Li Jing

Liu Bai moved swiftly through the forest and soon arrived at the site of the recent battle.

"A high-level Spirit Beast, a Purple Striped Black Bear, comparable to a Divine Soul Realm Middle Stage cultivator. It looks like someone easily struck its vital point and killed it in one move. Whoever did this must be an expert!"

Looking at the corpse on the ground, Liu Bai guessed with a grave expression.

"Divine Soul Realm... I wonder if it was one of those freaks who came out of the Spirit Road..."

It was merely Liu Bai talking to himself, and his voice had not been loud. Yet the moment he finished speaking, he suddenly felt a chill from behind him. Without even turning around, he lunged forward and spun three thousand six hundred degrees, landing more than ten meters away.

When he finally turned back, still shaken, he discovered that cracks had appeared where he had been standing. Above those cracks was a round, long leg wrapped in tight black training clothes...

Following it upward, he saw a cold and stunningly beautiful face. At that moment, a pair of crystalline eyes was glaring furiously at him.

What a beautiful girl!

That thought immediately flashed through Liu Bai's mind.

But when he saw the force behind her kick, he could not help sighing inwardly again. What a violent girl!

Raising an eyebrow, Liu Bai spoke first. "Miss, may I ask how I offended you enough for you to resort to a sneak attack from behind?"

At a time like this, whoever spoke first had the moral high ground. No matter the reason, he would firmly pin the charge of a sneak attack on her. Even if they came to blows afterward, it would not matter.

"Hmph. A petty man who talks filth behind others' backs thinks he deserves this young lady's sneak attack? That was merely a lesson for you. Otherwise, that kick would have taken half your life!" The Black-clothed Girl's face was cold, and so was her voice. She clearly found Liu Bai extremely unpleasant, as if she were looking at a fly.

Liu Bai was instantly speechless. Could it be that she had killed the Purple Striped Black Bear? Had she heard his final remark just now as well?

"My apologies. I meant no offense. I was merely marveling at the strength of those who could take part in the Spirit Road. May I ask your name, miss? Did you also participate in the Spirit Road selection?"

Although the girl looked icy, she was not unreasonable. Seeing Liu Bai apologize so sincerely, she put away her previous hostility.

"Why do you ask?"

Liu Bai smiled lightly. "Do not misunderstand. I am simply curious. I wonder how many King Title Holders emerged from the Spirit Road this time, and how many chose Northern Azure Spirit Academy..."

This girl should have come out of the Spirit Road, but she had probably not attained the rank of a King Title Holder. Otherwise, her cultivation would not merely be at the Divine Soul Realm Middle Stage.

The girl frowned. Liu Bai looked refined and courteous, and unlike other men, his gaze held none of those ulterior thoughts when he looked at her. Her opinion of him improved somewhat.

After hesitating for a moment, she introduced herself. "My name is Li Jing. Although I passed through the Spirit Road, I did not receive a King-Level Assessment. There were many who became King Title Holders on this Spirit Road. I do not know how many received King-Level Assessments, but as far as I know, Northern Azure Spirit Academy should have no fewer than four King Title Holders. As for whether they are in this Northern Cang Realm, I do not know."

"Li Jing?" Liu Bai was slightly surprised as he looked at the seemingly aloof girl before him.

If he remembered correctly, she had appeared in the original story and had even carried out missions with Mu Chen. At the time, she had also been a notable figure on the Heavenly Ranking.

Still, that made sense. Anyone who could pass through the Spirit Road was bound to possess exceptional talent and strength. It was perfectly normal for her to hold a place on the Heavenly Ranking three years later.

"Thank you for telling me, Miss Li Jing. I hope we can meet again!"

With that, Liu Bai cupped his fists in salute and headed into the distance.

Li Jing stood there in a daze. She had not expected him to leave just like that, without the slightest reluctance. Was she really so lacking in appeal?

However, she quickly came back to her senses and hurriedly drove that thought from her mind. After glancing in the direction Liu Bai had vanished, she too swiftly left the mountain.

The night was as dark as ink, blanketing the entire Northern Cang Realm. A few scattered stars shone overhead, making the sky seem even lonelier.

Within the ancient forest, all kinds of roars rang out from time to time. Those roars were filled with fury, clearly coming from Spirit Beasts that had been disturbed.

As the original inhabitants of the Northern Cang Realm, these Spirit Beasts clearly did not welcome this group of sudden outsiders. Battles thus continued to erupt across the land, with not even the deep night bringing any pause.

