Chapter 443: Tallies

Translated by Jouissance of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

After six days of this competition, the final scores had more or less become set in stone.

Both challengers and the challenged moved to their respective new rooms the day after they were informed. The mentor didn’t take them to the rooms that had been used by those who had been kicked down. To avoid running out of space, many rooms had been prepared.

Their rooms were still next to one another. Tian Xin and Cheng XiangRong were next to You XiaoMo while Qiao WuXing and Jiu Ye were opposite to him.

The rooms on the sixtieth floor were like what Yan Hui described. It wasn’t exquisitely furnished by any means, but it felt homely.

ui had wanted to switch rooms with Cheng XiangRong, saying he preferred rooms that faced the north, but before Cheng XiangRong could reply, the mentor arranged a room that faced north for him. It was five or six rooms away from the rest of them, so he ended up running back.

“A room facing south isn’t bad either.” Yan Hui gave a weak explanation.

But no one really cared. None of them could stand having to live on that disgusting floor for almost ten days. Though Tian Xin had said it was only three days, she had neglected the period of time it would take for the challenges to wrap up.

They were used to living in large, spacious rooms, so it was suffocating to live in a small room for so long.

After dismissing Yan Hui, You XiaoMo closed the door and isolate them from everyone else’s sights. The first thing he did was to lunge at the large bed in the room and roll around while exclaiming, “Big beds are the best for sure!”

Ling Xiao wanted to say that it didn’t matter if practitioners slept, but considering how the other was once a normal person, he decided against it.

Once You XiaoMo was done basking in the comfort of the bed, he crawled over to Ling Xiao’s side, placing his chin on the other’s arm. “Where did you go the day before yesterday?”

Ling Xiao leaned against the post of the bed. “I went out to gather information. After you get to the seventieth floor, I can’t follow you up anymore.”

You XiaoMo immediately sat up straight. “Why?”

Ling Xiao replied, “Do you really think that the Xiao Yao Institution would be so generous as to let people come in and out as they pleased?”

It could be clearly seen from the first floor that very few people would be willing to squeeze into such a small room with another. This had become an invisible deterrent, and more importantly, most people didn’t do this out of generosity, very few had as pure intentions as You XiaoMo did.

Even so, some were still greedy enough to plot together, so outsiders weren’t allowed onto the higher floors, since all the truly valuable items were on those floors. For everything on floors seventy and under, what the Xiao Yao Institute could provide was readily available outside as well.

“Then what will you do?”

You XiaoMo knew that the academy would have its rules. In reality, he had thought it strange that the Xiao Yao Institute would allow outsiders in. It was only now that he knew of this.

“You don’t have to worry, just focus on your studies. I hear that the situation for the floors above seventy is different from below. You might not have as blissful of a life up there,” Ling Xiao said.

The corner of You XiaoMo’s eye twitched. “Please stop using the word blissful to describe things.”

Ling Xiao immediately changed his words. “You won’t have a blissful life at all.”

You XiaoMo: “…”

Don’t think for a moment that I missed that change in the connotation of that word.

“Talk seriously.” After a moment of speechlessness, You XiaoMo slapped the other’s muscled arm upon realizing that the other didn’t seem to intend to answer his question properly.

Ling Xiao glanced at his hand. “TongTian Continent is my home. There’s a lot I’ve left here. We hadn’t had the chance to check up on things before. Now that I have time, I plan on going for a visit.”

After he finished speaking, he realized that You XiaoMo was looking at him in surprise. “What?”

You XiaoMo shook his head. “I always thought you were a loner, I never imagined you had ‘a lot of things’. What things are there, can you tell me?”

After he finished speaking, he was frustrated. He had explained his whole reincarnation secret to Ling Xiao already, so he naturally had a right to know Ling Xiao’s secrets.

It was good that Ling Xiao didn’t plan on hiding things from him, otherwise You XiaoMo would consider lunging and bearing his own sparkling white teeth.

“You already know the whole thing with my parents. I told you my parents had a trusted follower, right? Everything I know about my parents came from him. It seems like in the ten thousand years I’ve left TongTian Continent, he’s managed to establish his own group.”

“Oh, so you plan to find that trusted follower of your parents?”

“Yes.”

“When will you be back?”

“In about a month and a half.”

You XiaoMo made some quick calculations. Not long after a month and a half, it would be the end of Xiong Xiao’s promise of three months. It seemed like Ling Xiao had already planned for all this. “Remember to not be late.”

