Mu Bingge and Lou Guanshan suddenly burst into action, charging into the fray like two sharp blades with unstoppable momentum.
Kou Ying could not be bothered to move and called lazily after them,
"Good luck, you two. Leave Ye Buyu's safety to me."
Ye Buyu blinked in bewilderment. "Huh?"
She looked left and right. Kou Ying had driven back all the Calamities around her, leaving an oasis of peace amid the chaos.
She had no idea how things had ended up this way, but why turn down someone powerful willing to carry her?
Ye Buyu was delighted. "Kou Ying, thanks for the effort."
Lou Guanshan and Mu Bingge slaughtered everything in their path, while Ye Buyu waved her gun around behind them, firing indiscriminately. Every so often, she even slapped Kou Ying beside her to show her gratitude.
In the spectators' stands.
One teacher pointed out a problem.
"Is this really all right? Ye Buyu has stayed inside their protective circle the entire time. We can't assess her individual ability."
"With a Healing Type ability, all we can judge is how effective her healing is. Going by Lou Guanshan and Mu Bingge's attitudes, her healing must be excellent. It's just that her method is... a little bizarre."
"A little bizarre? This is enough to give someone a heart attack. Who knows whether she's firing healing bullets or attack bullets? Who taught her this damned healing method?"
The teacher beside him raised a finger. "Shh..."
Then they pointed at Lan Huaiyu ahead of them and silently mouthed:
She's Principal Lan's student. A special recruit.
The teacher who had received the reminder had nothing to say. If she was a student of the Four Symbols Academy, that explained everything.
Hardly any of the students there were normal.
The four Principals had noticed the scene as well.
Ding Ruixue glanced sideways at Lan Huaiyu. "Is this really all right? Arranging for Mu Bingge to protect Ye Buyu-won't that upset the other students?"
"I didn't arrange this." Lan Huaiyu chuckled. "Mu Bingge made that choice herself."
"Oh?"
Ding Ruixue looked surprised. As far as she knew, Mu Bingge had rejected countless teammates arranged by her family and had even publicly declared that she did not need teammates.
Yet now she had chosen to team up with Ye Buyu. There had to be something behind that.
Zhao Zhe's gaze settled on Lou Guanshan. "That physique would suit my path."
Ding Ruixue studied the candidates in the arena. "Lou Guanshan's ability is called [Rock Soul], a very advanced rock ability. Once he reaches the higher tiers, he'll be able to control rocks however he pleases. He really would suit your path.
"After all, your ability is [Mountain Form]. If he wants to learn sweeping, forceful offensive techniques, he'll most likely choose Hua'an University. Provided... Lan Huaiyu doesn't poach him."
Zhao Zhe's expression darkened. Countless candidates chose the Four Symbols Academy, which skimmed off the cream of the crop every year as easily as harvesting chives.
It was enough to make him grit his teeth in resentment.
Lei Yue spoke quietly. "I don't care about the others, but that student named Chu Lie has [Thunder Annihilation]. His ability shares the same origin as mine. Shanhai University is taking him.
"And Su Wuwei, too. Apparently, his ability is [Blazing Sun Karmic Fire]. My university is better suited to teaching elemental abilities."
Not to be outdone, Ding Ruixue said, "Then Beichen University is taking Wan Lan and Kou Ying.
"Wan Lan's [Law of the Flowing Wind] and Kou Ying's [Shadow Judgment] are both suited to learning the way of slaughter.
"Meng He and Yu Qin are good, too. [Mind Hypnosis] paired with [Necromancer] could have unexpected effects on the front lines."
Zhao Zhe grew anxious. "Hey, hey, hey! We're already fighting over students? Then Wei Changming, Guan Xiaomei, Yan Ping, and the others belong to Hua'an University."
Lei Yue slapped the table. "That's greedy! You want all those promising students?"
Ding Ruixue refused to give an inch. "If you ask me, they should all come to Beichen University. I'll teach them!"
Zhao Zhe's cheek twitched. "Now you're going too far!"
The teachers behind the four looked up at the sky as though they had heard nothing.
Can't hear a thing. Can't hear a thing...
The three argued fiercely on the surface, but in truth, all of them were watching Lan Huaiyu's reaction out of the corners of their eyes.
Lan Huaiyu sat as steady as a mountain. "Stop arguing. We should let the students choose for themselves."
All three faces darkened, and they shouted in unison, "They'll all choose the Four Symbols Academy!"
There was no disputing it. Over the years, every top-ranking student had chosen the Four Symbols Academy without exception.
If they let the students choose for themselves, this year would look little different from previous years.
Zhao Zhe sank into his chair, deflated. After a long while, he frowned and asked:
"Lan Huaiyu, you kicked us out of the Four Symbols Academy to establish new universities, then carried the academy all that way back to the Present World. Surely this wasn't the outcome you wanted."
The sudden seriousness silenced all four of them, and they looked toward the arena without a word.
Hua'an University, Beichen University, and Shanhai University.
All three were universities for Awakened established in recent years, and most of their teaching staff had come from the Four Symbols Academy.
The three of them had originally been deans of independent departments within the Four Symbols Academy. At Lan Huaiyu's insistence, however, they had all left the academy and become Principals of the three universities.
What had forced Lan Huaiyu to make that choice was the disaster three years ago, which had shaken the foundations of Great Xia and killed half the students at the Four Symbols Academy.
The [Void Invasion] incident had pushed the apocalypse progress bar from seventy percent to seventy-two percent-a tragedy the [Void Order] had spent years plotting.
That tragedy had left a gap in Great Xia's next generation, with devastating consequences.
Even the Level Ten Calamity [Whale of Wailing], which had stirred up the River of Forgetfulness and caused the sun to cease functioning, had only advanced the progress bar by one percent.
Yet that tragedy had advanced it by a full two percent. The impact of losing half the Four Symbols Academy's students had been far more terrifying than what could be seen with the naked eye.
Society had been thrown into turmoil, and fear had gripped the people.
How many families had been left grieving by the deaths of half those students? During that period, Great Xia had seemed shrouded in dark clouds, gloomy and powerless.
Those dead students could have created so many more futures, but that incident had robbed the world of those possibilities.
It was like a bonfire that needed a steady supply of firewood to sustain its light and heat. Once that fuel ran short, the flames faced the danger of dying out.
For three years, every faction had been under immense pressure. That same pressure had driven the Four Symbols Academy to change its approach to teaching.
Only after Lan Huaiyu moved the Four Symbols Academy back to the Present World had the turmoil in society finally subsided.
Lei Yue clenched his fists and looked at Lan Huaiyu through gritted teeth. "Don't tell me you've lost the courage to train students. And don't tell me the only reason you established the three universities was to reassure the public."
Watching the students bustling about in the arena, Lan Huaiyu gave a calm smile. "Of course not."
"We once concentrated our resources in the Four Symbols Academy, training generation after generation of talented students. That continued for a long time, but it also sowed the seeds of many hidden problems."
Lan Huaiyu looked toward the eliminated students, taking in all their frustration.
"When resources are too concentrated, they keep flowing toward those with stronger abilities. The strong grow stronger, while the weak see that enormous gap, and their despair continues to grow.
"A gap that is too wide will snuff out the potential of ordinary Awakened."
Before you continue