119: Chapter 119 Squad Points

Four Seas Academy, Central Martial Arts Arena.

Although today was the first day after the break, the Martial Arts Arena was still buzzing with noise.

Chen Shanzhi and the others had made an appointment early in the morning to meet near the huge golden ranking board in the center of the Martial Arts Arena that recorded the team rankings.

The group stood together, chatting for a long while about what they had each done during yesterday's break.

It wasn't until the sun had risen quite high that Murong Yun, acting like a thief, finally arrived late, shrinking his head and looking around sheepishly.

Jiang Feiyu held a meat bun larger than her face, grease dripping from her mouth as she munched and mumbled indistinctly:

"Little Yun, are you a tortoise? Why did you only just arrive?"

Murong Yun, quite unusually, did not talk back.

He kept his head lowered so far his chin almost touched his chest, only giving a muffled "mm" as a greeting.

Seeing this, Chen Shanzhi raised an eyebrow and strode over:

"What's going on? Aren't you usually quite the loudmouth?

Why do you look like a frost-bitten eggplant today, all unhappy?"

As he spoke, Chen Shanzhi naturally reached out, grabbed Murong Yun's chin, and forced his head up!

"Pfft—"

"Hahaha!"

The moment they saw Murong Yun's face clearly.

Everyone present, including the usually dignified Ouyang Wanqing, burst out laughing unkindly.

On Murong Yun's face, which was originally quite handsome,

two massive, dark purple black eyes now hung over his eyes, looking like top-quality panda eyes!

Combined with his extremely resentful expression, he looked just like an Iron-Eating Beast that had gained sentience.

Hearing everyone's laughter and seeing the strange looks from those around them,

Murong Yun was mortified. He quickly raised his hands to cover his face and argued stiffly:

"Ahem! That... what are you laughing at! What's so funny!"

"I... I was getting up to use the latrine last night, and it was too dark to see the way.

I accidentally bumped into the doorframe!"

Ouyang Wanqing and Shen Lingfu glanced at each other, their beautiful eyes filled with intense curiosity.

"What kind of doorframe is so powerful?

To be able to hit both eyes so precisely and symmetrically?" Shen Lingfu giggled, covering her mouth.

Chen Shanzhi and Jiang Feiyu shared a knowing look.

Both saw clear signs of mourning and schadenfreude in each other's eyes.

Bumping into a doorframe at night? Who are you kidding!

Chen Shanzhi knew the truth.

Murong Yun's current appearance was definitely because, after Chen Shanzhi had fled last night,

this unlucky kid had been caught by his eldest sister, Murong Zhaoling, and tragically used as a punching bag, receiving a severe beating!

Seeing Chen Shanzhi's sympathetic yet amused expression,

Murong Yun glared at him resentfully, his gaze seeming to say: Brother Chen! You have the nerve to laugh! This is all the trouble you caused!

Seeing everyone's expressions of wanting to say something but holding back, seeing through him without calling him out,

Murong Yun knew that if they continued this topic, his secrets would be completely exposed.

He quickly and stiffly changed the subject, pointing to the huge ranking board nearby and shouting:

"Enough, enough! Stop staring at my face! Quick, go check the team point rankings!"

"That Zhao Laosan is really a piece of work, perfunctorily assigning us that crappy Caishikou patrol mission that only gives five points a day!"

"I want to see what missions those other teams are taking every day and how many points they get! Let's see how big the gap between us and them is now!"

Once business was mentioned,

the group put aside their joking and hurried toward the huge ranking board emitting a faint golden light.

On the golden ranking board, Class A, Class B, and Class C,

the latest rankings for all twenty-four teams had already clearly appeared.

Everyone looked up.

[First Place: Class B, Team 1. Captain: Lu Yuchen. Total Points: 900]

Seeing this high score of nine hundred points, Chen Shanzhi rubbed his chin.

As the solid second place on the academy wind and cloud ranking,

since the first place, Eldest Princess Jiang Yueli, was rarely at the academy and hadn't returned?

It was indeed a normal performance for him to lead his team to first place.

Looking further down the list,

the results were a shock to everyone.

Among the top ten teams,

teams from Class B and Class C had fiercely occupied four seats each!

On the other hand, their own Class A

had disappointingly only managed to squeeze two teams into the top ten!

Chen Shanzhi quickly searched for his team's name on the list.

Only when his gaze painfully reached the very bottom of the ranking did he finally see that line of small characters.

[Twentieth Place: Class A, Team 6. Captain: Chen Shanzhi. Total Points: 225]

Looking at this ranking, everyone fell into a speechless silence.

