Time flowed like water, and the days flew by. After returning to the Cultivation Academy from the Tianyu Chamber of Commerce, Ye Lin remained in the Desolate Ancient Dao Pagoda, dedicating himself to bitter cultivation.
An hour in the outside world flew by in the blink of an eye, but under the thousandfold time acceleration of the Desolate Ancient Dao Pagoda, he spent eighty-three days inside.
Through his hard work over these past two-plus months, he finally converted all his gains from his trip to the Immortal Hall into true combat strength.
First was his terrifying cultivation speed of 2.02 million times under various buffs, which allowed him to easily absorb the Stellar Essence Crystals from the body cultivation heritage.
On top of that, he could use the trait 【The Strictest Father of Other Races】 to consume evil spirit lifespan for deduction.
With the comprehension buff from being a handyman disciple of the Creation Dao Palace as well, he easily deduced the 《Circulating Heaven Stellar Art》 to great perfection with very little effort.
His ‘Circulating Heaven Stellar Physique’ also successfully condensed and reached the Accomplished rank, boosting his recovery speed and defensive capabilities by a full twenty times.
(Note: All physique growth progress is divided into Accomplished, Master, and Great Perfection.)
Next were the two Heaven-grade techniques, 《Swimming Dragon Sky-Treading Steps》 and 《Nine Cauldrons Soul-Suppressing Seal》. Backed by various buffs, he used his evil spirit lifespan to directly deduce both techniques to the realm of Great Perfection.
Upon reaching the realm of Great Perfection, the two techniques boosted his speed fivefold, while his soul defense and attack power also increased fivefold.
Finally, he replicated all the cultivation resources he could. With his advancement to a Tier 2 Child of Fortune, the replication multiplier of the trait 【Random Replication】 had stabilized at two hundred times.
In other words, after a round of replication, he now possessed over twenty million eight hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones alone, along with various Qi Condensation Stage pills, numerous natural treasures, and over ten thousand Stellar Essence Crystals.
This was an absolute overnight fortune. Even the top-tier, legacy-grade geniuses of the Heavenly Desolation Continent would likely find it hard to carry so many mid-grade spirit stones on them at all times, if comparing spirit stone cash flow alone.
Aside from these gains, after madly grinding experience every day, he finally unlocked the second sword form of the 《Heaven-Cleaving Sword Intent》 inheritance card.
This second form was called the 'Defying Fate Form'. When injured or pushed into a corner, he could forcibly lock onto an enemy and unleash a sword strike that defied heaven and changed fate.
This strike would replicate all of the enemy's attacks and slash them back with a hundredfold increase in power.
Just like the first form, the 'Charging Form', this 'Defying Fate Form' was also a concept-level divine ability. The stronger the enemy, the more terrifying the power slashed back.
These were the final results of his hard work over the past two-plus months inside the Desolate Ancient Dao Pagoda.
Of course, during his spare time, he also familiarized himself with all his talismans. At the same time, he integrated all his formations into the ‘Eternal Stellar Plate’, allowing him to activate them in a single second.
【Ding! It has been detected that you have not used your Immortal Destiny Secrets for three days. The secret level has automatically increased, guaranteeing a medium-tier Immortal Destiny. You may choose to use it today, or continue to accumulate them.】
Having fully consumed his stored food, Ye Lin had no choice but to exit the Desolate Ancient Dao Pagoda.
But just as he returned to his temporary dormitory, the game's notification sound rang in his ears.
“Keep accumulating. I don't have time to look for Immortal Destinies right now.”
Stretching deeply, Ye Lin collapsed onto the bed and quickly fell fast asleep.
The next day arrived quickly, and all the new disciples were gathered in the Outer Academy's plaza.
After the buffer of this three-day break, most of the new disciples had regained their confidence, their hearts filled with yearning and hope for the future.
There were also many who were still wallowing in grief and despair over the friends and relatives they had lost during the new disciple trial.
Yet regardless of their performance or mood, time waited for no one, and neither did the academy's schedule.
Since the person in charge of hosting had not yet arrived, many of the hopeful new disciples curiously discussed the results of this trial.
“I heard two fierce characters emerged in our batch. They actually managed to trade dozens of blows with a First Layer Qi Condensation Stage evil spirit without being defeated.”
