Xuanxi returned to the dormitory and pushed open the door. A faint, cool fragrance greeted her, mixed with a touch of warm steam. Hildegrif had already finished her bath.
She sat at the desk, her silver-white hair draped over her shoulders. Occasionally, a droplet of water fell from the tips of her hair onto the book she was reading.
But Xuanxi noticed that the book spread open on the table hadn’t had its pages turned in a while. She was simply sitting there waiting for her.
Xuanxi stood at the door. She took a deep breath, drawing the cold fragrance into her lungs, then slowly exhaled.
“I’m back,” she said.
“Mm.”
“Xige.” Xuanxi spoke from her own bed.
The sound of turning pages stopped. “Mm?”
“Freshman entrance exam,” Xuanxi said, looking in her direction. “There’s a team collaboration component.”
Hildegrif nodded, waiting for her to continue.
“I don’t have a teammate yet.”
When she said this, Xuanxi’s voice was calm, but her fingers tightened slightly around the blanket. Hildegrif simply looked at her, saying nothing.
“Elsa and Leiji have already arranged it,” Xuanxi said. “As for the others… you know, no one wants to be on my team.”
There was even a hint of a smile on her face as she spoke, as if she were talking about an unimportant little matter. But Hildegrif noticed that although her lips were smiling, there was no trace of amusement in her amber-gold eyes.
There was only a hint of loneliness. (The eyes are the window to the soul.) Hildegrif had seen that smile many times before—the one forged in a border town, used to mask sadness.
“So.” Xuanxi took a deep breath, as if making a very important decision. “I want to team up with you. Would you be willing to be my teammate?”
She finally said it. The dormitory was quiet for a moment.
“Of course, I know you probably already have a team,” Xuanxi quickly added, her words coming a little faster than usual.
“After all, you’re S-Class bloodline, dual-element—a lot of people must have asked you to team up. You don’t have to just because I’m your roommate—”
“I don’t have a teammate.”
Xuanxi’s words were cut off. “You don’t?” she said, stunned.
“I don’t have a teammate,” Hildegrif said. “No one asked me to team up.”
Xuanxi opened her mouth, momentarily at a loss for words.
The famous Hildegrif von Edelstein, S-Class bloodline, thunder-fire dual affinity, eldest legitimate daughter of the Edelstein Family—and no one asked her to team up?
That couldn’t be. But the expression on Hildegrif’s face clearly told her it was true. She was completely alone.
“You just said no one wants to be on your team,” Hildegrif said, looking at Xuanxi. Her amethyst-crystal eyes were calm like deep water. “I’m no different.”
Xuanxi suddenly understood. It probably wasn’t that no one wanted to team up with Hildegrif—it was that they didn’t dare. Just like no one dared to be her roommate. It wasn’t because they disliked her, but because she was too strong. So strong that people were afraid to get close.
In the bloodline-obsessed Western Dragon Domain, teaming up with an S-Class bloodline heir meant living in her shadow, forever being compared to her, even becoming her subordinate. No one wanted to be a leaf to her flower. So no one asked her to team up.
The S-Class bloodline eldest daughter of the Edelstein Family and the adopted daughter of the Herras Family with “no bloodline rating”—they ended up with the same result.
Xuanxi suddenly laughed. It was no longer a smile to hide sadness, but a genuine one—laced with a little helplessness and a little relief.
“Perfect,” she said. Her amber-gold eyes were unusually bright as they met Hildegrif’s. “Two unwanted people make a team.”
Hildegrif looked at her and was silent for a moment.
“You’re not unwanted,” she said.
“Mm?”
“I want you.” Hildegrif’s voice was flat, as if stating an obvious fact. “From the very first day.”
The dormitory fell silent again. The evening breeze lifted her silver-white hair, tracing a soft arc in the air.
Xuanxi felt her face grow hot, a burn spreading from her heart all the way to the tips of her ears.
“You…” she started, then found her voice a little off. She cleared her throat and began again. “Do you know that sounds really ambiguous?”
