Nine Star Burden

In the designated hotel in Chang’an City that the organizers arranged for the students to stay in.

Buzz…

Buzz…

“Brother Li… is your relationship more important than sleeping?” Jiang Xiao asked, clad in a small pair of pants and hugging the white duvet.

Ever since he checked into the hotel and took a merry bath, he jumped into bed and never got up again.

One day and one night passed. Sleeping soundly, he actually got woken up by the sounds of his mobile phone vibrating, perhaps because he was recovering well. Hence, it led to that scene.

Li Weiyi had just woken up not too long ago. Holding onto his mobile phone, he said, excited, “It’s not Qingmei. Uh, of course, your Sis Qingmei is texting me too.”

Buzz…

Buzz…

The series of noises frustrated Jiang Xiao even more. He finally opened his eyes and looked at Li Weiyi seated on the other bed. “Why are you speaking strangely?”

Li Weiyi turned his head to look at Jiang Xiao and said, “You might receive more texts than I have once you turn on your mobile phone.”

Jiang Xiao was slightly taken aback, and then his eyes glistened as an unrealistic fantasy popped up in his mind.

His Adam’s Apple moved, and he foolishly said, “Did… did we get into the semi-finals? Have the results been released?”

Li Weiyi switched his mobile phone from vibration mode to silent mode. He rubbed his curly hair, closed his eyes while lying on the bed, and seemed intent on sleeping.

Jiang Xiao was dumbfounded.

Brother Li, when you sleep, you look as handsome as a prince. But you look so cheap when you keep me in suspense~ 

Jiang Xiao jumped out of bed in his pants and searched for a long time, before finally finding his mobile phone.

He switched it on and waited…

After half a minute, he received plenty of messages.

Jiang Xiao held onto his mobile phone and walked towards Li Weiyi, increased the volume, and placed it on his pillow.

Li Weiyi remained silent.

Hah! 

I knew it! 

What wakes the prince up is not the princess’ kiss, but the scam text messages from all over the world!

If necessary, the bank loan repayment notifications and text message reminders for the payment of water and electricity bills would also have the same effect.

Among the huge amount of text messages overlapping with the massive number of WeChat notifications, Jiang Xiao saw the WeChat message from Zhu Wu: “Jiang Xiaopi, I love you.”

Uh… are my eyes playing tricks on me? 

Sensing Li Weiyi’s resentful gaze, Jiang Xiao picked up his mobile phone and activated the silent mode. He didn’t want to look at the influx of messages at all and simply tossed them aside.

He thought about it for a while before looking up at the clock on the wall, only to realize that it was 9 o’clock. He reckoned that it was 9 am.

Jiang Xiao pulled the curtains apart and looked out to see that it was daytime. It was really 9 am.

Did I sleep for almost a day?

Tsk, tsk… 

Jiang Xiao closed the curtains again, turned on the TV, reduced the volume, and climbed back onto the bed. He then repeatedly switched channels.

The videos of the White Mountains Dimensional Space in the West continuously appeared?

Wars in the northwest were frequent, so large batches of teams proceeded to provide support?

The snow had melted, and the troops had returned. The Victors Legion! Victors Legion!

“The preliminary round of the National High School League ended perfectly yesterday…” Wrapped in the duvet, Jiang Xiao paused in his actions. The male host was reporting on the news channel, and right beside him was the map of the Ancient Imperial Mausoleum, on which a squad of Ancient Warriors was illustrated.

Upon sight of the curvy zombies, Jiang Xiao also recalled the Star Beads of the Ancient Archer General that he had exchanged for with the team from Cainan Province yesterday.

Before the end of the competition yesterday, Jiang Xiao asked for help from Xiong Chumo, hoping to exchange the Ancient Warrior General Star Bead for their Ancient Archer General Star Bead. She kindly agreed to his request.

After exchanging the Star Beads and obtaining the Ancient Archer General Star Bead, Jiang Xiao had a total of 11 Ancient Archer General Star Beads. If he really wanted to pick up archery, he would be able to give it a try.

No, something seems lacking. 

First, I’ll absorb one Star Bead and embellish the Star Technique in the Star Map.

The Ancient Archer General’s Star Beads were of Gold Quality, but the Star Techniques contained in it were of Silver Quality. Hence, Jiang Xiao just needed one more Star Bead to upgrade all four Star Techniques to Gold Quality.

Next… the remaining nine Star Beads would be able to upgrade the four Archery Star Techniques to Gold Quality Level 9, which was one step away from Platinum Quality.

But then again, the premise of all that must be that Jiang Xiao absorbed all eleven Ancient Archer General Star Beads.

Li Weiyi didn’t have to sit for the national college entrance examination at all. Yet, he still accompanied them to the Ancient Imperial Mausoleum while risking his life. How could he not get a share of the rewards?

The Ancient Archer General Star Bead could be considered to contain four attributes: ice, fire, poison, and spirit. They sounded good and attractive.

If your star slots are not enough, make up for it with your Basic Techniques. 

Jiang Xiao thought that he could easily activate “Archery Mastery” because, for someone like him who had an internal Star Map, talent was not particularly important when it came to learning human techniques.

Of course, it would be best to be talented since that would mean that he could train on his own to upgrade his techniques.

If he truly lacked talent, he could just use his Skill Points!

The Gold Quality “Archery Mastery” was enough to let Jiang Xiao have impeccable archery skills.

However, since he wanted to be an attacker, could the arrows with those four attributes change their fate?

Jiang Xiao was a little conflicted. He couldn’t bear to give up his star slots.

Ah, whatever. It’s already been exchanged, anyway. I’ll keep it for later.

