Book 1: Chapter 4: One Punch, One Broken Nose
The carriage began to descend the hill, continuing towards that incredibly magnificent sight of tents everywhere.
The black-robed young man still carried the lamp while walking in the front. His footsteps were graceful and fast, making one feel as if there was mercury flowing inside his body. Moreover, even though he was moving forward with the speed at which normal people ran at, he wasn’t out of breath in the slightest, his face still carrying a gentle smile, effortlessly informing the elder and Lin Xi about the rules of Green Luan Academy’s entrance examination.
“The carriage and everyone other than the examinee are not allowed past that stele. You may find a place to stay for the night and wait for tomorrow’s examination results. As for you…” The young man with his hair parted to the side reached out a finger, pointing towards the lakeside. “You may rest in any of the empty tents by the lakeside, and you can chat with the other examinees as well. The conditions in every tent are the same, the food and drink may be used freely. When the lecturer calls your name tomorrow, all you need to do is listen to what you are told and take the exam.”
“Lecturer?” Lin Xi’s mouth immediately widened into an ‘o’ shape.
“What is it?” The young man with the open forehead looked strangely at Lin Xi with a somewhat surprised expression.
“Nothing, I just felt that this title was a bit strange.” Lin Xi forcibly swallowed the ‘nonsense’ he almost blurted out back down, changing the subject, “Big bro Xia, you didn’t ask me for my name before. The lecturers you speak of tomorrow morning, will they know my name, actually call me?”
“It seems like you don’t know much about my Green Luan Academy, it isn’t strange for you to feel that it is strange.” The open forehead young man seemed to have suddenly realized something, and then with a laugh said, “The examinees come from all different places, yet all of your information has already been sent over beforehand, which is why there is no need for you to worry that no one will call for you tomorrow.”
“Big bro Xia, are you a student of Green Luan Academy?” Lin Xi looked at this young man named Xia Yanbing, seriously asking for guidance, “I really know nothing about Green Luan Academy’s entrance examination. Can you tell me just what kind of stuff I’ll be tested on exactly?”
“I am now also one of the lecturers in Green Luan Academy.” Xia Yanbing revealed a faint smile and said, “As for the test’s contents, it is different every year, so I am not sure either. I can only say that it is extremely fair. When our Green Luan Academy recruits students, the two points we attach most importance to are talent and character. As for more concrete details, I am not allowed to say too much.”
“Big bro Xia, you are already a lecturer?” Forget about Lin Xi, even the eyes of the elder who drove the carriage were filled with a great shock.
“It isn’t much.” Xia Yanbing revealed a faint smile again. He turned around, not saying too much anymore. However, it was precisely this deemphasizing statement that made him appear a bit more exceptional and extraordinary.
…
The area within a five li radius around the lakeside was filled with bonfires, already over a thousand carriages gathered here now. The bonfires were brightly lit, the scene extremely grand.
When he saw that the stele Xia Yanbing spoke about before, the one that carriages couldn’t pass, was not too far ahead, Lin Xi was about to get off the carriage and walk to the tents by the lakeside. However, right at this time, a large and tall carriage pulled by four blood red steeds came straight from another path, as if extremely familiar with the situation by the lakeside, no one from Green Luan Academy leading it, domineeringly and powerfully cutting in front of Lin Xi’s carriage, dropping off a young man dressed in a golden embroidered robe.
This young man looked to be a year or two younger than even Lin Xi, half a head shorter than him. His skin was fair, but when he looked at Lin Xi who had just showed himself from the carriage behind his, the expression on his face was full of arrogance and disdain.
The carriage he got off of was full of brass decorations, gorgeous and imposing. The one driving it was a well built middle-aged man dressed in a set of green fitted clothes. After dropping off that young man, he then directly headed in the direction of Lin Xi’s carriage, at the same time raising his head towards the elder, actually wanting the elder to move the carriage to the side first, let him get to the area where over a thousand carriages were parked first.
When he saw how overbearing this carriage was, Xia Yanbing, who originally led the way, now preparing to leave, had a slight chill inadvertently flash past his eyes. However, after giving the elder who drove Lin Xi here a look, his expression quickly calmed, instead moving to the side, watching with folded arms.
The elder stopped the carriage, but didn’t move aside, just quietly sitting at the front of the carriage, not looking at the tall and sturdy middle-aged man either.
The robust middle-aged man’s eyes immediately narrowed. He didn’t expect the old man who drove that shoddy carriage to actually not give him any face.
The four blood red steeds came to a stop right when they were about to run into Lin Xi’s carriage. In that instant, the two carriages were actually in a deadlocked situation, neither side wishing to move out of the way.
These two carriages both came rather late. Clashing like this immediately drew the attention of the thousand carriages and examinees by the lakeside.
The younger one was, the more they were fond of getting in on the action. The place where over a thousand carriages had gathered didn’t show any clear activity, yet the tents by the lakeside already had group after group of youngsters rushing out.
