The Spoils Division and the First Mastery of Divine Arts

When the first wisp of purple qi at dawn on the second day pierced through the clouds and spilled over the tranquil purple bamboo grove like golden divine radiance, an aura far more terrifying and condensed than yesterday's rose skyward from the top floor of that antique bamboo tower. It was like an ancient dragon that had slumbered for billions of years finally opening its majestic eyes, capable of looking down upon all living things!

"Rumble!"

The Spiritual Energy above the entire Tingzhu Pavilion erupted into violent turmoil at that instant!

The dense Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, which had originally flowed slowly like gentle sheep and was nearly solid enough to take physical form, actually transformed into an enormous Spiritual Energy vortex visible to the naked eye, as though summoned by the supreme divine might of some higher lifeform!

At the center of that vortex stood the exquisite antique bamboo tower!

Endless pure Spiritual Energy was forcibly drawn out from every inch of Tingzhu Pavilion by that irresistible and terrifying suction, then surged madly toward the storm's source—a destination everyone knew perfectly well—like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea!

"Th-this is... the aura of a breakthrough?!"

"My heavens! Such terrifying Spiritual Energy turbulence! Wh-who exactly is breaking through?!"

The members of the Reversing the Mortal World class, who had been immersed in deep healing and recovery within the bamboo tower, were instantly jolted awake as a group when they sensed this terrifying commotion, enough to make heaven and earth change color!

None of them could spare another thought for the terrible wounds still faintly aching across their bodies. Like mortals witnessing a miracle descend, they scrambled and tumbled out of their rooms, gathering on the broad white jade plaza outside the bamboo tower!

Then, with dull gazes filled with boundless shock and fanatical worship, they stared fixedly at the lean figure seated cross-legged upon the tower's top-floor Starwatching Platform, completely enveloped in an endless cocoon of Spiritual Energy!

It was the Chief Instructor!

Who else could create such a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering spectacle while advancing?!

"Gulp."

Shi Lei swallowed with difficulty. His honest-looking face was filled with immense shock, as though he were muttering in a dream!

"The Chief Instructor... hadn't he just gone through a life-and-death bloodbath that should have drained him completely? How... how had only one night passed, yet not only were his injuries fully healed, he had even... broken through directly?!"

No one could answer his question.

Because everything happening before their eyes had thoroughly overturned every bit of knowledge and common sense about cultivation that they had built up over the past decade or more!

This was no longer something that could be summed up by the word "genius"!

He was plainly a complete monster who should not exist in this world at all!

A freak born solely to strike down people like them, so-called "mortals"!

Lin Xiao had long since turned a deaf ear to the enormous disturbance he had caused outside.

At this moment, he was immersed in an unprecedentedly profound state!

He could clearly feel his body undergoing an earth-shattering transformation!

The terrifying torrent of energy formed from thirteen thousand experience points and more than a dozen bottles of third-grade superior cultivation elixirs had long ago smashed his incomparably solid Body Refinement Eighth Level barrier into fragments!

Streams of brand-new Spiritual Energy, several times purer and more condensed than before, surged and roared wildly through his resilient meridians, which had already widened by more than double, like the endlessly rushing Yangtze and Yellow Rivers!

Every circulation washed over every corner of his body, bringing him an ultimate pleasure akin to shedding his mortal body and exchanging his bones!

Nourished by this pure Spiritual Energy, his physical body became even more resilient!

Tempered by the impact of this vast energy, his soul became even more condensed!

And his understanding of the Martial Dao soared madly like a rocket, bolstered by that exceedingly precious trace of martial insight he had gained through his life-and-death struggle with Wu Tianxiong, a Half-step Spirit Movement expert!

Body Refinement Ninth Level!

This was the ultimate peak of cultivation that all students in Cloud Creek Academy's outer court could attain!

It was also the final solid threshold between "mortal" and "immortal"!

Once one crossed this realm, one could attempt to draw Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy into the body and condense a Spiritual Energy vortex within the dantian, thereby truly entering the Spirit Movement Realm, where one could fly through the air and greatly extend one's lifespan!

Becoming a truly transcendent cultivator!

"Whew..."

Who knew how much time passed.

When the massive Spiritual Energy vortex enveloping the entire Tingzhu Pavilion finally dispersed slowly.

Lin Xiao, seated cross-legged atop the Starwatching Platform, finally let out a long breath of white turbid air, condensed like an arrow!