There were only three Ancient Imperial Mausoleum Dimensional Spaces in the world, and all of them were in Chang’an City. They were usually not open to the public, and the fact that they could go there meant that they had gained an advantage.

Jiang Xiao wasn’t too interested in the Soul Of The Ancient Warrior Star Bead.

After all, it had high requirements for the surrounding environment and great restrictions.

The bones could only grow on Ancient Warriors, while the Star Techniques Bone Shield, Bone Wall, and Bone Prison could only be used when covered in debris.

“Hundreds of participating teams exhibited their amazing talents and abilities, giving us a huge feast for the eyes! Let’s look at their points,” the male host said, snapping Jiang Xiao back to reality. His eyes widened, and he stared at the scene on the television.

Jiang Xiao’s face stiffened, and he thought, Top three!?!

A total of eight teams entered the semi-finals. Why did you broadcast so many photos instead of a collage? 

Li Weiyi suddenly said, “You can increase the volume.”

Jiang Xiao turned his head and asked, “Don’t you already know the results?”

Li Weiyi said, “I’ll watch it with you again.”

Jiang Xiao was speechless.

Li Weiyi praised. “The team from Southern Guangdong Great Bay High School is in the first place. They do live up to their reputation.”

2320 points?

Jiang Xiao looked at the data below the team’s points and thought, They actually found five special weapons?

Those five weapons were worth a total of 1000 points! In other words, the number of Ancient Warriors they killed was probably fewer than Jiang Xiao’s team did. They reckoned that it must have been because of their style.

Second place: Beijing High School No. 32.

It was the team led by the best Rules Awakened, Ying Xi. They obtained a total of 2280 points and four special weapons.

Damn it. There are 18 floors and a total of 18 special weapons. Yet, the first two teams have occupied half of them… 

Jiang Xiao also realized a very serious problem. Regardless, the fact that they had obtained five weapons meant that they had gone down to the fifth underground floor and passed the “hurdle” on that floor.

So, how did they go down there unscathed?

Could it be that we cleared the path for them? 

We blew things up, so the ones pulling dirty tricks no longer dared to take action. Or have they been dealt with, so the teams could go down without any obstacles? 

Then you must give us our shares of the points you scored from the weapons. 

…

The High School affiliated to Haisu Normal University came in third place.

It was the team led by the star student Wen Renmu. They obtained a total of 2150 points and one special weapon.

Jiang Xiao was dumbfounded when he saw the composition of the points. He really had to take his hat’s off to them.

Since they only obtained one special weapon, it meant that the remaining 1950 points were obtained from killing!

Are these guys from Haisu Province all so angst? How explosive is their output!?! 

Jiang Xiao was slightly stunned. He finally remembered that Wen Renmu was the bespectacled boy with the buzzcut whom they ran into on the third underground floor. He picked up the steel gun and placed it into his storage space composedly. So… was that their only special weapon?

Jiang Xiao turned his head and exchanged glances with Li Weiyi. No one wanted to encounter the team in third place this year, right?

Anyway, Jiang Xiao would rather fight against the scheming Yuan Qinghua than fight the group of kings of lightning Star Techniques.

As the scenes of the TV screen changed, Jiang Xiao saw the name of a familiar team.

Fourth place: Tianjin Southern High School!

They obtained a total of 2080 points and two special weapons, but in the point composition chart, 400 points were grayed out. They weren’t classified as Ancient Archer Generals, Ancient Warrior General, Soul Of the Ancient Warrior, or Ancient Warrior Star Beads.

What did that mean?

Gray? Why wasn’t the source indicated?

Fifth place: Beijing Dunguang High School.

Total points: 2070.

Special weapons: None.

Jiang Xiao saw a grayed out score of 760 points.

He suddenly realized that fighting was not prohibited in the competition, and they could snatch Star Beads away from others!

Sixth place: East Zhejiang Tushan High School.

Total points: 1980.

Special weapons: None.

Grayed out points…

Jiang Xiao no longer looked at the points that had been grayed out because they were ranked in sixth place, and, according to the rules of the semi-finals, they would be facing a group of kings of Lightning Star Techniques led by Wen Renmu…

Wait! 

From East Zhejiang Province?

Wow! 

Jiang Xiao suddenly realized that he was likely to see the two groups of Lightning Star Technique experts fighting each other!

Oh my god, this is so thrilling! 

The scene on the news changed again, and the teams in the seventh and eighth places were announced.

“Damn it!?!” Jiang Xiao sprung up from the bed. He was no longer looking at the team in the seventh-place!

Because he saw that Jiangbin High School had come in eighth place!

Beijiang Province! Jiangbin High School!

Total points: 1830.

Special weapons: 1.

Eighth place!?!

We got into the semi-finals!?! 

Oh my god! 

A province that was mocked to only participate in competitions for the sake of traveling using public funds!

For a full 35 years!

Today, they’d finally earned a place in the semi-finals, thanks to the four children!

We’re not participating for the sake of getting to travel using public funds! We’re purely doing it for the sake of eating some mutton buns… ahem. 

Jiang Xiao knew why he was bombarded with text messages. He turned around to look at the bedside table, only to see that the screen of his phone was continuously lighting up even though it was in silent mode. It seemed that many people were calling him and sending him text messages.

From now on, I can also be called a “pioneer”!

You refused to let me go down to the fifth floor and pick up weapons? 

You disrupted our rhythm and messed up our minds? 

You tried to force me to ask for aid!?! You wanted to drive me out using dirty tricks!?! 

Damn it. Even if I only stayed on the first three floors, I still made it to the top eight!