Upon the high rock, Lin Xiao stood against the wind, his robes fluttering. He looked down at the ten youths below, exhausted though they were, their gazes gleaming like unsheathed swords, and at last, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
One month.
A full month of inhuman torment and tempering.
With his own hands, he had forged a flock of weak sheep, dismissed by others as trash, into a fledgling pack of bloodthirsty wolves!
Their cultivation might still not have ranked among the best in the entire Outer Court.
But their battle instincts, long since carved into their bones; their iron-blooded will, honed at the edge of life and death countless times; and the absolute trust that allowed them to entrust their backs to one another... those were the strongest and deadliest weapons in their hands!
"The second stage of special training ends here."
Lin Xiao's voice was like a clear spring, flowing distinctly into everyone's ears below and instantly washing away the exhaustion and Killing Intent that had nearly congealed around them.
Hearing this, everyone let out a long sigh of relief.
It was over...
That nightmare, which had lasted a full month and sent them through the twin hells of body and mind every single day, had finally ended!
Yet before they could celebrate, Lin Xiao's next words sent their hearts leaping into their throats again.
"From today onward, your special training will enter its third and final stage."
"I will personally take you to accept Academy missions. We will use the blood of real demonic beasts to sharpen the edge of this sword that is about to leave its sheath!"
Half an hour later.
When the lockdown on the Yellow Class Nine dormitory district was lifted for the first time in a month, a team brimming with grim killing intent quietly emerged from that forbidden ground, already known throughout the Outer Court as the "Madhouse" and the "Asura Arena."
At their head was a youth dressed in fitted black attire. His features were refined, but his eyes were as deep as ancient wells.
It was Lin Xiao.
Behind him followed twenty-nine youths, male and female, also dressed in neat black attire.
They were the entirety of Yellow Class Nine.
At this moment, they were utterly different from how they had been a month ago!
All youthful innocence and immaturity had faded from their faces, replaced by a cold hardness and steady gravity utterly at odds with their age.
Their footsteps were perfectly synchronized and utterly silent. Thirty people walking together made not the slightest unnecessary sound!
Though they did not deliberately release their auras, the iron-blooded Killing Intent forged through countless bloody melees and trials of inner demons hung around them like an invisible force field, covering the space within three feet of their bodies and making anyone who approached feel inexplicably uneasy and oppressed!
How could they still be a group of youths with an average age of merely sixteen or seventeen?!
They were clearly a battle-hardened elite force that had just stepped out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood!
The moment this team, so out of place with its surroundings, appeared on the Outer Court's main road, it instantly drew the attention of every passing student.
"Th-that's... Yellow Class Nine?" "My god! They actually came out? I thought that Lin Xiao had already tortured them insane, or tortured them to death!" "Look at their eyes... They're terrifying! I feel like I'm being watched by a pack of hungry wolves!" "It's an illusion! It has to be an illusion! They're just trash piled up with pills, pretending to be mysterious! Look at them—none of them are above Peak Body Refinement Fourth Level. What is there to fear?!"
All kinds of discussion and whispered remarks came from every direction. There was shock, there was curiosity, but even more than that, there was still deeply rooted disdain and contempt.
Yet Yellow Class Nine's thirty members seemed not to hear any of the pointing fingers and comments.
Their gazes did not ripple in the slightest.
Their footsteps did not falter in the slightest.
Like the most loyal wolf pack, they silently followed their sole "alpha wolf"—Lin Xiao—straight toward a destination no one could have expected.
That direction led to the liveliest place in the entire Outer Court, and also the place that best revealed a student's true strength.
—The Mission Hall!
Cloud Creek Academy, Mission Hall.
This was the central hub where the Academy issued all manner of missions, where students accepted them, and where they exchanged their accomplishments for merit points.
The entire Mission Hall was divided into two levels.
The first level was the mission posting area. An enormous wall of light occupied an entire wall. Countless mission notices scrolled densely across it, ranging from simple tasks such as "Gather Herbs" and "Find Lost Items" to more complex missions like "Hunt Demonic Beasts" and "Escort Merchant Caravans."
These missions were strictly divided into four ranks according to their difficulty and rewards.
