High up in the sky, two figures clashed repeatedly, bursts of spiritual light exploding between them from time to time, dazzling and resplendent.
At this moment, whether new students or seniors, everyone around the plaza was staring intently at this battlefield, not blinking even once, seemingly afraid to miss any exciting detail.
Upon seeing that the two people fighting overhead were actually evenly matched, many of the seniors couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
"This Liu Bai is simply too powerful. With just Early-phase Heaven Fusion Realm cultivation, he's actually able to fight head-on with someone at late-phase Heaven Fusion Realm without falling into disadvantage. He's probably worthy of being called the strongest freshman of this cohort."
With this thought in mind, when many people looked at Liu Bai, their expressions had already become somewhat different.
Although being the "strongest freshman" merely meant one was a newcomer, such a person would surely accomplish something in the Northern Heaven Spiritual Academy in the future.
Look at the current top twenty of the Heavenly Rankings; quite a few of them were occupied by monstrous talents from the previous batch.
It wouldn't take long, only a year. With the talent and strength displayed by Liu Bai and the others, at most a year would be needed before they had the qualifications to charge into the top twenty of the Heavenly Rankings!
Boom!
While countless thoughts flickered through their minds, a thunderous sound suddenly exploded in the sky. The two entangled figures were violently blasted apart.
At this moment, Liu Bai's clothes were a bit wrinkled, and even his cuffs had a fine tear, while Huo Yun was even more battered and disheveled, his originally tied-up long hair having come undone, now hanging in a mess. Clearly, both of them had gone all out, but the final result still shocked people.
"You were actually hiding your strength before. How despicable!" Huo Yun's aura was somewhat chaotic as he glared at Liu Bai, looking rather flustered and exasperated.
During the close combat just now, Liu Bai had repeatedly used the Death Seal to brute-force his opponent, giving Huo Yun a glimpse of the power of this spiritual art. However, Liu Bai had only been using four Death Seals.
But in that last exchange, he suddenly formed five Death Seals, catching Huo Yun off guard, resulting in him suffering a heavy loss.
In response, Liu Bai merely smiled calmly, not caring in the slightest what the other said.
"As the saying goes, 'All's fair in war.' If you insist on making naïve assumptions about your opponent's attacks during battle, that's the kind of blunder only an inexperienced fledgling would commit."
"To tell you the truth, I'm genuinely curious how you even managed to get into the Northern Heaven Spiritual Academy, and how you cultivated to your current realm."
Pfft!
These were truly heart-piercing words. Huo Yun was so infuriated he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Don't get complacent. Our battle has only just begun!" Huo Yun gritted his teeth. Then, his gaze suddenly sharpened. He took a step forward, his unbound hair fluttering upward as brilliant spiritual radiance surged from within his body, stretching and contracting as if countless sword-lights were coursing across it.
"Falling Star Sword Art — Thousand Stars Descend!"
Huo Yun formed a hand seal and shouted coldly.
Spiritual Sword Qi instantly flooded heaven and earth, condensing in front of him into a boundless mass of substantial sword-shadows. Each sword-shadow trembled violently, buzzing as it emanated a fierce and chilling fluctuation.
"Heh, Sword Qi? In that case Senior Brother Huo Yun, why don't you experience my Sword Qi too?"
As Liu Bai's voice sounded, no one knew when, but a colossal array — formed from countless mysterious rays of spiritual light — had already enveloped the two of them.
Liu Bai's hand seal changed, and in the next moment, the great array let out a deep hum. Then the spiritual energy of an area spanning a hundred li around them rapidly converged over, turning into countless longswords hanging within the great array.
In this instant, within the range of the spiritual array, sword aura soared into the heavens. Two different Sword Domains, above and below, collided violently, countless spiritual longswords smashing one another into annihilation.
This scene shocked even the instructors and high-level officials who had been observing this battle.
"Hundred-Spirit Sword Array? That's a top-grade Rank-three spiritual array. That freshman actually deployed it so easily?" One instructor who also studied array arts exclaimed in shock.
"If I'm not mistaken, he redeemed this array diagram just a few days ago, correct?" another instructor from the Spiritual Values Hall suddenly spoke.