Though he wanted to go with, he had to settle down and focus on cultivating after running around for so long.

“I know you would feel empty and lonely. I’ll come back as soon as I can,” Ling Xiao promised, hugging the other’s head.

The empty and lonely You XiaoMo decided to not argue over these two words considering how the other was about to leave.

“Oh yeah, when are you preparing to leave?”

“The day after tomorrow.”

The days before one had to say goodbye always passed quickly. You XiaoMo felt like he had only sighed a few times before the time for them to part arrived. However, thinking of Ling Xiao’s ‘generosity’ with his money, he didn’t feel so sad anymore.

After coming to the TongTian Continent, he actually hadn’t event spent a hundredth of his total assets yet, so he was in a dilemma about how much to give Ling Xiao. If he gave the other more, then the other would definitely spend more. But if he gave too little, what if Ling Xiao ran out?

You XiaoMo debated over this for half a day before eventually settling on giving Ling Xiao more.

When Ling Xiao took the storage bag, he immediately knew how many spirit gems were inside and looked at You XiaoMo with an almost-smile. “Doesn’t your heart hurt to give me so much?”

“Bullshit, of course it hurts.” You XiaoMo rolled his eyes.

Ling Xiao hung the bag at his waist as he said, “You gave me so much even though your heart hurt to do so. I can’t promise how much will remain.”

You XiaoMo immediately pushed him towards the door. “Hurry and go, it’s better for my eyes to not have to see you.”

“As you wish, I’ll leave now.” Ling Xiao really did leave as he said this, soon disappearing from sight.

You XiaoMo stood there for a moment. Three seconds later, he ran to the doorway and looked into the corridor. Ling Xiao really was gone. You XiaoMo couldn’t help but curse at the other in his heart for being such a fast bastard.

It was only two days after Ling Xiao left that Cheng XiangRong and company finally noticed his disappearance. At first, they had thought Ling Xiao had gone out to take care of some business, so they didn’t really put much thought to it.

When Yan Hui pulled Cheng XiangRong over to ask after this, they were quickly sent off with a few sentences from You XiaoMo. Usually, he and Ling Xiao were stuck at the hip, but they couldn’t be together all the time.

His life seemed to have returned to the peaceful but busy days back when he was alone.

After the big competition, the students of the Giganticus entered a period of rest.

As they were new students, they had only fought three matches and therefore didn’t have to spend several days recovering like the others. Early next morning, someone knocked on You XiaoMo’s door.

“What? Don’t you know it’s rude to wake people from their dreams?” You XiaoMo opened with door with a head of bed hair, yelling at the perpetrator in frustration.

Seeing his not-fully-awake look, Yan Hui immediately pushed goody-two-shoes Cheng XiangRong forwards.

Seeing him angered, Cheng XiangRong stuttered, “S-sorry, I didn’t realize.”

You XiaoMo rubbed his eyes and realized it was the uncle with the rather soft personality, immediately talking in a gentler tone, “Oh, it’s you, uncle. Is there anything you need?”

Cheng XiangRong glanced at Yan Hui and said, “A Hui said that we should go and get our tallies from the mentors, so we wanted to ask you if you wanted to come along.”

“Wait a while,” You XiaoMo said before returning inside.

Yan Hui immediately glared at Cheng XiangRong. “Why did he use a nicer tone after seeing you?” He had thought You XiaoMo wasn’t in a good mood.

Cheng XiangRong scratched his head. “I dunno either.”

Yan Hui was furious.

Ten minutes later, You XiaoMo came out groomed perfectly, a smile on his face, and the furious expression from before gone.

Yan Hui couldn’t help but exclaim to himself that You XiaoMo’s mood really changed too quickly. Could it be that, in Ling Mo’s absence, his mood had become unstable? He felt like he might be approaching the truth…

The tallies that Cheng XiangRong were talking about was the points system of the Giganticus.

Since they were new students, they had to redeem a tally first. The tally would record all the matches they had fought while in the Giganticus, their losses, victories and ties. However, there would only be points from winning.

After half an hour, the mentor handed them the created tallies. “These are your tallies. If you lose them, it’ll be a pain to remake, so keep them safe.”

You XiaoMo accepted the three tallies before handing Yan Hui and Cheng XiangRong their tallies.

His name was carved at the top of the tally. Under his name his number of wins, losses and ties. Currently, there was only one number three under his win, and at the bottom, his total points was also three.

The three had the same.