From the Heavens Descended an Immortal Sister

Chapter 167: Chapter 165: Arrival_1

"We've arrived."

Time flew by quickly, and Fang Ren had only just closed his eyes to cultivate for a short while when he heard the driver's voice from up front.

However, for Bai Qi, those few hours had been spent in constant turmoil.

No sooner had they gotten off the bus than they saw a continuous stream of people stepping off other coaches, all of them clad in various dazzling aristocratic school uniforms. Frankly, these uniforms looked more like formal attire.

With characteristics akin to formal wear, these school uniforms all bore some hallmarks, and some had several golden chains dangling from their chests, exceptionally shiny and glittery, definitely not something that seemed fitting for a student to wear…

In contrast, the school uniforms that Fang Ren and Bai Qi were wearing seemed exceptionally bland, just regular black tracksuits, the kind that was extremely common.

About a hundred meters from where the fleet of coaches had stopped stood a grand structure, its main entrance as large as the gates of ancient cities, and above the entrance hung a sign with the words "Orchid Bamboo Special Alchemist Guild" engraved in gleaming gold.

"Do the top hundred elite schools all attach such importance to their uniforms?"

Watching the crowd around him dressed in bright, refined clothes, for a moment Fang Ren felt as if he wasn't here to take part in the alchemy competition, but rather as if he had walked into an aristocratic ball.

"Can't help it, the students who attend these schools usually come from very wealthy families and are highly talented, receiving focused cultivation, so they pay a lot of attention to their appearance and attire," replied Bai Qi.

Having said that, Bai Qi put on a duckbill cap he had prepared in advance, pulling the brim much lower to cover the top half of his face above the nose.

The two began to follow the crowd of brightly dressed students and head towards the Alchemist Guild.

The crowd around them was packed, all students from globally ranked aristocratic universities. Amongst them, Fang Ren and Bai Qi felt like they stuck out like a "crane in a chicken coop."

Well, actually, in terms of attire, it was more like a chicken in a crane flock.

Since they had entered the main group, they inevitably caught snippets of conversation from those around them.

"Hey, that school uniform, I remember it belongs to one of the universities ranked in the bottom ten globally," remarked a student from an aristocratic school upon seeing Fang Ren and Bai Qi, whispering to a classmate beside him.

Following this comment, a group of students walking beside him all turned their heads to look at Fang Ren.

A girl burst into laughter upon seeing Fang Ren's uniform, "That little county town school actually came to participate."

"Those two are from... if I'm not mistaken, it's called Yangming University, right?" commented another girl.

"Now that you mention it, I suddenly recall that in our competition area, there are two universities ranked rather low, one called Baili, the other, Yangming. Particularly Yangming, it seems like its ranking has never broken out of the last ten," laughed one of the girls.

"Hey, I just checked online, and this uniform is indeed from that bottom ten ranking, Yangming University."

"For real? Baili is slightly better; at least its ranking is within the top five hundred. No students from that university came here, so how come Yangming did?"

A boy spoke with disdain, "Can't understand where they get the courage from, coming here to lose face."

"Let's move away quickly, don't talk to them or it'll lower our IQ."

...

As several voices dropped off, the sounds around them grew louder and the aristocratic students who had been crowded around Fang Ren and Bai Qi began to distance themselves, their expressions fairly disdainful.

"Is this the quality of Aristocrats?" Fang Ren muttered embarrassingly as he looked around at the distancing crowd.

"This is only part of it. Although I don't like to admit it, I'm still an Aristocrat, right? I think what they're saying is too much." Bai Qi frowned and said, "And hey, you're an Aristocrat too, okay? Are you so angry that you're cursing yourself as well?"

"I am not." Fang Ren smiled and denied.

He had never acknowledged himself as the young master of the Fang Family. What others thought, how they referred to him, it was none of his concern.

"Suit yourself then," Bai Qi snorted.

After entering through the main gate, they had to pass through a corridor over 20 meters long. Even though the corridor was wide, it was still overcrowded, making the emptiness around Fang Ren even more noticeable.

As they walked through the corridor, the view inside suddenly expanded. Upon entering, they saw a large area spanning over a thousand square meters.

The area was like the training ground in a martial arts drama: flat, square, and with large pillars standing at each corner, all covered in a multitude of carved patterns.

Both the tiles on the ground and the pillars were amber-colored, giving a solemn atmosphere to the whole place.

Behind this vast area, there was a group of retro buildings, a total of five stories tall, very large and towering, giving the entire guild a serious tone.

In the middle of the large area stood six middle-aged men and women dressed in the attire of the Orchid Bamboo Alchemy Guild, each beside a large sign bearing the names of various schools.

Just when nearly everyone had arrived, an elder wearing the Alchemist Guild's uniform, holding a microphone, walked to the center of the area.

"Please, instructors from each school, maintain order and line up your students neatly at the designated spots. Once all the students from each school are present, I will go over the instructions for this competition," he announced.

Following the elder's announcement, instructors from various schools stepped forward, leading their students towards the signs in the center of the area.

"Where's our instructor...?"

Bai Qi stared blankly at the students from the other schools moving towards the center and then at Fang Ren.

"Probably too embarrassed to show up," Fang Ren casually remarked, and started walking towards the area.

Seeing this, Bai Qi immediately lowered the brim of his hat and followed.

As the two of them stepped onto the area, they realized that all six school signs were already occupied by students from other schools.

Seeing this, Fang Ren simply bypassed a group of Aristocratic students and walked towards the old man with the microphone, with Bai Qi trailing behind him.

As the two approached, the Aristocratic students from Yangming University began to laugh uncontrollably.

"Oh, look, they didn't even prepare a spot for Mediocre University."

"What's he doing? Going to complain to the instructor? How shameful."

"Exactly, if it were me, I would have just turned around and left. I couldn't lose face like that."

...