Recruitment Standards

At that moment, the electronic broadcast sounded again.

"Dear passengers, hello. The airship has left the turbulent airflow zone and entered a safe area. We are about to enter Cloud City's airspace. The Soul Guide Shield on the deck has been activated. Passengers may enter the deck from the rear to enjoy the scenery along the way. Please stay safe while viewing."

As soon as the announcement ended, quite a few people inside the airship left their seats and headed up to the deck.

Tang Chenfeng glanced at Ye Hongling, then looked toward Ye Jiulong and the other two.

Ye Jiulong smiled. "If you want to go, go ahead. Your grandmother, your teacher, and I will stay here and look after Ling'er."

Having received Ye Jiulong's permission, Tang Chenfeng unfastened his seat belt and headed up to the airship's deck.

By then, many people were already standing on the deck. Most of them held up their Soul Tool Communicators, using the camera systems inside to record the surrounding scenery.

The airship was about to sail above a sea of clouds. Ahead lay thick clouds, while behind them stretched a deep blue sky. More strangely, when they looked up, they could even see the moon fairly clearly, creating a truly peculiar feeling.

Not only that, they could even see several airships in the distance that looked exactly like the one they were riding.

Cloud City only held recruitment once every three years, and it was naturally not limited to the cities around it. People from distant cities could come as well, but ticket prices rose according to the distance. Naturally, such prices were usually beyond what ordinary people could afford.

Tang Chenfeng also wanted to go to the edge of the deck and look out, but there were simply too many people. No matter how hard he tried to squeeze through, he could not get past them.

Just as Tang Chenfeng was feeling somewhat frustrated, he suddenly turned around and saw someone standing in an empty corner at the rear of the deck. She appeared to be a girl. Though he could only see her from behind, that silhouette alone was already striking, especially her sky-blue hair, which nearly reached her waist. Yet despite being so eye-catching, no one stood near her. Unlike the others, she was not gazing up at the sky. Instead, she had been looking down the entire time.

Since he could not squeeze through the crowd ahead anyway, he might as well check out that spot. Thinking this, Tang Chenfeng walked over and found a place about three meters away from the girl, then looked into the distance.

Now that he was closer, Tang Chenfeng could see her profile. Even from the side, she was breathtaking.

She looked about the same age as Ye Hongling. Her skin was fair and delicate, as though it could break with the slightest touch. Her rosy cheeks were pale with a hint of red, and her eyes, like her hair, were sky-blue. Yet they carried a depth that should not have belonged to someone her age. Paired with the faint melancholy in her expression, they could not help but stir pity in those who saw her.

Following her gaze, Tang Chenfeng saw the land below them. As far as the eye could see stretched a vast plain, crossed by several rivers that converged before eventually flowing into the sea. Looking at it like this had its own unique charm.

As Tang Chenfeng watched the ground below, he looked up toward the girl again and discovered that she had turned her head at the same moment. Their gazes met directly.

Their eyes met, yet neither of them made a sound. Neither spoke, and the atmosphere immediately became somewhat awkward.

Just as Tang Chenfeng was about to greet her, she spoke first.

"What are you looking at?" Her voice was lovely, as crisp and clear as the chime of wind bells.

"I... I'm looking at the scenery on the ground," Tang Chenfeng said.

"I see. Just like me." The girl turned back toward the ground and continued watching.

"Do you know? These plains below used to be towering mountains, one after another. Later, they were dug away and taken to places where they never should have gone. Not just here—many places on this planet are no longer what they once were."

The girl's tone was calm, yet a trace of sorrow seemed to linger beneath that calmness. Tang Chenfeng did not quite understand what she meant and was about to ask.

But at that moment, someone in front cried out, "Look ahead! That must be Cloud City!"

Tang Chenfeng's attention was immediately drawn over.

By then, they had already traveled above the clouds. Directly ahead of the airship, though still some distance away, they could clearly see what looked like a massive island floating in the air. There was no need to say what it was. Everyone knew.

From afar, the island seemed to be filled with towering mountains. But upon closer inspection, one would discover that those mountain-like structures were actually enormous artificial buildings. The less conspicuous objects beneath those skyscrapers were the houses everyone aboard the airship found more familiar. Buildings that could be called steel triangles on the ground looked like clumps of grass here, so tiny before a true forest.

People often compared clouds to a sea of clouds, but here, it no longer seemed like a metaphor. Like an island upon the ocean, Cloud City floated above the cloud sea.

