Desolate beasts with great strength but simple minds are not scary; what's truly terrifying are those with high intelligence!
At present, they didn't know what kind of impression this green caterpillar, which had been squashed to death by Long Guocheng, had left regarding them.
Li Zimu's stone house had many rooms piled up, each person separated by a room, with no beds, no quilts. Though simple, such lack of luxury wasn't much of an issue in the foreign desolate wilderness.
When Xiang Beifei finished his shift and returned, Long Guocheng was leaning against the door with his arms crossed in front of him and asked, "Can I ask you a question?"
"What?" Xiang Beifei said.
"You're not an N-level Awakener, are you? You're at least SR, right?"
"Is that important to you?"
"It would make me feel better," Long Guocheng said reluctantly.
If he lost to SR-level Li Zimu, he wouldn't feel too ashamed. After all, the other's talent was not weaker than his. Both were SR, and if he lost, he could just win back the next time.
But losing to an N-level Awakener left him with a knot in his heart.
"That's your own problem, not mine," Xiang Beifei did not like to explain his system to others.
Because he simply did not have a system.
"We're a team! I've told you about my abilities! But we all don't know about yours! Since we're a team, we should at least understand each other," Long Guocheng emphasized.
"Now you admit you're part of a team? I thought you always liked to steal the spotlight," Xiang Beifei said.
Long Guocheng huffed and did not refute this point.
He did indeed like to stand out, as without it, he had no way to accumulate system points.
"If you tell me you are SR or SSR, I can accept my defeat," Long Guocheng said.
"Do you look down on people whose system rank is lower than yours that much? What's wrong with N-level? Or R-level? Or S-level? Apart from cultivation progress, are they inferior to you in character, morality, conduct... in any way that you should despise them? Is it that pleasurable for you to find a sense of superiority over someone with a lower system?" Xiang Beifei said sternly.
"I..." Long Guocheng was rendered speechless.
He looked down on those with less talent than himself because in his opinion, those people just wouldn't amount to anything, especially the lowest-tier N-level Awakeners.
He would only respect the strong.
Yet, his pride was always crushed to pieces in front of Xiang Beifei.
Deep down, he hoped Xiang Beifei ranked at least SR, or even SSR. That way, if defeated by Xiang Beifei, he wouldn't feel too frustrated, and could maintain the principle of pride he always held on to.
But the one thing he couldn't accept was the fact that Xiang Beifei might be N-level!
"I just don't believe an N-level Awakener has that much potential. Their systems are so useless; they'll only ever achieve so much in their lives. There's no way they could be that powerful," Long Guocheng said through gritted teeth.
"Why can't an N-level Awakener defeat an SR? Shang Tianxiong is also an N-level Awakener. How many people can surpass him? Those with strength can even kill SSRs as an SR! We all live in this world, we're all human, and you're not nobler than anyone else. Just because your starting point is higher than others, does not mean you will always be above them in the future. Be more humble in your conduct," Xiang Beifei lectured.
After finishing these words, Xiang Beifei went straight back to his own compartment.
Long Guocheng's face showed alternating expressions of contemplation and uncertainty as he pondered Xiang Beifei's words.
Around nine o'clock in the evening, Ye Changfeng gathered everyone together and received a schedule and rules for the next day's competition.
Elder Luo said, "We need to discuss tomorrow's situation first; everyone should increase their vigilance."
The rules were already clear to everyone: the freshman competition consisted of individual matches and group pioneering.
In the individual matches, nine universities would compete in a round-robin, with each institution facing off against each other only once, meaning each university would fight eight matches, with a total of thirty-six matches to be completed over two days.
The decision of whether to field students in either the Meridian Opening or Qi-Controlling stage would be made by rolling dice.
"Tomorrow's schedule, the first match, Jizhou University versus Yanzhou University. Our match is not first, which is good. Everyone can observe the strength of other schools first. But the second match will be Qingzhou University against Liangzhou University," Ye Changfeng said.
Ye Changfeng distributed a flyer to everyone; all of them looked at the schedule with solemn expressions.
"Yuchi Shen, explain the current strength situation of each university this year," Elder Luo instructed.
Yuchi Shen glanced expressionlessly at Xiang Beifei, then began to introduce.
"But there are rules, a person can only participate in two matches at most. So, we need to analyze the situation together with the other teachers, and then decide on how to allocate the order of appearance and opponents among you five," Elder Luo continued.
This was like betting on a horse race, but not quite the same. Because in Tianji's Horse Racing, each side would compete in three races, allowing room for maneuvering, while each university would have only one chance in a face-off, mostly leaving things to chance. Therefore, it was generally hoped that other schools would take on the stronger students of another university and use up their two quotas, so that when facing one's own, the opposing side would have to field weaker students.
Take Qingzhou University and Liangzhou University, for instance, with Qingzhou having two SSR-level students this year, if each participates in two matches, it means those two SSR-level students can at most compete in four matches.
Hence, Ye Changfeng hoped that Qingzhou University would use the four chances of their two SSR-level students to fight the other seven universities. So, by the time they faced his own school, quotas would be exhausted, resulting in only SR-level students being available, increasing their chances of winning.