Chapter 128

Late at night, Xue Lingyun sat cross-legged on his bed, eyes closed as he regulated his breathing.

Moonlight shone in through the window, spreading a layer of silver-white light across the floor.

The dorm was very quiet. The footsteps in the corridor had long since faded, and the earlier clamor had died away as well.

Most of the students who had arrived should have gone to sleep, or else were meditating and cultivating.

In the Sea of Consciousness, Youyou was the first to lose patience.

Her voice drifted out, still carrying shock and lingering fear, as if the scene from the day still weighed on her heart and refused to move. "That old man lying at the entrance during the day... what a terrifying aura. It was like the whole world was pressing down on me, so heavy I didn't even dare breathe too hard. How could someone that strong be hiding here? He's far scarier than those Ferocious Beasts I saw in the Extreme North Land..."

She paused, as if recalling it, or as if confirming it had not been an illusion. "I've lived for so long, but I've never felt anything like that. It wasn't the savagery of a Ferocious Beast, nor the pressure of a soul beast. It was just... pure strength. He lay there without doing anything, and my heart stayed in my throat the whole time."

The Ice Empress spoke.

Her voice carried a hint of arrogance, but even more so a gravity born of scrutiny. "It wasn't only that one aura. Beneath the entire academy, the flow of Soul Power has veins and channels. It isn't scattered. Something is guiding it, suppressing it. The air is filled with dense Soul Power, and hidden experts are concealed everywhere, holding back without revealing themselves. Quite a