His words caused the previous instructor to be dumbfounded.
Only a few days since redeeming it, yet he had already comprehended such a complicated rank-three array diagram and deployed it so effortlessly. Just how terrifying was this boy's talent in array arts?
In comparison, wasn't he — already in his fifties and only a Rank-five Array Master, basically a useless piece of trash?
"You people… haven't you realized? He actually set up this array in secret during the fierce battle. With such skill, Instructor Li Qi, could you have done that?" At this moment, an elder from the Academy's Mission Hall suddenly questioned the initial array instructor.
Li Qi froze, then immediately came to his senses, a look of utter horror appearing on his face. "Right, right! This boy can set up an array while engaged in such a fierce fight… His understanding of arrays has probably reached High-Tier Heart-Array. He might even surpass me!"
The instant those words left his mouth, all the other hidden instructors and elders fell silent on the spot. When they looked at Liu Bai again, their eyes were burning with passion.
"No, I have to go to the Dean immediately! With such monstrous talent in arrays, we must bring him into our Array Institute. I'm confident we can nurture a Heaven-rank Spiritual Array Grandmaster!" said Instructor Li Qi, turning to leave with urgency.
Yet before he could take a single step, several people beside him hurriedly grabbed hold of him.
A burly middle-aged man couldn't help saying, "Instructor Li Qi, that's not appropriate. The boy already possesses late-phase Heaven Fusion Realm combat strength after less than a month in the Northern Heaven Spiritual Academy. That proves his cultivation talent is equally heaven-defying. How could you confine him to your Array Institute and waste his future…"
"What? Shi Jian, what do you mean by that? Since when has studying arrays in my Array Institute become 'wasting one's life'? Are you looking do Spiritual Array Masters?" Instructor Li Qi demanded angrily.
The others hastily tried to calm him down. "Instructor Li Qi, don't be angry. Instructor Shi Jian didn't mean it like that. Still, I feel he does have a point. Liu Bai doesn't just possess astonishing talent in arrays — perhaps he's also skilled in alchemy? Therefore, it would be too hasty to run to the Dean right now. We'd better let that kid decide for himself in the future…"
Obviously, the one speaking now was from the Spiritual Pill Institute, completely intent on muddying the waters. After all, Liu Bai hadn't demonstrated any talent in alchemy yet, and since becoming an alchemist required even stricter criteria than becoming an array master, no one really believed he'd want to join the Spiritual Pill Institute.
While the instructors were bickering fiercely over Liu Bai, the battle on the other side…
Upon witnessing Liu Bai unexpectedly deploy such a terrifying great array right under his nose, Huo Yun's heart instantly sank to the bottom.
Although his Sword Art was formidable, compared to the Hundred-Spirit Sword Array, where each spiritual sword strike had the power of a mid-phase Heaven Fusion Realm expert, the gap was simply enormous.
As countless spiritual swords rained down like a storm, what he saw was an entire flood of Spiritual longsword annihilating his own Sword Qi with overwhelming momentum, then carrying boundless killing intent as it enveloped him from all directions.
"Not good!"
The hidden members of the Discipline Hall who had been watching suddenly changed expression, immediately revealing themselves as they rushed toward the battlefield to save him.
However, before they could enter the range of the array, the flood of Spiritual Longsword abruptly froze in place, stopping less than one meter away from Huo Yun.
In that instant, silence descended over all heaven and earth. Huo Yun broke into a cold sweat, staring at the Spiritual Longsword mere inches from him — each flashing with chilling light. He subconsciously staggered back a step, swallowing nervously.
Shu shu shu!
Very soon, three dark shadows rushed into the battlefield and pulled away the completely petrified Huo Yun. Then they loudly announced, "In this match, Liu Bai is the victor!"
Seeing this, a faint smile appeared at the corners of Liu Bai's lips. He changed his hand seals and the grand array in the sky dissipated with a loud rumble. The torrent of sword aura transformed back into glimmers of spiritual light, which quickly faded into the surrounding air.
At that moment, thunderous cheers erupted among the new students.
"We won! We actually won!" An Ran clenched her delicate fists in excitement and even gave a fierce swing into the air. Her pretty face had already turned bright red.
