The contract was made in duplicate, and Fang Yu kept one copy.
After that, Associate Professor Tang led the other teachers downstairs.
Jiang Wei deliberately hung back at the rear and said to Fang Yu, "Fang Yu, I forgot just now — here is my private contact. Add it. Once you're at Huguang Martial Arts University, if you run into trouble or anything you don't understand, you can ask me."
"Thank you, Teacher Jiang," Fang Yu said.
With everyone watching, Fang Yu was naturally not fool enough to make their connection public... If Jiang Wei had wanted it public he would not have pulled Fang Yu into a separate room earlier.
He saw Jiang Wei into the lift.
Then he went back to the second-floor office. Most of the recommended students had already gone; only Zhang Tao and Wang Mo were still there.
Yan Fu and several other teachers were there too, of course.
"Fang Yu."
"Fang Yu's back." Everyone looked at him, and then their eyes went to the contract in his hand.
"You signed?" Yan Fu asked.
"Mm." Fang Yu said it briefly. "Elite Contract. Real combat is compulsory."
There was no need to conceal the Elite Contract; by the contract's own terms, the elite roster was published each year on Huguang Martial Arts University's official site.
Only the details of the contract could not be disclosed.
"Mm. Since you've signed, prepare with a settled mind," Yan Fu said. Fang Yu had chosen to sign, and he was not going to say more about it.
The road was his own choice, and his own to walk.
"Since all three of you are taking part in real combat," the female teacher said, seeing how things stood, "the school will arrange a vehicle at eight o'clock the morning after next to take you to Huguang Martial Arts University."
"All of you?" Fang Yu was surprised.
Any new student with a Life Tier of Level 20 could choose to take part... but Fang Yu had not expected Zhang Tao and Wang Mo to go.
"I'm going to have a look," Zhang Tao said with a smile. "They say the Primordial Star is marvellous. We're ordinary recommended students with no assessment requirement, so we can wander about beside the starry-sky base and get a feel for it."
"Right."
"I was on the comm with my dad just now," Wang Mo said. "He said the same — don't join a squad yet, stay in the safe zone and find some low-grade savage beasts to practise on, so I'm not all thumbs when real combat comes."
Fang Yu nodded.
Zhang Tao and Wang Mo were under no assessment pressure; they were going mainly for the experience.
He was different. As an elite student he had to meet the minimum assessment requirement, which meant it would be a great deal more dangerous... The more you are given, the greater the risk.
It had always been so.
"All of you go and rest properly," Yan Fu said.
***
Fang Yu and Wang Mo went back to the dormitory, where one of the rooms now stood empty; He Jiyu had clearly packed his things and gone home.
"Where's the girl?" Fang Yu said, smiling.
Wang Mo had brought a girl back with him that morning.
"She's a student at the polytechnic next door. I sent her back to her own school," Wang Mo said, shaking his head. "The Primordial Star is coming up. I need to build my strength and prepare properly. No more wasting my energy."
"You do need to prepare properly," Fang Yu agreed.
"Oh — Old Fang, my dad's coming to the school tomorrow evening to see me. We're eating out, and my dad says I'm to bring you along without fail," Wang Mo said, grinning. "You've got to do me this favour."
"Your father?" Fang Yu was privately startled.
Wang Mo's father was no ordinary man.
Three years as roommates, and Fang Yu had never met him.
"Mm. Me getting into a university is a big thing. Of course he's coming." Wang Mo laughed. "You're a direct-entry student. I mentioned you on the comm and my dad told me to bring you along without fail."
Fang Yu thought about it a moment. "All right!"
***
Back in his own room.
Fang Yu thought it over, then placed a video call to his senior brother, Dong Xin. It connected quickly on a heavily built man, perhaps thirty by his face.
Full beard.
This was Fang Yu's senior brother, Dong Xin.
Dong Xin was a High-Rank Warrior, currently manager of one of the Iron Mountain Martial Society's branches; he looked older than he was, and had in fact graduated from Modu Martial Arts University only two years ago, at twenty-four — not much older than Fang Yu.
