Chapter 10 (2/2)

Afterwards, he shifted his gaze to Zhu Minglang, and he immediately looked surprised.

As a herder, Li Shaoying already looked rather shabby. His self-esteem had taken a hit after being laughed at earlier, but unexpectedly, there was someone who seemed even poorer than him, and yet he was also a new student of the Dragon Tamers Academy?

If the gate guard hadn’t said anything, Li Shaoying would have thought this person was a chore boy of the Dragon Tamers Academy!

“You’re a student too?” Li Shaoying asked.

“Yes, I’m Zhu Minglang.” Zhu Minglang maintained his manners, looking friendly and approachable.

“Oh,” Li Shaoying replied half-heartedly, not reciprocating the courtesy.

As expected, after learning Zhu Minglang was also a freshman, another wave of laughter rang out from the others.

Seeing the reaction from the others, Zhu Minglang didn’t act as uneasy as Li Shaoying had. He seemed indifferent about it.

Wandering around the world, having a thick skin was also a skill one needed to master.

The lake breeze was refreshing. The long-necked dragon slowly ferried the ten people closer to the land in the middle of the lake, the palace countless people dreamed of: the Dragon Tamers Academy!

—–

At the bridge head, the girl who had just sold a few pounds of ripe peaches was taking a moment of rest when she suddenly thought of something. She turned to look at the tightly shut copperwood gates.

A look of surprise colored her face.

“He was thrown into the lake? How pitiful,” the girl mumbled to herself.

——-

Dragon Storage Hall…

Every newly enrolled student would get a chance to pick a dragon, regardless of whether they already owned a spiritling or not.

Although people admired the art of inspecting and recognizing dragons, correctly picking a dragon out of countless ordinary spiritlings was like finding a needle in a haystack. More often, it was like placing a bet!

Zhu Minglang, Li Shaoying, and the cold young master were brought to the Dragon Storage Hall. The spiritlings and spirit eggs stored in here were as abundant as the pebbles in a river.

“Go on, pick one. After choosing yours, go register with the old mister inside the hall. The spiritling will be yours after your imprint is branded on it.” The gate guard was very dutiful, leaving only after guiding them here and instructing them properly.

Li Shaoying was filled with anticipation. He walked over to a nest of spiritlings with quick steps, staring at a group of infant blue bird spirits, inspecting them.

Zhu Minglang also went along the paved path, and began slowly observing.

There were many kinds of spirits: bird spirits, river spirits, beast spirits, ancient spirits, poison spirits, stone spirits, and many others that obviously possessed the bloodline of dragons, like sub-dragons, pseudo-dragons, and hybrid dragonlings. They had yet to truly dragonize, but the extraordinary features and physique of a dragon have already manifested!

At this moment, the tall and cold young master spoke, “Heh, you guys are pretty serious about selecting your spiritling. Do you not have an ounce of understanding toward the Dragon Tamers Academy before enrolling? A real dragon might not exist even among thousands of spiritlings. Letting you pick one here is only to give you a sliver of hope to become a student of the Academy.”

Zhu Minglang and Li Shaoying looked at him at the same time. It turned out that he wasn’t a mute!

Zhu Minglang nodded to himself and asked, “Indeed, we aren’t very clear on this. Please explain this to us.”

“Don’t waste your time and just pick one at random. If you have the time to pick at garbage here, you might as well spend more effort on raising your own spiritling,” the cold young master said.

Li Shaoying smiled in embarrassment.

Indeed, the free spiritlings provided by the Academy wouldn’t be very good. Otherwise, anyone who enrolled into the Academy would be able to become a master dragon tamer; why would there still be a large majority of them hovering before their dragon gate?

In the end, Li Shaoying chose one of the bird spirits that seemed most competitive and held it in his hand, not treating it too importantly.

Zhu Minglang scratched his head. His situation was a little awkward.

Most of those who could enroll into the Dragon Tamers Academy would have a spiritling with decent potential, some of them just a step short of crossing their dragon gates.

Li Shaoying obviously had his own spiritling, while the cold young master seemed to already own a dragonling.

Baiqi was still deep in slumber in the ice cocoon; Zhu Minglang had nothing at this moment, and only managed to be forcibly enrolled into the Academy by means of connection.

-Looks like I still have to rely on the relief provided by the Academy and use it as my spiritling.-

However, this was Zhu Minglang’s starting point, after all. He couldn’t be bothered listening to that cold young master’s arrogant explanation, and continued choosing his spiritling seriously.

Recognizing a dragon was like inspecting a treasure. One needed extremely high insight, and a little bit of luck.

It just so happened that Zhu Minglang possessed neither trait. He was blind and unlucky.

However, a sense of ceremony was still required. No matter what, his attitude had to be correct.

“Will you hurry up!?” the cold young master said with a harsher tone.

Zhu Minglang proceeded as if he hadn’t heard him. He observed the little creatures here carefully. Some of them were still in the form of eggs, while some had just hatched, and some even had grown feathers and teeth, possessing a hint of destructive power at the handcrafted nest…