Bai Yunfei had been wondering why there hadn’t been many students on their way here. At first, he had thought that they were all in class already, but as things turned out, they were all gathered over here.
A good hundreds of meters away, Bai Yunfei could see groups of threes and fives all gathered up in front of the ‘classroom’.
Many of them were young women and men in their twenties—though a few looked to be in their teens—they surely had to be the students of the academy and from the fifth and sixth years. There were a good few numbers of middle-aged men and women, though their auras were starkly different to the students gathered there. From what Bai Yunfei could sense, they had to be the instructors.
If Bai Yunfei had to give a quick count of how many people were here, he’d say there was at least four hundred to five hundred of them.
The vast majority of them were from the fifth or sixth year fire section, though some were from the other elemental sections, and even fewer were ‘outsiders’.
The establishment of the crafting class caused quite a stir among the academy. With today being its opening day, none of the students here wanted to miss it. If not for the academy taking control of the situation to ensure it didn’t go out of hand, all of the soul cultivators in the academy if not the Capital would be gathered here to watch. Even with this ‘small amount’ of people here, it was still a very considerable amount of spectators.
Bai Yunfei and Zheng Kai’s arrival didn’t garner much attention from the crowd, as no one recognized Bai Yunfei as being the instructor. None of them knew for that matter and had no way of knowing just what their crafting instructor would even look like.
Those that did take notice of Bai Yunfei and Zheng Kai did exist, however. Several people were pointing in their direction, though Bai Yunfei noticed it was mainly the girls who were pointing fingers at Zheng Kai in either admiration or hatred. They must’ve been the ones who he flirted with before….
Bai Yunfei had been fully expectant that there’d be people wanting to ‘observe’ his class, Bai Yunfei never thought there’d be such a large amount. Suddenly, Bai Yunfei felt himself grow nervous. He had never had a situation like this before.
As Bai Yunfei and Zheng Kai made their way towards the building, a voice suddenly called out to them….
“Bai Yunfei!!”
A furious voice from the crowd cried out to Bai Yunfei, leaping out in a stream of red light. Flying hundreds of meters to them, the red light came to a descent just twenty meters away from Bai Yunfei and Zheng Kai.
Bai Yunfei ‘knew’ this man—it was the same instructor who came forward to detain him when he had knocked out Wu Yang a little over three days ago, Zhou Yu.
Right now, the other instructor was glaring at Bai Yunfei with hateful eyes as if Bai Yunfei had stolen something that was rightfully his.
Plenty of people had noticed Zhou Yu’s reaction to Bai Yunfei and turned to look at the three.
So surprised that he came to a stop, Bai Yunfei regarded Zhou Yu with a strange expression, “Yes?”
Could he really be here to try and detain him for hurting the fourth prince?
“I wish to challenge you, Bai Yunfei!”
To mystify Bai Yunfei even more, Zhou Yu had not only called out his name, but also someting else!
A challenge…..he wanted a challenge?!
Bai Yunfei really wanted to blurt out his thoughts, but he suppressed it. The people around him were already buzzing with gossip at the scene.
“That’s the class one instructor for the sixth year fire course, Zhou Yu! What’s he doing?”
“Did I hear that right?? Did Zhou Yu really say what I think he said? A challenge?! With that guy with Zheng Kai? Is he even a student? What’s the instructor doing that for?”
“Who’s that guy? Does the instructor hate him or somethin—hold on! Bai Yunfei?! Is that what instructor Zhou Yu said? I swear I’ve heard this name before!”
“Isn’t the new instructor for the crating class called Bai Yunfei? Are they the same person? No way!”
“Him?! Are you kidding?! He looks like he’s in his twenties! What’s he playing at being the instructor?! He looks more like a student than instructor!”
“I think I’ve heard the crafting instructor is a genius from the Crafting School. And I also heard that the new disciple of their headmaster Zi Jin is a young man. Don’t you think it might be him?”
“If it is, then….I might know why instructor Zhou Yu is challenging him. Two of the seven students joining the crafting class are the students instructor Zhou Yu is proud of most. Now that they’re Bai Yunfei’s students, you can’t really blame him for getting angry. He’s probably sulking about it and wants to put the new instructor in his place, you bet?”
“Really? Instructor Zhou Yu isn’t all that bad, but he’s a little impulsive. No other instructor would like their star students being taken, but only he would do something like this. I heard when Bai Yunfei came onto the academy grounds three days ago, he fought with instructor Zhou Yu there, there has to be a grudge between them!”
“I saw what happened that day! I didn’t think that was Bai Yunfei at first, he was super amazing! He beat the mid-stage Soul Exalt Wu Yang in one move and then stopped instructor Zhou Yu’s attack like it was nothing. They didn’t fight, but he’s definitely super strong.”
“I never thought there’d be such fun right before the class would even start, haha! A showdown between instructors? I’ve barely seen any of those! Wonder how Bai Yunfei’s going to react.”
“He shouldn’t be, right? Instructor Zhou Yu is a peak late-stage Soul Exalt, aside from the Soul King instructors, he’s one of the strongest instructors the academy has. Even if Bai Yunfei’s strong, he’s only a mid-stage Soul Exalt, how could he possibly beat instructor Zhou Yu?”
“That’s not for certain either though. It’s his first day teaching here and he’s already getting a challenge. If he doesn’t address that now, how’s he going to continue teaching?”
“……”
In a short ten seconds, the entire area was already talking about the fight. Though it was very noisy with their chattering, Bai Yunfei could understand what they were saying for the most part. Some of these people were making some sense though, there was a ‘reason’ behind this fight.
Zheng Kai had called it earlier. It was because of the fact that Zhou Yu’s students were ‘stolen’ from him that this happened….
None of the students or instructors were moving to intervene with the situation either, much to Bai Yunfei’s surprise. They were all expectant to see how Bai Yunfei would deal with this situation with an almost sadistic eye.
“Bai Yunfei, you are a new instructor, and I am but an instructor that wishes to see the might of the Crafting School. Comparing notes between instructors is a rather common thing here, we fight fairly and without fear of severely harming the other….” Zhou Yu cupped his hands together with a voice as sweet as honey, “Are you willing to take the challenge or not?”
His final words were a little imperious sounding, as if daring Bai Yunfei to refuse to challenge and be labeled a timid coward.
This was his way of knocking Bai Yunfei off his high horse without much trouble to himself. This way, it’d show just how weak the crafting instructor and how his strength was by far lower than his mystique. By making a fool of Bai Yunfei, he’d be able to vent off his own anger.
Zheng Kai narrowed his eyes as if to rebuke Zhou Yu for his excessiveness. Turning his head to Bai Yunfei, he spoke, “Brother Bai, you shouldn’t have to li—”
But Bai Yunfei held his hand up to stop him. Taking two steps forward, Bai Yunfei’s lips curled into a smile, “This one will accept your challenge, instructor Zhou Yu. This’ll be a warm up exercise before I start my lesson.”