"My teacher once commented on this cultivation method. Some of what he said happened to concern this part."
"I didn't expect you to get stuck on this part too."
"I'll pass on what he said."
Xu Yuan delivered it all in one breath.
"I see," Jiang Xueyao said, understanding dawning on her. "Every word was a pearl. Everything you passed on was important. I understand it now."
"Good," Xu Yuan said.
They smiled at each other.
Finally fooled her, Xu Yuan thought.
He must be cultivating under Headmaster Fu. That's why he hasn't been coming to class, not because of what certain jealous people have been saying, Jiang Xueyao thought.
Just then, the school broadcast crackled to life:
"All grades and classes, please take out your student Communication Talismans and prepare to receive the school's latest notice."
"Repeating the announcement."
"..."
Xu Yuan and Jiang Xueyao took out their Communication Talismans and waited quietly.
Before long,
a steady voice sounded from the talismans:
"Attention, all faculty and students on campus."
“We are relaying an emergency directive from the National Cultivation University Alliance:”
"All faculty and students of every Higher Academy are to assemble and travel together to the Mist Sea for standardized field cultivation."
"The arrangements are as follows:"
"Assembly: each academy will gather by class at the school's central field before seven o'clock tonight."
"All classes this afternoon are canceled. Use the time to settle your personal affairs and prepare for the operation ahead."
"..."
The voice read slowly and gravely. Without anyone noticing, tension spread through the air.
"The Mist Sea? At our cultivation level, we're going to the Mist Sea?"
Disbelief appeared on Jiang Xueyao's face.
"Is the Mist Sea that dangerous?" Xu Yuan asked.
"Extremely dangerous! I can't understand why they'd send students like us there,"