…These are all bloody lessons still fresh in memory.
For instance, the recent One Punch Man Season 3 and Stranger Things Season 5… And what’s more, even the most popular heroine, Yun Ruoxi, has been temporarily taken offline—it’s not just a simple matter of stacking buffs.
Starfall Season 2 only aired four months after Season 1—not even the typical gap for anime.
The saintess was about to enter the Goblin Nest, saying she’d go home and get married after this battle—she was a walking death flag, tally marks written all over her thigh.
But now it seems Starfall Season 2 still has that flavor…
…The budget is still so abundant they don’t know what to do with it. That’s very reassuring.
Anti-school Bullying Office. Since it’s common for transcendent department students to settle things privately, and this time Blue Lulu even started it.
So Lin Zhen didn’t actually receive too harsh punishment—he was released after watching a one-hour anti-bullying educational video and writing a three-thousand-word self-criticism.
It was Derrick who suffered, waiting impatiently outside.
“How come you’re still here?”
“What’s up, Derrick? Did you need something from me? I thought you’d already left.”
The tall, handsome young man walked out of the glass door, asking curiously.
“It’s not me who needs you,” Derrick shook his head, raising his wrist to show his personal terminal. “It’s your mentor, Xi Muzhi. He couldn’t get in touch with you, so he contacted me.”
Lin Zhen was taken aback. He opened his personal terminal, which had been forcibly shut down after being confiscated, and saw his mentor’s message pop up. It told him to come to the office as soon as possible.
“Mentor Xi Muzhi?”
Lin Zhen casually replied with a “okay” and looked up to ask:
“Did Mentor Xi Muzhi tell you what he wants to see me about?”
Mentors at the top Cosmic Academy are all top-tier figures in the Empire. His mentor, Xi Muzhi, is a fourth-level star energy user with metal-type supernatural power.
But even a star energy user of this level, in order to meet the academy’s rigid “up-or-out” requirement, has to take on over a thousand trainees every year and frequently go out on missions.
He was so busy on a daily basis that he wouldn’t call Lin Zhen in without reason.
“The interstellar era is still this competitive?”
“Familiar up-or-out policy—scared me to tears.”
“He didn’t tell me, but judging by the time, I guess it’s about the Academy Tournament,” Derrick said.
“I see…”
Lin Zhen operated his terminal, summoned a public flying shuttle, and boarded it. After saying goodbye to Derrick, he flew toward Xi Muzhi’s office.
The teaching quality of a Cosmic Academy’s technology department can be judged by the output of technology and the number of scientists.
But for the transcendent department, because each academy has different admission standards and the quality and number of students vary, the number of star energy users at each level cannot be the sole criterion for teaching quality.
After all, the Imperial Institute of Technology would rather have too many than too few, and the number of transcendent department students is even less than a tenth of some lower-ranked Cosmic Academies.
Thus the Academy Tournament came into being.
Every two years, each academy selects top students from all years except freshmen and seniors and has them compete. The ranking determines teaching quality.
It was exactly as Derrick said.
Thinking about it carefully, it’s already June, just about time for this year’s Academy Tournament.
Two years ago, Lin Zhen was a sophomore. Although he had a Perfect Awakening, he was unremarkable among the other geniuses at the academy, so he naturally didn’t qualify for the tournament.
Now he’s a senior and has embarked on the perfect path.
His strength has improved by leaps and bounds, so it’s very possible that his mentor will recommend him to participate in the Academy Tournament.
After all, if he can achieve a ranking, then Mentor Xi Muzhi can add that to his résumé and no longer have to worry about the up-or-out threat.
“Academy Tournament, I get it—the World Martial Arts Tournament.”
“Classic school competition plot, never get tired of it.”
“Wait, if Season 2 is about the school competition, then where’s Xiao Xi? Where did my wife go?”
Lin Zhen pondered. After a while, the flying shuttle arrived at Xi Muzhi’s office.
The autonomous driving system controlled the shuttle to descend, finally stopping in front of a huge villa.
Yes, this enormous villa covering over twenty acres was Xi Muzhi’s office.
Lin Zhen jumped off the shuttle, walked into the villa, and effortlessly made his way to the study on the fourth floor.
He lightly knocked three times, and a man’s voice came from inside.
“Come in.”
Lin Zhen pushed the door open.
Behind a large rosewood desk, a handsome man who looked under thirty was tapping away on a virtual keyboard.
Beside him, ten mechanical arms floated in the air, also tapping on virtual keyboards.
The light blue projection screen was split into eleven sections, with information scrolling past like running water.
Lin Zhen glanced at it and felt dizzy.
“Sit.”
Xi Muzhi said without looking up.
That was his personality—focused, always finishing the urgent work at hand before handling other matters.
So Lin Zhen sat aside and waited for nearly an hour before Xi Muzhi looked up at him, showing no change in expression.
“Did you wait long?”
Xi Muzhi smiled slightly and went straight to the point:
“Do you know about the Academy Tournament?”
His guess confirmed, Lin Zhen calmly nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Are you confident?”
“Yes.”
Lin Zhen said seriously.
To become strong enough to save Yun Ruoxi, he had never let up on training his strength.
Others said he was lucky to have walked the perfect path, but only he and those close to him knew it was well-deserved.
But the stronger he got, the more he felt the Saints’ Hand Society was unfathomable, and his own strength was still far from enough.
So he wouldn’t give up any opportunity to grow.
Achieving good results in the Academy Tournament would help Xi Muzhi and also bring him generous rewards.
For example, negative cosmic spirit treasures that could make him stronger quickly.
Xi Muzhi knew Lin Zhen wasn’t one to boast; if he said he was confident, he must be fairly certain.
So a smile appeared on his face.
“Good, then this opportunity is yours.”
A message popped up on Lin Zhen’s personal terminal—it was the electronic invitation for the Academy Tournament.
All he had to do was confirm, and he would qualify to participate.
Then he could make a name for himself and receive generous rewards.
But before Lin Zhen could confirm, Xi Muzhi stopped him.
“Wait a moment. Before you confirm, there’s something I want to tell you.”
Lin Zhen’s right index finger paused in the air, then withdrew, looking seriously at the young man in front of him.
“Do you remember the criminal I asked you to look for three years ago?”
Xi Muzhi said seriously:
“Just yesterday, I received news related to him.”