471 The Orthodox Academy's Big Even

"Of course he was the winner." Zhexiu looked at them all like they were idiots. In the time before he entered the capital, he hadn't even broken into EtherealOpening. Even though the gifts of his wolf bloodline were special, it wassimply impossible for him to beat a Star Condensation expert. He added, "But if I were to fight him now, I have the confidence." Tang Thirty-Six asked in surprise, "The confidence to beat him?" Zhexiu replied, "No, I have the confidence to perish together with him." The room instantly grew silent. Tang Thirty-Six, his head aching, thought tohimself, besides me, these guys of the Orthodox Academy are all freaks! It'sreally impossible to communicate with them. Chen Changsheng suddenly looked at him and asked, "Just what do you plan todo?" Logically, even with Tang Thirty-Six's temperament, no matter how unbridled hewas, even he would not deliberately provoke a powerful figure like the Tianhaiclan head at Clear Lake Restaurant, thus causing the situation to suddenlyintensify. Tang Thirty-Six grew quiet, then said, "We've analyzed before just what thetwo sides want to do. His Holiness probably wants to quickly hone the swordthat is you. Why does the Tianhai clan want to cooperate with him?" "Because they want to build up momentum…and ultimately force me into a matchwith Xu Yourong." "Do you want to engage in a bloody battle with Xu Yourong until the end?" Chen Changsheng seriously pondered this question. He realized that he had noreason, no justification, for fighting that girl who he had never even met, andso shook his head. "Then there you are." Tang Thirty-Six said, "What I want to do right now is to make it impossiblefor them to imagine just how we will respond. After I finish up with thismatter, you can just quietly study and cultivate." "Is it really okay?" Chen Changsheng looked at him and earnestly asked. Tang Thirty-Six's straight eyebrows rose as he asked, "Who am I?" Chen Changsheng suddenly recalled Su Li by the hot spring in that snowymountain ridge. He now felt that this matter was rather dubious. "But why did the other side so abruptly increase their pressure on theOrthodox Academy?" The dignified head of the Tianhai clan would naturally not alter hisestablished guidelines for the sake of a plate of lobster. Tang Thirty-Six looked at him and laughed, seemingly harboring some sort ofevil intentions. "It's plainly obvious that your father-in-law has a rather good impression ofyou now. The Tianhai clan is quite concerned that Xu Yourong really has taken afancy to you. If she's not willing to fight you, what then?" Chen Changsheng was clueless as to how to respond, so he decided to ratherawkwardly change the subject. "First, we should resolve the problems before us:how to not be drowned to death by them." He had said something similar back at Clear Lake Restaurant. When the Orthodox Academy had originally fallen into a difficult situation,Tang Thirty-Six returned from the Mausoleum of Books. With a bowl of soy milkin his left hand and a youtiao in his right, he resoundingly and forcefullydeclared at the gates of the Orthodox Academy that he would solve this problem.And then with great gusto, he plunged the youtiao into the soy milk anddeclared that he would drown them to death. Now Chen Changsheng was verycurious to know—now that the stratagem of 'when the army comes, a general isneeded to block it, and when the floods come, the earth drowns it out' wasclearly no longer of any use—just how Tang Thirty-Six wanted to continue thedrowning. If there really was no response, then it was better that he not think too muchand go straight to the Li Palace to ask the Pope for assistance. "There are many different ways of drowning." As if he had planned it all inadvance, Tang Thirty-Six said, "The strategy I will use next is called 'thedrowning of the seven armies'." (TN: The drowning of the seven armies is a famous tactic from Romance of theThree Kingdoms in which Guan Yu, during the Battle of Fancheng, dammed the HanRiver and drowned Cao Cao’s army. Historically, the flooding of the Han Riverwas a natural occurrence which Guan Yu simply took advantage of.) "The drowning of the seven armies?" Chen Changsheng was quite perplexed. Tang Thirty-Six suddenly said, "I heard from before that the Orthodoxy cavalrycaught two groups of foreign tourists that were planning to sneak into theOrthodox Academy to see the sights." Chen Changsheng thought, just what does