Chapter 226 – Academy Assessment: Seeking Paths in Book Mountain, Creating Your Own…

‘Discovered?’

Sensing Cloud Deer’s amused gaze, Lu Chen quickly realized his actions had been noticed.

Although Cloud Deer bore no ill intent, Lu Chen still felt considerable pressure.

This pressure had nothing to do with Cloud Deer’s aura or attitude toward him.

It stemmed from Lu Chen’s wariness of Cloud Deer.

After all, Lu Chen had previously been able to probe information about Nascent Soul Stage cultivators without them noticing his surveillance.

But with Cloud Deer, it was different.

Not only could he not see Cloud Deer’s information,

But the other party had also immediately noticed his subtle actions.

Undoubtedly, Cloud Deer’s cultivation was most likely beyond the Nascent Soul Stage, having reached the Transformation Soul Stage.

For Lu Chen, the gap between himself and the Transformation Soul Stage could be described as the difference between an ant and an elephant.

If Cloud Deer wished, he could crush Lu Chen effortlessly.

It was precisely this sense of insecurity that brought Lu Chen great pressure.

Although Lu Chen had considered that White Deer Academy might be extraordinary, he hadn’t expected it to be this remarkable.

A Transformation Soul Stage white deer appearing in a mortal dynasty was truly rare.

However, this also indicated one thing:

White Deer Academy must hold an extremely important position in this True Immortal Trial.

Otherwise, Cloud Deer wouldn’t be here.

As Lu Chen pondered this, Cloud Deer glanced around and said, “Those who wish to enroll, follow me.”

After speaking, Cloud Deer turned and walked into the academy.

Seeing this, the disciples from the Four Great Clans of the Great Ying Dynasty at the front of the crowd immediately followed.

Once someone took the lead, the others naturally followed suit.

Upon stepping into White Deer Academy’s grounds, everyone found the scene before them transformed.

Before their eyes stood a massive mountain.

And they now stood at its foot.

Undoubtedly, they had entered some kind of ‘Sumeru Space.’

In a location unseen by the candidates, over ten ‘instructors’ from White Deer Academy stood in a pavilion, observing them with curiosity.

These so-called ‘instructors’ were actually another term for ‘teachers’ at White Deer Academy.

To teach here, their cultivation was naturally exceptional.

Without exception, all were Great Cultivators above the third realm.

Moreover, their auras were upright and balanced, clearly indicating they weren’t third-realm Great Cultivators who had exhausted their potential.

Watching the thousand-plus candidates below, they seemed to be assessing which ones were worth noting in this batch.

“How many of these candidates do you think will pass the assessment?” one asked.

After a moment’s thought, an academy instructor replied, “Under normal recruitment, a hundred at most.”

“But given this is the five-hundred-year True Immortal Trial, there should be quite a few talented individuals from outside among these candidates. So this time, perhaps over a hundred may pass.”

Hearing the mention of the True Immortal Trial, the other academy instructors nearby showed little reaction.

As if they had long been aware of this.At this moment, a female instructor standing at the edge of the pavilion casually remarked while drinking, “No matter how many pass, we just need to focus on our own duties.”

As she spoke, the instructor seemed to notice something and turned her gaze toward Yi Hanqing’s direction in the crowd.

Rather than looking at Yi Hanqing himself, she appeared more interested in the fine wine in his hand.

Although this area and the ‘Book Mountain Sea of Learning’ where the examinees were located existed in separate spaces,

the female instructor seemed able to discern the quality of the wine in Yi Hanqing’s hand through some means.

She greedily eyed the gourd in his grasp, smacking her lips and saying, “That’s truly excellent liquor. I hope you succeed in enrolling, young man, so I might have a chance to taste that fine wine of yours.”

Just as the Academy instructors were observing the examinees,

the voice of Cloud Deer echoed in the candidates’ ears.

“Scale the Book Mountain, cross the Sea of Learning, and you may enter the Academy.”

These words were addressed to everyone.

But the following message was heard only by participants of the True Immortal Trial like Lu Chen:

“Should any of you feel unable to continue the True Immortal Trial, you may come find me at the Academy at any time, and I will send you back.”

“Rest assured, these words are for your ears only. Do not dwell on it.”

With that, Cloud Deer’s voice completely faded away.

Lu Chen and Shangguan Yunmeng exchanged glances, both understanding why a Spirit Beast at the Deity Transformation Stage like Cloud Deer would appear in a Mortal Dynasty.

His purpose was to provide an exit for those wishing to withdraw from the trial.

This realization dispelled all reservations for Lu Chen and the other trial participants.

