Chapter 53 – Asserting Sovereignty

The luggage was not much, and Lin Ze finished packing in less than an hour.

The apartment had also been cleaned by dedicated staff long ago, exceptionally tidy.

It had to be said.

Ningjiang Academy was quite thorough in this regard.

Students could simply move in with their bags.

After tidying up the apartment and having dinner with Guan Ning and the other two girls, Lin Ze returned to his dormitory and began his daily routine.

Cast Soul Guardian!

Ever since he discovered the Soul Art Achievement.

Every night before going to sleep, Lin Ze would try to use Soul Arts as many times as possible, not stopping until his Soul Power was completely drained.

In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that Pet Beast skills weren’t suitable for indoor use, he would have been grinding that achievement too.

And as his Soul Power increased, the number of Soul Arts he could cast each night grew as well.

His Soul Power was now as high as 1390.

If he consumed it all, it would be enough to cast 139 minimum-level Soul Guardians.

It took nearly half an hour.

His Soul Power was completely drained.

Lin Ze let out a long breath, ending tonight’s work.

“Probably a few dozen more casts and my Soul Art usage will hit 1000. That should activate a new achievement.”

He looked up at the sky—outside, the night had grown deep.

Lin Ze got up to take a shower, then turned in early.

The night passed without incident.

The next morning.

Lin Ze met up with Guan Ning and the others as usual.

After having breakfast together at the academy cafeteria, the group headed to the teaching area.

Class One and Class Nine were in different teaching buildings.

The four split up at the intersection, and Lin Ze and Guan Ning headed straight for Class One.

The moment he stepped into the classroom, countless gazes shot over.

The noisy classroom suddenly fell silent, and every student stared intently at Lin Ze.

“Good morning.”

Lin Ze greeted them with a calm expression and casually took a seat.

Guan Ning stepped forward and immediately claimed the seat closest to Lin Ze.

Many girls who had been itching to grab that spot showed disappointed expressions.

“Hmph.”

Guan Ning let out a slightly proud snort.

Just then, a pleasant voice suddenly rang out.

Guo Xinyi had appeared beside Lin Ze at some point.

Under everyone’s surprised gaze, she took out her phone, hesitated for a moment, then finally bit her lip and said:

“Lin Ze, would you mind exchanging contact info?”

The surroundings fell silent for a moment.

Then a wave of whispers erupted.

“No way, even Guo Xinyi is going to hit on him!”

“What’s so surprising about that? Lin Ze is handsome and talented. It’s not strange that Guo Xinyi has a crush on him.”

“Damn it, my goddess Guo!”

“So jealous! The other girl beside Lin Ze is also a beauty. Looks like he’s about to have two girls on the line!”

“Sigh, that’s the treatment geniuses get.”

The classmates’ voices were low.

But Guo Xinyi still heard them, and a blush spread across her pretty face.

Heaven knows.

She just admired Lin Ze and wanted to get to know him—it wasn’t at all what those people were implying about having a crush!

But it definitely wasn’t what they were saying either!

Lin Ze didn’t mind much and smiled as he agreed.

They were classmates in the same class, likely to spend four years together in the future. Exchanging contact info was perfectly normal.

He wasn’t narcissistic enough to think every girl who approached him liked him.

After exchanging phone numbers, Guo Xinyi returned to her seat with a red face.

Lin Ze put away his phone, but when he turned around, he saw Guan Ning pouting at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Brother, you really are popular!”

Guan Ning said with a hint of jealousy.

She could tolerate the girls who used to flock around him before—she was confident that with her looks and talent, she could easily outshine them all.

But Guo Xinyi was the first to make her feel threatened.

This was a formidable rival whose beauty was in no way inferior to hers, and whose talent and strength were even more outstanding!

At the thought, a strong sense of crisis rose in the girl’s heart.

Lin Ze had no idea what was going through Guan Ning’s head. He just shook his head with a wry smile.

Just then, Tan Yong and Li Pengyun came over to strike up a conversation, so the two had to temporarily put their discussion aside.

After the stone tablet challenge.

Lin Ze’s position as the number one among the freshmen was now unshakable.

Even proud and confident people like Tan Yong were completely convinced by Lin Ze.

Naturally, they had the intention of forming a friendship with him.

Before class started, they planned to build a good rapport with Lin Ze.

Only Lv Gang sat in place with a dark expression, showing no intention whatsoever of coming over to get close.

Most of Ningjiang Academy’s courses were theoretical.

The content mainly covered the history of Beast Tamers, the encyclopedia of Ferocious Beasts, and Pet Beast cultivation, and so on.

It was similar to high school.

Of course, the depth was several levels greater.

Although Lin Ze found the lectures quite interesting, he still decided to minimize his class attendance as much as possible in the future.

After all, he could easily acquire all this knowledge by reading books on his own.

The results would even be far better than attending classes.

In fact, according to Jing Tao, the vast majority of students did exactly that.

Beast Tamers spent most of their energy on cultivating their Pet Beasts and practicing Soul Arts.

Only those aspiring to become Pet Beast cultivation experts would devote large amounts of time to studying theory.

After class.

Lin Ze walked straight out of the classroom.

“Brother, where are you going?”

Guan Ning quickly caught up with Lin Ze, naturally linking her arm through his, subtly staking her claim in front of the surrounding girls.

Quite a few girls who had been about to approach stopped in their tracks involuntarily at the sight.

Lin Ze didn’t pay attention to the girl’s little gesture and answered without thinking:

“Going to the Virtual Combat room.”

Guan Ning immediately said, “I’ll come too!”

Lin Ze had no objection.

The two soon arrived at the training area and casually walked into a Virtual Combat room that had plenty of empty booths.

After registering their identities at the front desk with their student ID cards, they quickly received bronze keys.

The student ID cards had been issued during yesterday’s registration.

Besides serving as identification, the student ID card also functioned as a payment method.

All expenses within the academy could be paid by swiping the student ID card.

When Lin Ze got up this morning, he noticed that the first month’s 5,000 Resource Points had already been credited to his student ID card.

A moment later.

Lin Ze and Guan Ning found two adjacent booths and sat down.

Clenching the bronze key in his palm, Lin Ze took a deep breath and quickly closed his eyes.

The familiar sensation of weightlessness instantly enveloped his entire body.

When he opened his eyes again.

Lin Ze found himself in a pure white space.

In front of him, a translucent light screen floated in the void.

Three options were listed horizontally on it.

[Personal Info], [Leaderboard], [Forum]

Lin Ze opened Personal Info first.

Name: Lin Ze

Gender: Male

Level: Apprentice

Points: 0

Matches: 0

Win Rate: N/A

Ranking: NO.573620

Login Location: Ningjiang Academy

Lin Ze’s gaze landed on the ranking column.

He had just logged in, so he should be among the bottom-ranked few.

In other words.

There were at least over 570,000 Apprentice Beast Tamers in the Apprentice Zone!