Chapter 74

In the night, Nangfeng City was cool with a gentle breeze.

However, the city was still bustling with activity. The large crowds that had left Bai Ling Mountain were now flooding into the city, making the city even more lively.

Li Luo and his group's grand examination gathering was set at the Qingfeng Tower in Nangfeng City.

The Qingfeng Tower was built by the Qingfeng River, hence its name. The environment here was beautiful, and it was considered the most upscale restaurant in Nangfeng City. This gathering was sponsored by the wealthy young lady, Lu Qing'er.

Lu Qing'er directly booked an entire floor of the Qingfeng Tower, and the young men and women celebrated to their heart's content, making it quite lively.

Li Luo and Lu Qing'er sat together, sipping a couple of drinks. The fair-skinned and crystal-clear girl had a faint blush on her face, which, under the soft lighting, made her the most beautiful presence in the room.

A classmate came over to toast, smiling and said, "Still, Brother Luo is awesome. With Sister Qing, you two combined to win the top two places in the grand examination. This will surely become a beautiful story in our Nangfeng Academy in the future."

Upon hearing this, Li Luo gave the guy a glare. Such talk would only be acceptable in Nangfeng City; if it were in the capital of Daxia, he would be beaten up when he got home!

Lu Qing'er, however, smiled and lightly clinked glasses with the other person.

"Damn, Song Yunfeng, that traitor! He's clearly from our Nangfeng Academy, yet he helped other academies to harm Sister Qing! He's not a good person at all!" Some classmates, after drinking too much, started to curse with red faces.

This cursing immediately drew the agreement of others, each filled with righteous indignation. After all, being betrayed was indeed hard to accept.

Among the crowd, Tifa Qing came over with a cup of wine to find Lu Qing'er, her cheeks full of shame. "Qing'er, I'm really sorry for what happened before. If I hadn't left the mark, you wouldn't have been ambushed by them."

Lu Qing'er shook her head with a faint smile and lightly clinked glasses with Tifa Qing, offering some comfort. However, Li Luo keenly noticed that her eyes carried a hint of coldness, indicating that Lu Qing'er had already marked Tifa Qing as someone not worth associating with, perhaps because she had already placed Tifa Qing in the category of people she wouldn't interact with.

After all, regardless of whether Tifa Qing was intentional or not, her foolishness was something Lu Qing'er didn't like.

In friendship, such foolish people would inadvertently cause you a lot of trouble and then act innocent and pitiful, which was quite annoying.

"Li Luo, I always used to target you, please don't hold it against me. That was all because I lacked foresight. Your performance today, I think, truly matches up to Senior Jiang," Tifa Qing said to Li Luo in a low voice.

Li Luo smiled and waved his hand, not saying much more to her.

After apologizing, Tifa Qing seemed to notice Lu Qing'er's cold attitude and stepped back on her own.

Li Luo looked at Lu Qing'er and found that after Tifa Qing's apology, her expression had become even colder. He asked, somewhat puzzled, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just that fools are really annoying," Lu Qing'er said with a blank expression.

Li Luo became even more puzzled, but he decided not to guess the mind of a girl, so he changed the topic, saying, "Song Yunfeng, although he was eliminated from the top ten, wouldn't he still get a spot with us?"

In the preliminary exam rankings, Song Yunfeng was second. If the spots were allocated based on these rankings, Song Yunfeng would definitely get one.

"In theory, yes."

Lu Qing'er thought for a moment and said, "But our old dean is known for being stingy and petty. Song Yunfeng betrayed us, almost costing Nangfeng Academy its golden reputation as the top academy in Tian Shu County. I think he won't let Song Yunfeng get his way easily."

Li Luo nodded, thinking that this would make things more comfortable.

Otherwise, he would have to drag someone like Song Yunfeng into the Holy玄 Star Academy, which would be quite frustrating.

Now, Li Luo found the old dean's petty nature somewhat endearing.

While Li Luo and Lu Qing'er were celebrating, on the floor above the Qingfeng Tower, a group of people were looking down with a playful gaze.

At the center of their table sat a girl in a yellow dress. She was beautiful, with delicate features and slightly thin eyebrows that gave her a cold and stern look.

She listened to the faint curses against Song Yunfeng coming from below, and a hint of anger flashed in her eyes.

The girl was named Song Qiuyu, Song Yunfeng's older sister at the Holy玄 Star Academy. She had just arrived in Nangfeng City and received some bad news.

"I never thought the top student in this Tian Shu County grand examination would be that waste of a young lord," said a short-haired man in green, playing with his wine glass and smiling.

"Jingming, he's not a waste anymore. Winning the top place in the grand examination shows that this young lord has some level," Song Qiuyu said.

The man she called Jingming was named Tifa Jingming, Tifa Qing's older brother.

"But the strength of Tian Shu County is indeed not up to par. I heard that in some of the stronger counties, there are already people at the Ten Imprints realm in this grand examination," another young man said with a light laugh.

"Mo Ling, I know your Beiqiu County has a strong foundation and ranks among the top ten counties in terms of strength. Tian Shu County is only in the middle tier among the hundred counties of Daxia, so don't mock us," Song Qiuyu said with a hint of helplessness.

Mo Ling came from a prominent family in Beiqiu County, which had a deep foundation. Beiqiu County was much larger and stronger than Tian Shu County, so he naturally had a slight sense of superiority when looking at Tian Shu County.

Mo Ling laughed and said, "I have no intention of mocking. Tian Shu County has produced Jiang Qing'e, which is enough to make people respect it."

Mo Ling clearly had feelings for Song Qiuyu, and accompanying her back to Tian Shu County had a protective tone to it.

They were all students of the Holy玄 Star Academy.

Mo Ling could see that Song Qiuyu was somewhat dissatisfied with the gathering of these young men and women below, so he smiled and said, "Speaking of which, these young guys will be our juniors in the future. Why don't we go down and say hello?"

As he spoke, he stood up.

Song Qiuyu said, "Forget it, they're just some young guys."

Mo Ling waved his hand and said, "As their future seniors, I think it's necessary to let them get familiar with the style of the Holy玄 Star Academy."

With that, he turned and walked down to the next floor.

Seeing this, Song Qiuyu smiled helplessly and warned, "Don't go too far, it wouldn't be good to scare them."

Tifa Jingming finished his drink in one gulp and said with a smile, "A long night, watching a good show isn't bad either."

Neither of them was worried about Mo Ling, as he was at the second stage of the Master of Patterns realm, the "Life Pattern" stage. To Mo Ling, the young men and women below, who hadn't even reached the Ten Imprints realm, were like chicks just out of the nest.

The gap between the Ten Imprints realm and the Master of Patterns realm would be the most vivid lesson these young men and women would learn before entering the Holy玄 Star Academy.