"Team Ji Yan, twenty-three low-grade, middle-stage essences."
"Team Zhao Shuo, thirty-six low-grade, middle-stage essences!"
The teams stepped forward as their names were called, presenting their harvested spirit beast essences for Master Mo to inspect and the recorder to tally.
Su Qing watched everyone step forward in turn, his expression indifferent.
Tang Qian'er draped her arm over Su Qing's shoulder and swayed as she said, "Hey! We should be first, right? I feel like even Liu Mubai and his team couldn't possibly beat us."
"Yes, in theory."
Su Qing glanced toward Liu Mubai.
The two members of Liu Mubai's team stood among the Western Academy students on the other side, Liu Mubai and Hong Ling standing together.
Liu Mubai's gaze swept over Su Qing from time to time, his eyes unfathomable, while Hong Ling seemed rather distracted, idly playing with a bunch of wildflowers in her hands.
Su Qing paid them no mind and looked away.
"Team Su Qing!" Master Mo called.
"It's our turn," Tang Qian'er said, nudging Su Qing's arm.
"Let's go up together." With that, the two stepped forward and approached Master Mo.
Everyone turned their attention toward them.
One was the top student of his year, towering over the entire academy; the other was the East Courtyard's campus belle, beautiful and captivating.
Either of them alone was the center of attention, let alone the two together.
Su Qing shook his sleeve, and a cloud of spirit beast essences flew out, circling around them like scattered sparks.
"Fifty-seven low-grade, middle-stage spirit beast essences, forty-two low-grade, late-stage spirit beast essences."
The recorder was already astonished by the sight, but the two gleaming essences among them, one red and one black, made his voice tremble.
"Two mid-grade, late-stage essences!"
The appearance of those two essences sent the entire crowd into an uproar. No one had expected prey of this caliber to turn up in a hunt undertaken by Northern Spiritual Academy students.
Master Mo and Instructor Xi were not surprised, however. Su Qing was very familiar with the teachers in the Northern Spirit Plains, after all, and both of them knew some of what he had done before.
"Instructor Xi, I object! No student could possibly kill spirit beasts of that level! He must have cheated!"
A discordant voice rang out amid everyone's astonished exclamations. Liu Yang had stepped forward to challenge the results.
"Surely no piece of trash thinks that just because he can't do something, nobody else can," Su Qing retorted sarcastically.
"You!" Furious, Liu Yang was about to say something.
Su Qing cut him off first. "I said 'trash,' and you jumped right out? Truly trash through and through. At least you know yourself well."
"The biggest difference between humans and wild beasts is that humans have brains. Unfortunately, I haven't found any sign of one in you."
"So you're what they mean by a strong spirit in a broken body. Admirable, truly admirable. You don't even have a brain, yet you still think you're a genius."
"No way, no way. Surely nobody thinks having a spiritual meridian makes him something special."
"Do you know why you have a spiritual meridian? It's heaven's compensation for shutting the door on your brain."
"This really is hilarious. A thing that cheated during the Academy Trial still has the nerve to bark here. A thief crying 'catch the thief,' a dog crying 'beat the dog.'"
A faint smile hung on Su Qing's face as he clapped his hands and casually spat out one sarcastic jab after another.
For a transmigrator who had weathered the baptism of the internet in the information age, arguing with a native was practically an attack from a higher dimension.
"I!" Rage surged straight to Liu Yang's head, leaving him stammering and unable to speak.
Then his breath caught, making his face flush crimson.
"Mad already? That got you mad? Surely your defenses haven't crumbled? Hee hee hee," Su Qing said in a wooden monotone.
"Enough!"
Liu Mubai walked in front of Liu Yang, blocking their line of sight as he spoke.
"What? Does the eternal runner-up have something to say?"
Su Qing thought of how bringing back the Nine Nether Sparrow's Copper Fragment this time would leave the Mu Domain and Liu Domain tearing away all pretense of civility, so he did not hold his tongue.
Liu Mubai kept his composure. Ignoring Su Qing, he approached Master Mo and took out his spoils to have his results assessed.
After Liu Mubai intervened, Liu Yang recovered a little of his reason. He shot Su Qing a vicious glare, then went to a corner to sulk by himself.
