54: Ice-breaking remarks

As he finished speaking, the surrounding crowd remained motionless.

Especially the students from the Combat Academy and the Medical Academy, who stared fixedly at each other, none of them showing any intention of stepping forward.

Liu Jiangyi's icy gaze pierced Li Ning and Wang Jing, "What are you still standing there for?"

Li Ning and Wang Jing nodded bitterly, then looked back at the Medical Academy students.

"Why are you not acting quickly?"

Shen Bing's gaze also pierced the Combat Academy students.

"If this trial cannot proceed smoothly, none of you will have an easy time when you return!"

Shen Bing and Li Ning's scolding finally got the students moving.

However!

The students from the Combat Academy and the Medical Academy all swarmed towards the students of the Auxiliary Academy.

In just over ten minutes, all the Auxiliary Academy students had found teammates.

Then something funny happened.

All the teams consisted of four people, either lacking students from the Medical Academy or lacking students from the Combat Academy.

The rest were students who hadn't successfully formed teams yet.

"What should we do?"

Shen Bing's expression turned ugly, and she looked at Liu Jiangyi for help.

They had done everything they could, but the students still disliked each other and refused to team up.

The Combat Academy and the Medical Academy had a long-standing feud; if a few words from them could solve it, then this problem wouldn't be a problem at all.

At this point, Liu Jiangyi had already vaguely smelled a conspiracy.

If the students couldn't form teams, then the trial couldn't proceed.

If the trial couldn't proceed, Liu Jiangyi would naturally have to share the responsibility with the other teachers.

But how could Liu Jiangyi tolerate such a thing happening?

The Academy's higher-ups must have guessed early on that Liu Jiangyi wouldn't sit idly by and would definitely use extraordinary means to force students to team up for the trial.

And this kind of forced teaming would naturally lead to a series of negative reactions, resulting in serious consequences.

Then, as the one who forced it, wouldn't Liu Jiangyi have to take the blame?

And since Liu Jiangyi was, after all, from the Medical Academy, wouldn't he be the one to take this blame?

Liu Jiangyi's eyes narrowed slightly.

Even though he had roughly seen through the Combat Academy's higher-ups' objective, he had to admit that they had indeed grasped Liu Jiangyi's personality.

Liu Jiangyi's principle was: if he didn't do something, fine; but if he did, he had to do it well!

Moreover, the System had said that he was to dominate in chaos.

If he didn't do anything, how could he dominate?

Thinking of this, Liu Jiangyi took a step forward, his icy gaze sweeping over every student present.

"Everyone, I know you all don't see eye to eye, but I'll ask you one question: what is your purpose in joining the Martial Arts Academy!?"

Purpose?

His words rendered everyone speechless.

Liu Jiangyi pointed to a boy closest to him, a student from the Combat Academy, and asked, "You tell me!"

"I..." The boy hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "I want to become a powerful Martial Artist, join the military, and bring glory to my ancestors!"

"Good! And you?" Liu Jiangyi then pointed to another girl from the Combat Academy.

"I want to make myself strong to protect myself, my family, and everyone I love!"

"Very good, and you?" Liu Jiangyi then pointed to a student from the Medical Academy in the distance.

"My father died of an incurable disease, so I want to become a skilled physician and never let such a tragedy befall anyone else again."

"And you?"

"I want to become an Alchemist, a powerful Alchemist, to earn everyone's respect!"

Liu Jiangyi asked over a dozen students, including not only those from the Combat Academy and Medical Academy but also students from the Auxiliary Academy.

Liu Jiangyi was, after all, the Head Teacher, and his deeds had already spread to every corner of the Martial Arts Academy.

So no student dared to disrespect Liu Jiangyi or refuse to give him Face.

This included the teachers from their respective academies.

Therefore, when Liu Jiangyi spoke, no one interrupted him.

"Very good!"

Liu Jiangyi finally stopped questioning, his eyes narrowed slightly, "I just asked over a dozen people, and each of you joined the Martial Arts Academy with your own purpose, whether for yourselves, for humanity, selfish, or grand."

"But no matter what your purpose is, I haven't heard from a single person that you joined the Martial Arts Academy for internal strife, have I!?"

Whoosh!

His words made the students of both academies momentarily stunned.

Liu Jiangyi continued, "Your goals are all different, but the only way to achieve your desired goals is to strengthen yourselves."

"This trial is an excellent opportunity provided by the Academy for you to strengthen yourselves. After you graduate, you will never again have the chance to strengthen yourselves under such layers of protection."

"At that time, you will Face true life-and-death crises. Every confrontation will be about you fighting against the God of Death."

"And at that time, you will no longer be people of the Medical Academy, nor people of the Martial Arts Academy. You might be people of the Demon Suppression Division, people of the Law Enforcement Bureau, or even people of the City Lord's Mansion, people of the military, or even a bounty hunter."

"But no matter what, the grievances and disputes of the Academy will be irrelevant to you, and in the moment before you are killed by a Dimensional Being, you will recall this day."

"You will regret, regret why you didn't seize every opportunity to improve yourselves, why you were so foolish as to give up the chance to improve yourselves for the sake of Academy disputes."

"At that time, you won't be thinking about Academy disputes; you will only regret that you were foolish and that you killed yourselves!"

Boom!

Liu Jiangyi's words were like a heavy hammer, striking hard on the head of every student.

The students were all stunned.

Shen Bing and the other teachers widened their eyes, looking at Liu Jiangyi in disbelief.

Liu Jiangyi's words didn't make the students let go of their grievances; instead, he approached it from a self-serving perspective, telling them the necessity of following the rules and completing the trial.

Unless they were fools, they understood.

The Academy's disputes were actually irrelevant to them. In this chaotic world, only relentless self-improvement was the Dao!

And all reconciliation required taking the first step.

If the Combat Academy and the Medical Academy could put aside their grievances and cooperate today, then this would open a crack!

As long as this crack was slowly widened, the Combat Academy and the Medical Academy burying the hatchet would only be a matter of time!

Liu Jiangyi's move was truly brilliant.

Indeed!

Just a few minutes later, some smart people understood the implications.

At this point, a tall boy from the Combat Academy looked at the four-person team beside him and stammered, "Um... can I join you?"

The students from the Auxiliary Academy in the team naturally had no objections, and the students from the Medical Academy weren't fools; they just hadn't been able to make up their minds to humble themselves.

Now that a Combat Academy student was actively asking to join, how could they refuse?