The entrance was occupied by a male and a female cultivator; Ning Cheng had already reached the third level of Gathering Qi, and he could instantly tell that the male cultivator was at the fourth level and the female at the third. The male had a tall figure and decent appearance, but his narrow eyes somehow made his impressive stature seem superfluous.
"Are you the janitor here in charge of cleaning the training rooms?" The woman saw that Ning Cheng possessed a mere first level of Gathering Qi and contempt flickered in the corner of her eyes.
Ning Cheng was already planning on leaving this place. Whatever happened with Old Mu was of no concern to him. But unexpectedly, as he was about to leave, someone kicked the door.
"What right do you have to kick my door?" Ning Cheng didn't answer the question from the female cultivator and asked directly instead.
The male with the narrow eyes stepped forward upon seeing Ning Cheng dare to talk back to them, "What's the matter, you got a problem with me kicking your door? Not only am I going to kick your door today, but I'll also slap your face. What can you do about it..."
He hadn't finished speaking when his palm was already raised.
"What great audacity," a chilly voice came, and the hand of the man with narrow eyes was forcibly frozen in mid-air.
Ning Cheng had seen the male cultivator attempt to make a move and was prepared to react, but to his surprise, someone spoke up first. Now he saw who had spoken; it was a woman who had just come out of a practice room. Her voice was as cold as her expressionless face.
If it were a contest of looks, she in no way fell short of Jian Suojie. What astounded Ning Cheng was not her beauty, but her cultivation level, which had already reached the sixth level of Gathering Qi.
"Zhuang Sister," the male cultivator with narrow eyes recognized the woman who had spoken and hurriedly clasped his fists in greeting while the female cultivator at his side quickly stepped forward to pay her respects as well.
The woman referred to as Zhuang Sister snorted coldly and turned to leave, but as she turned, she saw Ning Cheng. She stopped as if to reconsider, and then approached with a frown, "You are Ning Cheng? Ji Luofei's fiancé?"
"I am Ning Cheng," he replied without pretense or subservience as he clasped his fists. "I've seen Sister Zhuang."
Seeing that Zhuang Sister actually knew Ning Cheng, the male cultivator with the narrow eyes quickly chimed in again, "Sister Zhuang, one of my sound stones fell in the practice room, I had left not long ago and came back to look for it, but I didn't find it. On the seventh floor, other than this janitor..."
Before the male with narrow eyes could finish, Sister Zhuang cut him off, "Lu Pengyun, you are aware of Ning Cheng's identity, right? The Falling Star Five Stars Academy will soon be coming to the Cang Qin Two Stars Academy to recruit ten disciples, and the selection is about to begin. Gu Yiming will definitely return. Gu Fei thought Ji Luofei was easy to bully, but had the tables turned on him instead and was injured by her. Once Gu Yiming returns, Ji Luofei will surely not escape, so you all came here to teach Ning Cheng a lesson and then take him away to humiliate Ji Luofei."
The cultivator named Lu Pengyun's face fluctuated between shades of green and white, then straightforwardly said, "Sister Zhuang, both you and Brother Gu are people I respect. Brother Gu has already returned, and since Ji Luofei seriously injured Gu Fei, Brother Gu will definitely not let it go."
"So, you want me to not meddle and let you take Ning Cheng away?" Sister Zhuang said indifferently.
The male cultivator clasped his fists and stopped speaking, evidently confirming Sister Zhuang's guess as their very thoughts.
"Scram, and don't let me see you again in Daan Forest or the Mango Sea Area, or I will kill you." Sister Zhuang's words were biting cold, and upon hearing them, the two cultivators changed their expressions. They hadn't expected Sister Zhuang to dismiss even Gu Yiming's face.
However, they dared not linger any longer, quickly turning and scurrying down the stairs.
"Take good care of yourself." After the two had descended, Sister Zhuang stared at Ning Cheng emotionlessly and left him with these words.
Ning Cheng felt truly sullen; being rescued by two women was making him uncomfortable. Now, both Jian Suojie and this Sister Zhuang had left him with the words "take good care of yourself."
Seeing Sister Zhuang about to leave, Ning Cheng quickly called out to her, "Thank you for your help, Sister Zhuang. I would also like to inquire what exactly happened between Luo Fei and that Gu Fei?"
Sister Zhuang turned and gave Ning Cheng a direct gaze before answering with a non-sequitur, "You are not worthy of Ji Luofei."
After saying that, she didn't wait for another word from Ning Cheng and turned to walk away.
Ning Cheng, worried since Ji Luofei hadn't come to look for him in over ten days, hurried after her, earnestly asking, "Sister Zhuang, please tell me how Luo Fei got hurt by Gu Fei. I would be extremely grateful."
Sister Zhuang stopped and gave Ning Cheng a sweep of her eyes before finally speaking, "Ji Luofei fought ten battles in the Cauldron Arena and won a Gathering Qi stone. Seeing Ji Luofei exhausted after ten battles and without friends to accompany her, Gu Fei took the initiative to challenge her, wagering a Gathering Qi stone. Under the pressure of the arena, Ji Luofei had no choice but to fight. Running out of true qi, she was seriously injured by Gu Fei. Yet, Gu Fei underestimated her, and ended up even more severely injured..."
She paused for a moment, then looked at Ning Cheng again, "If I'm not mistaken, the Gathering Qi stone Ji Luofei won should have been used by you, that's why you've advanced to the first level of Gathering Qi."
Ning Cheng didn't refute the statement. The Gathering Qi Stone that Ji Luofei had given him was indeed for him, but he hadn't used it yet and had kept it with him the whole time. His advancement to Gathering Qi Level 1 had nothing to do with Ji Luofei's Gathering Qi Stone.