With an escape route confirmed, they could now focus entirely on overcoming the trial.

Furthermore, this incident helped the trial participants understand the stance of neutral factions like Cloud Deer toward them.

Not only were these factions aware of the True Immortal Trial’s existence, but they also harbored no hostility toward the participants.

This was undoubtedly welcome news for the trial takers.

After all, if even neutral forces like the White Deer Academy were hostile toward them, they wouldn’t know how to possibly pass this trial.

Before the Book Mountain at White Deer Academy,

having learned the conditions for passing the Academy’s assessment,

the examinees at the mountain’s foot began to take action.

Some impatient students immediately started ascending toward the mountain peak,

but they soon discovered they had underestimated the difficulty of this test.

There were numerous paths up the Book Mountain—some winding, some straight, and others leading to unknown destinations.

Before each path stood a peculiar stone stele devoid of inscriptions.

The first group of examinees failed to ascend because an invisible barrier blocked their way up the mountain.

Witnessing this, the other candidates in the crowd began pondering thoughtfully.

Before long, Cui Lingfei from the Cui family stepped forward first.

“Move aside.”

He shoved two examinees blocking his path and strode directly toward one of the blank steles.

Then, as if discovering something, he immediately closed his eyes in deep contemplation before the stone monument.The examinee who had just been pushed aside by him, though his expression was somewhat unpleasant, could only bury his dissatisfaction deep in his heart after realizing that the one who had shoved him was the Young Master of the Cui Family, one of the Four Great Clans.

He soon noticed that many others around him were following Cui Lingfei’s example, casually selecting a blank stone tablet to stop before.

Undoubtedly, the key to ascending Book Mountain lay hidden within these unmarked stone tablets.

Soon, everyone discovered that while these tablets appeared to be “blank,” the issue actually lay in their initial method of observation.

Only when perceived with their Divine Soul would characters emerge on these tablets.

Each of these tablets contained a corresponding Cultivation Manual.

Moreover, none of these manuals were ordinary—even the lowest-grade ones could lead one to the Nascent Soul Realm.

Some of the manuals could even reach the Deity Transformation Realm, or even Mahayana.

And reaching Mahayana could essentially be considered “immortal techniques.”

Because once a cultivator attained the Mahayana Realm, further progress was no longer a matter of rigidly following the footsteps of predecessors—one had to forge their own path.

“Diligence is the path through the book-filled mountain.” What these examinees needed to do now was to first choose a suitable path for themselves from the vast array of stone tablets.

It was also from these tablets that everyone learned the key to ascending Book Mountain.

They had to master one of the techniques contained within these stone tablets and advance it to a certain Realm before they could fully ascend Book Mountain.

This requirement was undoubtedly stringent, as it essentially forced the examinees to start from scratch.

Furthermore, merely choosing a “path” wasn’t enough—the examinees also had to judge whether the path they selected was right for them based on their own circumstances.

Choosing correctly would make their cultivation twice as effective with half the effort.

Choosing incorrectly would mean twice the effort for half the results.

Sometimes, choice determined a person’s upper limit.

Among the crowd, Cui Lingfei, who was the first to comprehend a stone tablet, had already opened his eyes.

“Wrong, this isn’t the Doctrine Tablet that the old man told me about…”

With that, Cui Lingfei moved toward other stone tablets.

The other disciples from the Four Great Clans followed his example, beginning to examine the tablets one by one.

Indeed, unlike the ordinary examinees who knew nothing about White Deer Academy, these disciples from the Four Great Clans were well aware of the academy’s assessment content.

And White Deer Academy had no intention of concealing this.

After all, birth could sometimes determine a person’s upper limit—this world had never known absolute fairness.

Moreover, White Deer Academy’s “Book Mountain Sea of Learning” assessment had remained unchanged for ten thousand years.

The test was right here, and whether one could pass depended entirely on the examinee’s Comprehension Ability and Aptitude.

Knowing the test content in advance merely gave them more time to contemplate their future path.

But whether they could ultimately ascend Book Mountain remained uncertain.

Seeing that everyone had already begun contemplating the stone tablets, Shangguan Yunmeng, who stood beside Lu Chen, asked curiously, “Young Master, aren’t we going over now? I can see some people have already started ascending the mountain.”

To this, Lu Chen didn’t respond, instead focusing intently on the direction of Book Mountain.

It was worth noting that he had maintained this posture since entering, as if Book Mountain held some immense attraction for him.Not only that, Lu Chen’s eyes also became vacant, as if he had entered some sort of epiphany, thus completely ignoring Shangguan Yunmeng’s words.

