I could see the sparks discharging between their gazes. Na Lan Yan Ran's burning eyes against Xia Xing Yue's cold stare. Everyone in the room could feel the tension.
"Yan Ran, what are you doing?"
Na Lan Jie walked into the room, and immediately the tension dissipated. The old man sighed and shook his head. He was accompanied by his son, Na Lan Su, and his other granddaughter, Na Lan Yan Rou.
"Brother Cong! You are all right!" Na Lan Yan Rou sounded cheerful. She then spotted Xia Xing Ling and she smiled. "Xing Ling! You're here too!"
"Yeah."
The two girls exchanged high fives, much to my surprise. They couldn't be more different from their sisters.
"As Mr. Xia Hong Yi has no doubt already told you, we are here to personally thank you." Na Lan Jie lowered his head. "You saved our lives."
"You almost died saving me," Xia Hong Yi added. "I owe you a debt that I can never fully repay. If you were in my generation, we would become sworn brothers."
"Uh…" I wasn't sure how to respond to that, but he was right. He was way too old to become my sworn brother. I would feel uncomfortable with such a relationship.
"How about being my son-in-law instead?"
Na Lan Yan Ran bristled at that, but her grandfather sighed and shook his head. He knew almost as well as I did that his granddaughter had burned all her bridges with me because of her stunts. Her arrogance, condescending attitude, and even what had occurred at the Imperial Valley University…there was no way I would ever look in her direction again.
"Putting discussion of marriage aside, I must apologize for the rudeness my granddaughter displayed toward you. If you want to enroll in Imperial Valley University, please let me know. I will deal with my foolish granddaughter…"
"No need for that. I'm happy staying at Seven Stars Academy." I raised both hands. "Also, it wasn't entirely Na Lan Yan Ran's fault. The students at Imperial Valley University…to put it bluntly, they pissed me off. I'm not setting foot in the same school as them."
"Alas…" Na Lan Jie shook his head and sighed dramatically. "Those fools were so blind. To force a genius like you out in the manner they did…they really have no eyes."
"I'm not a genius," I corrected him.
"Many of the regular students are going to cry if they hear you say that." Na Lan Su sounded amused. I rolled my eyes.
"That's exactly the problem. Instead of wasting their time crying, they should spend all that energy into working harder."
"Ha ha ha! That's so very true!" Na Lan Jie burst out laughing. "I like your attitude, young man! If only more people thought like you!"
"Uh, well…" I trailed off awkwardly and scratched my head. Na Lan Yan Ran sighed and gestured toward her father and grandfather.
"Grandfather, Father, don't forget what we came here for."
"Oh, right. The rewards. As compensation for saving us…you will be paid an extra hundred thousand credits in addition to the rewards you earned from the mission."
"Whoa!" I almost jolted upright. A hundred thousand?! Was he kidding? I had yet to spend the thousands of credits I had accumulated over the last few months, and now I was going to get several dozen times that amount!?
"It's the least you deserve. Honestly, considering that you almost lost your lives protecting ours, it's a pretty cheap reward."
Xia Hong Yi nodded in agreement. "I wish I could offer something more than money, though." he then grinned. "I'll definitely agree to you marrying my daughter."
Na Lan Yan Ran stiffened, but she wisely didn't say anything. She turned away sullenly. Her sister glanced at her and shook her head in exasperation.
"You were the one who blew your chance, Sister," Na Lan Yan Rou whispered acidly. Nobody else heard her except me, and that was only because of Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths. I didn't mean to eavesdrop.
"Well, it's best if we let you rest for now," Na Lan Su said and bowed. "You've only just woken up and you suffered such a grievous wound too. You need more time to recuperate. We shouldn't disturb you."
"Yeah, that's right." Xia Hong Yi nodded in agreement. "But if you need anything, feel free to contact me or Yue Er. We owe you so much."
"Sure."
I watched them file out of the room. Xia Xing Yue, Si Nan and Mu Zi Xing were the last to leave, but my former schoolmate couldn't help but giggle.
"I didn't think I'll get to see such drama in real life," she said before her childhood sweetheart dragged her away.
Once everyone was gone, I breathed a sigh of relief, sank back into bed and fell asleep.
*
It took another day of further checkups and examination before the doctor declared me fit for discharge. Cultivation healing techniques were really amazing. They could bring me back from the brink of death and help me skip several months of recuperation and rehabilitation.
So I returned to Seven Stars Academy, accompanied by Si Nan and Mu Zi Xing. This time, the entire Black Faction showed up, with Zhang Ping and Liu Yu Feng leading their followers to the hospital and almost causing a fuss. They were furious when they weren't allowed into my room at the same time, but fortunately I was discharged shortly after that, so they got to meet me after all.
"You're a hero, boss!" Zhang Ping told me excitedly. "You're all over social media, lauded for saving both the old man of the Na Lan clan and that merchant from the Xia clan!"
"You're now the pride of Seven Stars Academy," Liu Yu Feng added with a smile. "The students from the other academies were praising you for your decisive action…though there were quite a few grumblings of envy."
