Azure Prison Spirit Realm

Three days later, at dawn.

Clouds and mist swirled around the Dao Academy's central Martial Training Ground.

More than three hundred new students, dressed in uniforms of various colors, had assembled in neat ranks. Not a sound could be heard.

It was the largest gathering since their enrollment.

Chu Bai stood at the head of Class Three's ranks.

Today, he wore the blue Daoist robe Daoist Zhang had given him. Its fine fabric lent him an air of distinction.

What drew the most attention, though, was the aura he naturally radiated.

The second layer of Qi Refining!

The students who had still doubted his standing as Class Three's top student lowered their gazes after sensing that solid aura.

Cultivation was the only currency that counted.

"Look, Lin Xuewei broke through too," Zhou Tong whispered behind Chu Bai.

Chu Bai turned. Not far away, in Class One's ranks, Lin Xuewei wore a dress white as snow, with a faint current of cold air flowing around her.

She, too, had reached the second layer of Qi Refining, but the Cold Pool Art she practiced was a water-element variant, giving her aura a lighter, more ethereal quality.

Across the ground, Dong Feng stood at the center of Class Two's ranks, surrounded like the moon by stars.

He wore a golden fish-scale vest: the Golden Scale Armor, a defensive magic artifact.

His aura was even a shade stronger than Lin Xuewei's. Clearly, his Lineage had poured plenty of precious pills and medicines into him over the past two months.

Just then, light blazed across the raised platform.

A crimson streak cut through the sky and landed squarely at its center, bringing an intensely scorching spiritual pressure with it.

"That's... Superintendent Su!"

Someone below cried out under their breath.

Superintendent Su was one of the