Hearing this question, Instructor Sheng and the Enforcement Hall Chief Feng Mu exchanged a glance. Instructor Sheng then cautiously asked, “How much do you know about Instructor Qing?” Curo shrugged his shoulders and said, “Not much, I only know that he is a close friend of Ancestor Jing and that he helped me pass through the Dragon Form Awakening safely.”

Instructor Sheng then probed, “Nothing else?” Curo shook his head and said, “Nothing else. When I exited the blood cocoon was the first time I saw him. After that we immediately rushed here.” Hearing this, Instructor Sheng and Chief Feng exchanged a glance again, as if debating on whether to tell him something or not.

In the end, when they thought back to their Founder’s movements these past year and his involvement with him, Instructor Sheng sighed and said, “Qing Zhao is his alias. His real name is Xi Zhao and he is the Founder of Hidden Dragon Academy. As you presume, it would cause quite an uproar if it were to be known, so only Heavenly Instructors and a few other people know about it.” Curo looked at the two in astonishment but before he could ask, Chief Feng explained, “The Founder has always been a little eccentric. From time to time, when he finds the right seedling, he likes to take charge of teaching the person himself. However, if it were known that he was the Founder, then it would cause endless problems. So, he assumes the identity of a Heavenly Instructor Qing Zhao.”

Having it explained like that, Curo nodded his head in understanding. Jealousy and greed were the downfall of any man. To keep the Student’s he would find good seedlings from being targeted, he uses as fake identity to teach them.

However, his word is still law amongst the school. Every other Student and Instructor has to listen to the orders of a Heavenly Instructor. However, all of the Heavenly Instructors know his real identity and no one would be stupid enough to berate him. This was actually a pretty solid way of doing things. Even though he was using someone else’s name, he was still up to date with everything that happened and he was involved in everything that happened in the Academy. Curo pondered on it for a moment but as it didn’t directly involve him, he didn’t care much.

Instructor Sheng and Chief Feng talked a bit about the Roaming Dragon Division before Instructor Sheng decided to leave and let Chief Feng finish his work in peace. After Instructor Sheng and Curo left the Enforcement Hall, the two headed towards the interior of the Academy. More precisely, they headed to the new student’s registration area. There, Curo would get his identity medallion, robes and also a few other things that all new students received.

When they arrived in the registration area, Curo looked around and saw only a few people here. There were twenty desks and only a few of them had people still working on them. It was obvious that the bigger rush was over now. When Curo and Instructor Sheng arrived at one of the tables, the Senior Student in charge of it was nearly sleeping. Instructor Sheng coughed lightly to get his attention and when the Student raised his head, there was annoyance written all over his face. However, the moment he saw Instructor Sheng, his face changed as he shot up and greeted him.

Instructor Sheng snorted coldly and said, “This is the Student assigned to me Ji Curo. We are here to collect the Identity Medallion and robes.” The Student looked at Curo and hurriedly went to the back room to retrieve the things.

Instructor Sheng then said, “Next we will head to the Merit Exchange. Although you don’t have much Merit Points now, if you see something that you want to or need to obtain for the future, it is better for you to start saving up now.” Hearing this, Curo nodded his head and listened to the advice. The student had arrived back midway through Curo’s and Instructor Feng’s chat. His mouth nearly dropped to the floor from shock. Although Instructor Feng wasn’t overly friendly or caring in his tone, it was obvious that he didn’t talk to Curo in the same cold and annoyed tone that he used on everyone else. This in itself was as rare as seeing a Phoenix feather or a Qilin horn.

He handed Curo the things with a complicated face and said, “By binding the Identity Medallion, you will be officially recognized as a student of our Academy.” Curo nodded his head and infused some Qi into the Medallion to bind it. After binding it, information entered his head. Seeing this, the Student continued explaining, “By infusing Qi into the Medallion, you will be able to see your Ranking, Merit Points and current Battle Score. Also, this Medallion acts as an identification inside and outside the Academy. All of the transactions will be strictly done via the Medallion.”

Hearing this Curo nodded his head and drew the Academy Robes over his plain shirt and pants. After the Student reminded Curo not to lose the Medallion or if he did, to let them know immediately for a replacement one, Curo and Instructor Sheng left the registration area.

As they walked towards the Merit Point Exchange, Instructor Sheng explained some of the rules of the Academy and various important locations to Curo. He only briefly mentioned the Mission Hall, as to Curo, it would mean very little. Most of his time would be spent on helping Instructor Sheng manage the Roaming Dragon Division. At times, if the situation allows it, he could take a mission or two but his main focus would be on helping Instructor Sheng manage the Roaming Dragon.

