Central Divine Temple

Lou Ying watched Yun Mo and the two women approach and acted without hesitation, taking the Level-Nine Token from his robes and tossing it over.

If he offered even the slightest resistance, he could not be sure the three of them would not cripple him outright.

"I really don't understand how you dared to bring out your Level-Nine Token. Were you bluffing? You might scare off weaker people, but this close to the end of the Spirit Road, what weaklings are left?" Yun Mo caught the Token and spoke mildly.

Hearing this, Lou Ying could only lower his head, countless regrets stirring within him. He had thought that unexpectedly snatching someone else's Level-Nine Token would let him reap greater rewards on the Spirit Road. Instead, he had lost it in the blink of an eye.

The consequences of his wildly inflated confidence had finally forced him to recognize his own limitations. Opportunistic tricks were still far inferior to genuine strength.

What luck gave you would one day be taken back by luck, unless you truly were a child of fortune.

"Let's go. It's time we headed toward the Central Divine Temple too." Yun Mo turned and handed the two Tokens to Wen Qingxuan and Wu Yingying with a smile.

"I've been waiting for you to say that! I want the Divine Arts in that temple!" Wu Yingying clenched her fist and waved it.

"That temple is no ordinary place. It's another ruin, and back then, the Five Great Academies worked together to put most of what this Broken Continent had left behind into it. No one knows what they might find inside, though Spirit Arts and Divine Arts do make up most of it."

Wen Qingxuan looked at her and explained with a smile.

"At the very least, I have to get a Divine Art."

"You grew up in the Martial Spirit Academy. Do you really lack Divine Arts?" Yun Mo asked, somewhat surprised.

"Something someone gives you and something you earn through your own efforts are two different things, all right?"

In truth, none of the three lacked Spirit Arts or Divine Arts. Yun Mo himself had read more Spirit Arts than he could count; at the very least, he had gone through everything in the Azure Wood Academy.

Only through that had he been able to build such an immensely deep foundation.

The same was true of Wen Qingxuan. As someone from one of the continent's foremost powers, how could she lack such things, given the resources at her disposal?

"Oh, so people were offering you Spirit Arts of their own accord when you were little. My apologies for failing to show proper respect, young lady of the Martial Spirit Academy." Yun Mo cupped his hands with a smile.

Wu Yingying spat in disdain, then turned and sped toward the Central Divine Temple.

Near the Central Divine Temple, some people indeed shared Wu Yingying's earlier idea and had chosen to wait by the tree stump for a rabbit to come along.

They were simply waiting for people with Level-Nine Tokens to arrive so they could rob them.

Generally, however, those with Level-Nine Tokens would not reveal them of their own accord. Meanwhile, word had also spread of some of the Spirit Road's strongest figures.

Yun Mo and his companions were among the worst people to provoke. After all, along their route, they had been undisputed kings and overlords.

Just as now, when some trial participants who had seen the three before spotted Yun Mo approaching the Central Divine Temple, their expressions changed and they turned to leave. Others even nodded slightly in greeting, watching them enter the Divine Temple Ruins.

"So this is the Central Divine Temple?"

Yun Mo entered the radiant temple with Wen Qingxuan and Wu Yingying, and they began examining the ruins of this magnificent structure.

Rather than the ruins of a building, it was more fitting to call it a treasure-one the Five Great Academies had jointly refined and placed on the Spirit Road after taking control of these ruins.

Inside, the fragrance of agarwood curled through the air. The moment they entered, their essence, qi, and spirit reached their peak, as though simply standing here could wash away all their accumulated exhaustion.

And upon closer inspection, they could vaguely make out jade slips floating in the air, emanating profound, mysterious auras.

Just then, an old man appeared in the temple and addressed the three with a smile.

"Earlier, for some unknown reason, the Mirror of Judgment failed to detect any trace of you on the Spirit Road. We mistakenly thought this trial would belong to those few individuals alone. But the moment you appeared on the battlefield in the Guardian Land, we had to overturn our earlier assessment. You are the most gifted geniuses on the Spirit Road."

"You flatter us, Senior," the three replied, neither servile nor overbearing.

"Heh, I simply wonder which academy you'll enter. Never mind-that is your own choice. Take your Tokens and pass through the Vermilion Gate ahead. The Spirit Arts inside are all at least at the quasi-divine level."

All three smiled and thanked the old man.

They approached the Vermilion Gate, which divided the temple into two sections. The front hall housed Spirit Arts, while the rear hall held Divine Arts.

Without further hesitation, they took out their Level-Nine Tokens and pressed them against the gate, causing it to open slowly and reveal the mysteries within.

"I'm off to find my own Divine Art, Captain Yun Mo, Sister Qingxuan. Let's meet outside afterward." Looking into the rear hall, where brilliant light flickered, Wu Yingying stepped forward and spoke to them with a faint smile.

"So impatient." Yun Mo smiled, nodded to Wen Qingxuan, then turned to leave.

After that, he wandered alone through the rear of the temple, following his whims.

When it came to Divine Arts, he had always remained true to his heart.

He accepted gains calmly and losses lightly, followed nature's course, and fought for what he must.

He possessed both the easygoing willingness to follow nature and the unwavering resolve to fight for what was his-peaceful, yet domineering.

Perhaps precisely because of his attitude, the Divine Arts in the rear hall seemed to possess awareness, drifting slowly before his eyes. All he needed to do was reach out slightly, and he could gather them all into his hands.

However, he had no desire to touch those brilliantly glowing jade slips, and before he knew it, he had reached the deepest part of the rear hall.

He was not rigid in his thinking; he simply wanted to take in the entire rear hall first.

"These Divine Arts don't seem all that different from the ones I read in the Azure Wood Academy. Perhaps 'different' isn't the right word. They're all on the same level, after all." Yun Mo habitually rubbed the mark between his brows and murmured to himself.

But just then, perhaps in response to his touch, the mark between his brows released a ripple that spread through the surrounding space.

As space rippled, a broken jade disc abruptly emerged from the endless void before Yun Mo, bearing an overwhelming force as it pressed toward the center of his brow.

"What's happening?!"

Alarm bells rang in Wen Qingxuan's heart, and she immediately rushed into the depths of the temple.

There, the sight that met her eyes was Yun Mo's brow

seeping blood, his face pale. At the same time, the broken jade disc he held radiated purple imperial might, enveloping him.

The silvery-white mark and the imperial might that suppressed heaven and earth refused to yield to each other, filling the space around Yun Mo with an oppressive weight, as though it held the terror of collapse and annihilation.

Seeing this, Wen Qingxuan knitted her delicate brows. Suppressing the flicker of panic in her heart, she reached out to support Yun Mo, who was about to fall, and asked, "What is that jade disc in your hand?"

Yun Mo turned his head with difficulty. Seeing the worry on her face and her delicate hand supporting him, he gave a bitter smile. "The Primordial Ziwei Emperor's Emperor's Seal."

As soon as he spoke those words, the broken jade disc erupted with an even more terrifying suppressive force, instantly covering both of them completely in purple light.

"Humm..."

Their figures vanished from the rear hall, leaving only the jade disc floating slowly in the air. But upon closer inspection, human silhouettes could faintly be seen flickering within it.