D-grade missions had the lowest difficulty and the fewest rewards, generally accepted by freshmen at Body Refinement First to Third Level. C-grade missions were moderately difficult and required a certain level of strength and teamwork; they were the primary source of merit points for veteran students at Body Refinement Fourth to Sixth Level. B-grade missions were extremely difficult and filled with unknown dangers, usually only dared by elite squads made up of top students at Body Refinement Seventh Level or above. As for A-grade missions... those belonged to the realm of legend. The Outer Court's Mission Hall had not seen an A-grade mission for years.
At this moment, the spacious Mission Hall was packed with people and bustling with activity.
Hundreds upon thousands of Outer Court students gathered beneath the enormous wall of light in groups of three or five. Some discussed loudly, while others carefully examined the listings, selecting missions suited to them.
Just then.
An invisible, heart-chilling aura of slaughter quietly poured in from outside the Mission Hall's doors like a cold current.
The previously clamorous hall fell silent.
Everyone subconsciously stopped what they were doing and turned toward the source of that aura.
Then they saw a sight they would never forget for the rest of their lives.
Thirty youths, male and female, dressed in matching black attire, marched into the Mission Hall in a neat formation with synchronized steps, like an unsheathed black sword moving in utter silence.
Their arrival was utterly out of place amid the noisy, bustling surroundings.
"Y-Yellow Class Nine?!"
Someone in the crowd was the first to recognize them and let out a cry of disbelief!
One stone stirred a thousand waves!
After a brief deathly silence, the entire Mission Hall erupted like a powder keg that had just been ignited!
"It really is them! That lunatic team that declared a month ago they would lead the Yellow Classes to become number one in the Outer Court!" "What are they doing here? Don't tell me they want to accept missions too? Stop joking! What mission could that pile of pill-fed trash possibly complete? Picking mushrooms in the back mountain? Hahaha!" "I say they were driven mad from being locked in there and just came out for some air! Look at that Lin Xiao, putting on such a convincing act. Does he really think beating one Li Tianyi makes him invincible under heaven?"
All kinds of mockery and ridicule echoed through the hall without restraint.
Yet in the face of these venomous words, enough to shame any ordinary youth into wishing he could burrow into the ground, Yellow Class Nine's thirty members remained expressionless.
They simply stood there quietly, like a group of emotionless killing machines.
Their gazes followed only the slender figure at the front.
It was as if, with a single command from that man, they would tear every one of these noisy flies before them into pieces without hesitation!
Lin Xiao stopped walking.
Ignoring the piercing noise around him, he slowly raised his head and turned his gaze toward the massive mission wall.
His eyes were calm and deep as he skipped straight past the densely packed D-grade missions occupying ninety percent of the board at the bottom.
He also passed over the C-grade missions in the middle section, which offered rather generous rewards.
At last, his gaze settled on the sparse B-grade mission section at the very top of the wall, where the listings glowed with a faint blood-red light!
That was a forbidden zone for every ordinary student in the Outer Court!
"He's gone mad... What is he trying to do?!"
Lin Xiao's action was immediately noticed by several sharp-eyed students.
Everyone's laughter came to an abrupt halt.
It was replaced by looks of absurdity, as though they were staring at an idiot.
Even the deacon elder in charge of managing the Mission Hall poked his head out from behind the counter, staring in astonishment at this freshman who did not know the height of heaven or the depth of earth.
Under the deathly silence of the entire hall and the countless gazes filled with bewilderment and disbelief.
Lin Xiao slowly extended a finger.
He pointed toward a blood-red mission in the B-grade section, one that had hung there for a full three months without anyone daring to inquire about it!
"We'll take this one."
His voice was not loud.
Yet it crashed into everyone's hearts like a meteor capable of overturning all they knew, raising monstrous waves!
High-level B-grade Mission: Clear Black Wind Mountain Range!
Mission Details: A large-scale pack of second-order demonic beasts—the Ironback Demonic Wolf Pack—has recently appeared in the Black Wind Mountain Range, three hundred li north of the Academy! The pack contains more than a hundred wolves, among them a Third-order Alpha Wolf whose strength rivals that of a cultivator at Peak Body Refinement Seventh Level! Several student teams that entered the area for training have already fallen victim to them and vanished without a trace. The team accepting this mission must venture deep into the Black Wind Mountain Range, eliminate the wolf pack, and bring back the beast core of the Third-order Alpha Wolf as proof.
Mission Reward: Thirty thousand merit points! One freely selected Profound Grade Lower Rank Martial Skill! One Inner Court Examination Recommendation Quota!