"Well, they can take my place," I muttered, wincing as I rubbed my tender side. Despite the advanced healing techniques, I still felt a soreness where I had been hit by the sniper round. Was it phantom pain, or my wound just hadn't fully healed? I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter. It had been such a horrendous, messy wound. I swore I saw my guts spilling out before I had passed out. "They wouldn't be as eager if they had experienced the pain that I felt."
Not that I regretted myself in the line of fire – literally – to save the two men, but it wasn't an experience I cared to repeat. Being a hero was fine and all…until you were lying on the ground, suffering excruciating agony and watching your blood and guts spill out all over the floor.
"I've to say, the instructors were in a panic," Mu Zi Xing said with a giggle. "We already lost so many of our top students, and they were worried about what we would do in the tournament in a couple of months if you were to bow out because of your injury."
"Instructor Su Yan told them off, though," Si Nan filled me in. "He said they should be more worried about your wellbeing than the tournament."
"But it's not like we don't understand their concerns, though." Zhang Ping sighed. "We lost boss, uh, I mean our previous boss, and so many students to the Dark Shadow Academy's machinations."
"Have we confirmed that they are the ones responsible for everything?" I asked.
"No." Liu Yu Feng shook her head. "We don't have any hard evidence. And they have been keeping their hands clean after that last attempt by the traitors. Predictably, they denied all involvement and claimed they had no contact with Pang Bai Shan and his Shadow Gang."
Why was I not surprised?
After we reached the academy, we split up to return to our dormitory rooms.
The first thing I did upon returning to my room was open up my laptop. Accessing the school website, I looked through the electronic bulletin board for missions.
As I suspected, there was one mission requesting for the Mystic Fire Fruit. The requester was none other than the Xia clan, and they promised a hefty reward for it. Unfortunately, the Mystical Volcanoes were known to be a highly dangerous region inhabited by powerful spirit beasts, so there weren't any takers.
Not yet, anyway.
I wasn't surprised. Given that even the gifted and coolly confident Xia Xing Yue avoided this mission despite being the one who needed the Mystic Fire Fruit the most, it was unlikely that there would be any students with the courage to take on this task. I wondered if Qin Lie would be willing to take the task with me, but he was like a wild beast, untamable and always disappearing off on his own somewhere. I had no way of contacting him.
Looked like I might have to take this mission myself. I didn't want to bring Si Nan and Mu Zi Xing this time because of how dangerous the Mystical Volcanoes were. If anything happened, I should be able to escape by myself because of my footwork techniques. Unfortunately, I doubted Si Nan and Mu Zi Xing possessed such skills. They would most likely get mauled apart by the warrior-ranked spirit beasts that infested the area.
Salamanders, fire drakes and lava lizards. Not only were they warrior-ranked and amassed in huge numbers, they had the ability to breathe fire. Not exactly an ideal opponent for someone who hadn't reached Earth realm or a healer who hadn't learned many combat techniques. To put it bluntly, they would be a burden this time. Even though Mu Zi Xing had learned life-saving healing techniques, she wouldn't be able to use them if she was killed, and I didn't know if I had the ability to protect both her and Si Nan.
Perhaps if my strength was higher and I could slay dozens of warrior-ranked spirit beasts with ease, then I had the luxury to bring them along. But right now, I was too weak. I was barely able to protect myself (though I technically should be able to escape on my own), never mind my two friends.
Zhang Ping and Liu Yu Feng were a good consideration, but considering that they were only at the early levels of Heaven realm and I had surpassed them just recently, having reached the fifth level of Heaven realm, I wasn't very confident in their abilities. Against small numbers of warrior-ranked spirit beasts, they would be fine. But against the astronomical numbers that inhabited the Mystical Volcanoes? Even a Yellowed Lands realm cultivator like Qin Lie would be hard-pressed to deal with them. Well, I secretly believed Qin Lie would have his own methods. That guy possessed the mysterious Terminator Profound Bombs, and he could probably blow them up.
But Qin Lie was not an option…not unless I was lucky enough to run into him before I left for the mission. I had no idea where he was or how to contact him.
"I guess it's just you and me, Magic Carp."
"Carp?"
My spirit beast partner stared at me with wide, unblinking eyes. I wondered if he understood the magnitude of danger we were going in. if he did, he probably wouldn't agree so readily. Then again, he was completely loyal to the point he had total faith in whatever decisions I made, and would obey me unquestioningly. I felt guilty making use of him in this manner.
But perhaps this trip would be super beneficial to him as well.
Steeling my resolve, I signed up for the mission before rising from my desk to pack up and prepare for this mission.
Fortunately, I had just received a hundred thousand credits from the Na Lan clan and Xia clan. I had best put such a massive sum of money to good use, buy life-saving equipment that could help me escape in a pinch or perhaps swing the balance of an inevitable battle against spirit beasts to my favor. This wasn't the time to be stingy.
"Time to stock up on protective talismans and armor…"
Shutting down my computer, I then turned to leave for the armament store, Seven Stars branch.