Visitors from Jia Nan Academy

Walking along the path, Xiao Yan looked at the clan grounds, which had suddenly become much emptier, and shook his head helplessly. Jia Nan Academy's recruitment team was arriving in Wutan City today, and more than half the people had run off to watch. By now, the gates of Wutan City were probably already completely blocked by the crowd.

"A bunch of lunatics. Do they think watching from the sidelines will let them pass easily?" Xiao Yan muttered with a shake of his head, then leisurely headed toward the back mountain. This time every day was his fixed period for practicing Fighting Skills, rain or shine.

Only, today seemed to bring something unexpected.

"Brother Yun!"

From far away, Xiao Yan saw the young man's back standing at the edge of the cliff, and he could not help feeling pleasantly surprised.

"Mm, not bad. Five-Star Dou Zhe!" Turning around, Lin Qingyun sized Xiao Yan up and down, then nodded.

"Heh heh!" Xiao Yan gave a simple, honest laugh, though there was also quite a bit of pride in his eyes.

"Let's have a spar," Lin Qingyun said.

"Stop. Let's just pretend we never met!"

Xiao Yan quickly backed away several steps. He was a little afraid—more accurately, Lin Qingyun had already left a bit of a shadow in his heart.

He still remembered how, two months ago, after breaking through to Dou Zhe, he had gone to Lin Qingyun full of joy and fought him.

The result—

Three moves!

Three moves!

He had lost, and so quickly at that.

From then on, he never wanted to spar with Lin Qingyun again.

"That's not up to you. If I don't complete this task, I'm done for," Lin Qingyun said with a smile.

He sighed inwardly. Brother, sorry. Someone at home gave the order. I've got no choice.

Xiao Yan's expression filled with terror, and his steps trembled as he retreated a few paces.

"No!"

His scream pierced the heavens!

"Phew, Brother Yun, weren't you a bit too ruthless?" Rubbing his somewhat bruised face, Xiao Yan looked at Lin Qingyun with a resentful gaze.

But the young man seemed as if it had nothing to do with him, walking at the very front with Ya Fei.

Although this recruitment team had stopped in Wutan City, the area they were responsible for was very broad. Besides Wutan City, it also included several nearby cities.

When Lin Qingyun and the others arrived, they suddenly discovered that the specially designated recruitment square was packed with a sea of people that seemed to have no end in sight, and they could not help being stunned.

On the enormous square, waves of uproar shot into the sky. Countless young people desperately squeezed toward the inside of the square. If not for the troops dispatched by the City Lord's Mansion to maintain order around the edges, these excited crowds would probably have rushed in without caring about anything.

Staring blankly at that sea of people, Lin Qingyun let out a soft sigh after a long while and shook his head in frustration. With things like this, there was no chance of smoothly passing the test today.

"Hmph, pretty boy, out of ideas now?" Seeing Lin Qingyun's gloomy expression, Xiao Yu, who had been chatting happily nearby with Xiao Yan, Xiao Xun'er, and Xiao Mei, immediately gave a smug snort.

Lin Qingyun rolled his eyes and could not be bothered with her.

He also had no idea when he had offended Xiao Yu. In any case, every year when Xiao Yu came back, if she ran into him, she would call him pretty boy.

It seemed that, maybe, back when he was with Xiao Yan, they had accidentally seen Xiao Yu without clothes on.

Other than that, Lin Qingyun could not think of anything else.

At the side, Ya Fei also smiled as if enjoying his misfortune.

"Cousin Xiao Yu, do you have a way?" Seeing that the two of them were about to bicker again, Xiao Yan hurriedly smiled and changed the topic.

"The person in charge of recruitment in Wutan City this time is my instructor. As her proud student, I naturally have a way." Xiao Yu lifted her pretty nose and said with a smile, waving her hand. "Follow me!"

Looking at Xiao Yu as she raised her long, sexy legs and headed toward the other side of the square, Lin Qingyun helplessly spread his hands at Ya Fei. "Forget it. I won't stoop to her level."

