Chapter 264 - Going Blind

Nine Star Burden

Chapter 264: Going Blind

“Uh…” Jiang Xiao scratched his head and thought to himself, Incredible.

This woman is really scary. How did she change so quickly?

She’s much scarier than the reporter we met on the streets last night.

The team was photographed on the street last night by a university student, which attracted some reporters, but they were not that crazy. After Hai Tianqing declined, the reporters were rather indignant, but they did not pester them for too long.

Besides, they were after Han Jiangxue.

This morning, everyone ate fast and left quickly. Hence, they did not encounter any reporters.

The entrance to the hotel was also devoid of any reporters, presumably because the officials had taken protective measures. Hence, the reporters were not allowed to gather there.

To their surprise, the woman still managed to take advantage of the loophole and secretly followed them in.

Forget it if she entered the elevator, but Jiang Xiao did not expect her to go straight for him instead of Han Jiangxue.

Jiang Xiao was not the most interesting member with the most things to be talked about, but he had to admit that there was indeed some information that could be dug from him.

The information was rather shocking as well.

As a Medical Awakened with nine star slots, Jiang Xiao was also somewhat famous among the contestants this year.

However, there was nothing honorable about his fame. Whenever people saw Jiang Xiao’s personal information, most of them would look down on him, and even if they didn’t mock him openly, they would still be filled with disdain.

In the eyes of the people in this world, Jiang Xiao was indeed incompetent.

When the teachers presented the detailed information of the toxic healer from the northernmost part of China in front of the contestants, the students were still willing to take Jiang Xiao somewhat seriously even though they may still be disdainful towards him.

Don’t worry about Jiang Xiao’s future development and potential. In a nutshell, he was well-equipped with the necessary Star Techniques at this stage of Nebula and was absolutely domineering!

Green Glow, Blessing, Bell, Imprint, Nostalgia, Dawn, Counter-current Light, and Sound of Silence.

It was worth noting that as a native of Beijiang, Jiang Xiao actually possessed the Sound of Silence, which was a terrifying Gold Quality Star Technique from the Yanzhao and Tianjin region.

Besides, it was said that Jiang Xiao’s Blessing had been upgraded to Silver Quality and could be used as a control Star Technique, though it would be tricky.

The most important thing to note was that so far, only one person had ever seen Jiang Xiao’s Star Map!

That person’s name was Gao Aimin, and he was the discipline master of Jiangbin High School. On the day Jiang Xiao enrolled, he lit up his Star Map and showed it to Gao Aimin.

Apart from him, no one else had ever seen Jiang Xiao’s Star Map, not even Principal Yan from Jiangbin High School.

Since Jiang Xiao had yet to sit for the college entrance examination, the information that he used was the same piece of information that he had given when enrolling in high school.

Regardless of whether it was an intramural competition, a provincial league, or the Second Wasteland Reclamation Competition, Jiang Xiao had never lit up his Star Map before.

Was he pretending to be mysterious? Trying to win himself some fame and fans?

Did he have any special battle tactics? Was he hiding his strength?

Or was he purely hiding his own shortcomings and did not want his true self to be exposed to everyone?

There were different opinions and schools of thought about that.

Jiang Xiao’s team members and practical class teachers were tight-lipped, and no one was willing to reveal any information about him.

Since Jiang Xiao had never displayed his Star Map in front of the public before, that led to more speculation, and people even wondered if it was a gimmick that Jiangbin High School was getting up to.

Jiangbin High School is in that barren land in the North which no one paid attention to or cared about. Is that why they decided to come up with a silly plan to create a superstar and catch everyone’s attention?

Does Jiang Xiao really only have nine star slots?

Indeed, he had only demonstrated eight Star Techniques in front of the world, but people did not believe that Jiang Xiao could acquire the Gold Quality Sound of Silence, Silver Quality Counter-current Light, and Brass Quality Enmity before acquiring those two.

Who are you fooling?

Brass Quality Enmity is the easiest Star Technique to be acquired from the Fallen Shadow Witch Star Bead. Yet, you did not acquire it and instead went on to directly acquire the Gold Quality Sound of Silence?

According to the history of Jiang Xiao’s growth and based on Gao Aimin’s account, Jiang Xiao had already lit up three star slots during the military training program during his enrollment in high school. They were Green Glow, Blessing, and Bell.

Judging from the final competition during the military training program, Jiang Xiao obviously had the Star Technique, Imprint, which guided him in the direction of the ray of medical light.

Hence, Gao Aimin was either lying, or Jiang Xiao could already have two Star Techniques in one star slot back then. Is that the reason he has nine Star Techniques during the Nebula Stage!?!

In all, the masses were definitely abhorrent and resentful towards the mysterious toxic healer from Beijiang.

Have you ever seen a high school student who has never lit up his Star Map from the beginning?

This kid is toxic, he’s highly toxic!

In Beijiang, plenty of people shielded and protected the pair of siblings both secretly and openly.

However, when it came to the National League, Jiang Xiao was destined to attract attention.

Hai Tianqing rejected all interviews on the grounds of preparing for the battle. Besides, the students were not celebrities and the public did not need to know about them.

However, Jiang Xiao felt that there was no need to hide it and that there was no big deal in announcing that his Bell and Imprint Star Techniques belonged to the same star slot. Principal Yan knew about it anyway.

Yes, I’m just that lucky, la la la~

Jiang Xiao’s reason for refusing to light up his Star Map never changed—it was his inferiority complex.

