Volume 3: Star Tower Chapter 45: Late Bad News
After Tang Zheng came back, he slept well these days.
He still did not easily call upon the Star Lord's origin that had just been merged, and the star power of the two stars was temporarily sealed by him and did not condense into three-star star power.
Because if he could condense tens of thousands of two-star star forces directly by himself, it would already be quite good if he could condense them into more than a thousand three-star star forces. But since there is a lossless condensation method, why shouldn't he use it?
Every bit of Two-Star power was obtained through his own hard work. It would be better if not even a bit was wasted.
But this needs to be used with caution.
After all, the Lord of Ziwei Star did not show any kindness towards him.
The internal selection of Yisuli Academy was also in full swing.
Each academy has a different selection method. Some are decided by the head deacon and the instructor, while others are decided by registration and election. The Yisu Academy adopts a round-robin method, where each person fights Leng Buchen for ten moves to decide the final result.
There are not many students in Yisu Academy.
Two of those who went to the academy to participate in the martial arts competition with Leng Zhan last year have already graduated. As for the remaining two, one has dropped out due to a minor accident, and the other has not yet lit up the third life palace.
On the third day after the announcement of the Academy Martial Arts Contest was sent out, Leng Buchen announced that Yisu Academy had signed up to participate in the three-star category of this year's Academy Martial Arts Contest!
Most of the warriors in Yisu Academy are already three stars, but because the competition in the three-star group is more intense, they have avoided it in previous years.
"Is it okay? Although Leng Zhan has broken through to three stars this year, he has only just broken through...his star power is still unstable, right?"
"This year's rookies are pretty good, but they're just like the Cold War guys, having just made the three-star mark."
"Since the head steward has already made the decision, then he probably has an idea in mind... Besides, our Yisu Academy's martial arts competition results have always been average, so it can't be that bad."
There are still a few warriors in Yisu Academy who, like in the previous Cold War, have never lit up the third life palace. Naturally, they are not eligible to participate in the election this time.
Among the other qualified warriors, twelve people signed up one after another. Together with Leng Zhan and Tang Zheng, there were nearly twenty people in total.
Compared with the scenes of hundreds of people signing up for the academies in the capital city of those top families, their internal selection was certainly not very grand. However, the importance they attached to this matter was the same as that of those top families and the academies in the capital city.
This is the battle that determines the place in the Su Shi Wen Xing Tower.
No matter what the result is, at least they will try their best.
On the afternoon before the palace selection, Meng Fenghua came to see Tang Zheng with Xiao Lingdang. She did not forget what she had promised Tang Zheng in the Star-Seeking Tower to memorize the secret martial arts for him, so she came today to deliver the book.
"Here are two and a half books. These two books are the complete secret books of the Xuantian Yinyue Sect. As for this half book, it is another secret martial art that I have read in my early years. But because I don't remember it clearly, I can only recite this much." Meng Fenghua's eyes were red, and it seemed that he had been staying up late these days.
Tang Zheng took the three books. Each of them was written in neat small characters. The beautiful handwriting was just like Meng Fenghua himself, clean and meticulous.
In order to memorize these secret martial arts, Meng Fenghua probably hasn't slept well these past few days.
"Thank you for your hard work." Tang Zheng smiled at her, "After the academy martial arts competition is over, I will buy some delicious food for Xiao Lingdang."
"No way..." Little Bell pouted, "Sister has been working hard for so many days, and you just give her a little food to get rid of me?"
"Little Bell!" Meng Fenghua did not tell Little Bell about the things on the Seven Killings Island in the Su Shiwen Star Tower. If it were not for Tang Zheng, she would not have been able to meet the Seven Killings Star Lord smoothly, and it would have been impossible to introduce the Seven Killings Star Lord into the third life palace.
Tang Zheng helped her at that time not out of any desire for reward.
And since she helped Tang Zheng memorize the secret martial arts, she naturally didn't want to ask for any reward.
However, Xiao Lingdang was unaware of the situation and she was just a child, so Tang Zheng certainly didn't take it to heart. He hooked her nose and asked, "Then what do you think I should do?"
"At least you should pledge your love to me or something." Little Bell said while standing on tiptoe.
"Little Bell!" Meng Fenghua couldn't hold it in any longer and stared at him. "Who taught you these words?"
"No, no." Tang Zheng laughed so hard that he fell backwards, and tried to smooth things over. "It must be that guy... Ah Zhi, well, it was Ah Zhi who led our little Lingling astray..."
Meng Fenghua's face turned slightly red.
Because Ah Zhi had to cultivate his star power without distractions before he turned twelve, he was actually far from being as clever as Xiao Lingling. She believed that Xiao Lingling had led Ah Zhi astray. As for whether Ah Zhi had led Xiao Ling astray...
Forget it, Tang Zheng just said that and let it go. Anyway, Tang Zheng has done a lot of bad things about people behind their backs.
"Are you practicing your secret martial arts smoothly now?" Tang Zheng ignored Xiao Lingdang's words and turned to ask Meng Fenghua.
