When Yuhua Tianji pushed open the door, walking into the darkness, the cold wind that swept in made Wen Xuanyu narrow his eyes slightly.

Because they were scared of giving him mistaken guidance and leaving behind bad habits, Wen Family never instructed him in any martial skill beforehand. However, before Wen Family’s only son of this generation entered Green Luan Academy, he had already been prepared in the best way possible through some spiritual herbs and nurturing methods.

Wen Xuanyu didn’t look all that well-built on the outside, but his bones and foundation were extremely good. That was why his hair looked the most shiny and black among all of the new students, right now forming a stark contrast with Yuhua Tianji’s blonde hair.

As Wen Family’s only son, the successor of all of Wen Family’s power, Wen Xuanyu understood extremely clearly that Wen Family and Yuhua Family still had an unimaginable gap between them.

Most of the empire’s priests were loyal to Yuhua Family. Because of some strict doctrines, this type of loyalty became even more fervent. Meanwhile, these priests were all people who spread faith, holding extremely high prestige in both the army and masses. Because he hadn’t had much contact with Yunqin’s priests before, Wen Xuanyu found it extremely hard to comprehend how some rigid doctrines and inflexible teachings could receive the support and faith of so many, to the extent where someone in Yuhua Family even occupied one of the nine senator positions.

However, Yuhua Tianji’s words and actions instead made Wen Xuanyu completely understand that Yuhua Family’s people were the most fanatical believers themselves. Only this type of people could draw in even more believers around them. 

Wen Xuanyu also understood extremely clearly that the current emperor naturally wished for Thunder Academy’s side to win, but their Wen Family… his father in Central Continent Imperial City, whether or not he could win against Leng Family, whether or not he could enter the senate, it would be the decision of the nine figures seated behind those layers of curtains. Meanwhile, their attitude wouldn’t depend on the emperor’s attitude, but rather only on the various families’ performances.

Comparatively speaking, for Leng Qiuyu to not be chosen as one of Green Luan Academy’s representatives meant that he already had an edge. However, he naturally couldn’t easily fall behind Yuhua Tianji either.

“I will head for peak number one.”

All of these thoughts flashed past Wen Xuanyu’s brain in an instant. He also immediately stood up, gave Gao Yanan, Lin Xi, and Bian Linghan a look, and then followed Yuhua Tianji out.

Peak number one’s distance from this place was second only to the peak number three Yuhua Tianji headed for.

While walking out from the wooden cabin, as the mountain winds brought some icy granules against his face, Wen Xuanyu’s body subconsciously trembled slightly, what he couldn’t figure out was that neither Lin Xi nor Bian Linghan seemed like the ‘Silver Fox’ in the training valley. In his opinion, with the strength and cultivation Lin Xi and Bian Linghan displayed during their trip here, there was no way they could have broken the training valley record in such a short amount of time.

Not even the most powerful people could see through the human heart… that was why he had no idea that Lin Xi was precisely the Silver Fox he was thinking about. In his head, he was only wondering if Vice Principal Xia didn’t care that much about the result of this competition, since he would choose to hide the best students even in this type of situation.

…

Lin Xi, Gao Yanan, and Bian Linghan were the final three left.

“I finally understand why the academy didn’t gather the five of us, let everyone get familiar with each other first.” Lin Xi looked in the direction Wen Xuanyu and Yuhua Tianji’s figures disappeared into, and then said to Gao Yanan and Bian Linghan, “Apart from some of the secrets the academy wants to keep, perhaps after we get closer, develop greater friendship, it will be more likely that we’ll compromise, the results perhaps not as good as just letting each act on their own beliefs, as that can further display our individual strengths.”

Gao Yanan looked at Lin Xi with a bit of a dissatisfied expression, feeling that for him to consider this issue right now was completely unnecessary. After giving him a look, she directly asked, “Lin Xi, what do you plan on doing?”

Lin Xi muttered a bit to himself, but he didn’t hide anything, saying, “I am going to move together with Bian Linghan, and I need to prepare some things, so I plan on setting out at daybreak.”

“Alright.” Gao Yanan gave Lin Xi and Bian Linghan a completely expressionless look, and then with a nod, said, “I am going to prepare to set out for peak number nine right now.”

Lin Xi looked at Gao Yanan, saying seriously, “I still hold the same viewpoint as before. In this type of darkness, those prisoners will definitely find a place to hide from the wind first. Moreover, it will be hard to make out any tracks they have left behind in the dark, so it will be better if you set out at dawn.”

Gao Yanan shook her head, calmly saying, “The five prisoners might do that, but the five Thunder Academy students might very well be searching in the darkness. Compared to finding the five prisoners, the chances of encountering Thunder Academy students are a bit higher.”

“Eliminating a Thunder Academy student will naturally increase our chances of victory.” Lin Xi’s expression suddenly changed, saying with a sunken voice, “However, for Thunder Academy, it is the same, and they only need to kill the prisoners… for them, killing us and killing the prisoners, both of these could bring victory in the end. The rules of this competition aren't fair for us to begin with.”

“Killing has always been easier than rescue, this competition was never intended to be fair.” Gao Yanan looked at Lin Xi and said, “However, this was the choice the academy made, so if we wish to obtain victory, we need to pay a bit more… That is why we must search through more areas than them, that is why Yuhua Wuji’s decision wasn’t wrong from the start. I also need to set out immediately.”

Lin Xi revealed a forced smile. He unfolded the map, after confirming the markings on the map again, he said, “Then if you head to peak number nine, the areas me and Bian Linghan will search through should be peaks number five and six?”

