Chapter 25: Chapter 25 - Approval Exam: Part 1
The exam locations resembled large coliseums. The area for the apprentice fighters was a circular zone with sections for evaluators and teachers. In the center, the noise of voices was so loud that many ended up with headaches and ringing in their ears, as if it were a sonic explosion.
At the center of this large gathering of students stood Zhu Xiangju, arms crossed and a confident smile on his face. Next to him, now a head shorter than Xiangju, were Du Ze and Zhang Ming.
The people around paid special attention to them. There wasn't a student who didn't know about the bet Xiangju made with his teacher Shen Xiu. Many were just excited to see Xiangju embarrass himself in front of an entire community, while others had high hopes that he would actually succeed. If he did, it would show that nothing is impossible, that even the mediocre can achieve anything if they work hard.
Xiangju was excitedly looking through the crowd, jumping a bit to see over the heads of all those people, despite being taller than most.
Du Ze looked at Xiangju with a frown.
"What are you doing, Xiangju?" Du Ze asked.
"I was going to ask the same thing. Who are you looking for?" Ming added.
"The others, but mainly Ning'er, of course."
"You're smitten with the goddess, huh? How cheeky." Ming teased Xiangju, and Du Ze laughed at this.
Xiangju rolled his eyes.
"I'm not smitten with her; she's my future wife, that's all." Xiangju said while still scanning the crowd.
"And has she agreed to this?" Du Ze teased, making Ming laugh.
"She will today." Xiangju responded quickly, surprising the two boys. When they were about to ask how he was so sure of something like that, Xiangju fixed his gaze in one direction and opened a big smile.
"Found her!" He exclaimed, cutting through the crowd until he stood face to face with Xiao Ning'er.
She wore a pink silk dress with white details that reached down to her thighs. A silver belt at her waist separated the top and bottom parts of the dress. She wore sportswear covering her legs up to her knees, and her shoes were sophisticated pink ballet flats. Her hair was more polished than usual, her usual bangs more aligned with the rest of her hair, giving her a more elegant look. Her hair was still tied in a ponytail, now braided with small white flowers decorating it.
When Xiangju laid eyes on her, his heart almost stopped. Even though Xiangju had thought Ning'er was pretty since the time he read the TDG manhwa, he had never seen her look so beautiful. She had never been so well-dressed as she was at this moment.
Ning'er, who was standing with an excited expression, quickly became embarrassed. Xiangju looked at her with eyes that seemed to shine, glitter.
"Aren't you going to say anything about how I look?" The girl finally said, since the boy had been unable to say anything for over a minute.
"You look…"
He pronounced slowly, unable to find any word in his vocabulary that could describe the magnitude of that beauty. The boys around looked at Ning'er with lascivious eyes. At that moment, there was truly no one prettier than her; it was as if everyone had gathered not for the exam but to admire her.
"You look damn hot." A male voice called their attention.
Shen Fei appeared behind Ning'er, placing his arm on her shoulder in a typical couple's pose, which disgusted Ning'er and made Xiangju furious.
"Please don't touch me like that, Shen Fei." Ning'er said, removing Shen Fei's arm from her shoulder and moving away from him, standing next to Xiangju.
"Look at that, isn't this bitch really showing her claws? I heard your shitty family wants to break off the engagement hahaha, do you really think I'm going to let that happen?"
Shen Fei's group laughed, mocking Ning'er.
Ning'er became very angry, she was about to say something, but Xiangju put his arm in front of her and spat words at Shen Fei.
"What the hell do you want, you scoundrel?"
"Oh come on, Xiangju, I just came to say hi to you guys. Do you want to stop me from talking to MY fiancée?" Shen Fei said with a malicious smile while looking at Ning'er.
"I AM NOT YOUR FIANCÉE! I never recognized you as such!" The girl was no longer afraid of what might happen. She wouldn't back down, she wouldn't try to hide or run away from it. She would face her problems head-on, just like Xiangju.
"Shut the fuck up, Ning'er. Didn't you realize I wasn't talking to you?" Shen Fei arrogantly said to the girl.
"If you speak like that again, I'll knock all your teeth out, Shen Fei!" Xiangju threatened the boy, shocking the forming crowd. How could Xiangju, a mere student from the fighter class, dare speak to a great demon spiritualist from the Sacred Family like that?
Shen Fei's face darkened as he slowly walked up to Xiangju, who didn't back down a single step, and the two were soon face to face.
Ning'er was nervous. She pulled Xiangju's arm to drag him away, but he didn't budge, like a tree rooted to the ground.
"DU ZE! ZHANG MING!" Xiangju shouted.
The two boys quickly pushed through the crowd and saw the whole scene. Both being very perceptive, they understood the situation immediately.
"Called your buddies to try and face me? You're brave." Shen Fei said with a mocking smile.
"Keep Ning'er away, don't let her see what happens here." Xiangju turned to them and said. The boys, seeing how desperately the girl was trying to push Xiangju away, simply obeyed.
The girl began to struggle and try to free herself from them, but their strength was more than enough to restrain her completely.
"Just don't do anything reckless." Du Ze said, looking worriedly at Xiangju. The boy nodded.
"I forgot, you're not brave, you're just stupid." Shen Fei provoked Xiangju, but the boy wasn't upset by the insults against himself. He was furious at how Shen Fei had treated Ning'er.
'The duty of a leader is to fight for his companions.' That's what he thought.
"You're putting on quite a show here, trash. Do you really want to be humiliated in front of all these people? I just came here to say hi to my concubine."
Again, the words infuriated Xiangju to the point where he could barely contain himself, having to bite his lip to avoid punching Shen Fei right then.