It didn’t take long before the two reached a giant multi layered colourful pagoda. As sign hung on top of the gigantic open doors that read: Merit Points Exchange. When Curo and Instructor Sheng arrived inside the building, they found it to be bustling with activity. In the front area, there was special area designed for Students to exchange goods amongst themselves.

There would be some that quickly needed Merit Points for something, so they sold off something valuable to themselves or their family. However, there were also people that had managed to come across a stroke of luck during their missions outside of the Academy and obtained something rare that they had no use for, so instead of letting it gather dust in their hands, they opted to sell it. As Curo glanced at the goods being sold at the stalls at the two sides of the road, he didn’t find anything that piqued his interest.

He followed Instructor Sheng down the wide passageway to several counters at the back of the building. At these desks, a Student or an Instructor could exchange for materials they needed with the Academy. As Curo glanced at the items up for exchange, there were two things that caught his eye. An armour and a set of needles. As he looked at the description of the items and at the cost, he could only sigh.

Both of these items were Top Grade Artefacts and their prices were also quite high. The set of Top Grade Flying Needles was priced at 1.3 million Merit Points and the Armour cost and extravagant 2.9 million Merit Points. Curo then looked at the Medallion in his hand and smiled wryly. He currently had 23 000 merit points. 1000 points were given to every Student that entered the Academy, 7000 were given for reaching 18 000 Battle Score and 15 000 were given to him for reaching the Number 2 on the Rankings. Tomorrow, he would get another 20 000 points for reaching the Number One on Human Ranking but these were all one time rewards. If he fell in the Rankings, he would not receive any more Merit Points, neither would he gain them if he retook his Number One Ranking. Even if he factored in the Merit Points he received tomorrow, he would only have 43 000 Merit Points.

Seeing the wryly smiling Curo, Instructor Sheng turned his head towards the items that Curo had looked at. He knew he was in a desperate need for a Defensive Artefact but he did not understand why he was looking at the set of flying needles.

Curo then turned to Instructor Sheng and asked, “How many Merit Points will I receive for my duties as a Deputy for Roaming Dragon Division?” Instructor Sheng fell into thought as he said uncertainly, “The Deputy of Foreign Affairs receives 10 000 Merit Points per month as compensation for his work. I think that it would not be less than that. There is a chance it will be higher than that because of the added responsibilities and obligations.” Curo nodded his head but he still felt slightly depressed. Even if he relied on the monthly pay from his Number One as the Human Ranking and the pay from his Deputy work, he would still be hard pressed to buy the things. He might not even be able to buy them before he graduated the Academy.

Seeing Curo sigh so heavily, Instructor Sheng asked, “I can understand the armour as you need a strong Defensive Artefact, however, why do you need the set of flying needles?” When Curo heard the question, he gave a vague answer, “By luck, I managed to obtain a quite an interesting Art for flying needles, however, at the time, I was crippled, so I didn’t research it much. At the time, I just thought that it was an interesting Art.” Hearing this vague answer, Instructor Sheng nodded his head and said resolutely, “As a gift for becoming my Student and my compensation for the sleepless night you are going to have from now, I will gift you the Top Grade Armour. However, the set of flying needles are something that you are going to have to save up for by yourself.”

Hearing this, Curo, the Student working the Exchange Table and all of the surrounding people were flabbergasted. A Top Grade Armour was at the minimum 2 000 000 Merit Points. To casually gift something like that away…. However, when they looked at the person that had said that, they felt even more shocked. Instructor Sheng was renowned as a cold and as a person with a fiery temper.

It was rarer to see him calm than seeing a Dragon. For him to take the initiative to gift something to someone and to a Student none the less. From their words, it seemed as though Curo was assigned as a Student to him and when they thought back to the rumours of how every other Student that had been assigned to him had changed Instructors in maximum a month, they truly felt dumbstruck.

They all gave Curo a complicated look as they felt a tinge of jealousy and some people felt greed. Curo then cupped his hands towards the man and said with a smile, “I will have to thank Instructor Sheng then.” Instructor Sheng gave a merry laugh as he said, “No worries, we are going to have to deal with a lot of bullshit for the next thirty years. In fear of scaring you off, I need to make you owe me one.”

As Instructor Sheng joked around with Curo, the people around the two were rubbing their eyes. Had Instructor Sheng fallen on his head this morning or hit on the head by a donkey?

They had never seen him act like this and much less with a Junior Student, someone that had just arrived at the Academy. If they knew that the two people in front of them would become the most feared people in the Academy in the years to come, they would most likely not feel that this was weird at all.

In the next few years, the name of Ji Curo would take the world by storm as the person never to be offended in the Hidden Dragon Academy.