The roar of the crowd of the ranking battles was a crescendo that began many days in advance. Whispers and excitement sprouted from individual hearts and minds, sparking off against each other to start little fires of tension, fanned on by the flames of inexorable time marching them all on towards the day of reckoning.
A rousing drum beat sounded in the morning, booming out to every last corner of the school.
As new students, Li Luo and the others were assigned to fight in the west of the Astral Sage College. The undulating mountains and complex terrain made for a good battleground.
The thousands of newcomers were dispersed to various entrances in all directions, awaiting the start.
Li Luo stood in the crowd, looking around. Each squad leader was wearing a badge on their chest reflecting their squad’s status, either gold or silver.
As long as the leader's badge was taken, the team was considered eliminated.
Violet badges were worth 500 school points, gold badges were worth 100 school points, while silver badges were worth 20.
More importantly, the victors were also entitled to a third of the defeated team's winnings as an additional prize.
For example, if you defeated a team that already had three badges, then you could take one of them away.
Which meant that all these students around him were no longer students. They all looked like walking badge stands to him. If he could take all of their points, he would have tens of thousands of school points!
He would treat himself to TWO Royal Saps, not just one. One for making potions, one to sip and enjoy the taste.
Energy liquid, 300 points? Pfft, peanuts.
"Leader, you're staring. And drooling," Bai Mengmeng reminded him helpfully.
Xin Fu was looking at him strangely as well. Li Luo looked like a hungry ghost admiring the roast chickens.
The squads around them sensed it, and they started to inch away uneasily.
Li Luo smiled sheepishly.
"Keke, I was, er, missing food from home," Li Luo said.
"Hmph. Does your food at home look like people?" someone asked aggressively. Li Luo looked over to see a youth with ashen skin.
"Hey, you look familiar... Oh, I remember! You're the stone resonance user who tried to do me in during the Choosing. What's your name?"
Two people had tried to hold him up, and this guy was one of them.
What Li Luo did not know was that after this guy failed, he had met Duze Beixuan and pointed him the wrong way after taking a dislike to Duze Beixuan's attitude.
"My name's Ye Hua. And you better remember it!
"I'll definitely become a Violet Vibrance student in the future," he declared stoutly.
Li Luo nodded encouragingly. "You look like a promising young man. I'm sure you can do it."
He turned away. The guy looked a little slow in the cognition department.
Li Luo looked at a high platform to the right of the area. There sat the five Violet Vibrance mentors. Below them were the Gold Gleam mentors.
Clearly, they were also the facilitators for the newcomers' ranking battles.
"The other Star Halls' battles are today as well, I guess... I wonder how Qing'e is doing?" Li Luo wondered to himself. The school was vast enough to host various halls' large-scale battles at the same time.
In truth, there was little to be worried about over there. Jiang Qing'e had long dominated the Three Star Hall. Each ranking battle was probably just a formality for them to transfer her school points.
That was awesome.
He wanted to be farming chives without a care in the world too.
The Violet Vibrance mentors' magnified voices interrupted his daydreaming. "All students, prepare. The ranking battle will end at sunset. Before then, fight to your hearts' content. As long as your badge is not taken, the fighting continues!
"At the first bell, Silver Spark squads will enter. Ten minutes later, Gold Gleam squads will enter. Violet Vibrance squads enter last."
This was a protective measure for the weaker teams, so they wouldn't be instantly wiped out by stronger teams in the first few moments.
After all, these ranking battles were a case of big fish eating small fish, and small fish eating shrimp.
And they, the Violet Vibrance squads, were, without a doubt, the undisputed apex predators.
He smiled dreamily to himself as the first gong sounded.
There were mad yells as Silver Spark squads rushed in, squeezing through the passage and quickly vanishing into the battlefield.
Li Luo stared after them forlornly. It somehow felt like his school points had grown legs and were running away.
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