"Sister Zhuang, you said that Gu Yiming is Gu Fei's brother and that he would seek revenge from Luo Fei after he came back?" Ning Cheng asked again.
Sister Zhuang did not directly answer Ning Cheng's question and spoke of her own accord, "After Ji Luofei defeated Gu Fei, she won another Gathering Qi Stone but didn't kill him despite her severe injuries and lack of company. An official from the fighting pits forcefully demanded that Ji Luofei leave behind one of the two Gathering Qi Stones."
"Why?" Ning Cheng didn't notice that his voice had suddenly grown louder.
Sister Zhuang spoke in a gentle tone, "Because after Ji Luofei completed ten matches, her battles had ended. Gu Fei's challenge was an unexpected duel, and the official from the fighting pits demanded a venue fee."
"A venue fee for a duel is a Gathering Qi Stone? And it was the fighting pits that forcefully requested Luo Fei to fight an extra match?" Ning Cheng felt a flame burning in his heart; this was simply too much to bear. He could even imagine Ji Luofei's helplessness at that time.
Sister Zhuang's tone was even more indifferent as she said, "Once Gu Yiming returns, he will surely find an excuse to kill Ji Luofei. If you want to live, leaving here sooner rather than later won't do you any harm."
After saying this, Sister Zhuang quickened her pace and disappeared at the stairwell.
Ning Cheng calmed the fury in his heart and this time didn't exit through the side door. He was about to leave the Cang Qin Two-Star Academy, and he wouldn't care if he offended anyone.
When Ning Cheng first followed Ji Luofei to the third level of the cultivation tower, there were many people there; today, as he again approached the third level, he found only a few people who were also hurriedly going down the stairs.
"You're not cleaning the seventh level's cultivation room, what are you coming down for?" Just as Ning Cheng was about to go down from the third level, Mu Lao's abrupt voice rang in Ning Cheng's ears. Ning Cheng was startled; he clearly saw that Mu Lao's stone chamber door was closed, so how did it open in the blink of an eye?
Ning Cheng immediately reacted and quickly stopped and bowed in response, "I wanted to go see what the commotion was about."
He didn't know what had happened, but since the people from the cultivation tower had all gone out and only those going out were seen, with none coming in, Ning Cheng inferred that something must have happened.
"You have some guts," Mu Lao said coldly. After the comment, he surprisingly didn't say more but returned to his stone chamber, and the door to his chamber closed behind him.
Ning Cheng broke out in a cold sweat; he didn't know what Mu Lao meant by saying he had guts. Was it because he left his post without permission, or because he used the main staircase? Whichever it was, Mu Lao had said only that much and didn't go further, which startled Ning Cheng and made him feel even more uneasy.
Fortunately, Ning Cheng immediately reminded himself that he wouldn't be staying here long, which somewhat settled his mind. Once he left, he would find Ji Luofei and then leave this place.
After walking out of the cultivation tower, Ning Cheng finally learned that there was indeed a big commotion to be seen. Many students from the Cang Qin Academy were flocking in the same direction. Ning Cheng stopped a male student who was also at Gathering Qi Level 1 and asked, "Excuse me, where is everyone going?"
The Gathering Qi Level 1 male student looked at Ning Cheng with a puzzled expression and asked, "Aren't you from the Cang Qin Academy?"
"Of course I am; I just emerged from closed-door cultivation, so I'm not quite up to date," Ning Cheng said confidently.
The Gathering Qi Level 1 male student glanced at Ning Cheng skeptically, hardly believing that someone at Gathering Qi Level 1 would have been in closed-door cultivation. Nonetheless, he replied, "The Huazhou Falling Star Five-Star Academy has come to our academy to select ten students. Today is the start of the selection competition. How could it be not lively?"
"Then the competition must be fierce?" Ning Cheng knew about this; when he and Ji Luofei had first entered the Cang Qin Two-Star Academy, they had heard the announcement over the broadcast, and Sister Zhuang had also mentioned it not long ago.
"Fierce? Our Cang Qin Two-Star Academy is teeming with talent, with countless genius disciples. The Huazhou Falling Star Five-Star Academy is selecting only ten, so you tell me if it's fierce. Brother Qiu Yingguang, Sister Jian Suje, Brother Hou Chuan, Sister Zhuang Tianya... Just to name a few, there are more than ten already," another Gathering Qi Level 1 student overheard and immediately interjected.
Ning Cheng, posing as a fellow student from the academy, shook his head with a sigh and said, "Ah, it would have been great if the Falling Star Five-Star Academy could recruit a few more from our academy."
The student Ning Cheng had stopped looked at him incredulously and said, "Don't you know how these ten spots came about? Previously, even if students from our Cang Qin Two-Star Academy wanted to go to the Falling Star Five-Star Academy, they had to go on their own, and only one or two were chosen at most. The reason why the Falling Star Five-Star Academy is actively selecting this time is because Lian Haoyan, the number one powerhouse of Ping Zhou, made great contributions to the tri-state war effort. That's why we got this treatment."
"Of course, Brother Lian Haoyan's cultivation reaches the heavens; I heard he's already in the Mysterious Dan Realm. After his achievements, the first thing he requested was for the Huazhou Falling Star Five-Star Academy to recruit ten students from all Two-Star academies or higher in Ping Zhou. Otherwise, it would indeed be difficult for our Cang Qin Academy to secure ten spots, let alone for teachers from the Falling Star Five-Star Academy to personally come and select students," the latter Gathering Qi Level 1 student heard and immediately chimed in agreement.
(Here comes the first update. I kindly request my book friends to collect this and support the new book with your collections and recommendation tickets!)
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