"Hey, Dugu classmate, why didn't you answer when I called you earlier?"
Just as Dugu Yi was still trying to argue with Yan Lin while his family wasn't poor, the teacher who had gone to Jianqi City to pick someone up suddenly asked.
If he had known that this Jianqi City swordsman couldn't afford a ticket, he could have just given him a ride.
As a Heavenly Prodigy, that's the treatment he deserves.
"Well, my smart wristband was dead at the time, and I happened to be out in the wilderness with nowhere to charge it."
Dugu Yi tapped his smart wristband, and even the low‑battery warning was gone.
His wristband had run out of power long ago, and he was rushing back, with no time to stop and charge it.
After returning to Jianqi City, he learned the ship had already left, so he grabbed a few things at home and hurried over.
The smart wristband is still dead; it doesn't even have enough power to turn on.
After Dugu Yi finished speaking, the surroundings fell silent once more.
"Fine, after the son of the Jianqi City lord had to take a summer job, couldn't afford money or a ticket, now there's yet another problem."
Even his smart devices can't be charged.
While everyone else was once again in disbelief, only the student from Jianqi City silently lowered his head.
"Alright, buddy, how did you get up here? How did you end up attacking our fortress?"
With all that commotion earlier, they actually thought someone had swallowed a bear's heart and a leopard's gall to attack Star Sea Academy.
Dugu Yi: "I was blasted up."
"What the heck?"
Yan Lin's face stiffened; he pinched his little finger and prodded his ear, wondering if he had misheard.
The same thought occurred among the students behind him.
Even the teachers were baffled.
"I said I was blasted up."
Dugu Yi thought maybe he hadn't been clear, so he repeated himself.
"Wait, you said you were blasted up."
Yan Lin reached out to stop Dugu Yi from continuing.
Dugu Yi nodded.
"Do you mean the kind of blasting I'm thinking of?"
"Being launched from a cannon tube, is that what you mean?"
Dugu Yi nodded again.
"Come on, buddy, are you pulling my leg? If you said it was Tiān Qióng Academy that'd be one thing, but this is Star Sea Academy—taking a warship here takes a day and a half. What cannon could blast you that far?"
Even if it were Tiān Qióng Academy, saying you were blasted up by a cannon is an exaggeration, let alone at the outer‑space Star Sea Academy.
"You were hurled here from Azure Star—did you use a rocket launch device?"
"Exactly."
Hearing Yan Lin's absurd claim, Dugu Yi nodded as if it were perfectly reasonable.
Yan Lin: …All teachers and students: … "Buddy, I'm being serious. You're kidding me. You're only Captain Rank; wouldn't the energy from that rocket launch device instantly turn you to ash?"
"If you said you were Marshal Rank, I might believe you a bit, but you're only Captain Rank right now."
"Nonsense?"
"You mean this—before launch, my father placed a sword‑aura shield around me, so the flames from the rocket launch device can't hurt me."
An imperial‑level sword‑aura shield naturally isn't afraid of the energy burst from a rocket propulsion device.
"Whoa, I almost forgot you have an imperial‑level forbidden weapon."
This guy is so poor that I almost forgot his father is an imperial‑level big shot.
"It's not a forbidden weapon; making one requires fine jade, which costs money. My father personally gave me a sword‑aura shield, and after that he just absorbed some celestial energy and was fine."
"Good steel should be used on the blade; even though he does have an imperial‑level forbidden weapon, it wouldn't make sense to use it here."
"Buying jade doesn't cost money?"
"Damn, what's this imperial‑level nuclear‑powered nonsense?"
At that moment, all the freshmen not only updated their perception of the second generation, but also of imperial‑level great beings.
"No, your family even used a rocket launch device, yet you worry about a few jade pieces?"
One launch of the rocket launch device could buy how many jade?
"You see, the rocket launch device wasn't started to take me to school; there just happened to be a space satellite that needed launching, so I just hit a free ride."
Dugu Yi spoke again, silencing the teachers and students, bringing the Jianqi City students to tears.
Why do the Professionals of Jianqi City love taking bounty missions, ending up with a reputation of hating evil? It's all because they're poor.
"Alright, I get it. You were away from Jianqi City to earn extra money over the summer, then when you went back you had no money for a ticket, missed the ship that picks up freshmen, so you had to hitch a ride on a satellite, got blasted onto the Star Sea Academy's fortress shield, triggering an enemy‑alert."
Yan Lin gathered his thoughts and said something that even he found absurd.
"Yeah, brother, that's exactly it."
Dugu Yi clenched his right fist and hammered it onto his left, affirming.
"But I recall that you people in Jianqi City love collecting swords. You must have one; just take it out and sell it, then none of this would happen, right?"
Sword cultivators may be poor, but they are obsessive about collecting sword weapons.
As the son of the Jianqi City lord, Yan Lin didn't believe Dugu Yi didn't have a good sword in his hand.
"Buddy, you're asking for my life! For sword cultivators, the sword is our life."
As a qualified sword cultivator, he would rather die of thirst or hunger than sell a sword.
"Fine, then what's going on? Were you beaten by the dean…?"
Dugu Yi's ragged clothes indeed looked like he'd been beaten, but if Dean Zhao and his crew had gotten involved, he'd be more than just dirty and bruised.
"It was the satellite launch device that burned me; to conserve spirit energy, my sword‑aura shield only protected me from the device's energy, not my clothes."
The sword‑aura shield only protects a person, not clothing.
"Is it my father?"
After a long silence, Yan Lin spoke again.
He had always thought his paternal love was like a landslide, but compared to this guy, it seemed not so bad.
It seemed not so bad.
Not only him, everyone at the freshman registration area felt it was absurd.
"Alright, now that everything's clear, let's go report."
After everything was said, Dean Zhao kicked Dugu Yi's butt.
"Also, change out of those clothes right now, what's with that appearance?"
Dugu Yi's current outfit is too eye‑catching.
His butt cheeks were almost exposed.
After saying that, Dean Zhao flashed away from the registration area, soaring toward the teaching district.