He slowly opened those dazzling starry eyes, as bright as though countless stars were being born and dying within them in endless cycles!

"Crack! Crack!"

He merely rose casually from the ground.

An unrivaled sense of explosive power instantly filled his limbs and every bone in his body!

He could even clearly hear the crisp string of explosions within him, like beans popping in a pan, caused by the sudden surge in his strength!

"So... this is the Body Refinement Ninth Level?"

Lin Xiao slowly spread open his palm, sensing the terrifying strength that could collapse mountains and split peaks with every gesture. A truly satisfied smile finally appeared on his face, which had always been as calm as an ancient well.

He knew it.

From this day onward, no one in Cloud Creek Academy's outer court would be able to contend with him in pure strength!

Even if Wu Tianxiong, restored to his peak condition, stood before him again, Lin Xiao had absolute confidence that he could defeat him head-on without using Reversing the Mortal World, that forbidden killing move which injured the enemy by a thousand while harming oneself by eight hundred!

This was the absolute confidence brought by strength!

He slowly leaped down from the Starwatching Platform.

The entire process was silent, and he drifted down like an immortal, as though his body no longer carried any weight.

When he landed steadily before the twenty-nine companions who had long been waiting, twenty-nine pairs of complicated eyes full of fanatical fervor and worship greeted him.

"Congratulations, Chief Instructor, on your great advancement in cultivation!"

No one knew who was the first to recover, but someone respectfully bowed with a voice filled with heartfelt excitement and reverence.

The rest quickly followed suit.

"Congratulations, Chief Instructor!"

Their perfectly unified voices, brimming with boundless respect, echoed through the tranquil purple bamboo grove for a long time.

"Enough." Lin Xiao waved his hand, signaling that they need not stand on ceremony. His deep gaze slowly swept over the twenty-nine determined faces before him. Though they still carried traces of youthfulness, they had already been thoroughly tempered by iron and blood, by war and fire. A gentle smile appeared on his face.

"We have lived and died together. We are already family."

"From now on, dispense with all these empty formalities."

With that, he wasted no more words and went straight to the main topic of the day!

—The spoils division!

"Clatter!"

Lin Xiao swept his sleeve.

In the next instant, a scene that made everyone present short of breath and completely frantic appeared before them!

The white plaza paved with warm, lustrous jade was instantly covered by a huge mountain of treasure composed of countless glittering spirit stones, pills, weapons, and cultivation manuals!

The vast Spiritual Energy fluctuations and refreshing medicinal fragrance emanating from the treasure mountain instantly shrouded the entire Tingzhu Pavilion!

The Spiritual Energy density of the area was forcibly raised another level on top of what it had already been!

"Th-this... this... this..."

Even core members like Shi Lei and Monkey, who had already witnessed Lin Xiao's terrifying wealth, enough to spend money like dirt, could not stop the disgraceful drool from slipping from the corners of their mouths at the dreamlike sight before them, as though it belonged in myths and legends.

Not to mention the ordinary team members seeing such an enormous display for the first time!

They stood frozen in place as though Queen Medusa's gaze had turned them to stone head-on. Their minds were blank, and they completely lost the ability to think!

"These are all the gains from our journey to the Black Wind Mountain Range."

Lin Xiao spoke calmly. His voice was like an invisible giant hammer smashing heavily into everyone's hearts, forcibly knocking them awake from their dreamlike shock!

"Now, I will distribute these resources according to each person's contribution during this battle and their respective cultivation attributes!"

"First!"

Without the slightest delay, Lin Xiao took thirty exquisite jade bottles, which he had long prepared, from the enormous mountain of treasure.

"Inside are the third-grade superior healing elixir, Nine Revolutions Jade Dew, and the third-grade middle-rank foundation-strengthening pill, Dragon Tiger Golden Pill!"

"Their effects are enough to completely eliminate all hidden injuries and lingering dangers you suffered during this deadly battle! They can also further temper your bodies and stabilize your foundations!"

"Come forward and claim one bottle each!"

Upon hearing this, everyone could no longer restrain themselves and burst into loud cheers filled with endless excitement!

Like the most devout believers, they stood in neat lines and, faces flushed red, received from Lin Xiao's hands the life-saving divine medicine that would drive any outer court student utterly mad!

Next, Lin Xiao took out the more than fifty thousand middle-grade spirit stones he had seized from Wu Tianxiong's storage ring!

