Chapter 111: Instant Kill (1/2)
Not far from the teleportation stone was an old man with a white beard and eyebrows. He appeared benevolent, and without a single drop of star energy leaking from his body, he seemed just like a commoner. Michelle landed in front of him and saluted, “Ten Arbiters’ Council Representative Michelle pays her respects to the Trialmaster.”
Lu Yin and the rest immediately followed suit, with only the black-haired Darkvoid and Hui Daynight refusing to even look at him. The man opened his eyes, lips creaking open as though he had not spoken in a long time. He had to cough twice before his eyes seemed to regain focus, sweeping across them all to focus on Michelle, “My apologies, Student; my ears aren’t what they used to be. Could you repeat yourself?”
Michelle repeated, “Ten Arbiters’ Council Representative Michelle pays her respects to the Trialmaster.”
“Ten what Council?” he seemed lost.
“Ten Arbiters’ Council.”
“Ten Arbiters’ what?”
Michelle frowned, and it took multiple repeats for the man to finally understand, “Ten Arbiters’ Council?”
She relaxed and nodded, saying seriously, “I’m here on behalf of the Ten Arbiters’ Council to inspect Astral-10. Mentor, may I ask why the students of Astral-10 have to win a hundred ported battles to enter the trial zones?”
“What? Could I trouble you to repeat?” the old man leaned forward slightly and tried his best to speak. A stumped Michelle walked a few steps closer and repeated loudly, but he seemed to grow distracted and pointed at the teleportation stone, “That is the teleportation stone, Student. Do you want to join a ported battle?”
Michelle was left speechless. Lulu laughed and Lu Yin chuckled, prompting a fierce glare from her before she looked at the old man helplessly. Was this fogey really hard of hearing? It did seem like it. She ended up walking towards the teleportation stone, coming across Zhao Yilong who was waiting nearby, “Who’s in there?”
“The one from the Daynight Clan,” Zhao Yilong replied coldly.
She looked at the mist below the teleportation stone and waited silently. Meanwhile, Lu Yin and the others arrived as well, all wanting to try the ported battle. Only one person could use a teleportation stone at a time, and Astral-10 only had one such stone. Fortunately, Hui Daynight left quite quickly, an ugly expression on his face.
“How’s it? Should have failed,” Lulu rejoiced at his misfortune, only drawing a snort.
“Hui Baiye, zero victories to one defeat,” a voice rang out all of a sudden, making everyone jump. They all turned to look at the old man, while Hui looked annoyed at the report. Michelle’s expression wasn’t all that great either. Who would believe that old coot couldn’t hear if he was calling out names so clearly?
“Zhao Yilong, zero victories to one defeat,” the elder shouted.
Michelle grunted and stepped in. She spent a little more time there than the two boys, but it wasn’t that much longer.
“Michelle, one victory to one defeat.”
Hui Daynight tried to walk in again the moment Michelle walked out, drawing an annoyed shout from Zora who was next in line, “Hey, Daynight kid, get in line.”
“You’d just be wasting resources.” He couldn’t be bothered to turn towards her as he stepped towards the stone, but before an angry Zora could attack him, he was pressed into the ground by an invisible attack. Everyone turned to look at the old man, who said indifferently, “No cutting the line, Student.”
Hui was furious, but he had been suppressed by an invisible and immaterial attack that he simply could not resist. Michelle was stunned as well. This old fellow was far deeper than they could measure, so he had to be an Explorer at least. How could someone like that be deaf? He was clearly acting stupid! She decided to report back to the Ten Arbiters’ Council once she left, asking them to crack down on Astral-10 and allow other academies to replace it.