After Chen Mo finished speaking, he lowered his voice and cautiously said, "Let me tell you, Qiu Xiaoyao and Chu Feng don't get along. The Conquest Faction is also the faction that suppresses your Combat Department the most fiercely."
"From now on, you'd better watch out for the Conquest Faction."
"Why?" Lu Chuan asked in confusion. "There's no hatred in this world without cause. There must be a reason the Conquest Faction hates us so much."
"Of course there is."
Chen Mo continued, "On the surface, it's because of competition for resources. After all, there are only so many resources for the pro-war factions, and our two factions are both the most warlike among them."
"Colleagues are natural enemies. The weaker your faction becomes, the more resources the Conquest Faction gets."
"Of course, that's all just something to fool outsiders with."
"The real reason was a great battle twenty years ago."
At this point, Chen Mo abruptly stopped and cautiously glanced at Qiu Xiaoyao. Only after seeing that Qiu Xiaoyao was not paying attention to him did he continue.
"Twenty years ago, the Combat Department had already begun to show signs of decline. In order to dominate once more and restore the Combat Department's former glory,
the head of the Combat Department at the time joined forces with the head of the Conquest Faction. Each brought several hundred elites, and together they infiltrated the Starry Sky Battlefield, intending to ambush and kill a member of the Three-Eyed Race."
"No one knew what exactly happened in that battle."
"In any case, after that battle, the Conquest Faction grew increasingly hostile toward the Combat Department. Whenever it had the chance, it suppressed the Combat Department, and that had continued until today."
"A great battle?"
Lu Chuan frowned. A single battle had caused two major factions to become bitter enemies?
Could it be that the Combat Department had gotten the Conquest Faction's leader killed?
Otherwise, why would the Conquest Faction be hostile to the Combat Department for no reason?
Thinking of this, Lu Chuan hurriedly told Chen Mo his guess.
To his surprise, after hearing Lu Chuan's speculation, Chen Mo stared at him in astonishment. "Your imagination is really something else!"
"The head of the Conquest Faction is still alive and well."
"Then why does the Conquest Faction hate the Combat Department?" Lu Chuan asked, confused.
"How would I know?" Chen Mo did not know the hidden details either.
Meanwhile, inside the dean's office of Conquest Academy.
The head of the Conquest Faction was currently using a mirror to observe everything happening in the plaza.
"Another year, another day for specially recruited students to report in."
"I wonder whether any geniuses will emerge from this batch of specially recruited students."
"That depends on whether our two families have good fortune." A voice suddenly sounded from behind the head of the Conquest Faction.
Yet the head of the Conquest Faction seemed to have expected it. Without even turning around, he asked, "Will our plan continue?"
"Of course it will. I haven't gathered enough strength yet, anyway," the voice said faintly.
"Understood."
The head of the Conquest Faction nodded, then raised his head to look at a painting.
It was a painting of workers carving out a mountain road, and beneath it was a line of words.
Repair the plank road in the open, while secretly crossing at Chencang!
In the plaza.
After exchanging a few barbed words with Chu Feng, Qiu Xiaoyao finally remembered the matter at hand. "Students of the Conquest Faction, come with me."
"Students from other factions are welcome to join our Conquest Faction as well."
"Let's go."
With that, Qiu Xiaoyao turned and left.
The others hurriedly followed.
However, one student who had been standing silently beside Qiu Xiaoyao suddenly spoke up. "I heard that the Combat Department recruited quite a few gifted prodigies this year."
"I hope all you prodigies can ascend the Dragon Tiger Ranking soon, so that an ordinary man like me may witness just how formidable the Combat Department's prodigies truly are."
Those soft words hiding needles, laced with jabs and barbs, instantly enraged many of the geniuses specially recruited by the Combat Department.
Qiu Xiaoyao's arrogance was one thing—after all, he had the strength to back it up.
But who gave a mere student like you the courage to be so arrogant?
Yet in the blink of an eye, the Combat Department's freshmen quieted down.
Because older students told everyone that person's identity.
Luo Ling, a second-year student, the leading figure of the Conquest Faction's younger generation, Qiu Xiaoyao's student, a Sixth-Rank Expert, ranked seventy-third on the Dragon Tiger Ranking!
They could not afford to provoke him.
Forget it, forget it.
The students might let it go, but the Combat Department's teachers would not.
"Our Combat Department may have declined, but we are not something a mere Sixth-Rank Martial Artist can provoke!"
"Once we return, double the freshmen's training!"
A trace of ruthlessness flashed in Chu Feng's eyes as he already began making plans.
"Once this batch of freshmen is settled, their formal cultivation begins!"
"Wake up at six in the morning. First, cultivate martial arts for five hours. After casually eating something, cultivate the Sky Swallowing Art for another five hours."
"Once night falls, spar with each other for ten hours to accumulate practical combat experience!"
"You're all young. Four hours of sleep a day is enough!"
For some reason, Lu Chuan and the other Combat Department freshmen shuddered, as though some Fierce Beast had fixed its eyes upon them.
Time slipped by in a flash.
Before they knew it, the Combat Department had also sent someone to lead the freshmen away.
Following the Combat Department teacher, the Combat Department freshmen arrived at a great hall.
"Students, this is our Combat Department's main hall. Various matters and celebrations will be held here."
After briefly introducing the hall, Chu Feng continued, "As specially recruited students of our Combat Department, each of you will receive one hundred Academic Credits."
"Spend them carefully, and they'll be enough to last you half a year at the academy."
"As for other miscellaneous matters, you may come to this hall to ask. Staff are on duty here twenty-four hours a day."
"Now, go collect your identity cards."
There were only twelve specially recruited students in the Combat Department, so it did not take long for each of them to receive an identity card.
After they had collected them, Chu Feng added, "This identity card not only represents your identity, but also serves as a bank card."
"Academic Credit transactions and Academic Credit transfers will all be conducted through this card. Be sure to protect your identity cards."
At those words, the freshmen immediately tucked their bank cards close against their bodies.
"Next, I'll introduce your accommodations."
"Our Combat Department, like the other smaller factions, lives in Azure Dragon Academy's residential area."
"The residential area is divided into three grades: four-person rooms, two-person rooms, and the villa district."
"A four-person room costs one Academic Credit per month, while a two-person room costs five Academic Credits per month."
"As for the villa district, it costs thirty Academic Credits per month."
Gasp!
So expensive!
Everyone was shocked by Azure Dragon Academy's lion opening its jaws wide.
Taking the cheapest four-person room as an example, it cost one Academic Credit for just one month.
Outside, that would have been enough to rent ten villas!
"Don't think it's expensive. The residential area has a Spirit-Gathering Grand Formation set up by the academy, and the spiritual energy there is several times denser than outside!"
"The higher the grade, the denser the spiritual energy."
"As for the highest-grade villa district, its spiritual energy is one hundred times denser than outside!" Chu Feng said something astonishing.
"Still, I suggest that you live in the cheapest four-person rooms."
"After all, our Combat Department does not cultivate by relying on spiritual energy. Dormitories are merely places to sleep."
"I have an even cheaper method: sleep on the ground outside. It won't cost you a single cent."
"Of course, that's assuming you don't mind losing face."
Before you continue