Chapter 447: “Spirit Hunt (3)”
It was late into the night, and the Zephyr Academy disciples were all exhausted. All of them remained within their carriages and nibbled some food before sleep claimed their tired bodies.
Dawn broke the next morning and as the sun peeked over the horizon, the well rested disciples jumped out of their carriages. The seniors were feeling wary as they stared towards the place that had haunted their dreams on many nights and were looking slightly worried. The new disciples were their direct opposites as many were feeling excited and were exuberant with anticipation. Though some of them were quietly worried, they were nevertheless rather relieved that they would be accompanied by their mentors.
The teachers leading the expedition then gathered the new disciples and explained their mission here at the Battle Spirits Forest.
The whole Spirit Hunt would run for a period of seven days and the Zephyr Academy disciples were to only move about within a marked out area in the South Eastern corner of the Battle Spirits Forest where they would be provided with a detailed map. They did not expect the disciples to meet up with any major problems and the Spirit Beasts did not belong to the higher grades in the allocated area of movement and it would be relatively safe for them.
The teachers did not forget to remind the new disciples in a grave tone, to not stray into unmarked territories as they might run into many high grade Spirit Beasts in those areas. The terrain might be treacherous and if they were not careful, they might easily lose their way within the forest filled with endless dangers.
All the disciples would be given two signal flares and if they were to come across any danger, were injured or ill, they could choose to release the signals and the teachers just outside the forest would evacuate the affected disciple as soon as possible. But, if you pull out of the Spirit Hunt early, the score you would be given for your assessment for the Spirit Hunt would be extremely low.
The signal flares would be distributed to all the disciples, but food and water were prepared by the disciples themselves.
They did not restrict how much you brought and as long as you could carry the load, no one would stop you.
For the Spirit Hunt, the disciples of the Zephyr Academy were allowed to form their own groups to support each other.
And in that aspect, the disciples from the Spirit Healing faculty were the most popular choices.
Although the Spirit Healer faculty disciples were usually less proficient in battle than the other two battle focused faculties, but disciples of the other two faculties were eager to jump on this rare chance to get into the good books of a potential future Spirit Healer, and many would plead and beg for them to join their groups.
Hence, well before the day of the Spirit Hunt, all the disciples of the Spirit Healer faculty had already been taken, without a single one spared.
The strong combined with the strong and it was a common sight during the Spirit Hunt.
And among them, the strongest team was the team that comprised of the previous Spirit Tournament’s second ranked Lu Wei Xie and third ranked Ning Xin, which also included Yin Yan of the Spirit Healer faculty and many other elites of the Zephyr Academy. The team totaled more than twenty people and they were perceived to be the most impressive line up the Zephyr Academy could put forth.
As a result, all the teams would welcome almost any disciples who had not managed to find themselves a team to join.
Afterall, to survive seven days within this dense forest would not be an easy task and even if they were not strong or powerful additions, a bigger number of allies would make the task ahead easier to manage.
However…..
There were two people who did not manage to find a team to join up with.
People like…..
The last Spirit Tournament’s fourth ranked Fan Jin, and Jun Xie…..
With Fan Jin’s skills, many of the others would have fought tooth and nail to have him join them, but Fan Jin was tagged on with his ward, the most hated Jun Xie, which made all the other teams give up on any intentions to recruit the elite Fan Jin.
Jun Xie’s name had dropped to the pits within the Zephyr Academy and even Fan Jin’s popularity had not been enough to convince the other teams to want them. In the end, when all the disciples of the Zephyr Academy were split into their teams in tens or more, only Fan Jin and Jun Xie were left standing alone all by themselves.
“Cough, it does not matter if there is nobody else. Little Xie, believe in my strength. I will definitely protect you well.” Fan Jin said trying to sound comforting as he stared at the excitement all around them, while the withering quiet where they stood struck a stark contrast and he hastened to encourage Jun Xie bravely.