CH 106

Chapter 106: Hidden Realm

Immediately after, Xiao Qingyang's terminal beeps several times. It indicated that several people had sent him messages simultaneously.

Xiao Qingyang opened the messages one by one and found that they were celebratory messages sent by members of Team 619, clearly indicating that everyone had seen the results of the freshman training.

Xu Kaiyang: Aooo... We are in first place, hahaha...

Lin Weiran: Freshman training was tough for everyone ^_^.

Gu Xiaotian: This training was really enjoyable, and I'm so proud.

The remaining teammates' messages were more or less similar. Xiao Qingyang felt touched after reading them and replied to each message.

Even they didn't expect to secure first place in the freshman training. After all, they had only aimed to persevere until the end, considering it a victory. The first-place result was truly an unexpected surprise.

"The training results have been announced." Someone shouted in the classroom, causing everyone to stop talking and open their personal terminals to check their team's rankings.

When everyone saw the list of the top-ranked teams in the training, they were all stunned. Clearly, the champion team was different from what they had anticipated.

"619? Which team is that? What about Team 444? I thought they would be the champions."

"Yeah, even if Team 444 didn't win the championship, it should have been Team 222, right? Where did this Team 619 come from?"

"Team 222 secured second place. I can't believe it."

"Ah... Our team's ranking is quite low. It's disappointing."

"Haha... Our team actually made it to the top ten. So happy..."

The classroom was filled with a cacophony of voices, encompassing joy, dissatisfaction, and skeptical disbelief. In short, every kind of emotion was present.

That so-called Team 444 was the team where Xiao Qinglan was originally a member. They were considered one of the favorites to win the freshman training, but they were eliminated halfway through and didn't even make it onto the leaderboard.

Xiao Qinglan sat in the classroom, listening to everyone's discussions about the freshman training, especially the numerous discussions focused on their team, Team 444. It made her feel even more embarrassed and humiliated.

Since childhood, Xiao Qinglan has always been ambitious and competitive. In any competition she participated in, she would almost always win the championship or be part of the winning team. That's why she chose Team 444 this time, with the goal of winning the championship.

But who could have predicted that not only would they fail to win the championship, but they would also be eliminated halfway through and not even make it onto the leaderboard?

For her, it was a tremendous humiliation!

And all of this was thanks to Xiao Qingyang. Xiao Qinglan stared at Xiao Qingyang with a gloomy expression, wishing she could kill him with her eyes.

Zheng Yingying noticed Xiao Qinglan's demeanor, a glint of understanding flashed in her eyes, but she quickly returned to normal, as if she didn't know anything, and asked, "Qinglan, what happened to your team? How did you fail to make it onto the leaderboard?"

"If we didn't make it, we didn't make it. It's just lousy freshman training, it doesn't prove anything. The inter-school competition that follows is the main focus. I will definitely win the championship," Xiao Qinglan said firmly.

Indeed, this training was just a bunch of freshman rookies fighting each other, luck played a significant role. If Xiao Qingyang's team hadn't formed an alliance with other teams, they wouldn't have been eliminated. It was all because the other side was too cunning and treacherous.

However, alliances between teams were almost non-existent in the inter-school competition. In the upcoming event, Xiao Qinglan's team would undoubtedly achieve good results, and she was determined to avenge this humiliation. She comforted herself in her heart.

The inter-school competition took place every three years and was a competition among all the top universities in the empire. Participants could be of any grade level, and teams were formed freely.

Those who stood out in such a competition were the best of the best from various schools, and their accomplishments were incomparable to a mere freshman training.

Upon entering the school, Xiao Qinglan had set her sights on the next year's inter-school competition and had already been secretly scouting for potential teammates.

"The inter-school competition? But aren't freshmen rarely able to participate in it?" Zheng Yingying asked in confusion.

From what she knew, in previous inter-school competitions, there were hardly any freshmen participating.

Since it was a free-form team competition, everyone naturally wanted to team up with stronger teammates, and freshmen were rarely considered, even if they had high talent and potential.

