyi sis not just the cutest?
He flashed her an OK hand sign.
The other nine classes watched Jiang Nan’s confident expression and broke into sly smiles.
Sorry, mate.
Today, this arena belongs to us.
Even from the seniors’ side, many eyes turned their way, gleaming with excitement.
“Go for it, little juniors. Win and big sis will buy you sweets.”
“Haha, master, don’t lose. If you do, I’ll lose face too.”
“Melee elimination. Brings back memories.”
“Xiong Er, you’ve got this. Love you!”
One shout drew everyone’s attention.
A little loli in a frilly Lolita dress stood in the stands, waving two pom-poms and cheering wildly for Xiong Er.
The crowd stared at Xiong Er in shock.
No way. Even Xiong Er…
You really are something else.
Xiong Er looked sheepish.
“That… we’re just ordinary friends.”