Gao Yanan gave the open map in Lin Xi’s hands a look, and then said, “After I finish searching peak number nine, I will then head onto peak number one’s area.”

Lin Xi looked at the map and said, “Then after we finish searching peak number five and six, we will head towards peak number three. If victory and defeat haven’t been decided yet at that time, we’ll head towards peak number one, see if we can help you out in any way.”

Gao Yanan uttered a quiet

 en

 in agreement. “Let’s go.” Lin Xi looked at this girl who, regardless of whether it was her outer appearance or temperament, there was nothing he didn’t like, and then he put away the map, the first to leave the room, heading towards the wooden cabin in the back. “Let’s select our weapons together.”

…

The interior of this wooden cabin that was full of gaps for the wind to pass in was like a small scale border army warehouse.

Cold light flickered about, black border army long blades, black longswords, spears, pikes… commonly seen standard weapons, as well as some large-scale, not commonly seen weapons like great sabers, hooked scythes, and meteor hammers were all there as well. Moreover, there was more than a single one of each type, all of them brand new, to the extent where they even released a grease smell unique to weapons fresh out of an arsenal.

There were a few sets of the Black Stone Power Bow Lin Xi and Bian Linghan needed, accompanied by some arrow quivers.

However, as for armor, there was only one type, the most ordinary border army standard light armor made from two layers of cowhide. There was only a copper plate over the heart and other vital areas.

This type of brand new copper embedded light armor could still block normal border army strikes, but for cultivators, it was a bit too frail.

After seeing Gao Yanan follow the rules, pick a border army copper sheet embedded light armor, a longsword, and a not commonly seen three-edged dagger, Lin Xi couldn’t help but say quietly, “You need to be careful.”

“With my cultivation, even if I cannot win against the enemy, escaping shouldn’t be a problem. That is why the one you need to be more worried about, is yourself.”

When she saw the bows in Lin Xi and Bian Linghan’s hands, Gao Yanan instead became much calmer, saying, “However, now that I’ve seen the equipment you two picked, it seems like I can feel a bit more at ease.”

Lin Xi smiled in a bit of a forced manner, saying, “In that case, then we’ll part here?”

“I’m going to change my clothes in a bit, so you two don’t have to follow me. Take care.” Gao Yanan waved her hand. After giving Lin Xi a look, she didn’t say anything either, turning around and leaving, heading towards the previous small wooden cabin.

“Is this the feeling of being parted by death?”

Even though Gao Yanan was full of confidence, when he saw her figure disappear into the darkness, Lin Xi still couldn’t help but feel a bit of indescribable soreness.

However, he understood extremely clearly that this wasn’t the true feeling of death separation. If Gao Yanan really never came back after leaving here, at that time, he would definitely feel far worse. If he didn’t wish to face this true separation in life and death, he could only become stronger, defeat powerful enemies like Helan Yuexi who posed a great threat to him one after another.

“Let’s begin.”

That was why Lin Xi quickly calmed down, nodding towards Bian Linghan. They directly sat down in this simple and crude cabin, picking up a needle that was known as an emeici in his previous world, but in Yunqin, it was called the sharp needle of sleeve needles, and then began to patiently and carefully carve engravings on the black arrowheads.

Bian Linghan began to extremely seriously carve and modify the arrowheads too. In reality, she couldn’t understand why Lin Xi would stop here for a night and prepare so many arrows either.

It was because the chances that her and Lin Xi could take action wouldn’t be many, and whether or not they would succeed was a matter of just a few arrows. Even if they prepared a few more, a dozen or so would be enough for each of them. However, Lin Xi clearly said that he wanted at least forty of these modified arrows that could reduce resistance, moreover rotate intensely in the air for powerful penetrative force. Since Lin Xi had such confidence, she naturally accompanied him.

…

Early in the morning, Lin Xi rubbed his slightly white cheeks, doing his best to scatter a bit of the fatigue his body felt.

After a night of sculpting, both him and Bian Linghan completed more than seventy modified arrows in total. According to their previous training’s success rate, once they remove the ones that couldn’t be used after smearing a ring of resin around them, there should be more than forty usable arrows.

With so many arrows, it should already be enough to match his ten halts rewind ability, possibly land a powerful strike in a situation exceeding five hundred steps of elevation.

When he saw Bian Linghan who didn’t sleep all night, clearly also extremely tired, Lin Xi asked in concern, “Do you want to rest an hour first? I’ll look around the surroundings, gather some suitable pine resin first.”

Bian Linghan shook her head.

Lin Xi didn’t insist on it either. “Then let’s do our best to modify these arrows first, and then we’ll begin the search, rest when it is evening again.”

“I am going to change on that side.” Bian Linghan chose a dagger, and then hugged a set of light bronze plated armor, walking into the wooden room in front of her.

Lin Xi’s eyes stopped over the black border army long blade and black longsword for a long time, in the end still feeling like he liked the longsword a bit more.

In Lin Xi’s mind, An Keyi and Xu Shengmo’s rankings were as different as heaven and earth, but when he thought about how his sword skills were taught by An Keyi, blade skills taught by Xu Shengmo, he subconsciously still liked the longsword a bit more. Lin Xi couldn’t help but think about how he still seemed to like flying swords the most. If, in the future, he had a flying sword to match the Windstalker’s long distance strong bow, wouldn’t that be a bit too extravagant?

However, what he didn’t know was that right now, on the highest peak of the ‘ten fingers’, inside of the world’s most simple and crude temporary imperial residence ever built, Vice Principal Xia, who was currently staring into the boundless sky, had much higher expectations for him than just this.

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