Chapter 814 The Missing World Champion (3k)
After saying goodbye to her cousin Su Ze, Su Jiu, along with Dean Zi and the other two vice-deans, got up from the bench and headed towards the square.
As she walked with three elderly men who were over fifty, despite her youthful appearance, she attracted many strange glances. However, it seemed their gazes all ended on the trailing ends of Su Jiu’s hair.
“Why is this girl in a school uniform walking with the vice-deans?”
“She must be an important contestant for this competition, so the deans are paying close attention. They’re probably discussing tactics.”
“She definitely isn’t an important contestant. Aren’t all of our school’s important contestants missing? Look at that girl’s hair ends…”
“Oh, so she’s an old person trying to look young!”
However, the comments made Su Jiu feel a mix of amusement and helplessness. Seeing her resigned expression, Dean Zi, standing beside her, chuckled, “These ordinary students haven’t seen true geniuses, so their understanding is limited.”
Under the gaze of peculiar looks, Su Jiu and her group bypassed the crowded front passage and walked towards a vacant path to another judges’ seating area, then took their designated seats one by one.
As an honorary professor, Su Jiu did not sit in the main seat. There were a total of ten seats, and she sat in the farthest one on the left, representing the new power of Magic City.
After sitting down, she looked down at the teeming crowds, scanning the camera lenses, and feeling the dazzling flashes of light. She couldn’t help but rest her head on the table, subconsciously avoiding those gazes…
It was about a year ago that the Blood Clan Girl was also fighting below, aiming to determine the prefect. Now, she had grown to a level where she could judge who was the champion.
The hardships she experienced might only be known to the girl herself.
“Beep beep!!” Suddenly, her phone rang; someone was calling.
Su Jiu held her head on the table with one hand, took out her phone, put on her Bluetooth headset, and looked down…
[IP: Unknown]
[International Red Cross]
She then slid her finger across the screen, and a rather young female voice came through her ear, speaking in fluent English:
“Dr. Su, the International Red Cross has not received any volunteers from Dragon Country. After your last participation, new regulations were issued prohibiting Dragon Country nationals from intervening, to prevent unequal external treatment for both countries during the conflicts…”
“They aren’t here?”
Su Jiu fell into thought again. According to her estimation, if that classmate Ziyi were to retrace her steps, especially during a time when the truth between the two countries was being distorted, given her personality, she would very likely go.
“Ellie, it’s not that there are no Dragon Country nationals, they joined under the identities of other countries.”
A male voice spoke up, his voice sounding tired, as if he hadn’t slept enough.
“Dr. Ryan, shouldn’t you rest more?” the female voice asked in surprise…
“About more than half a month ago.”
The male voice sighed, but didn’t respond to the question. Instead, he took the phone and slowly said, “We did receive over a dozen Dragon Country nationals who participated as volunteers under the name of Cherry Blossom Country. They were young, but they even had Battle King level strength. I rejected them the first time…”
“You rejected them the first time?” Su Jiu was a little confused.
She had guessed right; these missing Magic City University students had gone to be international volunteers.
The male voice continued, like a clock ticking slowly, “They should be students from some university. I don’t want hot-blooded youths to die in war. The current Earlls is different from before; we have no idea about the situation inside.”
“Did they return?” Su Jiu asked softly.
“No, a Dragon Country girl gave me an unrefusable reason…”
The voice paused slightly, “She first said that I had met students from Earlls, who were even younger than us, and they should also be going to school, but their photos had gone completely dark… They lacked medical facilities, had very few Priest talents, and if hit by alchemical weapons, they could only wait to die.”
“I was born into a wealthy family and wanted to send them some items, but I was told—it could only be sent through Eagle Country channels to Yela.”
“She looked up at me, and in her gray eyes, with sincerity, she slowly replied in English:…”
“That’s so stupid!”
Upon reaching this point, Dr. Ryan’s voice became a little agitated, but he didn’t continue, as if calming himself down.
Listening to the description from the other end of the phone, the image of the girl at the train station, who handed her a pen, flashed through Su Jiu’s mind. She also had a pair of light gray eyes.
Classmate Ziyi, she really did retrace her own path.
A few seconds later, Su Jiu broke the silence: “So she went to Earlls, right?”
“Yes, she said she wanted to learn from a senior and practice the priest’s duty of saving lives and healing the wounded, to leave some children in Earlls. Finally, she took several tons of grain and a small amount of medical supplies to Moon Sunken Sea.”
Dr. Ryan replied, then paused again, “Their special team from Dragon Country seems to be called…”
“Spark.”
At this moment, the female assistant suddenly interjected, “You mentioned before that their plan was to ensure that the children accidentally injured in Earlls would have a chance to survive.”
To continue life and civilization, isn’t that what a spark is?
“Spark.”
Su Jiu also fell silent. She knew that the senior the other party was referring to was her.