"You, why get angry with a girl?" Ya Fei smiled, then followed with Lin Qingyun.

The group followed Xiao Yu around half of the huge square, finally stopping in the western section. This was already at the rear of the square, and fully armed troops had surrounded the place in two or three layers. Their weapons, gleaming coldly, reflected dazzling light under the sun.

Xiao Yu swept her eyes over the tight defenses, gave Lin Qingyun and the others a few instructions, then went forward alone. She took a jade-green token from her robes and spoke softly for a while with a soldier who looked like a general. Only then did she wave at Xiao Yan and the others, signaling for them to come over.

The middle-aged general's somewhat sinister gaze swept inch by inch over Lin Qingyun. Only after a long while did he wave his hand and shout, "Let them pass!"

At the middle-aged general's shout, the extremely tight wall of armored men immediately rang with the orderly sound of armor colliding. A small path just wide enough for one person to pass slowly appeared.

Xiao Yu smiled gratefully at the middle-aged general, put away the green token, raised her chin smugly at Lin Qingyun and the others, then followed the middle-aged general and walked in first.

"I won't go in," Ya Fei said, letting go of Lin Qingyun's hand.

"Mm, I'll come find you when I'm done," Lin Qingyun nodded.

Following behind Xiao Yu, Lin Qingyun and the others also stepped into this human-wall passage. As soon as they entered, everyone felt their skin turn somewhat cold. The faint bloody aura coming from the expressionless soldiers around them gave the few people, who had never seen such a scene before, a suffocating sense of oppression.

"Only people who have been on the battlefield and survived would have such an aura!" Slowly breathing out, Lin Qingyun's extraordinary composure allowed him to adapt to this pressure at once.

Moreover, Lin Qingyun also had a feeling that even if he possessed strength comparable to a Dou Shi, he still would not be able to force his way through this wall of men with brute strength.

Lin Qingyun's pace could not help quickening slightly.

The short distance of barely over ten meters felt as difficult to finish as hundreds or thousands of meters. When their feet finally stepped out of the last stretch, everyone discovered that their palms were already covered in cold sweat.

Her pretty face slightly pale, Xiao Yu gave the middle-aged general a reproachful, bitter smile. "Senior Ke, were you deliberately messing with us?"

"Heh heh, this was Instructor Ruo Lin's instruction. If you want to take the back door, you naturally have to undergo a little test. You all did quite well. Every one of my subordinates is a man who sleeps beside corpses. If someone's composure were just a little worse, they'd be scared limp before getting halfway through." A trace of a smile appeared on the middle-aged general's wooden face. His gaze swept over Xiao Yu and the others, finally stopping on Lin Qingyun and the group, and a bit of approval surfaced in his pupils. "Looks like Instructor Ruo Lin may be able to receive some good students this time."

Xiao Yu waved at the middle-aged general in annoyance, then pulled Xiao Mei and Xiao Ning, whose heels had already gone a little weak, and quickly headed toward the inside of the square.

At the center of the square, an open green tent entered their view. From here, Lin Qingyun and the others could already see the dense sea of people outside.

In several passages, young men and women who had occasionally passed the test walked excitedly toward the inside of the square.

"Yu'er!" Just as they neared the large tent, a woman's laughter entered the ears of Lin Qingyun and the others.

A red figure quickly pounced over, then cheerfully hugged Xiao Yu in one motion. Her hand rubbed Xiao Yu's slender waist as she teased, "Let this young lady feel and see if you've gained weight."

"Yin Nu, get away!" Xiao Yu laughed and scolded as she pushed the woman in her arms away, then turned to introduce her to Lin Qingyun and the others. "This is my good sister from Jia Nan Academy. Her name is Xue Ni, and she's a Four-Star Dou Zhe."

