Chapter 30: Number One

"Yo, how's it going?" Qin Meng walked out of the thickets; his companions followed him with gloomy faces, that bastard had discovered them. "I should have known that you would sense my presence with 10th Motif Stage."

"You look confident." Although he was surprised when he saw Qin Meng, He Chen continued to maintain his confident look, then he narrowed his eyes and asked, "Aren't you afraid?"

"Oh, should I?" Qin Meng grinned at him. "Why is that?"

"You know what," He Chen said, clearly annoyed by his flagrant behaviour, "you should have escaped as soon as you discovered my strength. Now you can only become my stepping stone."

"Hmm, is that so?" Qin Meng chuckled, and then feigned a frightened look. "Are you that strong?"

He Chen frowned. He failed to see fear in Qin Meng's eyes. It was quite weird. Either he was dumb for not understanding in what kind of situation he was right now, or the matter was something else. When he thought about it, his heart skipped a beat. He looked deeply at Qin Meng and smiled. "I didn't know Brother Qin Meng was that strong."

Is he trying to probe my strength? Qin Meng curled his lips."Oh, you can't fathom my power—I'm unfathomable."

He Chen's lips twitched. However, he remained silent. He kicked a few of his companions lying on the ground unconscious, eyed Qin Meng for one last time and sauntered away.

"What did I just see?" Yan Yunjie widened his eyes.

"Insufferably arrogant He Chen, who defeated two 9th Motif Stage practitioners all by himself, was scared by our boss?" added Wu Hui.

"Have we entered some kind of illusion, have we?" asked Zeng Hong with a melodramatic gesture of his hand.

Qin Meg rolled his eyes at his teammates antics and gazed in the distance and a light flashed inside his pupils. "This competition has just begun. You will see many things that you never anticipated before."

Around five kilometres away, on a hilltop, was standing a group of ten people. The one at the very front had hawk-like eyes, glittering with silver light as he peered in the distance. He was tall and handsome, his long black hair dangled on his shoulders and behind him a shadow of an eagle hovered with seven colours of wings.

At this moment, however, his eyes widened—because Qin Meng abruptly stared at him. "How is that possible?" he frowned. "I could spy others from miles away due to my Martial Spirit, but he... Does he also have a same kind of Martial Spirit?" Then he shook his head. "I must have seen it wrong."

"What happened, boss?" Yan Yunjie asked Qin Meng when he saw him gazing into the distance.

Meng shook his head. "I felt like someone was observing us."

"Oh, someone's spying on us?" Yan Yunjie asked with glittering eyes and gawked on the horizon and gestured with his middle finger. Zeng Hong and Wu Hui looked at each other excitedly and gestured the same way as their buddy.

Qin Meng was speechless by their display of vulgar sign and shook his head. Anyway, if someone could spy on them from such a distance, he must be pretty strong. It still wasn't a time to show his full strength.

He shook his head and left the scene.

"Bastards!" cursed the boy on the hilltop, clearly spotting three fools showing him middle finger. His face turned green with rage. "I'm going to tear those three bastards apart!" his eyes were cold.

His subordinates behind him looked bewildered and confused. They eyed each other and shook their heads, deciding to remain silent. They knew what was good for them at the moment.

However, outside the competition, the audience had seen everything clearly and was in an uproar. Some of them laughed at the antic displayed by Yan Yunjie and his companions while others gave Qin Meng deep looks. He was indeed not a simple individual.

"I can already see him in the top five," Zhong Liqiu said as she eyed the Qin Meng in on the screen.

"Aren't you exaggerating, Your Highness?" Ye Fa said from the side. His twisted face revealed the displeasure he was hiding in his heart. "I admit he has exceeded our expectations, but top five?" He shook his head as if he had heard something funny.

Zhong Liqui ignored the dunce and turned toward Leng Yueyan who hadn't said anything for a long time. "What do you say, Yueyan?"

She eyed the princess, "He won't accept anything less than number one," and said in a voice that lacked all kind of emotions, as if she was stating a matter of fact.

Even Zhong Liqui was also taken aback. Then she smiled and said politely, "If that is the case, then this competition would become a lot more interesting than we anticipated. I'm looking forward to it."

"Humph, fat chance!" rebuked Ye Fa from the side, but no one paid him any heed, treating him like an air—that only increased his fury and resentment towards Qin Meng.

"Ye Fa," suddenly, Leng Yueyan turned to him with an icy gaze. "If you don't remain still and keep your mouth shut, I would forget that you are my cousin or the fight is forbidden here. Until the teachers realise that something is wrong, I'll turn you into half dead animal. Say a word more and see if I'm lying."

Ye Fa stiffened and swallowed, but remained silent. Others looked at him gloatingly and chuckled before turning away. Who told him to continuously utter nonsense?

Ye Fa clenched his fist as his body trembled in sheer humiliation.

***

The time passed, and after fifteen days, the top ten contenders became evident. Qin Meng wasn't on the list. Not only that—Qin Meng had vanished from the screen completely. No one knew his and his three companions' whereabouts.

Vice Principal Meng Xiurong informed that it happened because Qin Meng and his companions had removed their bracelets from their bodies—as for why they did it, she did not know.

Unaware of the commotion he had caused, Qin Meng was sitting inside a cave, with closed eyes. His companions were chatting jubilantly in one of the corners. They could survive so long because of Qin Meng, and now they had already established their position in the top fifty. At least, they had a chance to become students of Golden Moon Mentors that they had never anticipated before in their lives.

Suddenly, Qin Meng opened his eyes and a smile spread across his lips. "I never thought I would succeed, hehe."