"Buzz, buzz."
A pitch-black vortex suddenly appeared above Mu Chen's head. A streak of blood-red light shot out of it, heading straight for his arms.
Mu Chen instinctively reached out and caught it. The pitch-black vortex immediately vanished.
As the blood-red light faded, a pitch-black, mysterious metal token lay in his palm. A "Spirit" was engraved in the center with sharp, angular strokes.
In an instant, a vast stream of information surged into his mind.
Every living being participating in the Spirit Road Selection would carry a Blood-Colored Token.
The Five Great Academies had released countless spirit beasts into the Spiritual Road Plane. They numbered in the tens of thousands and were powerful, with low-, mid-, and high-level beasts corresponding precisely to the three human realms from Spirit Movement to Spirit Soul.
Since each realm was further divided into early, middle, and late stages, the spirit beasts could be classified into nine levels.
An early-stage low-level spirit beast was worth one point, while a late-stage high-level spirit beast was worth nine.
The youths of the Great Thousand could earn points by hunting spirit beasts.
They could draw a wisp of spiritual essence from a spirit beast's body and place it in the Blood-Colored Token. This would both increase their points and allow them to absorb and refine the essence, expand their meridians, strengthen their bodies, and cultivate spirit bodies.
Their points and spirit-body level had to be strengthened at the same time.
On one hand, when the selection ended, the Five Great Academies would assess the results based on the points in each participant's token and determine the extent of the Spirit Road Empowerment granted to those who made it to the end.
On the other hand, spirit-body level determined the degree of Spirit Road Empowerment a being could accept. The higher their spirit-body level, the more spiritual energy they could naturally withstand.
Thus, neither could be neglected.
After digesting all the information, Mu Chen rubbed his chin and recalled, "This is exactly like the freshman trial the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy held in the Northern Heavens Realm."
The Spirit Road Trial was jointly organized by the Five Great Academies.
To some extent, it was just a simplified version of the freshman trials held by the various Spirit Academies—a straight-up copy.
Because the rules of the Spiritual Road Plane sealed away spiritual energy, no living being could use it.
The human youths could not, and neither could the spirit beasts.
But the spirit beasts of the Great Thousand were strong precisely because of their bodies. That was their specialty.
With spiritual energy sealed away, they could only fight with pure physical strength, which gave the advantage to the spirit beasts.
For a group of youths whose cultivation was no higher than the Sensing Realm, fighting a low-level spirit beast one-on-one—which was comparable to a Spirit Movement martial artist—was no great problem.
They could also try their luck against a mid-level spirit beast by joining forces.
As for the high-level spirit beasts that could swallow Spirit Soul martial artists alive, getting away with their bodies intact would be a good outcome.
Fortunately, most spirit beasts lacked much intelligence, so the youths still had a fighting chance.
"You two have been watching for a while. You may as well come out, don't you think?"
Mu Chen put away the token and suddenly looked toward the depths of the forest.
"Cough. Little brother, don't be nervous. We just happened to be passing by."
Two mysterious figures emerged from the darkness, one after the other.
They were two youths about Mu Chen's age.
One wore a black robe, had delicate features, and carried no weapon.
The other had a Wolf Fang slung over his shoulder. He was burly and powerfully built.
"My name is Zhan Cheng, and this is my younger brother, Zhan Xiong. We're from the Zhan Clan of the Northern Heavens Continent. We're fairly well-known, if I do say so ourselves."
The slightly older youth in black coughed lightly as he walked over and introduced them.
"I see. I'm Mu Chen, from the Hundred Spirit Continent."
Mu Chen crossed his arms and sized them up with an amused smile.
The Spirit Road Selection was a place of danger at every turn, where one either lived or died. It was incredibly harsh.
In this world, spirit beasts weren't the only enemies. Their fellow participants were even more frightening.
Besides hunting spirit beasts and gathering rare treasures, participants could also take points directly from other contestants' Blood-Colored Tokens.
