Chapter 568: Chapter 568: Departure, First Snow

December, winter.

On the day Lucas Jennings and his group set off, Silent Peak received its first snowfall of the winter.

The snow-capped peaks were shrouded in clouds, and Lucas casually snapped a picture and posted it on his Moments.

After pondering for a while, Lucas also posted one on the Weibo account he almost forgot the password to.

By the time he returned from the mountaintop to the freshman dorm at the mountainside, in less than half an hour, both his Moments and Weibo were flooded with likes and comments.

First came the internet users who were experiencing withdrawal symptoms after the end of “Inspiration.”

[Girl! Did you finally remember you have a Weibo?!]

[After the show ended, I felt like an abandoned cute little child.]

[Ahhh! Where is this? It’s so beautiful! I want to check in there too!]

[Don’t even think about it, the one above. This is probably exclusive snowfall scenery for the Taoism Academy.]

[Since mysticism is liberated, why can’t the Taoism Academy have a small, pink version of me…]

Compared to Weibo netizens, the style of comments on Moments was relatively calm.

[Alicia Sharp: First snow, let’s have some fried chicken.]

[Lucas Jennings: My sister’s photography skills are getting better and better!]

[Oliver White: Where’s this mountain? Can it be developed?]

[Donovan Jennings: Looks great, remember to keep warm in this cold weather.]

[Luca Jennings: It’s cold on the mountain, wear more layers. Don’t forget the custom winter outfit your aunt got you.]

Finally, there was the message from Samuel Chalmers.

He was the last one in the message list but the first to leave a comment.

He said, [Waiting for you to come back.]

Lucas stared at those four words for a long time and replied to him: [Okay].

Putting away his phone, Lucas picked up the luggage he had already packed and went to the Benedict Stone Statue square to gather.

There were six students going to the Capital Metropolitan for the academy competition this time. Besides Lucas Jennings and Gregory Xander, there were Nathan White, Stella Gibson, Ashton Todd, and another senior sister.

The list for the academy competition was finalized after internal evaluations and screenings.

No one expected that among the six slots, three were newcomers. Although some students expressed dissatisfaction, these were the results of the evaluations; each of the six had their own area of expertise, and no one could argue with that.

Along with the six students, there were two faculty members leading the group.

While descending the mountain, Stella Gibson was still venting to Lucas,

“Ashton Todd heard the prize for the academy competition is three million. Before the evaluations, he studied like crazy, and after being selected, he’s been watching me practice magic every day. I think if we don’t win the prize this time, he might go insane.”

Hearing this, Lucas looked at Stella, with a face both serious and inexplicably amused,

“Going insane—isn’t that his daily routine?”

Stella burst out laughing and nodded,

“True that.”

At the foot of the mountain, it was noticeably livelier compared to a few months ago because the food street that the Jennings Family had built for Lucas was already fully completed.

The long street, which seemed endless, was almost covered with a variety of specialties and snacks from all over.

Now, students from the Taoism Academy would run down the mountain to eat every day, leading to a significant decrease in business for the academy cafeteria.

It was said that the cafeteria workers had thrown a huge fit and even closed the cafeteria for several days to prevent students from entering, until the dean personally went and placated them.

…

The group boarded the luxurious bus that was waiting at the foot of the mountain.

The bus was naturally prepared by the Jennings Family, and it wasn’t just for Lucas Jennings.

In the beginning, to negotiate with the academy for a piece of land to build the food street, Luca Jennings had proposed to additionally sponsor all the academy’s external expenses.

These expenses naturally included travel.

Besides this luxury bus, there was originally a private jet specially prepared for Lucas at the airport.

But because the day before departure, a faculty member calculated that it was unsuitable to fly today, everyone switched to taking the high-speed train at the last minute.

The group of eight boarded the high-speed train and began to rest with their eyes closed, as it would take several hours to travel from Sea City to the Capital Metropolitan.

Yet, just as they closed their eyes to rest, the sound of a child crying and fussing erupted in the carriage.

“I want to play, I want to play, let me play!! Wah wah wah wah…”

It turned out that a child in the adjacent seat was eyeing a young lady’s game controller and was making a fuss to get it.

The young lady was being driven crazy by the noise and was unwilling to give up the game controller, as she had saved her allowance for months to buy it and had barely played it twice herself.

She looked at the couple next to the child, wanting them to manage their child, but the child’s mother directly spoke to her,

“Look, miss, the child wants to play, why don’t you lend it to him for a bit? My kid is very well-behaved and won’t damage it.”

“No, this is my collectible. I can’t bear to let him play it even twice myself.”

“Hey, why are you being so stingy? Can’t you let the child play for a bit? See, you’ve made my kid cry!”

Hearing this, the young lady was furious, never encountering someone so unreasonable before,

“I made him cry? He insisted on having my thing, and I can’t refuse? You’re the one not managing your child properly, and you’re blaming me?!”

“How can you talk like that? What’s wrong with my child? It’s just a broken game controller. If he breaks it, we’ll pay for a new one.”

Upon hearing this, the young lady was also exasperated, and she directly extended her hand,

“Fine, my controller is thirty thousand. Give me the money first, and he can play as much as he wants!”

“Thirty thousand?! Why don’t you go robbing?!”

“Heh, weren’t you the ones trying to rob me first?”

The quarrel between the young lady and the child’s mom, coupled with the child’s cries, and the voices of others trying to mediate the situation, filled the air.

Ashton Todd couldn’t stand listening to it for long, opened his eyes, only to see that the faculty members in front of and behind him, along with Lucas and the group, all appeared unaffected.

On closer look, each had a Silence Talisman attached to them at some point, making them impervious to the noise.

He widened his eyes and whispered, “You guys are too sly!”

He said this while reaching out to poke Lucas’s sleeve, then beckoned for a talisman himself.

Lucas looked at him and mouthed, “Five hundred per talisman.”

Ashton was aghast at the price, involuntarily twitching a facial muscle.

Five hundred bucks! You might as well take my life!

He resolutely refused to let Lucas earn that money from him and pulled out paper and pen to attempt replicating a Silence Talisman by hand on the spot.

As he was replicating it, the child’s father could no longer stand it, and with sarcasm, he cursed,

“It’s just a lousy game controller. You young people today, honestly.”

And then pulled out a phone to appease his son, “Son, stop crying, take Dad’s phone to play.”

The child grabbed the phone, immediately threw it to the ground without a second thought, and cried louder, “I don’t want this!”

With a crackling sound, the phone shattered, and the child’s father was instantly enraged, pulling the child toward him and giving two slaps on the bottom.

Seeing this, the child’s mother hurried to stop him, yet didn’t forget to direct a curse at the young lady,

“All your fault! You made my husband’s phone fall and break! You compensate for it!”

The young lady rolled her eyes at them and couldn’t take it anymore, packed her things, and left.

She wanted to find a train attendant to switch seats!

The child’s mom tried to pull her back but unexpectedly tripped on something unknown, tumbling headlong into the aisle.

Simultaneously, Lucas Jennings and Gregory Xander, along with others around them, opened their eyes one after another.

Just now, they all sensed a distinct demonic energy fluctuation in the carriage.