"How is it… is it successful?" Gao Ren could not contain his excitement and asked immediately after he had set the fire.
"Rest assured. When I, the family head, do things…" Ren Jie started saying when his divine sense noticed a few strong auras rushing towards him, then he hurriedly pulled Gao Ren and hid in a discrete corner. After that, they saw two silhouettes with residual shadows rushing towards Fang Qi's place traveling more than ten meters with a single leap.
Others had arrived at the area and Ren Jie immediately signaled for them to keep quiet as he and Gao Ren headed to a discreet spot. The good thing was that there were many bushes and trees around the lake and it was in the night time as well. Hence, everyone's attention was directed to the fire. Nobody had noticed that the two of them had silently left.
The minute they returned to their living quarters the fatty immediately gulped down mouthfuls of tea and heaved a sigh of relief as he patted his chest. This was too nerve-wreaking, too exhilarating.
Ren Jie did not feel anything, but he did find it strange. If this had occurred in the previous generation it would have been unimaginable. It seemed like transmigrating and raising his realm had greatly strengthened his internal state.
"What are we going to do? Shall we find someone to sell the antidote? The Fangs are probably unable to find anyone to cure the poison now, but they have brilliant Apothecaries in their family too, who will probably be able to tell that they will have to use a powerful elixir to forcefully eliminate the toxin since only the person who poisoned her will know its variations. There are over a hundred variations, and making a mistake in any one of them will be fatal." Even though Gao Ren had helped Ren Jie plot previously and often got into fights with other rich men's children outside, he still sounded like he had much experience, as though he had been through a lot.
Looking at Gao Ren's reaction, Ren Jie had to hold in his laughter. Gao Ren was acting just like someone who had had their first fight and was excitedly reliving it. In his memory, Gao Ren had boasted that he had been hanging around for some time, and only the Ren Jie of the past would believe that he was really someone who had been through it all.
Still, he had to say that Gao Ren was an absolute genius for reaching the level of a top-tier Apothecary at his age. It was hard to find someone like that in the whole of the Jade Capital, much less in the Jade Imperial Academy.
And the fact that someone like that was willing to follow after Ren Jie gave him a pleasant surprise and made him feel as though he was incredibly charismatic. Thus, he did not think much about the rest. Gao Ren was a genius in terms of food, medicines and spending money, but none of his boasting was credible at all. He was clearly not someone who had been through it all.
"Why would we look for someone else? What's there to hide?" Ren Jie said directly. "I'm the Ren family head. As long as I'm not caught red-handed, there's nothing we need to care about. This is such a good opportunity, why wouldn't we go for it ourselves? It doesn't mean anything even if you know certain things sometimes, so just wait to count the money."
Even though he was not completely in power yet, but when he thought about the time he had an argument with Ren Junyang and the rest it made him understand one thing. It was that making use of his title was important. He was the Ren family head, after all. This was something that nobody took notice of, nor did Ren Jie himself cared much about. After all, he was not in power yet. Hence, nobody took this family head seriously. But now, things were different.
Gao Ren was slightly shocked when he heard this. He had grown used to Ren Jie being a typical spoilt rich child after interacting for a year. He had completely forgotten about the fact that he was the family head. He was completely disregarded by the students of the Jade Imperial Academy and even his allowance was controlled by the Elders, what more the other family clans in the Jade Capital…
Gao Ren was very taken aback when he heard such bold words. Was this really the Ren Jie who trembled when he had to listen to the Elders' meeting? However, just as he wanted to question him, Ren Jie had already gone up to rest.
When he returned to his room Ren Jie immediately started practicing the Jade Emperor Refinement Technique, condensing the vigor in his body to form new Vigor rings. This was because he knew that it would difficult for him to go into confinement in order to cultivate in the future. As his strength increased, so would the amount of time needed for him to cultivate. The amount of time needed for him to form 144 Vigor rings was already astounding, and from what Gao Ren said, he needed to return to the Jade Capital in a couple of days.
As the family head, even though he was seen as merely a puppet by others, he still held the official title and had to attend to many matters. He had to attend a banquet at the palace in a few day's time, but Gao Ren was not too sure what was it about either.
Due to this reason, Ren Jie knew that he had to incorporate his cultivation into his everyday life. That was the good thing about the Jade Emperor Refinement Technique. Once the Vigor rings were formed and had created a specific restraining effect, his body would always seem to exist in a different state of gravity so that he could cultivate any time of the day.
Even though Ren Jie was more well-practiced with his cultivation now, he still spent an entire night to condense 86 Vigor rings. He had planned to complete all 144 Vigor rings at one go, but somebody from the school had come to announce that all the Year Ones had to attend a major examination or they would not be able to continue on to Year Two.
The message bearer specifically emphasized that this was something the principal had personally reminded him to mention. The intention in his words was clear. The Jade Imperial Academy was formed by the five major family clans with the royal family as the head, and as a direct descendant of one of the five major family clans, he did not have to worry about being expelled. However, if he did not meet certain basic requirements, then he was still at risk of being retained.
Hence, Ren Jie dragged the reluctant Gao Ren along early in the morning to the class. But just as they had left, they started looking around questioningly.
"Hey boss, it seems like we're… in the wrong place?" Gao Ren was convinced that it was not because they were early as he stared at the empty house. It must be because they had set off much later than the announcement had arrived.