Hearing this, Lin Qingyun and the others cast their gazes toward the red-clothed woman before them. Her slightly pretty cheeks bore a brilliant smile, and her long brown hair was casually tied into a ponytail. The pair of ample breasts before her chest could practically be called extravagant, paired with a slim waist and a perky, rounded bottom. Although her looks were a little inferior to Xiao Yu's, this fiery, devilish figure was extremely likely to make men drool. In the brief time it took to introduce her, Lin Qingyun had already noticed that many of the young men who had passed the test and entered were casting vague, furtive glances over the surging waves before the woman's chest.

Xiao Yu affectionately held Xue Ni, and judging from the expression on her face, the two clearly had an excellent relationship.

"They're all my clansmen. This is Xun'er, hehe, beautiful, right? But she's already taken. The one who rooted up this flower is that pig Xiao Yan. This is Xiao Mei, also quite good. This is my younger brother Xiao Ning. And this..." When her eyes shifted to Lin Qingyun, whose face was full of laziness, Xiao Yu tilted her head and whispered into the ear of the woman named Xue Ni, "He's the Lin Qingyun I told you about before."

Her eyes first swept over Xun'er and Xiao Mei. Xue Ni's eyes shone as she exclaimed, "Wow, your family really has plenty of little beauties. If they enter Jia Nan Academy, it'd be strange if they didn't charm those male beasts out of their wits."

"Huh? Xiao Yan?" After her exclamation ended, Xue Ni froze, then stared at Xiao Yan in astonishment. "This is the cousin you said was always stuck at the third stage of Dou Qi? He's quite handsome."

"But little brother Qingyun is still more handsome!" Xue Ni suddenly looked toward Lin Qingyun, her eyes practically shining.

"Ah?" Xiao Yu's mouth twitched, and she covered her face with her hand as if she did not know the woman beside her.

"Of course, Yu'er, you're still my... mmm!" Xue Ni smiled, but before she could finish speaking, Xiao Yu covered her mouth with one palm.

Xiao Yu looked around with a flushed face, only to happen to meet Lin Qingyun's meaningful gaze, making her even more embarrassed.

"All right, I'll take you to the test!" Xiao Yu said with a serious expression.

After breaking free from the demon hand, Xue Ni said with a grin, "Hehe, let's go. Follow me, I'll take you." Just as she was about to turn around, Xue Ni's steps suddenly paused, and she tilted her head with a smile. "Oh, right, I forgot to tell you. Luo Bu is also in this recruitment team. Also, on the way here, I heard he advanced to Four-Star Dou Zhe."

Hearing this, Xiao Yu's smiling face immediately darkened, and she said impatiently, "Why did that annoying guy come too?"

"What else, if not to see our great beauty Xiao Yu? All along the way, he's been thinking about you day and night." Xue Ni teased.

Xiao Yu lightly bit her silver teeth. After her expression shifted for a while, she suddenly turned her head and stared at Lin Qingyun.

"What are you looking at me for? Don't even think about making me pretend to have some kind of relationship with you in front of whoever that is. I'm not interested in you, and I don't want to pretend." Seeing Xiao Yu's gaze, how could Lin Qingyun not understand what this woman was plotting? He immediately gave a cold laugh, then ignored her furious stare and swaggered toward the tent.

"Uh... Yu'er, your charm seems to have dropped... For such a good thing, who knows how many people in the academy would fight until their scalps split open over it? Little brother Qingyun actually ignored you?" Looking at Lin Qingyun's back, Xue Ni seemed somewhat unable to believe it as she spoke.

Xiao Yu gritted her silver teeth fiercely and said angrily, "That pretty boy is a freak. How can he possibly be judged by common sense? Other than that abnormal demoness in the academy, have you ever seen anyone go from never having cultivated to becoming a Dou Zhe in one year?"

"..."

Hearing this, Xue Ni's mouth opened slightly. Her playful expression was finally covered by shock. She truly had not expected that this rather handsome-looking young man actually possessed such terrifying talent. Was this still the pretty boy Xiao Yu had spoken of?