Hildegrif blinked, Xuanxi’s reflection mirrored in her amethyst-crystal pupils.
“Does it?”
“Yes.”
“Then how do you want to take it?”
Xuanxi took a deep breath and hugged her blanket tighter.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said. “About the team.”
“Mm.”
“Good night, Xige.”
A few seconds of silence.
“Good night.”
The night before the exam, Xuanxi had her first bout of insomnia.
When she rolled over for the seventh time, Hildegrif’s voice came from behind the folding screen.
“You’re making the bed shake with all that tossing and turning, my dear roommate.”
The voice wasn’t loud, but it was especially clear in the silence of the night. However, her tone didn’t sound like a complaint.
Xuanxi stopped and faced the screen. “You’re not asleep either.”
The person behind the screen was silent for a moment. “Thinking about the exam,” Hildegrif said, her voice lower than during the day, as if filtered through a sieve, becoming much softer.
This was the first time Hildegrif had shown her any emotion.
Not insecurity about herself—S-Class bloodline, thunder-fire dual affinity, those things wouldn’t change just because she couldn’t sleep one night—but a different kind of concern. A worry about teaming up with Xuanxi.
Xuanxi thought for a moment and said, “We’ve trained for so long. We’ll definitely pass.”
It really wasn’t just comfort. They had trained together for two full weeks at the Training Ground, from Xuanxi’s breathing technique to their coordination, from attack rhythms to timing of entry.
The lightning scars on her arm had healed and reappeared repeatedly. The new skin was a little whiter than the surrounding area, like contour lines drawn on uneven terrain.
“It’s not about winning or losing.” Hildegrif’s voice came from behind the screen.
Xuanxi waited for her to continue, but silence spread between them.
“Then what is it about?” Xuanxi couldn’t wait and asked.
There was no answer for a long time. Moonlight seeped quietly through the gap in the curtains, falling onto the floor between them.
“It’s nothing. Go to sleep,” Hildegrif said finally.
Xuanxi opened her mouth, wanting to press further, but held back. She found she was slowly learning one thing: some of Hildegrif’s words were not spoken—they were hidden. If she didn’t say it, she had her reasons.
“Then good night, Xige,” Xuanxi said.
“Mm.”
Behind the folding screen, the lamp went out completely.
The exam was held in the Main Colosseum.
***
Morning sunlight streamed down through the glass dome, turning the entire colosseum into a golden furnace. The stands were filled with students, as well as some upperclassmen and instructors.
All the freshmen stood in the center of the arena, lined up by class, waiting for the exam to begin.
Xuanxi stood at the back of the line, Hildegrif beside her. There was less than a fist’s width between their shoulders—not intentional, but something that had slowly formed through countless times of standing side by side.
At the very center of the colosseum, the Dean stood on a floating platform.
He was a very old western dragon, in human form appearing as an elderly man with white hair and beard, wearing a deep crimson robe. His voice wasn’t loud, but every word sounded as if spoken right in one’s ear.
“The freshman entrance exam consists of three parts.” His gaze swept over all the freshmen.
“Written examination, individual combat, and team collaboration. The combined score from these three parts will determine class placement. Team collaboration can be done in groups of two to four people.”
Xuanxi glanced sideways at Hildegrif. The silver-haired dragoness looked as usual—cold, calm, like a frozen lake. But Xuanxi noticed that today she had tied her hair a little higher than usual, revealing the full line of her neck.
She’s nervous too. Xuanxi withdrew her gaze and took a deep breath.
The written examination came first, held in the Grand Lecture Hall. All freshmen took it simultaneously. It was a closed-book exam covering dragon race history, elemental theory, combat fundamentals, and some questions about the relationship between Eastern and Western dragons.
When Xuanxi received the test paper, she found that some contents from that diary and the ancient books in the Library matched the test questions exactly.
