“Three minutes?”
“Find other ways to resolve the problem?”
“What an arrogant fellow! Fine, let’s remain on this ship then. I sure would like to see how he intends to resolve this problem!”
The three principals were also visibly stunned for a brief moment before their complexions darkened even further.
They had been wondering what words the new principal of the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy had instructed Zhao Bingxu to relay to them, but to think that this would be it!
A newly inaugurated principal actually dared to speak to them, 7-star master teachers, so arrogantly, devoid of any respect… You are asking for it!
Since this is how you wish to play, fine! Four can play that game!
Let’s see what you can do about us then!
“Principal Wo, Principal Shen, Principal Wu…” Seeing that the trio had already flown into a rage before he could finish his words, Zhao Bingxu felt extremely distressed.
By saying that their principal had a bad temper, he was only intending it as earnest advice to the three principals out of goodwill. He hadn’t expected that those words would complicate matters further.
“Speak no more. Leave!” Wo Tianqiong waved his hands coldly.
“This…”
Seeing that their minds were made up, Zhao Bingxu could only shake his head. Together with School Head Mo and the others, they headed back to the training ground.
Soon after the group from the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy left, the three principals traded gazes and shook their heads.
“That Principal Zhang of the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy sure sounds like an interesting person.” Shen Pingchao chuckled softly, the displeasure and anger on his face from before disappearing completely.
“Indeed. We intended to pose this flying ship as a test to see if he could resolve this problem perfectly, but from the looks of it… he sure is a hot-tempered person!” Wo Tianqiong sighed deeply.
As 7-star master teachers and the principals of their respective Master Teacher Academies, it was natural that they knew how disrespectful their behavior was. The reason they did so nevertheless was not because they looked down on Hongyuan and wanted to provoke it, but because they wished to assess the capability of the newly-appointed principal for themselves and see how he would deal with such a difficult situation.
In a sense, it could be seen as a test they were posing to the other party as veteran principals.
After all, the principals of the Four Great Master Teacher Academies were considered fellow peers, and they wanted to see if a twenty-year-old fellow was qualified to become one of their own.
In truth, this problem also wasn’t a difficult one to resolve.
Going by normal conventions, as long as the other party had prepared a simple banquet for them and personally headed up to invite them down humbly, owing to the other party’s sincere attitude, they would have had to drop their airs and comply.
Yet, that fellow had refused to lower his head, even threatening them with a time limit of three minutes, saying that he would take his own measures should they refuse to come down.
He sure was arrogant!
“It is not really a bad thing for a young person to be hot-blooded and arrogant, but too much of it will only impede his development!” Wu Ran shook his head. “In any case, this should do well to quell his arrogance. Hopefully, this will teach him that being talented shouldn’t serve as a reason for him to behave haughtily!”
“That’s right.” Shen Pingchao nodded. “In truth, I am starting to feel a little curious as to the reason he dared utter such arrogant words. I wonder what his method of ‘inviting us down’ will be.”
“Well, we will know soon enough.”
The trio glanced at one another and chuckled softly.
Barely after they had started laughing, a voice reminiscent of the chiming of bells sounded deafeningly in the air.
“Moo!”
It sounded like the roaring of thunder and the stampede of thousands of beasts at the same time.
“What is that?”
Alarmed, the trio straightened their postures, prepared to make a move if necessary. However, before they could even react, they suddenly noticed that the bodies of the sixteen saint beasts propping up the flying ship were sinking.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Before anyone could release a scream of agony, the ship abruptly descended with increasing momentum to the ground.
The Cloudcliff Flying Ship was several dozen meters long, and it was dependent on the sixteen saint beasts to remain afloat in the air. With all of the saint beasts being incapacitated all of a sudden, it lost all of its support simultaneously and began on an unstoppable free fall downwards.
“The Eight Notes of Heavenly Dragons! That fellow used the Eight Notes of Heavenly Dragons to suppress the saint beasts! This is disastrous…” Exerting his zhenqi, Wo Tianqiong stopped in midair, but watching the flying ship fall beneath him, his mouth couldn’t help but twitch uncontrollably.
