Not far from the palace complex, an ancient Spirit Academy lay quietly in repose.
The Northern Spiritual Academy, the highest institution of learning on the Hundred Spirit Continent.
After King Mu Feng of Hundred Spirits had campaigned far and wide over the years, the academy had moved all the way from the Northern Spiritual Realm to the continent's capital. Rooted in a high-level continent and drawing nourishment from it, it had long since become a far cry from what it once was.
It was no longer the pitiful little place it had been, with just a handful of students and Divine Soul Realm martial artists barely enough to keep up appearances. Every senior instructor in the Heaven Tier had reached the Heaven's Passage Realm.
The dean, moreover, was suspected to have entered the Supreme Realm, and was exceptionally powerful.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
Accompanied by the tolling of an ancient bell, more and more youths in Spirit Academy uniforms streamed out of the dormitories from every direction, heading toward the same place.
Their faces were young and green, yet brimming with vitality and youthful vigor.
Tang Qian'er, Hong Ling, Liu Mubai, and Su Ling from the Heaven Tier, along with Jiang Li, Teng Yong, Mo Ling, and Chen Tong from the Earth Tier—all the prominent figures of both tiers—made their appearance.
To the north of the plaza, rows of seats stood side by side.
The three people seated in the middle drew the most attention.
An old man with grizzled hair sat in the center, smiling pleasantly. He looked utterly harmless.
The middle-aged man to his left had a resolute face, and the spiritual energy fluctuations within him were astonishing.
The man to his right was lean and gaunt, his eyes slightly sunken, yet his aura was not to be underestimated.
"We greet the dean and all the instructors!"
The students stood in neat ranks and bowed in unison.
"Hehe, rise."
"Today marks the opening of the Spirit Road Selection. This is a grand event spanning the Great Thousand World. How could the teachers and students of my Northern Spiritual Academy stand apart from it?"
"Everyone, we must forge ahead against the current. Those who row hard will advance!"
The grizzled old man in the middle was the current dean of the Northern Spiritual Academy.
Dean Xiao gazed at these energetic children he had personally nurtured, spirit seedlings selected from across the continent, and his heart surged with boundless ambition.
Youth was an age of burning blood and surging passion.
The Old Dean's bold declaration immediately drew a burst of cheers.
The academy's senior staff nodded to themselves at the students' high spirits.
"Teacher Mo, why hasn't His Highness the Heir arrived yet?"
After taking his seat, the Old Dean turned and spoke to the middle-aged instructor on his right.
After Mu Feng had provided him with a vast quantity of Supreme Spiritual Liquid, helping him safely overcome the Three Minor Tribulations of the Supreme and successfully break into the Supreme Realm, he had thrown his full support behind the royal family.
He knew that only by relying on this ruler of the continent could the Northern Spiritual Academy continue to grow stronger.
With a Supreme expert overseeing it and a group of Heaven's Passage instructors teaching there, the Northern Spiritual Academy had long since broken free of the constraints of a low-level academy and become a renowned high-level institution.
If the King of Hundred Spirits entered the Earth Sovereign Realm in the future, then with his full support, the Northern Spiritual Academy might well challenge for a place among the Five Great Spirit Academies of the Great Thousand World.
After all, the Five Great Academies' places were not set in stone!
Dean Xiao, who was determined to prove his loyalty to the King of Hundred Spirits, naturally cared deeply about Mu Chen, the Royal Heir, and was eager to see him arrive.
Teacher Mo was Mu Chen's nominal class instructor.
"Reporting to the Old Dean, I've already sent student Lie Jiu to invite His Highness the Heir."
The middle-aged man called Teacher Mo hurriedly cupped his hands and replied.
"Mm, good."
Dean Xiao was about to nod in approval when his gaze shifted to two figures rushing over in the distance. He smiled and said, "There's no need to hurry him. His Highness the Heir has arrived."
"Royal Heir! Your Highness! Your Highness the Heir!"
As Mu Chen arrived, the students lined up across the academy stepped aside, parting in unison to open a path for him. Their gazes were reverent and fervent.
