To the side, Li Lu was in a daze, rooted to the spot. Her gaze fell on the twitching body smashed down by Huang Xiaolong on the ground and she didn't react for a very long time.
Huang Xiaolong was actually so strong!
In the last five months, she had been practicing diligently and thought she might have closed some of the distance between herself and Huang Xiaolong. However, she didn't imagine the gap to reach such a degree!
At this point in time, Sun Zhang and Xiong Chu stopped infusing battle qi into Jiang Teng's body and got up while wiping away the sweat on their foreheads. Fortunately, they acted quickly; if Huang Xiaolong 'gave' Jiang Teng a dozen palms continuously like last time, without a doubt, Jiang Teng would truly be wasted and crippled!
The two let out bitter smiles.
At first, they thought the fight would come to a tie; but once again, things turned out like the last time!
Facing Huang Xiaolong, Jiang Teng lost in just one move!
And he lost so miserably!
Sun Zhang and Xiong Chu had complicated expressions as they faced Huang Xiaolong; the surprise this little guy gave them was a little too big, but all was well-- their hearts' tolerance was strong enough to take it.
"Er, Xiaolong, your actions towards this little guy is too heavy handed every time," Sun Zhang commented while smiling at Huang Xiaolong.
Looking back at Sun Zhang, Huang Xiaolong's expression stated 'I don't really care' and said, "If there's nothing else, I'm going back." He turned around and left directly after throwing out the sentence.
Sun Zhang and Xiong Chu's mouth opened and closed, wanting to say something to Huang Xiaolong; in the end, no words would come out and they could only watch Huang Xiaolong take Li Lu away with wide eyes.
After the two small figures disappeared, Sun Zhang and Xiong Chu exchanged a glance and shook their heads.
When Huang Xiaolong's shadow was gone from the Academy square, in a distant corner, Xiong Meiqi slowly walked out into the light with a complicated expression on her face as she looked in the direction Huang Xiaolong took as he left.
Just like Sun Zhang and Xiong Chu, Xiong Meiqi was at the Academy square early on and saw everything.
After leaving the Academy, Huang Xiaolong and Li Lu went to Tianxuan Mansion.
On the way, Li Lu finally recovered from her shock and started to chatter away with Huang Xiaolong, gossiping about the interesting events of the past five months in the Academy.
Looking at the cheerful 'chatterbox' Li Lu, he smiled. He liked to see the dimples on Li Lu's face when she smiles.
"Young Master, you have returned!" When Huang Xiaolong and Li Lu arrived at the Tianxuan Mansion, Fei Hou was going out when he saw Huang Xiaolong. Delighted, Fei Hou rushed up and greeted him.
Huang Xiaolong stepped up and patted Fei Hou's shoulder, affirming "Yes, I'm back! Let's first go inside and talk."
Coming into the main hall, the three people sat down.
After sitting down, Huang Xiaolong inquired about the progress of Tianxuan Mansion's armed forces and Fei Hou answered one by one. Fei Hou explained that he went to the slaves market a couple of times and purchased a few new slaves; so now, including Beastman Boli and the others, there was a total of sixty-eight slaves in the Tianxuan Mansion. After undergoing his training, all the slaves had acquired a certain level of foundation in the Luohan Fist supplied by Huang Xiaolong.
When Fei Hou brought these slaves back, each of them had some battle qi foundation in them, and after five months of his training, they could already use the Luohan Fist against enemies. The weakest one was on par with a Fifth Order warrior, and the strongest amongst them was Beastman Boli who could fight against a Sixth Order warrior.
Listening to Fei Hou's answers, Huang Xiaolong nodded with satisfaction at the speed of the progress.
At this time, Fei Hou hesitated a little before continuing, "Young Master, tomorrow is your Academy's class competition. I found out the strongest First Year this round is called Lu Kai. And this Lu Kai was already a peak late-Sixth Order last year and he have probably stepped into the Seventh Order by now!"
"Lu Kai?" Huang Xiaolong's brows creased into a furrow: Seventh Order?
Below the Tenth Order, there were two bottlenecks – one was the Fourth Order and the other was the Seventh Order. Once a person advanced to the Seventh Order, the exponential increase in strength was unimaginable, definitely not what a peak late-Sixth Order can rival.