Meanwhile, the essences Liu Mubai produced were of much higher quality than those of the other students.
Without Su Qing, Liu Mubai's team might have taken first place.
Unfortunately, there were no ifs.
He placed second.
Liu Mubai did not resort to any schemes, either, because after Liu Yang raised his objection, Master Mo had said one thing.
"Su Qing does indeed have the strength to kill those two spirit beasts."
Before absolute strength, there was no room for his plots and tricks.
Mu Chen lost to Liu Mubai by a narrow margin, falling short by just one low-grade, late-stage essence and placing third.
The Mu Domain alone claimed two of the top three places.
With that, the top three teams of this trip to the Northern Spirit Plains had been decided, and Master Mo distributed their rewards-Spirit-Nurturing Pills.
Su Qing opened the jade box containing his pill, and its medicinal fragrance filled his nose.
With this pill, he could fully establish his foundation and break through to the spirit wheel realm.
Afterward, whatever happened, he would never have to worry about an unstable foundation unless he suffered injuries severe enough to strip away the three flowers atop his head and dissolve the five energies within his chest.
Although Liu Mubai had placed second, he was used to it and showed little reaction. Only his desire to kill Su Qing grew a little stronger.
Liu Yang, however, had completely lost his composure this time. That barrage of sarcastic jabs left him sulking for ages, and he was still brooding over it when they returned to the Northern Spiritual Academy.
After distributing the pills, Master Mo announced a month-long break so the students could relax.
And so, amid a chorus of cheers, everyone set off on the road back to the Northern Spiritual Academy.
After receiving her Spirit-Nurturing Pill, Tang Qian'er chattered excitedly to Su Qing all the way back, perhaps harboring other feelings beneath her idle talk.
Mu Chen greeted Su Qing and Tang Qian'er, then joined Mo Ling and the others, laughing and horsing around.
Being in the Northern Spirit Plains constantly reminded him of the Spirit Road. His nerves had been taut throughout the trip as memories kept resurfacing. He missed Luo Li.
Now that he had returned to the Northern Spiritual Academy, he naturally needed to readjust.
After sleeping-scratch that, resting-for two days, Mu Chen planned to return to the Mu Domain to see his father and ask him about some questions he had concerning his cultivation technique.
At that point, Tang Qian'er came to find Mu Chen.
She had not deliberately chosen this particular moment to find him. Rather, Mu Chen had spent two days sleeping in his room without going out.
There had been no response when she knocked. As a girl, Tang Qian'er could hardly enter Mu Chen's room uninvited, and it was not urgent anyway.
Tang Qian'er handed Mu Chen a jade slip. Su Qing had given it to her before entering seclusion, asking her to pass it to Mu Chen before he returned to the Mu Domain.
In the jade slip, Su Qing first explained the matter of the Nine Nether Sparrow's Copper Fragment. Then he warned Mu Chen to be wary of people from the Liu Domain, and not to return to the Mu Domain or leave the East Courtyard before Su Qing emerged from seclusion.
Su Qing himself was beneath a waterfall in the mountains behind the Northern Spiritual Academy, its churning waters battering his body.
Before entering seclusion, Su Qing had specifically asked Master Mo to seal off this area so that he would not be disturbed during his breakthrough.
Before the wind, the waterfall cast a thousand-foot silhouette, as though a river of stars were pouring down from heaven.
Su Qing sat cross-legged beneath the waterfall, his upper body bare and his black hair soaked by the water. Even the Daoist topknot he had tied had been washed loose.
Droplets rolled over his evenly proportioned muscles. With each breath, wisps of white vapor drifted from his pores, only to be shattered by the rushing water.
Su Qing tilted his head slightly and swallowed the Spirit-Nurturing Pill held between his teeth. Surging spiritual energy rose from his stomach and flowed toward his dantian.
Su Qing also began actively circulating the Golden Palace Jade Record, drawing strands of spiritual energy from his surroundings into his dantian.
Master Mo opened the sluice gate upstream of the waterfall above him, and an even fiercer torrent crashed down with a roar.
Everything became fuel for Su Qing to forge his foundation.
When the elixir was perfected and the work complete, the body would ascend on feathered wings, casting off mortal dust to rise beyond the worldly throng!
Between heaven and earth, spiritual energy surged.