They called out to him with every kind of respectful title.
Those studying at the Northern Spiritual Academy, the highest institution on the Hundred Spirit Continent, were either children of the upper echelons or commoner students and cultivation geniuses carefully selected from all corners of the continent.
They naturally wanted to draw close to Mu Chen, the future ruler of the continent, even as they held him in awe.
Among the crowd, the two brothers Liu Mubai and Liu Yang were the most fervent in their cries.
Their father, Liu Qingtian, had often opposed Mu Feng when he was Domain Lord of the Liu Territory.
After Mu Feng became king, he had set the past aside and appointed him one of the Eight Great Commanders.
The Liu family had become part of the continent's upper echelon. Their change of heart had been immense, and they were more supportive of the regime than anyone.
Mu Chen led the way, nodding to people from time to time. He came to the side of his two close companions and greeted them. "Senior Qian'er, Senior Hong Ling."
"Hurry along. Everyone's waiting for you, and the Spirit Road is about to open."
The young woman in Xuan Yi, her long hair tied in a high ponytail and her figure tall and slender, gave her junior a push, sending him to the very front of the crowd, the most conspicuous position: the top student of the Heaven Tier.
With the arrival of Mu Chen, the Royal Heir, the Spirit Road Selection officially began.
The Spirit Road was a vast trial ground.
It was a strange half-plane forcibly opened by the Five Great Academies using the divine artifact, the Mirror of Judgment. It opened once every three years to select true spirit seedlings from across the continent.
Each opening lasted two years. This had never changed in ten thousand years.
Those chosen by the Mirror of Judgment were all peerless geniuses.
Within the plane, living beings could not use any form of energy, including spiritual energy, battle qi, or Origin Energy. They could only rely on their physical strength and wits to take part in trials where life and death hung in the balance.
Those who passed the trials could enroll in one of the Five Great Academies. They might even take part in the Spirit Road Empowerment, leaping from the Sensing Realm to the Spirit Wheel Realm, or even the Divine Soul Realm.
As the blazing sun climbed overhead, one instructor murmured, "It's here."
The cloudless blue sky, stretching for thousands of miles, suddenly darkened, as if disaster had struck.
"Boom!"
Space above the Northern Spiritual Academy was torn open, fissures spreading rapidly like a spiderweb until they widened into a dark rift nearly a thousand zhang long.
It seemed to suck all light and heat from the world.
Suddenly, a brilliant sun rose from the depths of the darkness, once more illuminating the world.
No—that was, in fact, an enormous ancient bronze mirror, propping up the heavens and earth.
It stood at least several thousand zhang tall, its form simple and its aura primeval.
Its surface was covered with countless ancient, enigmatic patterns. Just one glance was enough to make a person dizzy.
An indescribably terrifying wave rolled over them. Vast spiritual pressure enveloped the world, and its enormous shadow fell across the ground, pressing down on every living being until they could barely breathe.
Ancient, solemn, majestic, silent—as if eternal.
The Mirror of Judgment!
A supreme divine artifact jointly held by the Five Great Academies, it was also the key to each Spirit Road Selection, responsible for choosing peerless geniuses, piercing open the Spirit Road, and sending living beings inside.
And this was merely a projection of spiritual energy cast by the Mirror of Judgment from billions of miles away, yet it was enough to cover most of the Northern Spiritual Academy.
"Thud, thud, thud."
One after another, students with weaker cultivation could not withstand the vast pressure. They sat on the ground, backs bent, to show their submission.
Even the Heaven's Passage instructors seated in their places were no exception.
The only one on the scene who could still barely remain composed was probably the unfathomable Old Dean. He murmured, "The Five Great Academies... what profound foundations they have."
The Great Thousand World was the ancestor of countless Lower Planes, with an incomparably dense source.
Unlike in Lower Planes, living beings here could not casually shatter space.
Only an Eighth Grade Sovereign could begin to control space.
Its power was comparable to that of an Eighth Grade Sovereign.
And this was merely a projection of the Mirror of Judgment!
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