Chapter 2 – Shock! Hero’s Badge

Translator: Aran

The surrounding wealthily-dressed youths started laughing in an extremely exaggerated fashion.

Due to the Ye family’s deterioration and the death of Qingyu’s parents according to the Snow Country’s classification, this meant that Ye Qingyu was the classical example of someone from the poor whose position in society was extremely low.

But the former dean of White Deer Academy, during one of his travels coincidentally met Ye Qingyu who was then only six or seven years old.

When he saw Ye Qingyu, he judged that the boy was definitely not ordinary and would definitely enter the rankings of Deer City, even possibly joining the rankings of the Snow Country’s hidden dragon rankings…

Who was the old dean?

His position was extremely high, possessing countless students across the world. He was also Deer City’s number one expert for twenty consecutive years. As such, his word was akin to the law.

Hence such an evaluation caused the then very young Ye Qingyu, to be thrown under the spotlight and scrutiny of countless eyes.

As a result of the evaluation of the old dean, the jealousy of many of the prideful nobles were invoked. He was only a child from a poor lowly family, how could he be evaluated as the number one young genius?

Then what about them, the nobility?

Therefore, this caused the nobility to create trouble for Ye Qingyu and their constant ridicule continued.

Four years ago, after suffering the death of his parents, Ye Qingyu entered the selection process for the first time. At that time, he was only ten but had already attracted the attention of everyone, and his selection was the most eye-catching event of Deer city at that time.

Many people thought the old dean’s words would prove true, and that

Deer City would witness the birth of a genius, but…

Who knew, the truth would be the exact opposite.

Ye Qingyu’s performance was a total mess, without even passing a single appraisal before being eliminated.

He created a record of the fastest candidate being eliminated, and also the worst result in the history of White Deer Academy.

The result of the second and third year examination was the same.

After the second and third failure, the actions of Ye Qingyu became even more strange and crazy in the eyes of everyone. Every day, apart from eating or sleeping, he was sitting in front of his parents’ tombstone. This caused the busybodies who were delighted at Ye Qingyu’s suffering, to give him a nickname of ‘four-year champion’.

All these things, in an instant became a joke.

Right now, after hearing the laughter of his comrades, the wealthily- dressed youth was encouraged even more since he saw the agreement of everyone.

His face was filled with mocking laughter, blocking the way of Ye Qingyu and with an expression that said ‘what can you do about it’?

“Scram.” Ye Qingyu glanced at the teenager, impatiently waving his hand.

“Hahaha!” The wealthily-dressed youth laughed exaggeratingly. “Scram?

What if I don’t scram, what can you do about it, I think it is you who should scram…”

Pak!

Ye Qingyu decisively gave the youth a very simple slap on the face staggering the youth back several steps.

No one knew how great Qingyu’s strength was; it greatly exceeded any of his peers.

This was all due to the nameless breathing technique.

In these four years, when people thought he was merely sitting dumbfounded in front of his parent’s grave, he was cultivating in this nameless breathing technique.

As time passed, the benefits of this breathing technique did not become evident, but Ye Qingyu discovered that his strength has become greater and greater.

It had become so great it was becoming slightly terrifying.

Of course, following the promise made, he did not show off his strength.

But today, there was no longer any need to hide.

The wealthily-dressed teenager was not prepared in the slightest. He stumbled aside, and felt like he was being hit by an iron bar causing half his head to go numb…

He touched his face which was swollen like a rotten peach, an expression of shock and disbelief looking at Ye Qingyu.

Ye Qingyu laughed, and in a neutral tone “If you don’t scram, then I’ll slap you. Do you now understand?”

All the nobles breathed in exclamation.

“You dare to hit people here?”

The next instant, the nobles reacted, everyone being as enraged as if the slap was landed on their own faces.

They were as if they were cockerels who had lost their feathers everyone sharply commanding their guards and surrounding Ye Qingyu.

Ye Qingyu’s lip curled in a mocking smile.

He unhurriedly took out a round brass badge, and it sat gleaming in his palm. He laughingly looked at the surrounding guards and nobles and said “Open your dog eyes and have a clear look… If I want to hit, then I’ll hit, what can you do about it?”

“This is…”

When they all saw the brass badge, everyone was dumbfounded.

That was an army medal!

It really was the heroic brass badge!

From the beginning of the Snow Country, the first [Holy Emperor], his majesty Ishiba Yu, in order to set a reward for those who fought in the battle against the wild tribes, created the brass badges. He begged the most talented rune master of Heaven wasteland, Master Mo, and using rare meteorites as raw materials, created one hundred and eight medals of different insignias.

This was the history of army medals.

According to the Snow Country’s laws, those who possess an army medal would have a position equal to that of nobles.

Within the older generation of aristocrats, they suddenly remembered that within the Ye family there was once a Spirit Spring expert who appeared. In the battle to safeguard Deer City, thanks to their heroic feats, a brass heroic badge was awarded…

But since the Ye family deteriorated, and the badge failed to appear many thought the rumours were false, who would have thought… that the rumours were real.

He had the heroic brass badge on him!

