The tranquil arena, the rustic wooden house, the dappled midday sun, and the two duelists focused intently—all silently conveyed a sense of supreme martial spirit.

The duel began.

Zilveni did not immediately rush to assault Lan Qi. Instead, she maintained her distance, cautiously applying enhancement and immunity spells to herself.

Her movements were light, her steps careful and ready to dodge at any moment, her eyes full of vigilance.

Even now, she was guarding against Lan Qi's possible ranged spellcasting.

Sensing hostility and reaching the realm of anticipating the opponent is a great achievement for a martial artist.

Zilveni could perceive Lan Qi's attacking intentions even before her eyes could react, taking her one step ahead.

Zilveni knew that Lan Qi was a mage of many talents, and she had to be wary of any traps he might set.

However.

Lan Qi's gaze was as calm as still water, seemingly without any hostility.

Zilveni grew even more cautious. She had never seen anyone who could maintain such a friendly demeanor while facing an opponent they had to defeat.

If Lan Qi had truly reached the point of completely concealing his hostility, then he was probably above her. At least, she couldn't bypass the hostility perception to prevent her opponent from detecting or guessing her attacks!

While Zilveni was constantly enhancing herself by thinking, Lan Qi finally pulled a stack of magic cards from his pocket. His movements were clean and crisp, without the slightest hesitation, as he scattered the cards toward the beams behind him. At the same time, he released some kind of artificer-like activation spell, adding a simple stroke to these magic cards.

A stack?

Neither Zilveni nor the group of fighters present could understand Lan Qi's actions.

The number of magic cards that can be bound is limited. The rank of a magic card can be regarded as its cost, and a third-level person can only carry magic cards with a total rank of thirty.

Even if Lan Qi brought all first-level cards, he would only have thirty at most, but with such a configuration, he would have no combat power to speak of.

"I concede!"

Lan Qi's shout echoed throughout the arena.

Next, Zilveni, who was still standing opposite him and hadn't reacted, saw Lan Qi turn around without hesitation and sprinted out of the wooden house at full speed.

"Concede?"

Zilveni was dumbfounded.

Even if she had imagined a thousand ways Lan Qi might fight with all his might, she never thought he would simply concede, handing her the victory!

Could it be...

Does this kid like me?

Were all those agreements signed earlier just a way to help their team?

Zilveni's mind gradually became chaotic, her heart pounding wildly as she couldn't understand Lan Qi's thoughts and actions!

Just as the sound of her chaotic heartbeat filled her ears,

An explosion even more violent than Fei Lei's duel earlier rang out in the arena!

Zilveni widened her eyes. The stack of magic cards left by Lan Qi at the beam in front of her detonated in a chain reaction like exploding talismans!!

And at this time, the wooden house, which already had a damaged beam, began to shake violently as another key beam was blown apart, seemingly on the verge of collapse.

When Zilveni looked at Lan Qi and the others again, she found that all three of them had disappeared.

Fei Lei, who was prepared for anything, ran straight out the door the moment Lan Qi conceded.

Hiberian ran even faster, leaving behind an invisible clone.

Instantly.

In Zilveni's short-circuited mind and incredulous gaze, the wooden house tottered before collapsing with a roar!

…

Within the Knight Academy's district, a huge rumble attracted the attention of many students nearby.

Looking over, they saw that a wooden hut deep in the jacaranda bushes had been reduced to rubble, with pieces of wood scattered everywhere, filled with smoke.

In the rubble, after who knows how long, a slender figure finally crawled out, covered in dust.

She staggered to her feet, her eyes empty, as if recalling everything that had just happened.

A sense of emptiness, like the falling dust, weighed heavily on her heart.

She had indeed won.

The joy brought by the victory and a warmth she couldn't quite name hadn't settled steadily in her heart when it collapsed like the wooden house, shattered beyond recognition.

She seemed to remember.

The treaty stated that

Regardless of the damage caused during the duel, it would be borne by the fighter team, and the Student Management Committee would not be responsible.

Lan Qi used magic cards to blow up the wooden house. Although she didn't know what principle he used to use semi-finished magic cards as exploding talismans.

There was even a clause in the contract stating: Regardless of victory or defeat, neither party shall violate the soul of martial arts and the honor of the family name to retaliate against the other party after the fact, shall not smear the other party's reputation, and shall not threaten or infringe upon the other party with force or power, and must maintain friendly exchanges.

All of this didn't seem like a coincidence!

At this point, Zilveni finally understood Lan Qi's trick——

This fledgling never thought of winning in the first place!

He only wanted to tear down the house during the duel and even tricked them into signing a contract in advance.

And Fei Lei's series of provocations were just to create negotiation space for Lan Qi, making them mistakenly believe that Lan Qi was reasonable!!

"I… I thought you were a good guy…"

Zilveni trembled, unsure whether it was pure anger or the shame generated by her previous fantasies that was about to make her heart explode.

Zilveni's cheeks gradually turned red, and resentful tears were about to burst from her eyes.

"Lan Qi!!!"

Zilveni stood on top of the ruins, her roar piercing the sky like a deafening storm, echoing in the Knight Academy district.

The tide of anger devoured all of Zilveni's reason, turning her into a rampaging beast, rushing out of the ruins and charging toward the direction where the three had fled.

