Arrival at Lianyang Academy

During his conversation with Du Meng, Qin Shaofeng also learned that the students of Lianyang Academy were divided into different ranks.

Those who passed Lianyang Academy's entrance assessment would become Probationary Students.

Yes, Probationary Students, not Official Students.

According to Du Meng, becoming a Probationary Student at Lianyang Academy was fairly easy. As long as one was no older than fifteen, had cultivation no lower than the Houtian Martial Artist realm, and could pass the entrance assessment, there would basically be no problem.

Becoming a Probationary Student at Lianyang Academy was not difficult, but becoming an Official Student was no small feat.

The reason was simple. The sole requirement for becoming an Official Student of Lianyang Academy was possessing the potential to break through into the Xiantian Martial Artist realm.

After becoming a Probationary Student at Lianyang Academy, one would undergo a three-month assessment period. Once those three months had passed, the academy's instructors would determine whether the Probationary Students qualified to become Official Students based on their cultivation progress and other performances during that time.

Those who failed would naturally be expelled.

Of course, there were also special cases, such as Du Meng.

At fourteen, he had already reached the Houtian Tenth Layer. He absolutely possessed the qualifications to challenge the Xiantian Realm. Therefore, as long as Du Meng passed this entrance assessment, he would directly become an Official Student of Lianyang Academy.

In fact, anyone under fifteen who had reached the Houtian Tenth Layer would automatically become an Official Student of Lianyang Academy once they passed the entrance assessment.

As for the Five-star students Du Meng had mentioned, they were Star Students above the rank of Official Students.

At Lianyang Academy, Star Students were students in the Xiantian Martial Artist realm. Like the Innate Tenth Layer, Star Students were likewise divided into ten levels.

A Five-star student was a student in the Xiantian Fifth Layer Realm!

Yet Du Meng had said that only after reaching the Xiantian Fifth Layer would he qualify to take Lian Chenghao's senior brother as his master.

That gave Qin Shaofeng quite a fright.

However, when he remembered that he could not see through Lian Chenghao's cultivation, his senior brother was surely even more powerful.

Especially when they had gone to pick up the White-clothed girl earlier, Aunt Qing, the owner of that giant eagle, seemed to have mentioned a word or two. From those words, Qin Shaofeng learned that Lian Chenghao appeared to be far inferior to his senior brother!

Speaking of Aunt Qing, Qin Shaofeng could not help glancing at the White-clothed girl atop the white crane beside him, muttering inwardly.

He wondered how many stars this White-clothed girl could become.

Stronger than Lian Chenghao—she had to be at least a six-star or seven-star student, right?

Qin Shaofeng secretly guessed, but not long afterward, he would realize just how laughable that guess had been.

As they chatted along the way, Qin Shaofeng gradually became familiar with Du Meng.

Though Du Meng's build was somewhat exaggerated, his personality was rather introverted. Nor did he look down on Qin Shaofeng just because his cultivation was higher.

That gave Qin Shaofeng a favorable impression of him. After their conversation, Du Meng had already begun calling him Brother Feng.

As for Qin Shaofeng, he gave Du Meng a name that suited his build perfectly—Mengzi!

Several hours later, a magnificent and enormous city appeared before Qin Shaofeng.

Lianyang City. It was not the capital of Lianyang Kingdom, yet it was a city named after the kingdom itself.

Because this was where Lianyang Academy stood!

That was right. The entire city of Lianyang was Lianyang Academy. Upon learning this, Qin Shaofeng had been thoroughly startled.

After all, the whole of Lianyang City was large enough to hold several million people at once!

Yet because of Lianyang Academy, aside from the academy's students and instructors, the entire city contained only some servants and laborers.

Altogether, they numbered merely two or three hundred thousand.

In truth, Lianyang City was so enormous because it contained all manner of training grounds for students. It was the result of Lianyang Kingdom spending vast sums of money on its construction.

All for the sake of nurturing exceptionally outstanding geniuses to serve Lianyang Kingdom.

Thus, joining Lianyang Academy was the greatest desire of every member of Lianyang Kingdom's younger generation.

Because once one became an outstanding genius at Lianyang Academy, not only would one be highly valued by Lianyang Kingdom, one might even receive a recommendation from the kingdom to enter one of the powerful empires on the continent and cultivate in an even better environment.

After learning these things, Qin Shaofeng set a plan for himself.

He would use Lianyang Academy as a springboard to step onto the true stage of the continent's powerhouses.

Compared to the true continent, Lianyang Academy might be decent, but there was no shortage of kingdoms like Lianyang Kingdom across the continent.

This was a world of endless splendor!

Once they arrived at Lianyang Academy, Lian Chenghao found a student and had Qin Shaofeng follow him, while he took Du Meng and the White-clothed girl away.

Qin Shaofeng was not surprised by this, because both Du Meng and the White-clothed girl could be considered people with connections.

Of course, these two people with connections were genuine geniuses. Even without such connections, they would still have received Lianyang Academy's attention.

Before leaving, Du Meng told Qin Shaofeng that he was going to meet his future master, then would come find him.

In his words, he was merely going to greet and pay respects to his future master. Then he would participate in the entrance assessment according to the usual rules, join Lianyang Academy, rely on his own strength to become a Five-star student, and only then formally take a master.

