Chapter 0106 – Opening in advance
After this incident, the veil between Ning Cheng and Ji Luo Fei completely crumbled.
If one could say that Ning Cheng before only had a sliver of a shadow of Ji Luo Fei in his heart, so when Ji Luo Fei returned without hesitation, Ji Luo Fei’s shadow was now completely and deeply imprinted in Ning Cheng’s heart. After experiencing the things with him and Tian Mu Wan, this was the first time that Ning Cheng let another woman enter the deepest parts of his heart.
With such a delightful and joyous mood, Ning Cheng even advanced from the True Condensation 2nd Level and broke through to the Early Stage of True Condensation 3rd Level. He was just consolidating his cultivation, and even did not have the time to celebrate with Ji Luo Fei, when Liu Xian from the God Wind Academy came over to seek him out.
At this time there were still seven days left out of the 10 days for the start of the second round.
“Deacon Liu, isn’t there still a few days left for the start of the second round?” Ning Cheng opened the Restrictions that he placed on the door and saw that Liu Xian had personally come, and immediately asked, feeling a bit puzzled.
Liu Xian spoke with some anxiety, “Ning Xiao Cheng, the Angry Axe Valley that was to be opened in 2 years, because of some kind of accident, something that even we do not know what happened, a few days ago we found that the Magic Mist Array Formation around it suddenly disappeared. Because the mist outside the Angry Axe Valley had cleared up, it represents that we have only a maximum of one month, before the Angry Axe Valley would be fully open officially.”
Ning Cheng frowned, he was planning to use these 2 years to get one of the quota to enter the Angry Axe Valley, now it seems that there would be no hope for that. He was just a nobody; he absolutely could not go the Angry Axe Valley by himself. However even if the Angry Axe Valley was to open in advance, why would Liu Xian come personally to tell this to him?
Ning Cheng immediately remembered, that a few days ago he and that old woman had gone into the Forbidden Cold River to search for some things, then did that mean that there was some sort of connection between the white haired old woman finding the Immortal’s Mansion and the early opening of the Angry Axe Valley? According to what the old woman had said to him, the Immortal Mansion inside the Forbidden Cold River had appeared together with the Angry Axe Valley.
“Deacon Liu, how would the Angry Axe Valley opening in advance affect the God Wind Academy?” Ning Cheng just directly asked what he did not understand.
Liu Xian just sighed and said, “It not only affects us, but affects all of us in a big way. Our God Wind Academy only recently found some good seedlings, if we were able to compete against the majority for the position of the 6 Star Academy, there would at least be a glimmer of hope for us. Now that the Angry Axe Valley suddenly opened in advance, the rest of the 5 Star Academies of the Hua Continent would also have to follow that person’s request, and as a result even the tournament would also be taking place at a much earlier date. However, if we start now, my God Wind Academy absolutely would not have any qualifications to participate in it.”
After a pause, Liu Xian said to Ning Cheng in an extremely sincere manner, “Ning Xiao Cheng, I am going to tell you the truth now. The God Wind Academy is already not worthy of its name, it is even inferior to some of the 4 Star Academies, moreover my God Wind Academy only has a single Profound Core Cultivator, and he is our Dean Zhang. Moreover, he was also seriously injured a few years ago, and still has not come out from his closed door training.”
“Deacon Liu, when I came here I was worried about a woman from the Falling Star Academy, and as a result had to change my name to Ning Xiao Cheng. But now I don’t fear her, so Deacon Liu can go ahead and call me by my real name, Ning Cheng. According to what Deacon Liu said, is the power of the God Wind Academy not even on the same level as that of the Shui Clan in the Mo Ze City?” Ning Cheng suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart. The reason why he had joined the God Wind Academy, was to find a backer of sorts, if even the God Wind Academy was inferior to the Shui Clan, just what sort of backing could he expect from it?
As for the strength of the Shui Clan, Ji Luo Fei had once mentioned it to him that the Shui Clan had a Profound Core Cultivator among their ranks, which meant that its strength was not weaker than the existence of the 5 Star Academies.
“On the surface, my God Wind Academy is more formidable than the Shui Clan, but in true strength, my God Wind Academy is truly inferior to the Shui Clan. However, my God Wind Academy has been surviving for thousands of years, so we are definitely not afraid of a mere Shui Clan. Is it possible that you have offended the Shui Clan in some way?” Liu Xian had been alive for many years, so when heard the casual words of Ning Cheng, he could at least pick up one or two things.
Ning Cheng did not hide anything, and spoke about the matter regarding Ji Luo Fei.
Hearing those words, Liu Xian immediately said, “So it turns out that you were worried about this kind of trivial thing, the Shui Clan would definitely not offend my God Wind Academy for this kind of thing, but that’s a different matter, what I came to say here was about the major matters regarding the tournament of the 5 Star Academies.”
Ning Cheng had also had thought of this, the Shui Clan was after all, one of the seven great clans of the Hua Continent, and would not engage against them regarding Luo Fei. Because it was truly a small matter for them, they would definitely not offend the God Wind Academy because of this. After all Luo Fei had not agreed to any of the requests from the Shui Clan, moreover she had not even seen a single person from the Shui Clan.
“Deacon Liu, please speak freely, I will definitely do my utmost in the upcoming second round.” After Ning Cheng finally felt a bit relieved in his heart, he decided to fully help the God Wind Academy with the best of his abilities.
After he finished speaking, Ning Cheng felt that there was something wrong, and added another sentence, “Deacon Liu, for the Angry Axe Valley to open ahead of time, wouldn’t it also advance the schedule of the Tournament for the 5 Star Academies. Moreover, isn’t it because of the Tournament between the 5 Star Academies, would the outstanding disciples have the opportunity to enter the Angry Axe Valley?”