Those two words were very interesting. Inferiority complex.

Hmm…

He would have to put joining the army after graduation on his agenda. Hopefully, he would grow well under Second Last’s protection.

Jiang Xiao didn’t disclose his secrets to the public because of his fear of the unknown.

He had no idea how the world would react to him. Perhaps the country would place more emphasis on him and treat him as a subject that they had to train and groom, and thus give him inexhaustible resources.

Perhaps, the country would covet something from him and do some interesting things to him, so that his future would develop in another direction.

Or…

There were countless possibilities in front of Jiang Xiao. Would he be gutsy enough to take the gamble?

It was his real life that would concern his future. If you were in his place, would you dare to take the gamble?

What are you going to do if things don’t follow your expectations after analyzing and coming up with a concrete plan?

Society is complicated and it’s never as simple as 1+1=2.

The human mind is not mathematics and cannot be calculated.

Jiang Xiao only hoped that he would be able to grow to a certain level of competency before everything was made public and before he was ready to face the unknown reactions from people of all walks of life.

That was the normal response a person with a great sense of responsibility for himself would have.

At the same time, Jiang Xiao hoped that he could expand his network of connections and forge stronger relationships with some loyal friends that he could call his brothers. After all, he was a healer that was rare in all areas. In this regard, Jiang Xiao had a natural advantage.

Of course, it would be better if he could forge connections with some figures of status.

Well, it’s decided then!

Goal: To groom and train Second Last into becoming the leader of the Guardians Of The Night!

Uh, wait a minute, this girl’s personality is flawed, isn’t it?

Logically speaking, even for soldiers, one would have to have decent social skills in order to become a leader, right?

Can someone like Second Last, who has only combat effectiveness and the abilities to produce good results, but couldn’t communicate well with others, be a leader?

Fine, his plan to nurture her was gone as soon as he put it on the agenda.

Those were Jiang Xiao’s plans for the future. Of course, the most favorable situation for Jiang Xiao would be for him to never be forced into revealing the information.

It seemed that he had to pay attention to that in the future. After sending Han Jiangxue to her ideal university, he would have to keep a low profile. No matter what, there would be no harm in doing so.

Wait a minute!

Jiang Xiao suddenly thought of a serious problem.

He really wanted to keep a low profile, but what if his abilities didn’t allow him to?

Jiang Xiao did attract some attention, but out of the 800 contestants, Jiang Xiao could only be regarded as a pebble that could not cause much of a ripple in the big river.

Only one paparazzi sneaked in to try to obtain some information about Jiang Xiao, which was much fewer than the numerous reporters wanting to interview Han Jiangxue in the past two days.

After all, the world respected the strong, and Han Jiangxue had 30 star slots.

When the team from Great Bay High School of the Southern Guangdong Province arrived and Yuan Qinghua entered the hotel, the number of paparazzi camping there suddenly increased, seeming to have popped out of nowhere.

The unprecedented Galaxy Stage God had appeared!

The originally empty entrance of the hotel was suddenly overcrowded with numerous people holding their cameras and snapping away at the students. However, they were all driven away by the staff.

The female paparazzi who had just been carried out by the staff was on the verge of tears. Just as she boarded the elevator going down, Yuan Qinghua and her team came up in the elevator. The difference was less than 20 seconds.

The people from Great Bay High School crowded in the elevator, and a girl cursed, “Damn it, bad luck.”

The girl spoke in perfect Mandarin with an indistinct accent. The team leader and the team members glanced at each other silently. A reporter almost shoved the microphone into her mouth earlier on.

Listening to the girl’s constant curses, Yuan Qinghua tried to persuade her nonetheless. Compared to the girl, Yuan Qinghua’s Mandarin was less precise; she would probably sound smoother if she were to speak in Cantonese.

Yuan Qinghua said conscientiously, “Deng Siyang, simmer down.”

It could be seen that even though Yuan Qinghua was powerful and had advanced to the Galaxy Stage, she was not as domineering as others had imagined and did not bully the weak.

The girl called Deng Siyang opened her mouth as if she was thinking about something. At last, she stroked her short hair and stopped cursing.

The group exited the elevator and happened to run into Jiang Xiao’s team in the lobby. A staff member was smiling wryly and continuously apologizing to them.

“I’m sorry, our mistake disturbed you guys…” The staff member was very apologetic. Hence, Jiang Xiao and his teammates were feeling a little embarrassed. Be it because of the strict requirements of the organizer or the hotel’s decision, their service attitude was undoubtedly superb.

Deng Siyang straightforwardly interrupted the staff member’s apology and yelled, “Hey! Where is Room 2324!?!” She had yet to simmer down.

“Uh…” The staff was stunned by the sudden question and he had clearly yet to withdraw from his apologetic mood.

“I’m asking you, where is Room 2324? Do you not understand?” Deng Siyang questioned in a reprimanding manner. “Don’t you work here?”

Xia Yan interjected in displeasure, “Can’t you see that we’re talking to each other?”

Deng Siyang looked straight into Xia Yan’s eyes without being bothered at all. However, she continued to retort in disdain, “So what if you’re having a conversation? I’m asking, where is Room 2324?”

Xia Yan glowered and gibed. “Are you blind?”

Deng Siyang’s eyes widened and she questioned in disbelief, “What, what did you say?”

Jiang Xiao said feebly, “She’s asking if you’re blind.”

Deng Siyang was dumbfounded.

Why do I not understand what this sentence means?