Meng Fenghua shook his head.
The secret martial arts will be slightly different depending on each person's situation, and the instructors can't help them.
Furthermore, Meng Fenghua is different from Jiang Wuyan. After all, she has already betrayed the sect.
When Jiang Wuyan was practicing secret martial arts, according to convention he could temporarily summon a clan member to the palace to help him master the use of astrology together with the instructors, but Meng Fenghua had no one to summon.
As they were talking, an assistant from the academy knocked on the door and said, "Tang Zheng, Meng Fenghua, the first deacon wants you to come over..."
"Okay." Tang Zheng had nothing to do, so he went to Ouyang Luoluo with Meng Fenghua.
When they arrived at Ouyang Luoluo's place, they discovered that the other seniors who had signed up for the internal selection for the academy's martial arts competition were also there.
Tang Xiaotang and Jiang Wuyan had also arrived earlier.
Leng Zhan stood next to Ouyang Luoluo, both of them had frowned.
"Okay, everyone is here now." Ouyang Luoluo clapped her hands, scanned their faces, and said, "Although we shouldn't dampen everyone's enthusiasm at this time, we just received some bad news..."
Bad news?
The warriors who came to sign for the internal selection looked at each other in bewilderment.
This year, Yisuli Academy performed very well in the Sushiwenxing Tower. After coming back, all the freshmen broke through the bottleneck of the third life palace. In addition, after several failed attempts to impact the third life palace, they finally succeeded this time. It can be said that it was a series of good news.
What bad news could there be right now?
“All eighty-one noble families have confirmed that the cracks at the grassroots level of the Sushiwenxing Tower are widening further. Therefore, the number of places in the Sushiwenxing Tower next year will be further reduced.” Ouyang Luoluo glanced at Leng Zhan.
The Sushiwenxing Tower has been under construction for so many years. Although it has been maintained all the time, some cracks in the base cannot be repaired by maintenance. The students of the Aristocratic Academy present also know this.
Moreover, the number of places in the Star-Seeking Tower is decreasing every year. Logically speaking, this is not bad news that is worth calling them over to tell them, right?
As they were thinking this, Leng Zhan stretched out four fingers.
Except for Tang Zheng and a few others, the expressions of other seniors changed immediately.
"The number of places in the Star-Seeking Tower next year will be reduced to four thousand!" Ouyang Luoluo made the news clear.
"Why did they reduce the number so much all at once?" The situation got a little out of control. "More than a thousand places were reduced all of a sudden. Isn't this difficult to arrange?"
"I heard that several top families' academies have expanded their enrollment this year... How can 4,000 places be enough?"
"Eighty-one noble families and hundreds of academies. There weren't enough places to begin with, and now the number has been reduced so much all of a sudden. What on earth has happened..."
In fact, when they received the news, Ouyang Luoluo and the others were also shocked, because the number of places was reduced by too many at once.
However, this decision was made by the Federation of Elders of eighty-one families, and no direct reason was given.
Precisely because no direct reason was given, some rumors have spread among the deacons and instructors. The most panic-inducing rumor at the moment is that the star power of the Sushiwen Star Tower is about to be exhausted and it may collapse at any time!
This is simply an unsolvable situation.
Every Star-Questioning Tower has the power of a Star Lord. Even if Bailianfang has proposed a method of repairing it, but... where can they find so many Star Lords now?
Currently, there are less than three star masters left in Xinjiang, and almost all of them are missing, whether dead or alive, everything is unknown.
Now, it is no longer the era when the Purple Gold Emperor lived and the stars shone brightly!
"Therefore, the situation of this year's academy martial arts competition is very grim, and the results of the two-star group can be almost ignored. According to preliminary estimates, our Changyuan Leng family must have at least two academies to enter the top 100 in the martial arts competition, and one of them must be within the top ten, to ensure that all our students next year will have the opportunity to ascend the Sushiwenxing Tower." Ouyang Luoluo said.
There was a sound of everyone inhaling.
That was something they had never thought about!
The top ten have always been the reserved territory for the academies of the top-tier aristocratic families, and the academies of second- and third-rate families like them have no chance of getting involved.
"To take a step back, even if there is no way to guarantee that everyone has the opportunity to ascend the tower, then our Yisu Academy must be one of the two academies in the Changyuan Leng family's four academies that are ranked within the top 100. In this way, when the quota of the Changyuan Leng family is allocated to the Yisu Academy, there will be a bias."
After Ouyang Luoluo finished speaking, she glanced at Leng Zhan.
Leng Zhan took a deep breath and took a step forward: "So, this year's Academy Martial Arts Contest is different from previous years. The task is heavy and the responsibility is even heavier. It is our honor to be able to bear it, but if you can't bear this pressure... quit now, no one will blame you."
Ouyang Luoluo nodded slightly.
Leng Zhan continued, "Now, those who are willing to fight this battle side by side with me, please step forward!"
