Since the ship would take a long time to reach Bai Zhu City, around 3 days, Riyue decided to take the chance to strategize for the future.

Although Riyue’s goals are quite simple, which was to get as strong as possible, he is still aware of the wish made by the Original Riyue, which is to take revenge on the Jin Family as well as the Royal Family of the Shen Lei Kingdom.

‘It’s easier said than done but not impossible… Especially in the Jin Long Empire.’ Riyue then thought of many methods on how exactly he should take revenge, especially as a commoner after his identity change, and he could only think of one that is plausible.

‘The Jinlong Grand Martial Academy… Only in that place could I approach the strong and influential as a mere commoner to aid me in my revenge… However, getting inside isn’t easy.’

As the only Martial Academy of the Empire, it was, of course, very prestigious. It is akin to having Harvard in your country as the only school, which also meant that basically everyone is trying to get there.

‘Not to mention, in my case, I have to get to the House of Golden Dragon to get a scholarship… Damn it, how am I going to do that as a Stage 1!’

In the Jinlong Grand Martial Academy, there are five houses that separate each other. One could think of this akin to a class ranking rather than a house that separates the best of the students to the worst. Starting from the best are the House of the Golden Dragon, followed by the Silver Lion, Bronze Tortoise, Iron Serpent, and the Obsidian Crow being the worst of them all.

Amongst those houses, only the ones from the Golden Dragon will be rewarded a scholarship for everything—the education cost, food, dorm, and everything. Whether 1 or 10 people got inside the House of the Golden Dragon, the academy is prepared to give a scholarship to each one of them. However, there is a twist to this generosity. The House of the Golden Dragon was extremely hard to get inside, even if a student got a perfect score for everything it is still doubtful whether he could get inside or not.

It was because the House of Golden Dragons is reserved solely for the ones blessed by the heavens, people who are above everyone else or have the potential to be. Even if their scores are bad, it doesn’t matter, as long as they can prove that they are geniuses in one way or another.

‘Of course, that’s easier said than done.’

Riyue thought about the various things that he could do to get inside, and what are his plans until nighttime. As everybody was going to sleep, he alone didn’t due to his cautiousness. Rong Yu had said that he would provide a certain degree of protection, but how could he trust a smuggler? He even said that he wouldn’t involve himself in fights that didn’t make him lose out on certain things or destroy his stuff.

Only after everyone was asleep did Riyue head to the Training Room to go to sleep as well for around 8 hours. Right after Riyue headed to bed and lost consciousness, he then felt as if something was pulling him from the depths of his unconsciousness and he woke up—to be exact, he woke up in reality.

‘What the hell? Wasn’t I sleeping in the training room?’

Riyue was about to open his eyes before he slightly trembled. He felt that something was wrong, so instead of immediately opening his eyes and standing up, he only slightly opened his eyes, to the point where anyone who sees him from afar and in the dark would still think he was asleep.

Through his eyes, he could see the other people lying down on the floor to sleep, or them leaning on the wall while sitting with their eyes closed. The darkness and the purple moonlight from the windows converged inside the ship, allowing Riyue to barely see.

After searching around discreetly, and finding nothing was wrong, Riyue was about to head back to sleep before he heard the sounds of creaking wood from above. Riyue flinched and acted as if he was asleep as he leaned his head into a box beside him while sitting on the floor. However, his eyes were slightly open, waiting for the person to come down the stairs. Of course, it wouldn’t have been a problem even if the person didn’t come down and just stayed above.

However, as the sounds of wood creaking could be heard as it grew nearer, Riyue prepared himself and waited. Soon enough, a figure clad in a black robe, with a mask covering half her face and a hood, walked down the stairs. Though Riyue couldn’t be sure in the dark, he suspected that it was a woman considering her lean figure and curves. Riyue noticed how there weren’t any sounds of her footsteps, but the old ship’s creaking wood allowed for her presence to be noticed.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

‘But she doesn’t seem concerned about it. Had she employed some kind of other means to make other people asleep?’

However, Riyue was somehow awake, meaning it wasn’t a sleeping poison that stayed in the room for a long time, probably a sleeping poison that would disperse after only a few minutes. That way, it would allow the infiltrator to then go inside without any antidote.