Only after drawing closer did they realize they had been wrong again. Cloud City was not merely an island. It was more like a continent suspended in the sky. Before it, the airship was as tiny as a bee facing a giant tree.

"Are we almost there?" Tang Chenfeng said excitedly. Back on the ground, he had imagined Cloud City countless times, but he had never expected it to be so magnificent and grand, far beyond anything he had imagined.

No one answered the boy's question. When Tang Chenfeng turned around, he discovered that the breathtaking girl had vanished at some point.

Just then, the electronic broadcast sounded again.

"Dear passengers, hello. We are about to arrive at our destination, Cloud City. Please come down from the deck, return to the cabin, and fasten your seat belts. We are about to enter Cloud City's port. Please return to the cabin and fasten your seat belts."

Although many people wanted to remain outside and watch the airship enter Cloud City, rules were rules. With no other choice, everyone had to return to the cabin.

Tang Chenfeng returned to his seat and fastened his seat belt.

He looked to the side and saw that Ye Hongling had mostly recovered. She was probably fine now. What awaited them next was the assessment that would determine whether they could enter Cloud City.

Zhao Gaobo had told Tang Chenfeng and the others that Cloud City's assessment differed from those on the ground. On the ground, students who graduated from a particular school would usually choose an academy suited to their qualifications. In Cloud City, however, it was completely different. There, students did not choose academies. Instead, academy teachers selected students based on their performance. The better one performed, the more likely one was to be chosen by one or even several outstanding academies. After that, it depended on them.

Cloud City was also bustling at the moment. Its recruitment of students from the ground once every three years was, in fact, a way of bringing fresh blood into Cloud City. Since Cloud City only recruited once every three years, its academies likewise only accepted a new class of students every three years.

For the academies, this opportunity was equally rare. Recruiting better students before other academies did was the best possible outcome for their own academy. But there were only so many outstanding students, so whether they could recruit any sometimes depended on the strength of the teachers sent to recruit them.

Everything in Cloud City was filled with a sense of the future. For example, its roads were built in the sky. These metal pathways extended in every direction. As long as one had a Soul Tool Vehicle or a civilian Mecha, one could travel anywhere in Cloud City.

At that moment, a Soul Tool Vehicle sped along one of the roads, followed by a Soul Tool School Bus. The school bus bore the words Saint Luo Soul Master Academy, making it obvious that they were teachers from a Soul Master Academy who had come to recruit new students.

A man and a woman sat inside the Soul Tool Vehicle. They were clearly two teachers from that academy. The female teacher was driving, while the male teacher sat in the front passenger seat.

The female teacher was tall and curvaceous. Her purple hair was tied into a high ponytail, adding a touch of heroism to her appearance. The male teacher beside her was broad-shouldered with a narrow waist, and his short black hair made him look neat and capable. He also wore sunglasses, giving him a particularly cool appearance.

Yet with such a beautiful woman seated beside him, the male teacher seemed entirely unmoved. His hands rested behind his head, and he leaned comfortably against the seat. Though his sunglasses obscured part of his face, the visible portion was enough to show that he was an exceptionally handsome man.

"I remember you never had any interest in this sort of thing before. Why did you suddenly decide to come along today?" the beautiful female teacher asked first.

"If I said I suddenly felt like it, would you believe me?" the male teacher replied calmly.

The female teacher snorted. "Suddenly felt like it? I've known you for nearly ten years. You've been loafing around at my academy for so long, yet you don't have a single student. Even if you suddenly got interested, isn't this far too late?"

But the male teacher suddenly said seriously, "I'm serious this time. And let me make this clear beforehand: I can help the academy select high-quality students, but the students I choose must be taught by me, not other teachers."

"What!" A trace of anger appeared in the beautiful teacher's voice.

"What are you thinking? We believe in teaching according to aptitude. What if they don't fit your courses at all?"

"That won't be a problem. I believe they'll be interested. Besides, if I insist on choosing them, you probably can't stop me, can you, Principal?"

Yet faced with this somewhat arrogant teacher, the principal did not dare get angry. This involved a secret that, for now, only she knew.

"But that would be unfair to everyone else," the principal said after calming herself down.

"Then how about this? Among the students I choose, you have to give me at least two. When the time comes, just make me the homeroom teacher of Class Six."

"Class Six? Are you sure? The ones who go to Class Six are basically all hopeless cases. Even if you pick two good students, then..." The principal had not even finished speaking.

"But without that, it wouldn't be enough to appease everyone, right?" the male teacher replied.

"Fine, do whatever you want."