Hearing this, everyone looked up and immediately saw a cold young man with his arms crossed, standing on a flying sword high above the square.
“How boring. I thought some fearless fool would jump out and accuse me of slaughtering the innocent.”
Seeing that everyone remained silent, the young man shook his head in disappointment. From his expression, it seemed he had thoroughly enjoyed killing his fellow disciples and wasn't quite satisfied yet.
“Enough, Xiao Yue. The elders ordered you to calm the freshmen down, not to slaughter them.”
Just then, a sharp scolding suddenly rang out from inside the academy.
Following that, a woman dressed in a dark green dress with a long saber hanging at her waist led a group of people out of the academy.
It was Jiang Ningzhi, the Demon Suppressing Guard who had been in charge of the Spiritual Root testing in Great Desolation Village yesterday.
“Heh, the academy represents the Cultivation Alliance of the myriad races. Those people dared to publicly question the academy's deployment order—how is that any different from betraying our race? Since they are traitors, they naturally had to be executed on the spot.”
“As for calming the freshmen, everyone is very quiet now. Did I not complete the task assigned by the elders?”
Seeing Jiang Ningzhi arrive, the white-robed young man named Xiao Yue replied indifferently.
“Crooked logic.” Jiang Ningzhi gave Xiao Yue a cold look, then turned to address the crowd. “Form up. Three freshmen will be paired with one Demon Suppressing Guard. We will begin grouping now.”
There were no explanations, no comforting words—only strict commands.
Seeing this, despite the grief and indignation in their hearts, the crowd dared not voice their complaints. They could only obediently line up and wait to be grouped.
“Niu Shisan, Group One...”
“Zhao Xu, Group Two...”
As name after name was called, all the freshmen were quickly assigned to their groups.
Ye Lin was assigned to Group 99. His teammates were a little girl in red and a refined, elegant youth in a green robe.
“Zhao Xiaoyu.” “Li Xuan.” The moment they met, the two actively introduced themselves.
“Ye Lin.” He had originally wanted to give a pseudonym like “Li Feiyu,” but realizing this was the academy and everyone used their real names, he could only give his actual name.
“We meet again. I am Lin Kuo.” The Demon Suppressing Guard responsible for leading them was also one of the three who had gone to Great Desolation Village yesterday. Thus, Lin Kuo greeted them politely upon meeting.
“A pleasure,” Ye Lin replied casually.
Once the groups were formed, everyone was divided into four large divisions. Each division was equipped with a flying vessel and led by a captain at the great perfection of the Foundation Establishment Stage.
The four divisions were then sent in the cardinal directions—east, south, west, and north of the Tianyuan Dynasty—to suppress the demonic chaos.
Ye Lin's division was assigned to the southern region of the dynasty, and their captain turned out to be the cold-faced, white-robed young man, Xiao Yue.
“Boom!”
As the flying vessel started up, Ye Lin and the others officially set off toward the south.
Along the way, every hundred li or so, a squad would depart on flying swords. Ye Lin's squad left the vessel around noon.
Their landing point was a wide stretch of coastline.
“Reporting to the Young Commander, the squad Ye Lin is in has already detached from the division. Shall we begin the hunt now?”
Just after Ye Lin's squad left, a squad leader at the Foundation Establishment Stage hurriedly arrived outside the room on the top deck of the flying vessel to report.
“I will personally kill Ye Lin. As for you all, go hunt down the remaining disciples. Remember, the more, the better.”
Just as the squad leader finished his report, the white-robed young man, Xiao Yue, walked out with his arm around a charming woman in a pink dress.
The reason the low-profile Ye Lin had been targeted by Xiao Yue was not because his secrets had been exposed, but because of the dark creature he had killed in Great Desolation Village two days ago.
Originally, the Second Prince and the giant skull known as Venerable Tianku had secretly agreed on a feeding plan. Who could have expected Ye Lin to interfere halfway, causing casualties to the evil spirits? This had drawn the giant skull's dissatisfaction.
Of course, this was merely an excuse for the greedy Venerable Tianku to demand more blood. He had thousands of subordinates at the Qi Condensation Stage; he didn't care about the deaths of a few.
In other words, regardless of whether Ye Lin had intervened, Venerable Tianku would have found another excuse to demand more blood from the Second Prince. Ye Lin's actions had simply painted a target on his back.