However, Xiao Qinglan's confident appearance just now seemed to suggest that she could indeed participate in the inter-school competition and even achieve a good ranking.

Xiao Qinglan indeed believed so. She lifted her chin arrogantly and looked at Zheng Yingying with disdain, replying, "Do I look like an ordinary freshman to you? Don't forget, I'm already a certified alchemist."

In the inter-school competition, there must be at least one alchemist in each team because using any pre-made potions is not allowed. If they need potions, they can only be made on the spot by the team's alchemist.

The reason why everyone doesn't want to include freshmen is that their professional skills are not strong enough. For example, in the first year, very few students majoring in alchemy can actually create potions and become certified alchemists.

Xiao Qinglan's talent in alchemy was indeed exceptional. Otherwise, Xiao Honghui wouldn't have abandoned Xiao Qingyang and sent him to that remote planet to fend for himself just for her sake.

She believed she would definitely be able to participate in the inter-school competition.

"Qinglan, you can definitely participate in the inter-school competition. It's less than a year away from next year's event, and now that the Crown Prince has returned, do you think he might also participate in this competition?" Zheng Yingying casually remarked.

As soon as Xiao Qinglan heard Long Jingze's name, she immediately thought of the unpleasant incident at the teleportation point yesterday, especially how Long Jingze had actually attacked her for the sake of Xiao Qingyang, that useless person. She couldn't accept it, even though a night had passed, the anger still burned in her chest, unable to be released or swallowed.

"I don't know," Xiao Qinglan replied impatiently.

Zheng Yingying seemed oblivious to Xiao Qinglan's impatience and continued, "Yesterday, it seemed like His Highness and... your brother got along quite well. If he participates in the inter-school competition, would he team up with your... brother?"

Zheng Yingying was truly stepping on Xiao Qinglan's sore spot. Yet, on the surface, she maintained an innocent appearance, as if she was casually mentioning it.

Xiao Qinglan's sharp gaze shot towards Zheng Yingying, her eyes filled with a poisonous intensity that made Zheng Yingying shiver involuntarily. She regretted her words a little.

She indeed found Xiao Qinglan displeasing, but due to their family connections, she had to grovel and be subservient to her. Being able to witness Xiao Qinglan's frustration made her quite delighted.

However, she didn't want to push her luck too far, so she immediately tried to change the subject. But she didn't expect Xiao Qinglan to answer.

"Him? Dream on! The Crown Prince was just passing by, and he was lucky yesterday. But he won't be so lucky next time," Xiao Qinglan said, shifting her gaze to Xiao Qingyang, who was sitting in the back row. Her eyes were even darker than when she looked at Zheng Yingying.

Zheng Yingying couldn't help but roll her eyes in her mind, silently mocking: You know better than anyone else whether the Crown Prince was just passing by yesterday. Is it really good to deceive yourself like this?

Although she was mocking, Zheng Yingying didn't dare to say it out loud. If Xiao Qinglan got angry, she would be the one to suffer.

Speaking of the inter-school competition, it was considered a grand event among the universities in the Huaxia Empire. It was held once every three years, in the second year of enrollment, giving everyone enough time to prepare, especially the freshmen.

However, even so, freshmen were rarely recruited to participate because of their lack of experience and weaker abilities.

Long Jingze, as the representative and legend of the Royal Military Academy, was one of the few freshmen who could participate in the inter-school competition.

However, he had only participated once in his freshman year.

During that competition, the team he led, composed entirely of freshmen, won first place in the inter-school competition, solidifying his position in the Royal Military Academy.

In the following years, he did not lead a team to participate again. But now, he had returned at this time, raising doubts about whether he would participate in the inter-school competition next year.

Due to the extended lifespan of the interstellar population, the duration of university education had also been extended.

Although interstellar citizens still reached adulthood at the age of 18 and could enter university, the university period was no longer four years as before. It had been extended to twelve years, divided into four years of undergraduate studies, with each year being three years long. This was also the main reason why the inter-school competition was held once every three years.

This was to give students enough time to find their areas of interest and acquire the necessary knowledge.

