Tang Wulin shook his head. “Probably not. I’m planning on enlisting in the military in the future. It’s been my plan to enlist after graduating from the inner court for a long time now.”
“The military?” Ye Xinglan’s eyes widened. “I heard from Lizhi before, but I didn’t think it was really true. Is enlisting better than cultivating at Shrek?”
Tang Wulin smiled. “It’s my goal, so I’m going to do it just like how Gu Yue became a member of the Spirit Pagoda. We all have our own goals. What about you? Are you really going to stay at Shrek?”
Ye Xinglan nodded. “I don’t like dealing with politics and whatnot of the outside world. Staying at the Academy suits me best. Lizhi’s planning on staying too. He said he’d keep me company.” A warm smile graced her lips.
“That’s good! Just think, how much will we have changed ten years from now? When we think back on this time, we’ll probably smile fondly on the memories.”
Ye Xinglan grinned. “You’re right! Maybe we will. Alright. Enough of that. You can go on now. I need to cultivate.”
Tang Wulin exited Ye Xinglan’s room then walked back to his own. But before he reached his room, Ye Xinglan’s word echoed in his mind and he stopped in front of Gu Yue’s room.
After a moment of hesitation, Tang Wulin knocked on the door. An instant later, the door opened and he stood face to face with Gu Yue.
Tang Wulin walked in and proudly said, “I’ve got my second piece of battle armor now! You’re probably next.”
Gu Yue chuckled. “Who knows? We’ll see what Xinglan decides. In any case, I’ve already completed the designs for everyone’s second piece of armor.”
Tang Wulin didn’t stand on politeness and plopped himself onto the couch. He grabbed a cup of water on the table nearby and took a few sips.
“Hey, that’s my cup.” Gu Yue glared at him.
“Oh,” Tang Wulin answered, but continued on with a smile. “Eh, I’ve already drank from it. You can wash it later.” Then he finished gulping down the rest of the water.
Gu Yue crossed her arms and glared at him, but he just chuckled. “I like it when you’re like this. You don’t have to act grumpy. We’re already fifteen years old. You should act more mature. If you keep making that face, you’re gonna get wrinkles.”
Gu Yue grabbed one of her slippers off her feet and threw it at Tang Wulin. “I’ll put wrinkles on you!”
Tang Wulin just to slipper hit with a smile. “You know, I remember hearing a song a while back. It was called ‘The Greatest Happiness in the World is Growing Old With You’. Gu Yue, do you think we’ll grow old together?”
Gu Yue’s mind blanked and she stared at him speechless.
Tang Wulin stood up and walked over to her. Then he bent down onto one knee and put the slipper back it back on her slipper-less foot. He stood back up and rubbed the top of her head. "Oh my. Your hair is a mess now.”
“Bastard!” Gu Yue glared at him, absolutely fuming with rage.
“Nighty night!” Tang Wulin said, patting her on the head again, then left. She did nothing to stop him.
Gu Yue stood there, mulling in her emotions without bothering to fix her hair. Many long moments later, she walked over to the table and grabbed the cup Tang Wulin drank from. She filled it up and downed it all in one gulp. “The greatest happiness is growing old with you?” Her eyes grew misty.
The first round of the one-on-one tournament spanned three days. It was three days of regret and rejoice. The stadium was absolutely packed with spectators and competitors, but the Star Luo officials were masterful organizers and everything went smoothly. After the first round of the one-on-one competition came the two-on-twos, the team battles, and finally the mecha competition.
Compared to the duels, the matches of the other competition categories had far less people. According to the tournament’s planning, the first round of each of the remaining competitions would finish in one day. Then later on, when the competitors were greatly reduced, they could cram all the non-duels into one day.
☀
Morning broke and Tang Wulin quickly washed up. Then he went to invite Gu Yue for breakfast.
When she greeted him that morning, her smile was clearly brighter than in the past few days, whatever that was weighing on her mind gone. It was as if she was a ball of sunshine.
Throughout breakfast, Tang Wulin couldn’t help but sneak glances at her.
“What are you looking at?” Gu Yue said, rolling her eyes at him.
Tang Wulin smiled wryly. “I don’t know. You just seem a bit different today. Are you regretting not participating in the one-on-one competition?”
Gu Yue snorted. “I didn’t participate because I didn’t want you to have to face me. If we fought, you wouldn’t end up with a good ranking.”
