“Uncle Yuan, if they don’t have Legion Cards for this last practical class, they might as well fail directly, right?” Bai Ziliang couldn’t help but ask, sighing lightly and scratching his head.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Xie Wenyuan replied as he packed up his teaching materials. “The next subject will either be ‘Search’ or the use of mass tactics. If they don’t have either, then…”

He paused for a moment and shook his head gently.

“Uncle Yuan… this seems a bit unfair,” Bai Ziliang couldn’t help but speak up for his alma mater. “Second High School and Taoli suffered losses in the previous round due to their own reasons.”

“How can a training team be divided based on numbers? This is like giving either Second High School or Taoli a chance to turn the tables, and then pushing First High School into the mud,” he continued.

“Haha, not bad, you’re using your brain,” Xie Wenyuan chuckled. “But, my child, I’ve already thought about all of this.”

“I can only say that the butt determines the head. As a graduate of First High School, I understand your grievances for your alma mater. But I also have my reasons for grouping them like this.”

“What reasons?” Bai Ziliang couldn’t help but ask.

“Since the end of the first round of practical classes, we have already had a preliminary understanding of the strength of each school: First High School and Third High School are undoubtedly stronger than Second High School and Taoli.”

“But we can’t clearly determine the internal strength of these two tiers, so we can only organize them to fight in a simple and crude manner.”

“Now that the results are out, Third High School is the strongest, followed by First High School, then Second High School, and Taoli is last. In the next academic year, the association will also allocate resources to the major high schools in this order.”

“Secondly, in the past few days, the experts who came from the province to help have already chosen the students they value. They will take in apprentices and invest privately. They have also had discussions in private.”

“It can be said that this training has reached its end. Whether First High School passes or fails the last practical subject doesn’t matter at all.”

“Then why set up this subject?” Bai Ziliang asked, somewhat puzzled.

“It’s a reward for the winner,” Xie Wenyuan glanced at him, unscrewed his thermos, and took a sip of water. “The winner of the Battle Royale is just a side character, the protagonist of this last practical class is Third High School. More precisely, it’s Chronicle.”

“For such a long time, we have been intentionally or unintentionally increasing the difficulty of his tasks, but he has always been able to complete them easily.”

“This means that until now, we don’t know his upper limit of strength.”

“Everyone also wants to take this opportunity to test his abilities.”

“If his strength is really so strong that even we old folks find it unbelievable, then we will join forces to train him and aim for the top scorer!”

“The top scorer in the city?” Bai Ziliang asked subconsciously.

Upon hearing this, Xie Wenyuan, who was drinking water, almost choked to death. “Are you joking with me? Even you can become the top scorer in the city, can Chronicle still consider this as a goal? You’re too critical, cough…”

“Look at what you’re saying. The top scorer in the province is also the top scorer in their city. I’m not wrong…” Bai Ziliang muttered quietly on the side.

But Xie Wenyuan couldn’t help but chuckle. “The top scorer in the province? That’s thinking too small, my child. If the test results of this last practical class are particularly good, we are planning to let him compete for…”

“The top scorer in the Nine Provinces.” When he mentioned these four words, Xie Wenyuan couldn’t help but think of a certain scene. A glimmer of light flashed in his eyes, and he unconsciously clenched his fist. “That’s the number one in the Nine Provinces… the number one in the Nine Provinces!”

“Uncle Yuan, you’re thinking too big…” Bai Ziliang began to say, but when he saw Xie Wenyuan, who was wiping away tears and covering his face, he closed his mouth decisively and gently patted this usually calm elder, comforting him in a soft voice.

Indeed, he was a bit confused.

…

Time flew by quickly.

After dinner, Chronicle returned to the open space.

At this time, Xie Wenyuan and Bai Ziliang had already left, and the students from the other schools had not yet arrived.

Only Su Wen, who was unusually diligent this time, was waiting here early, organizing his teaching materials alone.

“Little Nian, you came so early,” he said with a smile.

“I didn’t have anything else to do, so I came early,” Chronicle nodded and then reached out to help Su Wen organize his things. “Teacher, let me help you.”

“Okay, good,” Su Wen smiled and nodded. No teacher disliked talented students with good insight, and he was no exception.

Unfortunately, Chronicle, a genius that only appeared once in many years, was destined not to become his disciple.

But being able to participate in this project to cultivate geniuses was enough for him to boast and reminisce for the rest of his life.

Imagining himself getting old and entering a nursing home, telling the old men and women around him that his student was Chronicle, and seeing the old men jealous and the old women competing to be his square dance partner, a slightly “lewd” smile appeared on Su Wen’s face.

“Um, Teacher…””Huh? What’s wrong?” Su Wen subconsciously wiped non-existent drool from his mouth, speaking as if he had just woken from a dream.

“I have a question I’d like to ask you.” Chronicle sighed silently at Su Wen’s unreliable demeanor, but still asked seriously, “It’s about the selection of materials for the Legion Card.”

“Legion, Legion, should there be one or several leaders?”

“For example, if I want to create a Skeleton Legion, besides the skeleton soldiers, do I also need to prepare materials for a Skeleton General or a Skeleton King?”

“Well…” Su Wen organized his thoughts a bit, “It depends on personal preference.”

“Anyway, both your teacher Fan Lei and I use our main battle summoning card spirits as the commanders of our legions.”

“My old general, the one I mentioned to you last time, he likes to ‘appoint generals and kings’ within the legion.”

“Because of this, he scolded Fan Lei and me, saying that our card-making habits are bad, careless, and that we will be manipulated and humiliated sooner or later…”

Halfway through his speech, Su Wen suddenly realized: his old general was the principal of the student in front of him.

“So, Chronicle asked me this question… It wouldn’t be because Uncle Dong gave him the materials to create the ‘Skeleton King’, would it?”

Su Wen was not stupid, he quickly guessed the gist of the matter. The thought that the terrifying old man might be watching him in secret at this moment made him break out in a cold sweat.

“Huh.” After swallowing his saliva and taking a deep breath, he tried to adjust his mood and forced a smile, “Chronicle, I remember now, your method is better.”

“Card making, you can’t be afraid of trouble. A seemingly useless move now might have unexpected effects one day, don’t you think?”

Hearing this somewhat chicken-soup-like speech, both Chronicle and Uncle Dong, who was hidden in the dark, nodded simultaneously.

Su Wen was right, his seemingly useless remedial action at this moment indeed saved his “dog’s life”.

(End of Chapter)