Please give the novel a rating or a review on NovelUpdates
———-

Chapter 67: Return to the Academy

The spectators gaped in shock, staring at the severed arm spinning through the air.

Valay was terrified out of his wits and ignored the pain in his wound, begging for mercy again and again!

Ashura answered only with a dazzling flash of the blade, and Valay’s body was cleaved in two, blood and viscera splattering across the ground.

Ashura took a few shallow breaths; killing an enemy no longer caused him any discomfort.

He then yanked the gauntlets from Valay’s two severed arms and removed the man’s storage belt.

By Pagoda Palace rules, the victor claims everything the loser owned, and Ashura had long had his eye on those gauntlets, whose runes were clearly extraordinary.

Only then did the stands erupt into frenzied chatter… screams, curses, and shouts seemed ready to blow the roof off.

Yet everyone present knew that the Ghostbane walking off with the Twin Swords was an overbearing powerhouse…

After defeating Valay, Ashura declined any further matches; despite appearances he was far from relaxed… the web of his hand still oozed blood and his inner vitality was heavily drained.

Fearing that the slightest hint of weakness would invite new challengers, he cashed out his credits and, ignoring the scantily clad woman’s teasing, left Pagoda Palace at a brisk pace.

Months of life-and-death tempering had made strength, speed, and reflexes his forte, so peers at the same level could hardly beat him.

Yet he still had not fully integrated Martial Techniques with Magic, and he did not wish to reveal his dual mage-warrior gift, for sharp-eyed people might trace the mask back to his true identity.

After winding through several alleys to the shop’s backyard, he saw a delicate figure leaning on the doorframe, still staring toward the gate.

When she saw him vault into the yard, Daifei, tears at the corners of her eyes, threw herself into Ashura’s arms.

Ashura sighed softly, and the two embraced in silence for a long time; the girl in his arms understood how hard things had been for him.

At dawn the next day he eased out of meditation, glanced at the girl on the bed whose lashes still held tear marks, tucked the quilt around her, and slipped quietly into the courtyard.

Lowering his head, he reviewed the gains and losses of last night’s fight, considering where he could have done better and improved; he was still slightly dissatisfied with the moment he opened the second seal and felt he should have held out a little longer.

He then loosened up by running through a set of Thunderclap Fist techniques in the yard.

More than half a month had passed since he left the academy, and Ashura felt that his last talk with Instructor Yuan Da had been rushed, leaving many cultivation questions unresolved.

Moreover, the damaged soft armor in his storage belt still needed to be returned to Magina, a matter that troubled him.

He checked the storage belt he had stripped from Valay, but aside from a few gold coins and pills it contained nothing of real value.

Most Martial Masters who competed before were desperadoes and rarely carried storage gear or valuables.

Most of them lived for the moment, and anyone with the means to survive elsewhere would never gamble their life in Pagoda Palace.

First, Valay was a Grand Martial Master, and second, he assumed Ashura was a lower-rank Martial Master challenging upward, so he had brought all his possessions with him, which ended up lining Ashura’s pockets.

Ashura was especially fond of the gauntlets: as thin as cicada wings, they clung to the skin, and their runes enhanced durability, boosting both offense and defense by 10%.

Even more amazing, when not in offense or defense mode the gauntlets were invisible, and not even the wearer could feel them on his hands.

A flat 10% boost to both attack and defense was frightening, and Ashura felt that had he owned them last night he could have slain Valay without opening the second seal.

What he did not know was that the gauntlets were a Valay family heirloom, and that Valay’s clan had once been prominent in the Pagadon Empire.

The clan had declined as its talents dried up, yet these gauntlets remained one of its treasured artifacts.

The gauntlets accompanied the down-and-out Valay to Puro City of the Valencian Empire, and Valay, on the verge of advancing to 2nd-stage Grand Martial Master, never expected to fall to Ashura.

Ashura felt that with these gauntlets he could face future battles at Pagoda Palace with greater confidence.

He was even studying the ancient runes on them, hoping to replicate the pattern on other gear.

After finishing the loving breakfast Daifei had prepared, Ashura took out the medical manuals he had written for her and explained each key point one by one.

The manuals were the life’s work of Qin Zongren, a renowned physician from Olei Kingdom on the eastern border of the Western Valay Empire.

His medicine differed vastly from that in Pulai City to the west of the empire, and his acupuncture, in particular, was something Daifei had never heard of.

Daifei’s natural talent for medicine astonished Ashura; she grasped many essentials the moment he explained them, learning even faster than he, who had always prided himself on his intelligence.

He even considered introducing Daifei to his grandfather Qin Zongren and asking the old man to take her as a disciple, convinced that his grandfather would be delighted to have such a gifted student.

Then he realized that if she truly became his grandfather’s disciple, her seniority would rise a generation above his own.

How could he still shamelessly share a bed with her after that, so he quickly pushed the idea aside.

Their medical lessons ran from dawn till deep into the night, moving from the desk to the bed, and after a hands-on demonstration of bone-palpation and point location, Ashura said he would visit Saint Gobban Academy and depart the next day.

Blushing, Daifei hid under the quilt and simply urged him to put his studies first and not rush back just to see her.

Ashura’s own face flushed… how could Daifei know that he had fled to Puro City because a certain girl had stolen a kiss, turning him into every male student’s enemy?

At dawn the next day Ashura bid Daifei farewell, rode toward Saint Gobban City, and after three days on the road returned to the familiar Saint Gobban Academy.

It was still early morning, more than an hour before class, and Ashura slipped furtively into the academy, changed into the Magic School robe, pulled the hood low, and headed first to the crowded cafeteria.

He perked up his ears and listened to the students’ chatter, learning one piece of good news and one of bad.

The good news was that fewer people were talking about Lan Yu’s forceful kiss; the bad news was that more students had recently broken through to 1st-stage Grand Martial Master, giving him a renewed sense of crisis.

Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he caught a sultry silhouette… Magina left the cafeteria after breakfast, and countless fiery gazes tracked the sway of her departing figure.

Ashura hesitated, then gritted his teeth and followed her out, pulling his hood lower as he trailed the beauty to a lakeside clearing in the small grove by the water…

———-
Support the Translation! 🌐✨

Your donations not only show appreciation but also keep the translator motivated! Every contribution helps continue bringing you more of what you love. Thank you for being a part of this journey! 💖

https://www.ko-fi.com/maxoofie