He didn't believe two "random passersby" would just happen to show up here.
As everyone knew, people who called themselves random passersby were usually up to no good.
"Brother Mu Chen, you're in luck running into us."
"The Spirit Road is full of danger. You not only have to fend off terrifying spirit beasts, but also stay on guard against your companions stabbing you in the back. After all, points can be stolen from one another."
Seeing how completely off guard Mu Chen seemed, the Zhan brothers were delighted and quickened their pace. "Besides, the Five Great Academies have established five Sanctuaries..."
Mu Chen suddenly called out to them, "Wait."
"Hm? What is it, Brother Mu Chen?"
Zhan Cheng halted and secretly exchanged a glance with his companion.
"What did you just say?"
"We brothers aren't bad people."
The brothers from the Northern Heavens Continent immediately breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
Mu Chen continued, "No, the sentence before that."
"People's hearts are hard to read. Since points can be stolen from one another, you must be careful around strangers."
Zhan Xiong, the younger of the Zhan brothers, pretended to be honest as he rubbed the back of his head and smiled. "But don't worry. We Zhan brothers really aren't that kind of people."
"That's exactly the problem. You aren't that kind of people, but I am."
Mu Chen narrowed his eyes, a murderous glint flashing in them. There wasn't a trace of his earlier good-natured demeanor as he shouted, "Hand over your points and I'll spare your lives. I'll only break your legs."
The Zhan brothers: "..."
"Big brother, we've run into someone trying to rob us. What are we waiting for?"
"All right, let's take him together. Beat the crap out of him!"
After a moment of silence, the furious Zhan brothers roared.
Damn it, someone was trying to rob them? Had he grown tired of living?
Zhan Xiong hefted the Eight-Hole Mace onto his shoulder, while his brother Zhan Cheng was prepared as well.
He summoned a long, cyan sword from his Mustard Seed Bracelet. It shimmered with spiritual light, clearly a powerful Spirit Artifact, and was exceptionally sharp.
Since spiritual energy could not be used in the Spiritual Road Plane, spirit arts powered by it naturally lost most of their destructive power. They had the moves, but no force behind them—they were all show.
That made weapons all the more important.
When opponents were evenly matched, the one wielding a divine weapon could simply crush the other.
"Second brother, let your elder brother teach this ignorant brat a lesson first."
Zhan Cheng flicked his Spirit Artifact, flourishing two beautiful arcs with the blade. He stamped hard on the ground, and his body shot forward like a cannonball.
"Boom!!!"
In less than half a breath, Zhan Cheng came flying back even faster than he had charged in. His chest had caved in, blood stained the corner of his mouth, and cracks covered the weapon in his hand.
He slammed into a ravine like a broken sack, his aura weak.
"Big brother!"
"You bastard! You dare hurt my big brother? Die!"
Seeing this, Zhan Xiong, fiercely protective of his brother, saw red.
Born with immense strength, his eyes bloodshot and veins bulging, he gripped the Eight-Hole Mace with both hands and swung it with such force that it whooshed through the air, leaving no opening.
When the mace came down, it even seemed to split the wind.
Whoosh! Zhan Xiong had been swinging with the force of a man capable of uprooting mountains, but his vision suddenly went dark. A mysterious figure flashed past like a ghost and appeared behind him, then jabbed a finger toward his right shoulder.
In an instant, Zhan Xiong felt both arms go numb. The Wolf Fang slipped out of his hands against his will and flew into the air. Then a tremendous force slammed into his lower back.
With nowhere to brace himself, he let out a mournful cry and could only collapse.
Before Zhan Xiong could slap the ground and push himself up, a foot came down from above and planted itself firmly on his head, grinding him into the ground.
In a mere few seconds, both Zhan brothers had lost the ability to fight.
Mu Chen came into view, tilted his head, and asked softly, "That's it?"
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