Translated by Jouissance of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
By the time XiaoYao Institute’s mentor arrived, An Qiao’s health had already been cleared out by You XiaoMo’s off-the-charts DPS. In the end, the crowd followed the mentor into Xiao Yao Institute in a massive formation.
t/n: DPS = Damage per second
XiaoYao Institute wasn’t like DaoXin Academy and they wouldn’t give students all sorts of benefits, like the underground Ley Line or such. This was a place where merit spoke lengths.
The crowd walked along a wide road with very few people. The mentor explained the situation in XiaoYao Institute as he walked.
After about half an hour, they finally arrived at the foot of that massive structure. Against it, humans were like tiny ants. It was impossible to tell how large it truly was unless one flew up and looked down at it.
“XiaoYao Institute has always operated by a ranking system. The building in front of you is divided into a hundred floors, and every floor has its own benefits. What you can learn depends on you, of course, the further up you get, the better it’ll be for you. However, since you only just arrived, you’ll be placed on the first floor.
These words were said to inform You XiaoMo and the other clueless students of the situation. Qiao WuXing and company obviously already knew all this, and probably knew far more than just this. As they discussed this, Qiao WuXing filled them in on what wasn’t brought up.
“This building is called the Giganticus. Apart from students, mentors and elders also live inside, not for the convenience of teaching, but to keep an eye on the students on each floor. So, once you go inside, it’s up to you to learn with your own merit. The mentors won’t provide you with that sort of advice.
“In addition, every three months, there’ll be an opportunity for you to advance to a higher rank by challenging someone. Every person only has three chances to challenge someone or be challenged. If you fail, you’ll have to wait three months.”
“If someone challenges you, can you refuse their challenge?” You XiaoMo had much to ask after listening to this; that was what it meant to pursue knowledge relentlessly.
Qiao WuXing’s footsteps faltered. He had thought it would be someone else who would ask that. However, he quickly recovered and replied, “Yes, but only once.”
You XiaoMo then asked, “Then, if many people challenge you at once, can the challenged choose who to fight?”
Qiao WuXing said, “They can’t. If there are more than three challengers, then there will be a random draw that’ll pick three people from these challengers. However, the challenged can choose to refuse one of the challenges and there won’t be another draw to pick a new challenger.”
You XiaoMo’s eyes went wide. “It’s that nice?”
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThe energetic Tian Xin’s pigtails swished and she mocked him upon hearing what he had to say, “You’re such an idiot. Of course it wouldn’t be so simple. Challenges affect your points.”
You XiaoMo ignored the first sentence. “What do points do?”
Tian Xin replied, “Points are affected by the number of challenges you take. Every time you win, you gain a point. If you refuse a challenge, you’ll lose a point. However, if you lose, you won’t gain or lose any points. Points can be used to purchase a lot of things. You’ll know what, exactly, this all entails once you get in.”
You XiaoMo understood. It was similar to Ward A’s point system, but it was implemented in a far harsher way.
The mentor led them to the first floor, where the living situation clearly wasn’t very good.
Looking at the dirty and cramped room, You XiaoMo felt that he might be too clean for this place, never mind Ling Xiao whose face was twisted in evident disgust.
The mentor then said, “Each person gets one room. If you’ve brought someone in, XiaoYao Institute isn’t responsible for their living arrangements.”
Hearing this, noises of shock and protest arose.
Even one person would be cramped in such a small room, two people were impossible to fit in.
Many people were already considering sending the people they brought back.
You XiaoMo could guess that while XiaoYao Institute didn’t forbid people from bringing others, no one would want to if they lived in a place like this.
“You guys don’t need to worry about this, really. You won’t be here long, after all, because in three days, the tri-monthly challenges will begin. Though we only just got here, it doesn’t prevent us from entering. If you don’t want to live in a place like this, then you have to work hard and climb up. The living situation up there is far better and you have plenty of space, too.”
TianXin walked in nonchalantly. Usually, girls would definitely object to such a lack of cleanliness, but she seemed to care the least out of everyone.
Their rooms were all adjacent to one another and the rooms were small, too, so it was just a few steps across.
Tian Xin’s somewhat mischievous voice rang out again. “You XiaoHa, go and tidy up. Later on, I’ll take you to the arena, yeah? I’ve been a few times in the past.” Though it was when she was little.
“Alright!” The aforementioned XiaoHa hadn’t even replied when Yan Hui’s excited voice chipped in.