"Holy crap!"

Chen Shanzhi couldn't help but swear, slapping his forehead in frustration.

"Our team, by all accounts, has three top-tier experts of the Xuanguan Eleven Apertures sitting in it!"

"With this lineup, we should be able to walk tall throughout the entire academy!"

"And yet, damn it, we're treated like security guards by Zhao Laosan every day, sent to Caishikou to stop old ladies from fighting. Our total points are only this much!"

Chen Shanzhi gnashed his teeth and said unhappily:

"No way! This time when we go to the Jiantian Division, even if I have to shamelessly throw a tantrum, I must get Zhao Laosan to rearrange our missions!"

"The gap between us and the other teams is so huge; it's simply embarrassing!"

Just as the group was gloomily discussing how to pressure Zhao Laosan,

"Brother Chen! Feiyu!"

A very familiar, fat figure, like a rounded ball of meat, struggled through the crowd.

It was Zhang Qi.

Zhao Qi ran over panting, wiped his sweat, looked at the ranking board, and then at Chen Shanzhi and the others.

His fat face was full of confusion:

"No, Brother Chen, what kind of missions have you guys been taking at the Jiantian Division these past few days?"

"How come you only have this many points?"

Zhao Qi proudly puffed out his impressive belly.

His Team 5 of Class C had luckily ranked exactly tenth this time, ten places higher than Chen Shanzhi and the others!

Before Chen Shanzhi could explain,

Zhao Qi's sharp little eyes quickly caught Murong Yun's symmetrical panda eyes nearby.

He hurriedly leaned in out of curiosity, carefully looking left and right.

Under Murong Yun's squinting gaze, which was filled with Killing Intent,

Zhao Qi struggled to suppress the urge to burst out laughing, his shoulders shaking violently:

"Pfft... ahem! Murong Yun, what happened to you? This look is quite unique!"

As one of the Four Great Playboys,

Zhao Qi understood the situation better than a clear mirror.

Murong Yun's pathetic appearance was definitely because he'd been unlucky enough to be beaten by his tigress of an elder sister again!

His current question was purely out of a malicious sense of schadenfreude.

Murong Yun gnashed his teeth in humiliation.

He gave a cold snort and slightly raised his chin pretentiously:

"You don't know squat!"

"This young master was diligently in seclusion for bitter cultivation at my family's Martial Arts Arena during the break yesterday!"

"This was from Cultivating too hard; I accidentally suffered some minor, insignificant injuries!"

Zhao Qi really couldn't take it anymore and laughed out loud while clutching his stomach:

"Pffhahaha! Bitter cultivation? So hardworking?"

"Then I'll go back tonight and diligently stay up late for bitter cultivation too, to see if I'll end up like you,

and get such symmetrical, deep dark circles under my eyes!"

Looking at Zhao Qi's arrogant, mocking face,

Murong Yun didn't waste any more words.

His eyes narrowed, and the seven major apertures in his body suddenly rotated.

"Boom!"

A solid Aura of true essence belonging to the Xuanguan Seven Apertures Realm

suddenly erupted from Murong Yun's body!

This Aura was extremely skillfully directed, pressing down precisely only on Zhao Qi in front of him.

Murong Yun dusted off his sleeves and said in a flat tone:

"Thanks to those 'minor injuries'."

"Last night, this young master accidentally achieved a Breakthrough to the Xuanguan Seven Apertures."

In an instant, the surroundings fell into a dead silence.

Zhao Qi's exaggerated laughter was like a male duck suddenly being grabbed by the neck.

It instantly froze stiffly in his throat.

The expression on his fat face froze spectacularly.

His small eyes stared at Murong Yun in disbelief.

But feeling the real pressure of the Xuanguan Seven Apertures hitting him,

Zhao Qi desperately had no choice but to believe it!

For a moment, Zhao Qi felt as if the entire bright sky had turned gray.

He felt like he had suffered an extremely severe blow to his confidence!

What the hell?

It was one thing for Chen Shanzhi to suddenly rise like a monster and soar to the sky!

But now, how could even a drunkard like Murong Yun silently Breakthrough to the Xuanguan Seven Apertures?

Didn't we agree that the Four Great Playboys would walk through life together, and whoever worked hard first would be a dog?

Didn't we agree to happily idle our days away at the Yihong Pavilion together?

You bastards, one by one, are all shamelessly acting like hidden players and backstabbing your brother, aren't you?

"I... I suddenly remembered I have something important to do."