"For everyone to know…" Xiangju began to speak to the crowd.
"Shen Fei and I will be competing in the Sacred Family's genius tournament, one-on-one, the final match. I hope all of you will be there when I drag this guy's face through the mud." Xiangju said to everyone. Many were very excited, rumors spread, and worried murmurs were heard. They didn't know how strong Xiangju was, but it was obvious Shen Fei was more powerful. It would be a losing battle from the start.
"Don't forget the best part, trash. The loser will do everything the winner says, absolute loyalty."
"I'll make you my servant until your life ends." Xiangju said seriously.
"And I'll make you watch every night as I play with MY fiancée."
That phrase was the last straw for Xiangju; he couldn't control himself anymore.
He concentrated all his strength in his fist and threw it with all his might at Shen Fei. The boy from the Sacred Family, smiling, did the same.
BOOOOOM
A cloud of dust rose; it was obvious Xiangju was dead.
People lamented, Ning'er screamed and cried desperately, Du Ze was paralyzed, unable to say anything, unable to react, Ming's arms and legs weakened, almost collapsing.
But when the dust settled, a singular scene unfolded.
Instead of Xiangju or Shen Fei lying on the ground, both were still standing with their fists ready, but instead of their attacks colliding with full force, a boy with purple hair and light gray with lilac clothes was holding their fists, one in each hand.
Shen Fei's face darkened when he saw the boy. Xiangju, surprisingly, didn't recognize him, but that purple hair…
"Oh come on, Shen Fei, were you really planning to ruin everyone's day with a scene like this? Not everything is about you, you know?" The smiling boy scolded Shen Fei, who, for some reason, didn't retort. He just showed an expression of contempt and turned his back, walking away with his group without saying a word.
Xiangju looked at the boy curiously, trying to identify who he was. He was sure he had seen him before but couldn't remember where, didn't recall any information.
"And you… Xiangju, right? You're really reckless." The boy released Xiangju's fist, still tense, and Xiangju fell to the ground.
"Were you really planning to make your girl a widow before you even married?" Although his words were reprimanding, his face bore a kind smile.
"You… I… Uh… Thank you very much." Xiangju said, unsteady.
As the young man was about to say something more, Ning'er jumped on him, shocking the crowd with the scene. Ye Ziyun and Nie Li, who had just arrived, hadn't seen the whole scene but were glad nothing bad had happened. Ye Ziyun was impressed by Ning'er's assertiveness.
"H-hey, Ning'er, others will think—"
"It doesn't matter!" She continued hugging him tightly.
She looked at the young man with tears of concern still in her eyes and said,
"Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. I can't even begin to express my gratitude. Thank you for saving Xiang."
The young man felt uncomfortable with so much gratitude, not even sure if he had truly saved the boy, as the strength he felt from Xiangju's punch wasn't normal for a student of the fighter class, much less for his age.
"It was nothing! Really, I had to protect the darling of my little sister's friend."
Xiangju and Ning'er were puzzled by what he said.
Then they saw the young man with purple hair waving to Ye Ziyun, who gave him a sweet smile in return.
At that moment, it was like a switch flipped in Xiangju's head, and now he knew exactly who it was.
"Ye Rong, it's a pleasure, young master," Xiangju said respectfully.
The young man smiled, pleased to be recognized.
"The pleasure is mine, young Zhu Xiangju. It's a shame we met under such circumstances. My father spoke a lot about you. He is very proud of his pupil's progress."
Ye Rong extended his hand to help Xiangju up, who had a bit of difficulty as Ning'er wouldn't let go of him at all.
"Your father..? Pupil? You are the son of…"
"Great Elder Ye Xiu, yes. I imagine he didn't mention me. HAHAHA. That's just like him… Anyway, I'll be going now. Try not to get into too much trouble after this, don't do anything I wouldn't do."
After saying this, the young man waved goodbye as he walked away, leaving a warm atmosphere at that moment. Fortunately, the teachers hadn't arrived in time for the fight. However, even if they had seen it, since Xiangju was still an employee of the school despite having lost the library and Shen Fei being from the Sacred Family, they would have turned a blind eye to both of them.
Xiangju quickly helped Ning'er wipe away her tears, smudging her makeup, so Ye Ziyun pulled Ning'er aside to fix it together, slowly getting closer again.
"You seem to always get into trouble," Nie Li said to Xiangju as he approached.
Xiangju laughed out loud, thinking about how Nie Li would have basically done the same thing in the other reality.
"I could say the same about you!" Xiangju said as he passed by Nie Li, giving him a pat on the shoulder with a smile on his face, but Nie Li didn't return the smile.
"Ouch! That hurt, you know?" Xiangju said after Du Ze punched his arm.
"It was supposed to! Didn't I tell you not to do anything like that?"
"I couldn't let him say that about Ning'er, Du Ze. When I heard those words… I was blinded by rage."
"Ahhhhh okay, this time I really think he crossed the line. I almost went to punch him myself."
"See? Problem solved!"
"Nothing is solved! You can't just go around getting into other people's business like that, no matter how strong you are. The Sacred Family is much more powerful. You can't just go picking fights with anyone who says something about Ning'er."
"Du Ze, understand that I didn't do it just because it was Ning'er, I did it because it was any of you. If they were talking about you or anyone else, I would have fought too."
"I know that, just… don't get hurt, seriously, we worry about you."
The boy said seriously but soon felt embarrassed as Zhang Ming, Lu Piao, and Wei Nan, who had arrived, looked at him with funny expressions.
"W-what? Go get ready!" Du Ze said irritably, dispersing the group.
Finally, the start of the tests was announced.
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