Commanding Wind and Cloud
chapter-366

"Ray Yue? The decline of the Ray Family is due to him?"

The four mage students took a cold breath. How did Qian Jin kill off the strong Evil Lunar Angel Ray Yue? And the Ray Family… which used to rank top among the eight forces in Yulee. How did its decline have something to do with Qian Jin?

"That's right." Abela took the towel from the retinue to wipe away the mud on her forehead. "The Ray Family is, after all, one of the eight forces in Yulee, so no other forces dare force or provoke them, otherwise they may fight back and cause a disaster in Yulee. Presently, the Ray Family is still one of the eight forces. But as it ranks last among forces, for the time being, the family members have accumulated strong grudge in their mind."

"Since that…" The four mage students murmured, "What shall we do then? Qian Jin even dares to strike down Ray Yue…"

"Trash!" Abela looked at the four mage students by her side. "He must be backed by the boors in the Torrent Battle Fort so that he dared to chop down Ray Yue. But who am I? I am the little princess of the Crystal Magic Tower, a force way more influential than the Ray Family. Besides, how dare the Torrent Battle Fort attack the two forces; Ray and Crystal Magic Tower for the sake of Qian Jin?"

The four mage students looked at Abela blankly, feeling that this previously imprudent little princess of Crystal Magic Tower seemed to have grown a lot after coming back from the frontier. She had not only broadened her horizons but also learned to analyze things in a reasonable manner.

Looking at the four mage students, Abela couldn't stop shaking her head, thinking to herself that she had miscalculated in having these four idiots come with her today. If it was a retinue of warrior students staying by her side, she shouldn't have been humiliated by Qian Jin like this.

"What if the Torrent Battle Fort…"

"Shut up. I will get my revenge on him by all means very soon." Abela cast a harsh glare at her retinue and turned away to rush towards her dormitory while murmuring to herself, "Nasty Qian Jin, I will kill you as soon as possible, since you made me lose face in front of Matten. You know what? I am going to be the princess or even the empress in the future."

Princess? Empress? The four mage students exchanged a surprised look at each other, thinking that the family name of the royals was Zence instead of Tence. But wait, Tence... the hearsay went that the Sixth Prince had joined an academy secretly. Could Tence Matten be the legendary Zence Matten?

Had the Sixth Prince joined the Punitive Expedition Academy which ranked seventh nationally? Why didn't he go to the Royal Warrior Academy in the Holy Capital which ranked first among all academies?

It was said that the most illustrious princes of this generation were the Third and the Sixth Princes who enjoyed the greatest possibilities of succeeding the throne. Unbelievable…really unbelievable…could he be the Sixth Prince of legends? It was no wonder that he carried such a disposition…

"What the hell are you doing there?" Abela turned back and snubbed in a low voice, "Follow me quickly. Now that you have calculated the true identity of Matten, just keep it a secret provided that you do not want to court death."

Seen from above, Punitive Expedition Academy looked like a regular circle, with the divisions of warrior and mage occupying half of the total land area. Every student who resided here for a couple of days would be able to tell which place belonged to the warrior division and which area was the territory of the mage division.

"Qian Jin, we are going to set foot in the mage domain." Tence Matten took a leap forward, appearing as if he was going to join the human-demon battlefront.

Qian Jin was absent-minded for one second and then followed Tence Matten in walking forward for several steps, during which time he felt the hostile look from the people around as if he had stepped into the demons' territory.

"Hehe…now that you are a new arriver here, you may lack a clear understanding of the environment here." Tence Matten paced leisurely while waving the folding fan softly. "The pretty principal Isabella carried out a large-scale reform on the campus several months ago, triggering a fiercer competition in resource division among the students. Moreover, a confrontation in ideology has been on the way, where the mage and the warrior divisions have split into two camps."

Qian Jin looked through the hostile looks around him and eventually realized why everything he ran into during his visit this time seemed so strange. The tremendous adjustments on the school outlook conducted by the pretty female principal made exposed the Punitive Expedition Academy's ambitions for turning over a new leaf.

"Are you looking for Gabriella to talk with her about retinue?" Tence Matten kept waving his folding fan gently while squinting his beautiful eyes. The fluttering of his hair didn't change much with the increasing intensity of the wind.

It wasn't until this moment did Qian Jin find that the peculiar fluttering of his hair was caused by the magic conductor he used as a belt. Seen from the surface, it seemed to be a simple decoration, but upon closer observation, you could see the exquisite and complicated runes on it which was made by the mixture of dozens of advanced metals. To top it off, it was a special magic array which was spraying the simplest yet the most subtle magic power, the Soft Wind Spell.

This was intended for helping the mages control the magic elements. But used on Tence Matten, it changed into a way taking care of his image.

