Great Thousand World, Northern Spiritual Academy!

Great Thousand World, Hundred Spirits Continent.

Northern Spiritual Realm.

This was a sprawling mountain range, winding and twisting as it soared into the clouds.

At the summit above the sea of clouds stood a majestic hall, gleaming with a faint golden light.

On the vast plaza before the hall stood dozens of people, gazing excitedly at Dean Xiao of the Northern Spiritual Academy ahead of them.

As a neutral force within the Northern Spiritual Realm, apart from the nine territories including Mu Territory, Liu Territory, Luo Territory, Tang Territory, Hong Territory, and Lie Territory, the Northern Spiritual Academy primarily recruited and nurtured talented students. It also held the quotas for entry into the Five Great Academies.

What were the Five Great Academies?

They were the five most powerful academic factions in the entire Great Thousand World, each controlling a portion of the divine artifact, the Mirror of Judgment.

It could be said that anyone wishing to become a top expert of the Hundred Spirits Continent—or even the Great Thousand World—had to enter one of the Five Great Academies in order to obtain sufficient resources to grow.

To enter the Five Great Academies, joining the Northern Spiritual Academy was the first step.

The second step was participating in the Spiritual Road organized by the Five Great Academies!

The Spiritual Road itself was an enormous Trial Ground, a unique plane created several centuries ago by the joint efforts of the Five Great Academies, using the formidable divine power of the Mirror of Judgment.

Inside, no one could use any kind of energy.

Whether it was Spiritual Energy, battle qi, or origin energy, none of it could be sensed or used within.

The only thing one could rely on there was the physical body one had cultivated.

Anyone who could survive to the end of the exceptionally dangerous Spiritual Road would receive a Spiritual Energy Empowerment, allowing them to break through from the Sensing Realm in an instant, cross the entirety of the Spiritual Movement Realm, and reach the Spiritual Wheel Realm.

There were no lack of monstrous geniuses who, after receiving the Spiritual Energy Empowerment, could reach the late stage of the Spiritual Wheel Realm, only half a step away from the Divine Soul Realm.

Such people could then enter the Five Great Academies and receive their full support. Becoming a top expert of the Great Thousand World would be just around the corner.

The many students of the Northern Spiritual Academy gathered in the hall plaza precisely for a chance to enter the Spiritual Road.

At that moment, one youth among the students wore a dazed expression. The information surfacing in his mind made him feel as though he were dreaming.

His name was Zhao Chen. He should have been pulling an all-nighter playing games in his original world, yet in the blink of an eye, he had arrived here.

Did I transmigrate?

Zhao Chen lowered his head to look at his hands, pinched his cheek, then recalled the memories that had suddenly appeared in his mind. He realized what had happened.

Listening to the cheers and excitement of the young men and women around him, the corner of his mouth twitched. What nonsense.

If he remembered correctly, this should be the Great Thousand World.

The famed Flame Emperor and Martial Ancestor had already established themselves in the Great Thousand World, standing among the four supreme super factions.

And this place was where the dream of The Great Ruler began—the Northern Spiritual Academy!

A trace of delight flashed through Zhao Chen's eyes. Perhaps this was not such a bad thing after all.

"In half an incense stick's time, the Mirror of Judgment will sweep across the Northern Spiritual Realm. Whether you can gain its recognition and enter the Spiritual Road will depend on your own fortune!"

Dean Xiao's voice rang clearly in everyone's ears.

Zhao Chen swallowed and looked around.

If he remembered correctly, Mu Chen, the young lord of Mu Territory—one of the nine territories of the Northern Spiritual Realm—and a renowned new student of the Earth Rank's East Courtyard, was among the group.

He quickly found him.

Amid the excited crowd stood a black-haired youth, gazing at the sky with a resolute expression.

Everyone else was excited, but this fellow's demeanor alone showed that he was no ordinary person.

Zhao Chen was just about to go over and greet him when he considered his own circumstances and immediately frowned.

He was an orphan from Tang Territory, one of the nine territories of the Northern Spiritual Realm. Since his talent was passable, he had entered the Northern Spiritual Academy as a new student.

But entering the Spiritual Road was basically impossible for him.

