My Evil Imperial Wife is Too Arrogant

On the day before the Academy’s Grand Competition, a large cluster of five-coloured clouds gathered in the sky above the small building. Once they condensed into a Spirit Cloud, they were naturally dragged into the small building by a gravitational force.

Lou Mu Yan’s dan’tian kept operating, and the slivers of Spiritual Force lingered around her dan’tian before a very pure Spiritual Energy spread from her dan’tian, replenishing each of her meridians, cleansing them again and again.

After her whole body’s meridians were saturated with Spiritual Energy, the remaining Spiritual Energy in her dan’tian turned into a light green mist that kept rotating. When the time came, the light green mist instantly spread and filled up her entire dan’tian.

She sat cross-legged with her eyes closed as her hands changed gestures in front of her chest, forming various hand-seals.

When the light green mist in her dan’tian was completely saturated, she suddenly opened her eyes and finished the last hand gesture. A pure energy came from within her body and the barrier between Middle-Phase Great Sword Master and Advanced-Phase Great Sword Master was shattered by the energy.

Feeling that the Spiritual Energy was even more abundant, and that her strength rose yet another level, she smiled and exhaled a stale breath, “Success!”

The next day, at dawn, Lou Mu Yan withdrew the Array around the courtyard and exited the small building.

She looked up at the scorching sun blooming in the sky as the breeze gently raised her elegant, purple clothes. Her entire person seemed to be shrouded in a layer of golden light.

Today was the day she would rise from dormancy, and the shame she once bore would also be washed away. She desperately wanted to set foot on the path of the strong.

After exiting the courtyard, she walked merrily towards the Empire Academy’s battle grounds.

The Lou Mu Yan right now exuded a passionate and confident look. With her exceedingly bright and beautiful face, as well as her graceful bearing, there was even a sense of otherworldliness, causing the people around her to be unable to control their gazes.

“Is that Lou Mu Yan? Am I seeing things right?” Someone whispered on the way.

“You’re not mistaken, it’s her. I’ve heard long ago that she had changed, but who knew she’d change this much, so much that she’s hardly recognisable.”

“Yeah! I’ve got to say, Lou Mu Yan’s quite beautiful now, not at all inferior to Gu Yan Ran.”

“Forget it, no matter how beautiful she is, she’s only trash that has the looks and nothing else. I sure want to see how she defeats Gu Yan Ran today. After talking so big, it’d be embarrassing to lose when the time came.” A woman, who walked in front of the men, couldn’t help but interject.

“That’s true. Gu Yan Ran is the most talented student in the Earth Class, and the most promising one who could obtain that only position in the Earth Class for the Trial. This time Lou Mu Yan is bound to be embarrassed.” Mentioning Gu Yan Ran, the male student who spoke bore love in his eyes.

“Not only is she going to be embarrassed, but the face of the General’s Mansion would all be lost. How is it that such an impressive person like Upperclassman Lou has such a shameless and trash sister…” Those that verbally attacked Lou Mu Yan were mostly female students.

“But I heard that she’s advanced to the Great Sword Master cultivation base, and the five-coloured Spirit Clouds that appeared last month in the sky was attracted by her when cultivating. Maybe she’ll prove herself today.” A male student from the Earth Class said.

“Tsk, who knows what she used to attract the five-coloured Spirit Clouds. I won’t believe she’s really that amazing. Maybe it’s a means to attract Chi Yi Xuan’s attention.” A female student who had a good relationship with Gu Yan Ran said with extreme distain. She didn’t believe those rumours at all and suspected that they were all Lou Mu Yan’s gimmicks.

“Aren’t you all thinking too highly of her? Even if she broke through to the cultivation base of a Great Sword Master with the help of the Marrow Cleansing Pill, but there are more than thirty people in the Great Sword Master cultivation base in the Earth Class. It’s not certain that she and Gu Yan Ran would meet in the competition.”

“Even if they aren’t matched, they still promised, so the competition between the two will definitely take place. We just need to wait for a good show.”