The description of the eastern dragon clan’s heavenly fate mark, the war between Eastern and Western dragons three hundred years ago, the difference between Qi and elements—these were only briefly mentioned in western dragon textbooks, but she had read the complete accounts in the ancient books.
She picked up her pen and began answering.
The pen tip scratched across the paper, like autumn leaves swept up and falling down by the wind. She wrote quickly.
When she reached the question about ‘Differences in Bloodlines Between Eastern and Western Dragons,’ her pen paused.
She had seen the standard answer in the textbook. The original text in the western dragon textbook read: ‘The eastern dragon clan is an inferior dragon branch, with impure bloodlines, and therefore lacks elemental power.’ But the diary recorded something entirely different.
Odin von Edelstein, who had traveled to the Eastern Dragon Domain, wrote: ‘The bloodline of the eastern dragon clan is far purer than that of the western dragons.’
‘They do not need elements because what they command is the very foundation of heaven and earth—Qi. Qi, the origin of all things, is more ancient and more fundamental than elements.’
Xuanxi wrote her answer on the test paper: ‘The Eastern and Western dragon clans share the same bloodline origin, but diverged due to different cultivation systems.’
‘The eastern dragon clan bases itself on Qi, while the western dragon clan centers on elements. There is no superiority or inferiority between them—only different paths.’
After the written examination, the students had a short break. When Xuanxi came out of the exam hall, Elsa was standing in the corridor with a grim expression.
“How did you do?” Elsa immediately approached her. Her short brown hair puffed into a fluffy ball in the sunlight.
“Decent,” Xuanxi said.
“What does ‘decent’ mean? Will you fail or not?”
“Probably not.”
Elsa breathed a sigh of relief, then lowered her voice. “You have no idea—that last question on the test was ridiculous. ‘Differences in Bloodlines Between Eastern and Western Dragons.'”
“What kind of question is that? There were only two sentences about it in the textbook. No matter how much I racked my brain, I couldn’t write three hundred words.”
Xuanxi didn’t say how she answered.
There was a commotion in the distance. Xuanxi looked up and saw several students gathered around the Bulletin Board, pointing at the grouping list for the second stage.
The individual combat groupings had been posted.
Xuanxi walked over. Without much effort, she found her name on the list:
“Xuanxi Herras vs. Derrick Lava.”
The name didn’t ring a bell, but Elsa’s expression changed.
“Derrick Lava? The A-rank, fire-type Derrick?” Her eyes widened. “Did you offend the academy’s lottery system?”
Xuanxi thought for a moment and shook her head. “No idea. Is he strong?”
“Not knowing him is about right. He’s one of those,” Elsa lowered her voice, “who posted on the Forum saying something like ‘Someone without a bloodline doesn’t deserve to be in Dragonborn Academy.'”
Xuanxi’s expression didn’t change.
“Perfect timing,” she said. “Settle old and new scores together.”
The individual combat was held in the Main Colosseum. The arena was divided into four areas by barriers, with four matches happening simultaneously.
Flames, frost, lightning, rock spikes—various elemental attacks intertwined. The sounds of thunderous booms rose and fell, and the barrier shields rippled with each hit, but remained as solid as a rock.
Xuanxi stood in the waiting area, watching the matches.
Soon it was her turn. As she entered the arena, she heard whispers from the stands.
“Is that Xuanxi Herras? The one with no bloodline rating?”
“I heard she’s teaming up with the Edelstein Family’s eldest daughter.”
“Teaming up? Someone with no bloodline rating and an S-Class? Is the Edelstein eldest daughter crazy?”
“Who knows? Maybe she feels sorry for her?”
“Sorry? This is the exam.”
“Let’s see. She’s up against Derrick Lava, A-rank fire-type. A rankless person like her, how’s she going to fight?”
Xuanxi heard it all. Her expression didn’t change. She didn’t even pause. She walked to the center of the arena and stopped.
Opposite her stood a tall dragon clan male, with reddish-brown short hair and a not-so-friendly smile on his face. Derrick Lava—A-rank bloodline, fire-type. He was a full two sizes larger than Xuanxi. The muscles in his arms strained the sleeves of his training uniform.
