Chapter 74 72- The Inner Disciple Rankings

Upon hearing Xi Shen’s question, Ling Xia turned her attention to Yang Su and said in a rather irritated voice, “Why haven’t you reached the Sea Expansion Realm yet?”

Yang Su, hearing Ling Xia's voice, gave her a bitter smile and ducked his head a bit. He was thinking to himself that this senior sister Xia was extremely bossy. She was practically barging into their home and getting angry at Yang Su for not meeting her expectations.

Ling Xia then went on to say, “If you aren’t in the Sea Expansion Realm I won’t be able to fight you fairly, and pay you back for that punch you gave me. How long are you planning to keep me waiting?”

With the bitter smile still on his face, Yang Su said with pleading in his voice, “Senior sister Xia, I had already apologized for hitting you in the face. At that time I had no idea you were a girl.”

Ling Xia’s expression became even more irritated as she said, “So what if I am a girl? Are you saying I won’t be able to battle you when you go all out?”

Seeing that Ling Xia was getting angrier, Yang Su hurriedly stammered out while waving his hands, “N-no, that’s not what I meant senior Xia. I-I…”

Yang Su looked like he was on the verge of tears, as he tried to appease Ling Xia. This was how their interaction had been since Ling Xia first showed up at their courtyard. It seemed as if anything Yang Su said would cause her to get upset.

Xi Shen upon seeing this realize what was going on. This must have been the first time Ling Xia had suffered a loss.

With her brother being hailed as the number one genius in the Celestial Academy and was even rumored to be a candidate to become the future Academy Leader, her status was beyond anyone in her age group. Coupled with her outstanding talents, being on the losing end of a battle with someone of the same generation as her was likely never the case.

Either they were too scared to offend Ling Tian by hurting his sister, like what had happened to Yang Su, or she was talented enough that no one her age was her match.

Yang Su being able to go toe to toe with her during the Freshmen Disciple Competition, and even coming out on top, must have hurt the huge pride and ego that she had built up. That’s why she was so eager to challenge Yang Su to a rematch, her hurt pride wouldn’t allow her to accept the results of their first battle.

Xi Shen shook his head since he also realize that this girl Ling Xia had marked Yang Su as her rival, and Yang Su seemed to be clueless about it. No matter how much he apologize to her, her irritation of him won’t lessen until she got her rematch and won.

Though Xi Shen couldn’t help but think that Ling Xia looked like a spoiled brat that can’t handle her first loss.

But something else was troubling Xi Shen about the current situation. Looking at Ling Xia he asked, “Don’t you think Yang Su apologizing to you when it was your brother that had to attack him is enough?”

Hearing this, Lin Xia irritated expression turned slightly apologetic before she lowered her head and whispered, “He’s way too protective of me and I didn’t approve of him doing that either. Every time I wanted to leave the Conclave Disciple Section he would force me to carry a bodyguard with me. I had to disguise myself and sneak out just to get away from his controlling personality." Ling Xia then raised her head and said firmly, "And I had shown my apology to junior brother Yang Su by helping him with his injuries the day before.”

Upon hearing that, Yang Su realize why Ling Xia was so insistent on helping him yesterday.

‘So she was doing that as a way to apologize to me?’

Yang Su asked himself as he shyly scratched his cheek with his index finger.

Seeing Yang Su’s expression, Xi Shen looked between both Ling Xia and him before an amused smile appeared on his lips.

However, Xi Shen decided not to point out the weird relationship that was forming between Ling Xia and Yang Su, and instead say while getting up, “I’ll be leaving now, I have things to attend to.”

Yang Su also stood up and was planning to accompany Xi Shen, but Xi Shen waved his hand and said, “You stay here and attend to senior sister Xia, I’m going to head down the mountain to the Missions Hall.”

Xi Shen then turned to Ling Xia and said with cupped fists, “I’m sorry I won’t be able to accompany senior sister Xia any further since I have a few businesses to attend to today.”

