"You still going?"
Yun Yibai had already challenged six ten-thousand-year soul beasts in a row.
"No more. Senior Yang, let's return to Wuji City."
After breaking through to rank 49, Yun Yibai had arrived at the new city of their Wuji Academy — now formally known as Wuji City. Naturally, Dugu Yan had come along as well.
Meanwhile, Oscar, Niu Tian, and Yang Tai had stayed behind in Heaven Dou City. The three had pretty much fallen in love with the place, teaming up to grind combat points like madmen. Besides, members of the Po Zhi Clan at the Soul Sage level were keeping an eye on them there.
The construction of Wuji City had officially begun and took a total of six months. By then, the basic framework was already in place. Part of the speed was due to the city being initially planned at the scale of a Tier-3 city, similar to those housing elementary-level soul master academies.
Another major factor was the contribution of the Yu Zhi Clan — their entire clan, combined with recruited workers, was responsible for the results.
"The Yu Zhi Clan lives up to its reputation in construction. I've only been gone about a month, and Wuji City has already changed so much."
Inside Wuji City, former teachers and students of Haoyue Academy (now Wuji Academy) had begun gradually relocating. So, as soon as you stepped into the city's limits, you could see several people around.
The Po Zhi Clan and Yu Zhi Clan had also officially moved in. To them, this city — built with their own hands — held deep meaning. After drifting for over a decade within the Star Luo Empire, only now had they truly found a sense of belonging. Their official identities were now those of Wuji Academy employees.
At this point, about 80% of Wuji City's construction was complete. The city walls and main academy structures were mostly finished. A few buildings had also sprung up outside the city walls — these were for external residents and merchants.
The initial plan for Wuji City was that it would be entirely centered around Wuji Academy. Although its current footprint was large, it still left room for long-term expansion. But building a whole city required massive manpower — people needed housing, food, and jobs — so naturally, merchants had already begun to gather outside the city.
These merchants were no fools. History had shown that every time a city was founded, there were profits to be made. Yang Wudi and the others knew this too — that's why they built rental housing outside the city walls, hoping to recover some of the construction costs through rental income.
According to the original blueprint, Wuji Academy would occupy the inner city. Beyond that would be the mid-city, and outside that, the outer city. Whether there would be an "outer-outer" city someday would depend on the academy's future growth.
In any case, within less than a year, a brand-new city had sprung to life — the construction of Wuji City could only be considered a resounding success.
Within Wuji Academy in the inner city, aside from teachers and students, the Po Zhi Clan, the Yu Zhi Clan, and now even the Min Zhi Clan had settled in.
The Po Zhi and Yu Zhi Clans had not forgotten their old friends and comrades as they prospered.
After acquiring Haoyue Academy and launching the city-building project, Yang Wudi and Niu Gao had once again convened a summit of the Four Great Single-Attribute Clans.
At the meeting, Yang Wudi and Niu Gao updated Tai Tan, leader of the Li Zhi Clan, and Bai He, leader of the Min Zhi Clan, on everything they had accomplished so far.
Then, they extended an invitation to the other two clans to join them.
Tai Tan hesitated — not because he didn't want to join them, but because he wasn't sure how to decline without hurting their friendship. The fact that they had even extended the invitation meant they still remembered his kindness.
However, Tai Tan didn't want to join Yang Wudi and Niu Gao's endeavor.
After all, when Spirit Hall purged the single-attribute clans, the Li Zhi Clan suffered the least. Thanks to their blacksmithing skills, they'd managed to survive well over the years. Of the four clans, theirs had fared the best.
More importantly, Tai Tan was still loyal to Tang Hao and was waiting patiently for his return. Once Tang Hao came back, he intended for his clan to follow him again.
So in his heart, Tai Tan refused the offer.
Bai He, however, was a different story.
Over the years, the Min Zhi Clan had fallen into dire straits. Among the four clans:
The Li Zhi Clan survived by smithing.
The Yu Zhi Clan thrived in construction.
The Po Zhi Clan earned a living in alchemy.
Only the Min Zhi Clan had no trade to rely on. Had it not been for the support of the other three, their situation might have turned utterly miserable.
So Bai He was moved by Yang Wudi and Niu Gao's proposal. All that talk about the Clear Sky Sect and Tang Hao meant little in the face of his clan's survival. In desperate times, ideals meant nothing.
As a result, Wuji Academy added a new elective course focused on Agility Attack techniques, and the academy also gained a new group of reconnaissance and communication staff from the Min Zhi Clan.
During Wuji City's construction, Dugu Bo was invited by Yun Yibai to serve as a stabilizing presence. Although Dugu Bo wasn't thrilled about it, he relented after repeated pleas from his granddaughter, Dugu Yan.
Inside the central conference hall of Wuji Academy, the current leadership of the school had gathered:
Dugu Bo, Yang Wudi, Niu Gao, Bai He, Yun Yibai, and Dugu Yan — six people in total.
At the previous meeting, it had already been decided that Dugu Yan would take over as headmaster after participating in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament. Her strength and status were more than enough to command respect from rival academies.
As for Yun Yibai, although he didn't yet hold an official title, everyone saw him as the next headmaster-in-waiting. His young age didn't cause anyone to underestimate him.
"Kid, it's only been a month. You've got more ideas already?"
Of everyone present, only Dugu Bo looked somewhat displeased about the meeting. He had always been a free-spirited man, disliking constraints. But for Dugu Yan's sake, even if he didn't like meetings, he still attended.
"Just a small idea," Yun Yibai replied.
"Seniors, now that the new Wuji Academy is established, its current scale is far beyond what the old Haoyue Academy ever had — we've got one Title Douluo, three Soul Douluos, more than ten Soul Sages, and a good number of Soul Emperors."
"With that kind of lineup, if this were a sect, we'd easily qualify as one of the Lower Four Sects, maybe even compete for a spot among the Upper Three Sects."
"But our goal is different from that of a sect. Wuji Academy's mission is to enhance resources for teachers, improve their overall quality, and elevate the caliber of students, thereby strengthening the academy as a whole."
"And the key to demonstrating our educational value lies in the quality of our graduates."
"Right now, the quality of Wuji Academy's students is… a bit lacking," Yun Yibai said bluntly.
"So you're saying we need to raise our admission standards this year?" asked Niu Gao.
"I understand where you're coming from," added Bai He, "but the academy is still new, and we didn't have much reputation to begin with. Even though we now have some powerhouse figures, young talents across the continent still don't know who we are."
"That's no problem," said Yang Wudi.
"This year, we'll keep it simple — selectively recruit a small number of outstanding soul masters, and establish our admissions benchmark. Quality over quantity."
"Once this year's Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament begins, and our academy earns some renown, everything will fall into place!"