Chapter 30

Go on, stare! Stand there dumbfounded!

Anyone who heard something like that looked just as foolish!

Zhong Kun murmured, "Li Yang must be joking, right?"

Zhong Ruirui spread her hands. "Who knows? Maybe she's already in cahoots with the Star Magic Department. You know how underhanded and sly those Star Magic people are, rotten to the core. Maybe they put on that whole act for us."

Zhong Kun actually searched for the Agronomy Department on his phone, then said, "She probably won't go to the Agronomy Department. Li Yang looks simple and honest, but she's actually sharp as a tack. There's no way she'd ruin her own prospects... I reckon there's something fishy going on. I'll go sound her out."

Zhong Ruirui asked, "What, do you know her well?"

"Ahem, we're acquainted."

"Are you confident?"

Zhong Kun said modestly, "I'll do my best."

"Go on, then!" Zhong Ruirui added, "You can promise her more benefits. The Star Magic Department and we each have six provincial top scorers this year. If we can bring Li Yang over, we'll have seven!"

There were thirty-six major provinces in Huaxia. Eighteen provincial top scorers had chosen Zhongdu Military Academy this year, and aside from Li Yang, the other seventeen all came from prominent families. What department they would major in had been largely decided from birth.

Six of them were joining the Star Combat Department, six the Star Magic Department, and the remaining five had fairly high Spirit Points. Barring any surprises, they would join the Spirit Department.

Star Combat and Star Magic had always competed over everything, even something like which side had more provincial top scorers.

Zhong Kun said, "All right, I'll give it a try."

After asking where Li Yang was, he strode over with his head high and his chest puffed out.

He'd finally caught a chance to show Li Yang his Star Apertures and Physique Points.

Two Star Apertures and 199 Physique Points!

Surely Li Yang would cry with envy!

And that was the bargaining chip Zhong Kun planned to use to persuade her. All he had to do was tell her, "Come to the Star Combat Department, and I'll help you open two Star Apertures in a month..." Surely she'd be incredibly tempted.

That was the Zhong Family's confidence!

First and Second Grade Star-Attracting Pills, Breakthrough Pills, and Aperture Stabilizing Pills were freely available for use, and he could even arrange for someone to take Li Yang to cultivate in the quarantine zone, where the Starlight was denser than in the second-class dorms.

As he pictured all this, Zhong Kun caught a faint glimpse of Li Yang from behind.

She was sitting at a dining table piled high with all kinds of delicacies, eating with relish.

Zhong Kun: "..." Was it really that good? Watching her had actually made him a little hungry.

"Zhong Kun," Li Yang spotted him first. "Good afternoon."

Zhong Kun walked over with a smile and looked intently at her heart. His Spirit Points had risen too, to a full 100 points, enough to see clearly...

Ah!

Zhong Kun froze in place.

Li Yang called out to him, "Want to try this bacon and egg roll? It's really good."

Zhong Kun remained frozen for a few seconds, then hurried over to her and asked, "You... you've drawn Starlight into your body?"

He could see Starlight gathering around her heart, but he couldn't quite make out her Star Apertures.

There were two possibilities: either her Star Aperture had just opened and was unstable, or her realm was higher than his, and so were her Spirit Points.

Impossible. It absolutely couldn't be the second possibility. Li Yang had only just drawn Starlight into her body, at most.

Li Yang remembered what she'd heard at the trading post and knew Zhong Kun had been planning to show off in front of her.

"Ahem..." Li Yang said tactfully, "Yes, I just..."

Before she could finish, however, Yu Hongyuan volunteered himself.

As her underling, he naturally had to speak up for his boss at a time like this. Yu Hongyuan's voice rang out loud and clear: "My Sister Li drew Starlight into her body ages ago! She's already opened three Star Apertures!"

Zhong Kun: "..."

Yu Hongyuan continued, "She broke through to her third Star Aperture on the way to Central Capital. We were attacked by cultists, and Li Yang took out a First Grade cultist in no time flat before breaking through. She didn't even need a Realm-Breaking Pill!"

Zhong Kun: "..."

Li Yang said modestly, "It wasn't that impressive. Just a few accidents."

Then she looked at Zhong Kun and asked again, "How about it? The bacon in this roll is fresh and savory, and the egg is silky and tender. It's really good."

How could Zhong Kun pay any attention to a bacon and egg roll? He was falling apart inside. He'd spent months preparing to show off, only for it to be put in solitary confinement before the curtain even rose... Looking like he was about to cry, he asked, "You really opened three Star Apertures?"

Li Yang: "..." Actually, it wasn't three. It was four.

Zhong Kun asked again, "And you hammered a cultist to death?"

Li Yang said, "Just an accident. He wasn't very strong."

Zhong Kun: "..." He didn't want to talk anymore. He didn't want to say another word. This woman was his bane!

Zhong Kun had come over full of swagger, only to trudge back with his heart reduced to dead ashes.

Zhong Ruirui hurried up to him and asked, "How did it go? Did you persuade her?"

Zhong Kun gave a miserable smile. "Sister Rui, let her go. Our Star Combat Department's temple is too small to house such a great Buddha."