“…”

Ever since Lou Mu Yan exited, rumours about her had spread throughout the Empire Academy. Aside from a few people who believed the rumours, the rest just lamented her luck to be able to obtain the Marrow Cleansing Pill, but didn’t admit she was capable. The balance in more than two-thirds of the student body’s hearts all leaned towards Gu Yan Ran.

Lou Mu Yan wasn’t interested in their whisperings or their loud discussions at all. Her gaze was natural and composed as she entered the Empire Academy’s Battle Grounds. She found a seat in the corner to sit down and wait for the beginning of the competition.

Because her previous interpersonal relationships were very bad, she had no friends in the Empire Academy, so no one approached her to start a conversation. There were some who came to enquire about the Marrow Cleansing Pill before, but she ignored them all, which made others feel that she was arrogant and domineering.

But as if she’d bother to deal with those two-faced people. Because of her indifference, no one came forward to talk to her after she sat down in her seat. Even the empty seats around her weren’t taken by anyone, deliberately isolating her.

She leaned back in her chair lazily, closed her eyes and calmed her mind. There wasn’t any excessive expression on her face, only calm and composure.

After approximately a quarter of an hour, the raised platform with the seats of honour filled with people one by one. Then, as a pressuring voice sounded, the noise from all around stopped instantly, and everyone looked at the person on the high platform.

“Today is the biennial¹ competition of our Empire Academy. I am honoured to be elected as the referee of this Grand Competition.” The person who spoke was a blue-clothed, handsome man—precisely the man who brought up the bet that day.

Lou Mu Yan opened her eyes and turned her gaze to the man who spoke. He was the Empire Academy’s youngest Sword King instructor, named Lan Si. She heard that he got along well around the Academy, and his background was also not simple.

“The Grand Competition this time will be separate between the old and new students, and between the Heaven Class and Earth Class, and the results of the Grand Competition are directly linked to the subsequent Trial.” Lan Si continued after a pause, “We will only decide the top eight students amongst the new and old students in the Heaven Class, and two for the new and old students in the Earth Class, with a total of ten places.

“I won’t say anymore. I believe everyone knows the importance of the Trial after the Grand Competition. The allocation of resources of the Empire Academy in the future depends on it.

“There are a total of one-thousand-eight-hundred old and new students together participating in the competition, but only ten spots. So everyone must work hard!”

Hearing what Lan Si said, the students who sat on the stage revealed excitement and fervour. With so many people, yet only ten places, they had to work hard.

After Lan Si finished speaking, he announced the start of the Grand Competition. A total of thirty battle platforms were set up, with each platform lined with students. Each student would draw lots to decide their opponent.

As long as they lost one round, then they were automatically eliminated. The eight winners of the Heaven Class would obtain a place in the Trial, while the Earth Class’s situation was cruller as only the winner of the old students and the winner of the new students would be chosen for a place in the Trial.

There were four referees on each platform, two responsible for maintaining the energy shield to prevent the fighting from affecting the outside, one was responsible for deciding the winner and loser, and the last one was responsible for calling up student names to draw their lots.

Lou Mu Yan was placed on battle platform twenty-six. She got the number five lot, so her opponent was also the number five lot, which meant that they were the fifth battle on battle platform twenty-six.

Gu Yan Ran was assigned to battle platform number one. After she finished drawing her lot, she casted a confrontational look at Lou Mu Yan, but Lou Mu Yan only smiled faintly and ignored it.

Both of them were looking forward to the following competition in their hearts, and secretly thought that once they met on the battle platforms, they’d stomp each other down into the dust.

Translated product by May Our 梦 Come True

¹ooops, it was biennial, not annual. Time to go back and fix my translation haha. They never mentioned if it was annual or biennial, I translated 大比 as ‘annual competition’ because I didn’t know how else to translate it. Only when I was translating this chapter did I suddenly have a thought: ‘grand competition’ sounds good. Why didn’t I think of that earlier…?

Note: Last daily double-update for now! Might only double-update during the weekends like before, susceptible to change.