He divided them into thirty portions!

Shi Lei, Su Yue, and Monkey—the three who had performed most outstandingly and contributed the most during this battle—each received three thousand spirit stones!

The remaining twenty-six members received enormous rewards ranging from one thousand to two thousand spirit stones, according to their respective battle merits!

After finishing all this, Lin Xiao turned his gaze toward the piled-up Profound Grade weapons and top-tier Yellow Grade standard-issue treasure armor!

"Shi Lei!"

"Here!"

"You are our team's foremost shield! That black iron heavy shield of yours has long since become unfit for use!"

With a sweep of Lin Xiao's sleeve, a massive tower shield crafted entirely from some unknown black divine iron, engraved with a lifelike ancient savage bull totem, fell heavily before Shi Lei with a boom!

"This shield is called Savage Bull. It is a top defensive treasure of the Profound Grade Middle Rank! Its sturdiness is enough to withstand the full-force strike of a Spiritual Movement Realm expert! Today, I bestow it upon you! I hope that you will not disappoint me and will hold up an iron sky that never falls for our Reversing the Mortal World!"

"I... I..."

Shi Lei stared at the supreme treasure shield before him, which exuded a terrifying aura that made even his heart tremble. This iron-blooded man, seven feet tall, could no longer hold back as his eyes reddened and his voice choked up.

"Th-thank you, Chief Instructor!"

"Su Yue!"

Before Shi Lei could finish, Lin Xiao's gaze had already fallen upon Su Yue.

He flicked his finger.

A three-foot azure blade, blue as autumn water and thin as a cicada's wing, inscribed with countless mysterious wind-element runes, silently hovered before Su Yue like a bolt of blue lightning!

"This sword is called Flowing Wind. It is likewise a top treasure of the Profound Grade Middle Rank! Its sharpness can sever hair blown across its edge and cut iron like mud! It can also increase the power of wind-attributed Spiritual Energy by thirty percent! It complements your Starlight Sword Art perfectly!"

"Monkey!"

"..."

For a time, treasure light shot into the sky across the entire white jade plaza, while Spiritual Energy ran rampant!

A division of spoils—no! A reward ceremony—said to be the most extravagant and envy-inducing in Cloud Creek Academy's history officially began!

Half an hour later.

When everyone present had been completely reequipped, from head to toe, with top-tier gear enough to make any Heaven Class genius jealous to the point of madness.

Lin Xiao finally brought out the final, and most precious, super gift he had prepared for them all!

—Cultivation arts!

"I know that the cultivation arts you currently practice are only Yellow Grade techniques uniformly distributed by the academy."

Lin Xiao's gaze slowly swept across the twenty-nine youthful faces before him, filled with endless excitement and anticipation, as he spoke calmly.

"Cultivation arts are the foundation of the Martial Dao. If the foundation is unstable, the earth will shake and the mountains will tremble."

"So from today onward, all of you must discard every trash cultivation art you previously practiced!"

"Cultivate instead the new supreme arts I have tailored for each of you!"

Having said this, he no longer hesitated in the slightest. He directly transformed his immense spiritual power—already as vast as a sea of smoke after absorbing thousands of martial manuals—into twenty-nine torrents of information overflowing with the True Meaning of Martial Dao!

Like divine enlightenment pouring into their minds, they slammed fiercely into the forehead of every person present!

"Boom!"

Shi Lei only felt his mind buzz as it went utterly blank!

Immediately afterward, an unfathomable cultivation formula filled with endless heaviness and domineering might deeply branded itself into the depths of his soul, like an inheritance of gods lost for billions of years!

—Great Earth Savage Bull Strength!

This was clearly a top body-tempering divine art, its grade infinitely close to the Profound Grade Middle Rank, created specifically for Shi Lei's Earth Spirit Body after Lin Xiao had fused more than a dozen top Yellow Grade body-tempering arts and three Profound Grade Lower Tier earth-element techniques into one furnace, casting out the dross and retaining the essence!

Meanwhile.

A peerless sword art filled with endless lightness and elegance also appeared in Su Yue's mind!

—Star Mark Phantom Sword!

What surfaced in Monkey's mind was an assassination tome brimming with endless strangeness and killing intent!

—Ghost Shadow Maze Steps!

For a time, Dao Charm flowed throughout Tingzhu Pavilion, and divine light soared into the heavens!