The Old Dean had pieced together a terrifying conclusion from the slightest clues:
If he faced the divine artifact, the Mirror of Judgment, in person, he—a newly advanced Supreme who had yet to forge a Supreme Dharma Body and didn't even qualify as a First Grade—would likely be erased in an instant.
That was why people said, "The Five Great Academies have foundations too deep to challenge."
The Northern Spiritual Academy still had a long, arduous road ahead if it hoped to catch up with the Five Great Spirit Academies.
"Hm? What's that?"
The Old Dean, lost in thought, suddenly looked as if he'd seen a ghost.
As far as the eye could see, Spirit Academy students sat sprawled across the ground, utterly exhausted.
Yet one slender figure stood tall, his expression composed.
I, a dignified Supreme, had withstood the vast pressure of the Five Great Academies' divine artifact without retreating. That was certainly worth boasting about—but who did you think you were? Did you really think you could compare with me?
Oh, it was His Highness the Heir. Never mind, then.
Dean Xiao took a closer look and realized it was Mu Chen. He sheepishly withdrew his gaze.
Perhaps sensing something, Mu Chen even had the leisure to wave at the old man.
Wasn't that infuriating?!
--
"Vrrrrm!"
At that moment, the Mirror of Judgment stood within a rift in the darkness, towering thousands of feet high. Its smooth, jade-like surface suddenly rippled, sending out wave after wave of mysterious patterns.
The terrifying fluctuations beyond words and the vast pressure enveloping heaven and earth gradually began to recede. All the beings who had been prostrating themselves, their hearts oppressed, finally breathed a long sigh of relief.
Even the countless ancient, profound patterns covering its surface seemed to come alive in an instant. They swam like tadpoles, linking together to form larger divine patterns.
The thin, gaunt middle-aged instructor to Dean Xiao's left was the first to react. He called out, "All students preparing to take part in the selection, come forward at once!"
Instructor Xi was an early Heavenly Connection Realm expert, and, like Teacher Mo, one of the most sought-after instructors in the Heaven Tier.
"Shhh!"
The several thousand Spirit Academy students standing in the field immediately dispersed, leaving only three hundred.
The Spirit Road Selection was exceptionally strict, so those eligible to participate were naturally the cream of the crop.
On top of that, its bizarre standards—bone age under eighteen and spiritual cultivation no higher than the Sensing Realm—eliminated a large number of potential candidates.
Not everyone could make it to the end and earn the right to receive the Spirit Road Empowerment.
Two years of life-and-death trials, with no way to refine spiritual energy and their lives at risk.
The gains might not be worth the losses. Better not to go.
Instructor Xi had barely finished speaking when the Mirror of Judgment's enormous divine form suddenly shuddered. Boundless divine radiance burst forth, dazzling the eye, then condensed into a sky full of beams that crashed down below.
In an instant, all three hundred students sat cross-legged on the ground, each enveloped by a deep blue pillar of light.
The pillars were deep and mysterious, ancient and azure, their light occasionally rippling like a curtain of water.
The exceptionally active starlight poured through skin and pores, burrowing into the boys' bodies as if there were nowhere it could not enter. It coursed through their limbs and bones, seemingly probing for something.
Their constitutions, bloodlines, spiritual roots, Dao marrow, or perhaps something else.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
One after another, the pillars of starlight went dark, revealing a stream of downcast faces.
Like everyone else, Mu Chen sat with his eyes closed, receiving the starlight's infusion.
However, thanks to his naturally powerful soul force, his senses were far more acute.
The starlight darting through his body like shoals of fish seemed to have the power to purify bloodlines, compress spiritual energy, and temper the soul. It was wondrous beyond measure.
Realizing this, Mu Chen immediately perked up.
--
"Great Pagoda Art!"
With a soft, inaudible murmur, the Ancient God Canon awakened.
Within him, strands of dark spiritual energy, fine yet resilient, surged into being and rolled through the pathways of his meridians before finally converging above the sea of qi in his abdomen.
As they writhed, they gathered into a mysterious light pagoda about the size of his palm.
It was pitch-black from top to bottom, with nine levels. It was faintly illusory and incomparably ancient.
The instant the mysterious light pagoda appeared, it began to rumble and tremble impatiently. Waves of terrifying suction erupted from it, swallowing up every last trace of starlight that entered his body.
