"Look, there's a new face with Wei Wen's group."
"He's so young. Where did they find that junior brother? How strange-he seems to be only at the third revolution."
"Could he be a disciple admitted to the academy last year?"
Just as Fang Qianyuan spotted Ye Tianming, the disciples waiting there for their training expedition noticed him as well. After all, compared with Ding Long, Wei Wen, Wei Wu, Ning Yuerong, and the others, he was an entirely new face.
Most of those present were around twenty years old, and most had cultivation levels between the fifth and seventh revolutions, with only a handful at the fourth. As a third-revolution disciple, Fang Qianyuan could hardly avoid drawing attention.
Even Ye Tianming turned his gaze toward him, giving him a puzzled look.
"I hear he's Fang Qianyuan, the genius of the new intake under Elder Gong," said a burly male cultivator beside Ye Tianming.
His name was Ba Ming. Spirit markings flickered across his face, lending him an exotic, otherworldly air-a sign that his Way of Transformation was constantly active and profoundly developed.
Ye Tianming frowned. "Why are they letting just anyone in?"
"Junior Brother Ye, that's hardly our concern. He isn't on our team," the female cultivator beside Ye Tianming said with a giggle.
As they talked, time slipped by, until a soft sound suddenly came from the great gate ahead.
"The gate's opening!" Ding Long, Wei Wen, and the others stopped and looked toward it.
The sounds of mechanisms grinding rang out continuously as the heavy gate slowly opened.
Like a giant beast opening its blood-red maw, it revealed a long, dark, unfathomable passage before them.
"We need to get moving."
Most of those present were veterans with experience exterminating demons. Afraid Fang Qianyuan would fall behind, Ding Long hurriedly reminded him.
In fact, Fang Qianyuan had already taken the initiative to learn the basics of training in the Demon Suppression Cavern, so he naturally knew what to do.
At this point, the differences between their cultivation schools and spirit-taming styles became apparent.
Ding Long cultivated the Transformation Dao, primarily using a mid-grade Blue-Eyed Gray Wolf while also cultivating a few low-grade spirit creatures as backups. Now, he used manifestation to summon a Gray Wolf as his mount.
Wei Wu, the younger of the Wei brothers, also cultivated the Transformation Dao. Rather than use his own power, however, he simply took advantage of his elder brother's summoned wolf spirit and jumped onto his mount.
Wei Wen primarily cultivated the Manifestation Path. He summoned a Blue-Eyed Gray Wolf spirit two zhang in size, a mid-grade spirit creature far stronger than a Gray Wolf and easily capable of carrying two people.
He also casually summoned a Gray Wolf for Fang Qianyuan to ride. Fang Qianyuan currently had only one Gray Wolf as his primary spirit creature, but he used it for wolf spirit possession through the Transformation Dao. He accepted without ceremony and climbed onto the mount, letting Wei Wen guide it along.
Ning Yuerong also primarily cultivated the Manifestation Path, but instead of summoning a common Gray Wolf or Blue-Eyed Gray Wolf, she summoned a variant tiger spirit called the Crimson-Patterned Tiger.
It was an enormous, fierce tiger with beautiful crimson markings, a high-grade Human Rank spirit creature.
Clearly, Senior Sister Ning came from a considerably better family background than an ordinary disciple.
Fang Qianyuan looked around. In the dim passage, the academy disciples each displayed their divine abilities, though most used mid- and low-grade spirit creatures such as Blue-Eyed Gray Wolves, Gray Wolves, Spirit Horses, Flame Tigers, Flame Wolves, and Ice Wolves.
Yet among these ordinary disciples and spirit creatures, some spirit tamers and their creatures stood out like cranes among chickens. Ning Yuerong and her Crimson-Patterned Tiger were among them, as were several other disciples with a Triangular Beast, a Silver-Armored Blade Mantis, and a Two-Headed Gray Wolf.
Fang Qianyuan spotted Ye Tianming again. The genius Ding Long had mentioned was riding swiftly on a Shadow Wolf spirit. Judging by his movements, he had already brought the Shadow Wolf's power fully into play. He moved as swiftly as a fleeting afterimage, surging to the front of the main group in an instant.