Deep in the forest, a bonfire blazed. Liu Bai sat cross-legged beneath a towering tree, the orange-red firelight reflecting across his face and draping everything around him in a mysterious veil.

This was his first night in the Northern Cang Realm...

Over the entire day, aside from killing several high-level Spirit Beasts and taking the marks from Zhou Ze and his group, Liu Bai's greatest gain had been meeting Li Jing and learning some information about the Spirit Road from her.

Unfortunately, he did not know how many freshmen from his cohort had appeared in the original story.

Those prodigies on the Heavenly Ranking in the original story—Shen Cangsheng, Li Xuantong, Su Xuan, Crane Demon, and the others—should all have been geniuses who entered Northern Spirit Academy in the same cohort as him.

Next, he would be competing with those people within Northern Azure Spirit Academy.

Looking at his status panel, although he had no intention of raising his cultivation right now, he could first strengthen himself in other areas. For example, his arrays. That way, others would not be able to tell, and it would not affect the surprise attack effect he wanted.

The Wolf Spirit God Striking Array and Nine Heavens Thunder Spirit Array each required only 300 Experience Points to reach Great Accomplishment. Including his own cultivation progress, the expenditure would not be much at all.

As for the Five Wheel Sky Splitting Array, a Second-Grade Spirit Array, it required somewhat more—1,500 Experience Points. That was a full five times more, which showed just how great the gap between each grade of Spirit Array was.

After spending nearly two thousand Experience Points to raise all three Spirit Arrays to their highest level, Liu Bai still had over thirty-seven thousand Experience Points remaining.

He did not choose to raise his Array Dao Realm, because if he had not been limited by array diagrams, Liu Bai would already have become a Level 3 Spirit Array Master. His current Array Dao Realm was sufficient to match his strength. What he lacked were array diagrams!

After hesitating once more, Liu Bai chose to raise his only Divine Art, the Ice Muscle Jade Bone Art, to Great Accomplishment...

As six thousand Experience Points vanished, Liu Bai felt his body tremble violently.

Within his Sea of Qi, it was like an Endless Starry Sky. A massive Spirit Wheel spun rapidly, while two distinct streams of spiritual energy wound out from the void and flowed into that enormous Light Wheel.

Buzz!

Liu Bai felt even his flesh let out a hum. Then, as his heart pounded fiercely, a jade-white spiritual radiance burst forth from his heart and spread through his entire body, covering his internal organs in a layer of glow.

This sight slightly startled Liu Bai. But after probing with his spiritual senses, he was immediately overjoyed.

The glow over his internal organs was slowly improving them. Starting from the deepest flesh and blood cells, bit by bit, it continuously strengthened their capabilities.

A vast life force emanated from his internal organs, making even Liu Bai's breathing feel much easier.

With this spiritual radiance strengthening him, even if he suffered grievous injuries that damaged his internal organs, he could recover quickly. Combined with the formidable self-healing ability brought by this immense life force, Liu Bai was certain that his body had risen to another level.

The most direct change brought by the improvement in his physique was that Liu Bai's body could withstand impacts more effectively. He could now completely condense the fourth Senluo Death Seal.

Another change was that Liu Bai discovered his Spirit Veins awakening points had increased by another fifty. Though it was only a drop in the bucket compared to the thousand points needed to advance to four Earth Veins, it was still equivalent to fifty lives. Liu Bai was quite pleased.

After that, the Blazing Sun Art, which had remained stagnant for a long time, actually rose another level through this opportunity. However, the seventh level of the Blazing Sun Art could only raise Liu Bai to the Spirit Wheel Realm Late Stage. Compared with Liu Bai, who was already at the peak of the Spirit Wheel Realm, it could not allow him to advance directly. It merely made the fire-element Spirit Wheel at his Heart Aperture more substantial, so the immediate improvement was not significant.