The other fighters, who had just struggled out of the ruins, had also entered a state of bloodlust. Seeing Zilveni leading the charge, they followed suit, without any hesitation or concern, only utter madness.

On the road of the Knight Academy in the distance.

The three members of the Student Council, who had already created some distance, also felt the terrifying killing intent and the roar of the earth behind them!

The three of them immediately sped up their escape with all their might.

"Hey hey! It's in black and white! You signed the treaty yourself, you can't retaliate against us!"

Lan Qi declared as he looked back.

Although he still felt that he was quite reasonable this time, Lan Qi felt a little guilty because the other party's momentum was too fierce.

He didn't expect Zilveni to be so angry, even though he had conceded to her so kindly!

"Lan Qi! You are the most despicable and cunning villain!!!"

Zilveni's distant voice came from behind.

"…"

Lan Qi didn't dare to say anything else to stimulate her for the time being. He understood after glancing at Zilveni's expression from afar when he turned around just now.

He was too familiar with every stage of human anger from zero to exceeding the limit!

Zilveni had obviously been robbed of her reason by anger.

Before she calmed down, even the oath about the soul of martial arts in the contract would be difficult to restrain her.

Sure enough, Talia's teachings were correct. Sprinting and endurance running are very useful, because sometimes there will be such unreasonable students!

"Lan Qi, working with you is really efficient."

Fei Lei couldn't help but turn his head to Lan Qi and praised him. Originally, he thought that no one in the world could keep up with his thinking, but now that he thought about it, there was such a teammate who could cooperate with him to effectively and efficiently achieve impeccable results.

"Mutual praise, without your cover, I wouldn't be able to persuade them to sign the peace treaty so easily."

Lan Qi also sighed in admiration.

He even felt that it would be great if he could meet Fei Lei earlier.

"By the way, what's the matter with your exploding magic cards?"

Fei Lei seemed very interested in this efficient and convenient new technology.

"Ah, those are some semi-finished magic cards. You only need to add a little bit of supplementary technique to blow them up."

Inspired by Talia's teachings these days, Lan Qi has developed a new type of "burst-type semi-finished magic card."

Although it cannot be soul-bound.

But as a white mage, he finally possessed some red mage's attack methods in the real world in disguise.

There is still a lot of room for improvement and enhancement of the explosive power in the future.

"Next time, shall we three go to the Shadow World together? Our Civilization Model Team happens to be missing a front-row player. Fei Lei, you should be very good at taunting, right?"

After Lan Qi finished explaining, he seemed to remember something, and quickly asked Fei Lei.

The three of them were not only in an organization, they were all freshmen, and they had good coordination, so they must be very suitable for challenging the Shadow World together!

"What else is there to say? I just lack credit points and can't find suitable teammates!"

Fei Lei seemed very happy too. After getting acquainted with Lan Qi and Hiberian, he completely lost his aloof appearance at the beginning.

He seemed to be looking forward to going back to the Student Council office and playing cards and chess with them.

"You…"

Listening to the conversation between the two strange men next to her, Hiberian couldn't help but pitifully complained to the sky:

"Why do I have to run with you two too!"

She didn't do anything bad.

But she felt that if she dared to stop, she would die!

Thus.

On this academy road, in the surprised eyes of the students of Ikrity Academy, they saw three students running wildly in front, and a group of fighters chasing after them.

It was hard to imagine what evil deeds these three guys had committed to make the group behind them so angry.

…

Old Liberal Arts Building, Student Council Office.

In the spacious and quiet meeting room, the President and Vice President were sitting at their respective desks, completely immersed in their work.

The President's long table reflected the dark hardwood luster. The clean lines made the desktop look more spacious. Even though there were many folders and papers piled up, they were neatly organized.

Suddenly, a noisy sound accompanied by the wind broke into the row of large windows of the Student Council office.

President Monast temporarily put down the pen in his hand because of the noisy movement. He stood up, put his hands behind his back, stood by the window, and witnessed the noisy scene of chasing and fleeing downstairs.

"It looks like they did it."

Monast picked up the coffee cup on the table, took a sip, with a sense of satisfaction and appreciation.

"...Does this really count as a success?"

Soon, Vice President Asina also came to the side and looked at the situation downstairs in surprise.

Her words were hesitant, and she didn't know how to evaluate such a scene.

She always felt that the three people being chased were like poking a hornet's nest, and they must have done something outrageous!

"With these three excellent new members, I believe the work of the Student Management Committee this year will be quite smooth."

"That's right. There will be an academic visit from the Academy of Yarolan Kingdom in the month after next. Although it is a famous school in the Southern Continent of the same level as us, the other party's attitude has always been intended to suppress us every year."

"This year, the other party seems to have recruited many excellent freshmen, so they have the confidence to conduct the academic visit of this academic year so early. But with the three of them here, I am not afraid of any trouble."

President Monast calmly adjusted his glasses on one side, seeming to appreciate the value of these three new recruits, and said with a smile.

The main line of this big chapter starts tomorrow!

ps: The number of words in this chapter is 3400 words, so the price calculated by the system is more expensive than the usual 2000-word chapters. The price is not set by me, but the system automatically sets it in direct proportion to the number of words.

(End of this chapter)