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nChapter 100: Suspicion

nTranslated by: Hypersheep325

nEdited by: Michyrr

nToday, after returning from Tiger Roar Valley, Tang Jie passed by the sparring ground on his way back and happened to run into Cai Junyang.

nCai Junyang came up to Tang Jie and chuckled. “How was your harvest today?”

nTang Jie replied, “272 coins, not too bad. What about all of you?”

n“Let’s not talk about it,” Cai Junyang said with a shake of his head. “I ran into a few tough opponents, and while I managed to win, I wasted a lot of strength, resulting in my not having enough strength and losing four in a row.”

n“That’s not too surprising,” Tang Jie replied.

nSometimes, when he had been pushed out of Tiger Roar Valley early, Tang Jie would take a stroll around the sparring ground and see what was going on.

nThere were more and more students entering Spirit Spring, and some people who had been in Spirit Spring for long enough had started working on their spell arts.

nThis was the period in which everyone’s strength was rapidly climbing.

nThough most of them were still no match for the likes of Cai Junyang and Tang Jie, the people of their group would undoubtedly have to use more strength to defeat them. With victory coming at a greater cost, they wouldn’t have the strength for afterward, so their win percentages naturally fell.

nIt was nothing at first. After all, losses were to be expected when grinding through battles.

nBut when someone was lucky enough to win once or twice, they would shout something like, “I beat Cai Junyang! An eight-cycle Jade Gate isn’t anything special,” or “I beat Tang Jie! What does it matter that he learned the Divine Firmament Sword Classic? That opportunity should have been given to me!” or something similar. Such comments were very unpleasant to hear.

nThe people at the top had to put aside the thought of dominating forever, while the people below couldn’t help but celebrate their small successes.

nCai Junyang said, “If this goes on, our chances to rank will undoubtedly dwindle, and so will the resources we can obtain. This means that we’ll get stronger more slowly and those guys will get more and more arrogant.”

n“Nothing you can do about that.” Tang Jie smiled. “Several thousand students are fighting it out, and not everything can go the way we want it. It’s not like the Rosecloud Domain exists only for us. If that weren’t the case, I wouldn’t need to run off to Tiger Roar Valley every chance I get. I would rather fight fiend beasts than fight those students. The danger is there, but at least I won’t have those people acting smug.”

n“But we have to work to get out of this situation,” Cai Junyang replied.

n“Oh? It seems like you have a plan.”

nCai Junyang replied, “Brother Tang, you know that rigorous training isn’t enough to step upon the Great Dao. You also need resources. The few resources we get from ranking are far from enough. Putting aside the difficulty, even if we go all out and get into the top five once, we get only a few bottles of medicine, just a cup of water on the burning cart when it comes to cultivation.”

nTang Jie nodded. “Naturally, but that’s true for everyone, and it’s not like we can do anything about it. Until we can participate in the official missions of the Spirit Lake Tier, we can only get resources from the battleground or Tiger Roar Valley.”

n“That’s not for certain.” Cai Junyang chortled. “These are only the resource avenues the school provides for us. But we students can open up our own avenues.”

nTang Jie was taken aback, then he realized something and said, “You mean… take private work?”

n“Private work? That’s too coarse. We’ve just been invited to put on an appearance.” Cai Junyang waved his hand, and his face reddened.

nAlthough Spirit Spring Tier cultivators were the lowest level of cultivators, in the mortal world, Spirit Spring Tier students could still be considered high masters.

nSimply their ability to navigate through the air like it was flat land was something that ordinary mortals were not capable of. If Tang Jie and Cai Junyang left the academy, they could easily become experts out in the world without any problem.

nBut this wasn’t what was actually important. What was really important here was that they were students of Basking Moon.

nBasking Moon Academy served as the disciple reserve for the Basking Moon Sect. From a certain perspective, it was like the party school for the sect. Anyone who came out of the academy was bound to have some status.

n(TN: Party school here refers to a school run by a political party. In this case, the author is probably referring to the school run by the Communist Party of China.)

nThis was not only because of their abilities, but because of their identities.

nIt was precisely why many wealthy clans of the kingdom wanted to get close to these students, particularly those middle-tier clans who weren’t able to get anyone into the school.

nFor those students who had a limitless desire for resources, these wealthy clans were another means of making money. Just like artists eating together with the wealthy, sometimes, just coming to sit around as the guest of honor brought in quite a lot of money.

nThis was particularly true for the famous students in the academy. They were like celebrities of some fame in entertainment circles. The moment they left the academy, they would have considerable social status.

nPeople like Cai Junyang, Tang Jie, and Liu Hongyan, outstanding students who could often gain the Fierce Brave evaluation, could command a price of around three hundred spirit coins.

nThose like Ping Jingyue, one level below, could get around two hundred.

nBeneath that was the Ordinary level, which could get anywhere from fifty to one hundred.

nAs for the Incompetent and those who didn’t even dare to step into the battleground, they normally only got ten spirit coins as an appearance fee, and that was if anyone was willing to pay.

nFrom a certain perspective, students who went out as honored guests were prostituting themselves out. Strength served as their good looks, ranking was their fame, and talent was their skills in bed… The student of this class with the highest social status was said to be An Rumeng. As the only student with a Peerless evaluation, blessed with both beauty and talent, she commanded a price of a thousand spirit coins just to invite her to a meal, and an opportunity to sleep with her cost several times that.

nWhat a truly pleasant idea!

nAlas, An Rumeng had never agreed to anyone’s request.

nIn the end, the academy wasn’t the entertainment industry. The people of this era valued their reputation and did not consider this sort of thing to be any sort of honor. Most people would not be willing to bend at the waist for the sake of “five pecks of rice”. And the school itself did not support this conduct. The one day of vacation per month was an invisible restriction on this activity.

