Chapter 4874 — Thunder Academy
Wei Zhao had no interest in gawking. True, if he lingered like the other spectators he might, in the end, find a chance to scavenge some scraps—after all, once the two sides came to blows, mutual ruin was a real possibility. But rather than pin his hopes on others, Wei Zhao preferred to keep his chances in his own hands.
He quickly changed his mind, however. When his spiritual sense swept over the crowd, he was startled to pick out several familiar faces among the two groups ahead. One of them was a woman with her face veiled, but that figure, that bearing—without a doubt, it was Huo Yudie!
He had been searching for her by every means at his disposal and found nothing; who would have thought a stroke of luck would drop into his lap like this?
Wei Zhao studied the situation on both sides and realized this was not the two-academy clash he had imagined. Ahead of them stood three academies in all—Morning Pride Academy and Soaring Cloud Academy among them—and those two stood in the same camp, facing off against a third academy together.
Two against one! What astonished Wei Zhao even more was that Morning Pride and Soaring Cloud combined mustered over seventy people, and the academy standing opposite them was not a single soul fewer!
As everyone knew, Nascent Soul Great Perfection experts were the cream of the crop at Yellow-Rank academies; the more of them a force had, the stronger it was. For Morning Star Academy to suddenly produce more than thirty Nascent Soul Great Perfection fighters had already struck Wei Zhao as absurd enough.
On any of the other Cloud-Rank islands, that would have been an enormous power. Wei Zhao even doubted whether the entire Threefold Pavilion of the North Island could boast so many Nascent Soul Great Perfection experts. After all, Nascent Soul cultivators were already qualified to serve as elders, and while the North Island's Threefold Pavilion was not weak by any measure, it had not yet sunk to the point where Nascent Souls walked the streets and elders were worth less than dogs.
Yet this unknown academy had produced more than seventy Nascent Soul Great Perfection experts at a stroke—fully twice the number of an ordinary academy. That level of strength was simply outrageous!
At the sight, Wei Zhao finally understood. No wonder those onlookers did not dare take a single step closer. And with so many vacant tribulation points lying around, no wonder no one dared fish in troubled waters—to sneak a hand in would be to offend all three academies at once, which would be even worse.
It was true that the tribulation points were protected by defensive arrays. But what came after? Once those three academies marked you, what did it matter if you succeeded in your charge to the Mystic Ascension stage? Those who fished in troubled waters were bound to come to a bad end.
"What is it?" Seeing Wei Zhao stop again, Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao beside him could not help but wonder.
The other Morning Star disciples behind them were equally baffled. They were sensible people; they knew that waiting here would yield little advantage. With so many people jammed in this spot rubbernecking, the smart move was to slip around quickly and seize the lead.
"That bunch facing off against Morning Pride and Soaring Cloud over there—which academy are they?" Wei Zhao asked.
To make identification easier, the disciples who came to this trial did not wear uniform academy robes, but each bore their academy's emblem on the shoulder or arm. The emblems carried no full academy name, however. Wei Zhao recognized only the marks of Morning Pride, Soaring Cloud, and Morning Star; the rest he knew nothing about.
"I don't know either..." Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao exchanged a glance and shook their heads. Neither of them had been in the East Continent long, and most of their time had been spent in quiet cultivation under the Divine Nun of the East Sea. Ears shut to the world outside, they knew a little of Morning Star Academy's affairs but next to nothing about the other academies.
"That one I know!" Lu Xiaozhong, trailing right behind the three of them, hurried over at these words, his face alight with the look of someone about to show off a treasure. "That academy's emblem—little Lu here knows it way too well. I even got in a fight with their people once, and on their home ground, no less!"
At that, everyone turned to stare. This fellow was something else—picking a fight on another academy's home turf and living to tell the tale? He must have the devil's own luck!
"That one was a close call. Lucky our Old Lu got there in time and dragged little Lu out from under their blades with all the strength he had, or I'd have been a goner. Tsk, tsk. Just thinking about it gives me the shivers!" Lu Xiaozhong recounted with a face full of excitement.
This time even Wei Zhao could not help rolling his eyes. With that eager, itching-for-another-round look on your face, you call that the shivers? From the look of you, you are dying for a rematch!
"You still haven't said which academy that is," Wei Zhao had to ask again.
"Oh, they're disciples of Thunder Academy. Their emblem's easy to recognize—three lightning bolts on a thunder pillar. A bunch of idiots just begging to be struck by lightning, that's what they are. Whoever designed that emblem must have been struck by lightning himself, haha!" Lu Xiaozhong said, cracking himself up.
"Thunder Academy?" Wei Zhao paused. Then it struck him that this place was called Thunder Plain Island, and this stretch of sea was called the Thunder East Sea. His heart stirred. "Could this be their home ground?"
"Half a home ground, I'd say. Thunder City sits in this Thunder East Sea, not far from Thunder Plain Island, by the look of it. That's where the headquarters of the East Continent's Yellow-Rank Academy Alliance is, one of the foremost cities in the Yellow-Rank Sea, and Thunder Academy is one of the largest Yellow-Rank academies," Lu Xiaozhong explained.
"So that's how it is!" Wei Zhao nodded in understanding. No wonder they had the nerve to take on two at once—one of the largest Yellow-Rank academies. Their foundations truly ran deep!
"Heh, riding on their academy's reputation, those Thunder Academy fools are downright overbearing! That time little Lu here tagged along with Old Lu to Thunder City for the excitement, and all I wanted was to buy a Gestation Golden Core. They ganged up on me just because they had the numbers. Was little Lu here going to take that lying down? I went at them on the spot. But the more I fought, the more of them there were, and I nearly died right there..." Lu Xiaozhong said with a chuckle.
Everyone was speechless. You picked a fight in Thunder City—of course the more you fought, the more of them there were! Any passerby you ran into might be somebody's relative or friend!
"They came at you just for buying a Gestation Golden Core? That's a bit too overbearing, isn't it?" Wei Zhao could not help frowning either. He had heard that sixth- and seventh-grade pills could only be sold to East Continent locals, but never that they could only be sold to the academy's own city. Such a trade barrier was far too much, far too overbearing.
No wonder they had come into conflict with Morning Pride and Soaring Cloud here. Such a domineering manner was bound to stir up trouble wherever it went. Which disciple of an East Continent academy was not proud and hot-blooded? Even if this was half their home ground, there would always be some who refused to bow their heads—it would be a wonder if there were no conflict at all. (To be continued.)