Zhu Qiu watched their smug, self-satisfied expressions, and the more she looked, the angrier she got.
Too much!
“You guys better start taking this seriously!”
Without hesitation, she pulled out the sword Teacher Ajimi had given her and pointed it straight at the leading Dragon.
The leading Dragon refused to back down either, summoning a small Fireball in his hand.
“You want to spar with me?”
Both sides stared each other down, neither willing to yield an inch.
A battle was about to erupt at any moment.
Just as the situation hung by a thread, Teacher Ajimi walked over from behind, carrying his Heavy Sword on his shoulder.
“You’re all here.”
He saw his student pointing a sword at the other Dragons and quickly stepped in to mediate.
“What did I teach you?”
“As a Swordmaster, you can’t just point a weapon at someone.”
“That’s a very rude thing to do.”
Ajimi coaxed Zhu Qiu in the tone of someone soothing a child.
The three Dragons nearby, seeing that this teacher was taking their side, grew even bolder.
“But Teacher? They’re the ones who started it!”
“Scared now, are you?”
“Attack styles as pathetic as yours deserve to be trampled under our feet forever.”
“Pathetic?”
Hearing that word, Teacher Ajimi’s expression instantly turned serious, and he turned to look at the Dragon who had spoken.
“This student, your teacher—no, wait, your parents—should have taught you to respect others, right?”
“Words with such blatantly offensive meaning—how can you say them out loud?”
“Mind your own business!”
“You’re not my teacher, not my dad, and not my mom.”
“I’ll say whatever I want.”
“It’s my Freedom of Speech. You can’t control me.”
The other two beside him chimed in.
“Exactly, exactly.”
But Teacher Ajimi didn’t slap them as they might have expected.
Instead, he turned around to comfort Zhu Qiu.
“Don’t mind what these people say.”
“Who knows if their parents are even real Dragon Race, right?”
“We just need to do our best.”
Zhu Qiu nodded, feeling that Teacher Ajimi was right.
She didn’t need to waste time on them and let them ruin her mood.
Ajimi noticed the Elf who had been staying by Zhu Qiu’s side the whole time and asked curiously.
“You’re her partner, right?”
“I know outsiders might think an Elf paired with a magic-less Dragon seems odd, but the weirder the combination, the easier it is to confuse your opponents.”
“I believe you two can do it.”
With one hand steadying his sword and the other holding Zhu Qiu’s and Yiluo Enya’s hands, Ajimi walked straight ahead.
“Don’t worry about them.”
“I’ll take you over.”
Yiluo Enya and Zhu Qiu nodded.
Indeed, even if outsiders thought their partnership looked strange, they knew full well their own true strength.
He also didn’t believe those good-for-nothing Fire Dragons would dare block a teacher like him.
But to his surprise, the moment Ajimi stepped forward, those three Dragons came back to block the way again.
“Hey, you threatened me, and now you’re just going to walk off without apologizing?”
“We didn’t threaten you.”
“Please move aside.”
“My patience has its limits!”
“Oh!”
“Now you’re trying to scare me?”
“Come, come, everyone, come look!”
“Here’s an Academy teacher bullying students in broad daylight!”
With his loud call, the Dragons nearby all turned their attention over.
Gradually, more and more people gathered around.
Just there for the drama, they didn’t know what was going on, so they merely watched.
Teacher Ajimi closed his eyes, feeling speechless.
‘What lunatics!’
Zhu Qiu was getting anxious.
If they kept wasting time like this, they might miss the deadline.
She poked Teacher Ajimi’s arm, signaling him to hurry.
Having taught Zhu Qiu all this time, Teacher Ajimi had already built some rapport with her, so he immediately understood what she meant.
‘My student, I’ll spoil her myself.’
In a flash, he let go of their hands, hoisted the Heavy Sword from his shoulder, and slammed it hard into the ground.
The ground instantly began to tremble, startling all the surrounding Dragons into retreating.
The three Dragons blocking the path lost their balance and fell to the ground.
Those three tried to get back up quickly to regain their composure.
“I’m not joking around with you.”
Right then, Zhu Qiu also drew her sword and swung it rapidly forward, shearing off a small lock of hair from all three of them.
That scared them so much that they didn’t dare even breathe too loudly, terrified that the blade might have come for their necks instead.
Zhu Qiu spread the three strands of hair across her palm and gave them a gentle blow.
The hair drifted to the ground with the wind.
“Teacher, let’s go.”
Just like that, the three of them stepped right over the other three.
Only after they had walked far away did the three Dragons get up, trembling with fear.
“I can’t believe they actually dared to swing at us, making me look bad in front of so many people.”
“I’ll make you pay for this.”
He brushed the dust off his clothes and signaled his two lackeys.
“Let’s go!”
“Follow them.”
“Yes, boss.”
Before long, all the Dragons of the Academy gathered at the grounds.
Since the Academy required each class to stand together, every other class was packed full of people—except for Zhu Qiu’s, which had only two.
One was Teacher Ajimi standing at the front of the class line, and the other was herself.
Looking around and comparing their class with the others, her spot looked incredibly lonely.
Everyone stood there for a while until Dean Weida finally arrived, fashionably late.
“My apologies, everyone.”
“I had a small situation just now, but it’s resolved now.”
He stood on the only platform raised above the ground in the field and cleared his throat.
“I believe everyone is here now.”
“Allow me to announce the details of this event.”
The teachers below all clapped, except Teacher Ajimi at Zhu Qiu’s spot, who didn’t.
“The purpose of this event is to test your learning results.”
“Although you haven’t studied for long, I believe that those who truly want to learn have already pulled far ahead of the other students.”
“The event will take place in an underground area of our Dragon Kingdom, which includes forests, grasslands, rivers, lakes, and various other terrains, giving everyone plenty of room to show what they’ve got.”
“I will scatter a total of 100 Special Gold Coins across that area from the sky.”
“Of course, these coins can’t be spent like regular Gold Coins, so anyone with ulterior motives can forget about it.”
“You will have one week to search that area.”
“As long as you possess Special Gold Coins before the event ends, you’ll receive a reward prepared by the Academy.”
“Of course, the more coins you have, the better.”
“We won’t restrict what methods you use to obtain them.”
“Even if someone gets seriously injured because of it, that’s fine—we have Healers on standby 24/7.”
“The key to succeeding in this event lies in your own strength.”
“Well, that’s roughly it.”
He stopped, then suddenly remembered he still had something left to say.
“One more thing…”