Preparation

This was a provocation—a naked, blatant provocation. The thirty-three ice sculptures before them were like that handsome youth standing in front of them with a mocking smile, slapping them across the face twice without hesitation.

"I'll go take his head."

Li Huangshan said viciously.

Slapping the Great Wilderness Society in the face was undoubtedly disrespecting Brother Huang. Anyone who disrespected Brother Huang—he had to twist off their heads one by one.

"Shut up. This is the Academy."

At this moment, the only one who could restrain Li Huangshan was Yu Ziman, Xu Huang's lover. Her expression was equally unpleasant as she looked at the scene before her.

But as the person currently in charge, she had to remain calm.

Li Huangshan had spent years carrying out missions outside, gradually cultivating a savage temperament. This was the Northern Azure Spiritual Academy; no matter what, matters of life and death could not be involved.

But...

"Xu Zhuo, you go."

"Sure."

Hearing Yu Ziman's words, Xu Zhuo revealed a strange smile.

He understood what Yu Ziman meant.

"Don't touch the other new students," Yu Wenlou reminded him. Xu Zhuo had certain peculiar habits that were truly rather unpleasant.

"I know. You don't need to tell me, Wenlou," Xu Zhuo said with a smiling face, though it was unclear whether he had taken those words to heart.

After greeting the others, Xu Zhuo turned and left.

Long Deng watched his departing figure, frowned, and turned to leave as well.

He had said he would not get involved, so he would not. Whichever side it was, Long Deng would not interfere.

After Xu Zhuo and Long Deng departed, Li Huangshan gave a cold snort and left as well.

The only officers remaining in the area were the siblings Yu Ziman and Yu Wenlou.

"Brother Huang is still recovering?" Only after the others had left did Yu Wenlou speak, asking Yu Ziman. Within the entire Great Wilderness Society, only he and his sister knew that Xu Huang had been injured.

However, he did not know as much as his sister about the recent situation.

Yu Ziman nodded and gave him his answer.

"He was serious during his match with Shen Cangsheng. His injuries are not as optimistic as we imagined."

Five days before Bai Ye returned, Xu Huang had sought out Shen Cangsheng, who had just claimed first place on the Heaven Ranking. Both were Senior Students in their second year, and Xu Huang had somehow promised a price in exchange for the right to challenge Shen Cangsheng.

By the time Yu Ziman went to bring him back, he was already covered in severe injuries. Upon returning to the Great Wilderness Society, he immediately entered seclusion to recover without saying a word, and he had yet to emerge.

It was easy to imagine just how serious Xu Huang's injuries had been in that battle.

"What do you mean? Do you think the few of us can't suppress a single new student?" Yu Ziman frowned, speaking with dissatisfaction.

Twenty-seventh on the Heaven Ranking—the weight of that position was no small matter.

Yu Wenlou shook his head and stared blankly at the spot where Bai Ye had stood moments earlier.

"I just suddenly feel... uneasy."

After leaving the area occupied by the Great Wilderness Society, Bai Ye headed straight for a certain place.

It was not the Spiritual Mountain where the Spirit Array Elder Yan Meng had mentioned resided. After venting his anger, he had regained enough reason to understand that someone capable of becoming a Spirit Array Elder at the Northern Azure Spiritual Academy had to possess cultivation at least at the Master level.

His current strength was far from enough for him to climb that mountain with confidence.

So, his destination was another popular location within the Northern Azure Spiritual Academy.

The Spirit Value Hall.

He seemed to have seen that item on the exchange list of his Spirit Value Token that day.

With it, he would definitely give that elder who had made him change his name a huge surprise. An enormous one.

The Spirit Value Hall was not far from the residential area of the Great Wilderness Society. The headquarters of most societies were located relatively close to this area.

When Bai Ye arrived, all he could see was a dense crowd of students coming and going.

This was unquestionably the most crowded place in the Northern Azure Spiritual Academy.

His arrival drew the attention of many people. Naturally, most of them were looking at his excessively handsome face, but they only gave him a passing glance. There were very few lovestruck fools who would stand still just because of a face.

Of course, it was not as though there were none.

Bai Ye walked into the hall. Countless light screens flickered within, displaying the items available for exchange in the Spirit Value Hall.

Just from the goods on display, one could see how deep the Northern Azure Spiritual Academy's foundation was.

"Seven million spirit values for a single drop of essence blood. Both are divine beasts, yet Bing Yu is unexpectedly valuable."