If that Lu Kai really had broken through to the Seventh Order, tomorrow's First Year class competition will be somewhat troublesome.
"That's right ah, Xiaolong, I've often heard our teacher, Xiong Meiqi, mention him. Three years ago, he was a late-Sixth Order, and he has always taken the first place at our Academy First Year's competition for the past three years. He has never lost even once; also, he's our Luo Tong Kingdom's prince!" Li Lu added after Fei Hou.
"Oh, Luo Tong Kingdom's prince?" Huang Xiaolong was a little surprised at the information.
"Yes, Young Master!" Fei Hou said, "The Luo Tong Kingdom's King, Lu Zhe, is very attentive towards this son, and I also heard the King will attend tomorrow's Academy matches."
"King Lu Zhe will come to watch the competition." Again, Huang Xiaolong was surprised; it seemed that the Luo Tong Kingdom's ruler attached great importance to this son.
"Moreover, this Lu Kai has some relation to Young Master." Fei Hou continued to elaborate, "The bet between Young Master and Zhong Yuan five months ago, does Young Master remember? If Young Master takes the first place for the First Year's competition, the Principal will expel him from the Academy. Lu Kai is Zhong Wangfei's son!"
Zhong Wangfei's son!
This time, Huang Xiaolong was truly shocked.
Zhong Wangfei was Zhong Yuan's elder sister. This meant that Lu Kai was Zhong Yuan's nephew and Zhong Yuan was Lu Kai's Uncle.
Lu Kai, Huang Xiaolong repeated the name once in his heart.
Seventh Order huh? Looks like the First Year competition tomorrow will be a little more meaningful.
"Young Master, in fact, it doesn't matter even if you can't take the first spot in the First Year's competition. Young Master is still very young, only ten years old, whereas that Lu Kai is already nineteen!" Seeing Huang Xiaolong in deep thought, Fei Hou assumed Huang Xiaolong was worried about the competition tomorrow, so he spoke some words of comfort.
Sovereign's talent can be described as monstrous and was strong compared to others of the same age, but in Fei Hou's opinion, it was still too difficult for him to win against a Seventh Order warrior.
On hearing Fei Hou's words, Huang Xiaolong laughed lightly; waving his hand and changing the topic, he asked Fei Hou about his progress in the 'Liquid Thunder Arts.'
And Fei Hou answered truthfully.
"Oh right, I have something for you two." Some time later, Huang Xiaolong remembered something and took out ten pieces of cycad fruit.
"These are cycad fruit!" Staring wide-eyed at the cycad fruit in Huang Xiaolong's palm, Fei Hou exclaimed out loud in surprise. When Li Lu heard what Fei Hou said, her eyes too opened wide in surprise.
"Yes, these are cycad fruits." Huang Xiaolong smiled and said, "The little guy found it while we were training in the Silvermoon Forest."
At this moment, the little violet monkey (who was seated beside him) squeaked proudly, both tiny hands gesturing. He obviously was showing off in front of Fei Hou and Li Lu. The little violet monkey's cute antics made the three people in the hall burst out in laughter.
But, finding these cycad fruits was something that one can be proud of.
Huang Xiaolong divided the fruits and gave Fei Hou and Li Lu five each.
A short while later, Fei Hou and Li Lu left the main hall. Huang Xiaolong also left and went to his courtyard to practice the Asura Demon Claw.
Not long later, Marshal Haotian got the message that Sovereign was back from the Silvermoon Forest and quickly went over to Tianxuan Mansion from the Marshal Mansion. Marshal Haotian also mentioned Lu Kai to Huang Xiaolong with a worried tone.
It seems not only the Academy's teachers and students, even Fei Hou and Haotian, don't believe I can get the first place ah, Huang Xiaolong thought to himself inside.
Night slowly descended.
Moonlight shone brightly over the land.
Huang Xiaolong sat cross-legged on the cold jade bed as the twin dragon martial spirits greedily devoured the netherworld spiritual energy.
One night passed peacefully just like that.
Replaced with warm sunlight, the day of Cosmic Star Academy's annual event – the day of the class and year competition had finally arrived.