Chapter 481: Unlucky Sea Tribe Academy
In the Beast Academy, groups huddle together for warmth; it’s survival of the fittest, where the strong prevail. Perhaps this is the scene I observe in the Beast Academy.
After a semester of study… no, for the Beast Academy, I prefer to call it “taming.” After one semester of taming, each academy in the Beast Academy has turned its students into beasts belonging to a collective, their instincts gradually awakened. Their admiration for the strong prevents them from rising against them.
Of course, there are significant differences among various Beast Academies regarding this point. If I were to think from a different perspective, I would find this change unacceptable.
However… I didn’t delve deeper into this, as it seemed pointless. According to most people’s views, this is merely a small price to pay for gaining power.
What intrigues me more is the power system mastered by the Beast Academy. Within it, I see deep shadows of a body cultivation power system, but it is not purely body cultivation; rather, it is a special power system shaped by combining their own racial characteristics.
Not all Beast Academies operate on such a body cultivation-derived power system. For example, the Charming Fox Academy is primarily based on a special mental power illusion system.
During this period, I deliberately went to the Cute Cat Academy to see Yu Mengrui, the cat girl who had once fed me cat food and is a Child of Fortune.
However, she could no longer recognize me at this moment. Or rather, most of the other academy students who once had an impression of me no longer recognized me; the change in my appearance had not spread to the other academies.
Yu Mengrui seems to have also changed significantly. Compared to her previous innocence and timidity, she has become somewhat colder and has risen to a leadership position among the Cat People Academy, her eyes lacking the innocence they once held.
Upon seeing me, she would greet me with a tone of flattery towards a teacher. After all, the scale of the Witch Academy vastly exceeds that of their Cat People Academy, which reflects a primal fear and flattery towards the strong.
Compared to the cat girl she used to be, I would prefer to call Yu Mengrui a cat person at this moment.
Suddenly, I realized that if a race lacks sufficient strength, even descriptors like “cute” and “adorable” cannot be used as ornamentation. For once they are associated with such terms, it brings disaster instead.
The witches of the Witch Academy can love beauty, be unique, charm all beings, and be cute and playful—this absolute strength gives them the confidence to pursue additional personal aesthetics.
But for the Cat People Academy… they nurture beasts and strong ones, not pets.
While I hoped that the Cat People Academy could be jokingly referred to as the Cute Cat Academy, my personal thoughts cannot change that. Perhaps… it is unnecessary to force anything.
I simply recorded the fluctuations in Yu Mengrui’s fortune and the data I observed, making it a part of my perfect observation technique.
The start of the Cat People Academy was not particularly smooth, as there was another academy on the island they inhabited.
Late at night, few people were able to close their eyes and sleep.
The dim environment made the surroundings dangerous.
And the island, which had failed to clear the surrounding monsters during the day, became exceptionally perilous at night.
Earlier, during the day, everyone was in a new and unfamiliar place, wary of dangers from the outside and above, their minds constantly tense. When the bonfire rose during the night along with the gathering of people, the night became a time to rest peacefully instead.
After thoroughly understanding the local terrain, most academies tacitly chose to consider how to reach the main island during the ample time of night.
For this question, the Sea Tribe and the Angels seemed to find no difficulty. After all, one is a natural child of the sea, while the other is an angel soaring above the sky.
The petty constraints of the terrain are not a problem for them.
Initially, I thought the Sea Tribe would be the first to reach the main island, since, based on my previous interactions with them, they were quite bold. As for Achir from the Holy Angel Academy, he left a deep impression on me; he seemed calm and would likely not rush directly to the main island.
However, everything seemed to contradict my expectations.
The Sea Tribe Academy initially encountered groups of sea beasts that forced them back to the reef island. Now, affected by the tides, the reef islands submerged into the sea at night, and they were on high alert for impending dangers.
These sea beasts were also the result of the extraordinary wizards from the Wizard Academy, and combined with the great magic of the illusory world, they harbored hostility toward the Sea Tribe. The ocean’s protection and blessings they received didn’t keep the sea beasts from disregarding them.
In their initial bravado, they charged into the sea beasts’ midst, resulting in a heavy toll from just a single encounter. The bloodied and escaping sea tribe candidates attracted even more of those sea beasts toward the Sea Tribe’s main force.
One could say the Sea Tribe taught me what it meant to not fear a god-like opponent but to fear a pig-like teammate.
The fear of d*ath had wrapped itself around the heads of the Sea Tribe Academy from the outset of the joint examination. The severed limbs, torn by sea beasts, stained the waters red, and the stench filled the air, casting a profound psychological shadow over many ordinary sea tribe students.
