Li Qing and Guo Xiong looked at Liu Bai, who wore a mysterious smile at this moment. For a time, they couldn't guess what he was thinking.
"What do you think, how about we give the North Heaven Spiritual Academy a little freshman-level shock?"
The three present were instantly stunned. They had no idea what Liu Bai meant by this so-called "freshman shock." Could it be that he was planning to lead the freshmen to completely overthrow the seniors?
"Guo Xiong, go to the Xuan Gang, Judgement Hall, and Demon Gate and find Li Xuantong, Shen Cangsheng, and He Yao. Just say I invite them to discuss something important."
Since we're going to do something, we might as well make it a big deal.
Liu Bai believed that if he could win over those three, it would be equivalent to rallying nearly eighty percent of the freshman power. The others, for the most part, were not even qualified to participate in such a plan.
Once Guo Xiong understood Liu Bai's intention, his eyes immediately lit up. Without wasting time, he left to send out the invitations.
Li Qing and An Ran, however, were somewhat concerned. The former asked, "Are you sure those three will agree to mess around with you?"
"How can this be called messing around…" Liu Bai smiled. "At worst, we're reclaiming what should have belonged to us. On a grander scale, we're fighting to regain the rightful interests of all freshmen. No matter how you look at it, we stand to lose nothing, right?"
"But do you really think that just by relying on us freshmen, we can resist the seniors? Don't forget, the top ten of the Heaven Ranking are all Heaven Transformation Realm experts…"
Liu Bai, of course, understood this clearly.
Let alone their goal being just the Spirit Ranking. Take someone like Huo Yun, for example. The top-ranked individuals on the Spirit Ranking all had intricate connections with those on the Heaven Ranking.
Moreover, if the freshmen really united to "rebel," there were bound to be some seniors who would find it distasteful and take action.
But Liu Bai didn't seem the least bit concerned.
"Relax. Those at the top of the Heaven Ranking have their own pride. We freshmen can't attract their attention yet. As for others, don't underestimate the strength of our class. Our cohort is actually quite formidable…"
According to Liu Bai's estimation, within half a year, at least four or five people from their class would enter the Heaven Ranking. Li Xuantong and Shen Cangsheng might even break into the top fifty, perhaps even the top twenty. In a year's time, the ones dominating the Heaven Ranking could very well be them.
Guo Xiong moved quickly. Before long, the invitations had been delivered to the three mentioned.
"Discussing important matters? That's a bit arrogant," the He Yao sneered coldly as he watched Guo Xiong's departing back.
"Boss, that Liu Bai just wants to drag all us freshmen into his mess. We absolutely can't fall for it!" someone immediately advised the He Yao.
That was indeed the He Yao's first thought. But after pondering it more carefully, he decided there was no harm in going to see what it was about.
After all, if that guy really had such intentions, then the He Yao believed that neither Li Xuantong nor Shen Cangsheng would easily agree. He wasn't worried about being caught in any trap.
Soon, the Xuan Gang and Judgement Hall also received the message. In comparison, Li Xuantong was very straightforward and agreed immediately. He was quite curious to see what kind of stir this suddenly-emerging freshman could cause.
The night passed without incident. Early the next morning, the entire freshman area buzzed with excitement.
Freshmen suddenly noticed that the top-ranking powers among them were all heading toward the C-rank zone.
The Xuan Gang, Demon Gate, Judgement Hall, Zhou Society…
Among the freshmen, there were over a hundred notable groups, and more than half were now on the move. Moreover, each was led by a prominent figure, naturally drawing much attention.
From the top floor of Liu Bai's pavilion, Su Xuan, who had arrived early, watched the scene and couldn't help but smile teasingly.
"Seems like your name is getting quite well known, Liu Bai. You actually managed to draw over half of the top freshmen here…"
Liu Bai rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright. Yesterday was unexpected. I didn't have time to notify you. Stop being so sarcastic."
As someone who had once fought alongside Liu Bai in the Northern Heaven Realm, Su Xuan was quite displeased about being excluded from yesterday's events. So she had come early today to "settle accounts."
