Zither Emperor

Chapter 13 – Behemoth (IV)

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Sura snorted. “I don’t care. Anyways, I lost all the money, so this is the last meal. We don’t even have enough money for the next meal! Since you made me lose all that money, you should compensate me for the loss.”

Looking at the tears still on Sura’s face, Ye Yin Zhu really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He sighed lightly as the space ring on his hand faintly glimmered. The last remaining gold coins appeared in his hand. “I’ll give all of this to you. This is all I have.”

Sura stared blankly. He didn’t expect Ye Yin Zhu would not only not blame him for losing all the money, but he would also go so far as to hand over the rest of his funds. There wasn’t even one rebuke.

Taking the gold coin, he slowly nodded his head. Sura’s expression appeared to have slightly changed, his eyes unconsciously becoming soft.

“Hurry, eat. Next time, don’t gamble. These few gold coins should be enough for us to eat for several days.” Ye Yin Zhu spontaneously shoved a steamed roll into Sura’s hands, guiding Sura into sitting down opposite him.

Looking at the steamed roll placed in his hand, Sura stayed still for quite a while.

“Yin Zhu.”

“Hmm?”

“You are a good man.” Sura softly sighed.

Ye Yin Zhu smiled faintly and said, “I think so, too.”

Sura forced a grin and continued, “But how will we manage in the days to come? Everything in Milan are expensive. This money will at most feed us for one more month. I lost dozens of gold coins! That’s several dozen gold coins!”

Ye Yin Zhu said helplessly, “Then I also don’t know what to do. I must become the Freshman Competition champion. That way, I’ll have money.”

Sura snorted and said, “You think it’s that easy? You’ve already seen how strong the Dark Magic division is. But out of the nine magic divisions—oh, counting your Divine Music division, it’s ten divisions now. Out of the ten magic divisions, the Dark Magic division can at best only place third or fourth. The Wind division, the Spatial division, and the Light division are in no way inferior to them. And without a doubt, even stronger than them are the Spiritual division and the Summon division. Miracles don’t always happen. Even if your Divine Music division has some strength, it might not be possible to keep winning in the later competitions.”

Ye Yin Zhu said, “I have faith in myself.”

Sura sent him a blank glance. “But I have no faith in you.”

Ye Yin Zhu bitterly laughed and said, “What can I do? Gold isn’t going to fall from the sky.”

Sura’s eyes suddenly brightened. He said, “Yin Zhu, how about we go out and get jobs? Milan Institution for Magic and Martial Arts emphasizes more on having the students self-study. This means there are only three days of class every week. We can make use of the free time to work. If we each find a common job, we should have enough to pay for our college expenses from now on. Don’t forget, we still need to pay the tuition next term. A year’s tuition can be a hundred gold coins! That’s not a small amount.”

Hearing Sura bring up the tuition, Ye Yin Zhu couldn’t help recalling Hai Yang and his debt to her. He nodded and replied, “Yes. So what are we going to do?”

Sura shook his head and said, “I also don’t know. How about this—if you still want to proceed with the competition, in any case, I have no problems with that. For the next few days I will start searching. If there is a suitable job, you can come along with me.”

Ye Yin zhu nodded and agreed. “Alright.”

Sura mischievously laughed and said, “But our future wages can simply be under my control. It’ll save you from spending recklessly. You’re a person who is too wasteful.”

Ye Yin Zhu remained silent and stared at him. He thought, ‘Like you didn’t lose all of the savings earlier.’ Even though he thought of this, the words didn’t emerge from his mouth. Instead, he agreed to Sura’s request. For him, money was not an important thing. Food to eat and a place to live were sufficient.

When the match began the next day, Milan Institution for Magic and Martial Arts was gifted with a beautiful scene. Eighty fifth-year students of the Divine Music division formed a super-cheering squad, having already appeared earlier at the side of the playing field.

While the Divine Music division weren’t the favorites to win the competition, they were certainly ranked first in popularity. This was the strength of the Milan Institution for Magic and Martial Arts’ best division. The number of spectators on the other playing fields, in comparison to the Divine Music division’s playing field, could only be described as few. Both students and teachers came to the Divine Music division match’s field to watch the battle. Even if they didn’t think highly of the Divine Music division, they didn’t really care about the outcome of the match. It was always good to see beautiful woman.

Ah, eighty beautiful ladies of the Divine Music division! Even if not every one of them was a remarkable beauty, the title of ‘beautiful lady’ could be held by at least half of them. Among them, several were even described as peerless beauties. In addition, many of them were definitely of noble background. Who wouldn’t want to be able to gain the attention of these beautiful ladies? Coming early to watch the Divine Music division match, they could all first satisfy their eyes. After all, this was the first time the students of the Divine Music division had collectively mobilized together.

Ever since the first day of the competition, every period before the Divine Music division matches began, a girl with bright eyes and white teeth watched from the best seat in the front row. She was dressed in a short white skirt and blue cardigan. A voice, melodious and touching, brimmed with an alluring power that shouted loudly, “Divine Music division must win!”

It was unsure whether it was due to the Divine Music division’s newfound strength or due to the cheering squad’s moral support that the Divine Music division won three consecutive matches in the following two days of the tournament. They prevailed over the Earth division, the Fire division, and the Light division. Among these, they only ran across some trouble in the Light division match. Still, the Light division general didn’t at all resemble the Dark Magic division’s general Yue Ming, as they did not possess a growth-type magical beast. Even if the general was an Advanced Level Yellow Rank, they still couldn’t get rid of Ye Yin Zhu’s sound blades and his Divine Celestial Protection defense. Because of that, they fell under the Divine Music division’s ensemble music.

For a moment, because the Divine Music division unexpectedly had a 5 games 5 victory performance, they were tied with the Spiritual division and the Summon division for the first place magic department’s Freshman Competition. Their next opponent, the Wind division, was led by the talented female mage Luo Lan who had initially issued the challenge towards Ye Yin Zhu during the freshman registration.

Seated in the spectator’s grandstand, Dean Nina appeared somewhat thin and pallid, her brows tightly knitted. Even if the Divine Music division already won three matches in the past two days, she still hadn’t expressed a smile.

‘Why doesn’t it work? Obviously my magical power is much stronger than that boy Ye Yin Zhu’s…Why can’t my xiao music control an opponent’s magical beast? Don’t tell me he was just merely lucky that day?’

“Dean Nina, what are you thinking about? The match is about to begin.” A mild voice resounded, pulling Nina away from her train of thought. Raising her head to look up, she saw that President Ferguson had appeared by her side without her knowing when. No one knew if it was because the Divine Music division’s sudden appearance as the next dark horse, but Ferguson would unexpectedly came to every match. Each time, he calmly watched the entire match and then left quietly after it was over.

“Hello, President. I was only thinking about some issues related to musical composition,” Nina faintly responded.

Ferguson smiled and said, “The Divine Music division matches have indeed opened my eyes. It is a pity that it is awfully difficult to advance through the Divine Music mage ranks. Otherwise, if used in any battle, they would inflict serious damage upon their opponents.” Indeed, the Divine Music division’s greatest complication was not the duration of the music, but rather the difficulty of its cultivation. Only when practicing performance music would a Divine Music mage’s magical power and cultivation improve. This was significantly more difficult than the simple meditation of the average mage. Otherwise, it was unlikely for their teachers to be that low a rank like Bi Ji. Divine Music division’s five-year education system dictated that as long as a student’s strength advanced to the Orange Rank, the student could graduate. This standard was significantly lower than other magic divisions.