Needless to say, the defeat didn't do wonders for the morale of us students in Seven Stars Academy.
Qin Lie looked defiant, though a little ashamed. He had nothing to be ashamed of, in my opinion. He had put up a fierce fight and proven his strength. There was always only going to be one winner, and even though he lost, I felt that he had acquitted himself well. Any student from the Seven Stars Academy was more than welcome to challenge Sha Ren Gui themselves if they thought they could do better than Qin Lie.
Fortunately, no one was that deluded. No one blamed Qin Lie. Rather, they were actually impressed by his courage and shared his frustration. Of course, it didn't help with morale, but at least he tried.
The solution was simple enough, though. We just needed someone from our academy to win a match later, and that would work wonders for everyone's confidence. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure if anyone was bold enough to issue a challenge right after that last match.
