He tilted his head and glanced at his youngest son.
A flicker of anger suddenly appeared in Xiao Zhentian's eyes.
It seemed that over the years, he had spoiled him rotten.
He had become so utterly lacking in restraint when doing things!
If he had not been so harsh toward his elder brother,
his elder brother would not have left home in anger!
Xiao Chen was his own brother, after all, and had even saved his life. How could he be so heartless?
But now, Xiao Lingtian was extraordinarily gifted, with a future beyond measure, while Xiao Chen was merely a cripple.
With almost no hesitation, Xiao Zhentian made his choice in his heart: abandon Xiao Chen.
"Lingtian, don't concern yourself with this matter. Father will handle it properly! In three days, Barren North's Five Great Martial Arts Academies will begin their admissions. How have your preparations been?"
"Now that our Xiao Family has only you left as its sole seedling, do you have the confidence to enter Saintly Wasteland Academy?"
Xiao Zhentian looked at Xiao Lingtian and forced out a smile.
In his heart,
Xiao Chen leaving home
was far less important than Xiao Lingtian taking the Martial Arts Academy examination!
The Martial Arts Academies had been established by Great Xia's Martial Hall.
They were the sacred halls of martial arts that every practitioner dreamed of entering.
They held all kinds of cultivation resources that martial artists regarded as precious treasures.
Cultivation techniques.
Martial skills.
Pills.
Weapons.
And so on...
If one could enter a Martial Arts Academy, it would bring enormous benefits to one's future martial path.
Unfortunately, among the billions of people in all of Great Xia, there were only nearly a hundred Martial Arts Academies. Most people were destined to have no chance of joining them, and the competition was exceptionally fierce.
Of course, with Xiao Lingtian's Top-Tier Heavenly Realm martial talent,
entering a Martial Arts Academy was as certain as a nail driven into a board.
The only question
was whether he could enter Barren North's number-one Martial Arts Academy,
Saintly Wasteland Academy.
It was an ancient academy with a foundation stretching back several thousand years.
Its admission requirements were extraordinarily strict.
It accepted very few students.
Every year, it only recruited three people.
Yet nearly without exception, everyone who entered Saintly Wasteland Academy eventually grew into a renowned martial powerhouse of Great Xia.
Back then, Xiao Zhentian had also dreamed of entering Saintly Wasteland Academy, but regrettably, he had not been accepted.
Although he later attained the position of Martial King through his own efforts and fortuitous opportunities, it had always remained a regret in his heart.
He hoped Xiao Lingtian could join it and help him make up for that regret.
"Don't worry, Father. I'm not some trash like Xiao Chen. With my aptitude, Saintly Wasteland Academy would be too late even if it begged me to join!"
Xiao Lingtian wore an arrogant expression.
"You're that confident?"
Hearing Xiao Lingtian's wildly arrogant reply, Xiao Zhentian not only did not get angry, but a trace of pride flashed through his eyes.
His youngest son might be somewhat too proud by nature.
But his talent truly was powerful!
Even half a step stronger than his own.
As for pride!
Which Heavenly Prodigy Rank genius was not arrogant?
If a youth was not high-spirited, could he still be called a youth?
"Of course. My martial aptitude is Top-Tier Heavenly Realm. There can't be more than a few people like me in all of Barren North, right? No matter how formidable Saintly Wasteland Academy is, could it possibly look down on me?"
Xiao Lingtian's face was full of unruliness.
Xiao Zhentian shook his head slightly. "Lingtian, your talent is naturally peerless, but Saintly Wasteland Academy doesn't judge admissions by aptitude alone!"
"Not aptitude alone? Then what else does it look at?"
Xiao Lingtian froze.
"If a martial artist wishes to grow into an unrivaled giant, talent alone is not enough. He must also possess great fortune and great opportunities. Only then can it be ensured that he will not die young before rising to prominence!"
"An ancestor of Saintly Wasteland Academy once left behind a supreme treasure called the Martial Spirit Mirror. When any martial artist is illuminated by this mirror, it can glimpse a corner of his future. Whether he will fall midway or whether a hidden dragon will soar into the heavens, one look reveals it all!"
Xiao Zhentian explained.
"The Martial Spirit Mirror? Was Father examined by it back then?"
Xiao Lingtian asked curiously.
"Yes. Back then, the Martial Spirit said that I had the bearing of a Martial King, but that would be my limit. Yet strangely, it also said that I originally possessed the bearing of a Great Emperor, but because I turned against a blood-related relative and became enemies with him, my opportunity was severed. It would also become the greatest regret of my life! Because of that judgment from the Martial Spirit, Saintly Wasteland Academy shut its doors to me!"
"I also asked whether I could defy fate and change my destiny! The Martial Spirit said that everything in the world was cause and effect. What seemed accidental was, in truth, inevitable! Heaven's decree could not be changed!"