Fang Yu called him senior brother, though they had no master in common; they simply belonged to the same generation of the line, and Dong Xin had become a warrior earlier... so the two of them addressed each other as martial brothers.
Strictly speaking, Dong Xin's master was the senior brother of Fang Yu's mother.
"Xiao Yu, you've finally deigned to call me?" Dong Xin grinned. "You didn't say a word to me when Huo Yun let you go."
"Senior Brother, I'm sorry I didn't tell you beforehand," Fang Yu said, full of apology. "I'd been planning to resign anyway."
It was Dong Xin who had arranged for Fang Yu to become an assistant coach at one of the Iron Mountain Martial Society's branches in the first place.
After the dismissal.
Fang Yu had called Dong Xin, and when it did not connect he had left a message, mentioning Xu Chenyang... Dong Xin had not pressed him further and had agreed to sort Xu Chenyang out.
Until today.
Only now had Fang Yu called him again.
"Ha, I didn't blame you. It was a part-time job — and with your skill at Great Completion in Subtlety, working as an ordinary coach was a waste of you anyway. The transfer is what matters," Dong Xin said, laughing. "The assessment was today, wasn't it? How did it go?"
Quickly.
Fang Yu told him the broad course of the assessment and the result.
"Blade work at Subtlety?"
"An Elite Contract from Huguang Martial Arts University? Good! Good! Good!" Dong Xin's eyes lit up. "You quiet little devil, you've made me a headline. Your Martial Uncle will be delighted when he hears."
Fang Yu's performance genuinely had exceeded Dong Xin's expectations.
"A month ago."
"Huo Yun called me specially about you, and mentioned you'd reached Great Completion in Subtlety," Dong Xin said. "And I knew Martial Uncle Jiang Wei was taking part in this transfer assessment, so I told him your situation... I never imagined you'd take a direct-entry place."
Fang Yu understood.
Jiang Wei genuinely was his martial uncle.
"Huguang Martial Arts University may be only one of the two hundred and twenty ordinary martial arts universities."
"But the entrance exam has never decided anybody's whole future. There are always people who come into their own after they enrol, and catch up with yesterday's winners," Dong Xin said.
"An Elite Contract from Huguang!"
"For development funding and certain special resources, that's no worse than an ordinary student at Modu Martial Arts University," Dong Xin went on. "Take the chance seriously and don't disappoint Martial Uncle Jiang Wei. That special-approval slot he gave you... if you don't perform, it's his face you're costing."
"Understood." Fang Yu nodded.
Put the other way round, if he performed well it would prove Martial Uncle Jiang Wei had an eye for people.
"Senior Brother, what's the relationship between my mother and Martial Uncle Jiang Wei?" Fang Yu asked. This mattered; he needed the connections behind it clear.
His mother had a school and a lineage behind her.
Only, when she disappeared nine years ago she had not even been a High-Rank Warrior, and Fang Yu had been in middle school... The only people from his mother's school still in contact were Senior Brother Dong and his martial uncle, Pang Hong.
Pang Hong was Senior Brother Dong's teacher, a High-Rank Warrior too, though he had moved his whole family to the New Moon more than ten years ago.
When Fang Yu was small he had occasionally seen Martial Uncle Pang Hong at the house.
"I honestly don't know much about it."
"Still — your Life Tier's at Level 20 now and you're about to go to the Primordial Star for real combat," Senior Brother Dong said. "That's stepping properly into a warrior's circles."
"So I may as well introduce you to our school."
"My martial grandmaster — that is, your mother's master — should rank high among the many Earth Warriors of Huguang Province, and his standing runs deep," Senior Brother Dong said. "His name is Pei Fan."
"He taught at Huguang Martial Arts University in his day, and he liked taking disciples."
"So he has a great many disciples and followers. Some have very high talent — two of my martial uncles are already Earth Warriors — and some are ordinary... Whether he took a disciple depended entirely on his mood."
"My master, your mother, and Martial Uncle Jiang Wei were all disciples the grandmaster took at Huguang Martial Arts University," Senior Brother Dong said. "Though Martial Uncle Jiang Wei was a personally transmitted disciple, and highly valued."