"Fine, I'll let you off this time. But I hope it won't happen again, unless you don't consider me a friend," Su Xuan said seriously.
Liu Bai nodded solemnly.
Partners and friends, huh…
If one could really find a few friends to live and die with in the Great Thousand World, that wouldn't be such a bad thing.
"But now that you've stirred up such a big commotion, what do you plan to do?" Li Qing asked, looking at the two who had just made peace.
Liu Bai chuckled and shook his head. "I didn't expect so many to come either. My little pavilion clearly can't fit everyone. I noticed there's a small island in the center of the lake. It's not very big, but it's a great location. Why not hold the meeting there?"
Su Xuan and the others followed his gaze toward the center of the lake. Their eyes lit up immediately.
There, amidst the surrounding clear water, lay a small island flush with the lake's surface. It had no tall vegetation, only water grasses growing here and there. If it were cleaned up and a pavilion built, it would make quite a charming residence.
Once again, Guo Xiong took charge and guided all the arriving groups onto the island.
Although those at the Divine Soul Realm couldn't fly yet, walking on water posed no problem, so there was no awkwardness about getting to the island.
Upon reaching the island, Liu Bai, as the host, naturally came out to greet everyone. Under their gazes, he stepped forward, channeling thick Earth Element spiritual power into the ground through his feet. Amidst a deep rumble, the earth beneath them transformed into pale gray stone, and rows of long, half-meter-high stone benches rose up.
That display of power instantly seized the crowd's attention. Many of the strongest freshmen were visibly shaken.
Although Liu Bai had defeated a Heaven Fusion Realm senior yesterday, he had only just broken through. Perhaps his combat strength was impressive, but that wasn't too shocking. After all, many present were confident they could do the same.
What they hadn't expected was his incredible control over spiritual power. To accomplish something like this also required a high degree of mastery over external elemental energies.
Among the several Heaven Fusion Realm experts currently on the island, not a single one dared say they could replicate that feat.
"Interesting…" murmured the He Yao once more. But unlike yesterday, his expression was no longer playful. Instead, it was serious and solemn.
"How is this guy's spiritual energy control so precise? Even a mid-phase Heaven Fusion Realm cultivator might struggle to pull that off," Ye Tian said in astonishment as he looked toward Li Xuantong.
The latter gave a small nod. If it came to spiritual energy control, he too couldn't achieve what Liu Bai had just shown. However, Li Xuantong was confident that if the two of them were to fight, he wouldn't lose.
Yes, he wouldn't lose.
But at the same time, he had no certainty of winning.
Seeing the looks on everyone's faces, Liu Bai silently breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed his strategy of seizing the initiative had worked. Otherwise, with so many people here today, who knew how much more persuasion it would have taken to achieve his goal?
As for the technique he had just demonstrated, turning the ground into stone with a mere stomp, it was more of a clever trick than brute strength. He owed it all to the fact that he had already cultivated the Mountain God Art to the Manifestation Phase, and, with the innate ability of the Three-Headed Stone Dragon, this display became possible.
In truth, for most cultivators who fused with a spiritual beast's essence, it was extremely difficult to draw out its full power. This was due to the issue of "fusion degree."
The higher the fusion degree, the stronger the power one could harness—so much so that those with high fusion degrees could even surpass others who had fused with higher-ranked beast essence souls.
But to reach such a level was no easy task.
Spiritual beasts, after all, were inherently repelled by humans. Even if the beast had already been slain, residual instincts would still resist the fusion. Only if the beast had voluntarily allowed itself to be refined could the power of the essence soul be fully unleashed.
But would a proud and arrogant spiritual beast ever willingly allow itself to be refined after death?
That was simply impossible.
This was why many cultivators might still occasionally use spiritual beast essence during the Heaven Fusion Realm, but once they advanced to the Three Disaster Realm or even the Sovereign Realm, such power was rarely used anymore.
The reason was simple: as the cultivator's own strength and spiritual power increased, the foreign power of the spiritual beast essence soul, which could no longer augment them, would be naturally rejected.
But Liu Bai was an exception.
