Li Luo’s juicy announcement was received with a few chuckles that were not at all malicious. Rather, they were thoughtful chuckles from the Resonance Artificers Hall students who were now interested.
The Suncreek Villa was indeed much weaker than its competitors… for now. With their four-star formula and an eighth-grade secret watersource, their rise was only a matter of time.
And just like Li Luo had said, the Suncreek Villa was small, and their talent pool was small. Which meant plenty of eighth-grade secret watersource for them to use.
That was the biggest draw.
After all, why would resonance artificers want to go to the best villas? It was exactly because they could provide the watersource that would help them improve their refining arts the quickest.
But the competition against colleagues in those villas was cutthroat. A newbie would not get access to those premium resources immediately. They would have to work their way up. In comparison, they could skip this entire trial by fire if they went to the Suncreek Villa.
Of course they would be tempted!
Suddenly, the Suncreek Villa didn’t look like a broken-down amateur lab anymore…
Li Bi blew out a long breath. It was finally starting to sink in. She looked at Li Luo with renewed amazement.
He had actually done it!
She had been extremely disappointed when she heard that Li Luo would compete, thinking that he was going to make a farce out of it. But now she stood corrected, and she flushed a little with embarrassment.
From beside her, somebody squooshed her in a tight hug.
She started a little, but she recognized that it as her friend Bing Tao, who was squealing with excitement.
“What’s up with you?” Li Bi asked.
“Oh, Ah Bi, you’re a genius!” Bing Tao gushed. “You could tell that the Suncreek Villa was so strong? Was it Li Luo who confided everything in you?” Her voice was loud enough that others were turning around to look.
Li Bi felt a little embarrassed, but she did not show it. “Well, Junior Li Luo came to find me personally. Of course he told me… things.”
She was not lying outright. Li Luo had indeed told her that the Suncreek Villa would bring an eighth-grade secret watersource… although she had not believed it.
No one would have, in her circumstances. If you had to choose just one other villa besides the Skypalace Villa to have it, no one in their right mind would have guessed the Suncreek Villa.
“Ah Bi, are you going to join the Suncreek Villa?” Bing Tao asked brightly.
Li Bi hesitated. She hadn’t rejected Li Luo outright, although she hadn’t accepted either. Before this competition, she could have changed that state of affairs as she wished, but with the Suncreek Villa’s landslide victory here, perhaps she didn’t have that much of a say now. Sure, she was a fifth-grade artificer, but there were other fifth-grade artificers as well, and surely they were all interested.
So the question was not just whether she was interested, but whether they were still willing as well…
Although her feeling was that Li Luo would likely be agreeable, she did not dare to speak too boldly before things were confirmed. It would be embarrassing if things didn’t go well!
“Probably,” she hedged.
“Hehe, then help me tell Junior Li Luo that we’re interested in joining too.” Bing Tao said, giving her another big squeeze.
“Ooh yes, yes!” A few of their other friends nodded eagerly as well, eyes shining.
Looking at them, Li Bi felt a sudden tingle of irritation. “I’m not even in yet myself, and I’m supposed to speak up for all of you?”
“Surely there’s no need…” she stammered. “Don’t you all have much better choices?”
“Aw, there’s nothing better than the Suncreek Villa out there. Not even the Skypalace Villa. They’re strong, but we’ll be plankton in that pond. The seniors will squeeze us dry. But I hear that the Suncreek Villa only has fourth-grade artificers right now. We’ll be the gang bosses!” Bing Tao whooped.
“The only reason we all wanted to choose the Skypalace Villa was for their eighth-grade secret watersource. If the Suncreek Villa has one as well, it’s the much easier route up.”
The others nodded eagerly in agreement.
Li Bi grimaced. From disdain to puppyish adoration—the contrast was all too drastic. Still, it was understandable. No one could have predicted this outcome, herself included.
“I’ll help you ask,” she conceded with a sigh. “But if you’re rejected, don’t blame me.”
They all nodded happily. None of them knew Li Luo personally, while Li Bi had been invited by him to chat personally before. Her help was definitely going to be a better way in compared to a cold application.
“The world is a strange place,” Li Bi mused to herself. The Suncreek Villa had gone from obscure villa to flavor of the month.
She looked over again at the silver-haired youth, his cool, confident smile and good looks. Suddenly, she felt that working under him was going to be great.
She snuck a look at Mei Xuan’er. The fire had leached out of her, and now she was sitting woodenly on her chair, trying her best to blend into the furniture. The Resonance Artificers Hall students around her were looking at her with amusement as well.
The higher one flew, the harder they would fall.
Li Bi privately thought that if she had been in Mei Xuan’er’s position, the embarrassment would have been enough to spur her on to dig a hole big enough to fit a two-acre mansion. Still, she was no friend of Mei Xuan’er’s. The girl’s poisonous words had been as much aimed at her as they had been targeting the Suncreek Villa.
Just desserts.
Li Luo was reading the students’ reception of his statement, and he was getting a good vibe. He had successfully completed his mission here at the Artificers’ Fair.
If all went well, the Suncreek Villa should soon be expanding rapidly. It would be an injection of talent far beyond the boost that Tang Yun and the others had provided.
It was a little cruel to compare, but Tang Yun and the others were chaff compared to the fine seeds of the Resonance Artificers Hall.
Although, this also meant that the demand for the secret watersource from the Suncreek Villa would increase sharply.
Li Luo’s grin subsided a little, and he knocked on his waist with his fists. Such a heavy burden for one so young… “Good job, me. Dad, Mom, I’m almost sure that you two ran away because you didn’t want to deal with this mess…”
Li Luo sighed as he took his leave.
Now he could turn his attention to his own improvement. He had to keep up with the Suncreek Villa’s progress, or he would be wrung drier than a desert towel.