When Li Luo flipped to the last section, he was surprised to see two faces staring up at him, and way more information than he had expected.
“Lu Cāng, One Star Hall representative. Upper eighth-grade Solaris Python resonance. First Changing. Extremely favored by Blue Abyss Sage College, and a star at this Holy Grail Meet. Threat level: 5 stars.”
“Lu Cáng, One Star Hall representative. Upper eighth-grade Lunaris Python resonance. Twin brother of Lu Cāng.”
“The two brothers’ resonances are naturally affiliated, and their combined power is superbly strong. The two brothers defeated a Third Changing opponent together while both at Fifth Pattern. Threat level: 5 stars.”
Li Luo stared at the information, reading it through again. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. This world was really full of strangeness. He might have dual resonances, but Lu Cāng and Lu Cáng had twin resonances… Divided they were perhaps more manageable. Together… it was scary to think about.
[TN: The Lu brothers’ names (陆苍 and 陆藏) are romanized in the same way, except for the tone (pinyin). This was the best I could do, although now they look Italian or something…] Still, there was only going to be one representative from One Star Hall this time. Only one of them could fight. That made the threat a little less intimidating. Li Luo poured from the pot that Bai Mengmeng had delivered, taking small sips of the hot tea. His eyes remained on the two pictures.
Their appearance was completely the same, and the similarity ended there. One was dressed in white, the other in black. One had a warm smile on his face, the other a cold, expressionless stare. The contrast was jarring.
Li Luo’s instincts told him that either one would still be a tough opponent.
“We really can’t underestimate the other sage colleges,” he sighed to himself. “This is just the ticket match, and already the opponents are so strong…”
The Blue Abyss Sage College representatives would be arriving in a couple of days. Many of the Xia Kingdom powers were responding accordingly with attention, and of course there were betting windows opening all over Xia City.
Many of the Xia Kingdom citizens supported Astral Sage College. Although this was technically just an interschool compet.i.tion, but Astral Sage College held a special place in the hearts of the citizens. Its glory was Xia’s glory; its failures Xia’s failures. If entry to the Holy Grail Meet was s.n.a.t.c.hed away by Blue Abyss Sage College from right under their noses on home ground, it would be a painful humiliation to bear.
Li Luo set his cup down. He was thinking of princ.i.p.al Pang Qianyuan’s task for him. If they couldn’t even take the ticket match, then it was laughable to even think about the mission of getting the Dragon Bone Holy Grail.
Still, One Star Hall only had one fight in the ticket match. Even if he was chosen and won, he would only have secured them one out of seven.
Still, that was all he could do – focus on getting that 14% or so. The rest would be left to the rest of the school management to handle.
Li Luo threw the papers back on to the table, then leaned back and closed his eyes. Time for some serious planning.
…
The next day, Li Luo was notified to go to one of the practice arenas.
When he arrived, he saw Chi Chan alongside the other One Star Hall students, as well as a rare sight in the form of vice princ.i.p.al Su Xin.
And also, Qin Zhulu.
Today was the day that the school would choose between him and Qin Zhulu.
Vice princ.i.p.al Su Xin conferred with the other Violet Vibrance mentors, then looked at the two boys warmly. “Both of you are the best in your year. Tomorrow, Blue Abyss Sage College will be here, and after a day of rest and readjustment, the Holy Grail Meet ticket match will officially begin.”
“Both of you know how important the Holy Grail Meet is to Astral Sage College. We must not lose this ticket match.”
“Although One Star Hall only has one fight, but it is an important fight nonetheless. I hope that whoever is chosen will give it their best.”
Li Luo and Qin Zhulu both nodded. They were students of Astral Sage College after all. Upholding the school’s reputation and winning glory was part of their responsibility too.
“The selection method is straightforward: the winner is chosen. That’s what the One Star Hall Violet Vibrance mentors have agreed upon. So…”
“Whoever wins today will be chosen,” vice princ.i.p.al Su Xin finished.
The two nodded and entered the arena.
Qin Zhulu was as excited as he had been back in Angelwood Hollow – he was almost crying from excitement. “Li Luo, I have waited for this day for so long.”
Li Luo grinned back at him. “For the longest time you could have beaten me easily, any time you wanted.”
Indeed, he had been much weaker than Qin Zhulu for a long time. If they had faced off then, Li Luo would have stood close to no chance of winning.
Qin Zhulu shook his head. “I don’t care about winning. I want to fight an opponent that will make me sweat out of my toenails.”
“The you back then could not give me that.”
“But the you today can!”
Through all the times they worked together, both had a measure of the other’s strength. In truth, he himself knew that his chances of winning were quite low, but he did not care. He just wanted to fight a no-holds barred battle with Li Luo.
Li Luo reached into his pocket sphere and pulled out his swords. “Come, Qin Zhulu,” he called, twirling them into complex patterns. “Today, I will satisfy you.”
Qin Zhulu smiled widely, his eyes turning red as his golden tiger stripes started to emerge. The animalistic aura overtook him.
ROAR!
Two savage resonant powers ripped into each other.
An hour later.
The doors to the practice arena opened again.
Students were already gathered outside, waiting to see the results firsthand.
Two people walked out.
The first was an exceedingly bright-eyed Li Luo, silver-gray hair handsomely tousled on top of his head. His clothes still bore singes and marks of battle, but he walked with a strut in his step.
Behind Li Luo was Qin Zhulu, slouching his way forward. He was covered in many more wounds, but he looked equally pleased and satisfied, with no discouragement to be seen.
Before all the students, Qin Zhulu pulled out a dark green ring, made of greenwood. The emblem of Astral Sage College was carved into it.
ROAR!
Seeing the ring, the students cheered. This was the mark of a representative, and others like Jiang Qing’e and Zhu Xuan had already received theirs.
A ceremony.
Qin Zhulu presented the ring solemnly to Li Luo.
Li Luo took it and wore it on his finger, then raised his hand for all to see.
Under the bright sunlight, the moss-green ring shone brightly.
A moment’s pause in wonder, and then the cheers broke out like a waterfall.
With this, the final representative for the ticket match had been decided.
One Star Hall representative, Li Luo.