this have to do with what we'rediscussing? Tang Thirty-Six continued, "This matter reminded me of something. Since somany people want to come in and see, we might as well sell tickets. We can evenmake a little money." Chen Changsheng and Xuanyuan Po still did not understand. Tang Thirty-Six looked at them and seriously explained, "What I want to sayis, the Orthodox Academy is very big…with just the few of us, won't we feelrather lonely?" On the morning of the next day, at dawn's first light, many spectators hadalready arrived outside the Orthodox Academy. It was obvious that the fact that the Orthodoxy cavalry had arrested threegroups of tourists that had attempted to break into the Orthodox Academy hadnot affected the mood of the rest. Moreover, news of yesterday's incident at Clear Lake Restaurant as well as theTianhai clan head's subsequent anger had been spread throughout the capital.Everyone knew that just today alone, more than forty experts had come forth tochallenge the Orthodox Academy—it must be known that in the previous few days,there were only several dozen matches in total. Just who would want to miss this sort of spectacle? Of course, the Orthodox Academy could do as it had done in the first two daysand delay. However, today was different from back then. Today there wereforty-some letters of challenge, and there would assuredly be even more on themorrow. Snowflakes continued to fall and snowballs continued to roll along. Themantle of snow upon the ground was only getting thicker and the snowballs wererolled up until they exceeded the gates of the school. Just what could theyouths of the Orthodox Academy do? The flower peddlers outside the lane had already arrived, but the breakfastpeddlers had arrived even earlier and taken the good spots. The crowd feastedon piping hot meat buns and refreshing cold noodles while enthusiasticallydiscussing this matter. The air was saturated with the scent of ground meat andcucumber, so much so that those starstruck maidens smitten with Tang Thirty-Sixwished that they could stuff the fresh flowers into their bosoms, afraid thattheir aroma would be ruined. The crowd gradually grew quiet because, in front of that awning across thestreet, many people had appeared. Some of them were old, some were young, sometall and some short, but every one of them was silent. It was clear to see thatthese were not common folk come to see the excitement because their bodies allexuded an extremely dangerous Qi. They were all true experts, all experts thathad come to challenge the Orthodox Academy! Seeing these several dozen experts that the Tianhai clan had taken from thevarious academies, and even transferred from the counties, many people couldn'thelp but be concerned for the Orthodox Academy. How can they beat them? How canthey even finish? At this moment, the gate to the Orthodox Academy opened with a creak assomeone pushed it open from within. The street outside the school was absolutely silent, the mood rather strange.Even those young maidens only threw their anxious and expectant gazes over, notincessantly yelling Tang Thirty-Six's name and saying crazy things such as 'I'mdefinitely going to marry you!' as they had done in the last few days. The person that came out of the Orthodox Academy was not Tang Thirty-Six, norwas it Chen Changsheng. It was Priest Xin. Priest Xin swept his gaze through the crowd, especially the group of expertsstanding in the distance on the street. He couldn't help but shake his head,his expression rather complex. However, it was impossible to tell whether hewas concerned about the Orthodox Academy or if it was something else. He extracted a piece of paper from his bosom and instructed his subordinatesto carefully stick it on the wall to the side of the gate. Then he turned thecrowd, cleared his throat, and loudly announced, "Today, the Orthodox Academywill temporarily stop receiving applications of challenge." The Hundred Flowers Lane and the distant street were all silent. This responseof the Orthodox Academy's was within the crowd's expectations, but precisely asthe crowd had discussed, the Orthodox Academy could not delay forever. Then theOrthodox Academy would inevitably need a new method, and based on logic, thisLi Palace priest should have something else to say. This perhaps indicated thatsomething big was about to happen. Just as expected, Priest Xin followed by announcing, "Today, the OrthodoxAcademy will formally begin to enroll new students!"