After saying some simple parting words, Xi Shen turned around to leave, but Ling Xia suddenly spoke up with a curious and confused tone of voice, “Why would you go to the Missions Hall?”

Ling Xia asked that with the fact that Xi Shen couldn’t cultivate in mind, and thus had no need to go to the Missions Hall.

Smiling, Xi Shen responded, “If senior sister Ling Xia must know, I’m just going to view the Inner Disciples Rankings out of curiosity.”

Xi Shen then turned and left after that, and Ling Xia being satisfied with his answer didn’t question him any further.

After Xi Shen left his courtyard, he slowly headed down to the Sword Pavilion mountain towards the Missions Hall.

This was located in the center of the Inner Academy. All of the different Division mountains such as the Alchemy Division, Blacksmith Division, etc., were in a circular formation that had a town-like settlement in the middle, where various important buildings of the Academy were located.

This was where the Mission Hall was, and from its name, one could easily tell that it was where disciples of the Inner Section of the Academy go to accept missions that came from all over the Maple Continent.

Aside from that, this was where disciples come to receive their 200 Academy Points stipend from the Celestial Academy. Also, this was where the leader's board of the Inner Disciple Ranking was located, and where disciples who wanted to arrange a ranking match would come.

The whole reason why Xi Shen was here.

Looking at the rather large and grandiose Mission Hall, Xi Shen was curious about the types of disciples who were among the rankings. But despite his curiousness on the inside, his face still had on a slight frown because even after being in the Inner Section of the Academy for about a month now, there were still disciples that would stop and stare at him.

As he approached the double doors of the Mission Hall, the various Inner Disciples that were entering and leaving shot confused or curious glances at Xi Shen.

But this was expected since seeing Xi Shen at the Mission Hall was akin to seeing a wet fish in the middle of a desert. It was just out of the ordinary, as he had no business being here with his lack of cultivation.

Xi Shen drew eyes as he entered the Mission Hall, but he ignored them all and started looking around.

To give the Celestial Academy credit where it was due, Xi Shen had to admit their buildings were crafted from good material and were extremely detailed.

Looking at one of the many pillars in the large hall, one could have mistaken the drawings of the auspicious beasts on it were coming to life.

The floor beneath Xi Shen’s feet was made of jade green tiles and was so clear and smooth one could use it as a mirror.

Xi Shen moved between the numerous disciples inside the hall while looking around the hall, admiring its excellent craftsmanship and elegance.

After a moment of looking around, Xi Shen finally satiated his curiosity, and his attention landed on the end of the hall where there was a section separated by a waist-height front desk, that ran along the entire hall from wall to wall.

Behind this section were several disciples that were employed by the Academy to work here. And behind them was two gigantic jade slap that had information on it that could clearly be seen, even if the person was at the entrance of the Missions Hall.

The smaller of the large jade slab had information on it that was constantly changing. Xi Shen leaned against one of the stone pillars in the hall casually, as he went over the information on it and saw that they were missions along with the various rewards for completing them. The information was constantly changing due to the disciples who were in here taking up these missions.

After looking over the types of missions that the Celestial Academy accepts from the outside world, Xi Shen realize most of them involved battling the demonic cultivators of the various Unorthodox Sects on the Maple Continent.

This didn’t surprise him since the hidden Unorthodox Sects always caused chaos around the Continent, and it was Orthodox Institutions like the Celestial Academy that would stop them.

Xi Shen also suspected that these missions were also being given to the other Academies, and some of the mission that was being taken down was because someone from another Academy had chosen them.

This situation was a result of the Orthodox Academy Alliance that was made up of the various academies on the Maple Continent. Even though they would always compete against each other, they would still unite as one when it comes to protecting the Maple Continent from either outside forces or internal forces like the Unorthodox Sects.

After finish looking at the Missions board, Xi Shen gaze landed on the other much larger jade slab on the left. Like the mission board, this jade slab had its name written over it in bold glowing characters.

Over this jade slab was the name, Inner Disciple Rankings, written in elegant penmanship.

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Word Count: 1653