Zhao Qi, like a deflated ball, hung his head in dejection:

"I'll stop chatting for now. I'm leaving..."

With that, the wounded fat man dragged his extremely heavy steps.

And squeezed back into the crowd lonely, his back looking extremely desolate.

Chen Shanzhi watched Zhao Qi's dejected back.

A faint, gratified smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

The reason he didn't expose Murong Yun's pretense was that he hoped this somewhat lazy fat man, Zhao Qi,

could be motivated by this stimulus to go back and work hard on improving his martial arts cultivation.

So that he wouldn't eventually be the only one among the Four Great Playboys still at the Xuanguan Six Apertures.

Having sent Zhao Qi away,

Only then did Jiang Feiyu and the others turn their heads in surprise to look at Murong Yun:

"Yo, Little Yun, you actually achieved a Breakthrough?"

"Not bad! It seems your miserable 'bitter cultivation' yesterday was truly a result of hard work!"

Hearing this, Murong Yun raised his eyebrows proudly, just about to say a few pretentious, humble words.

At this moment, Chen Shanzhi patted his shoulder meaningfully and said sincerely:

"That's truly worth celebrating."

"I hope that in the future, Brother Yun can work as hard every day as yesterday to be... ahem, work hard at Cultivating!"

The corners of Murong Yun's mouth twitched violently.

He stared at Chen Shanzhi resentfully.

You bastard, this is a truly malicious curse. You want me dead, don't you?

After finishing with the ranking board, the group chatted happily while slowly leaving the Martial Arts Arena.

After exiting the Martial Arts Arena gate,

everyone naturally prepared to disperse and attend their respective classes.

Ouyang Wanqing was dressed elegantly today in a simple, water-blue long dress.

"Captain, I have a Ci Poetry class to attend later, so I'll take my leave now."

Ouyang Wanqing waved elegantly to Chen Shanzhi.

But in that brief moment of leaving,

her clear, autumn-water eyes very discreetly lingered on Chen Shanzhi's face for a few more seconds.

A hint of curiosity flashed in her eyes: was that poem really written by Chen Shanzhi, as the rumors suggested?

If that were the case, it was no wonder he had such an understanding of the poem little pond.

But why had she never heard of him having such talent in poetry before?

Could it be that, as she had heard, Chen Shanzhi had been unable to resist revealing his talent just to please a beautiful lady?

revealing his talent?

If that were true, then...

Ouyang Wanqing quietly sized herself up; her beauty surely wasn't inferior to that Tang Xiaowu's, right?

When the time came, she would see for herself if Chen Shanzhi was truly such a talented person.

If he really was, then...

Ouyang Wanqing thought she would go back and properly remind her father and the others.

But at the thought of her father requesting the Prince to arrange a marriage between her and the First Prince without even asking for her opinion,

she felt an indescribable emotion in her heart.

Although she had always been seen as a well-bred and sensible person by her father and outsiders,

for such a major life event, they should have at least asked her.

At this moment, Ouyang Wanqing felt like a modern middle or high school student who had just entered their rebellious phase.

Since her father wanted to do this, she would refuse to follow along.

Since her father said she could take the opportunity while at the academy to get in touch with the First Prince, she would deliberately avoid him.

She would instead go out of her way to associate with Chen Shanzhi of the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion.

Since it was said that by contacting Chen Shanzhi, she could see if he had really been hiding his abilities before and then tell them the result,

then she would just not con—no, she still had to contact him.

Ouyang Wanqing also wanted to know if little pond was really written by Chen Shanzhi.

But after contacting him, she would deliberately not tell them the results.

Thinking of this, Ouyang Wanqing's eyes showed a look of relief as she slowly walked away.

At this time, Chen Shanzhi was focused on planning how to cause trouble for Zhao Laosan at the Jiantian Division later.

He didn't notice this subtle scene.

Nearby, Shen Lingfu, in order to successfully obtain the "Qin" character medal that represented a spot in the Secret Realm,

she also had to attend the Qin class today.

So she also tenderly and sweetly said goodbye to Chen Shanzhi and turned to leave.

Chen Shanzhi stood there, watching the two graceful figures depart.

Just then, Chen Shanzhi's gaze suddenly sharpened!

He keenly noticed that just as Shen Lingfu left the group and walked alone into a small path leading to the zither dao lecture hall,

a familiar figure quickly darted out from behind a nearby flower bed.

And then directly caught up with Shen Lingfu's pace!

Chen Shanzhi's brow instantly furrowed into the shape of a frown.

Because the person who suddenly appeared was an old acquaintance—Tang Liu!