Xue Mo had her hands on her hips as she glowered coldly at Ye Zichen. However, when Chen Guangfa dashed up to her and whispered a few words into her ear, her eyes obviously widened.
She turned to look at Chen Guangfa, noted his expression, and walked up to the corner of the room with a frown.
“Senior Apprentice Sister, look…” Chen Guangfa followed her and showed her the bald man’s face.
“This person is Li Cheng. He’s on the academy’s high-level student mission board. He’s a stage-four sky supreme expert with twenty-or-so subordinates. Although he isn’t one of the Horse Bandits, he’s still a relatively famous thief. If I’m not mistaken, the others who are tied up are his subordinates,” said Chen Guangfa carefully. He licked his lips awkwardly. “We really messed up.”
The tavern instantly grew so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.
Xue Mo uncomfortably rubbed her lower jaw, her gaze filled with inexpressible awkwardness.
Even if Chen Guangfa hadn’t said anything, she would have figured out her mistake by now.
Li Cheng and the others had been on the school’s mission board for a year already. There was no way she wouldn’t recognize him. Furthermore, when she recalled the middle-aged man who’d asked them to reclaim his bar, it seemed like he’d said the culprits were a group, not an individual.
This was all because when she’d walked in, Ye Zichen was right in the middle of gathering up his treasures. As a result, she instinctively saw him as a thief.
Naturally, Xue Mo wasn’t the type to refuse to admit to her faults.
Now that she knew she’d falsely accused Ye Zichen, she immediately turned to him and bowed apologetically. “I’m very sorry. I was wrong. This person is on Skyspan Academy’s bounty list. Since you took care of him, how about you follow us back to the academy to accept your reward? When we get back, I’ll be sure to treat you to the full extent of my hospitality in apology.”
As she spoke, she forced a gentle smile and nodded at Ye Zichen.
“Lunatic.” Ye Zichen just rolled his eyes at her, then got up and left the tavern.
Xue Mo froze as if she’d been turned to stone. She watched silently as Ye Zichen left, and a long time before she came to her senses.
She waved her arms, and the temperature in the bar plummeted. Cold winds howled through the interior.
Chen Guangfa didn’t so much as dare breathe deeply. He simply circulated his divine power in silence to resist the chill.
“What kind of attitude is that?” she said in displeasure once the walls were thoroughly coated in ice.
The chill in the tavern mellowed somewhat. Chen Guangfa, who was still bitterly fighting off the cold, cautiously noted Xue Mo’s expression. He gulped and said, “Senior Apprentice Sister, what shall we do with these people?”
“What else? Grab them and take them back to the academy.”
When he heard that, Chen Guangfa hurriedly went to carry out her orders. Xue Mo, meanwhile, stayed in place, staring frostily off in the direction Ye Zichen had left in. A long time passed without her saying anything.
But then she caught a flash of silver out of the corner of her eye. When she took a closer look at it, she saw a crystal card on the very chair Ye Zichen had been sitting on.
“Ye Zichen.”
This was none other than the card Ye Zichen had received upon ascending, the very one that Huang Yang extorted him not to lose no matter what: the proof of his identity.
“Just which of us is the madman? He’s not even taking proper care of his crystal card!” Xue Mo grabbed the card by the corner, walked outside, and looked around. However, there was already no trace of Ye Zichen whatsoever.
“Senior Apprentice Sister, should we head back to the academy now? Or tomorrow?”
The bald man and his subordinates had vanished. Assuming nothing out of the ordinary, they were all currently inside Chen Guangfa’s spatial divine artifact.
His gaze landed on the card in Xue Mo’s hands. He took a closer look at it. “Isn’t this that guy’s?” gasped Chen Guangfa.
On the Divine Mountains, crystal cards were second in importance only to a person’s life; if you lost yours, you had no way of establishing yourself on the Divine Mountain.
However, before long, Xue Mo heard Chen Guangfa shout, “Senior Apprentice Sister, come look at the date he arrived on the Divine Mountain?”
Xue Mo was still pondering how best to handle this card. When she heard Chen Guangfa’s shout, she took a closer look at it. Before long, she froze again and checked the date repeatedly.
“Isn’t that today?”
“More accurately, it ought to be yesterday; it’s already past midnight,” said Chen Guangfa.
“….”
Silence.
How was this possible?
If the date on the crystal card was accurate, how on earth had Ye Zichen overpowered Li Cheng and his subordinates?
No, wait, it was possible!
Back when she’d fought with Ye Zichen, a few peerless experts had appeared out of nowhere.
It’s possible that he was some major family clan’s disciple, and that his clan had arranged for those experts to protect him in secret. Once Li Cheng approached him with ill intentions, the bodyguards rushed in to suppress the bandit.
But if he was from the Divine Mountains, the date on the card shouldn’t be yesterday, but rather the day of his birth.
But if he were an ascender, how could he possibly have that kind of expert protecting him?
Xue Mo felt like her brain couldn’t quite keep up. She had no way of explaining those experts’ sudden appearance in combination with the card’s date.
“Senior Apprentice Sister?” said Chen Guangfa, interrupting her thoughts.
“What did you just say?” asked Xue Mo, setting aside her confusion.
“I said… what should we do now? Should we wait here for him to return? Or head straight for the academy?”
“Of course we have to wait! Without his card, how is he supposed to establish himself on the Divine Mountains?”
“But the academy only gave us three days. Also, in just a few days, the academy is opening admission for new students. Did you forget… that this time, you made a bet with Sun Jialing over this year’s recruitment?”
When he said that, Xue Mo looked on hesitantly.
Sun Jialing was a student who joined the academy at around the same time as her, but they’d always opposed each other. Just a few days ago, the two of them made a bet as to which of them could recruit more new students to their respective student societies.
As for the punishment for losing, although saying out loud sounds a little juvenile…
Whoever lost had to stand naked on campus for a full hour.
She normally would have disdained to make such a bet, and besides, no matter what they competed in, Xue Mo’s student society didn’t have much of a chance of winning against Sun Jialing’s.
However, if you gave that woman an inch, she’d take a mile; Sun Jialing pushed and pushed until Xue Mo agreed.
Naturally, regardless of whether it was to save face or just to avoid the punishment for losing the bet, Xue Mo absolutely had to win!
Ascenders were already gathering in Skyspan City, and quite a few student societies had already started recruiting. To Xue Mo, whose dignity depended on the results of recruitment, this time period was of the utmost importance.
But when she recalled the card in her hands….
“There’s still half a month until enrollment officially begins, and you know how important crystal cards are. We’d better wait here for a while. If he doesn’t come back in a week, it won’t be too late to head back.”
