With a loud thud, the falling body crashed heavily onto him.

Fortunately, the Inspector of Winds was experienced and resourceful. With a twist of his wrist and a sweeping motion of both arms, he used force against force, sending the falling humanoid figure smoothly flying away.

The person who had jumped down shot off like a cannonball into the distance.

But this move also caused William Thompson to take a heavy blow. Caught off guard, he heard two cracking sounds from his shoulders—both joints were dislocated.

The guy who jumped didn’t die. After hitting the ground, he struggled to get up after three or four breaths. “Damn, is this what comes of trying to die? It hurts like hell!”

So, the person he saved wasn’t a beautiful woman, but a man?

Come on, what happened to the classic hero saving the damsel? Hearing this, William Thompson really wanted to complain: When others save people, it’s always a beauty. Why is it that when I save someone, it’s a big burly guy?

Once the tension passed, he finally felt the intense pain in both arms and couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath—damn.

At this moment, two uniformed men came running from afar, shouting, “Stop! Don’t run!”

The jumper, hearing this, got up and tried to run. But after falling from such a height—even though he’d been pushed away—his whole body was torn and bloody, so he couldn’t run fast at all.

The two men caught up and grabbed him. Someone else turned back and shouted at William Thompson, “You, come with us!”

“Huh?” William Thompson was stunned for a moment, wanting to raise his hand to point at his own nose, but he was too weak. “Are you talking to me?”

Just then, a few more people ran over from a distance. One man in his thirties shouted, “Can’t you see his arms are dislocated?”

Soon, more and more people gathered. Someone almost died in the academy—this was a big deal.

William Thompson’s arms were set back into their sockets. After someone checked him over, they said, “He’s fine. This kid is really tough.”

It was the time for new students to register, so this kind of incident couldn’t be allowed to escalate and needed to be resolved quickly.

William Thompson was also called over to serve as a witness. Only then did he remember, “No, I need to go pay my tuition.”

“A new student?” The person who called him was surprised—returning students had already paid their fees.

William Thompson smiled and nodded. “Yes, I’m a new student.”

“A new student like this…” The people nearby started whispering. Aren’t new students supposed to be neatly dressed?

“I’ll take you to pay your tuition,” a girl nearby offered, her looks decent, smiling at him. “Junior, you’ve got some impressive skills.”

“Uh, I guess so,” William Thompson replied awkwardly, flashing two rows of clean, even teeth.

The academy’s instructors and security wouldn’t let him go until they’d registered his class and name.

The girl leading the way was surnamed Sullivan, an inner dorm student. At first, she was a bit shy about talking to her junior, but William Thompson was easygoing, and before long, the two were chatting and laughing.

That’s when William Thompson learned that the building he’d just passed was called the Stargazing Tower, the academy’s only high-rise, used for contemplating the movement of the stars and improving one’s cultivation.

But the tower was nearly a hundred zhang tall. Even for cultivators, falling from it meant almost certain death. So, students often jumped from it, and even outsiders came to the academy just to jump from the Stargazing Tower.

“It’s actually a suicide hotspot?” William Thompson felt a bit dizzy. “Doesn’t the academy do anything about it?”

“There’s plenty of security there, as you saw just now,” Senior Sullivan defended the academy. “If it were anywhere else, would there be so much security?”

She sighed. “Besides, you can’t just stop people from going up the tower. If someone really wants to die, can you stop them?”

“Does someone die every year?” William Thompson was very curious.

“If someone died every year, that’d be terrible,” Senior Sullivan rolled her eyes at him. “But one every other year is about right.”

William Thompson spread his hands—what could he say?

“That’s actually a good thing,” Senior Sullivan was quite philosophical. “If you jump from the Stargazing Tower, you die cleanly. Some people jump from the back mountain, lose all their teeth, have their cheekbones smashed into their brain, but don’t die… that’s real suffering.”

After a pause, she sighed, “So, if you’re going to kill yourself, pick somewhere high.”

“Words of wisdom,” William Thompson grinned and gave her a thumbs-up. “Senior, you really know life.”

“Stop being cheeky,” Senior Sullivan shot him a playful look, still smiling. “Alright, pay your tuition here.”

She found this junior quite likable. Though a bit clueless, he was skilled enough to save someone who jumped from the Stargazing Tower—and… handsome enough.

But the next moment, she was stunned. Turns out this junior was really poor—he had to pay his twelve silver yuan tuition in two installments, handing over only six this time.

The academy allowed this, but paying tuition in installments meant a lot of paperwork. William Thompson paid what he could for now, but he’d have to get proof from his class later and be ready for an academy investigation.