Commanding Wind and Cloud
chapter-370

Chapter 370: Hundred Battle Ranking List

Fifty laps…sixty laps…

Qian Jin lifted his head to look at the sky. When will this end? Its better finish running soon, or else there will be more onlookers.

What the hell was he doing? Seeing that Qian Jin had increased his speed all of a sudden, the onlookers were all caught confounded and wondered what he was intending to do. Had he decided to make an all-out sprint? Why was he doing this when it wasn’t only one or two laps for him to finish the goal of one hundred?

One lap…five laps…ten laps…fifteen laps…

The warriors standing by opened their eyes extremely wide. To carry out an all-out sprint meant exerting one’s full strength which might be consumed in a short time. Did this bloke feel exhausted doing so?

“You see? This guy runs in such a special way.” Standing by the window, Isabella pointed out the balls of Qian Jin’s feet to Gabriella. “You see, each time he steps on them, there will be a special rhythm produced which could increase the friction between the feet and the ground, yet aid him in using the minimum energy required for each movement.”

Gabriella looked out of the window carefully to examine Qian Jin’s unique running method. But then she shook her head repeatedly as she couldn’t see anything special.

“I also tried this years before.” Isabella tapped her chin with her fingers. “So the rumors might not necessarily be false. This guy might have really been to the Ancient Desert Sea”

“The Ancient Desert Sea?” Gabriella lifted her head up fiercely and suddenly looked at Isabella.

“Ouch, you have such a beautiful face! Has anyone in our school witnessed it? Why do you hide it?” Isabella looked at Gabriella’s face cloaked under the big mage hat with eyes opened wide. “Why don’t you show your beauty?”

Gabriella lowered her head quickly and shook her big hat repeatedly, “No…”

“Bashfulness?” Isabella stretched herself and kept shaking her head. “I somewhat don’t understand you, young people. Qian Jin seems to have been to the Ancient Desert Sea since his movement looks very similar to beasts drilling in the sand.”

“Sand?” Isabella gazed at Qian Jin galloping in the playground while confused, but again, she couldn’t tell the difference.

Isabella said in curiosity: “It takes more effort to walk in the sand, and people who lived in deserts would learn how to travel more efficiently. It seems like Qian Jin has been running and dashing in the sand for a long time. I didn’t expect him to be so bold and enter Ancient Desert Sea.”

Gabriella raised her head to look at Isabella and started deliberating. Said to be a bloodline warrior, their Principal was surrounded by mystery, yet her bloodline was known to no one or had been kept a secret by the ones who knew it. Even more strange was that she stood by Gabriella unconditionally, which was in sharp contrast with her usual demeanor dealing with others.

“I won’t waste even one coin on those who prove unqualified to enjoy better and more resources.”

Her speech this morning was still deeply ingrained in many students.

“You wonder how I keep a track of news about Qian Jin?” Isabella wore a smile wrapped by warmth, which made Gabriella recalled her sister. “He left me a deep impression when he came here with you last time, which was intensified after our fight.”

“The Ancient Desert Sea.” Isabella looked up to the scudding clouds in the sky. “I went there before, in the company of someone stronger as protection. But he went by himself without anyone’s shelter. Should I see it as guts or childishness?”

Ninety laps…ninety-five, ninety-six…one hundred.

The warrior students watching aside got cold sweats on their foreheads and were awestruck by Qian Jin running fast with sweats all over his body, wondering whether he was a beast indeed. Having sprinted for some forty laps at full speed, he didn’t pant or show signs of fatigue at all.

“What is his background?”

“I have no idea.”

“But given his stamina, he should enjoy some degree of reputation in the academy.”

“I don’t know. He is just like a man appearing out of nowhere.”

“Look there! He’s going upstairs. Well, there is only the Principal’s office on that floor…”

“It’s done…” Qian Jin pushed the door open, walked in, and took out a piece of clean bandage to wipe away the sweats on his body from the warrior dimension. Slumping into the sofa with pains, he started patting the muscles on both legs, “It’s killing me.”

“Go on acting…” Isabella came back to her seat and crossed her arms over her bosom as she said: “You have excellent acting skills.”

Qian Jin released a dry laugh out of embarrassment, picked up the teapot placed on the table and poured in the tea directly through the spout to hydrate himself.

Drinking up all the tea contained in the pot, Qian Jin placed it back and looked at the young and beautiful Principal Isabella smilingly. Having gone through a large number of grand occasions like frequently talking with the Snake Emperor Pam Honzi, Qian Jin showed no typical nervousness as expressed by other students in front of the Principal.

Isabella looked Qian Jin up and down carefully and came to find that with these days’ experience, this young warrior had developed a stronger sense of composure as if he had gone through a lot during the past months including but not limited to life-or-death perils. Such composure couldn’t have been formed without the honing of seas and mountains.