His Three-Headed Stone Dragon had been cultivated through his own Beast Soul Points. Perhaps when he first fused with the Earth-Spirit Python, he had experienced the same limitations as others, but after the fusion was elevated, the current Three-Headed Stone Dragon had achieved complete integration with him. This greatly enhanced his control over earth-element spiritual power.
Seeing that he had reached his goal, Liu Bai wasted no more time and got straight to the point. "Everyone, the reason I invited you here today is for one matter—the Spirit Ranking!"
The moment these words were spoken, everyone's heart stirred, though it came as no surprise to them.
But due to what had just happened, those few who initially intended to speak out now kept their mouths shut, not daring to cause trouble.
Seeing this, Liu Bai smiled inwardly and continued, "The Spirit Ranking is the lowest of the three rankings in the Northern Heaven Spiritual Academy. By all rights, it should be the battlefield for us newcomers. But everyone has seen what kind of people are occupying it right now..."
"As for their motives, I believe everyone here understands—it's all for spiritual Values."
"Perhaps some of you aren't clear on the exact rewards for the Spirit Ranking. So now, I'll lay it out for you…"
"If someone claims first place on the Spirit Ranking, they'll immediately receive a reward of 50,000 spiritual values, followed by a daily reward of 2,000 spiritual Values."
Whoosh!
Instantly, everyone was stunned.
Although they had guessed that the rewards for ranking first must be generous, none had imagined they would be this extravagant.
Never mind the 50,000 spiritual values—for most, just the daily reward of 2,000 was enough to afford permanent residence in the Grade-A zone. Who wouldn't want something like that?
"Second place earns 30,000, with a daily reward of 1,500 spiritual values. Third place gets 20,000, with 1,000 daily…"
Even Liu Bai had not known this at first. After all, the original story had never mentioned it. But when he had ascended to the top of the Spirit Ranking, he had specifically gone to verify the information. Only then did he realize just how tempting the Spirit Ranking rewards were for newcomers like them.
This was also one of the reasons why he was confident that this group would accept his proposal.
"I believe everyone understands what these spiritual values mean to us, who currently have nothing. After all, this is essentially free profit—pure white gain. Are you really willing to let something that rightfully belongs to us be taken by those senior students?"
At that moment, everyone was tempted. Some even began breathing heavily, their eyes wide like bronze bells, their expressions as if someone had just robbed them of thousands of spiritual values.
"Moreover, there's one more thing…" Liu Bai swept his gaze across the crowd and, upon seeing their reactions, added more fuel to the fire.
"Everyone knows that within the Northern Heaven Spiritual Academy, completing missions is one of our main ways to earn spiritual Values…"
"But as new students, many missions are beyond our reach. In fact, even the lowest Earth-Class missions require one to be on the Spirit Ranking to access. This is essentially cutting off one of our key income sources."
This was a harsh reality that every new student had to face.
In the academy's Mission Hall, missions were divided into three major levels—Heaven, Earth, and Human—each with lower, middle, and upper tiers.
New students had to reach the Divine Soul Realm just to qualify for lower-tier Human-Class missions, which typically rewarded around 1,000 spiritual values.
Only those ranked on the Spirit Ranking could access mid-tier Human-Class missions. The top ten on the Spirit Ranking or cultivators at the Heaven Fusion Realm could access upper-tier Human-Class missions.
These upper-tier missions offered rewards ranging from 10,000 to tens of thousands of spiritual values. At their current stage, it was the most efficient way for them to earn spiritual values.
Though this year's class was said to be the strongest in a century, only a few had broken through to the Heaven Fusion Realm. If the rest couldn't enter the Spirit Ranking, they wouldn't even qualify to take on missions. This would severely hinder their growth.
Just those two points raised by Liu Bai were enough to stir the fury of everyone present toward the senior students who had seized control of the Spirit Ranking. From here, it would be easy for Liu Bai to rally support for his plan.
By this point, even Li Xuantong and He Yao had already figured out Liu Bai's true objective.
However, what surprised them was...
They hadn't expected Liu Bai to stir up such a massive storm. If he really managed to drive off those senior students occupying the Spirit Ranking, then it was inevitable—the conflict between new and senior students would erupt into open warfare.