“Dawn to the east, right? Okay, I’ll find time to visit Brother Chengwen later and ask him how he’s teaching his students, that one of them is reneging on their words. I hope that’s not what they teach you over there.” Du Wenrui chuckled instead of showing fear.

“Idiot.” The older students glared at Zhang Dingyu, especially the ones from Dawn. 

Though Repentance Institution had a bad reputation, its history was on the same level as the four great academies. Moreover, its founder was the progenitor himself.

It wasn’t on the same level as academies started by powerful True Gods or future descendants. The latter was completely insignificant.

Repentance Institution was the real deal despite its terrible reputation as being a prison for the descendants of sinners. Its statue and history were recognized by the four great academies.

Clearly, Dean Du Wenrui stood evenly with the other four deans. His cultivation might not be excellent and his friendly demeanor was unsuitable, 

For example, “Brother Chengwen” was the Dean of Dawn. The two of them were equals.

On the other hand, the deans from the smaller and unknown academies weren’t qualified to drink tea with “Brother Chengwen”.

Ultimately, regardless of how brilliant Zhang Dingyu might be, he was still only a student. Conversely, regardless of how mediocre Du Wenrui might be, he was still a dean.

Holyfrost True Emperor had both power and status but as a student, she still respectfully addressed Du Wenrui as “dean”.

Now, Zhang Dingyu tried to threaten him with Dawn? It was simply idiotic, to say the least, in the eyes of the audience.

If Du Wenrui were to write a complaint to the Dean of Dawn, Dingyu might be expelled from Dawn.

“I will not abuse my seniority. You have two choices right now, one, obediently carry out your end of the bet, two, I will stomp you into a paste! Don’t worry about Dawn either, we’ll try our best to give them an answer.” Wenrui smiled.

Don’t be fooled by his friendly demeanor. This man was brutal when necessary.

Everyone stared at Dingyu, knowing that this dean could kill him without facing any consequence. Dingyu was the one at fault first. It was fine for the Dean of Repentance to step up for his students who have been wronged in this situation.

Dingyu’s expression kept on changing color as he finally understood the gravity of the situation. It was impossible for him to accuse Repentance Institution of cheating now.

“F-fine… I, I’ll start crawling…” He gritted his teeth and said with an ugly grimace.

He had no other choice or otherwise, this dean would really stomp him to death. That would be dying for no reason.

“That’s better, now you’re looking more like a student from Dawn.” Wenrui removed his foot and smiled. 

Dingyu couldn’t handle the stares before even starting to crawl. Alas, he ended up crawling one round around the valley and barked several times. After finishing, he started leaving in a hurry, wanting nothing more than to find a pit and jump inside to not see anyone here.

“We’re not finished.” Amusingly enough, he didn’t forget to glare at Li Qiye and leave a parting message.

Some of the crowd shook their head, not expecting this outcome for Zhang Dingyu.

“Let’s go.” Wenrui smiled and told his students.

Zhou Qiushi and the others have been frozen nearly the entire time. They didn’t expect to win but the most surprising thing was that they all had at least one White Hair Fruit right now. Zhou Qiushi and the other two who got one themselves had two fruits each. They felt as if this was an unexpected gift from heaven.

“Don’t waste this chance.” Wenrui woke them up from their stupor: “Your current cultivation right now isn’t suitable to consume this fruit. Wait until you’re stronger then slowly refine it. Your benefits will be greater at that point.”

The group nodded right away before turning their sight towards Li Qiye and became confused. He seemed to be shrouded in fog, impossible to fathom. Du Wenrui took note of this and became quite amused.

The group continued heading deeper into the orchard and saw better fruits along the way - sixth rank and seventh rank. The students had no chance but still gave it a shot.

Li Qiye didn’t do anything during this portion of the journey. Wenrui would occasionally teach them a thing or two, not merit laws but only how to calm their mind and stabilize their dao heart. This was beneficial in its own way.

Eventually, one of them actually managed to knock down a sixth-ranked Jade Jujube Fruit. The entire group celebrated from this unexpected gain.

As they delved deeper into the area, the terrains became perilous and hard to navigate.

They saw one particular stream that was hurriedly avoided by any incoming students. 

“Screech!” Suddenly, a gigantic bird beast landed from the sky and blocked their path.

It was a lion-eagle with flames wrapping around its tail - clearly a special species that should be valuable.

The rider was fully adorned in armor; his weapon of choice was a sword. Lightning flashed in his eyes.

“Rumble!” A dozen more or so beasts descended from the hill above and surrounded them before they could react.

They came in all forms and sizes - bull-type, tiger, panther, serpent-elephants…

All were either hybrid or part of a special breed. They emitted a powerful aura like a surging wave. They glared at the group, causing the young ones to have cold chills.

“Senior Brother Wu, it’s them!” A student jumped off a beast and shouted. Who else could it be but Zhang Dingyu?

He came back with reinforcement in such a short time.

“What’s happening?” A few students walked by and saw the commotion. They looked around and saw the beasts and became startled: “That’s members of Divine Beast Legion.”

“Oh? A legion under Violet Dragon Empress?” A young student has heard of this title before.

“That’s right.” An older student nodded with a serious expression.

After hearing that it was an imperial legion, these spectators held their breath and hid behind boulders to spy.

“So the Repentance students have offended this legion?” One student asked.

“No, it’s Zhang Dingyu. He is a sworn-brother with that Wu fella. I heard he lost a bet earlier along with his dignity. That’s why he’s here with help in order to wash away the shame.” The older student knew everything about this matter.

A student jumped off the lion-eagle. He was the sworn-brother of Zhang Dingyu, a member of the Divine Beast Legion.

“What?” Du Wenrui glanced at the newcomers.

“Dean, sorry for bothering you. My Brother, Zhang Dingyu, lost to your students so he deserved the punishment. We have nothing to say about that.” Wu Ke came over and bowed towards Wenrui with reverence.

“So why are you here?” Wenrui calmly asked.

“But,  Dingyu told me that Repentance Institution is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers!” Wu Ke’s eyes fell upon Li Qiye while speaking.