“Why are you so confident?” Tang Wulin grumbled. “How are you so certain you would defeat me?”
“Strength,” Gu Yue answered nonchalantly.
“I don’t believe it! Let’s spar sometime!” Tang Wulin beamed.
Gu Yue scoffed at him, then smirked.
At that moment, the rest of their friends arrived in the dining hall. Ye Xinglan took her seat beside Gu Yue. When she saw the smile on Gu Yue’s face, she couldn’t help but send Tang Wulin a meaningful look, a smile forming on her own mouth as well.
“Today are the duos. Don’t get careless, guys! I encountered a Soul King yesterday. We can’t underestimate the soul masters of Star Luo. They’re stronger than I expected,” Tang Wulin said.
Xie Xie puffed his chest out confidently. “It doesn’t matter how strong they are. We’re aiming for the championship the duos competition.”
Yuanen Yehui glared at him. “Shut up.”
Xie Xie scratched his cheek in embarrassment. “But I didn’t say anything wrong. We are aiming for the championship, aren’t we?”
“Even so, you don’t have the right to say it out loud. The weak shouldn’t try to show off,” Yuanen Yehui said.
Xie Xie was dumbfounded. “How am I weak?”
Yuanen Yehui said, “Which of us can you beat?”
Without the slightest hesitation, Xie Xie pointed to Xu Lizhi. “I can beat Lizhi! There’s no way he can beat me. I think I could take Xiaoyan too.”
“Jeez. When are you going to grow up? Why are you comparing yourself to a support-type and a control-type?” Yuanen Yehui said in disdain, barely keeping herself from smacking him away.
Xie Xie smirked. “Don’t worry. There will come a day where I’m more powerful than you. Anyway, we can’t be sure if any of us will meet any strong opponents today. Well, I’ll only be able to display my full strength against a strong opponent!”
Yuan Yehui scoffed at him.
Tang Wulin said, “You damn jinx! Shut your mouth right now before you curse us all!”
“What? Captain, you’re not going to back me up here? Yuanen is looking down on me!” Xie Xie said.
Tang Wulin gazed at him with eyes of indifference. “Then you should prove her wrong, otherwise quit your complaining.”
All eight of them were competing in the two-on-two competition. The teams were Tang Wulin and Gu Yue, Yuanen Yehui and Xie Xie, Xu Xiaoyan and Yue Zhengyu, and Ye Xinglan and Xu Lizhi. It was hard to say how the strength of the pairs ranked relative to the others since they rarely sparred against each other in pairs. However, Tang Wulin and Gu Yue had defeated Yuanen Yehui and Yue Zhengyu before, so they were viewed as the strongest pair thus far.
After finishing their breakfast, they left the dining hall and headed to the stadium together. Wu Zhangkong didn’t lead them there since he left earlier. The government officials had arranged a special viewing box for the group from Shrek Academy. During the one-on-one competition, Wu Zhangkong had actually only watched Tang Wulin’s match, then left before the rest of them fought.
For today’s two-on-two matches, all eight of them would be battling. As the teacher responsible for this group, Wu Zhangkong was present to watch.
Shrek Academy’s students were particularly outstanding even among geniuses. Once they reached a certain cultivation level, they each would choose their own path to walk down. Once this time came, their teacher’s role was mainly to help them not stray onto inappropriate paths and provide guidance. There was no need for the teachers to intervene in every little matter of the student’s cultivation now. It was more important to help the student craft a personalized cultivation plan to become a great soul master and battle armor master. As a result of this, Wu Zhangkong rarely advised them directly anymore. His guidance mainly came in the form of combat training and helping his students correct their weaknesses.
Tang Wulin and his friends walked into the competitors’ area. Although quite a few people witnessed his miraculous victory over the Soul King on the first day, because he had disappeared so quickly and a couple days had passed now, no one paid much attention to him.
The competitors’ area was absolutely packed. When Tang Wulin’s group arrived, there were no seats left. The eight of them resigned themselves to find a corner to wait for their matches.
As he waited in the corner, Tang Wulin checked out the other competitors. Due to the restriction that competitors had to be twenty years old or younger, most competitors were at least eighteen years old. Some burned with excitement, others clenched their fists nervously, while a few sat down in unperturbed. He could roughly gauge their strengths by how they acted.