A flash of indignation passed through Xiao Zhentian's eyes.
"Turning against a blood relative and severing a Great Emperor's opportunity? Could it be talking about that trash Xiao Chen? This Martial Spirit Mirror doesn't seem all that impressive! Xiao Chen's dantian has already been shattered. How could he still sever your opportunity? How is that possible?"
A trace of shock surfaced in Xiao Lingtian's eyes.
"I don't know. But the Martial Spirit Mirror is an ancient divine artifact. Its prophecies over the past thousand years have never been wrong. By all reason, it should not have gone wrong with me either."
Xiao Zhentian frowned slightly.
"Rest assured, Father. This time, I will definitely enter Saintly Wasteland Academy and wipe away Father's humiliation in one stroke!"
Xiao Lingtian said with a confident expression.
Elsewhere.
Xiao Chen left Zhenbei King Manor
and headed straight for a nearby barren mountain.
He could not wait to fuse with the Martial God Physique.
The world he was in now was not the peaceful world of song and dance from his previous life, but a cruel and cold world of fantasy.
The Demon Race ran rampant.
Human lives were cheaper than grass!
In Barren North, where the Demon Race frequently appeared,
one careless moment could lead to a violent death!
He had to raise his strength as soon as possible.
Very soon,
he arrived at the barren mountain. Relying on his memories, he found a cave he had visited before and prepared to begin his breakthrough.
He entered the cave.
He found a rock and sat down.
Xiao Chen said directly, "System, begin activating the Martial God Physique!"
Martial God Physique activation begins.
A golden virtual panel appeared out of thin air.
The Martial God Heart, radiating an eerie purple glow and a terrifying aura, flew out from the panel and hovered before Xiao Chen.
The next second,
Heaven and earth suddenly changed color.
The sky had been clear for ten thousand miles just moments before.
In an instant,
lightning flashed and thunder roared!
Fengyun surged!
The void around the Martial God Heart could not withstand that immense energy and began to crack inch by inch.
Within the void,
a terrifying phantom of a god appeared.
It radiated an incomparably dreadful aura of destruction and extinction.
Seeing this Heaven-Earth Phenomenon,
Xiao Chen was startled.
Isn't this way too high-profile?
Yet in the next second, the golden panel before Xiao Chen suddenly burst with brilliant golden light, directly shrouding the Heaven-Earth Phenomenon.
All the phenomena vanished completely.
It was as though they had never appeared.
"The system is awesome!"
Xiao Chen could not help but praise it.
The moment his words fell,
the Martial God Heart shot directly toward his heart.
It transformed into a bewitching purple gleam and sank into his chest in the blink of an eye.
Xiao Chen felt an incomparably terrifying energy suddenly appear in his chest, instantly flooding into his limbs and bones.
His utterly ruined dantian,
drawn by that energy, actually began to regenerate rapidly.
Those terrifying cracks fused at an astonishing speed, growing into a new dantian.
Compared with his previous one,
it was larger and fuller.
And that was not all.
Xiao Chen only felt every cell in his body being cleansed and purified. His previously thin and fragile body suddenly became powerful.
A terrifying sense of strength enveloped his entire body.
His whole body
had been reborn!
Excitement immediately welled up in his heart.
This Martial God Physique was truly terrifying!
Compared to his former body, it was simply the difference between heaven and earth.
It truly deserved to be called a legendary God Physique.
Through the system's introduction,
Xiao Chen learned all the effects of the Martial God Physique.
Extremely powerful resistance to attacks.
Extremely powerful recovery ability.
An extremely high cultivation limit.
However, before he could rejoice for long, he frowned.
Looking down,
he saw that his entire body was covered in black filth, giving off an unpleasant stench. The smell was truly pungent enough to nearly knock him over.
He hurriedly got up, went outside, found a small river, and began washing himself.
"Xiao Chen, I heard that you severed ties with the Zhenbei King?"
Just then, a sweet and soft voice carrying a hint of chill rang out from nearby.
Xiao Chen turned around.
He saw a beautiful and elegant young girl standing beside him, looking at him with a face full of disgust.
The girl wore a white dress, her long hair reaching her waist. Her figure was delicate and graceful, and a faint fragrance wafted from her body. She was as beautiful as a flower.
She was none other than Xiao Chen's fiancée, Ye Qingxuan.
When Xiao Chen left Zhenbei King Manor, Ye Qingxuan had happened to arrive. She learned from the manor guards that Xiao Chen had severed ties with Zhenbei King Manor, then saw him leave from afar and followed him all the way here.
Because she was unfamiliar with the terrain, she had lost track of him for a time. After searching for a long while, she happened to encounter Xiao Chen as he emerged from the cave.
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