This…Qian Jin was dumbfounded for a second and arrived at a new conclusion about Tence Matten, which was, he was not only a fashion-struck but also an extravagancy-colored man, who might very likely be the descendant of one of the top ten bloodline warriors.

"Retinue?" Feeling the smile of Tence Matten, Qian Jin came to his mind and smiled too. It seemed that Tence Matten had mistaken him for a bloodline warrior. The high reputation as a genius mage Gabriella enjoyed was enough to drive the three bloodline warrior families to offer an invitation.

"Isn't it?" A look of surprise crawled onto Tence Matten's face. The other day even the Tri-head Golden Dragon Bloodline Family dispatched a delegation to pay a visit, yet…

Tence Matten shook his head and forced a bitter smile. As far as he was concerned, Gabriella was overshadowed by either the Golden Elf Bloodline Warrior Family or even ordinary mages with certain flairs, and thus didn't live up to her title at all.

No one had witnessed the power of the Supreme Mages, but that of a Level 5 Mage…hehe…as n student granted with the most spectacular magic resources throughout the academy, she remained a Level 5 Mage during the past three months…apart from the unyielding perseverance, Tence Matten couldn't see anything special in Gabriella, the mage student who attracted the largest attention months ago.

"No." Amongst the hostile looks surrounding him, Qian Jin put on a smile full of vigor, "She is my friend."

"Oh…so it is." Tence Matten drawled and nodded his head gently, as the image of Gabriella had started to emerge in his mind. Dressed in an outdated black mage robe, with a large mage hat covering her face, Gabriella belonged to the type of girl to whom the least attention was paid to in a crowd. He couldn't understand why Principal Isabella insisted on offering her the highest standard of treatment despite all kinds of oppositions.

"All right. Qian Jin" Tence Matten smiled at the surrounding mages and nodded his head in a respectful manner, making many of the hostile-looking students reciprocated him with a smile. "Your friend is not living a smooth life recently."

Qian Jin took a long sigh. As the one who knew best about Gabriella in the world except for Gloria, Qian Jin had already conceived such a situation upon the first day of Gabriella's schooling. Through his observation during their two-year stay, Gabriella was bestowed with high flairs, but she was very diligent.

There were a lot of people who labeled themselves as hard-working, but when faced with obstacles on the way, they would give up without too many attempts to break through the limitations.

But Gabriella was different. Once she set a goal, she would move forward dauntlessly with all efforts dedicated. No matter how many times she failed, she still forged ahead toward the very destination. s

"It doesn't matter. Everything will change for the better." Qian Jin smiled at Tence Matten, "I used to be in a situation much worse than Gabriella. But see? Now everything is becoming a little better day by day."

Tence Matten smiled, without saying anything more, and wondered whether Qian Jin was the boyfriend of Gabriella? If so, Principal Isabella's behavior of conferring Gabriella with the best enviable offerings despite all opposing voices coming from all directions might make some sense.

It was Class One of Grade One of Mage Division in Punitive Expedition Academy. Tence Matten stopped, took back his folding fan and pointed at the class. "See ya, the one sitting in the middle of the first row."

Qian Jin looked through the glass window and then fixed his eyes on Gabriella, who sat in the middle of the first row. No changes seemed to have taken place on this delicate girl over the past three months. She was still dressed in a piece of loose and unfashionable mage robe, with a big black mage hat on the head.

Pitifully…the appearance of Gabriella couldn't be seen even from the side due to the special design of the mage hat. No one was able to catch sight of Gabriella's appearance from all angles, however, she could observe everything from her eyes cloaked by the hat.

Was it not for his sound knowledge of runes which told him that Gabriella's hat was made of the most commonly seen black cloth, Qian Jin would doubt whether it was a piece of magic conductor.

Though the facial expression of Gabriella couldn't be read, Qian Jin could sense that she was listening extremely carefully to the teacher.

"Shouldn't she be instructed by a one-to-one professor?" Qian Jin frowned slightly. As a matter of fact, one-to-one instruction functioned much better than the model of one-to-many.

One person had little energies and emotions. As a teacher, it was impossible to attend to every student. And in some other cases, he or she might even develop an impartial attitude due to personal tastes.

By contrast, in the one-to-one model, a teacher might be very likely to grow a kinship-like feeling toward the student, and thus would naturally coach such student whole-heartedly.

"There are some large lectures which need to be attended altogether." Tence Matten looked at the students in the class with a smile. "Nearly all of them have their exclusive teachers, yet there are some large lectures about military classes which need to be attended by everyone."

A large-scale lecture on military? Qian Jin self-mockingly smiled. Punitive Expedition Academy wasn't a place indoctrinating courses on mage or warrior. Strictly speaking, it was more of a military academy, where a mage had the possibilities of becoming a legion commander, commanding several, a dozen, or even hundreds of mages in the battlefront.