Regrettably, by the time I arrived, it was nearly the end, and I learned about the situation from the Sea Tribe’s wave patrollers.
Wave patrollers are akin to teaching assistants within the Sea Tribe Academy and are promising candidates on the verge of becoming extraordinary.
However, I was curious as to why the other academies’ teaching assistants had such distinctive names.
Aren’t they all extraordinary academies?
But as complaints go, there’s still fun to be had.
After interacting with the Wave Patroller here, I realized that not every academy sends out three or four assistants, such as the Sea Tribe, whose wave patrollers totaled nearly ten.
Upon recognizing my identity from the Witch Academy, they subconsciously tried to avoid me, contrasting entirely with the attitude of that elf academy character back then. However, I did not let him go easily and, after my “persistent insistence,” he finally recounted the sequence of events.
Yet I could sense he seemed to withhold some information.
One cannot help but say that, as Sea Tribe wave patrollers, they felt very embarrassed witnessing their own academy and its affiliates fall short.
Ultimately, they saw me off well, almost as if I were their omen of misfortune.
And my lingering here was, of course, calculated by me because… such cases of self-inflicted damage to one’s fortune are indeed rare!
They thought it was their good advice that got me to leave when, in fact, I was satisfied with the data I had collected and was ready to go.
As for whether I was worried these wave patrollers might secretly assist those Sea Tribe students… I felt there was nothing to worry about, for they must have intervened.
After leaving the waters of the Sea Tribe, I looked around, confirming that I was not being broadcasted before taking out a semi-transparent Knowledge Leaf.
I confirmed my surroundings weren’t broadcasting not because I was afraid of my abilities being exposed, but because I didn’t want to leak the upcoming explosive images at this moment.
With a flick of my hand, the Knowledge Leaf transformed into a scene appearing before me.
However, the image was somewhat distorted; this was an extended application created after an attempt with my Earth Vein Identification Technique. The Earth Vein information records data—images… sounds… all of these are information. Naturally, I was unwilling to limit the identification technique to mere organized text, as images and sounds can provide a more intuitive representation of what I want.
Yet, it was evident I hadn’t perfected this extended spell, hence the distortion, but that did not hinder my appreciation of the process I had missed.
At this moment, the information obtained through identification from that wave patroller replayed the scene from the time.
One could say that witnessing the scene firsthand revealed it was far worse than what that wave patroller had described; he was far too modest in his account.
Moreover… several of these wave patrollers had directly violated the rules to assist, allowing many candidates to “survive.”
For this, they were recorded live, marking it as a collective violation. Such critical information they had not disclosed to me, but upon reflection… I never expected they would dare to violate the rules so openly. This can be seen as… setting a good precedent for this joint examination.
However, it was somewhat regrettable that this footage no longer held much value; I had initially thought about using it to report at a critical moment, but it had directly been marked as a violation.
This was truly disappointing…
Yet, one cannot force such matters. It is indeed satisfying to watch others stumble, but one must avoid stumbling oneself. I wonder how things were over at the Witch Academy and how they planned to reach the main island.
The Sea Tribe’s plan to reach the main island had already failed; having suffered such severe losses, their immediate priority was merely to survive the night and devise a plan for tomorrow.
As for those in the Beast Academy, they had yet to emerge from the shadows of internal conflict.
I had yet to visit other islands; I only managed a brief glance as the entire Bobapop Islands were quite vast, with surrounding affiliated islands spaced out even more. The entire map bore no comparison to that of the Dream Exchange Competition.
Just as I was preparing to return to see how the Witch Academy was faring, I suddenly sensed a call for summoning.
“Huh?” I was somewhat surprised, as the person summoning me was marked as Li Feiya.
Though I had mentioned wanting to add her to my blacklist earlier, I was curious about what she wanted at this moment.
It was already late at night, and soon, the sun’s light would break over the sea horizon.
But who am I to pass up an opportunity when I happen to be free?
I hope she is at the Witch Academy and not summoning me to some strange place to block a blade.
Previously, she had said she wanted to visit the elf’s location and had summoned me a few times, all of which I ignored. I had no idea what information she had gathered from there and hadn’t shared it in our assistant group chat.
It was precisely because Li Feiya mentioned going there that I had not visited the elf island.
With the spell’s summoning taking effect, my figure completely vanished from above the sea.
Meanwhile, at the main island’s boundary.