And he was standing at the entrance to White Deer Academy!

Apart from the very top aristocrats, who would dare harm Ye Qingyu?

To disrespect the medal holders, was to disrespect that entire Snow

Country; it was an extremely serious crime.

All those people including the wealthily-dressed youth, did not have a title of nobility, and hence was still far from being a true noble. Therefore when they saw the badge, their faces went pale and they quickly knelt towards the ground.

And the guards, who were originally like wolves and tigers, were so scared that their stomach spasmed uncontrollably. They acted like a hyena with its tail between its legs, not daring to lift up their heads.

The laws of the Snow Country were strict especially for nobles, and any violation was a death sentence.

The wealthily-dressed youth was dumbfounded. Only after half a second could he react, his face filled with resentment. His hand cradled the swollen, rotten peach side of his face and on the other side, he glared ferociously at Ye Qingyu.

Ye Qingyu did not back off, but flaunted his badge, his eyebrows perking up. “What? You’re not satisfied?”

The wealthily-dressed teenager struggled briefly for a moment, then finally unwillingly knelt on one knee to the ground.

He was only a child from a wealthy family and not truly a noble. After seeing the brass heroic badge, if he did not kneel, then he was disrespectful towards the heroes and towards the royal family. It was a grave crime.

“What a cheap person, offering their face for me to slap.”

The words of Ye Qingyu angered the wealthily-dressed youth so much that the shape of his nose was about to change.

“I know you’re not satisfied, but you need to understand, all the suffering and humiliation you are having right now, is your own fault. Everyone has to pay for their own words and actions, right now I know in your heart you must be feeling hatred and resentment. Haha, no matter, when the day comes that you feel you are qualified, then you can come at me for revenge,” Ye Qingyu said with a smile.

He did not disguise his domination in the slightest, enjoying humiliating and mocking these arrogant teenagers who were full of superiority.

In truth, through these past years, the wealthily-dressed youth had already done quite a few bad deeds and this was far from his first time in provoking Ye Qingyu. Previously, because of a certain reason, he had always endured.

But today, he did not need to endure anymore.

Ye Qingyu knew long ago the uses and meaning of the heroic brass badge.

But to him, the greatest meaning of the badge was not this, so previously he had never shown it before.

But, when a suitable time arrived, he did not mind to use the badge for a bit.

After stowing the heroic brass badge away, Ye Qingyu smilingly came towards the large redwood table.

From a second year student responsible for distributing the nameplates Ye Qingyu received the admissions nameplate.

“8888? This number is not bad.”

Seeing the wooden nameplate, Ye Qingyu smiled.

He waited in line in the queue, quietly waiting for the appraisal to begin.

And in the swollen face of the wealthily-dressed teenager, there were both fear and hate.

His eyes shimmered with poison and perniciousness.

“Why is it? How can the trash waste be changed to a different person and why does he possess the heroic brass badge in his hands? Damn, if it is known that I was hit by the publicly recognised trash and I did not retaliate, then I’ll become the joke of the entire Deer City!”

The wealthily-dressed youth was about to go crazy from anger.

“Today’s humiliation, I’ll definitely pay back in the future… Eh? That’s not right, Ye Qingyu should be fourteen years old, if he still is not a martial artist then doesn’t it mean…”

The wealthily-dressed youth suddenly thought of something.

A touch of excitement suddenly appeared in his eyes.

…… ……

Waiting in line, was truly a long and pointless process.

After a total of two hours, Ye Qingyu finally arrived in the grounds of the first appraisal.

Within the White Deer Academy’s six appraisals, the first appraisal tested the body and blood of the practitioner.

This was because in the Heaven wasteland domain, no matter who cultivation began with training the body. Only when the body was trained to the extreme, could you begin to experience qi in Heaven and Earth and cultivate, so the cultivator’s body and blood was extremely important.

The more exuberant the blood, the easier it was to train the body, and hence the probability of cultivating succeeding was greater.

And the appraisal process to test the blood was extremely simple. In the selection grounds, there stood nine different ancient stone cauldrons* and within these stone structures there were ancient runes engraved upon it. The examinee would lift up the stone cauldron, causing the stone cauldron and the runes to be activated and then the blood of the examinee could be tested.

This was the most primitive method but also the most effective.

One teenager after another followed the arrangement of the academy and underwent the testing.

As the cauldron was lifted, the runes on the cauldron glowed with a dim red light and the formation on the ground would enter the body of the examinee, causing their body to glow with a blood red light, shimmering in all directions.

The higher the brightness of the blood light and the larger the area it covered, represented the stronger the blood qi.

Through the talented blood of the examinee and through the power of the formation, they glowed with a light that was akin to a flame, dyeing the entire testing area blood red.

“Number 8677, Yu Long, the fourth cauldron, three hundred and twenty pounds of force…. passed!”

“Number 8884, Zhao Gu, the first cauldron, eighty pounds of force… failed!”

“Number 8884, Xu Fei, the third cauldron, one hundred and eighty pounds of forced… passed!”

The examiner’s voice, through the use of qi, spread everywhere, clearly entering the ears of everyone.