77 Slap 3

Elder Flyleaf, noticing Dyon's reaction and the fact he had no plans on exposing him, dropped the matter and continued with his lecture.

However, Dyon was completely turned off by this now. He had no idea why a teacher would have to use such means, but he didn't like it. As such, once Elder Flyleaf turned his attention away from him, Dyon moved to discreetly leave the hall, intent on manifesting his soul.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!"

A booming voice interrupted the lecture, causing the entire lecture hall to focus one of the seniors who had tried to kick Dyon from the sky earlier.

Dyon gave him a sideways glance, before continuing towards the backdoor, 'I can't fight an essence gathering expert right now… at best I could defend, even with the improvements in my will paths. I refuse to use my last cultivation erasing pill on this bitch.'

Benes' subordinate grit his teeth, completely angered by Dyon's lack of respect.

"I don't know when we started letting lesser species into our academy, but it's clear whoever authorized this is an idiot."

Elder Flyleaf was content to sit back and watch this unfold, happy that he didn't have to deal with this and lower his status.

Dyon chuckled, "idiot? That might be the funniest thing I've heard in a while…"

"Is that so?" Benes' subordinate continued, ignorant of the hole he was digging himself, "you have a complete disregard for etiquette. Not only did you have the audacity to raise an eyebrow at Elder Flyleaf's teachings, you also plan to leave in the middle of his lecture? If the person who let you in isn't an idiot, then what is he?"

Although Benes' subordinate said these things fully aware that only someone at the level of an elder could let Dyon in, by the way Dyon had been disrespecting Elder Flyleaf, there was no way it had been him that recommended Dyon. Understanding to here and knowing that the elders above Elder Flyleaf could be counted on one's hand, it was an easy assessment to make that it was better to offend a low ranking elder to gain the favor of a high ranking elder such as Flyleaf.

However, Dyon continued to chuckle, "it's audacious to have reflective thoughts on a lecture so profound, is it? Do you know how many reasons one could have for raising an eyebrow? Depending on mood it could be surprise, disgust, curiosity… need I really go on? Considering your intelligence, am I supposed to believe you have an understanding of what emotion I was showing?"

Thinking it through, Dyon decided on this approach. He had no animosity toward elder Flyleaf, so there was no reason to be clear on what he meant by raising his eyebrow. If the elder was smart and open minded, he'd take this as an olive branch. If he didn't, Dyon didn't mind embarrassing him because Uncle Acacia was his ultimate trump card. However, what didn't escape Dyon's notice was the fact Elder Flyleaf had said nothing, as though he were tacitly agreeing to this interruption. But, to Dyon, this didn't cross the line. If someone raised an eyebrow at his lecture, he'd feel a little peeved too.

"You! – it was clear disdain! Anyone could see that. For a lowly human to have such thoughts on a lecture by such a great elder, did you think that I wouldn't be able to tell?! With my level of soul prowess compared to yours, did you think you could hide anything from me?!"

Whispers started sweeping through the hall, "human? When did we get a human here? Even the headmaster's daughter is at least half elf…"

The truth of the matter was that, to elves, most humans had exaggeratedly normal appearances, as backwards as that may sound. However, Dyon's devilish level of handsomeness had made even the hearts of Elvin girls flutter, how could they assume someone who rivaled even their most attractive people was just a human? What they had failed to notice were his obviously un-pointed ears.

Dyon didn't seem to mind the scrutiny though, his smile never fading, "your soul is stronger than mine? Really? You've been trying to read through my defenses this whole time and have been failing, did you think that by just saying you were stronger, it would manifest into the truth?"

Dyon's soul had reached the lower 5th stage just a few days ago, whereas he had to be weary of this group of senior's essence gathering strength, due to the difficulty of cultivating the soul, it always lagged behind energy cultivation. The only reason soul strength increased with cultivation is often by it being dragged along as opposed to it keeping up. Although their energy cultivation was comparable to the 5th stage, Dyon could clearly see that their souls were stuck at the 4th stage. In fact, Bene's subordinate was at a measly lower 4th stage level.

Benes' subordinate gritted his teeth. He had no idea how a boy clearly much younger than him could keep his defenses up in this situation, "do you expect anyone to believe that a 15yo boy would have a greater soul strength than me?!"

The surrounding crowd nodded in agreement, sneering in disdain.

"Senior brother Ryba is right, how could such a thing be possible."

Seeing the crowds support, Ryba smirked, "you must think that just because you can float in the air using some formation plates that you're superior, huh? Maybe formation plates are rare in your little human clans, but everyone has access to them here! And yet all juniors have the common courtesy to understand seniority. If you don't have the power to be in the air, you shouldn't be up here!"

Ryba domineeringly released his soul pressure onto Dyon.

"Look at him, nearly cracking under the pressure of Senior Brother Ryba's soul," someone in the crowd sneered.

"hmph, and he dared to claim that his soul was stronger?"

During this whole exchange, Benes had a pensive look on his face as he seriously watched Dyon's every reaction, ignoring the cute girl clinging to his arm.

"is something wrong? Did he rile you up?" The girl giggled, holding onto Benes.

Benes didn't respond, but his eyebrows furrowed as he watched Dyon be completely unperturbed by Ryba's pressure.

Dyon smiled, "oh, if it's just about being able to be up here on my own power, then that's simple."

"don't be ridi – " Ryba couldn't even finish his sentence before his words were caught in his throat.

Dyon had lifted his hand, allowing lights of gold to flicker around, forming a new defensive array under the eyes of everyone. Then, he lightly hopped to it, sitting cross legged and continuing towards the back door.

"oh… since I'm sure you're too stupid to understand what just happened, that was a practitioner 6th level defensive array. To draw it, your soul has to be at the peak of the lower 4th stage. So, I'm sure you understand what that means," Dyon's voice rang out faintly, slowly closing the door behind him as he floated away, leaving the hall in silence.

Ryba could only grit his teeth in silence, feeling the stinging of a resounding slap on his face.

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From tomorrow on, things are gonna get hot. This wasn't just a cheap little bit of hype moment, Elder Flyleaf is actually quite an important character as you'll see (but not for the reason you're thinking ;)). Also, Ri disappearing is a bit odd... I wonder what that's about :)

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