But she had gone alone back then just for the applause…
She felt like she had led the children astray. If Ziyi and the others got into trouble, she wouldn’t know how to explain it to Dean Zi.
“Excuse me, is the World Champion of Magic City not participating in the exchange competition!?”
After hanging up the phone, a fierce voice suddenly erupted from the position in front of her. Su Jiu looked up slightly, only to see a female reporter wearing red-rimmed glasses on the stage, holding a microphone and addressing the referee below.
The voice transmitted by the microphone spread throughout the entire competition area.
“Yeah, isn’t the World Champion also a Priest? Why isn’t she participating?”
As soon as this was said, the crowd below, whether students or external Priests, erupted in an uproar. The referee could only expressionlessly press down with his hand, glance around below, and loudly announce:
“Everyone, please quiet down. This competition is voluntary. If the World Champion does not wish to participate, we cannot force her to do so.”
“Is it that she doesn’t want to participate, or she’s afraid to participate?”
The female reporter continued, a strange smile appearing on her face, as if she were even more excited. She even tilted her head slightly, “I heard that after the World Champion received her reward, she has been choosing to take a leave of absence. Ancient times had Shang Zhongyong, which caused the Red Dragon bloodline to fade into the masses. Today, will there be another Shang Su Jiu?”
“Leader…”
Hearing this, the referee looked helplessly at the judges’ seating area. He was just an ordinary teacher and came to be a referee after hearing about the triple salary.
In the center of the judges’ seating area sat a director from Magic City University. He frowned, slammed the table, stood up, and reprimanded:
“Please ask this unrelated person to leave the stage. If you continue to slander our school, I will immediately have security escort you out.”
As he spoke, a wave of pressure descended, instantly silencing the noisy environment below, with only faint sounds being heard. The female reporter’s face also turned pale, but she still looked towards the far right position on the stage…
In the far-right seat, Murong Cheng gave a reassuring expression.
A gray-robed elder next to the director, wearing an Imperial Capital University badge, tugged at the former’s sleeve and said with a smile, “Brother Yun, I’m also quite curious about where your school’s student went? Why not tell us…”
“I don’t know. I only know that she doesn’t need to go to school.”
The director, Director Yun, frowned and replied in a low voice. Although he was a director, he was only there to provide support and rarely involved himself in school affairs.
The gray-robed elder was surprised and smiled, “Perhaps something has caused her to be delayed.”
This explanation also quieted the audience below somewhat.
“Delayed? But I met this champion lady on the road, and she said she was here to spectate. Doesn’t this look like she’s afraid to participate?”
The voice came from the other side. Murong Cheng, seated on the right, also stood up, but in a calm manner. He waved his hand forward and grinned.
Dean Zi, seated in the next row, had a strange expression upon hearing this. He glanced at Su Jiu, who was resting her head on the table, and was about to stand up to explain…
“Has everyone heard?”
The female reporter below gestured to the crowd below and directly amplified her voice through the microphone, saying with a smile, “If you don’t believe me, you can use your phones to search Hua Yu Daily. There’s a picture of the champion on the train to Magic City.”
Ordinary Priests below started searching, while locals from Magic City University whispered amongst themselves. To them, this was a matter of honor…
What kind of situation is it when their school’s strong competitor is a coward in the face of competition?
“We can’t let this public opinion fester.”
The director from Magic City University frowned and was about to quell this farce again when Dean Zi held him back from the side…
On the stage below, the female reporter seemed to think this was not intense enough. She swept her gaze around and spoke rapidly, “Is it cowardice, fearing that past glory will be stripped away, or…”
“Get lost!”
A faint voice sounded from below. A young man with a long braid walked onto the stage. He raised the flaming longsword in his hand, pointed it at the female reporter, and grinned, “If she’s going to be cowardly even in a friendly match like this, then there wouldn’t have been the competition for prefect back then. You people will never understand her dominance…”
The youth lowered his head with a self-mocking smile, “How terrifying.”
The female reporter, with the longsword pointed at her, felt her hair stand on end, and her body trembled uncontrollably. Despite being a Battle General, she couldn’t activate any external qi to defend herself, and her legs could only shake continuously.
The opponent was a Battle King, and a very powerful one at that.
Someone below seemed to recognize the youth and shouted in surprise:
“Isn’t he the current top freshman? I heard he’s from the strongest batch of freshmen, and his name seems to be—Hu Yang?”
“No, he list that prefect match. He lost to that World Champion, and later that World Champion transferred the prefectship because of her supposed death.”
But someone quickly corrected him, “That student prefect was a genius who suppressed an era.”
The person who was corrected immediately thought of something and spoke again, “But this classmate Hu Yang has already surpassed the top students of the third year by now. Isn’t that strong enough?”
The person who had corrected him earlier slowly stepped forward, revealing his tall and sturdy build. A young girl sat on his shoulder, seemingly also a participant. The latter explained:
“Maybe he’s strong, but she’s different. She used to be the hope of our county.”