Seeing this, Shangguan Yunmeng immediately grew curious.

As someone who considered herself a ‘clever little imp’, Shangguan Yunmeng’s specialty was pretending to be exceptionally wise in front of intelligent people.

To achieve this, the best method was simply to follow whatever smart people did.

In her eyes, Lu Chen was not just intelligent—he was the smartest among all the peers she knew.

Whatever he did, she just needed to follow along—it couldn’t be wrong!

With this thought, Shangguan Yunmeng immediately imitated Lu Chen’s actions and turned her gaze toward Book Mountain.

However, after staring for quite a while, she couldn’t find anything particularly remarkable about Book Mountain that would warrant Lu Chen’s prolonged attention.

In her view, Book Mountain looked no different from an ordinary hill.

Thinking this, Shangguan Yunmeng suddenly began to feel a bit bored.

But she didn’t want to appear as if she understood nothing, fearing that when Lu Chen woke up, he might think she was a fool.

So, to avoid being seen as stupid, Shangguan Yunmeng forced herself to stay awake, her eyes glistening as she stared intently at Book Mountain.

But as she continued to watch, she eventually couldn’t resist closing her eyes and fell asleep standing up!

The change occurred right after she fell asleep.

Shortly after Shangguan Yunmeng closed her eyes, she opened them once more.

This time, her gaze was as vacant as Lu Chen’s, lost in some form of epiphany.

At that moment, the two of them seemed as if they had been immobilized by a spell, standing motionless in place.

Some examinees passing by glanced at them curiously but didn’t pay further attention.

Others, however, guessed that the two might have discovered an alternative method to ascend Book Mountain besides comprehending the blank Doctrine Tablets.

They too tried imitating Lu Chen and Shangguan Yunmeng, gazing at Book Mountain as a whole.

But after wasting some time, these individuals gained nothing and left shaking their heads, thinking that Lu Chen and Shangguan Yunmeng were merely putting on an act.

Yet both Lu Chen and Shangguan Yunmeng had achieved the legendary First Grade Great Dao Foundation Establishment.

They naturally wouldn’t do anything meaningless.

Although the conventional way to ascend Book Mountain was to select a suitable path from the numerous Doctrine Tablets and follow that route upward,

this didn’t mean it was the only method.

It wasn’t that no one had thought of alternative approaches;

rather, few believed they could accomplish them.

Because the alternative method involved carving out one’s own path up Book Mountain—

meaning, creating one’s own Cultivation Manual.

And this manual couldn’t be just randomly pieced together; it had to be capable of cultivation at least up to the Nascent Soul Stage.

Such conditions were undoubtedly countless times more difficult than following the paths of predecessors.

Especially for these cultivators, who were at most only at the second realm.

The second realm was merely the beginning of the formal cultivation journey.

How could someone who had just started possibly create a path suited to themselves?

But exceptions exist in everything.

Lu Chen was one, and so was Shangguan Yunmeng.

Although most of Lu Chen’s skills were enhanced using experience points,

the insights from these skills were genuine.

Coupled with his own terrifying Aptitude, Lu Chen’s Comprehension Ability was naturally beyond comparison for ordinary people.Although Shangguan Yunmeng herself lacked the assistance of ‘experience points’,

she possessed her own unique qualities.

That was the celestial maiden who appeared in her dreams every time she fell asleep.

Many things Shangguan Yunmeng couldn’t comprehend didn’t mean the celestial maiden in her dreams couldn’t understand them.

This was precisely Shangguan Yunmeng’s current situation.

Though she was asleep, the celestial maiden in her dreams had emerged.

And this celestial maiden’s vision far surpassed Lu Chen’s.

If even Lu Chen could recognize that the Book Mountain before them was essentially a magnified ‘Doctrine Tablet’, then the celestial maiden in Shangguan Yunmeng’s dreams could naturally perceive this as well.

Thus, rather than saying Lu Chen and Shangguan Yunmeng were observing the Book Mountain, it would be more accurate to say they were facing a colossal ‘Doctrine Tablet’.

What this wordless stone tablet recorded was no longer a single Cultivation Manual,

but all the ‘Cultivation Manuals’ that appeared within the Book Mountain, including some incomplete manuals that hadn’t qualified to become ‘Doctrine Tablets’.

As Lu Chen watched countless cultivation manuals appear before him, numerous insights flooded his mind.

Baptized by these cultivation methods, a brand new, uniquely his own Cultivation Manual gradually took shape in his consciousness…

(End of Chapter)