“So you’re Xuanxi Herras?” His gaze swept over her from head to toe, a clear sneer in the curl of his lips. “Bad luck, drawing me.”
Xuanxi didn’t speak.
“I heard you’re teaming up with Edelstein?” Derrick spat to the side. “Think you can coast by clinging to a big shot? In individual combat, there’s no big shot to hold onto.”
Xuanxi lifted her eyes. Her amber-gold gaze landed on Derrick’s face.
“Are you done?”
Derrick’s expression stiffened for a moment, then he let out a cold laugh. “Tough talk. Just wait and see how I deal with you.”
The proctor raised his right hand.
“Begin.”
Derrick made the first move. His combat style was very typical—the standard fire dragon approach: long-range suppression, opening with a fire breath, giving the opponent no chance to close in.
A pillar of flame shot from his palm, rolling toward Xuanxi with a wave of scorching heat.
But Xuanxi didn’t retreat. Instead, she dashed forward.
The flame pillar grazed past her shoulder. The heat singed a few strands of her hair. She didn’t dodge a second time because she knew fire was different from lightning.
Lightning dealt damage fast, but each hit was low. Fire was slow to hit, but its sustained damage was high. If she tried to tank it like she did against lightning, she’d just end up as a roasted dragon.
She couldn’t take it head-on. She had to evade. Use the eastern dragon body technique: softness overcomes hardness, using the opponent’s strength.
Derrick’s second flame pillar came. Xuanxi’s body executed an incredible motion at that instant—she twisted sideways like a willow branch swayed by the wind, letting the flame pillar almost brush past her waist. She didn’t dodge it—she ‘floated’ along with the flame’s impact.
Several low gasps came from the stands. Before Derrick could react, Xuanxi was already within two steps of him.
He threw a punch on instinct, his fist wreathed in flames, carrying enough force to shatter rock.
Xuanxi didn’t block. She extended her left hand and placed it on Derrick’s wrist, using his strength. Leveraging the momentum of his punch, she curled around his arm like a leaf lifted by the wind and landed at his side.
Derrick was startled. Flames burst from his front, forming a defensive wall of fire.
But Xuanxi was no longer there. She was behind him before he could turn. Her right hand formed a palm strike, hitting precisely on his inverse scale.
Derrick saw black spots, his body swayed. But he didn’t fall to his knees. Instead, with his last bit of strength, he spun and threw a punch.
Xuanxi didn’t dodge. She raised her left arm and took the punch head-on.
A dull thud came from her bones. It hurt. But she didn’t retreat. She knew her physical strength could withstand this. More importantly, she needed to hold on long enough to deliver the final blow.
Her right fist landed on Derrick’s abdomen. No elemental power, no Qi—just pure physical strength. A punch honed from countless fights in a border town, completely without flourish.
Derrick doubled over. He fell to his knees, hands on the ground, breathing heavily. The flames dissipated. His reddish-brown hair was wet with sweat, plastered to his forehead.
The entire arena went silent. An A-rank fire-type dragon had been defeated in less than three minutes by a ‘rankless’ girl. Not through a sneak attack, not by luck—but through genuine technique and physical power.
Xuanxi withdrew her fist and flexed her numb fingers.
“You lost,” she said.
Her voice wasn’t loud, but in the silent arena, everyone heard it.
The stands erupted in a buzz of murmurs. Some were shocked, some confused, and some began to re-evaluate the label of ‘no bloodline rating.’
Xuanxi paid no attention to those voices. She raised her head, her gaze crossing the crowd to find the silver-white figure in a corner of the stands.
Hildegrif sat there, her amethyst-crystal eyes fixed on her.
Their eyes met in the air for a moment. Hildegrif gave a slight nod of acknowledgment.
Xuanxi curved her lips, turned, and walked out of the arena, preparing for the team event.
You go girl!