The saint beasts supporting the Cloudcliff Flying Ship were all saint beasts who possessed the Dragon Bloodline. Such saint beasts possessed extraordinary physical prowess, making their flight speed and endurance far superior to their counterparts. As such, they were the ideal candidates to drive the flying ship.
If one had to pick a flaw regarding them, it would only be their natural deference toward those who possessed the Pureblooded Dragon Bloodline
But Pureblooded Dragons had already disappeared from the world many years ago. As such, there should have been no one who could exploit this flaw, and it should have been safe for them to use those Dragon Bloodline saint beasts.
Who could have known that the Eight Notes of Heavenly Dragons, something that everyone thought had gone missing many years ago along with the Pureblooded Dragons, would ring out all of a sudden!
Wasn’t it said that these notes could only be voiced by those of the Dragon Tribe?
How could a human possibly voice it?
Not to mention, with such astounding prowess that even these Saint realm beasts would succumb to it at that!
But while he was in disbelief, he didn’t just freeze on the spot. He swiftly gathered a compressed layer of air beneath the Cloudcliff Flying Ship in order to slow its descent to a gradual halt.
Shen Pingchao and Wu Ran also swiftly recovered from their shock and assisted him.
The Cloudcliff Flying Ship might have been massive, but the strength of three 7-star master teachers was tremendous, too. Under their combined efforts, they eventually managed to stop the descent of the flying ship safely in midair. However, barely after they had heaved a sigh of relief, yet another sound echoed from beneath.
“Mou!”
Hong long!
The sound wasn’t loud, but it carried great penetrating power, reverberating in the ears of all clearly. In an instant, the sixteen saint beasts, whose bodies had been stiffened immobile and tongues were hanging from their mouths from the earlier sound, suddenly went into a rampage and charged downward, tugging the flying ship that was connected to them by a harness along with them.
Due to their furious charge, the massive ship, which had just come to a halt through the laborious effort of the three principals, was suddenly dragged down once more.
It was already sufficiently difficult to prop up that heavy flying ship, but with the incredible might of sixteen powerful saint beasts acting against them on top of that, there was no way the three principals could possibly hold on. Thus, the flying ship began falling once more.
Hong long long… Boom!
A huge cloud of dust rose up as the floating Cloudcliff Flying Ship crashed into the ground, creating a huge depression. The students, who had been standing on the deck, were forcefully thrown off the ship.
Due to the massive impact from the crash, some of the students who possessed lower cultivation sustained severe injuries even before participating in the Combat Master Selection.
Even those who had higher cultivation felt the zhenqi in their body going into disarray from the impact, and they couldn’t help but be dumbfounded by the abrupt happenings.
Not only were those from the three Master Teacher Academies stunned by the turn of events, even School Head Mo and the others, who had just returned to the ground, found their mouths twitching uncontrollably upon seeing this sight.
They had thought that the time limit their principal had come up with was just for show, but who would have thought that he was really serious?
Didn’t the heritage regarding the tongue of the Dragon Tribe disappear a long time ago? Furthermore, to speak it with apparent fluency, just how did their principal learn it?
At that moment, the three principals, who had been still standing grandly a moment ago, suddenly plummeted down from the sky and landed onto the deck of the ship. Dust cloaked their faces, leaving them in an indescribably unkempt state.
School Head Mo and the others hurriedly asked, “Are you all fine?”
The three principals had shouldered the weight of the flying ship and the rampaging might of sixteen saint beasts simultaneously, and even with their Saint realm 2-dan and 3-dan cultivation, it was still beyond what they could withstand.
It was already fortunate that they weren’t too severely injured from it.
Zhao Bingxu felt his head spinning furiously as he muttered beneath his breath, “Principal Zhang, is this what you mean by ‘cultured’?”
The other party had just told him that he would resolve the matter in a mature manner befitting the cultured individuals that master teachers should be… and barely a few moments later, such was the sight that had unfolded before him.
Is this what you mean by cultured?
Who in the world has ever seen a cultured man throwing his guests off from their flying ship, and on top of that… even crashing the other party’s ship?