"I remember coming here once when school started. It should be here." Ren Jie had complete faith in his memory. In it, he had only been here once and it should be this place.
"That was nearly a year ago and it was after we finished drinking too, I've completely forgotten about it. What are we going to do?" Gao Ren had completely forgotten everything, but he was clearly not too bothered about promoting. "Ah, I'm so tired, I spent the whole night coming up with the antidote for the Multi Hallucinations poison and haven't slept since. Why don't we just go back? After all, it's not too bad to just keep staying in the first year. Don't you want to stay with the freshman girls forever?"
"I just finished arguing with the Second Elder. If I'm unable to promote, wouldn't they use this against me? Also, don't you want to find out about what happened yesterday?" This was nothing to Ren Jie, who simply grabbed someone and asked them where their classroom was at.
They were all at the spacious fighting arena as all the Year Ones had gathered. This was one of the three fighting arenas in the academy. The Clear Jade Dynasty prized fighting abilities and, while the Jade Imperial Academy was also nicknamed the Academy for the Pampered, it mostly referred to their background or to the minority like Ren Jie who fooled around all day. The rest were all pretty hardworking, including the royal children, the direct descendants of the major family clans, and the disciples of the powerful forces. All of them tried their best to improve themselves and expand their social network in the Jade Imperial Academy.
This fighting arena could accommodate more than 5,000 people, but this was not the largest fighting arena in the Jade Imperial Academy. The largest one was one of the three biggest ones in Jade Capital and could accommodate more than 10,000 people.
"We'll end here for today. Those that did not make it today will be retained. The rest of you should start preparing for the final examination one month later. If you don't pass that exam you'll be retained as well…" The form teacher of the first class of the first years stood in the center of the fighting arena and spoke, enunciating every word clearly so that everyone could understand him well.
The whole fighting arena was quiet and the students were even controlling their breathing so they could fully concentrate on the class.
"Here, here…" Ren Jie and Gao Ren entered just then and Tie Ta immediately cracked a grin when he saw them; he was amused that these two only came when this whole thing was ending. He waved his hand and whispered for them to hurry over quietly, but his voice was much louder than everyone else and thus made no difference.
"Shh!" A few hundred students in the surrounding area looked over at Tie Ta. Good heavens, who would dare talk when Teacher Li Jun was speaking. It was one thing to talk when the principal or the vice principal was speaking, but if they did so when Teacher Li Jun was speaking they would immediately be dealt with ten times the normal amount of training. Some students were even expelled before they even finished their punishment.
Tie Ta's father was a Lieutenant General, and while he commanded the smaller troops he was still a Lieutenant General who commanded over 10,000 men. However, with such a status, he would be lucky to even get into the 16th class out of a total of 20 without taking into account any talent in runes, array formation, medicines or equipment.
If not because he was especially talented, he would at most be able to attend the Jade Imperial Academy and would not have been able to be in the 5th class like he was now. The students in the first 10 classes all received different resources from the school according to their class and were also exposed to different social circles. Many people tried to get into the Jade Imperial Academy because they wanted their children to be able to build their own social network and better their future apart from learning.
However, Tie Ta's father used to serve Ren Tianxing. So, even though he was only a small captain of the personal guards, he was a close relative of the Rens. Just as he was about to enter the academy he was ordered by his father to visit the Rens, and that was also when Ren Tianxing had unexpectedly come home to pass the position of family head to Ren Jie. Hence, after meeting Tie Ta once, Tie Ta was able to enter the 5th class with just a few words from Ren Tianxing.
Hence, no matter what anyone thought, Tie Ta stood by his father's words to always remain by Ren Jie's side.
"What did I just announce, when I'm speaking…" The fighting arena of 5,000 people was quite sizeable, but given Li Jun's cultivation, he was able to hear everything. So, he frowned the second Tie Ta opened his mouth to speak even though he had lowered his voice.
The one thing that everyone at the Jade Imperial Academy knew was that the teacher of the 1st class was usually from the royal family, so as to be able to contain the pampered kids. Li Jun could be considered the Emperor's cousin and was originally called Li Haijun, but as the Emperor's name contained the character "Hai", he changed his name to Li Jun.
The Jade Imperial Academy had students from Year One to Year Three and, apart from the special classes, the teacher of the 1st class was also the in-charge of all the other teachers aside from the principal and vice-principal. Ren Jie immediately recalled something about this Li Jun—he was famous for being strict.
Oh no, Tie Ta would be in trouble if he continued speaking.
"Bravo! Teacher, your words are brilliant. Teacher Li Jun is the best, such great words!" Clap, clap, clap. The entire fighting arena was silent as everyone listened. Even the princes and disciples of the five major family clans would not dare do this at the fighting arena, but when Ren Jie shouted bravo, everyone was still drawn to him. And when he started clapping, many remained in shock.
"What are you looking at? Don't you think that the teacher is right? Clap!" Ren Jie ignored them and merely clapped enthusiastically.
This was going overboard. Gao Ren looked at him and started clapping too. The clapping was contagious. As most people were still wondering what was going on, they also started clapping when they heard Ren Jie shouting bravo. Soon, the whole fighting arena was filled with the sound of clapping and many people had thought that this was the end as they joined in on singing the teacher's praises.
"Bravo. Such great words Teacher Li, bravo indeed."
"We'll definitely work hard to achieve stellar results in the final examination."
"We will do the academy proud, do our year proud, and also do Teacher Li proud…"