Chapter 14: Tie Ta
“Peng!”
Just as Jian Chen began to eat with relish, a hand suddenly slapped onto his shoulder, causing the table to shake from the action.
Jian Chen scowled as he slowly lifted his head up. The owner of the hand belonged to a male noble around 20 years old. Beside him were two youths, with faces full of arrogance. One was a male, and one was a female, and both wore luxurious satin clothing. It was obvious from first glance that they were from wealthy families.
Looking at the three nicely dressed students with a flat expression, he spoke with an annoyed expression, “Is there a problem?”
The 20 year old noble’s face had an ominous glint as he stared at Jian Chen. Speaking arrogantly, the noble said, “Hey, brat. This table here belongs to us, you should sit somewhere else.” Although the youth could tell that Jian Chen was by no means a commoner from the clothes he wore, the youth still did not bother to look at Jian Chen in the eye.
Hearing what the male had said, Jian Chen looked at him with disdain and said, “If you want to eat, then sit down and eat. This table is for the entire school to enjoy; furthermore, the table doesn’t have your name written on it. Since when did this table become yours?”
After hearing this, the noble’s face looked quite angry. Having already lost his patience, he shouted, “Are you going to move or not?”
By this time, the spectacle at Jian Chen’s table had already attracted the attention of everyone else. Although there were many people watching, no one had the audacity to step in to say something.
A smirk appeared on Jian Chen’s face. These type of occurrences happened many times in his past life, but he would always teach the other aggravators a lesson.
“Of course I’ll let you, just wait for me to finish my food first.” Looking away, Jian Chen began to dig into his food with renewed interest. Because he stuffed his face full of food, Jian Chen’s voice was slightly muffled
However, to these three people, Jian Chen’s meaning was loud and clear.
“Brother, it looks your power isn’t enough in this school; you couldn’t even claim a table. You’d better not make the two of us eat our food outside.” The girl behind the noble lightly laughed.
Hearing these words, the look of awkwardness on the face of the 20 years old or so young man disappeared, leaving only a look of anger. Staring viciously at Jian Chen, he shouted, “Kid, what is your name, and what family are you from? If you have the courage, tell me.”
Jian Chen’s eyebrows creased together, but before he could say anything, another voice cried out, “Ka Di Yun, you are one of the upper classmen of Kargath Academy, to think you have the nerve to bully one of the freshmen!”
The one who had spoken was another person about the same age as Ka Di Yun. He also wore the same academy uniform, and he walked towards them.
Seeing this youth, Ka Di Yun face slightly changed. His eyes showed a hint of fear, as he said, “Bai Mo Ran, you should not meddle in my affairs.”
At this point, Jian Chen knew the names of both people. The one from earlier was called Ka Di Yun, and the one that had just arrived was called Bai Mo Ran.
The youth called Bai Mo Ran chuckled and said, “Ka Di Yun, it is true that your affairs are not for me to meddle in. But since I am an upperclassman, I cannot ignore the troubles of a junior.”
Hearing this, the faces of the two youths standing behind Ka Di Yun changed.
At this time, the girl standing behind Ka Di Yun hesitated a bit, and then lightly tugged at Ka Di Yun’s clothes. She lightly whispered, “Big brother, there are some open seats over there, we should just go sit over there.
Ka Di Yun looked around the dining hall, and sure enough, a spot not too far away had opened up. Staring at Jian Chen with a ferocious glare, he waved his hand, “Second brother, third sister, let’s go.” He said as he started to walk over to the empty table; if he had continued with this spectacle, then there would had been no benefit for him. He was also slightly afraid of coming out as the loser, since Bai Mo Ran’s clan was not at all weaker than the Ka Di clan. Bai Mo Ran himself was actually stronger than him.
But that wasn’t the most important aspect. The bigger matter at hand was that if word got out that an upper classman like Ka Di Yun was bullying one of the freshmen, then he would become the target of ridicule. Furthermore, if the headmaster heard about this, then he would definitely receive a strict punishment.
Another reason why Ka Di Yun wasn’t willing to pick on commoners for their seats was for something that every upper classmen knew about within their hearts. As one of the 6 experts of the Gesun Kingdom, the headmaster of Kargath Academy was very partial towards the poor students.
At that moment, Ka Di Yun’s sister looked at Jian Chen with renewed interest as if she suddenly recalled something. Opening her mouth, she said, “Oh, I just remembered. You’re one of the 128 freshmen students that made it into the next step of the competition. I saw you on top of the fighting arenas.” As she spoke, the girl’s eyes suddenly gained a malicious intent within them.