Of course, there was another important reason, which was to allow everyone to fully enjoy their final campus life because once they graduated, they could never return to their campus days.

Of course, if you were exceptional, you could graduate early by completing the required credits. But similarly, if you didn't have enough credits, you would be demoted.

Long Jingze was already twenty-six years old this year, so theoretically, he should be a fourth-year student. However, his situation was special, and he had been assigned special missions since his second year, often absent from school.

Although he never neglected his studies and always finished each semester's courses with top grades, the Emperor and Empress felt sorry for their son's inability to enjoy campus life. Therefore, they specifically asked him to be downgraded, allowing him to enjoy more of the limited campus time.

Especially after the incident during the previous break, they were extremely worried and subsequently reduced Long Jingze's time and frequency of missions.

If it were before, Long Jingze would definitely not agree to being downgraded. But now that he had Xiao Qingyang and the other party was also in this school, he would naturally not refuse his parents' request and even sought it eagerly.

After a day of attending classes, Xiao Qingyang returned directly to his dormitory. As he opened the door, his three roommates came towards him.

"Qingyang, we got first place!" Xu Kaiyang opened his arms, intending to give Xiao Qingyang a big hug.

But just as he was about to hug Xiao Qingyang, the sharp gaze Long Jingze had yesterday suddenly appeared in his mind, causing Xu Kaiyang's hands to make a sudden turn and end up hugging Gu Xiaotian next to him.

"Yeah, I already know," Xiao Qingyang replied happily. After all, it was his first group activity since he came here.

"The top three places have special rewards," Xu Kaiyang said with a wide smile after letting go of Gu Xiaotian. His mouth almost reached his ears, indicating how happy he was.

"What reward?" Xiao Qingyang asked.

Although he had heard that there were rewards for the top three places, he didn't know the specifics.

"You can enter the Secret Realm," Xu Kaiyang said directly, understanding Xiao Qingyang's "ignorance."

"Secret Realm?" Xiao Qingyang was surprised at the mention of it.

Was this Secret Realm the same as the one he had in mind?

In the cultivation world of his past life, there were also appearances of secret realms, rare and precious. They were the treasures sought after by many cultivators.

Secret realms were usually the caves of ancient powerhouses or independently created spaces. They contained various treasures of those powerhouses, making them invaluable resources for cultivators.

Any cultivator who could come out alive from a secret realm would, to a greater or lesser extent, obtain some precious and rare resources that were scarce in the outside world. There were even those who had great fortunes and soared to new heights, causing envy among others.

However, Xiao Qingyang didn't expect that there would be secret realms in this world. He just didn't know if the secret realm in this world was the same as what he had in mind.

"Qingyang, do you know why our school has always been the first among all the imperial universities?" Xu Kaiyang didn't answer the question about the secret realm but asked an unrelated question.

"Our school has the strongest strength," Xiao Qingyang replied. He learned this when he searched for information about the Royal Military Academy.

Lin Weiran smiled and continued Xu Kaiyang's words, "That's one reason, but the most important reason is that our school possesses this planet and the secret realm."

"You must have noticed that this planet is different from others. The environment here is better than on other planets. And even without using any means of transportation, we can directly travel from the Imperial Capital to this planet. Theoretically, this is impossible, but it happens," Lin Weiran continued.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Qingyang couldn't help but think to himself: It's because this planet has spiritual energy. Teleportation arrays require spiritual energy to activate, and he knew this because it was prevalent in his previous world.

However, Xiao Qingyang didn't express these thoughts.

"In fact, how this planet came into existence and why it can connect to our Imperial Capital is unknown even to the longest-lived individuals. The Royal Military Academy has existed for thousands of years, and those secrets have been mostly lost and unexplored," Lin Weiran explained.

"The same goes for the secret realm, just like the mystery of this planet. The existence of the secret realm surpasses science, and no one knows how it came to be. However, each successive principal of the academy holds the key to opening the secret realm. It is said to contain many resources that are not available in the outside world. Every student who enters and comes out can obtain numerous treasures. That's why everyone strives to be in the top three," Lin Weiran elaborated.