Zhong Ruirui: "???"

Zhong Qian also returned, his face grave. He had seen Li Yang's three Star Apertures clearly and had lost all desire to eat. He simply said, "I'm going back to cultivate."

What the others did had nothing to do with Li Yang. She thought the opening banquet was quite good.

Aside from the noise at the beginning, she'd had a feast afterward.

It was worth every bit of its ten-thousand-yuan price tag. Once she had money, she'd go back to the main cafeteria and indulge herself again!

The opening banquet wasn't even over before the school forum exploded.

A flood of posts popped up, all asking, "Where's the Agronomy Department?"

"There really is an Agronomy Department?"

"On whether Li Yang, 'Donghua Province's top scorer / Limit Physique holder / opener of three Star Apertures,' will really join the Agronomy Department."

The post sparked a heated discussion, with plenty of people weighing in.

Most people believed, "There's no way she'd join the Agronomy Department. She's just being a smart aleck!"

"That joke isn't funny. What if she offends the three major combat departments..."

"Heh, that's the confidence of a Heavenly Chosen. She isn't afraid of offending people."

"What if—and I mean what if—she really does join the Agronomy Department? What will you all say then?"

"Then she really is an idiot. The farther Star Wielders go, the harder the road gets. For Star Wielders like us from ordinary backgrounds, our greatest support is our teachers and fellow disciples. And the name of one of Zhongdu Military Academy's three major combat departments is a gleaming medal wherever you go!"

"Exactly. If I had a Seventh Grade grandmaster as my mentor, I could walk sideways through the Astral Realm!"

"Speaking of which, who's the dean of the Agronomy Department? What realm are they in?"

"Who knows? It can't be high, or those three students wouldn't have failed to graduate for twenty years."

"Still, you have to admit, those three holdouts are pretty impressive. Our school's tuition is no joke. If an ordinary person lasted four or five years without graduating, they'd pack up their bedding and go home. But those three have stayed ten or twenty years."

"What are you talking about? Tuition depends on the department. The three major combat departments charge ridiculously high fees, but that isn't necessarily true of the others. The Beast Taming Department only charges ten merit points a year, so maybe the Agronomy Department doesn't charge tuition at all."

In the Agronomy Department.

The trio of holdouts were huddled together, scrolling through posts on the forum.

They weren't qualified to attend the opening banquet, because not one of the three was a teaching assistant, and returning students were forbidden from going to sponge a meal.

The three could only clutch their phones and squat at the edge of a field, watching the opening banquet's "

livestream

" on the forum.

Someone really had filmed the famous "Li Yang vs. the teaching assistants of seven major departments" scene and posted the video on the forum.

Feng Yiqiao went pale when he heard the preferential treatment the Star Support Department had promised Li Yang.

When Xia Putao heard the Pill Department's and Weapon Forging Department's terms, he was practically drooling enough to water a wheat field.

Lü Shunshun rubbed her chin and said with certainty, "Senior Brother, I think the junior sister who was already at our lips is about to fly away."

Those terms were outrageous.

No matter how much Li Yang liked agronomy, surely she'd be wavering by now.

Then they heard Li Yang's clear, decisive voice: "Sorry, teachers, but I've already chosen a department. I'm joining the Agronomy Department."

The three were stunned. They hadn't expected Li Yang to choose the Agronomy Department at the opening ceremony, even when faced with such generous offers delivered right to her door.

Why? Why?!

Ah, they all remembered Li Yang's radiant smile at the same time-because I like crops.

She truly loved agronomy...

Her love was pure, without a drop of water mixed in.

All three were moved speechless by that purity.

Feng Yiqiao's nose tingled and his eyes reddened. He sprang to his feet and said, "Since she's chosen the Agronomy Department so firmly, we can't let her down."

Lü Shunshun and Xia Putao looked at their senior brother.

Feng Yiqiao wiped the tears streaming down his face and said, "I'll go find our teacher. We have to do everything we can to get her the things the other departments promised!"

What was so great about a Seventh Grade grandmaster mentor?

Their teacher was Eighth Grade!

What was so great about the Star Support Department covering all expenses until graduation?

Surely their teacher still had some savings!

As for the second-class dorm the Pill Department offered...

Ha, even a first-class dorm couldn't match the Starlight density in their teacher's private courtyard!

And that growth-type Star Weapon... he really didn't know whether their teacher could provide one...

Either way, he, Feng Yiqiao, was going all out. He'd show their teacher this video. Their junior sister had come to the Agronomy Department so wholeheartedly; they absolutely couldn't let her down!

Lü Shunshun and Xia Putao were fired up too. They raised their arms and shouted, "You can do it, Senior Brother!"

Chapter 30

By the time Feng Yiqiao reached the little courtyard halfway up the mountain, more than half the fire in his heart had cooled.

The courtyard was quiet and secluded, with dense Starlight drifting out of it. Even a poor student and veteran holdout like him could clearly sense it.

Thanks to the dense Starlight, the plants around it were all quite spirited, and a few little flowers and blades of grass even hopped about, giggling like children.