211 Dig a Ditch, Add Some Dir

From how slowly the fingers closed, there seemed to be great repulsive force between the two. But the air solidified and thunder boomed out of nowhere, as if giant stones were rubbing against each other.

Red and white light appeared. They were the red-hot flames and cold frost. They appeared out of thin air as the two fingers moved and converged as the fingers closed. Though they crashed against each other, they did not put each other out. Instead, they began rubbing even more intensely, creating explosive sounds.

In the stands, even the teachers could only gasp in awe. This technique of polarization from the School of Modifications was flawless! The aether had been manipulated hurriedly and was not very powerful, but the hidden manticore retreated quickly. It escaped the moment the ice and fire exploded.

Banner’s expression changed. How did this b*stard know the manticore’s weakness? When it suddenly dawned on him, he ground his teeth. It was the library! That guy was the manager of the library. As long as he had Dominic’s permission, he could read about every musician school within Anglo…F*ck…why did it have to be him?!

The manticore became invisible by diluting itself and becoming a cloud of aether atoms, then melt into the environment like a chameleon. Because its body was so ghostly, no biological attacks could touch it. But if the environment changed too quickly, it would be unable to change with it and thus reveal its shape.

Furthermore, that white-haired b*stard had produced an alchemist armor from the School of Modifications! Any Modifications music score posed the greatest threat to an invisible manticore.

It was most wary of things as extreme as polarization. Once the extreme cold and heat exploded, it could cause the atomized manticore to lose part of its body. At that time, Banner would lose his opportunity and must put in great effort to project it back out. He might even face the manticore’s resistance!

This was the biggest concern for musicians of the School of Summoning. Their phantom beasts were usually more powerful than they were. Controlling this overly-powerful strength and ensuring it would not go out of control and hurt the musician was already difficult, not to mention the backlash that would follow.

When Banner first inherited the beastliness, he had practically turned into a zombie trying to stop his brain from creating more creatures. Thankfully, all effort was worth it. He had already seeped through the manticore’s surface awareness and branded it with his badge. The once-uncontrollable lion was now like his right hand.

The manticore only retreated temporarily. Soon, it charged forward again! Attacking while invisible was only one of the ways for the manticore to hunt…if it really wanted to kill, it would use its teeth and claws!

And the School of Royalty was best at…double majoring! Its unique rituals and techniques allowed the phantom beast to be modified and store music scores within. To the musicians who had become the ‘descendant of the phoenix,’ their phantom beasts were their instruments!

The giant phantom beast—as tall as a man—suddenly pounced, its body going up in flames. As it roared, lava flowed out of thin air like a waterfall. Covering its body, the lava transformed into a scalding dark red armor. The wild heat spread.

"Go die!" But in that instant, Banner saw Ye Qingxuan smile. The mocking smile gave him a bad feeling. The next moment, a whistle rang out.

"Goal for the history department!" the referee announced. Banner froze instantly.

Goal?! How was that possible?! The ball was—was right under Ye Qingxuan’s feet…But then the ball under his feet trembled, blurred and finally turned into a round stone.

It was fake…

Banner roared and looked back at his goal. And saw that the goalie was hanging on the post and a little girl stood before the goal, panting for breath. The white-haired girl was covered with sweat and breathed heavily, but one could not tell what had just happened.

She seemed to have teleported there. It did not make any sense!

Everything had been flawlessly arranged in the game plan. Banner would deal with Ye Qingxuan. As for the rest, Cullen would take the two strongest musicians to attack the mysterious guy with the headgear; two would focus on the difficult Charles; he had even arranged for someone to block the dog…but he had overlooked the girl.

He had arranged for some to keep an eye on changes, but no one had expected that this young little girl with a ponytail would suddenly transform into a beast.

"Pomp and Circumstance," the principal sighed in the stands, shaking his head slightly. It was either a lament or praise. "As expected of that guy’s student. As expected of Pomp and Circumstance."

When everyone’s attention had been on Ye Qingxuan and Banner, Bai Xi had sucked in a breath. And then the players before her saw that the girl’s eyes shone like the sun! The talent of the Dragon Bloodline, Zhaodang, had awoken.

