275: Barrier No. 97, why does it look so familiar?

That's why Lin Feng was so surprised when he saw the Spirit Water Winged Beast directly taking out spirit stones.

It's not that fierce beasts don't trade among themselves, but the items they trade are usually beast crystals, not spirit stones.

Seeing that the green train hadn't arrived yet, the Spirit Water Winged Beast no longer poked its head out and returned to the pool to cultivate.

But not long after, it heard a familiar voice in its mind: "Come."

The Spirit Water Winged Beast reluctantly poked its head out, emerged from the pool, shook off the water on its body, and, pinpointing a direction, walked steadily towards it... [Destination reached. Passengers, please disembark.]

The fifteen-minute ride quickly ended. Little Ice Fox opened its eyes, bounced to the train door, picked up a bottle of train exclusive water, and said, "Woo woo. (I'll buy a bottle of this.)"

[Alright, here is your train exclusive water. Please take it.]

Only then did Little Ice Fox hug the bottle and run off the train.

Not long after Little Ice Fox left, Ximen Chuifeng and Xiao Shen arrived together.

"Four bottles of water, please." Ximen Chuifeng generously offered to treat.

Lin Feng: Well, he's showing off his wealth again.

[Today, only three bottles of train exclusive water remain. One of them needs to be purchased in the VIP carriage.]

"Ah? Only three bottles left?"

Ximen Chuifeng blinked and said helplessly, "Then just buy three bottles. I don't need my bottle."

Liu Ling'er covered her mouth, secretly laughing. Ximen Chuifeng's expression clearly showed distress, yet he feigned an air of nonchalance.

"No need, Uncle Ximen. I don't need the train exclusive water. You should keep that bottle for yourself," Xiao Shen said.

"Ah, is that so? That's truly a pity." Ximen Chuifeng said it was a pity, but his heart was blossoming with joy.

Zheng Jinfeng: "..." A middle-aged man who cares too much about appearances.

"Let's go, we're heading to the VIP carriage." Ximen Chuifeng couldn't wait any longer.

"I'll pay for the train fare. It wouldn't be right to let you pay for everything, Uncle Ximen." Xiao Shen generously took out the spirit stone vouchers he had already prepared.

"Ah, alright." Ximen Chuifeng hadn't expected such a good thing and naturally wouldn't refuse.

If he calculated it, he actually made a profit.

However, thinking of this, Ximen Chuifeng sighed deeply again.

He clearly had money now!!

Xiong Mao had successfully become The Axe Gang Leader, with ample funds, and he had also received his due reward from Xiong Mao, enough for him to splurge for a while.

He was no longer the penniless Ximen Chuifeng of the past!

But why did he still instinctively feel a pang of heartache every time he spent money?

Ximen Chuifeng shook his head helplessly.

It seems that being afraid to spend money is a sickness that needs to be cured properly.

Xiao Shen paid for all four people's train tickets very readily.

[Welcome aboard this train. Please sit tight and hold on.]

The VIP carriage allowed for an extra fifteen minutes of cultivation. After buying their tickets, all four quickly sat down to cultivate, not wasting a single second.

When thirty minutes passed, they all heard the "ding" sound in their minds and then opened their eyes.

[Destination reached. Passengers, please disembark.]

Only then did they start discussing.

"Wang Yi and the others aren't here, Uncle Ximen. Do you know what they're all up to?" Xiao Shen asked.

"Oh, them? The martial arts competition among the younger generation of the Three Great Powers within the Wall is about to begin, in these two days. They probably won't be able to come tomorrow either."

Ximen Chuifeng truly deserved his reputation, having built his career on gathering intelligence; there was nothing in 155 Fortress that he didn't know.

"Three Great Powers martial arts competition?" Liu Ling'er blinked. Yes, it should be around this time.

Ximen Chuifeng nodded and said, "Mm, Wang Yi will represent the Beast Taming Bureau, and Gu Mingzhu will also represent the City Lord's Mansion. They're probably preparing for the upcoming competition right now."

"Oh, and according to the information I've gathered, the official competition date is either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."

"That fast?" Liu Ling'er exclaimed.

"Actually, it's not that fast. After all, they've been preparing for a long time. I heard many people are participating, and only the top three will be selected—"

Ximen Chuifeng suddenly stopped halfway through his sentence.

"Selecting the top three? Do these top three have any special privileges?" Liu Ling'er thought it should be rewards like dual-core weapons or rare ores.

That wasn't anything new.

"There are special rewards, but they're different from previous ones." Ximen Chuifeng started playing coy again.

Xiao Shen detected a strange flavor in Ximen Chuifeng's words: "What kind of special privilege is it? Tell us."

"Yeah, stop playing coy. If you do it too much, you'll get hit," Liu Ling'er said, shaking her small pink fist.

Ximen Chuifeng quickly said, "Alright, alright. The main thing is, I haven't confirmed this yet, as it concerns other Walls, so I originally planned to wait until I could ask Wang Yi and the others personally before saying anything."

"Concerns other Walls?" The strange feeling in Xiao Shen's heart intensified, "Could it be that the top three from the Three Great Powers competition are to go to other Walls to do something together?"

Ximen Chuifeng's eyes lit up. He snapped his fingers and said, "As expected of Xiao Shen, so clever."

Then he changed the subject and added, "However, you've only got half of it right."

"What's the other half?" Liu Ling'er asked impatiently.

"The people who get into the top three are going to 97th Stronghold as exchange students, and they will also select three people to send to 155 Fortress."

Xiao Shen and the other two: !!!

"What?!"

"This... can it work?" Xiao Shen really hadn't thought in this direction.

He had thought it would just be sending people from 155 Fortress to other Walls to study, but he hadn't expected it to be exchange students.

"Whether it can work or not, I don't know. This is just the information I've gathered so far; the specifics aren't necessarily accurate yet."

Ximen Chuifeng was being modest with that statement.

Xiao Shen knew that the information Ximen Chuifeng gathered was generally true.

Although sometimes the timing of the information might be a little late, its authenticity was beyond doubt.

"97th Stronghold... why does that number sound a bit familiar to me?" Xiao Shen suddenly stroked his chin, lost in thought.

"You're right, it is very familiar." Ximen Chuifeng was somewhat exasperated, "Because all the information I've investigated recently concerning the terrifying forces behind the Bingyan Office points to 97th Stronghold."

Xiao Shen: !!!

"Then wouldn't it be extremely dangerous for the top three to go to 97th Stronghold as exchange students?" he said anxiously.

If the people who got into the top three weren't close to him, then so be it, but Wang Yi and Gu Mingzhu were friends they had once fought alongside!

Facing Xiao Shen's reaction, Ximen Chuifeng was not surprised at all; instead, he had a sense of knowing it all along.

Yes, he had guessed Xiao Shen would react this way.