Tian Xin rolled her eyes at him, murmuring, “I didn’t ask you.” However, she didn’t object. Getting along with others would only bring profit, standing united was a show of love, that was what older brother WuXing had told her.
You XiaoMo sighed, accepting his fate, and gave a glare to the perpetrator who stood next to him. “Hurry and help me clean. It’s disgusting here.”
Most men didn’t mind the dirt, especially when they were fixated on cultivation, so most of them didn’t care too much for hygiene. Plus, this was the first floor. Most people would be able to advance to a higher floor pretty quick, so that gave them even less incentive to clean.
You XiaoMo took out two cloths from his dimension and had Ling Xiao get a bucket of normal water from his dimension. Using Spiritual Water here would be an absurd waste of resources. He threw one of the cloths to Ling Xiao.
“I’ll tidy up the trash here, go and wipe down the bed.”
Ling Xiao stared at the cloth in his hand expressionlessly.
Seeing his motionlessness, You XiaoMo said with a hint of laughter, “There’s a first time for everything. You’ll get used to it.” Then, he took out a broom and began to sweep.
(Ra: Momo has become lady boss who know how to order the husband for minimal tasks :o)
Hearing the ruckus, Yan Hui came to their door and was shocked at the sight he was met with. “How come you have a broom? You don’t carry that sort of thing around everywhere you go, do you?”
You XiaoMo replied calmly, “I used to live alone.”
Yan Hui then asked, “Do you have anymore that you can lend me?”
You XiaoMo paused for a moment. “No, but I can lend you this one once I’m done.”
Yan Hui nodded, delighted.
That was when the uncle’s soft-spoken voice drifted over. “Sorry, but could I borrow it, too?” He was rather shy, almost to the point where he didn’t dare appear in front of others.
You XiaoMo’s lips twitched. “Sure.”
It wasn’t until You XiaoMo was almost done with sweeping the floor that Ling Xiao began to clean reluctantly. However, because of the amount of dust, the cloth turned black with one wipe and had to be cleaned almost continuously. It wasn’t long before the water turned black.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmYou XiaoMo refilled the bucket with clean water. It took them a full ten buckets of water to clean up the bed. Then, he used a dry cloth to wipe it dry.
He had wanted to wipe the floor as well, but there was even more dust on the ground than on the bed. Plus, there were also patches of who-knows-what on the ground. It would be too troublesome to clean that up, so Ling Xiao refused.
“Don’t think I don’t know that you only say that because you don’t want to wipe the floor.” You XiaoMo easily saw through his intentions. Ling Xiao was reluctant to wipe the bed down, so he would only be more reluctant to work on the floor.
Ling Xiao threw his cloth to the side and said in a very matter of fact way, “It’s good that you know, then I won’t have to find an excuse.”
You XiaoMo felt his lips twitch into an irritated smile. It’s not like you need an excuse to not do anything you don’t want to.
This wasn’t called being honest, it was called being an asshole!
Asshole Ling Xiao immediately took over the now cleaned bed and stretched out lazily.
However, he still ended up listening to Ling Xiao. The floor was too dirty. If they had the mops of the twenty first century, it would make things easier, but they didn’t, so they could only use their own hands. Thank god they would only be here for three days.
Half an hour later, Tian Xin finally came to get them.
The people from the Mage Guild also came along. Who knew what was going on in An Qiao’s head to make him willing accompany You XiaoMo and company to see the arena.
The Giganticus had a total of a hundred floors and, every ten floors, there would be a massive arena right in the center of the floor that was sort of like the Colosseum of Ancient Rome. Whenever the tri-monthly challenges happened, people would flood the place.
For this, XiaoYao Institute had a rule: challengers could only challenge people within ten floors of themselves, so even if one’s strength was far more formidable, you couldn’t get to the top floor immediately.
However, there was little point in watching matches that weren’t on floor seventy and above. The truly exciting matches all happened in the higher floors, and those battles were truly battles that would make one’s blood roar.
Floors seventy to one hundred were different from the lower floors. The three arenas were merged into one, so the tri-monthly challenges would all occur in one arena, which became the liveliest place in Giganticus.
However, not all people could go and spectate for free. People who weren’t yet at floor seventy or above had to pay one point to enter. One point per day.
Since they had just arrived, they couldn’t access the arenas of the upper floors yet.
Thus, Tian Xin took them to the arena on the fiftieth floor.