A grand symphony had followed immediately after. The seal had been broken easily. Even though it was just the overture, even though it was just a few seconds…The girl had transformed into a saint crowned by the gods and advanced fearlessly with the holy power. She ran with the soccer ball, fast as lightning. And when she had reached the goal, she kicked.

The soccer ball had crashed into the goalie. Before he could react, he had been flipped over and hung onto the post. The electrified ball flew into the goal and practically broke through the net. That was when the ground-shattering resonance finally spread like thunder.

Everyone was stunned.

-

For the past few days, everyone had dug for information on the history department. This included the Eastern youth who had been in the limelight and offended countless people at the beginning of the year; Charles, who had been seen as a genius and then a failure; the evil dog that should not be crossed; and Bai Xi, who never went to class.

But no one had expected that the bad student who just ditched class to walk the dog was actually a Modifications musician! And she was such an expert that she could perform a heavyweight score like Pomp and Circumstance!

Everyone’s jaws dropped and their eyes fell out of their sockets. In the stands, all professors glanced subconsciously at their similarly stunned colleague.

"Egor?"

"You taught her Pomp and Circumstance?"

"When did you…"

"That girl is your student?"

Faced with all the eyes and questions, Egor felt that his head was going to explode. "I didn’t teach her!"

"Ha."

"Really?"

"Lying straight through your teeth is unnecessary."

It was obvious that no one believed him. Who else could teach Pomp and Circumstance in this academy, other than Egor from the School of Modifications?

"Shut up!" Egor was close to spitting out blood and had the urge to flip his seat over. "There are branches in Modifications too! That girl clearly played something closer to Classicism! It features God-given strength and becoming the physical embodiment of a saint!

"I inherited the school from Saint Liszt, which focuses on elemental change and transformation. There’s nothing given by God! Even if I play Pomp and Circumstance, it will only feature the changes of the four elements and a thunderstorm. How can I teach a student Classicism?"

Seeing Egor’s worked up expression, all the professors became more confused. Then who taught the girl? Abraham?

No way, that guy had come from the School of Abstinence, which naturally stood against all other schools. Even for the School of Summoning, he had just dabbled in it and did not count as an actual musician. It was hard to teach students…not to mention such a core music score from Modifications.

"Stop arguing." At the front, the principal sighed. "I know her teacher. He isn’t from the Academy, but his status is sensitive, so just stop asking."

Hearing this, everyone shut their mouths, but they could not help but let their imagination run wild. There were crazy guesses—maybe she was the bastard child of some important guy, or the student of a grand master, or the seed of the School of Royalty…In the end, everyone’s gazes landed on Abraham’s empty seat and grew strange. What exactly was this old guy’s background?

-

It was silent as death on the field as well. Banner held down the furious manticore and glared at Ye Qingxuan. "When?"

"Huh?" The youth’s voice was hoarse and strange, as if he did not understand.

Banner stepped forward. His eyes were filled with anger. "When did you switch the soccer ball?!"

And so Ye Qingxuan laughed. When? It was from the start…

The ball had been kicked to Bai Xi when the beam of light flashed past. Then, the prepared Bai Xi dug a hole and buried the ball…Yes, she buried it right under her feet. When everyone’s attention was on Ye Qingxuan, Bai Xi began to act according to plan.And so, she scored a goal logically and naturally. One point. It was so simple and so extremely easy, but no one else knew how to react.

"One thousand points." Across from Banner, the white-haired youth opened his mouth without a word, but revealed almost tangible mockery. Silent, Banner stared at his face and his own grew white as a sheet. He was just like a transparent wraith.

Angry fire continued to smolder in his beastly vertical eyes. The fury was sealed under his pale face and the fire hurt his brain.

That d*mn *sshole, that d*mn *sshole, that d*mn *sshole! That white-haired b*stard, lowly redneck, beggar in the palace…*sshole *sshole *sshole *sshole *sshole *sshole…

He covered his face, pushing down the wild beastly nature within. Once he could not retain complete sanity, he would easily be controlled by his beastly nature. The chaos was not completely bad though. It would at least make him wilder and more…powerful!

"Go into coherence with me." Banner revealed an emerald eye between his fingers. His voice behind his hands was hoarse and unclear. "Haydn’s Symphony No. 8—Night!" His voice was like a choking beast.