For more than ten years, not a single person in the entire Northern Spiritual Realm had gained the Mirror of Judgment's recognition and earned the qualifications to enter the Spiritual Road. Naturally, none had been able to enter the Five Great Academies either.

Zhao Chen's memory was fairly good. Among this batch of new students, aside from Mu Chen, there were also two other popular candidates: Liu Yang and Liu Mubai, geniuses from Liu Territory and prodigies of the Northern Spiritual Academy's West Courtyard.

Yet in the end, the only one who could enter the Spiritual Road was Mu Chen!

Zhao Chen rubbed his brow fiercely. Didn't that mean he had no hope as well?

Who wouldn't want to enter the Spiritual Road?

As long as one came out alive, there was a high chance of becoming an expert!

And in this Great Thousand World, where the strong preyed on the weak, there was no way to survive other than becoming stronger!

What was more, Zhao Chen was only an orphan!

The Spiritual Road could be said to be an important opportunity that could change his entire life.

If he lost it, it would be hard to say what the future held.

Half an incense stick's time passed quietly.

While Zhao Chen was deep in thought, a shocking rift suddenly split open in the sky, and the entire world dimmed considerably.

An enormous ancient bronze mirror several thousand feet tall slowly emerged from the rift. An ancient, majestic aura spread downward, and everyone's breathing nearly stopped.

The Mirror of Judgment, the divine artifact jointly controlled by the Five Great Academies!

Even though it was only a phantom, even a Divine Soul Realm expert like Dean Xiao of the Northern Spiritual Academy found it difficult to withstand.

Zhao Chen stared intently at the massive phantom of the Mirror of Judgment, his heart filled with tension.

How exactly did one qualify to enter the Spiritual Road?

Clearly, only those who gained the recognition of the Mirror of Judgment's phantom under its scrutiny could do so!

A deep-blue starlight rippled out from the mirror's surface, enveloping all of them.

Before Zhao Chen's eyes, there was nothing but dazzling starlight. He could not see what was happening, nor could he hear any sounds.

He frowned, then closed his eyes.

The dazzling starlight continuously coursed through his body, seemingly tempering his flesh and cleansing his soul.

Of course, its primary purpose was inspection, checking whether he met the standards to enter the Spiritual Road.

Once the dazzling starlight around one's body dimmed and finally dispersed, it meant that one had not been chosen by the Mirror of Judgment and had no fate with the Spiritual Road Trial!

If Zhao Chen claimed he was not nervous right now, that would definitely be a lie.

Didn't he know exactly what he was capable of?

The dazzling starlight around quite a few Northern Spiritual Academy students nearby dimmed before finally vanishing, causing them to lose their qualifications to enter the Spiritual Road.

Several minutes later, only Zhao Chen, Mu Chen, Liu Yang, and Liu Mubai still had starlight flickering around them.

Zhao Chen opened his eyes and looked toward the other three.

His luck was fairly good. The dazzling starlight around him had not vanished immediately.

The starlight surrounding Liu Yang's body gathered together and shot toward the phantom of the Mirror of Judgment.

But after rising only a dozen or so feet, it ran out of momentum and shattered into nothing.

The starlight around Liu Mubai's body then surged upward as well.

Like a beam of light, it soared into the air.

When it reached a height of sixty feet, the entire mass of starlight shattered and vanished.

The two renowned geniuses from Liu Territory of the Northern Spiritual Academy had actually failed to gain entry to the Spiritual Road!

This caused many who had placed their hopes in them—especially Dean Xiao of the Northern Spiritual Academy—to darken in disappointment.

It seemed that the Northern Spiritual Realm still had no hope this time.

Seeing this, Zhao Chen's heart skipped a beat.

Even Northern Spiritual Academy geniuses like Liu Yang and Liu Mubai could not gain the Mirror of Judgment's recognition.

Then what was he supposed to do?

The starlight around his body had already begun to gather, preparing to shoot straight into the heavens.

If it dispersed halfway, the Spiritual Road would be forever beyond his reach!

Just then, an ethereal notification sounded by his ear.

"Ding! It has been detected that the host meets the binding requirements. Bind?"