A week later, during history class, Su Xing crouched down and quietly led Kaka and the others out of the history classroom.
Once outside the teaching building, Quinn asked uneasily, “Can you… can you really get away with this? Won’t we be discovered?”
Su Xing nodded confidently, “Of course. I’ve already arranged it with the class leader. If the teacher finds we’re gone, she’ll say we went to the restroom. Our history teacher already has a bad memory and wears reading glasses, so he won’t notice us.”
Kaka asked curiously, “How did you convince the class leader?”
Quinn and the other also looked at her curiously.
The class leader seemed like a very strict girl; she didn’t look like someone who would be easily bribed.
Su Xing blinked playfully, “When you eat someone’s food, your mouth is short; when you take someone’s favor, your hand is soft. If you receive help from others, you naturally have to show your appreciation.”
Evangel and Quinn understood, but Kaka was still asking, “What does that mean? What did you help her with?”
“Studying. What could benefit our class leader, of course, is only studying. I practiced physical combat with her, and she let me slack off in history class,” Su Xing explained.
“It’s more than that, isn’t it?”
Evangel suddenly asked, “The class leader is very responsible.”
Su Xing snapped her fingers, “As long as she can be at ease, isn’t that enough?”
After saying this, she didn’t want to elaborate further and quickly changed the subject, “Let’s go. We finally escaped, so of course, we should explore the campus properly. Last week was too busy; I didn’t even have time to take a good look.”
The entire Spirit Domain Academy is composed of five parts: teaching buildings, dormitory buildings, Spirit Lake, Illusion Arena, and the small garden.
There are two teaching buildings, one for lower grades and one for upper grades, located on the east and west.
The dormitory buildings and Illusion Arenas are also two each.
This is said to prevent conflicts between lower and upper grades.
Su Xing and the others made a very unexpected discovery while wandering around the campus during history and herbology classes: the school’s layout was actually symmetrical.
With the north-south direction of the Spirit Lake as the dividing line, the left and right sides have identical layouts.
Both have the Illusion Arena near the campus entrance, followed by the teaching building, and finally the dormitories.
There was nothing unusual until Kaka, during physical combat class, had a sudden thought, “Why are all other places symmetrical, but only the small garden isn’t?”
Su Xing and the other two exchanged glances because of these words, realizing something.
After class, the three of them dragged Kaka straight to the symmetrical spot of the small garden at the dividing line.
There was a high wall there, perfectly segmenting off the small garden.
Kaka also understood what Su Xing and the others meant by coming here, and clicked his tongue, “Behind this… it wouldn’t be the symmetrical small garden, would it?”
What seems most impossible is often true.
Expertly scaling the wall, Su Xing and the four of them indeed arrived at a dangerous garden…
Hmm… a dangerous garden containing a fire dragon.
The last to climb over was Evangel.
He had to support Quinn, who wasn’t good at climbing walls, so he was last.
As he turned his back and climbed down, he wondered why his usually noisy companions were silent.
Until he turned his head and saw the enormous creature spewing gas at them.
It proved that hidden maps might not only contain treasures but also evil dragons.
The four fifteen-year-old children were completely stunned, not daring to move, afraid of irritating the huge red dragon.
Although they hadn’t specifically learned about them yet, they all knew very well that creatures like dragons were epic-level spirits.
Even a baby dragon could kill them with a sneeze, let alone an adult giant dragon ten meters tall.
They also wondered how the wall outside could block such a huge creature.
What to do? In the face of such an absolute power gap, any wisdom was useless.
Su Xing’s face was bitter, deeply feeling she had made a huge mistake.
She should have realized that Spirit Domain Academy was not absolutely safe after experiencing the painted world, so why did she still take risks?
She had understood the saying “curiosity killed the cat” since she was very young, yet she still couldn’t learn her lesson now.
The fire dragon took two steps towards Su Xing and the others, then bent its neck, and a golden vertical pupil as large as a human head stared directly into Su Xing’s eyes.
Su Xing immediately broke out in a cold sweat, feeling overwhelmed and breathless.
Fortunately, the giant dragon did not stay long and then went to look at Kaka.
Kaka himself was not afraid at all, but the dragon’s oppressive presence was still there, and he dared not move.
After scaring the four children, the fire dragon finally raised its body in satisfaction, looking down at them.
“Oh? Let me see which disobedient little ones skipped class for a campus adventure?”
Suddenly, a laughing child’s voice came from not far away.
Su Xing and the others looked over in surprise, and indeed, it was Principal Tang!
The moment they saw Principal Tang, they knew they were no longer in danger.
Kaka immediately rushed over, “Principal Tang! What is this?”
Su Xing and the other two also gathered around, trying to hide behind the principal.