“Boy, do you still remember how many days’ leave you asked me for?” Isabella placed her tenuous fingers on the table and started tapping rhythmically, producing a crispy sound.

Qian Jin rose up silently and looked at Isabella with a grimace. He didn’t want to defend himself since he had really left too long. Now that the Principal was eager to say something about it, the best choice for him was to listen in silence.

“Are you back to make up for the loss?” Isabella adjusted her sitting gesture into a sexy curve outlined by “S”, “according to the school provision, you have already been expelled due to the unapproved leave and a large number of absences.”

“Oh.” Qian Jin gave a brief reply and waited for Isabella to speak. The first request by this Principal was to run one hundred laps, indicating that she didn’t mean to dismiss him from school and what she was speaking now was paving the way for what she was going to address next.

Isabella twinkled at Qian Jin with admiration, wondering whether this guy was behaving so docilely silent on purpose to watch her monodrama.

“All right. There was only one way for you to escape from being expelled.” Isabella looked at Qian Jin, “The principal of the warrior division compiled a Hundred Battle Ranking List over the past few months. As long as you could have your name listed on it and pass the coming end-of-year examinations, you will not be expelled from school, otherwise…”

A black-covered pamphlet flew from Isabella’s office desk and dropped into Qian Jin’s palm. It appeared as if Principal Isabella had prepared it deliberately.

Opening the pamphlet, Qian Jin was immersed in a familiar feeling. Well, many of the things introduced on it had already been born in his mind.

Hundred Battle Ranking List of the warrior division: All warrior students reserved the right to compete with each other, irrespective of their ages and years. The strongest student would be ranked first, the second strongest one would rank second, so on and so forth. The entire list would comprise the names of one hundred students.

Those whose names appeared on the Hundred Battle Ranking List constituted the top one hundred warriors in Punitive Expedition Academy. The strongest one would be given not only the largest amount of warrior crystals, warrior stones and fighting techniques of all kinds but also warrior weapon instrument forged by the Blacksmith Union entrusted by the school. Meanwhile, they would obtain a privileged seat in all kinds of tests.

The Hundred Battle Ranking List held a clear and detailed classification of the corresponding awards to each ranking, and the privileges shared. Even the duration of the ranking, the number of warrior crystals and stones, the premium resources in case of getting a higher ranking and the deduction of such resources in case of ranking lowering had been explicitly written on it.

Those who kept their rankings among the top ten in a long run would be recommended an admission to the Blood Palace and Warrior Hall on the school side.

Qian Jin couldn’t stop inhaling and exhaling a chill. The provision about the recommendation for admission into the Blood Palace and Warrior Hall was really appealing. All warriors would be excited or even driven mad at the sight of this stipulation

Blood Palace was hailed as the holy training ground for bloodline warriors, yet not every bloodline warrior had the right to enter this place. Even the Qian Family who had cultivated a wealth of Elf-king Bloodline Warriors attached great importance to the Blood Palace.

The Warrior Hall was called the sanctum for ordinary warriors. As one of the Three Heroes of Warrior Hall in the Warrior Hall, Fabreidis had now reached the saint level. Yet his Soul Realm was kept as the secret to the public.

Then here came the Hundred Battle Ranking List below. The first place, [Thunder Lion King] Linguan Skylan, Griffin Bloodline Warrior of Grade Five, with a height of two hundred and two centimeters and a wingspan of two hundred and twenty centimeters. Strength: unknown. No one had forced him to utilize his full strength yet.

The second place, [Sleeping Lion King] Linguan Honzhe, Griffin Bloodline Warrior of Grade Five, with a height of one hundred and ninety-eight centimeters and a wingspan of two hundred and fifteen centimeters. Strength: unknown. Admitting to being defeated only by Linguan Skylan, no one else knew how to conquer him.

The first place, [Roaring Lion King] Linguan Linfeng…

“Damn.” Qian Jin closed the pamphlet brutally. The top three places all went to Griffin Bloodline Warriors. Generally, the top ten bloodlines warrior families and the three ultimate bloodline warrior families of Zence Empire wouldn’t register in the same academy.

It had become a common practice for the advanced warrior academies to collaborate deeply with one of the ten bloodline warrior families, and that of Punitive Expedition Academy was the Griffin Bloodline Warrior Family, one of the top ten bloodline warrior families in Zence.

Griffin Bloodline Warrior. Griffin Bloodline Warrior. Qian Jin kept sighing at the top three winners on the Hundred Battle Ranking List. In fact, there was a certain gap between the top ten bloodline warrior families in strength.

P.S. I think a mistake was made about the Thunder Lion King; his name should be Linguan Skylan, and not the other way around. The author used first and last names interchangeably, and I was confused.