"Dean, are you saying I have to take part in the competition too?"
Zhou Ling was rather surprised to hear Dean Gong's words.
He had not expected that, even after becoming an Inner Academy Instructor, he would still have to compete.
Dean Gong had asked Zhou Ling to participate in the Nine Heavens Sword Academy competition because this competition was special.
It was not merely a contest between Dao Academy disciples.
There would also be a competition between Instructors.
It was called the Grand Academy Competition.
This was because the competition would be held between Dao Academies from various Immortal Cities.
Last year, during the competition among the Four Great Daoist Academies in Qingyun Immortal City, Nine Heavens Sword Academy had emerged victorious.
Thus, Nine Heavens Sword Academy would represent Qingyun Immortal City in this competition.
This competition concerned not only Nine Heavens Sword Academy, but was also closely tied to Qingyun Immortal City.
The reason for this was—
It mainly had to do with the Dao Alliance's system.
The Dao Alliance now controlled the grading of all Immortal Cities.
And an Immortal City's grade was not fixed forever.
An evaluation was held every ten years.
There were two main aspects to it.
First, the number of Pioneering Domains opened up by the great families. This was also one reason why the Heavenly Crafts Division assisted other great families in opening Pioneering Domains.
Second, the grade of the Dao Academy. The higher a Dao Academy's grade, the higher the score its Immortal City would receive.
Each Immortal City could only have one Dao Academy represent it in each competition.
If it performed outstandingly in both aspects,
then the Immortal City would be promoted.
For example, Qingyun Immortal City had originally been Fourth-Grade, but it could be promoted to Fifth-Grade.
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