Beside her, Guo Xiong broke into a hearty laugh.
As for Zhang Heng and Shao Rui, who were standing behind Guo Xiong, they had already jumped up in celebration.
Meanwhile, Huo Yun, who had just recovered from the earlier fright, had a face that alternated between red and pale before finally settling into a ghastly white.
His heart filled with unwillingness. He wanted to say a few dignified parting words, but when his gaze landed on that calm and faintly smiling young man before him, every word got stuck in his throat.
In the end, he could only mutter gloomily, "It's a best-of-five format. You're celebrating too early…"
He had just been unlucky to run into such a monster. But Huo Yun didn't believe the other new students were like Liu Bai. That meant they still had a chance.
Ten minutes later, that chance was cut in half.
Li Xuantong eventually defeated his opponent. Xiao Jian, unlike Huo Yun, admitted defeat cleanly. He even handed over all his spiritual value without caring about the final result and simply left the scene.
Everyone now witnessed the terrifying strength of Li Xuantong. Even Liu Bai, for the first time, learned that the spirit beast essence fused with Li Xuantong was an ancient Suan Ni.
The ancient Suan Ni was a descendant of the divine beast Heaven-Swallowing Beast. It ranked thirtieth on the Earth Beast Ranking, even higher than the ancient Golden Crow.
However, despite defeating his opponent and obtaining a massive amount of spiritual value, Li Xuantong did not seem excited in the slightest.
Instead, when he looked at Liu Bai, a complicated and solemn look flickered in his eyes.
"I didn't expect you to have such a strong talent in spiritual arrays. It seems that in this Northern Heaven Spiritual Academy, you will be my greatest rival from now on."
Looking at the young man before him, who wore a gentle smile on his face, Li Xuantong spoke in an unusually serious tone.
Upon hearing that, Liu Bai smiled faintly and replied, "I'm actually a pretty practical person. Compared to things like fame, I care more about things with real value."
If it weren't for the sake of earning more spiritual value, he would've had to be out of his mind to stir up this much trouble. That time would've been better spent taking on a few well-rewarded missions instead.
"As for being your rival, you'd better go look elsewhere. For example, that one over there…"
Following Liu Bai's gaze, Li Xuantong also saw another battlefield where the victor had already been decided—Shen Cangsheng.
Unsurprisingly, Shen Cangsheng had also defeated his opponent.
According to the best-of-three rule, the new students had already secured overall victory.
However, perhaps stimulated by the successive victories of Liu Bai and the others, He Yao, who had still been locked in fierce battle, suddenly erupted with power.
With a deafening boom, surging spiritual power howled through the heavens like a raging storm.
He Yao let out a long, sharp cry toward the sky. The sound echoed across the heavens and earth, and simultaneously, a dazzling light burst out from within his body.
The light spread outward, as if forming an enormous crane phantom behind him. That crane phantom was nearly a thousand zhang tall, blotting out the sky and sun with an overwhelming presence.
He Yao's eyes suddenly snapped open, brimming with sharp intensity. He formed hand seals, and his movements resembled a soaring crane. His afterimages were countless, and it was as if sharp crane cries echoed between each movement.
Screech!
The crane cry resounded across the land. The massive crane phantom behind He Yao transformed into a sky-covering black cloud that pressed down directly upon his opponent.
The youth in the mid-phase Heaven Fusion Realm who was He Yao's opponent instantly turned pale at the sight. His spiritual power surged violently within him, and behind him condensed a mighty golden lion.
The moment that golden lion appeared, it let out a thunderous roar. Then it leapt forward with all four limbs and charged straight toward the crane phantom.
Boom!
The sky trembled violently. The two colossal beasts collided, and then were simultaneously annihilated in a terrifying spiritual power storm.
At the same time, He Yao and another figure flew out from the storm. Upon landing, He Yao's legs skidded a long trail into the ground due to the powerful impact.
As for the other figure, he crashed directly into the ground, creating a deep crater in the solid earth, and immediately lost consciousness.
Soon, two more Discipline Hall members arrived and revived the unconscious senior student.
However, the pale expression on his face clearly revealed the severity of his injuries at that moment.
....
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