Moreover, this counted as the first test Lian Chenghao's senior brother had set for Du Meng.

Before Du Meng became his disciple, Lian Chenghao's senior brother would not give him any help. At Lianyang Academy, Du Meng could rely only on himself for everything.

As for the White-clothed girl, Qin Shaofeng had some guesses. She definitely would not need to take the entrance assessment and could directly join Lianyang Academy, where she would surely receive great attention.

However, none of that had anything to do with Qin Shaofeng anymore.

Because of Bai Xue, Qin Shaofeng had always felt a faint resistance toward the White-clothed girl. Especially when she was leaving and Qin Shaofeng summoned Bai Xue back, he clearly sensed the White-clothed girl's disappointment.

Did she really think that just because she could communicate with Bai Xue, she could make Bai Xue betray me?

With an inward sneer, Qin Shaofeng felt even more disgust toward the White-clothed girl.

Though she was exceptionally beautiful, Qin Shaofeng did not consider himself a lustful fool who forgot everything at the sight of a beauty.

So when the White-clothed girl left, he felt neither regret nor disappointment. Instead, he let out a sigh of relief and even felt a little pleased.

It would be best if we never meet again, so she does not keep setting her sights on my Bai Xue.

With those thoughts in mind, Qin Shaofeng thanked Lian Chenghao a few times, then quickly followed the student assigned to lead him away.

From the look of it, he was afraid that if he slowed by even a single step, the White-clothed girl would change her mind and forcibly keep Bai Xue behind.

Aside from Du Meng, who cared somewhat about Qin Shaofeng's departure, neither Lian Chenghao nor the White-clothed girl showed much change in emotion.

The White-clothed girl's disappointment was only because Bai Xue had left.

Lian Chenghao, on the other hand, did not care in the slightest. He directly turned and left with the White-clothed girl and Du Meng.

Yet Lian Chenghao did not know that when he met Qin Shaofeng again, Qin Shaofeng would bring him a change he could never have imagined.

Led by the student Lian Chenghao had instructed, Qin Shaofeng was soon brought to the lodgings Lianyang Academy had specially prepared for examinees.

Perhaps because of Lian Chenghao, that student was rather polite to Qin Shaofeng and even specially arranged a private room for him.

Qin Shaofeng thanked the student for this. When the other man was leaving, he secretly slipped him some Gold Notes.

Though this was Lianyang Academy, a gathering place for geniuses to cultivate, money was still incomparably important here.

Other than the cultivation resources Lianyang Academy distributed each month according to a student's rank, students could only rely on themselves if they wanted more cultivation resources.

Thus, Gold Notes still played an irreplaceable role here.

In truth, Qin Shaofeng had made the right move.

After he slipped over Gold Notes worth one thousand taels of gold, the student's businesslike expression instantly turned into a smile. He even chatted with Qin Shaofeng a while longer before finally handing him a small booklet.

This also made Qin Shaofeng understand that money truly was the most direct means of communication between people.

In the room, Qin Shaofeng lowered his head and looked at the small booklet in his hand, bought with one thousand taels of gold.

Although he had spent one thousand taels, after reading the booklet, Qin Shaofeng felt the gold had been well spent!

There was not much in the booklet. It mostly contained basic information about Lianyang Academy that Du Meng had already told Qin Shaofeng.

However, besides that, the booklet also introduced the contents of this entrance assessment.

In truth, there was nothing confidential about the entrance assessment. It was basically the same as in previous years.

First came the age test. Those over eighteen basically had no hope, unless they were in the Xiantian Martial Artist realm. Otherwise, Lianyang Academy would not accept them at all.

Moreover, even Xiantian Martial Artists would find it difficult to enter Lianyang Academy once they were over twenty.

In fact, Xiantian Martial Artists over eighteen were no longer particularly valued by Lianyang Academy.

This was where the recommendation quotas from Lianyang Kingdom's various cities and towns played a considerable role.

Because once one possessed a recommendation quota, as long as one passed the assessment, even those over twenty who were not Xiantian Martial Artists could enter Lianyang Academy to study.

However, they could study for no more than three months!

After three months, if they had not displayed anything astonishing, they would basically leave Lianyang Academy.

From this alone, one could see just how strict Lianyang Academy's admissions were.

Yet even so, merely having three months to study at Lianyang Academy was enough to make people yearn for it.

Therefore, those recommendation quotas were exceptionally precious!

The second test was cultivation. The younger one was and the higher one's cultivation, the more naturally Lianyang Academy would value them.

There were even certain extraordinary geniuses who broke through to the Xiantian Martial Artist realm at fifteen. Such geniuses did not need to take the entrance assessment to enter Lianyang Academy. The moment they entered, they could even skip past Official Student status and become Star Students directly.

Of course, geniuses of that kind appeared rather rarely.

Whenever one did appear, they would basically draw the attention of many instructors at Lianyang Academy.

Then they would be accepted as disciples by some of Lianyang Academy's powerhouses.

Besides that, some talented geniuses with exceptional aptitude might be accepted as disciples by certain academy powerhouses even if their cultivation had not reached the Xiantian Martial Artist realm.

Therefore, whenever Lianyang Academy held its entrance assessments, some academy powerhouses would usually be watching.