Chapter 42 – Laughter

The Traditional Academy was lined up next to the rest of the five other Six Ivies but it was located in the corner and was extremely distant from other tables. Although the location of their table were unfavorable, Chen Chang Sheng and Luo Luo weren’t people who care about such small and sat down causally.

“You know that student of Heavenly Academy from before?” Chen Chang Sheng asked.

Luo Luo thought about it and replied, “I saw him a few times when I came to the Heavenly Academy.”

Chen Chang Sheng thought back to the crowd that surrounded him earlier “He seems to be famous.”

Luo Luo didn’t use much time to think this time, “Zhuang Huan Yu, many people call him Sir Huan Yu.”

Chen Chang Sheng remembered that he saw this name on the stone walls of the Academy of Priests. He remembered that it appeared on one of the top rankings seen on the Green Cloud of Honor Roll. But he didn’t think Luo Luo could recall his name without much thought and said curiously, “I never expected that you would know his name.”

Luo Luo replied, “Master, you said earlier as well, he is very famous.”

Chen Chang Sheng said, “For your personality, you wouldn’t know the most famous people.”

Luo Luo stuck out her tongue embarrassingly and said, “It’s hard to not notice his name because we were close to each other.”

Chen Chang Sheng didn’t understand her words entirely. He thought she was talking about the time when she was studying in the Heavenly Academy. He glanced at the tables of the Heavenly Academy wi He glanced toward the sittings of the Heavenly Academy and made sure he didn’t miss anyone, then said confusingly, “That guys actually didn’t attend.”

Luo Luo knew who he was talking about and asked curiously, “Master, you really know Tang Thirty Six?”

Chen Chang Sheng said, “Although I don’t even know how I befriended him…..but, yes I do.”

When they were talking, the preparation of the Ivy Festival was completed and the tables were filled. All of the students and teachers of the Six Ivies were present and the last two people who walked in were characters representing the government and the Tradition.

The bishop of the Tradition, Mei Li Sha, and……Dong Yu General, Xu Shi Ji.

As the two great character walked into the festival, all of the professors and students stood up to bow like a wave.

Bishop Mei Li Sha held power in the department of Education for many years and has great influence in the academies of the capital, but most importantly he was a trusted subordinates of the Pope. Although East Guard General Xu Shi Ji wasn’t as high in power as the bishop, his military contribution couldn’t be ignored. In addition, he was well trusted by the Divine Queen and the entire continent knew he has a great daughter.

The Ivy Festival was a festival for all the young geniuses of the Zhou Dynasty. Everyone sitting here was no doubt, talented. But looking up toward the young girl of age fourteen sitting upon the Mountain Virgin. Raising their heads to glance at the seemingly indestructible title curved onto the Green Cloud Honor Roll, who dare call themselves geniuses?

Chen Chang Sheng looked at Xu Shi Ji who sat on top. His expression was calm and seemed to had never heard of this name before. Only Luo Luo noticed that his breath was a little more rapid than usual. Although it was still smooth, it was still a little faster than normal. After living with him for many days, she knew that this meant that his mood was disturbed.

This was the first time Chen Chang Sheng saw Chen Shi Ji.

As a matter of fact, one of the reason he was willing to attend the Ivy Festival was that Officer Xin told him that Xu Shi Ji would attend it as well. He wanted to see what his almost father-in-law and the man who almost ended his future looked like.

Xu Shi Ji seemed like a regular middle aged man, but of course he was not ordinary. When Chen Chang Sheng looked at him from a distant, he felt a cold and harsh presence and he could see a faint bloody smile. Cheng Chang Sheng’s straight eyebrows were raised slightly and he touched his nose tip – it wasn’t a pleasant smell.

He then recalled Madam Xu, who he saw back in the General’s Mansion. He thought back to the insults and obstacles he face after he arrived to the capital. His eyebrows were raised higher and he continued to touch his nose tip. At the same time, he started to breath heavier and heavier.

The daughter of this couple was the reincarnation of the True Phoenix? No wonder people say the world is not fair.

Luo Luo was paying attention to his reaction since the beginning. She knew that his mood was getting worse, but after all she still couldn’t hold her curiosity and asked carefully, “Master, it seems like the relationship between you and Xu You Rong truly isn’t good…..why?”

Chen Chang Sheng was dazed a little “I thought you can hold it and won’t ask.”

Luo Luo grabbed to his sleeve and shook it as if she were a spoiled girl “I’m really curious.”

Chen Chang Sheng said helplessly, “I already promised someone that won’t tell it to anyone.”

They obviously wouldn’t think of how close they look as they were whispering to each other and of course they wouldn’t think that everything they did was seen by Zhuang Huan Yu.

Zhuang Huan Yu’s emotion was still as calm as usual.

There was someone else who also saw Chen Chang Sheng and Luo Luo chatting closely, but his emotion wasn’t so calm.

The teacher from the Heavenly Academy looked away from the corner. His face looked extremely cold, but strangely, he did not scold Chen Chang Sheng and Luo Luo. He also didn’t point it out to the public to release all of his resentment he had toward the Tradition Academy. Instead, he continued to calmly advanced the festival onto the next stage.