Principal Tang sipped the tea from his enamel cup, putting on an air of precocious maturity for his young age, “This is the vice-principal’s spirit.”
Only then did Su Xing remember that the vice-principal’s spirit was an extremely powerful fire dragon.
But who would have thought that a spirit, clear as day, would brazenly live on campus?
Quinn adjusted his glasses, now calm, and asked curiously, “Aren’t spirits usually inside the spirit master’s body?”
Tang, naturally, didn’t mind answering this question for his eager students, “What you’ve learned so far is that having a spirit outside consumes the spirit master’s and its own mental energy. But for a Grand Spirit Master, this is nothing at all. They just summon it when needed. Blazefire likes basking in the sun, so Old Jack let it stay here.”
Jack was the vice-principal’s name, so Blazefire was the fire dragon’s name.
Quinn nodded quickly, noting down this piece of knowledge.
Kaka excitedly asked, “Then, Principal, can we touch Blazefire? I’ve never seen a dragon before!”
The principal furtively observed his surroundings, then whispered to the four, “You can touch it, but after class. Old Jack might come back at any time, and you’ll be in trouble if he does. After class, you can touch it as much as you want.”
Oh no.
Principal Jack had a strict personality and was absolutely unforgiving towards those who skipped class and caused trouble.
If he found out, they would be in serious trouble.
However, as luck would have it, just as Principal Tang finished speaking, Principal Jack’s voice appeared, “What’s this about ‘touching as much as you want’?”
Knowing they couldn’t escape, Su Xing and the others stood at attention, dejectedly watching the red-haired principal stride quickly from a distance.
Tang winked at them, trying to gloss over the matter, “Old Jack, isn’t this a coincidence? I was going to have them come over and help out, and I just happened to run into you.”
Jack didn’t buy it at all, “Asking them for help during class? How is it that I didn’t know you needed help from first-years?”
After that, he snorted at Tang, then the one-meter-ninety-tall man bent down to look at Su Xing and the others, “Don’t you want to touch it? I’ll let you touch it to your heart’s content. Starting tomorrow, every day during lunch break, come here to bathe Blazefire. If you’re late even one day, ten academic credits will be deducted. Also, if I see you skipping class again, ten academic credits each, understand?”
Su Xing and the others all had bitter faces, “Understood.”
Principal Tang shrugged at them from behind, indicating there was nothing he could do either.
On the way back, Su Xing and Quinn were disheartened.
Quinn was down because the principal had scolded him, while Su Xing was annoyed at herself for finding trouble.
However, fortunately, because of what happened in the storeroom, the school decided to re-examine the storeroom’s display, so Su Xing’s debt was generously waived by Winks.
Now she only had this one punishment to do.
Evangel showed no particular reaction.
His attitude towards punishment was that once received, it must be carried out.
For him, being discouraged was meaningless, and besides, this kind of punishment was hardly anything.
Of the four, the only one who felt excited was Kaka.
After a brief period of disappointment, this guy became happy again.
“Cheer up, friends! This is a chance to get up close and personal with a fire dragon for free! My parents couldn’t buy this with all their money! We just achieved it so casually!”
Su Xing deflated him listlessly, “Whoever wants this benefit can have it; I just want my lunch break.”
However, no matter how unwilling she was, the next day still came.
One must earn at least sixty academic credits per academic year; falling short of this number would mean being held back.
They currently didn’t even have one academic credit, so how could they afford to lose ten?
Principal Jack had already prepared the water and brushes for scrubbing the fire dragon’s scales, and he instructed, “If you run out of water, fetch it from the Spirit Lake. The password to enter is ‘no password,’ don’t let anyone discover you.”
After giving them some guidance, he left with some lingering concern.
Su Xing sighed helplessly, looking at the four brushes, “Let’s divide the work. One person for Blazefire’s left side, one for the right, one for the back, and one for brushing its teeth. I’m stating it now: I’m not brushing a dragon’s teeth.”
Evangel was more direct.
He simply took a large brush, dipped it in water, and began cleaning Blazefire’s right side.
Su Xing also quickly followed suit and started scrubbing the left.
Quinn and Kaka exchanged glances. Kaka hesitated, “Sorry, Quinn…”
Quinn nodded, indicating he understood, and prepared to brush the dragon’s mouth.
But Kaka’s next sentence was, “I really, really want to brush the dragon’s mouth, so can you brush its tail instead?”
Quinn looked at his bright eyes, knowing that Kaka truly wasn’t trying to inconvenience him.
He asked, puzzled, “Why do you want to brush there?”
Kaka cheerfully poked his head out from the front, “Because you can only see what a dragon looks like from the front! Blazefire is too magnificent! So cool!”
Blazefire seemed to understand that Kaka was complimenting it and happily exhaled a puff of steaming dragon’s breath.
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