His primary spirit creature was said to be a supreme-grade Human Rank Moon-Howling Gray Wolf, a rare ancient variant with the astonishing potential to evolve into a supreme-grade Earth Rank Moon-Howling Heavenly Wolf. But since they had not encountered any fighting yet, Fang Qianyuan had no chance to see it.
Before they had traveled far, the cavern ahead suddenly opened up, and they entered an underground chamber resembling a great hall.
Empty space stretched around them. From time to time, ghastly green ghost flames and demonic shadows drifted through the air, while the wind shrieked, producing waves of eerie, chilling sounds.
Fang Qianyuan distinctly felt himself pass through a wall of air that rippled like water. When he looked back, the way they had come was nothing more than a black vortex.
Clearly, they were no longer beneath Cang Mountain Academy, but inside a sealed alternate dimension.
The entire space was a small, circular world over a thousand zhang in diameter, shrouded in a thick gray mist. At its center stood an octagonal altar more than ten zhang across. Light enveloped it, and currents of spacetime power swirled above it like whirlwinds.
That was the Teleportation Array, a masterpiece exemplifying the extraordinary craftsmanship of ancient cultivators.
"Let's go in!"
Seeing the other teams already lining up ahead, Wei Wen led his group over. Before long, it was their turn.
Fang Qianyuan stepped onto the altar and watched Wei Wen insert five pieces of spirit jade into a corner beside him. Soon, everything before his eyes abruptly darkened.
Heaven and earth seemed to turn upside down. Amid a dreamlike interweaving of light and shadow, the scene before him changed utterly.
Within just a few breaths, they had moved from the spacious underground cavern to a stone chamber only a dozen or so zhang long and wide.
Stone walls enclosed the chamber on all six sides, but a clearly visible gate stood before them. Through it, they could see a long passage leading into unknown depths.
The entire passage was built from enormous blue bricks. Strange spiritual power flowed along the walls, casting a faint, dim glow.
This was part of the Demon-Suppressing Grand Array. Though the blue bricks looked easy to destroy, they actually existed in another spacetime and were utterly indestructible. The group could only follow the passage forward or backward; there was no third choice.
"Let's go!"
Wei Wen called to the others, then immediately took the lead, urging his Blue-Eyed Gray Wolf forward.
Fang Qianyuan glanced back at the small array on which they had just stood, but the Gray Wolf beneath him was already carrying him onward.
Along the way, the faint glow shone like candlelight, illuminating the scenery nearly a hundred feet ahead. Beyond that, however, darkness shrouded everything.
Fang Qianyuan could not see the place in its entirety, but he vaguely sensed its immense scale. The passage beneath them seemed endless as well. Even after they had traveled for a long while, the scenery remained exactly the same.
As Fang Qianyuan took it all in, he silently marveled.
It truly was a wondrous sight unlike anything he had ever seen. If such a passage existed in the outside world, who knew how much labor and material it would take to build?
"Well? Incredible, isn't it?" Ding Long looked at Fang Qianyuan and smiled.
"It really is incredible," Fang Qianyuan admitted with a nod.
"This is the power of the mighty ancient cultivators. They commanded the laws of heaven and earth, like immortals, so creating all this naturally wasn't difficult. Sadly, after the First Year of the Dharma-Ending Era, the ancient cultivators lost all their power. They could only rely on these arrays to keep the laws of heaven and earth functioning. Even these arrays are gradually being lost," Ding Long said with a sigh.
"All right, enough idle chatter. We should be thinking about how to arrange things next," Wei Wen interrupted.
"Junior Brother Fang, if we encounter any demons, how about you fight while we stand by to support you? Don't be nervous. We're still on the first level, so there won't be any opponents too difficult to handle. Just put what you've learned into practice."
Fang Qianyuan knew they were looking out for him and naturally would not reject their kindness. "All right," he said.
"Then it's settled," Wei Wen said.