Getting First Place Isn't Easy as Pie?

Jiang Li was as disappointed now as he had been excited when he first went to the unknown world.

This Gray World failed to interest Jiang Li in the slightest.

What was so interesting about a world with only two kinds of things?

The only use this world had was for Jiang Li to come here in the future and attempt to transcend tribulation, to see whether ascension was possible.

Perhaps this world was connected to the Immortal Realm.

Jiang Li could only comfort himself with that thought.

The system had already recorded the Gray World's coordinates. He only needed to spend another fifty thousand-plus Source Points to go there.

For Jiang Li, who could casually write an Body Integration Realm cultivation technique, Source Points were like a vault with its doors wide open—he could take as many as he wanted.

What? Someone would do missions for fifty Source Points? No, there definitely wasn't anyone like that.

Jiang Li vehemently denied it in his heart.

The Remote Communication Talisman vibrated, and Jiang Li connected it.

"Jiang Ge, there are results from the investigation you asked for. The former Human Emperor Candidates all said that no one on their side had ever seen the Black-Clothed Man." Another commander of the Human Emperor Palace contacted Jiang Li.

"That's strange."

Jiang Li couldn't figure out why the Black-Clothed Man had been so certain that he would become the Human Emperor. Or had he really only been spreading the Demonic Path?

"Then go post a commission at the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion. Their connections run deep. Have them investigate who taught Jiang Yixing the Demonic Path's cultivation method three hundred and eighty years ago."

"Yes."

Jiang Li opened one spatial rift after another, but the system never notified him that it had discovered an unknown world. It seemed that finding the Gray World so quickly before had simply been good luck.

Several days later, the system issued a new mission.

New mission issued: The Great Zhou Royal Academy is about to begin admissions. As preparatory academies for the Great Zhou Royal Academy, the Four Great Academies have sixty percent of their students gain admission to the Great Zhou Royal Academy. You did not come from one of the Four Great Academies and have been mocked by academy students as a non-academy student. Please place first in the Great Zhou Royal Academy entrance examination.

This mission may be abandoned.

Mission reward: One drop of True Dragon Blood, one Demon Beast Transformation Pill, and the special mission "Immortal Realm Mystery" will be unlocked.

"Hm?"

Jiang Li automatically ignored the True Dragon Blood and Demon Beast Transformation Pill. He asked, "What is Immortal Realm Mystery?"

The mission has not been unlocked. The host has no right to know.

Though this system was as infuriating as ever, it had never lied. If it said it could teleport you through space, it could teleport you through space; if it said it would give you something, it would give it to you. Since this mission was called Immortal Realm Mystery, didn't that mean completing it would allow him to find the Immortal Realm?

The special mission made Jiang Li's heart itch, and he decided to do it.

Besides, it had indeed been quite some time since he had visited the Great Zhou Royal Academy.

Jiang Li had once been a student of the Great Zhou Royal Academy, where he had met Ji Zhi, who had only been a prince at the time.

Back then, Jiang Li had just broken through to the Foundation Establishment Realm when he was hunted down. In the end, with no other choice, he burned his Five Elements Spiritual Root with the resolve to die, intending to perish together with his enemy.

His opponent had been shocked as well. Burning one's spiritual root? Only a madman would do that. Burning a spiritual root could indeed unleash astonishing combat strength for a short time, but it was also extremely dangerous—a brush with death. Even if one survived by sheer luck, one could only become an ordinary mortal without a trace of spiritual energy!

In the Nine Provinces, having no spiritual root was more unbearable than death!

Yet Jiang Li neither died nor became a mortal. Instead, he forced his Heavenly Spiritual Root to awaken ahead of time.

The Heavenly Spiritual Root concealed itself, appearing outwardly as a Five Elements Spiritual Root. Only after a cultivator relied on the Five Elements Spiritual Root to reach the Nascent Soul Realm would the Heavenly Spiritual Root awaken, allowing them to soar into the heavens from then on.

Heavenly Spiritual Roots were already rare, while cultivating to the Nascent Soul Realm with a Five Elements Spiritual Root was even more difficult. Put the two together, and a Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivator might not appear even once in a thousand years.

Yet there had never been a case where burning one's Five Elements Spiritual Root caused the Heavenly Spiritual Root to awaken in advance.

Jiang Li discovered that he had fallen from the Foundation Establishment Early Stage back to the Qi Refining Ninth Layer, but his foundation had become far more solid. After cultivating for a while, he had even absurdly reached the Qi Refining Tenth Layer?!

Since when did the Qi Refining Stage have a tenth layer?! If he kept cultivating like this, all the way to the Qi Refining Twentieth Layer, would he still be able to establish his foundation?! Jiang Li couldn't understand the changes in himself. He had heard that the place with the most books in Great Zhou was the library of the Great Zhou Royal Academy, so he went there to look, hoping to find an explanation for his condition.

Though he failed to find the book he wanted, Jiang Li learned systematic cultivation knowledge at the academy. Based on theoretical knowledge, he deduced that he possessed a Heavenly Spiritual Root and that it had awakened early.

After becoming the Human Emperor, Jiang Li came to the Great Zhou Royal Academy every thirty years to give a lecture, repaying its kindness in teaching and resolving his doubts.

"How fast time flies. Five hundred years passed in the blink of an eye. I was a student when I left the academy, and now I'm still a student."

It was enrollment season, and students from all over the country had come to take the academy's entrance examination, filling every inn to bursting.

Jiang Li spent a hefty sum to rent a room at a nearby inn, preparing for the entrance examination.

The reward for the system's previous mission had been unlocking the Source Point Reading function, while the next mission was to take first place in the entrance examination. The implication was obvious: it wanted him to use this new function to study and take first place.

But Jiang Li thought that was simply a joke. Back then, he had taken first place in the Great Zhou Royal Academy entrance examination without relying on the system. Five hundred years later, he had even become a Great Ascension Stage cultivator, with horizons broader than ever. Wouldn't handling a mere entrance examination be as easy as turning over his hand?

Using the system even once would be an insult to my intelligence!

The Great Zhou Royal Academy had an ancient history, nearly as old as Great Zhou itself. It occupied one corner of the Great Zhou Imperial City, covering an enormous area in this land where every inch was worth its weight in gold. Yet no one dared complain, because every emperor Great Zhou had ever had graduated from here.

For that very reason, the nearby inns charged exorbitant prices beyond the means of ordinary people. Most people squeezed three or four tenants into one small room, living frugally while studying desperately day and night.

Even the students of the Four Great Academies wore expressions of diligent study.

Jiang Li strolled about with his hands behind his back, looking entirely carefree and utterly out of place amid the tense atmosphere of study all around him.

Someone took offense at Jiang Li's demeanor and was just about to throw out a few sarcastic remarks when the companion beside him pulled him back.

"What's wrong? Why are you stopping me? I just hate people like that who muddle through life!"

"Have you memorized yourself stupid? Someone like him obviously studies well—he's got everything under control!"

Another companion chimed in, "Look at the top scorers at our academy before an exam. Which one of them doesn't seem like they barely work, then sigh and moan after the test? But when the results come out, they're first in the class."

"Exactly, exactly. He sleeps more than anyone else in class, and after the exam he says he got this question wrong and that question wrong. I thought, so the top student in the class is nothing special after all. But once the results came out, he was still first in class, while I was still dead last."

Persuaded by his companions, the person who had wanted to mock him immediately came to his senses. Right—how could anyone coming to the Great Zhou Royal Academy for its entrance exam possibly be here just to go through the motions? That was close, far too close. He had nearly gotten his face slapped. Better study properly and not stick his head out just to let someone else hit it.