Hearing this, the previously silent male turned around to say something, “I hope that I’ll be matched up against you tomorrow in the competition then.” With an evil laugh, he turned around and walked towards the empty table where Ka Di Yun was heading towards.
Taking in the words of that male student, Jian Chen didn’t bother responding, nor did he care about the person at all.
Bai Mo Ran walked on over to Jian Chen and patted his shoulder with a laugh, “You really have guts to not have given Ka Di Yun face. If he tries to bully you in the future, then all you need to do is just look for me.”
Jian Chen stood up from his stool and smiled, “I am Changyang Xiang Tian. Thank you for helping me with this embarrassing situation, otherwise, I’m afraid it would had escalated into something troublesome.”
Bai Mo Ran started to chuckle, “Junior doesn’t need to be this polite. Ka Di Yun’s clan has been fairly aggressive within the academy recently. I’ve long since found him to be quite annoying, but unfortunately, I could never find an opportunity to teach him a lesson. Right, I am called Bai Mo Ran, you can just call me Senior Bai Mo Ran though.”
“You’ll want to be very careful in the competition tomorrow. The two people behind Ka Di Yun were his younger sister Kai Di Qiu Li, and his younger brother Ka Di Liang. It’s been rumored that both of them have already reached the 9th layer of Saint Force.”
Jian Chen only laughed and said, “Senior Bai Mo Ran, don’t worry. If I end up seeing them, then I will definitely be careful.”
Nodding, Bai Mo Ran said, “It’s getting late so I’ll be returning to my dorm. Junior, I hope we’ll see each other again.”
After Bai Mo Ran left, Jian Chen quickly finished up the rest of his meal before returning to his dorm. Throughout the entire day, he hadn’t seen his older brother Changyang Hu at all. His actions and whereabouts were completely unknown.
Casually sweeping away the dust in his room, Jian Chen climbed onto the bed and began to cultivate once more, as per accordance to the lessons.
The second day of the competition quickly progressed. Because there were less and less people, the top 8 were quickly decided by the end of the day. After the top 50 had been established, the academy had canceled the rule that prevented students from the 8th layer to fight against those from the 9th layer. The students were now free to fight with whomever they were matched up against, so aside from Jian Chen and another suntanned student, the other 6 students had already reached the 9th layer of Saint Force. In order for the suntanned student or Jian Chen to enter the top 8, they had to defeat some students who had already reached the 9th layer of Saint Force.
Other than that, Jian Chen had ran into something unexpected. Of the 6 freshmen who reached the 9th layer, 2 of them were the students he had ran into yesterday: Ka Di Qiuli and Ka Di Liang. Although Jian Chen had yet to fight against the two, he felt that each time he saw them, there was a hidden air of provocation between them.
Regarding the two siblings’ glares, Jian Chen paid no mind to them. In his mind, he could only think about pitting himself against the only other 8th layer Saint Force freshman. That male student’s martial art style was clearly seen by Jian Chen, who thought that it was fairly unique that suited him greatly. His strength was extraordinary as well, which was the main reason why he had made it into the top 8 without any real trouble. His strength far surpassed those of anyone else his age,, and half the opponents he had faced had been thrown out of the ring.
The final matches were to be held tomorrow, and by the end of that, the Freshmen Ruler would be announced.
Leaving the sports grounds, Jian Chen immediately headed towards the dining hall. After getting his food, he saw out of the corner of his eye one of the competitors of the competition; it was the suntanned student. He was currently eating by himself in a corner of the room. The student was wearing simple clothing with a few patches over it. Although the male looked to be around 16 years old, Jian Chen could see a firm expression on his slightly immature face. His stature and build did not fit his age at all; he was already reaching a height of 1.8 meters, almost as tall as Jian Chen’s brother, Changyang Hu, and his girth was larger by a circle too.
With a bit of hesitation, he walked towards the table where the suntanned student was eating, and sat down with his tray. Turning his head to greet him, Jian Chen smiled, “I am Changyang Xiang Tian. What name do you go by?”
Tilting his head up to meet Jian Chen, his eyes slowly swept over his clothes before he said, “I am called Tie Ta.”
Laughing, Jian Chen said, “I only recently saw you fight in the competition. To see a student of the 8th layer beat students of the 9th layer is truly amazing.”
Hearing Jian Chen’s praise, Tie Ta couldn’t help but laugh as well, “I only won because my strength was better than theirs, that’s all. They were truly difficult to deal with; even now I’m still sore from the matches.”