“You bunch of bird people, do you understand that you violated the rules? Don’t think your actions have gone unnoticed!” Li Feiya angrily pointed at the group of Holy Angels.
“This lady witch, accusing us from the Holy Angel Academy requires evidence. Our landing on the main island, utilizing our racial advantages, was completed under the scrutiny of live streaming.”
Faced with Li Feiya’s accusations, that Holy Angel showed no embarrassment under her sacred radiance, as if they had never committed such an act.
At this moment, the area where the Holy Angels were located was shrouded in holy light, illuminating the land before dawn, seemingly aiming to replace the newborn sun.
“Do you take me for a fool? There are only a few resource points at the edge of the main island, none of which directly face your Holy Angel Academy. You made a long detour, seeking the farthest path, and just happened to launch a sneak attack in areas with the fewest monsters, capturing a resource point on the main island. Do you take me for an idiot?” Li Feiya was relentless.
Although she couldn’t provide any evidence, the obvious manipulations indicated significant issues. Additionally, she felt unwilling to sit idly by watching them land; she really wanted to teach them a lesson but couldn’t afford to be reckless again.
“This only shows that the Holy Light protects every believer of the Holy Light. Do not tarnish its purity with your filthy thoughts.”
“Purity, my foot! How can you say such disgusting words?” At this moment, Li Feiya had completely shed her previous image; she was genuinely disgusted by this group of Holy Angels. How had she never noticed how repulsive these guys were before?
“Leave, witch. Continuing to linger here is not good for either of us…”
“No, I have all the time in the world to waste with you.”
“If you’re still planning to obstruct the progress of our academy’s candidates, we will take necessary measures. I must remind you, the fact that the Holy Angel Academy is temporarily leading is undeniable. If you dare to act against our academy candidates, we are not defenseless either.”
“You… fine, you think you can rely on numbers? As if I can’t call for help too.” Li Feiya noticed the pressure as two Holy Angel missionary angels were protecting the area, and she could feel their life levels were subtly more terrifying than hers. It seemed a solo disruption would be somewhat challenging.
Immediately, she took out her phone and awkwardly sent a request for help in the group chat, hoping Lin Yi or Aidalin would be nearby; feeling it was still insufficient, she found a business card from her belongings.
“Xiao Han, don’t blame me; there are two of them, and one of me. Having more people with me would be great… just come over and help me scold them…” As Li Feiya underestimated the situation, she triggered the summoning ceremony on the business card.
Instantly, the summoning ceremony displayed a dazzling glow, causing the two Holy Angels to brace for an imminent ambush.
Until a figure materialized from the summoning ceremony, they realized it seemed to be a spell to summon someone else.
“Li Feiya, why did you summon me… huh?”
At that moment, as I emerged from the summoning ceremony, I had just begun to ask Li Feiya a question when I was captivated by the light behind me. After all, the place I had been in before the summoning was a pitch-black sea; now, it was as bright as day, creating a stark contrast.
“Xiao Han, quickly help me scold them! Use the momentum from scolding that elf! Those two guys violated the rules by providing resource information to their academy’s students, and they might even have directed them to attack the main island and leaked information about resource points!” Li Feiya, seeing me respond to the summon so promptly, was somewhat surprised.
She had tried summoning when she went to the elf’s location before, but Xiao Han hadn’t answered her then.
“Then you report them,” I instinctively replied, then turned to assess the situation behind me. “Wait, this is the main island? And… Holy Angels?”
“If I had evidence, I would definitely report them! Xiao Han, please scold them. I’m telling you, they are too much…”
“Stop.” I raised my hand to halt Li Feiya’s stream of complaints that resembled a report. But one thing I understood was that Li Feiya had discovered their violations, yet lacked evidence.
But… hadn’t this delivered me a prime opportunity?
So, I instinctively employed my Earth Vein Identification Technique on them; the rest was simply about buying time.
Once I secured evidence, I would report them directly.
After completing these tasks in an instant, I turned my gaze toward the students from the Holy Angel Academy, quickly grasping the current situation; had the main island already been seized by them…
“This lady witch, you appear much easier to converse with than this troublesome witch. We hope you can take her away quickly to prevent any extreme actions from her; this would not be good for either party.” At this point, one of the missionary angels addressed me.
“We are all patrolling teachers; reporting violations is our duty, and we also have the authority to inspect your academy’s candidates. If you haven’t done anything wrong, you shouldn’t fear at all. Or do you merely speak of righteousness while engaging in the darkest dealings behind closed doors?” I countered directly, facing that Holy Angel.