“I thought that you were someone, never expecting that it was just another idiot.” Inside the crowd that rushed out from the tents, a tall and slender young lady who had her hair in a ponytail only gave both sides a look before immediately muttering this. She gave that golden clad white faced youngster whose face now also became a bit fierce a look of disgust.
This young lady wore ordinary green clothes, her facial features on their own not looking all that amazing, but when all of them were put together, it gave others a type of indescribable quiet and exquisite, moving feeling.
“Turns out it is nothing more than some country bumpkin who only recently got rich. If it was me, I definitely wouldn’t be stupid enough to provoke that carriage.” In a different area, there was a young man with darker skin, dressed in a light silk long gown who was extremely conspicuous. His long black hair was combed extremely straight, held in place by a jade ring, innately possessing a type of noble quality. There were five or six young individuals gathered around him, these youngsters all wearing precious jade ornaments around their waists, clothing material luxurious, clearly wealthy and respectable individuals.
“Why does Brother Li speak this way?” A round-faced youngster dressed in fragrant cloud muslin clothes immediately asked in a somewhat confused manner.
Just the four blood red steeds were a level higher than the other side’s carriage, moreover, the middle-aged man who drove the carriage was full of explosive power, so no matter which aspect one looked at it from, the shoddy carriage driven by the muddle-eyed elder couldn’t compare to the luxurious copper skinned carriage at all.
“Even though this carriage is shoddy, the door cloth and window curtains are dyed by black vine flower’s nectar, the material woven out of Illusion Rabbit’s fur. This is a practice the border barbarians near Dragon Snake Mountain Range are most fond of, allowing air to flow freely, yet resists cold, moreover waterproof and doesn’t decay.” The dark-skinned youngster surnamed Li who seemed to be a bit superior to the others said with a sneer, “The two gray horses are both the border barbarian’s gray mouthed horses. They don’t look that remarkable, but their endurance is extremely great, able to move a thousand miles through the night. Now this type of war horse is already tired to this extent… this war chariot, it might very well have hurried here precisely from the Dragon Snake Border barbarian area. Moreover, did you all not stop to think about this? No one from Green Luan Academy came specially to lead the way even when we were arriving, only someone coming to greet us after we came to this place.”
The young men in the surroundings immediately shivered inwardly. “Then this is to say, could it be that that shoddy carriage actually came on the recommendation of someone of extremely high status from the border barbarians?”
“You do have some knowledge and experiences, but if you stand out too much, saying that others are lacking in these areas, that they are nothing more than country bumpkins who haven’t been wealthy for that long, then you will end up offending many people. Who knows just how much enmity that one line might attract?” Not far out, a yellow-clothed skinnier young man watched with the cool eye of a bystander, inwardly sneering.
Within this group of over a thousand youngsters, it was unknown just how many arrogant geniuses there were.
“You really aren’t going to move out of the way?” The tall and sturdy middle-aged driver didn’t have the sight of those young geniuses, never expecting a shoddy carriage would actually stand right in his path, not moving out of the way. His expression immediately darkened, fiercely spitting out these words.
“There probably won’t be much to see here.” When the youngsters who came full of expectations, wishing to see something exciting saw Xia Yubing standing at the side of the two carriages, they all felt a bit disappointed, inwardly producing this thought.
However, what left everyone stupefied was that Xia Yubing seemed to completely stay out of this, only watching like a bystander.
“Get lost.” What left them even more stupefied was that the elder seated upright on the carriage even more simply and directly spoke these words.
“Simply courting death!”
The one who shouted this line was that tender voiced golden-clothed youngster. He originally already got off the carriage, but when he saw that the carriage that brought him here was put on the spot, his tender face also revealed a sinister and vicious expression.
“Fuck off!”
As if the robust middle-aged man received the order to continue, a pa noise erupted. The black python skinned horse whip swept towards the elder.
However, in that instant, everyone watched as that originally declining elder suddenly pounced towards the middle-aged man like a falcon. The giant black python skinned horse whip was like a dark cloud, passing above his head. Under everyone’s shocked gaze, this beaten and weary elder erupted with a wave of terrifying blood energy, a fist smashing straight at the bridge of the middle-aged man’s nose.
The instant the fist and nose made contact, a layer of brilliance appeared over the elder’s fist and the robust middle-aged male’s face.
Ka!
However, the elder’s figure only flickered a bit, and then he leapt back into his own carriage. Meanwhile, that robust middle-aged male’s entire nose was crooked, bursting with blood. While carrying a face of disbelief and horror, he flew out, falling heavily and miserably on the ground.
The two seemingly beaten and weary gray horses also fiercely exhaled at this time, releasing a deep and low cry. The four red steeds that were previously still high and mighty were immediately frightened, frantically pulling the carriage behind them as they crazily ran.
The golden-clothed youngster who was overbearing and arrogant just a breath ago seemed to have lost his soul, entire face pale.