Bai Ye looked at the light screen at the very top of all the displayed goods. It showed a golden droplet encased in a sphere. If the small print beside it had not stated the item's name, Bai Ye would not have been able to tell with the naked eye that it was a drop of essence blood.

Still, it was rather useless to him.

When he had been in the Divine Soul Realm, he had not even refined a Spiritual Beast's essence soul. Although a large part of the reason was that he had not taken cultivation levels seriously back then, the greater reason was that he simply had not needed it.

The supporting effects of Cold energy were far more useful than the Spiritual Beast power gained from refining an essence soul.

After arriving, Bai Ye headed straight toward a crystal counter.

He saw many people heading there, so it was presumably the place where items were exchanged in the Spirit Value Hall.

"State your business."

Behind the counter sat a gray-haired old man. He lay lazily across it, and without even lifting his head, noticed Bai Ye's arrival.

"I want to exchange for a Spirit Object."

Bai Ye took out his Spirit Value Token and placed it on the counter.

The old man straightened up and lazily stretched.

"Name it."

"Accumulating Spirit Water."

"Hm?" The old man was startled when he heard that. "I didn't expect anyone to actually exchange for that piece of junk."

That piqued his interest somewhat.

Accumulating Spirit Water, as its name suggested, was a Spirit Object whose greatest use was storing spiritual energy. When released all at once in a room, the accumulated spiritual energy would continuously compress, instantly giving the surrounding area the effect of a Spirit Gathering Array.

However, the Northern Azure Spiritual Academy itself had many high-grade Spirit Gathering Arrays. As long as one spent a certain amount of spirit values, they could enter and cultivate there. Compared to this one-use Spirit Object, it was vastly more cost-effective.

Thus, ever since the old man had begun guarding this place and distributing items, the stock of Accumulating Spirit Water had barely changed.

Most people who bought this Spirit Object did so merely out of curiosity.

"Fifty thousand spirit values. Are you sure?"

The old man opened his eyes and saw the striking white hair, causing him to pause. Such a hair color was truly rare.

Then he looked at Bai Ye's face. Rather than marveling at his handsomeness, he simply froze where he was.

Why did this face seem somewhat familiar...

As if...

His brows furrowed slightly.

"Kid... forget it. Here's your item."

The old man casually tossed out a porcelain bottle. Bai Ye caught it. It was indeed a drop of Accumulating Spirit Water.

"I want three drops."

Bai Ye raised three fingers and said with a smile.

"Three drops?" The old man felt that the number of times he had been stunned in these few minutes was nearly catching up to an entire month's total.

If he wanted three drops, that meant this kid knew what Accumulating Spirit Water was for.

"I'll kindly remind you that one day of cultivation in a seventh-grade Spirit Gathering Array costs five thousand spirit values."

"I know."

Bai Ye continued smiling. His expression made it clear that he truly understood these matters.

He knew, yet still wanted to exchange for them. Either there was something wrong with his head, or he had another use for them.

The old man felt it was probably the former.

What a pity. Such good genes, yet how had they produced such a grandson?

Tsk, tsk.

Shaking his head, the old man tossed out two more porcelain bottles.

With that exchange, Bai Ye's Spirit Value Token lost a full one hundred and fifty thousand spirit values. Adding Gu Jingsha's bounty reward, which had apparently been deposited at some point, the balance on his Spirit Value Token was now only one hundred and seventy thousand two hundred.

If the old man was not mistaken, this should be a new student.

Forget it. It was not his place to concern himself with such matters.

"Take your things and get lost. Don't disturb my rest."

Was loving sleep a shared hobby among the elders of the Northern Azure Spiritual Academy?

This elder was like that, and Elder Liu from the Mission Hall was the same.

Bai Ye picked up the porcelain bottles and placed them in his Mustard Seed Bracelet.

Others might see this thing as trash, but when he was twelve, he had conducted an experiment with it. The results had been astonishing—so much so that Ying Longcheng had once forbidden him from touching the stuff in the City Lord's Mansion.

Thinking of that, a smile appeared on Bai Ye's face.

Although he did not know who the Spirit Array Elder was or what reason she had for making him change his name, this time, he would definitely give her a huge surprise.

The corners of his lips curled upward, and a trace of fervor gradually flashed through his eyes.

He was eagerly looking forward to it...

Deep within the Small Courtyard, Ling Xi suddenly felt something strange stir in her heart for no apparent reason.

The feeling came quickly and vanished just as quickly.

It felt as if something unpleasant was going to happen.

"It must be an illusion."

Ling Xi set down her paintbrush.

This was the Northern Azure Spiritual Academy. What could possibly happen here?

It was definitely an illusion.