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Chapter 379: “Zephyr Academy (3)”
“There is one around here somewhere, but we’ve never been there before.” Qiao Chu replied, scratching at his head. They’ve been to the pawnshop often enough, but the auction house….. They’ve no experience with it.
It was more than a million taels and it was not easy to raise such a sum. They had rushed to make it here by September and the Zephyr Academy was open for enrollment only three days. If they missed it, they would have to wait till next year.
Many of the people in the Zephyr Academy were highly skilled that made even Qiao Chu and the others hesitate to just rush in recklessly.
While the five of them were huddled together discussing how they were going to raise the enough money, several youths who were walking past the tree heard them and exclaimed in loud voices dripping with scorn.
“If you do not have the money, you shouldn’t even come here to the Zephyr Academy. You can’t even afford to pay such a pittance for the fees and need the auction house to tide you through!? You guys are such country bumpkins! Let me set you straight here. Even if you were to get to the auction house, it will be of no use! There is only one auction house around here and they will start their next auction three days later, so it will not help you even if you get there now.” The youth wore clothes fully adorned with gold and jade accessories and the several other youths tagging along behind him snickered loudly as the gaudily dressed youth spoke.
Anyone who came to the Zephyr Academy for its yearly enrolment had already
“Poor penniless people should just pluck theirs heads out of those clouds of daydream as the Zephyr Academy isn’t the place for any lost stray cats and dogs.” The gaudily dressed youth turned and walked off after that.
Qiao Chu’s face darkened at that moment and Hua Yao held him back by his shoulders and shook his head.
“His words might be hard to stomach but he has nevertheless saved us a wasted trip and we now know the auction house is also no longer an option.” Rong Ruo said as she sighed in resignation. Compared to the Zephyr Academy, it was now painfully obvious to them how poverty stricken the Phoenix Academy really was.
“What do we do now then?” Fei Yan asked.
Jun Wu Xie’s eyes narrowed again as she fell deep in thought and suddenly asked of Fei Yan: “Where has Mu Chen been all this while?”
After the Qing Yun Clan was obliterated, she had stayed at the Phoenix Academy and had not paid much attention to what was going on outside. Over the past month, Jun Wu Xie had noticed that Qiao Chu and the others all got their news from Fei Yan.
Fei Yan thought a moment and replied: “Mu Chen announced that the Qing Yun Clan was disbanded about two weeks ago and that had stirred up quite a commotion. He dismissed the disciples of the Outer House and only brought the disciples of the Cloud Treading Peak with him when he left, and no one knows of his whereabouts now.”
Jun Wu Xie’s eyes flashed, and she gestured to Hua Yao to come over. Jun Wu Xie whispered into his ear and Hua Yao’s face appeared greatly shocked which gradually turned into a smile.
“The idea itself is really good, but if no one here had ever met Mu Chen, then it might not work.” Hua Yao pondered on Jun Xie’s proposal and was just being cautious.
Jun Wu Xie handed a piece of ornamental jade carved into the chinese character for “cloud”. Hua Yao was stunned a moment as he was rather familiar with jade pieces carved in such a manner. That was a piece of jade that only people who belonged to the Qing Yun Clan would come to possess.
“Little Xie, how did you come to have one of those?”Qiao Chu looked at Jun Wu Xie in surprise. When they were in the Hidden Cloud Peak, they had each kept a piece of the jade, but as they were leaving the Cloudy Peaks, Qiao Chu had not brought his back.
“I forgot to throw it out.” Jun Wu Xie replied with a shrug of her shoulders. Everything had happened all of a sudden and she did not have time to do much else then. When she awoke, she was already in the Phoenix Academy and the piece of jade had just remained together with her other belongings.
She did not expect to be able to put it to good use today.
