The Ascension of Contracted Spirits

Chapter 74 - 72: Knight’s Mad Dash Race (Seeking the first subscription!)_1

"..."

The spring weather was splendid, and even the wind was warm.

Throughout Tiger Head Courtyard, there were luxuriant old trees everywhere; their branches were twisted, yet robustly growing.

And those casually swaying flowers, red like fire, yellow like gold, adorned within, presented the captivating side of life.

But...

Ye Hanjun raised his head, his eyes slightly twitching.

In front of him stood a proud pink ostrich with a head full of colorful, eye-catching feathers.

Had it really styled its hair after half a day?

Although it was just a simple dye and perm, it hadn’t escalated to a particularly complex braid yet.

But this pink mixed with colors, was glaringly "look at me, look at me" proud.

Was it down to Su Mei’s questionable aesthetics, or was this ostrich...just not one to follow the beaten path?

"Tuotuo...Tuotuo likes bright colors..."

"Let it dye a solid color, it refuses..."

Seeing Master Han’s twitching eyes, Su Mei tentatively introduced him.

"..."

"I would say...it has a unique personality."

Ye Hanjun shook his head and gave his verdict.

With that, he took a sidestep. His calm, ocean-like gaze locked onto the bewildered man.

"Your Deer with teeth, really exhausted?"

A gentle voice, a calm tone.

The man’s face altered slightly.

Although he tried to hide it, his swelling throat and sheepish smile were subtly different from before.

"What do you mean by that, laddie..."

The man attempted to argue, but Ye Hanjun’s interruption was icy cold:

"It appears to stumble in its steps."

"But each step it takes is actually firm."

"I have to commend you on this, you must have put considerable effort into training the wild beast to act."

"Ha...haha..."

Cold sweat dripped from the man’s forehead, "What nonsense are you talking? How does it look like it’s pretending?"

"Look, its hair is all wet, plus the cooled salt crystals. Such degree must mean it’s on the verge of exhaustion, how can it be faking?"

"Enough with your blather, fulfill the contract as we agreed!"

Tired of arguing with him, Ye Hanjun flashed his Assistant Instructor Badge and coldly stated:

"Or are you trying to get me to report to the academy and expose your profiteering tricks?"

"..." The man’s face changed from pale to green, an unmistakable flash of fear catching his eye.

A few seconds later, he patted the Deer with teeth’s hind leg and bowed his head in apology:

"I’m sorry, I was greedy."

"I’ll move it right away, guarantee there won’t be any mistakes. Please let me off."

"Move first."

Ye Hanjun glanced at him indifferently.

He did not sense any hatred or animosity, on the contrary, fear took hold.

Both over fifty, still stuck on the first rank, one suspected to be an F-ranked ’Driver’, and the other a suspected F-ranked ’Mover’.

As for the Deer with teeth and the Strength Ape, although both were clay bodies at their peak potential.

However, their hooves were covered in calluses, and their sparsely covered hair indicated the life expectancy, their potential ended here.

Ye Hanjun left a spirit behind, but was not overly worried.

They were pleading for a few spirit stones, they were the kinds to bully the weak and fear the strong, they couldn’t stir up anything big.

"Roar..."

Under his silent gaze, the Deer with teeth stopped in front of the villa on the opposite side.

Followed by the Strength Ape, and its master - another burly man in grey clothes.

They quickly opened the boxes and cooperatively moved things inside.

"So you are living at No. 222, opposite me?"

"Yes, this community is quite vacant, naturally, it’s more convenient to live next door to Master Han."

Su Mei smiled happily. The pink ostrich seemed to feel her excitement, and it chirped towards the sky a few times.

"Keep an eye on them, if they deliberately damage your stuff, make them compensate accordingly."

"Yes!" Su Mei nodded, and asked hesitantly: "Master Han, do I look like a naive girl that is especially easy to bully?"

"If it was a fierce-looking male student, would they dare not cheat?"

"Perhaps." Ye Hanjun casually said, "You don’t need to think too much about it, nor put it to heart."

"But you should learn from this. Many people in this world harbor ill intentions, whether for material gain or for life safety, you need to learn to protect yourself."

Su Mei nodded thoughtfully.

Half an hour later, all the objects from the box were moved into the villa.

When the burly men, who were directing the Strength Ape to adjust the furniture and equipment, had left laughing and bowing after receiving eight lower quality spirit stones from Su Mei...

"Whew... Moving is indeed troublesome, it took up the whole morning!"

With the outsiders gone, Su Mei breathed a sigh of relief.

In front of Master Han, she didn’t need to hide her exhaustion.

"You’re quite distinctive," he said.

Ye Hanjun took a quick look around, checked if there was any listening rune left behind, and found everything in order.

What caught his eye a little was the fact that Su Mei, despite her young age, didn’t seem to be very fond of dressing up.

To be precise, she didn’t have many fancy clothes, and her makeup was even less.

But she had at least twenty sets of training and practice outfits.

Dark Copper Heavy Armor, Snake Scale Light Armor, Tough Leather Armor... All kinds of armor pieces, half-body and full-body ones, and it would take at least 200 lower quality spirit stones to acquire them.

