There was no restriction on students of Daren Academy from leaving or entering at night. Save for He Shi and Wu Dayong clique, the other students had homes in the capital, so they’d return home at night. Su Xiao was in celebration mode after they found someone to tackle mathematics and music, so he didn’t want them to leave – or in He Shi’s case, to read. After all, Tang Ye and Shen Yiren had left the capital for some time, so Su Xiao had been on his own until he made new friends today. Nonetheless, they agreed to hash out the details tomorrow.
Su Xiao lodged at Daren Academy ever since “enrolling” there. As per routine, he planned to visit Flower Plucking Palace for extra training after classes. He still hadn’t figured out why Ming Feizhen stressed he had to win the idol competition, but he took it to heart, believing Ming Feizhen had his reasons for stressing it – and even suspected his disappearance had something to do with it.
Judging from the eerie atmosphere in the capital and number of people involved in this competition, there must be a complex network of things between them. Well, there’s no point worrying about it if I can’t figure it out.
Suddenly, Su Xiao stopped walking.
Someone is tailing me.
The onset was sudden, but Su Xiao could vividly sense the malicious intent spawn behind him. Su Xiao formed the image of someone in black attire sneaking around in the darkness. The individual on his tail was taken aback as they didn’t expect Su Xiao to suddenly stop, much less realise it was because they had been detected.
“Are you going to come out,” Su Xiao had blurted before he realised, raised his head and raised his voice to add, “or am I going to run?”
Of course, nobody responded.
Su Xiao lowered his head and bolted, resulting in him missing out on what took place afterwards.
The individual atop a building a hundred metres from Su Xiao’s spot rose to their feet because they had been surrounded.
He Kanyu, deputy principle of Daren Academy, was often called Iota Draconis since he was Huang Yuzao’s left-hand man. Because he dressed plainly, didn’t resemble someone from a city and was honest to a fault, the students often picked on him. Little did they know, he was among the most dexterous people in the world despite being in his forties. He was one of the few people who knew the true reason Huang Yuzao left the capital. Therefore, he was the first person to order the guards to tighten security on the academy premises.
Lan Jiqiong, often called Thuban since he was Huang Yuzao’s right-hand man, led the elite guards over and, given he was known for being astute and clever, was given authority to speak first. He smugly said to the intruder, “The feared and notorious bronze-mask adept failed to hide his appearance from a child. Embarrassing.”
It took the intruder ten days to find the loophole in the new security system deployed at Daren Academy, yet all that effort was flushed away as soon as Su Xiao raised his voice. For whatever reason, the intruder chose to flee.
“You think you can just come and go as you please?!”
Lan Jiqiong went to personally hinder the intruder, only to be given the slip. Reacting quickly, Lan Jiqiong pivoted to his side and threw three punches. He missed his first punch by a margin, second one by a fist and third one by an arm’s length. Lan Jiqiong subsequently pounced forward to try a flying palm attack, hoping to use the extended force generated to catch his prey, only to barely close the distance.
He Kanyu was sure the intruder was behind him, yet the latter was in front of him before he knew it. He Kanyu unsheathed his golden-energy-imbued sword with haste, but the intruder had somehow already armed himself with a broadsword and shut down He Kanyu’s heat energy with his own circular silver energy.
Leveraging the force produced from their exchange, the intruder soared off on an angle as lightly as a feather. His movement looked effortless, yet he had already become a small black dot before Lan Jiqiong could command, “After him with me!”
All of a sudden, He Kanyu folded in front of them, while the others felt as if they were winded from a heavy landing.
“Senior Brother!” cried Lan Jiqiong.
He Kanyu just uttered two words: “Leave him.”
“Senior Brother, this is his first failure. We can capture him if we go after him now. We might even be able to learn where Shifu is. Please give me ten men. I am sure I can apprehend him.”
Alas, He Kanyu would never green light the pursuit. Instead, he instructed, “Prioritise the academy first.”
***
Jin Zhaoying ceased writing for a while and lowered her head prior to resuming. Seeing as she was occupied, Su Xiao went to leave on his tip toes, only to hear her ask, “Where are you going?”
“Ehehe, I’m back. I was going to head into the courtyard since you are busy,” replied Su Xiao.
Though she still didn’t look up nearly enough to see Su Xiao, she said, “There’s food on the table. I’ll continue your lessons after you have dinner.”
As Su Xiao had no time to listen to his belly until now, he happily relished the bowl of porridge, colourful side dishes and steaming momo. “Sister Zhaiye and Lingxiang sure are marvellous cooks. Everything they make is delicious.”
After a while of eating, Su Xiao started to feel uncomfortable due to the silence, compelling him to ask, “Sister Jin, do you think all of my practice will pay off?”
“No.”
“Eh? Am I too dull?”
“No. You’re not good at anything, but nobody can deny that you’re a fast learner. Problem is, your competition have been training since they were toddlers. Expecting to surpass someone who has spent over a decade on a skill within two weeks is pathologically delusional.”
Su Xiao dropped his chin for a good while. “Why did you make me practice, then?” he eventually asked.
“I never demanded you to practice anything. You’re the one who begged me to teach you.”
Women are liars!
