Chapter 255: Feng Bo, Getting the Third Star

"I am Feng Bo," the masked man introduced himself.

"I have never seen Solomon train anyone other than students who just performed," Jin stated, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Instructor Solomon taught me in secret, late at night when the courtyards were empty," Feng Bo responded smoothly.

Jin turned to a nearby junior instructor. "Do we have a first-year novice registered under the name Feng Bo?"

Before the instructor could check the scrolls, Master Wu spoke up from the balcony. "Let the boy perform, Jin. We are evaluating martial mastery today, not attendance logs."

Jin stepped aside, gesturing for the masked student to proceed.

Feng Bo raised his wooden sword. He did not bother with the traditional opening rites. He immediately launched into the thirteen steps of the Azure Crane Blade. He executed the technique with absolute perfection.

Every single angle, every transfer, and every aerial rotation was performed in its truest, most devastating glory.

The performance left the entire courtyard in stunned silence. Even Marco, Maximus, and Elizabeth widened their eyes, entirely shocked by the masked boy’s flawless mastery.

Jin watched the display with poorly concealed surprise, though a deep scowl ruined his features.

Feng Bo lowered his wooden sword and waited for the results.

Master Wu nodded firmly. "You pass."

The grandmaster stood up and addressed the quiet courtyard. "Solomon was assigned a strict mission to earn his first academy star. He has successfully accomplished his task by providing four students who have mastered our legacy technique. Even though he is not present here today, everyone should recognize that Solomon is the very first novice among the new generation to achieve an academy star."

Master Wu leaned over the stone railing. "All of you must try harder. Unless you plan to remain trapped in the Martial World for the rest of your academic careers without learning anything of value, you must push your limits. The sooner you learn and master your assigned lessons, the sooner you can leave the Eastern Realms and return to the main academy to pursue other disciplines."

With that final motivational warning, Master Wu dismissed the assembly.

Soon, the students began filtering out of the courtyard. The grandmaster retreated into the upper halls. Jin stared intently at the masked student for several long seconds before finally turning on his heel and leaving the dirt rings.

Now, only Marco, Maximus, Elizabeth, Arthur, and the masked Feng Bo remained near the center of the courtyard.

Maximus immediately stepped forward, his towering frame casting a shadow over the masked boy. He glared down at him, aggressively asserting his physical dominance.

"Who are you?" Maximus demanded, crossing his thick arms. "What is your relationship with Instructor Solomon? Why would he teach you privately in the middle of the night? That makes no sense! We left for the Azure Moon Kingdom on the very first day, and he left for his mission straight from the palace! When did he possibly have the time to teach you?!"

Feng Bo let out a familiar, exhausted sigh. He reached up and pulled the dark cloth down from his face.

"I literally just taught you how to stop being so rigid," Solomon said, offering a sarcastic greeting to his dumbfounded students.

The four students stared at him in utter disbelief. Elizabeth simply stood near the weapon racks, her red eyes wide with shock, completely unable to process his sudden appearance.

"When did you even get back?" Marco asked, completely baffled.

"I arrived right around the time the assembly started," Solomon replied, tossing the dark cloth onto a nearby bench.

"Then why on earth did you disguise yourself as Feng Bo?" Maximus demanded, his towering frame relaxing slightly. "Are you not Feng Bo?"

Solomon did not answer because he didn’t know what he was supposed to say to that. Instead, he turned his attention to Arthur. The telekinetic boy was staring intently at his own boots, completely refusing to look up.

"What happened, Arthur?" Solomon asked gently.

"You would have completely failed your mission because of me," Arthur muttered, his voice laced with heavy guilt. "I could not master the physical forms in time. I ruined everything."

"I would not have cared if I failed the mission," Solomon responded, placing a reassuring hand on the boy’s shoulder. "What actually matters is that all of you learned the Azure Crane Blade.You do not have to worry about the speed of your progress. Physically mastering the execution can come later."

"It has only been roughly a month since we arrived in the Martial World. You should not be stressing out over an advanced technique when there are literally thousands of other first-year novices who cannot even perform the first three steps properly yet. And most importantly, I did not fail the mission. Fortunately, I was able to fool them."

Arthur looked up, a hesitant smile breaking through his anxiety. The reassuring words lifted a weight off his shoulders, and he visibly relaxed.

"Y-You are right!" he nodded.

Solomon dropped his hand and looked past the boys, where Elizabeth stood near the back of the group, still staring at him with an unreadable expression.

’Why is she acting as if she has seen a ghost?’ he thought.

Marco, Arthur, and surprisingly even Maximus immediately sensed the shifting mood in the courtyard. The three boys exchanged quick glances, offered hasty excuses about needing to clean their gear, and sprinted out of the dirt rings, leaving Solomon and Elizabeth entirely alone.

The silence stretching between them felt incredibly awkward so Solomon raised his hand and offered a casual thumbs-up. "You did a great job out there too."

Elizabeth frowned deeply, entirely ignoring the praise. She pointed a finger at the empty space above his shoulder. "Where is your broadcasting owl?"

Solomon scratched the back of his neck and offered a sheepish grin. "It got destroyed during my mission."

Elizabeth pointed at her own floating bronze owl. "I was training when your fans flooded my live stream suddenly. They told me you sneaked into an A+ rank dimensional rift alone. They said you fought a boss monster that even the elite Holy Knights could not defeat."

"That is correct," Solomon nodded.

Elizabeth’s frown deepened into a furious glare.

She stomped her boot against the dirt, her anger flaring at his completely nonchalant attitude. "Why would you do something so incredibly reckless?! You are a hypocrite! You expect everyone else to stay perfectly safe, yet you throw yourself into a death trap without a second thought!"

Solomon blinked in genuine confusion. He had absolutely no idea that Elizabeth had overheard the conversation between him and Lune at the hot spring. He simply assumed she was upset about his general lack of self-preservation.

"Nothing bad happened," Solomon defended himself casually with a shrug. "I defeated the boss and walked out perfectly fine."

Elizabeth closed the distance between them, stepping aggressively into his personal space. "Keeping that topic aside since you miraculously returned safely, your chat also told me something else entirely. Something I only found out after I returned to the sect from the Azure Moon Kingdom."

"Oh? What did they tell you?" Solomon asked, genuinely curious.

Elizabeth leaned in even closer, her red eyes burning with a mix of fury and intense rivalry. "They told me you kissed Lune."