Chapter 1074: Commotion
After Li Luo and vice principal Wu Yu agreed on the bet, Li Luo left with Mentor Chi Chan.
After they were gone, Vice Principal Qing Man took a look at Wu Yu and slowly said, "That Li Luo kid was clearly provoking you earlier. Yet you still fell for it?"
"So what? He's just a little kid. Even if he uses the Bloodline of Heavenly Emperor Li and pretends to be a tiger, he's in the Heavenly Origin Ancient College now. This is not the Dragon's Fang Lineage," Vice Principal Wu Yu calmly responded.
"He's merely a five-pearl. He's daydreaming if he thinks his strength alone is sufficient to snatch a first tier spot from the other teams."
Qing Man grinned when she heard this. "Li Luo is not an ordinary kid. He has already managed to stand out amongst peers like Qin Yi, Zhao Shenjiang, and the other geniuses of his generation. He even left his mark on the Empyrean Chronicle."
"All he did was use external aid," Vice Principal Wu Yu commented. He clearly knew all about Li Luo's accomplishments and did not care.
"I believe Li Luo came prepared. He's very sly; he even knew how to use Pang Qianyuan to infuriate you. He's clearly luring you into his trap." Qing Man could not help but laugh at this point. "Luring a King into a trap. That junior possesses extraordinary charisma."
"Charisma alone will not help him obtain any resources from the Heavenly Origin Ancient College," Vice Principal Wu Yu replied indifferently.
He knew that Li Luo was especially talented and strong. He did not deny those facts. However, that alone was not enough for him to overcome the incoming challenges.
Currently, Li Luo was considered a sage college's Three Star Hall student. His strength was likely at the top amongst those at the same hall, and this did not just apply to the sage colleges, but to the ancient colleges as well. Unfortunately, he wouldn't just be meeting students of the same hall during the academic evaluation—there would be Four Star Hall students from the major sage colleges as well.
In fact, those titled students would be his main obstacles.
Qing Man glanced over at Wu Yu as she said, "It's been so many years already, yet you still can't get past that grudge with Pang Qianyuan. When she learns about what you've done, Lan Lingzi is surely going to come after you when she returns."
Wu Yu frowned and replied, "I'm just following the rules. What can Lan Lingzi say? Besides, his sage college is not the only one that's been destroyed in the past few years."
"Well, you're the vice principal in charge. Whatever you say goes." Vice Principal Qing Man did not want to argue with him any further. Besides, she did not want to be involved with the testy situation between Wu Yu, Pang Qianyuan, and Lan Lingzi.
Wu Yu was fine with this. "The academic evaluation will begin in three days," he said.
Vice Principal Qing Man smiled gently. The timeline had been brought forward. Even though Wu Yu had said that he was not bothered by Li Luo, he clearly did not want to lose the bet. Most importantly, he would have to fork out one more share of cultivation resources from his own pocket if he lost.
With his status, he would not feel much pain over those resources. Although their value was high, someone like him could easily afford them. However... if the resources fell into the hands of the Astral Sage College, it would be akin to helping Pang Qianyuan. This would be unacceptable for Wu Yu.
Vice Principal Qing Man did not comment any further either. She turned around and left.
After she was gone, Wu Yu waved his hands. Elder Wang Ling walked into the hall and greeted him with a bow.
"Spread the news that Li Luo will be representing the Astral Sage College by himself in the academic evaluation. Let them know that he's aiming for a first tier spot. I want every college participating in the evaluation to know about it," Wu Yu ordered casually.
Elder Wang Ling acknowledged him respectfully. This news would surely cause a huge commotion. It was extremely rare to hear of one individual fully representing their sage college for the evaluation. Moreover, Li Luo was aiming for the top placement. What would the teams from the other sage colleges think?
Did he think they were all useless? It would be an especially provocative situation for some of the sage colleges of the inner divine continent. They already had a feeling of superiority when faced with the sage colleges from the outer divine continents. For the past twenty years or so, the first tier spots in the academic evaluation had always been held by sage colleges from the inner divine continent. How could they let this record be tarnished?
As such, Li Luo would surely draw the ire of many once the news spread. When the evaluation began, he would naturally become everyone's common enemy.
As he watched Elder Wang Ling leave the room, Wu Yu slowly rotated the crimson pearls filled with fiery runes in his hand. The pearls lightly knocked against each other, and a terrifying shockwave pulsated across the room, as if two meteorites had collided with each other.
"Since the young brat likes the limelight so much, I'll give him a helping hand."
......
In the outer area of the Heavenly Origin Ancient College.
This was the resting spot for many of the students from the various sage colleges. Naturally, it had become a common ground for them to gather and socialize.
Due to the extremely large numbers of teams from the many sage colleges, there were naturally different circles formed for each group. One was exclusive for the sage colleges from the inner divine continent, clearly viewing themselves as superior to others. They did not interact much with the teams from the outer divine continents. Naturally, the teams from the sage colleges of the outer divine continents similarly formed a circle of their own.