The Second Prince was well aware of this, but he still wanted to cooperate with Venerable Tianku to secure the position of Crown Prince and eventually the throne of the Tianyuan Dynasty. Therefore, he did not care how much blood food the other party demanded.
Thus, to appease the skull's dissatisfaction and maintain their cooperation, the Second Prince sent the Commander of the Imperial Guard, Xiao Yun. This man was Xiao Yue's father, as well as the black-clothed man who had negotiated with Venerable Tianku in the cave.
The terms of their deal were that as long as they brought back the head of the troublemaker and the corpses of one hundred geniuses within three days for the skull to devour, their original cooperation would continue.
Thus, upon his return, Xiao Yun investigated and quickly discovered that Ye Lin had killed the black tiger in Great Desolation Village.
Consequently, to kill Ye Lin and secure the corpses of the hundred geniuses, Xiao Yun used his connections to bribe the high-level officials of the Cultivation Academy to alter the trial mission for this batch of Outer Academy freshmen.
The Cultivation Academy's new disciples were divided into the Inner Academy and Outer Academy. The Inner Academy was filled with geniuses who were highly valued by the higher-ups; they had no trial missions and rarely left the academy.
The Outer Academy, on the other hand, consisted of people with ordinary talent. Since many such people were recruited from all over the dynasty every year, the academy's upper echelon didn't care about them at all.
This was why Xiao Yun, as a mere Commander of the Imperial Guard, was able to have the trial mission changed.
Had he tried to target the geniuses of the Inner Academy, he would have likely met a miserable end.
Once the mission was changed, Xiao Yun sent his own son, Xiao Yue, to take full charge of the matter. This was the whole story behind the situation.
Meanwhile, Ye Lin had no idea he was being targeted.
At this moment, he was swiftly following behind the burly man in black, Lin Kuo, alongside his two teammates: the red-clothed little girl, Zhao Xiaoyu, and the refined young master, Li Xuan.
“This coastline and the area within a hundred li are under our squad's jurisdiction. But there's no need to panic; I did some research before we came.”
“Although there are many evil spirits in this area, they are all at the Qi Condensation Stage. Not a single one is at the Foundation Establishment Stage. So just hide well and watch me handle things. If you run around and end up dead, don't blame me.”
As Captain Lin Kuo led the way at high speed, he spoke to the three behind him.
“Understood!” the three replied in unison, nodding.
Seeing how sensible the three were, Lin Kuo was quite pleased. However, as time went on, he began to notice something amiss.
“Even though I'm only using thirty percent of my speed, I'm at the Foundation Establishment Stage, while they are all only at the Body Tempering Realm. How can they keep up with thirty percent of a Foundation Establishment cultivator's speed?”
Having spotted this discrepancy, Lin Kuo secretly increased his speed, using fifty percent of his power this time.
To his shock, the three only paused for a split second before their speeds caught right back up.
“These three are highly suspicious.” Lin Kuo was deeply astonished, but he kept it to himself, continuing to lead the way at a rapid pace.
A quarter of an hour later, they arrived before a small island near the coast.
However, compared to other islands with lush vegetation and diverse species, the island before them was in a state of utter ruin.
The reefs and vegetation were completely corroded, with viscous, disgusting black liquid flowing everywhere. Most terrifying of all, not only was the island completely devoid of life, but there was also not a single trace of spiritual energy in the surrounding world.
“See that? This is the terrifying destructive power of dark creatures. They not only devour the life force of all things but also consume the ambient spiritual energy and all the natural laws of the world, creating dead zones where nothing can ever survive.”
“If left unchecked, it won't be long before the entire land that the myriad races rely on for survival is completely corroded by them.”
Lin Kuo spoke with a solemn expression as he stared at the ruined island.
He had expected to see the three filled with righteous indignation and burning passion, since suppressing evil spirits meant fighting for the survival of the myriad races.
To his dumbfoundment, however, the three simply stared back at him blankly.
“The captain is right,”
Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Ye Lin could only step forward and clap to show some support.
Seeing this, Zhao Xiaoyu blinked her lively eyes and immediately clapped her small hands, chiming in, “Ye Lin is right!”
Li Xuan, who was standing beside them, froze for a moment. To avoid seeming like an outcast, he also clapped and said, “Zhao Xiaoyu is right!”
Seeing the trio's NPC-like behavior, Lin Kuo almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
What a bunch of absolute characters!
Rate on N.U.
