He didn't know what had happened before, but the man on the ground seemed to have suffered a massive shock; he was dazed and still hadn't come to his senses.
"Hm."
Dean Zhao, standing beside him, let out a cold snort, and the boy on the ground instantly perked up.
"Sir, hello teacher, I am Dugu Yi of Jianqi City."
Dugu Yi first looked around with a bewildered expression, and after confirming his surroundings, he spoke to the teacher standing beside him.
The moment his name was mentioned, a burst of chatter erupted among the crowd.
Dugu Yi, the young master of the Dugu family, the lord's son of Jianqi City, is also this generation's Sword Prodigy.
Jianqi City, as its name suggests, is a great Sword Path metropolis, one of the Republic's nine top-tier giant cities, and its residents are essentially all sword cultivators.
Among the younger generation, the strongest sword practitioners are bestowed the title of Sword Prodigy.
In fact, aside from a few truly exceptional geniuses, almost every Sword Prodigy comes from the lord's household.
After all, the sword-path inheritance of the lord's household is already strong, and they also have more resources.
But how could the lord's son be in such a sorry state?
"Are you Dugu Yi?"
After hearing Dugu Yi's self-introduction, a voice of surprise rang out, and a teacher pushed through the crowd and entered.
He was the teacher in charge of going to Jianqi City to welcome the new students, but up until the end, the young master Dugu Yi had not arrived.
"Ah, yes, teacher, I am Dugu Yi."
Seeing so many eyes on him, Dugu Yi quickly stood up from the ground.
However, his clothes were tattered and looked as if they'd been haphazardly cut with scissors, making him look quite unseemly.
"I went to Jianqi City to pick someone up, and you never showed up. I even called the lord's side; they said you weren't there, so I thought you had given up coming."
Dugu Yi was the top Examinee of this cohort in Jianqi City, so even teachers from Star Sea Academy naturally paid close attention to him.
After realizing he hadn't arrived, they waited an extra half hour in Jianqi City, but still never saw his figure.
In the end they could only locate Lord Dugu Yuntian of Jianqi City, but even he couldn't get in touch with Dugu Yi.
"He truly thought Dugu Yi had abandoned Star Sea Academy and turned to another school, and he regretted it for a long time."
"Um, I originally planned to earn some extra cash during the summer vacation, but when I returned to Jianqi City I found I didn't have enough credit points to buy a ticket, so I had to run back all the way and missed the warship that was receiving the new students."
Dugu Yi looked embarrassed, but in fact he had planned it: after buying what he needed, the remaining credit points would have been just enough to return to the city.
However, unexpectedly the sword equipment he wanted to purchase surged in price; if he bought that sword, his remaining credit points wouldn't be enough to get back to Jianqi City.
At that moment, the ship from Star Sea Academy to pick up the new students was leaving soon, and if he ran all the way back, he would definitely miss it.
Normally, at this point one would have to give up a sword and buy a ticket back to Jianqi City.
But suddenly he became obsessed, and by the time he realized, he had already paid and walked away with the long sword.
Well, that wasn't really surprising.
Almost everyone knows that the people of Jianqi City love only two things.
Swords and wine.
When they encounter a fine sword or good wine, they can't help but want to buy it.
They will spend all their money until they're practically penniless.
All sword cultivators are broke; that's how it works.
He said that, but when Dugu Yi uttered those words, the scene fell deathly silent.
The lord's son of Jianqi City, earning extra cash during summer, had no money for a ticket.
They all clearly recognized these characters, yet why did they feel so strange when put together?
They couldn't understand.
"Jing Yuan, is this right?"
Lu Li was bewildered; this seemed a bit different from the perception she had built over the past two months.
A lord's son, isn't he someone who could receive an entire manor at a full-moon banquet?
How could he not even afford a single ticket and have to earn extra cash during summer?
"Jianqi City is a bit special."
Jing Yuan understood Lu Li's thoughts, but indeed Jianqi City is very poor, its finances perpetually in deficit.
That's not entirely accurate, because if they sold all the fine swords and wine they have stored at home, their wealth wouldn't be lower than that of the other eight top-tier giant cities.
But that would be tantamount to taking their lives, which cannot happen.
"I'm not the one saying this, but although I've always heard Jianqi City is pretty poor, it shouldn't be this destitute, right?"
In fact, it's not just Lu Li; even Yan Lin found it hard to comprehend.
"You don't even have money for a ticket; that's absurd! You're the lord's son after all."
Yan Lin had always heard his family complain that Jianqi City was poor; his own father often mocked those poor souls of Jianqi City, but he never felt it himself. Even a top-tier giant city—how poor could it really be?"
But today he witnessed it: even as a lord's son, he didn't have money for a ticket.
What Yan Lin said echoed the sentiments of almost all the students present.
In just a few sentences, it reshaped their perception of the second generation.
"Friend, you can't say that. As you mentioned, our Jianqi City is still a top-tier giant city; how could it be that poor?"
Hearing Yan Lin's words, Dugu Yi's face hardened, rejecting the claim.
"Then why don't you even have money for a ticket?"
"If you're not poor, how could you lack even ticket money? Ticket prices haven't risen, have they?"
"You don't practice the Sword Path, so you don't understand; this is our cultivation."
Dugu Yi put on a pretentious look, but his shabby, dirt-covered appearance made others see only comedy.
"From the moment I first picked up a sword, my father told me, 'We sword cultivators seek within ourselves, needing no external aid; our nature is self-sufficient.'"
"Whether it's money or cultivation resources, we must obtain them with our own hands, not by seeking unearned gains. That is part of cultivation."
Dugu Yi tilted his face forty-five degrees toward the sky, raised both hands, and clenched them upward, his expression full of yearning.
A breeze stirred, lifting the tattered hem of Dugu Yi's pants, exposing his thighs.
"Tch."
Everyone could hear that after Dugu Yi finished speaking, Dean Zhao, who had been standing behind him, clearly spat out a sound.
Obviously, the dean was familiar with the Dugu family and treated their self-deceptive statements with a sneering attitude.
"Whoa, this is the first time I've heard someone describe poverty so refreshingly elegant."
Yan Lin rolled his tongue, tried to say something, but ended up laughing, "Isn't that still poverty?"