Chapter 117: Competition (3)

When Su Chen stepped off of the stage, many of the gazes directed at him were slightly different from before.

This supposed coward had instantly battled his way onto the Dragon Transformation List. Many people realized that they had misjudged him somewhat, and some of those who had been mocking him were mocked themselves.

“He was actually able to make it onto the Dragon Transformation List. It looks like we underestimated him.”

“Now things get interesting. Someone who hasn’t attended the end-of-year competition for over eight years got on the list in one fell swoop. It looks like there might be something to look forward to this year.”

“This is the only way that things get interesting. Otherwise, it’s always the same people, so getting bored is inevitable. We need some new people to stir up the rankings and make things a little more exciting.”

“Exactly, exactly,” a group of people echoed.

Their gazes towards Su Chen were filled with excitement and anticipation. They hoped that there would be something novel about this year’s end-of-year competition.

However, not everyone thought that way.

Not far away from the fourth arena, a youth stood, holding his sword in his arms as he stared coldly at Su Chen.

There was a person standing next to him: Bai Yihong.

“The target is him, right?” the sword-carrying youth asked.

Bai Yihong stared at Su Chen and gritted his teeth. “Yes, that’s him. As long as you cripple him, the Yearning Red Lotus will be yours.”

“Okay, but he must enter the top 100. Otherwise, I won’t even have an opportunity to encounter him.”

“He will. I know how strong he is. Entering the top 100 should be possible for him, but he definitely isn’t your opponent!”

“That’s good enough. When he makes it that far, I’ll ruin him,” the sword-carrying youth said, turning around to leave.

“Liuyuan!”

“Mm?” The youth looked back.

Bai Yihong said, “Don’t disappoint me.”

The corner of the youth’s mouth curled upwards in a self-confident smile.

After the youth left, Bai Yihong fixed his gaze back onto Su Chen, the flames of hatred burning in his eyes. “Su Chen, you dared treat us that way. Just wait! I’ll ruin you!”

His body trembled slightly.

He felt anger, hatred, and simultaneously a trace of fear.

Although an unexpected occurrence had woken Bai Yihong up from that frightening nightmare, the fear that Su Chen had instilled in him had yet to fade away completely. Even as he was planning his revenge, he couldn’t help but feel fear and dread towards Su Chen, unwilling to directly face off against him.

This was a great torment to Bai Yihong.

He knew that the root of his fear would only be dissolved by killing Su Chen..

However, he wasn’t the only one who wanted revenge against Su Chen.

In a different corner of the fourth arena, another pair of eyes were also staring right at Su Chen.

When the owner of those eyes saw Su Chen enter the Dragon Transformation List, the owner of the eyes began to laugh darkly, “Su Chen, you finally couldn’t resist anymore, huh? That’s good, that’s good! You plotted against the Six Great Clans and harmed not only our Young Masters but also our Second Elders, and the Six Great Clans are still battling the Zhu Clan. However, did you really think that you could escape from all of this? Just you wait, Su Chen. The day that you leave the Hidden Dragon Institute will be the day you die!”

The figure faded while laughing ominously.

Now that Su Chen had left his research station, those whom he had once offended finally had an opportunity to exact revenge.

Of course, some of his friends welcomed this change.

Ji Hanyan went to search for him.

She arrived next to Su Chen and gave him a “friendly” punch.

The punch was filled with an icy chill.

Ji Hanyan said, “Not bad at all. You finally decided to come out and participate in the end-of-year competition.”

Ever since completing the Clear Wind Net, Ji Hanyan and Su Chen interacted less and less.

It wasn’t that the two of them had become indifferent towards each other, but Su Chen was just always in his research station and rarely came outside, making further interactions difficult.

But if the two of them ran into each other within the Institute, they wouldn’t hesitate to chat a bit.

Ji Hanyan’s temperament was extremely lofty and arrogant. Not many people could attract her attention within the Institute, but evidently Su Chen was one of the few that she looked favorably upon.

No matter how others looked at Su Chen, she knew very clearly that Su Chen was no coward. She had learned from her instructor why Su Chen acted like that. Because of this, she actually felt some respect for Su Chen - the worse someone was at schoolwork, the more respect he or she would feel towards someone who was a talented scholar.

Ji Hanyan was extremely powerful in battle, but she was a mess at studying. She had a lot of respect for those who were able to understand theory and create new things.

Because of this, she and Su Chen got along quite well.

Su Chen laughed, “My personal instructor ordered me to do it, so I couldn’t disagree even if I wanted to.”

“Oh? That old man Shi Kaihuang was the one who told you to join? What sly tricks is that old man up to this time?”

“......” Su Chen didn’t know how to respond.

Ji Hanyan said, “Forget about it. No matter what his reasoning is, it’s already good enough that you’re willing to attend. It’s been many days since we last talked, so let’s go already!”

She grabbed Su Chen’s hand and pulled him forwards.

“Go where?” Su Chen was completely befuddled as Ji Hanyan dragged him along.

“Haven’t you finished your matches today already? Let’s go spar at the sparring arena.”

When Su Chen heard that Ji Hanyan wanted to spar with him, Su Chen helplessly said, “Hey, what are you in such a hurry for? After the ranking battles for the Dragon Transformation List begins, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to spar.”

The ranking battles were not elimination-style but rather based on accumulated points. Students were ranked only after participating in multiple battles.

Based on Su Chen’s strength, it was highly likely that he would encounter Ji Hanyan eventually.

Unexpectedly, Ji Hanyan replied, “It will be too late by then.”

“Too late? What do you mean?” Su Chen didn’t understand.

“The Plentiful Wealth House has put out betting odds on you,” Ji Hanyan said.

The Plentiful Wealth House was a gambling house within the Hidden Dragon Institute, and it was owned and operated by a few students. During every end-of-year competition, they would set up betting odds for every student who entered the Dragon Transformation List. The Hidden Dragon Institute did not prevent this from happening, but they had set a restriction in place that no one was allowed to bet more than five hundred Origin Stones.

“Do you know what the odds are?”

“How much?” Su Chen instinctively asked.

“1:1.88 for you to reach the top 100, 1:3.67 for the top 50, 1:8 for the top 20, 1:15 for the top 10, 1:30 for the top 3, and 1:50 for first place.”

“Then......” Su Chen asked.

“Naturally, it’s because I want to assess your strength so that I can make a safe bet,” Ji Hanyan replied straightforwardly.

“......” Su Chen was speechless.

After a moment, he said, “Ji Hanyan.”

“Mhm?”

“You gamble?”

“Of course. Even in Nobility Clans, money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Half an hour later, Ji Hanyan and Su Chen reemerged from the sparring arena.

No one knew how the battle had turned out. In fact, most students didn’t even know that this battle had taken place.

But after Ji Hanyan returned home, the first thing she did was tell her maidservant to place five hundred Origin Stones on Su Chen’s chances of getting into the top 20.

If possible, she would have placed her bet on him attaining top 10, but Su Chen’s words had dispelled that idea.

Su Chen said, “All I want is to safely enter the top 20. That’s good enough for me.”

“Safely enter the top 20......” Lying on the rocking chair in her house, Ji Hanyan repeated these words again. A smile appeared on her face. “Su Chen, do you know that your appearance when you said that was really infuriating?”