The Spirit Battle Tournament had always been hosted by the Yan Country all along but since its inception, there had never been a case of any inside manipulation. However, this year, the Crown Prince, Lei Chen, had actually abused his position to achieve his own ends by using his title to oppress the contestants, to ensure that Jun Xie advanced in the tournament!
That was the most sensational news that exploded in the Imperial Capital!
Some of them had actually still been doubtful on the veracity of the news but when people saw the disciple who was supposed to battle Jun Xie in the third round of the tournament appearing on the streets with injuries, all those doubts had immediately evaporated.
And very quickly, the news had reached the ears of disciples from all the academies.
The fact that Lei Chen had recently been getting close to the Zephyr Academy was plain for all to see and Lei Chen's endearing use of "little brother Jun" as a form of address at the banquet were still fresh in the mind of everyone. When they put two and two together, everyone began to understand Lei Chen's underlying motives.
He was misusing his authourity to ensure Jun Xie would advance far in the Spirit Battle Tournament!
Shortly after, all the participants of the Spirit Battle Tournament immediately boiled up in rage. The Spirit Battle Tournament had attracted so many academies to take part because the tournament had always been fair and impartial. Any youth who possessed good skills were free to come exhibit the best of their abilities here.
And Lei Chen's actions were undoubtedly breaking the very impartiality that had made the tournament so immensely popular.
In a moment, they awe the Zephyr Academy had just managed to gain was immediately overshadowed by the voices of dissent and outrage that arose!
Jun Wu Xie only got to know about the news from Fei Yan. In the first round when Lin Qi had forfeited the tournament, she had not thought that anything was amiss. It was only when in the next two consecutive rounds of the tournament when both her opponents had announced their forfeiture on the day of the match that she began to think it strange.
When she thought back to the words that Lei Chen had said the day before her first match, Jun Wu Xie could roughly guess how this had come about.
However…..
Lei Chen's actions had not brought her any sense of joy in the slightest.
"Does the Crown Prince have water in his head? What has he done here! ?" Qiao Chu said in frustration while seated on a chair, his face dark and fuming. In the past few days, he had together with Hua Yao and the others won splendidly where they had finally managed to push the fame of the Zephyr Academy to reach another peak. And now, Lei Chen had done it, with his unilateral decision to abuse his authourity, he had undone all their tireless efforts and shamed the Zephyr Academy name!
At that moment, when people mentioned the Zephyr Academy, they no longer spoke about the young youths who had astonishingly attained their blue spirits, but to scorn and jeer at them for having thrown themselves at the Crown Prince to win undeserved favours. When they went out on the streets now, the disciples from all the other academies would immediately be pointing their fingers at them and whispering in hushed tones, uttering words that were most unpleasant to the ears.
Fan Jin sighed wearily. The Zephyr Academy's reputation had really been like a roller coaster the past few days. They had been deep down in the gorges and Hua Yao with the others had fought hard to bring the Zephyr Academy up. They had just seen some results from the efforts when they had been dragged back down by Lei Chen.
Since the day the Zephyr Academy was founded, they had never had to bear the shame of having been accused of such.
The Zephyr Academy would rather choose to fall into decline but never would they discard their pride and backbone. They had never cared to fawn and grovel before anyone!
"Looking at the way Lei Chen is carrying on, I don't think he would be letting anyone fight Little Xie. I had wondered what kind of methods would he use to win us over but I had not expected him to be so direct." Fei Yan said disgustedly, highly put off by Lei Chen blatant and domineering ways.
"Lei Chen had always been highly protective of his own repute and even though we know he is keen on recruiting us, he really shouldn't have been so obvious and carried it to such an extent right….." Fan Zhuo's eyes were narrowed. He was somehow feeling that the way things were being done did not really match up with the image Lei Chen always projected to people.