‘As for the reason I am conscious, it’s probably because of the system… I’m not immune to poison, so it’s probably due to the difference in time of the Training Room.’

Even if his real body was poisoned to sleep, all he needed to do was sleep for a while in the Training Room, and he was back to consciousness only after an hour or two in reality.

‘The system is very useful, and even its weakness can be used for something like this… I suppose this also counts as a yes to the test of whether the system had some kind of danger sense while I was sleeping.’

Riyue kept observing the woman walking around. Only after Riyue got a good angle on her could he finally see her. With long black hair and purple eyes, her beauty could be seen even when hidden with the mask due to her refined features. Riyue then looked down before he stiffened. He hadn’t realized it before, but she used two daggers.

Usually, it wouldn’t have been a problem whatever she used. However, Riyue thought about the assassins sent by the Jin Family or Royal Family; they either used swords or two daggers. Once he looked closer with better lighting, her clothes seemed eerily similar to the ones the assassins wear, though it was not the same.

Riyue’s heart then started to beat fast, but he kept acting like he was asleep.

‘Is she an assassin? How did she find me here? No, wait, it’s also possible that she is not sent here for me specifically… Besides, I’m in disgui—’

At that moment, the woman’s head turned towards Riyue.

Riyue closed his eyes and acted as if he was already asleep. He looked normal on the outside, but his body already got cold sweat. Somehow, he felt that the already silent ship became even more silent as he breathed manually to avoid arousing suspicion.

After a while, he then slightly opened his eyes again… Only to see the purple eyes staring straight at him.

‘Fucking hell!’

Riyue flinched, thought for a moment, then acted as if he had just woken up, rubbed his eyes, and then went back to sleep by lying on the ground.

The reason why he did this and not just attack or escape from her is because he thought that perhaps the woman wasn’t from the Shen Lei Kingdom. As for why, it was obvious.

‘After staring for a few minutes she should’ve known who I am, if she was from the Shen Lei Kingdom that is!’

Even if he was in disguise, it would only allow minor misdirection in a short time. If someone were to look at his face for a long time, they would undoubtedly figure out similarities.

Therefore, she wasn’t from the Shen Lei Kingdom if she didn’t attack him immediately. If so, Riyue didn’t need to worry. Besides, the woman didn’t seem like she had come here to kill. She probably also knew that Riyue had woken up, but Riyue kept acting as if he was sleeping in spite of this. He was essentially telling her to just do whatever she wanted in this ship. Whether it was to steal or anything else, either way, it was Rong Yu’s problem and not his.

Riyue then opened his eyes again in curiosity to see that the woman was going around, rummaging for a few things before she took out items Riyue didn’t recognize but could somewhat guess.

‘Aren’t those… pill ingredients?’

After finishing her looting spree, the woman turned towards Riyue and nodded at him.

‘???’

Riyue didn’t respond due to confusion, and the woman simply went back upstairs and disappeared.

Riyue then stopped lying down on the floor and sat back up straight as he thought over the things that had happened before, but since he couldn’t figure out anything about the enigmatic woman’s actions, he just decided to let it go. As long as no harm came to him, it was fine. It was also relieving that the Shen Lei Kingdom probably didn’t know of his current location.

After a while, everyone was awake, and he could see Rong Yu with some other guys going down and rummaging through a few things before his face turned pale as he grabbed his companion’s collar and shouted at him.

“You fool! How dare you go to sleep when it was your turn to keep watch!”

The companion tried to make excuses, such as it was a mysterious power or poison that made him sleep, but Rong Yu didn’t care as he beat the companion up.

‘...Being a smuggler’s companion ain’t easy.’

Since they were probably involved in theft and many other crimes, Riyue didn’t plan on helping them. However, since he also knew that Rong Yu and his companions never involved themselves in extremely atrocious things, he also didn’t plan on killing them in the future.

‘Well, it’s not like I’m all that morally correct either. So I shouldn’t act like a judge,’ Riyue thought as he sighed.

After a few more days, the ship had finally docked in Bai Zhu City, the capital of the Empire.