Player: Liu Bai

Realm: Spirit Wheel Realm Peak Stage

Profession: Spirit Array Master (Second-Grade Spirit Array Master)

Spirit Veins: Three Earth Veins (50/1000)

Physique: Spirit Muscle Jade Bone

Cultivation Method: Blazing Sun Art (Seventh Layer 150/4500); Hundred Scrolls of Array Dao: Upper Volume (Initiation · Heart Array Beginner 0/1200); Low Grade Body Tempering Divine Art · Ice Muscle Jade Bone Art (Great Accomplishment 150/30000); Mountain God Art (Third Layer 200/9000)

Skills:

...Spirit Grade Low Rank Star Shattering Fist · Shatter (Perfect); Spirit Grade Low Rank Blazing Step · Fire Illusion Body (Perfect); Spirit-grade High-tier Great Sun Sea Burning Palm (Minor Accomplishment 0/1200); Spirit-grade High-tier Mountain Shaking Divine Fist (Minor Accomplishment 0/1200)

Arrays:

...Wolf Spirit God Striking Array (Great Accomplishment); Nine Heavens Thunder Spirit Array (Great Accomplishment); Five Wheel Sky Splitting Array (Great Accomplishment)

Experience Points: 31330

Beast Soul Points: 80

Mm, not bad.

Liu Bai nodded in satisfaction. As long as he could obtain information related to Heavenly Beasts, he could choose to break through to the Divine Soul Realm at any time—and it would be the kind of upgrade that took only one second!

Slowly exhaling, Liu Bai was about to begin his daily cultivation once again when a Spirit Beast's furious roar suddenly began drawing nearer...

Liu Bai could not help frowning. It looked like peaceful cultivation would be impossible tonight.

He wondered who was causing trouble even in the middle of the night...

With a flash, Liu Bai arrived atop a giant tree dozens of meters tall. Standing on a branch and looking into the distance, he saw three figures standing in the air several thousand meters away. Powerful spiritual energy fluctuations radiated from their bodies. They had clearly all reached the Divine Soul Realm.

"Three Divine Soul Realm cultivators chasing someone down? Just who is that person below?"

Liu Bai was slightly surprised. What sort of outrage had that person committed to be jointly hunted by three Divine Soul Realm experts?

Moreover, trees were constantly falling amid the battle on the ground. From the miserable roars of beasts, it was clear that the person below was far from weak. Even while being besieged by a beast horde, that person could still keep killing them.

"Three Divine Soul Realm cultivators joining forces, yet they still lured Spirit Beasts into attacking their target. That is truly ruthless. They want to kill that person outright..."

Liu Bai narrowed his eyes slightly as he secretly speculated.

Mu Chen in the original story had loved using this kind of method, especially in the Spirit Road. It was through this that he had stirred up a bloody calamity, causing countless prodigies to perish within the Spirit Road.

After considering it, Liu Bai silently moved closer beneath the cover of night.

For those three to resort to such ruthless means, it was most likely a struggle over benefits. And where there were benefits, there was no harm in taking a look...

At the same time, on the battlefield a thousand meters away.

A cold and stunning Red-dressed Girl was being besieged by a pack of golden lion beasts. More than a dozen golden lion beast corpses already lay on the ground, but the remaining robust Golden Lion was a genuine high-level late-stage Spirit Beast, comparable to a human cultivator at the Divine Soul Realm Late Stage. Facing such a terrifying giant beast, the girl had already become somewhat disheveled.

Roar!

The Golden Lion suddenly opened its massive jaws and released a thunderous lion's roar. The ring of golden mane around its neck began to ripple like flames, and a clear golden pillar of sound erupted forth, blasting through dozens of miles before slowly dissipating.

Pfft!

The girl, struck head-on by the sound pillar, spat out a mouthful of blood. Her red dress had become somewhat tattered, exposing large swathes of snow-white skin.

"Tsk, tsk. She took the Golden Flame Lion King's Lion King Roar head-on. Even if she does not die, she probably has little fighting strength left."

Among the three people in the sky, a Black-Robed Youth could not help clicking his tongue.

Yet from his expression, he had no intention whatsoever of stopping the Golden Flame Lion King. Whether the girl before him lived or died seemed utterly irrelevant to him.

But before his words had even finished, the heavily injured Red-dressed Girl suddenly charged at the lion king. Her jade-like hands thrust forward, and surging spiritual energy transformed into a spiritual energy spear in her palms, its might astonishing.

"Spirit Breaking Spear!"

A cold cry rang out from the Red-dressed Girl's red lips. Her slender jade arm shook, and the spiritual energy spear burst with light like a streak of brilliance, tearing through the sky and forcefully piercing the Golden Flame Lion King's exposed heart.

It turned out that everything before had been deliberate. She had endured one of the Golden Flame Lion King's attacks precisely to create an opportunity for a killing blow.

Even Liu Bai, who had just arrived nearby, stared in stunned disbelief.

It had to be said, this woman was truly ruthless!