The Ivy Festival used the same format of the Great Trial. There were three rounds. One round tested on knowledge, one tested on battle skill, and one tested on their fighting capability. The order of the tests is randomly chosen, but there were obviously many more rules. Now the rules were told one by one by the teacher from the Heavenly Academy.

The students sitting at the end of the banquet under the fabric, paid attention to it closely. They were not like the students from the Six Ivies, who had teachers and seniors explain process and rules of the Great Trial to them detailedly. The Ivy Festival today was like a pretest that the government gave them, obviously they had to be attentive.

Chen Chang Sheng also listened attentively to not miss a single word. Although the Tradition academy was one of the Six Ivies, he doesn’t have teachers. He had to do everything by himself. He came to participate in the Ivy Festival today, besides he wanted to see Xu You Rong’s dad, acquiring the information about the Great Trial was the most important reason.

The Ivy Festival was called a festival, but it’s actually the preliminary test to the Great Trial, or a wind vane. Besides the geniuses from the Southern sects, the final rank in the Ivy Festival was basically equivalent to the rank in the Great Trial. Even if there were changes, the changes wouldn’t be too large. Xiu Xing to a large extent, was based on time. From the Ivy Festival to the Great Trial, there was only half of a year. How could one have enormous change in such period of time?

On the Ivy Festival this year, Chen Chang Sheng had not purify successfully yet. He’s still a commoner who doesn’t xiu xing, but he’s thinking of getting the first place in the Great Trial in the beginning of the next year. It is not a wonder that Tang Thirty Six would think he was an idiot or that Cheng Chang Sheng himself is an idiot. Besides Luo Luo, who would believe in him?

In the Ivy Festival, although students who participated in the pretest, occasionally would give huge surprise to the human world, but most of the time, it’s still the students from the big schools played the main role. On the Ivy Festival in the recent ten years, in the end, it always turned out to be competition between the Six Ivies.

The Ivy Festival would be held for three days. Tonight was the first night, and it happened to be the actual fight. It can be anticipated that, the festival definitely would be very boisterous. The spectators including Xu Shi Ji and other officials were also guessing if the Heavenly Academy, as the host this year, would keep their reserved manner or not, and let Zhuang Huan Yu come on stage.

Zhuang Huan Yu was ranked tenth on the Honor Roll of Green Cloud, which seemed very outstanding but considering that the Heavenly Academy was claimed to be the strongest school in the continent and that he is the representative of the Heavenly Academy, his strength wasn’t as good as people expected. Even though it’s impossible for him to surpass Xu You Rong who had the rarest bloodline, his rank was still too low.

Only the high officals like Zu Shi Ji knew that the only reason why Zhuang Huan Yu was ranked tenth on the Honor Roll of Green Cloud was because he had never challenged anyone who ranked above him after he fought one of the Seven Rulings two years ago and got placed in tenth place.

This doesn’t mean that he’s conservative and coward, but because two years ago he was already fifteen. At that time Qiu Shan Jun already left the Honor Roll of Green Cloud and began to march on to the first place of the Honor Roll of Golden Miracle. He thought that at such situation, the Honor Roll of Green Cloud was already meaningless to him.

So tonight, will Zhuang Huan Yu come on stage?

…………………………………..

The students who were sitting on the end of the banquet are allowed to participate voluntarily in the fight tonight. Although they know they can hardly defeat the students from the Six Ivies who had teachings from famous professors, thinking that there were rarely any bloody incidents happened in the Ivy Festival before and it was an extremely rare opportunity to improve, they were actively signing up. Later on, the other schools of the Six Ivies also sent their roster for students who were participating in the fight. Besides the professor from the Heavenly Academy and the other two high status people, no one knew who actually signed up.

Finally, only the Tradition Academy was left.

Chen Chang Sheng got the confirmation from the Officer Xin, and he listened clearly when the professor from the Heavenly Academy was speaking, knew that he and Luo Luo fulfilled the requirement to participate in the Ivy Festival, so they could come in here, but that doesn’t mean they have to go down to join the fight.

After all, the Ivy Festival wasn’t the Great Trial. With Chen Chang Sheng’s current xiu xing, if he went down……he definitely wouldn’t have a good ending, therefore of course he wouldn’t go down.

This was plan to not go but there were people trying to force him to go down, forcing him to be humiliated.

The professor from the Heavenly Academy looked at the corner and said expressionlessly, “Where’s the roster from the Tradition Academy?”

According to the tradition of the Ivy Festival, if one doesn’t sign up, that means one knows he can’t beat others and surrender. It’s just another way of saving one’s reputation. No one had actually point this thing out because it implicates one school’s honor. If they really embarrassed the other, who knows what kind of result can happen?”

Tonight, the professor from the Heavenly Academy did so. He didn’t care about the reputation of the Tradition Academy and of course he wouldn’t care about the result. There were only two little children in the Tradition Academy. After being humiliated, were they actually going to suddenly have a huge power up and do something? That’s a joke.

The words of the professor of the Heavenly Academy were echoing in the building.

A complete silence.

After a while, maybe because they saw the poor seats for the Tradition Academy and the

lonely couple, maybe because they remembered the Tradition Academy’s declining reality and tragic history, also the Divine Queen and the Pope’s attitude to this school…

A bunch of laughs could be heard in the building.

There were helpless laughs, but also contemptuous laughs.

Some laughs were unintentional and some were intentional.

But they were all harsh.