Zhao Bingxu swiftly searched through the crowd for their principal so as to reason with him, to have him know that such actions were unconducive for the relations between the Four Great Master Teacher Academies. However, when he found the young man he was looking for, Zhang Xuan was standing right in front of the saint beasts that had been propping up the flying ship.
Pilipala!
A series of punches and kicks, and in the next moment, the saint beasts released excited calls, and sixteen droplets of fresh blood flew out from their glabellae, headed toward the young man.
Sealing of contracts, the saint beasts had acknowledged their new master!
“The heck!”
“Not only did our principal crash their flying ship, he even tamed their saint beasts?”
The Ten Great Master Teachers were completely dumbstruck by the inconceivable sight before them.
“Alright!” Patting the dust from his hands, Zhang Xuan raised his hand, and the saint beasts swiftly undid the harnesses around their bodies and gathered in a neat line before him, as if soldiers forming up before their commander. Each of their heads were tilted upward proudly, as if delighted with the new master they had acknowledged.
Since they had refused to come down even after his invitation, he could only find another way to invite them down.
In truth, Zhang Xuan had already noticed that the sixteen saint beasts possessed the Dragon Bloodline at first sight. Since that was the case, the solution couldn’t have been any simpler.
The Eight Notes of Heavenly Dragons and a bout of taming did the job.
Even though these sixteen were saint beasts, they only had the cultivation of Saint realm 1-dan primary stage. Given Zhang Xuan’s current strength and the fact that those saint beasts were still affected by the Eight Notes of Heavenly Dragons, it didn’t take him too much effort to tame them.
Since you were the ones who were being disrespectful first, there is no need for me to uphold etiquette with you.
We can talk about it slowly after I tame these saint beasts of yours!
“This…” Climbing up from the remains of the flying ship, Wo Tianqiong and Shen Pingchao nearly spurted a mouthful of blood.
We were only trying to assess you to see how well you can adapt to difficult situations… Surely you didn’t need to go so far as to destroy such a precious flying ship and steal those sixteen saint beasts.
Not to mention, I had to serve those saint beasts the best food and drinks just to make them work for me. It is one thing for them to betray me, but what is with the proud look on their faces?
Do you need to be so smug about taking that fellow as your master?
They had heard that the other party often did things beyond one’s expectations, but this… it was not just beyond expectations, it was beyond common decency!
“He is Principal Zhang? I see… I should have guessed it!”
Contrary to the stifled looks on the faces of the other two principals, as soon as Wu Ran saw Zhang Xuan’s appearance, his body immediately began trembling in agitation.
He had heard about the many incredible deeds of the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy’s new principal, but he had never seen the other party in person. Never would he have thought that it would be the young man who had pointed out the flaws in Kong shi’s insight on the Saint Ascension Platform and received Kong shi’s acknowledgement!
Back then, when the young man abruptly disappeared, he had spent several days searching for him around the Saint Ascension Platform but to no avail. Just when he thought that he had lost the opportunity to converse with that outstanding young man and learn from him… it turned out that the other party was the legendary principal of the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy!
If he had known earlier, he would have definitely paid the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy a visit long ago. There were many lingering questions and doubts in his mind, which he wanted to consult the other party about!
Back then, he had been thinking that it was impossible for such an outstanding young man to be buried amid the dust—a true star would eventually outshine those around him—and it seemed like that was indeed the case!
As a person who had been acknowledged by Kong shi himself, earning the recognition of the many preceding principals was a piece of cake!
The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. Eventually, unable to hold himself back any longer, he rushed forward to the young man and greeted him. “Wu Ran of the Qingzhu Master Teacher Academy pays respect to Zhang shi!”
“It seems like we meet once again,” Zhang Xuan replied with a smile.
“Yes!” Wu Ran clasped his fist and nodded excitedly.
“This…”
The Ten Great Master Teachers and innumerable students glanced at one another, overwhelmed with frenzy by the sight before them.
Those principals, who had been standing haughtily on their flying ship a moment ago, refusing to comply with School Head Mo and the others, had suddenly had such a huge change in attitude after crashing down, greeting their principal like a humble student…
Could it be that these principals also suffered from the same affliction that plagued the preceding principals, willing to comply only after undergoing a round of pummeling?
In other words… masochists?