nHe had not expected Cai Junyang to bring up such a thing today.

nPerhaps because he felt embarrassed about it himself, Cai Junyang added, “It was actually quite the coincidence. Apparently, it’s Lin Dongsheng’s grandfather’s birthday soon, and he wants to find a few presentable guests to increase the family’s prestige, which is why he came looking for us.”

nLin Dongsheng was one of the earliest members of the Freedom Society. He was a person of some status in Wanquan City.

nLin Dongsheng was their schoolmate, and going over to offer birthday wishes was a just cause and wouldn’t hurt their reputation. It was hard to blame Cai Junyang and the others for accepting.

n“Well, if it’s the Lin Clan’s birthday party, I guess it’s fine.” Tang Jie nodded. “But I’ve been rather busy lately and might not have the time.”

nCai Junyang smiled. “Dongsheng said that if we’re willing to go, he can give each of us two hundred coins as a thank-you gift.”

nTang Jie laughed. “Brother Lin is being very generous.”

nThough it was lower than the normal price, they had a proper excuse and were doing this for a friend, so it wasn’t particularly petty.

nMoreover, Tang Jie had to risk his life in Tiger Roar Valley for an entire month to make three-hundred-some coins.

nSuch was the way of the world. Selling one’s body would always make more than hard work.

nTang Jie squinted. “Who else is Brother Lin planning to invite?”

n“It should be seven or eight people,” Cai Junyang answered. “Any more and he couldn’t afford it! Haha!”

nBut Tang Jie wasn’t laughing. He simply asked, “When is it?”

n“Ten days from now.”

n“Alright!” Tang Jie nodded in agreement. “I’ll go.”

nOnce they had parted, Tang Jie’s face turned grim. “So it’s starting…”

nThe people from Anyang Prefecture had probably arrived by now.

nThese people naturally couldn’t enter Basking Moon Academy. If they wanted to point out Tang Jie, they would have to wait for him to come out.

nStudents didn’t leave the academy for just any reason, so just waiting him out wasn’t possible. Thus, someone needed to find a reason to call him out.

nThe excuse of a birthday, the temptation of money, and the friendship between schoolmates all served as suitable excuses.

nBut… why was it Cai Junyang who had called out to him?

nCould he be Fierce Ape?

nTang Jie found it somewhat hard to believe.

nHe had always suspected Fierce Ape to be one of Shu, Liu, Ping, and Cai, but he had never been able to confirm which.

nHis top suspect had been Liu Hongyan.

nAfter all, Liu Hongyan had been the one who had proposed that he join the Freedom Society. She was familiar with his situation and had exposed her ulterior motives.

nNext in line was Ping Jingyue. Everyone could tell that this girl had other intentions when it came to Tang Jie, but if these intentions were affectionate in nature, then it was somewhat inexplicable.

nThe third suspect was Shu Mingyang. This bookworm who had all sorts of grand ambitions and spent all day buried in his books had the perfect cover to watch him out of the corner of his eyes.

nAs for Cai Junyang, he was the least suspicious.

nHe found it impossible to equate someone so straightforward and heroic, who was so devoted to the idea of becoming a swordsman that could sweep through the world, with someone who could suddenly turn around and admit that they were a Godhead spy. Whether emotionally or objectively, he did not want to believe that it was Cai Junyang.

nBut today, the one who had invited him was Cai Junyang, which left Tang Jie confused.

nCould Fierce Ape really be him?

nHad he really misjudged the man?

nOr was he being used by someone else?

nIf so, then when Liu Hongyan and Ping Jingyue had acted abnormally with him before, could someone have been manipulating them from the shadows?

nAfter all, if there was a once, there could be a twice. Someone who had been used once would naturally be used many times more.

nIf so, would he also have to overturn his suspicions on Liu, Ping, and Shu?

nHe stood there thinking for a long while, but he wasn’t able to find an answer.

nIt was easy to know a person’s face, but not their heart. This game of guessing who was the mole was probably the worst game in the world to play.

nGu Changqing had a headache about Tang Jie’s identity, but Tang Jie had his own frustrations about Fierce Ape.

nLater generations could look back on the past and pontificate on the errors made, always claiming that so-and-so was suspicious in however many ways for quite some time and that the failure to notice could only be ascribed to a lack of intelligence. But if they were actually in the thick of things, bereft of the god’s-eye view, and facing countless possible choices, they would realize that they were at a complete loss for what to do.

nAnd then they would understand that the ones lacking intelligence had been themselves all along.

nCurrently, Tang Jie was dealing with only a few people, and he interacted with that group of four a lot, yet he still couldn’t tell which one was Fierce Ape, while Gu Changqing hadn’t even properly met Tang Jie before and was facing even more choices. How in the world could he possibly confirm anything?

nFor him to resolve to immediately capture Tang Jie in this situation required incredible daring. An ordinary person in his place would have been overly cautious and had even more misgivings.

nIt was easier to demean others than to do a good job oneself!

nAfter turning the matter over in his mind again and again, Tang Jie still couldn’t find an answer. Finally, he shook his head and pushed off the matter for now. He muttered, “Forget it. As a cultivator, I should be bravely forging ahead, fearless of any sort of obstacles. Regardless of which one of you is Fierce Ape, I’ll take you on. If you dare to come at me, I’ll dare to kill you with my sword!”

nThere were many things that he wanted to do but couldn’t because the time wasn’t right.

nNow that his enemy had made his move, it was time for him to make his own!

nAs he thought this, he began to seethe with fighting intent. He stopped worrying about who Fierce Ape was, leaning back and laughing.

nA student passing by was scared out of his wits, believing that this person had gone mad.

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