"Flanked by Beauties"

Mu Chen flipped his palm upward, and hundreds of light clusters swarmed out from his sleeves. They hovered in midair, converging into a soft halo of light that illuminated the compact space among the three of them.

The light clusters were all Spirit Beast Essences. They varied in color and spiritual strength, yet every single one exuded pure, undulating spiritual energy.

Luo Li raised her gaze, her glass-like pupils reflecting that patch of light as she quietly looked toward Mu Chen.

"I saved these for you." Mu Chen smiled, his tone ordinary. "Enough to reach level nine."

Luo Li did not refuse. Some matters simply required no words.

She only gave a light nod, her slender hand lifting slightly to guide the halo of light through the air. Pure spiritual energy poured in like a flowing stream, sinking straight into the mark between her brows.

A Level 9 Mark, formed in an instant!

As the night grew deeper and the bonfire leaped, the orange-red light reflected off the three people sitting in a circle, casting swaying shadows behind them.

Mu Chen leaned back against the rock wall with a relaxed posture.

Tang Qian'er sat on his left hand, pressing in close enough to almost touch his arm.

On his right side, Luo Li still maintained a trace of reserved distance.

"All our marks are full." Mu Chen poked the campfire in front of him, encouraging the flames to burn brighter. "Tomorrow we'll head to the center and summon the Northern Cang Hall, how about that?"

Neither girl had any objections. Ending the trial a bit early was fine anyway; it was bound to be more comfortable than constantly camping out in the wilderness.

Time flowed on in the silence.

As drowsiness grew heavier, Tang Qian'er's head began to bob. The arms hugging her knees also lost their strength.

With yet another "unconscious" downward droop, her forehead gently came to rest against Mu Chen's shoulder.

She seemed startled awake by the contact, let out a hazy mn, and lifted her drowsy eyes to look. Seeing it was Mu Chen, she muttered something unintelligibly.

Not only did she fail to move away, but she instead acted as though she had found something to lean on, tilting her head and pressing completely against him. She even "unconsciously" rubbed closer to find a more comfortable angle.

She didn't even bother to pretend... Mu Chen felt helpless in his heart.

The girl's hair carried the dampness of light sweat, brushing against the skin of his neck and causing a slight tickle.

Through the thin fabric of their clothes, he could clearly feel the warmth of her body and the soft rise and fall of her breathing.

The scent belonging to Tang Qian'er faintly lingered around him.

Mu Chen subconsciously wanted to turn his head to look at Luo Li's reaction, but the moment his neck moved half an inch, he stopped, inexplicably feeling a bit guilty.

Right at the moment of his hesitation, a soft rustle of fabric rubbing against stone came from his right side.

Luo Li also slightly adjusted her posture, leaning her body closer in Mu Chen's direction and gently resting her chin on his other shoulder.

The tactile sensation was entirely different from the left side.

Luo Li's body temperature seemed somewhat lower, transmitting a cool softness through her clothes.

That cool, crisp, faint fragrance of pine forests after snow on her body drifted thread by thread into the tip of his nose.

Mu Chen's waist and back instinctively straightened a bit, his arms resting on his knees in a posture that was practically rigid.

On the left was a warm, attached leaning; on the right was a cold, quiet closeness.

Two types of temperatures, equally distinct, pinned him within this square inch of space.

Subtle.

More than just subtle.

Mu Chen turned his head, coming face-to-face at close range with Luo Li's pair of glass-like eyes.

She quietly watched him for two seconds, and then extremely lightly blinked her eyes, a trace of exceedingly faint teasing seeming to sweep through the depths of her gaze.

--Flanked by beauties on both sides, is it comfortable?

What could Mu Chen do? Matters having reached this point, he could only keep smiling.

Luo Li caught sight of this smile of his, the corners of her lips curving up without speaking, and she closed her eyes once more.

The next day, the daylight was clear and bright.

When Mu Chen opened his eyes, his left shoulder was slightly heavy. Tang Qian'er's head was still resting right there, her breathing even and light as she slept soundly.

On the right side, Luo Li was already awake, quietly gazing into the distance. Her silver hair cascaded over her shoulders, emitting a cold, clear luster in the morning light.

