Novel Full Chapter 710 - Taming the Fifth Year - The Smart Take
Chapter 710: Chapter 710 – Taming the Fifth Year – The Smart Take
They crossed the bridge over the rift, the massive structure connecting the two territories.
The guards on both sides simply stepped aside, none wanting to ask what exactly was happening.
One of the younger guards started to open his mouth. His hand reaching for the standard incident report form, duty warring with self-preservation instinct.
His superior immediately put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.
“Don’t you dare… That’s a Gold rank beast, a noble kid with those is from some high rank family. Delaying them right now in the exams is a bad idea, let’s agree those aren’t people’s grunts coming from those.”
The younger guard looked at his superior, then at the procession… a multi-headed Hydra dragging two dozen human-shaped cocoons, and leading them all a fourteen-year-old boy who walked like this was the most normal thing in the world.
The younger guard wisely closed his mouth and pretended to find something fascinating about the bridge railing that required his immediate attention.
And finally they arrived at a central part of Yano city where Julius and Selphira were already waiting.
They’d been warned in advance thanks to Zhao’s owl. The phantom bird could cross impossible distances in minutes now thanks to the thousand-day method.
Selphira observed the cocoons with an expression that mixed amusement and exasperation. One corner of her mouth twitched upward even as her eyebrows drew together in the particular way that suggested she was simultaneously proud and annoyed, the expression of watching a brilliant boy solve problems in the most dramatically inconvenient way possible.
Julius simply sighed, massaging his temple like he felt a headache approaching.
He’d been dealing with political fallout all morning. Emergency meetings with concerned nobles. Frantic messages from academy administration. Demands for explanations about the rumors from Yino and how an academic exam had turned into what looked suspiciously like a military engagement complete with prisoners of war.
“Do you want to cancel the exam?” Julius asked Ren after hearing Zhao’s quick report about what had happened. “If you need to recover the lost day from this… attempt.”
The word ’attempt’ carried weight… Not just a student conflict, not just opportunistic sabotage, but coordinated assassination attempt involving ’strong’ gold rank known adults, which elevated this from academic misconduct to actual crime that would require formal investigations and legal consequences.
Ren shook his head immediately.
“They didn’t really take me off schedule,” he explained, his tone completely casual as if he’d been discussing weather instead of an attempted murder. “There was actually little time lost. I’d prefer to use the bit more than a day and a half remaining to take advantage of the tunnel I already made and the team I already taught.”
He paused, and a small smile appeared on his face. The kind of smile that suggested he’d already calculated every variable and found them all favorable.
“I’m confident I’ll still win even with the small inconvenience.”
Selphira laughed, the sound genuine and surprised.
“Small inconvenience…”
She’d seen the reports. Had read Zhao’s detailed account of the ambush, eight mostly Gold-rank adults, fifteen students, coordinated assault from multiple angles.
And Ren was calling it a small inconvenience.
“Technically correct,” Zhao commented, crossing his arms with the satisfied expression of someone whose student had validated all his training. “It only took about five minutes to neutralize everyone.”
The statement hung in the air.
Five minutes…
From ambush to complete victory, including time to hit Jin, deliver an extra beating, and wrap everyone in root cocoons for transport.
Most combat engagements between equal-ranked opponents lasted way longer than five minutes. Most fights between students and adults would be evacuations, not victories.
Five minutes to completely dismantle a coordinated assassination attempt spoke to capability that went beyond ’talented’ into territory that made people uncomfortable because it suggested the power gap was even larger than they’d thought… And he still was a kid.
Julius observed Ren for a long moment, political calculations running behind his eyes.
Canceling the exam would send messages. Would suggest Ren needed special treatment, protection, that he couldn’t handle adversity. Would give ammunition to those who claimed he was only successful because of favoritism.
Continuing would send different messages. Would demonstrate that even assassination attempts couldn’t stop him. Would prove that the gap between Ren and his peers was so vast that coordinated ambushes were merely inconvenient rather than dangerous.
Both options had implications… But one of them let Ren choose his own path.
Julius nodded. “If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
“Then you can continue. We’ll handle… this.” Julius gestured toward the cocoons with the weary resignation of someone whose job description had somehow expanded to include disposing of failed assassins. “There will be serious consequences for everyone involved.”
The understatement was deliberate. Serious consequences meant investigations that would tear apart some noble houses. Meant truth-verification interrogations that would expose every sacrificial pawn, every briber, every person who’d known and said nothing.
Maybe not fully dismantled, but their organization was sure to take a hit.
“Good,” Ren responded simply.
No demands for specific punishments… Just acknowledgment that justice would be done and trust that Julius would handle it.
His group set in motion again, this time more hurried. They’d lost time, not much but some, and wanted to compensate for it.
Klein walked alongside the others, feeling lighter than he had in months.
The weight he’d been carrying since the Goldcrest fall. The burden of political calculations and survival strategies and carefully maintained neutrality. All of it gone, burned away in the moment he’d chosen a side and committed fully.
His muscles ached from combat. His future was more uncertain than it had been in days.
But he felt free.
And Ren, true to his nature, was already planning how to bring back massive amounts of silk.
Twice what they’d already collected.
Because if Ren Patinder was going to win an exam, he was going to win so overwhelmingly that nobody could question the result. Demonstrate superiority so absolute that even his enemies would have to admit defeat.
Small inconvenience or not.