"You... you even have such big training equipment in your residence?"

Ye Hanjun always thought that the individual castles at the family’s base were too big. In contrast, living in a quaint and small villa like the Canghai Pavilion seemed quite satisfactory.

But Su Mei, she really had some things going on with her.

She had bought several very expensive large machines, one for training body balance and one for strength training.

Most bizarrely, there was a five-meter-tall mushroom-shaped giant container, which was actually Tuotuo’s grain silo containing loads of delicious snacks.

Just...a lavish spender, huh?

Ye Hanjun wasn’t being sarcastic. These things looked advanced but were in fact crudely made. They seemed more like a fool’s tax.

Instead of using these inferior objects, it would be better to engage in a few real battles as the results would be completely different.

"My father is, to put it somewhat vaguely, the mayor of a small town in the Blue Frog Kingdom, a minor nobleman."

"As the elder daughter of the family, I had my own small treasury before I came of age."

"That year, it was hard for me to awaken my ability. My father was so pleased that he promised me an allowance of 100 lower quality spirit stones each month."

"Then...when I first entered Canghai Pavilion, because I was holding a large amount of spirit stones and was in high spirits..."

"I just bought and bought, wasted a lot of money..."

For the first time, Su Mei blushed and voluntarily introduced her family background.

Her explanations were pretty much what Ye Hanjun had estimated; compared to ordinary students, this girl was from a much wealthier family. There was no escaping the label of being a little rich girl.

"Oh, Master Han."

"Last night, while I was staying up late with Tuotuo to dye my hair, I ran into a fellow student from yesterday’s class. She said that Piao Chenlong was looking for you."

"His pig seems to be all right now. He’s very grateful to you and wants to thank you in person. What do you think..."

"Oh, don’t mind him."

Ye Hanjun replied indifferently:

"Such spontaneous actions are not really a big concern to me."

"But I also heard..."

With a hesitant expression, Su Mei voiced her concerns:

"There are already some scattered rumors mentioning ’the witch from the rescue center is missing’ and ’the witch is suspected to have been bound by a contract’."

"Also, the fellow students who were in class yesterday, have been continuously praising you, unanimously agreeing about your greatness, leading some to ask about you behind your back. This has indirectly led to bits and pieces of information about the ’mysterious assistant’ and the ’pale-faced assistant’ being heard."

"I’m worried that if this continues to ferment, the two incidents will be linked, and sooner or later, Master Han, you will be in the spotlight, at the focus of various strange looks..."

"What, are you afraid?" Ye Hanjun, a corner of his mouth pulling up into a smirk, said, "I’m not a mouse, why would I always hide in the dark?"

"It’s just a bit of a compromise, to avoid unnecessary trouble as much as possible at this awkward phase."

"But if trouble really comes knocking, then there’s nothing I can do about it. I will just tackle the situation as it arises, that’s all."

"So, Master Han has a plan..."

When her master spoke in such a way, Su Mei finally breathed a sigh of relief. She felt more confident.

With her beautiful, willow-leaf-shaped eyebrows furrowed, she pondered and then asked:

"Should I make it clear early on, about the exceptionally close teacher-student relationship between Master Han and me?"

"Considering your safety, you should avoid getting involved where necessary."

Ye Hanjun shook his head:

"Including the superior knight ability, it’s better if you don’t reveal it all at once, so as to prevent being targeted by those with ulterior motives due to suddenly becoming strong."

"Ah..." Su Mei whispered, "Then... should I not participate in the Knight Frenzy Race at noon? It might be better to just withdraw?"

"Knight Frenzy Race?" Ye Hanjun questioned back.

"Doesn’t the academy have all sorts of competitions? Some are held regularly, and some are held randomly."

"Hmm, I’ve heard of that." Ye Hanjun nodded, "High-end competitions do give awards for winning, especially the ’Star of Excellence’, which is very significant for students."

"Yes!" said Su Mei obediently, "For this Knight Frenzy Race, I heard that the first and second place winners for each group will get stars."

"I signed up for it a long time ago, but I wasn’t confident about it. I just wanted to get some experience, and if I could make some powerful knight friends along the way and share the experience of growing abilities, I would be satisfied."

"For such a competition... both the participants and viewers would be pretty limited, right?"

Standing in position, Ye Hanjun held his right elbow with his left hand, his thumb resting on his chin as he pondered:

"If there’s a chance to get the Star of Excellence, it might be worth giving it a try."

"Don’t forget, your ’Respecting Teacher’s Ring’ is a passive ability. Even when completely inactive, you are still a standard knight."

"If there are very strong competitors, you can just activate a small part of it."

"With the weakened ability of ’Riding the Wind’, coupled with the Pink Ostrich’s skills at endurance and speed, there are not many people who are better at running than you are at the same level."

"Master Han, are you allowing me to participate?" Su Mei’s eyes lit up, and she became somewhat excited.

Since she had joined half a year ago, she hadn’t won even a single Star of Excellence.

As a result, she had found herself at the bottom of the newbie list.

Compared to the newbie patron students, her achievements were basically in the end, her profile barely notable.

Now...

Has the opportunity to earn stars finally arrived?