“I heard about that too. Apparently, they're named Jiang Feng and Wang Wan. Both are scions of two major families in the royal capital, and both possess high-grade Spiritual Roots.
Logically speaking, they should have been able to enter the Inner Academy from the start, but for some reason, they came to the Outer Academy instead?”
“What other reason could there be? The Inner Academy is packed with countless geniuses and the competition is fierce. They probably lacked the confidence to compete there, so they came to snatch the first and second place of the Outer Academy.
Every year, the top two of the Outer Academy's new disciples receive resources and benefits completely identical to the top ten of the Inner Academy, aside from their status. They must have been drooling over such a juicy prize.”
“Hiss, isn't that basically cheating? They clearly could have entered the Inner Academy, yet they insisted on coming to the Outer Academy to snatch resources from us. It's not fair at all.”
“Heh, fairness? You're talking about fairness with direct descendants of two major families of the royal capital? Brother, don't be so naive.”
Amid the crowd's chatter, dozens of gorgeously dressed young men and women slowly approached from the distance. The moment they appeared, they drew everyone's attention.
“Are those Wang Wan and Jiang Feng? Damn it, how did those lackeys around them move so fast? We won't even get a chance to curry favor with them now.”
Looking at the young man and woman surrounded by a crowd of peers like stars orbiting the moon, some in the crowd nodded, others frowned, but most only hated themselves for being too poorly informed to have clung onto such golden thighs.
Otherwise, their future success would have been guaranteed; a single word from those two could save them decades of detours.
Boom!
Right then, the Deacon responsible for hosting the cave dwelling distribution walked over from afar.
He exuded a dense, murderous aura. Even from a great distance, everyone felt as though a ferocious beast was approaching.
He was none other than the grey-robed Deacon Wang Qian, whom the new disciples had met just a few days ago. Compared to then, his entire temperament seemed to have undergone an earth-shattering change.
“Do not mind this. I merely killed a few more of those damn evil spirits over the past few days and haven't had the time to disperse the murderous aura on me.”
Seeing everyone looking at him with astonished expressions, Wang Qian explained in a calm tone.
He then stepped onto the high platform ahead, waved his hand, and took out two jade plaques and a name list.
“From this moment on, you are considered true academy disciples. The following rankings are comprehensively determined based on your performance in the new disciple trial and the evaluations of the Demon Suppressing Division captains.
Will the disciples whose names I call please step forward to choose your cave dwelling token, disciple uniform, and cultivation resources.”
As his voice fell, almost all the new disciples present turned their gazes toward Wang Wan and Jiang Feng at the very front of the crowd.
The two also seemed extremely confident, holding their heads high and chests out, waiting for Wang Qian to call their names.
Yet reality delivered a resounding slap to their faces, for the names called by Deacon Wang Qian were not theirs, but two names they had never even heard of.
“First place, Ye Lin. Assessment score: perfect. Demon Suppressing Division captain evaluation: perfect.”
“Second place, Lin Luoxian. Assessment score: perfect. Demon Suppressing Division captain evaluation: excellent.”
“Congratulations to the two of you for achieving such outstanding results. You are automatically promoted to the Eldest Senior Brother and Eldest Senior Sister of this batch of new disciples.
For the next half-year, the cultivation resources you enjoy will be identical to those of the top ten genius disciples of the Inner Academy.
Five hundred low-grade spirit stones per month, three days of cultivation in the Heavenly Spirit Secret Realm each month, and free cultivation of any method or technique below the third floor of the Library of Scriptures.”
The moment these words were spoken, a dead silence fell over the entire square, followed closely by waves of disbelief.
“Holy crap, who are Lin Luoxian and Ye Lin? Weren't the top two spots supposed to belong to those two scions of the major families? How did it become them?”
“There's going to be a good show to watch now. Wang Wan and Jiang Feng gave up the generous benefits of the Inner Academy just for these two ranks, and now someone snatched them right out from under them. Their minds must be on the verge of exploding.”
“If it were me, my mind would explode too. I hope Lin Luoxian and Ye Lin have strong backgrounds, otherwise, their end will probably be miserable.”
Under the expectant, curious, pitying, and gloating gazes of the crowd, a calm-looking youth in a black robe and a cold-faced, aloof young girl in black clothes slowly stepped out from the back of the crowd.
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