Noticing his movement, she slightly turned her head, her glass-like pupils colliding with his gaze, and she offered a faint, clear smile.

Mu Chen gently moved his left shoulder.

Tang Qian'er gave a muddled murmur, her eyelids twitching. Instead of waking up, she actually rubbed closer into the crook of his neck.

Mu Chen paused, raised a hand with his index finger curved, and gently flicked her smooth forehead.

"Ow!" Tang Qian'er woke up in a start from the pain, covered her forehead and sat up straight. Her bright eyes glared toward Mu Chen, still brimming with sleepiness and dissatisfaction. "What are you doing!"

"It's dawn." Mu Chen stood up, stretching his somewhat stiff shoulders and neck. "Time to set off."

Only then did Tang Qian'er fully wake up. Recalling all the events of the previous night, an imperceptible heat crept onto her cheeks.

She glanced at the calm-looking Luo Li beside her, then stood up as well, dusting off the nonexistent grass clippings on her hem.

A grayish-brown sparrow fluttered its wings on a rock not far away, leisurely preening its feathers with its beak.

The three people and one bird made some brief preparations, then proceeded toward the inner reaches of the Northern Cang Realm.

At high noon, after passing through the final patch of woodland, the view suddenly opened up before them.

Nestled among a ring of mountains, a vast plain unfolded into view. This very place was the gathering site for summoning the Northern Cang Hall.

A good number of figures had already gathered on the plain.

A Level 4 Mark was nothing out of the ordinary here, and Level 5 and Level 6 ones were quite common too. Occasionally, one could spot one or two holders of a Level 7 Mark, leaving an empty circle around them that no one dared to easily approach.

Yet the moment Mu Chen and the two girls stepped onto the plain, the previously faint and bustling noise abruptly dropped away.

Countless gazes converged uniformly in their direction.

No, they converged toward Mu Chen.

What plunged the plain into dead silence was not the purple-gold mark between his brows, nor was it his appearance, but rather that unmasked, mighty aura belonging to the Heaven Reaching Realm!

"It's him... the Spirit Crown Holder Mu Chen!" Among the crowd, a trial-taker who had experienced the Spirit Road let out a startled whisper, his face turning pale.

The legends of the Spirit Crown Holder, verified against the Heaven Reaching Realm pressure they now truly sensed, instantly turned that once half-believed rumor into a heavy reality pressing upon everyone's heart.

Mu Chen turned a blind eye to all of this, leading Luo Li and Tang Qian'er directly toward the center of the plain.

Wherever they passed, the crowd parted like water, yielding a wide path with no one daring to block their advance.

The three of them arrived at the exact center of the plain, the purple-gold marks between their brows erupting with dazzling light at this moment, shooting forth like a beam of light from their foreheads straight into the firmament.

"Rumble--!"

The instant the beam of light pierced into the vault of heaven, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth instantly turned violent, and a giant roar echoed thunderously from above the clouds.

The purple-gold light bloomed brilliantly across the sky, vaguely transforming into the outline of a towering, majestic hall that carried a sky-filling shadow as it slowly descended from the firmament.

The giant hall sank, settling down with a booming crash right in the center of the earth. The moment it touched the ground, the entire plain trembled on its account.

The Northern Cang Hall.

It could only be summoned by those with a Level 9 Mark, and only by passing through this hall could one truly be considered to have stepped through the gates of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy.

Rumble, rumble!

Under the watchful eyes of everyone present, the heavy giant gates of that purple-gold grand hall, which looked as though they had been cast from gold, slowly creaked open at this very moment, golden light spilling forth in a truly astonishing sight.

"The Northern Cang Hall has opened. All disciples whose marks have reached Level 4 or above, please enter..."

An aged voice echoed deeply from within the slowly parting purple-gold giant gates.

This voice instantly shattered the quiet of this place.

Quite a few trial-takers who met the conditions transformed into streaks of light without a moment's delay, violently darting toward the gaping giant gates of the purple-gold grand hall.

Figures surged like locusts, spiritual energy churning wildly.

Mu Chen and the two girls stepped inside without hurry or delay.