In a district near the lake, the teams from the sage colleges of the East Divine Continent had gathered to exchange pointers. These sage colleges normally viewed each other as rivals, but now that they were all in an unfamiliar land, they'd grown closer to each other.
In one building were many energetic youths who were shouting loudly. The place was bustling with life.
A group of youths was seated beside a window. They all seemed extraordinary, clearly the most dazzling amongst the youngsters in the building.
If Li Luo were present, he would have recognized a few familiar faces.
Jing Taixu, Lu Ming, and Sun Dasheng... They were the ex-One Star Hall rivals he had faced back in the Holy Grail Meet. Now, they had all grown stronger and gotten into the Three Star Hall.
"What the hell! The sage colleges from the inner divine continent are too arrogant. I just wanted to exchange some pointers with them, but they totally ignored me!" a burly-looking strong man with a black metal rod in his hand complained.
This young man had an unruly appearance, and his gaze seemed wild and untamed. It was Sun Dasheng, Li Luo's old rival from the Sacred Summit Sage College.
He was extremely impatient, and he had been asking to exchange pointers with others from the moment he arrived in the Heavenly Origin Ancient College. In a certain sense, he was a martial arts fanatic who lived to battle.
On his side, Lu Ming yawned with one hand supporting her chin. The other hand had lightning dancing across her arm, and amidst the flashes of light, there were images of lightning butterflies waltzing around her fingers.
"It's so obvious that they're ignoring you. You're just asking for it by going to them again and again," Lu Ming said lazily.
"You wouldn't win against them even if you fought them. Why go and embarrass yourself?" the young man wearing a green robe commented indifferently. He leaned against the window and looked out into the lake.
"What did you say?! Jing Taixu!" Sun Dasheng shouted back angrily.
The young man in green was none other than Jing Taixu, the one who had competed with Li Luo for the title of strongest student in the One Star Hall back in the Holy Grail Meet. He took a glance at Sun Dasheng and continued, "After seeing the Heavenly Origin Ancient College with my own eyes, I've finally understood the difference between the inner divine continents and the outer divine continents. It's not like we're any less talented than them, but their strength is one whole level above ours."
"We're clearly considered the elites in the Three Star Halls of our own colleges. However, we've just managed to breakthrough into the Fiend Finisher Tier because we're representing our colleges to fight for more resources. Our Fiend Dipper Energy is barely more than a hundred feet. However, I heard that the elites of the Three Star Halls from the inner divine continent sage colleges have over three hundred feet of Fiend Dipper Energy..."
His words were simple, but his tone seemed a little depressed. He had clearly suffered a setback after interacting with the other teams.
When the others heard what he had said, they fell silent too. This was the cruel and harsh truth that they had to confront.
"Once again, I am afraid the students from the outer divine continents like us have no choice but to collect the leftovers in the academic evaluation," a student from the Four Star Hall said with a bitter smile.
He looked over to another person standing by his side and continued, "Lu Jinci, you're considered the strongest amongst all of us as a seven-pearl. However, I heard that the strongest students from the three inner divine continent sage college have already reached the Lesser Heavenly Resonance Tier. How can we compete with them?"
Hearing this, the student named Lu Jinci shrugged helplessly. "What can we do? Unless that big sister from the Holy Grail Meet comes here, I doubt any of us can put up a fight against them."
At this point, they all knew who he was referring to. It could not have been anyone but Jiang Qing'e, the one who had crushed him in the Holy Grail Meet and obtained the title of the strongest student in the Three Star Hall.
If Jiang Qing'e were around, she should have become the representative of the Four Star Hall.
"Argh, what a pity. I heard that the Astral Sage College has been destroyed. There's no news of Jiang Qing'e and Li Luo either. I doubt they're coming for the evaluation," someone on the side commented.
Everyone's faces turned a bit gloomy. That was not the only sage college in the East Divine Continent that had been destroyed. There had been quite a number of them over the past few years.
"Li Luo..."
Lu Ming sighed softly. An image of the handsome young man appeared in her mind. She wondered if he was still alive or not.
Just as everyone was silently pondering, a commotion came from the lower floor of the building. It continued to spread, and everyone started talking about it.
"What's happening?" Sun Dasheng looked over curiously.
After a while, someone brought the news over to them. His face was full of astonishment as he told them, "It's news regarding the Astral Sage College. They've sent someone over for the academic evaluation, but it's only one guy. He's representing the college alone!"
Lu Jinci, Jing Taixu, Lu Ming, and the rest were shocked to hear this.
"Representing the college alone?!" Lu Jinci's expression changed as he asked, "Could it be Jiang Qing'e? I wonder which stage has she reached. If she's already at the Lesser Heavenly Resonance Tier, it may be possible to do it alone."
But the guy shook his head. His face was still full of surprise.
"It's not Jiang Qing'e, it's Li Luo from the Three Star Hall! Additionally, he's even declared that he'll get a first tier spot!"
Everyone's eyes widened when they heard this. They were all shocked.
"Li Luo?!"
"Participating alone?!"
"And he's going to take a first tier spot?!"
"Is he crazy?!"
One after another, the voices escalated and resounded in the building. The commotion grew even bigger.