Commanding Wind and Cloud

“No one had been sent home or expelled from the academy since it was established, but almost everyone believes that this girl will make history. If she still can’t find anyone to partner with in order to complete the final exam, then she will fail the exam. Someone who can’t pass the exam will naturally be asked to leave the academy.”

“No one is willing to partner with her?” Qian Jin looked at Gabriella who was timidly backing off of the stage as he asked, “It is because of scholarships?”

“Do you think it could possibly be anything else?” Rollin shrugged his shoulders. “The mage students are prouder and more self-centered than us warriors. Why would they want to stay and partner with someone whom they know is bad?”

Qian Jin frowned as he jogged around the open field. His eyes didn’t move off of where Gabriella was at.

Mages were very different compared to warriors.

Mage apprentices couldn’t cast spells on their own. They needed to group up and form teams of up to a dozen. Only after they drew out the magic array on the ground and stood in it as a team would they be able to combine their spiritual power and magic power and cast a spell.

Therefore, the mage students in the academy had to partner with other students when taking the final exam. There was no chance that a mage student could pass the exam on his or her own. This was especially true for Gabriella who was barely considered a mage student. Without the help of other students, her future was doomed…

“This damned spiritual power…”

Rollin noticed that Qian Jin’s knuckles popped as he formed fists with his hand while cursing. “Spiritual power again? He is way too persistent towards spiritual power…” Rollin thought to himself.

The morning exercise was finally over. All the students at Oakland Academy formed into the usual formations and stood in front of the meditation stage that was empty by this time. They were all waiting for the principal to do his daily and short motivational speech.

The morning sun shined on the mediation stage. It also shined on Principal Fick who had just arrived on the meditation stage.

After the morning exercise, all the students were exhausted. They were all just waiting for the principal to finish the same “Work hard! Work harder! The future is yours!” boring speech that he gave thousands of time. However, they couldn’t wait to rush to the cafeteria to enjoy the steamy and delicious breakfast.

“Students, work hard! The future is yours!”

Principal Fick’s same speech resonated on the open field. The students were waiting for him to say the word “dismissed” so they could applause and get out of here.

“Today, I…”

The students suddenly realized that the principal didn’t say the word “dismissed” after a few students had already started clapping. “Does he have something else to say?” they wondered as they waited for the principal to continue. Principal Fick cleared his throat and said, “Today, I have something important to announce. It’s about the tags and the point system. I have made some adjustments!”

Tags? Students from various grades stared at the top ten seats for their grade. Qian Jin also received some attention.

Rollin, on the other hand, stared at Principal Fick in doubt. From his merchant instinct that he developed by being around his father who was a very successful merchant, he noticed that this principal had been looking at his direction the whole time he was on the stage. A better description would be that the principal had been staring at Qian Jin. “Does this have to do with Qian Jin?” Rollin thought to himself.

Qian Jin also noticed that. “Why is the principal looking at me? Is it because I fought with Revolver-Skyblade yesterday and the managing director Caeller found out, so he reported me to the principal?

“What I’m about to announce has something to do with Qian Jin.” Principal Fick pointed at Qian Jin with his thin fingers. The students who were standing beside Qian Jin automatically stepped away and gave Qian Jin space. This subconscious movement from the students drew more attention to Qian Jin, if what Fick said hadn’t already.

The students who didn’t know who Qian Jin was immediately knew him.

“For any warrior student in Grade One who defeats him, you can seize a tag from him. However, his tags are worth double the points compared to other tags.”

Principal Fick’s hoarse voice resonated again on the field. Series of gasps and murmurs immediately sounded from the crowd. All of them stared at Qian Jin; they wanted to see what was different about this student. What caused the principal, who never changed his lines, to talk about him? Why did he announce that his tags are now worth double?

They were the same kind of tags, but worth twice the amount of points! What did that mean? The other top ten students in Grade One had different expressions on their faces, but they had one thing was in common: they were all very mad.

Qian Jin stared at the principal on the stage who was smiling warmly as he felt eight hostile and enraged stares. “Is this some kind of trick that the managing director came up with? The top ten seats have the same kind of tags, but now one person’s tags are worth double. What does that mean? It means that Principal Fick thinks I am the strongest of them all! It’s too difficult for other people to get tags from me, so my tags are now worth double to incentivize competition. It’s a way of saying that all the other top ten student are weaker than me!”

“Why!” Someone yelled loudly; it was obvious that this person was dissatisfied. Qian Jin lightly rubbed his forehead because he knew that things were about to go down. “Look! Someone isn’t happy right after the principal said that. This trick put up by the managing director is too shady and shameless! He can’t sanction me, so he is trying to get other students to get revenge on me for him!” Qian Jin thought.

“Why?” Principal Fick was still smiling; his smile was so bright that the students felt as if they were watching a flower bloom. “Zelda, Fabio-Carras, do you guys not agree with my new policy? Do you guys feel like you are being shamed by this? Good! If you guys can beat Qian Jin and take tags from him in the next couple of days, I will announce that the people who can defeat you guys will also be able to earn double the points from your tags. Okay, dismissed!”

If this was any other day, the students would have already left. Today though, none of them left. They all knew that the two students who were dissatisfied were very likely to…

“Qian Jin, I, Zelda, challenge you to a fight!”

“Qian Jin, I, Fabio-Carras, challenge you to a fight!”

Two loud roars resonated on the open field……

Duel! Challenge! As the roars were still resonating on the campus, all the students’ nerves were triggered by these words as they all got very excited. This typical morning was not typical anymore.

The fact that the sixth seat Zelda and the seventh seat Fabio-Carras in Grade One both openly challenged Qian Jin to a duel attracted all the attention of the students.

It was rare to see any fights among the top ten students in any grade, but now there were suddenly two almost guaranteed fights that were about to happen! There was no reason why the students wouldn’t get excited.

Both the students in the mage and warrior branch from Grades One to Three stared at Qian Jin intensely. They wanted to see how Qian Jin, the most ‘popular’ student in Grade One, would react.