Time Limit: Ten days.
Once everyone saw clearly what kind of terrifying mission Lin Xiao was pointing at, the entire Mission Hall fell into a complete state of paralysis.
Everyone stood frozen in place as if petrified, their minds blank!
High-level B-grade!
This was already a death mission infinitely close to A-grade difficulty!
Wipe out an entire wolf pack containing over a hundred second-order demonic wolves and a Third-order Alpha Wolf?!
Let alone a group of Outer Court students like them! Even elite teams in the Inner Court composed of Spiritual Movement Realm experts would have to weigh their own strength carefully before facing such a terrifying beast horde!
And now, a team established barely more than a month ago, with an average cultivation level not even at Body Refinement Fifth Level, from the lowest-ranked Yellow Class, actually wanted to challenge this death mission that even the top teams of the Heaven Class viewed as venomous serpents and savage beasts?!
This was not a challenge!
This was suicide!
"Pfft..."
No one knew who was the first to fail to hold it in and laugh.
Then came the second, the third...
In the end, the entire Mission Hall burst into earth-shaking laughter, filled with pity and mockery!
"Hahahaha! I'm dying of laughter! Did I hear that right? He said he wants to take that Clear Black Wind Mountain Range mission?!" "Has this Lin Xiao really gone stupid from being locked in the dormitory? Does he even know how to write the word 'death'?!" "Alright, alright, stop laughing. This isn't stupidity—it's called 'self-awareness'! He knows his talent is lacking and that he has no hope of entering the Inner Court in this lifetime, so he wants to end his ridiculous life in the most 'tragic' way possible! We should fulfill his wish!"
Amid this malicious laughter.
A tall young man with an arrogant face and a "Heaven Class" badge pinned to his chest slowly walked up to Lin Xiao, surrounded by a group of people.
Looking down at Lin Xiao as if he were a clown, the young man curled his lips into an undisguised sneer.
"You're that Lin Xiao?"
Lin Xiao slowly withdrew his finger, turned around, and calmly looked at this uninvited guest before him.
[System Notification: Hostile target discovered] [Name: Zhao Wuji] [Class: Heaven Class Three] [Realm: Mid Body Refinement Seventh Level] [Technique: Blazing Sun Technique (Profound Grade Middle Rank)] [Martial Skills: Blazing Sun Saber Technique (Profound Grade Lower Tier), Chasing Wind Steps (Yellow Grade Upper Tier)] [Overall Combat Power Evaluation: B-]
"Do you need something?" Lin Xiao's tone was as calm as still water.
"Nothing major." Zhao Wuji gave a scornful laugh and pointed at the mission wall behind him. "I merely came to 'advise' you. A person should know his own limits. The Black Wind Mountain Range mission is not something trash like you are qualified to touch. Our Heavenly Martial Society has already claimed that mission."
"Oh?" Lin Xiao raised an eyebrow slightly. "Claimed it? Why didn't I know the Mission Hall had such a rule?"
"Rules?" Zhao Wuji seemed to have heard the greatest joke in the world, and the Heaven Class students behind him burst into laughter as well.
"Kid, let me tell you! In the Outer Court of Cloud Creek Academy, whatever our Heavenly Martial Society says is the rule!"
Zhao Wuji's smile abruptly vanished. His eyes turned incomparably sinister as the powerful aura of a Body Refinement Seventh Level expert erupted, crushing fiercely toward Lin Xiao!
"Now take your bunch of trash and get the hell out of the Mission Hall! Otherwise, I don't mind letting you experience what despair means ahead of time!"
Facing the terrifying pressure that could make even ordinary Body Refinement Fifth Level cultivators quake with fear, Lin Xiao's expression did not change in the slightest.
Even the twenty-nine Yellow Class Nine members behind him remained standing ramrod straight, their faces calm as water, as if that dreadful incoming aura were nothing more than an insignificant breeze.
That composure made Zhao Wuji's expression shift slightly.
"Interesting."
He narrowed his eyes, just about to say something.
But Lin Xiao had already lost interest in wasting words on him.
He turned around directly, ignored this arrogant Heaven Class genius before him, and walked straight to the deacon elder in charge of registration. He calmly placed his jade token, representing his status as Chief Instructor, on the counter.
"Elder, Yellow Class Nine wishes to accept the High-level B-grade Mission, Clear Black Wind Mountain Range."
"Please register us."
Before you continue