In just a few breaths, the pillar of starlight enveloping Mu Chen was nearly drained dry.
As it continued to absorb the starlight, the nine-story pagoda grew darker and darker.
In all the thousands of years since the Spirit Road Trial began, when had anything like this ever happened?
Faced with a probe from an ancient divine artifact, every cultivation genius waited for the result in trepidation. Who would dare secretly steal the power of the starlight like Mu Chen, bold enough to thumb his nose at heaven?
The projection of the Mirror of Judgment had crossed countless continents from billions of miles away. It gave the matter little thought, and the pitiful sliver of consciousness it possessed could barely sustain itself.
Following its usual practice, it instinctively increased the flow of starlight, scattering it over those below.
The thin, barely visible pillar of starlight enveloping Mu Chen immediately solidified once more.
The more it increased the flow to stabilize the pillar, the more enthusiastically the mysterious light pagoda above Mu Chen's sea of qi drank. After draining his body, it drank from outside him; after draining what lay outside, it drank from the solid pillar of starlight.
The ancient divine artifact took the loss, while Mu Chen, a "giant rat," grew fat.
Poor Mirror of Judgment!
--
Half an incense stick's time passed. Most of the three hundred pillars of starlight had faded, signaling failure, leaving only a dozen or so increasingly bright pillars struggling to hold on.
"Mm, not bad. A bumper harvest."
The Northern Spiritual Academy's senior staff had been watching for a long time. At last, they could set most of their worries aside; the selection was nearly over.
Even if a few more candidates were eliminated, the Academy would still come out way ahead.
Dean Xiao, sitting as calmly as an angler waiting for a fish to bite, glanced unobtrusively at the exceptionally dashing young man in fine clothes among the crowd. He nodded to himself. "His Highness the Heir is as clever as expected. He hasn't let us down. That way, I'll have something to report to the King—"
"Bang!"
Right then, the pillar of starlight enveloping Mu Chen suddenly weakened at a startling rate. Under the stunned gaze of the entire crowd, it exploded with a deafening crash.
Dean Xiao: ???
The Old Dean had watched the whole thing with his own eyes. He shot to his feet, nearly yanking out the beard he'd spent decades growing.
Where was the pillar? I just put it here! Where had that enormous pillar gone?!
"How is that possible? The Mirror of Judgment must have malfunctioned."
"His Highness the Heir is a peerless genius, so far ahead that no one can catch up. Even if no one else at the Northern Spiritual Academy passed the selection, His Highness shouldn't have been overlooked!"
Teacher Mo slammed his hand on the table and sprang to his feet, his face flushed as he shouted.
Though he was Mu Chen's instructor in name, if King of Hundred Spirits Mu Feng learned of this and came after them, it wouldn't just be him who suffered. The entire Spirit Academy might be dragged into the mess.
The person who should have been the last to fail had failed!
One after another, the Academy's senior staff stood up, their expressions grave. They had all realized how serious the problem was. This was bad.
The students were even more incredulous. That was the Royal Heir, the Heaven Tier's top student!
--
At that moment, no one noticed the divine artifact, the Mirror of Judgment, hanging high in the heavens. It was shaking violently, trembling with a frenzy, its projection growing dimmer by the second.
A jumble of emotions radiated from it—hurt, exasperation, defiance—so vivid that it seemed full of life.
A divine artifact had a spirit; it wasn't a dead object. It possessed intelligence of its own.
Damn you! You nearly drained this projection dry! I'm done serving you!
If only someone could understand it.
Tian Can Tu Dou never formally wrote the Spirit Road storyline in the original The Great Ruler; it only appeared in characters' recollections.
However, an official prequel, Spirit Road, was published in print, though it isn't available online.
To write this part of the story well, Old Li specifically bought a copy from an online shopping platform to study.
It's pretty expensive on JD, Taobao, and Pinduoduo, but cheaper on Dangdang. If you're interested, you can buy a copy to support Tian Can Tu Dou. The official edition was published by Guangdong People's Publishing House.
Personally, though, I don't think the prequel was written by the author himself. The style doesn't feel like his.
It seems more like it was ghostwritten by a company writer and published under the author's name.
Of course, that's just my opinion. Take it with a grain of salt.
Before you continue