Liu Xian became upset, and said, “This is the thing, if after two years, even if we did not obtain the first place in the tournament, but we would at least not end up being at the very bottom. But because of this tournament starting early, the competitiveness in my God Wind Academy has already dropped a lot.”
“The Angry Axe Valley only has a quota for 20 people from across all the Lower Class Continents, out of which the 6 Star Academy, which would be elected from amongst us would have 5 quotas for itself, the second place would have 3 quotas, for the third and the fourth place, respectively, they will have 2 quotas, and the fifth place will only have a single spot. The remaining places will be separately given to the other major Sects and Clans and would be divided separately among them.”
“Deacon Liu, the tournament has not yet started, you do not have to worry about it, maybe we still might have a chance.” Ning Cheng tried to comfort him.
Liu Xian nodded before solemnly speaking, “The second round of selection for the 5 Star Academies has been cancelled, originally the top 100 of the second round, would be directly allowed to join the 5 Star Academies. Three days after the tournament between the 5 Star Academy, the 6 Star Academy would be elected from amongst us on the spot, then at the same time they will also select the 20 people who would be qualified to enter the Angry Axe Valley.”
“The Angry Axe Valley only opens just once after many years, so the amount of resources and treasures inside are simply unimaginable, even cultivators from the Intermediate Class and Advance Class Continents cannot contain themselves. But in the Lower Class Continents, the number of people allowed to enter the Angry Axe Valley are more, thus the potential for future development will be greater.”
“Deacon Liu, why don’t you and I talk about the rules of the tournament between the 5 Star Academies, as well as how to participate?” Now that Ning Cheng knew that he also had a slight chance to enter the Angry Axe Valley, he immediately became interested in it. He did not believe that if he helped the God Wind Academy in the tournament, the God Wind Academy would not give him one of the quota.
Liu Xian had originally come here to request Ning Cheng’s help, now that Ning Cheng has himself taken the initiative to offer his help, he immediately began explaining in detail, “A senior who came here from the Jia Continent believes that it would be better if we could speed up the tournament between the five 5 Star Academies, according to him the quicker it could be completed, the better it would be, and as a result it would also be best to choose a 6 Star Academy in a few days. Therefore, the tournament is currently divided into two parts, the first part is the assessment of the facilities of the Academy, this assessment had already been done……”
Ning Cheng interrupted Liu Xian’s words and said, “Deacon Liu, in the assessment of the facilities of the Academy, how much did our God Wind Academy score?”
Liu Xian somewhat awkwardly replied, “Out of a total score of 100 points, our God Wind Academy only scored 41 points. The highest is the Falling Star Academy, which obtained 75 points, next is the Clear Sky Academy with 60 points, then the Luo Hou Academy with 55 points and the Thunder Academy with 53 points.”
The tournament had not yet begun, but the God Wind Academy had already obtained the first place from the bottom, Ning Cheng grimaced and asked, “This score is truly not high, compared to the Falling Star Academy, there is more than a 30-point difference between us. As for the rest of the tournament, how do we compare to others?”
Liu Xian continued to reply, “The second part of the tournament is again divided into 3 rounds, and each Academy can only choose up to 5 people to participate in them. Once the five people are selected, they will participate in all the three rounds in this second part of the tournament, and no substitution is allowed midway. The first round is the Memory Round, and the topic will be personally chosen by the senior from the Intermediate Class Continent. This test in the first round will take the highest score of each of the participating people separately, we hope that you help our God Wind Academy to get a good score, and bridge the gap between the rest of the Academies.”
“The second round will test one’s ability to comprehend, and will also be attended by the same five people. Finally, they will select the person with the highest score from each of the 5 Star Academies, and the score obtained by them in the second round, will be added to Academy’s total score. The third round is a VS battle, the one who wins the most battles, is the one who will score the highest. The specific rules for the third round will be declared personally by those esteemed seniors at the start of the third round.”
“Then wouldn’t every single Academy send in their disciples with the highest cultivation for this tournament?” Ning Cheng asked as he felt that it was not as simple as it looked.
Liu Xian hurriedly answered, “I did not explain clearly, of the five people that each Academy chosen for the tournament, they cannot send any people in the Essence Building Realm, and all of the participants should be at most 30 years of age.”
Ning Cheng nodded and said, “As a result, the choosing of disciples would really be tricky.”
“Yes, even though some Academies have a few formidable cultivators, but their memory and comprehension skills are not strong. Because of this, it is necessary to select not only the most powerful disciples for the tournament, but also have to choose some disciples with powerful memory and comprehension abilities.” Liu Xian said with approval.
Ning Cheng chuckled and said, “It appears that I am the only one in the God Wind Academy that can participate in the Memory Round.”
“That’s right, now I only hope that since you were able to score 100 points before without having seen those things previously, so I definitely think that your memory capabilities are the real deal.” Liu Xian said with a wry smile.
He had a vague feeling that Ning Cheng was the most powerful person in the God Wind Academy combined with his powerful memory, but he also thought that if Ning Cheng did not depend on his memory capabilities in the memory round, then the God Wind Academy would really be in a very perilous situation.
If Ning Cheng can once again display his talents in the tournament of the 5 Star Academies, then the God Wind Academy might have at least a good future ahead of it.
Ning Cheng knew, that even if it wasn’t the case, he has to showcase his true strength. Fortunately, at this time Ning Cheng did not care much about hiding his strength, from the first time that he wrote that written test, till the point of him joining the God Wind Academy, if not for being forced to use his last resort, he really would not have to hide his own strength again.
After discussing some of the finer details of the tournament with Ning Cheng, Liu Xian finally left Ning Cheng’s place of residence.