Chapter 311 – Returning to the Real World, Dao Academy Grand Competition

Though the Sword Domains of the Harmony Realm and the Transformation Dao Realm may appear similar on the surface, a chasm as vast as an abyss separates them.

The Sword Domain of the Harmony Realm can indeed influence the surrounding environment,

but it functions more like “using an opponent’s force against them.”

It belongs to a Cultivator borrowing the power of heaven and earth to artificially create an advantageous Domain that aligns with “favorable timing, geographical convenience, and human harmony.”

The Sword Domain of the Transformation Dao Realm, however, is entirely different.

At this stage, the Cultivator is no longer merely borrowing the power of the Heavenly Dao.

The Cultivator themselves becomes the incarnation of the Dao.

On Pine Mountain, as Lu Chen’s Fiend-Slaying Sword Formation unfurled, everyone within the Sword Domain felt their own insignificance.

Faced with the four towering Immortal Swords, they couldn’t muster even a shred of resistance, their minds utterly blank.

Even Little White Deer beside Lu Chen was currently stunned by the terror of this Transformation Dao Realm Sword Domain.

It was just like when Lu Chen first witnessed the Azure Cloud Sect Leader, Gu Liqing, unleash a Great Divine Power of the Transformation Dao Realm.

Within the Sword Formation, Lv Zhiwei of Azurefall Temple stared blankly at the sky.

His survival instinct screamed at him to flee the Sword Domain immediately.

Even if escape was impossible, he should at least try to do something, not remain frozen as he was now.

Yet, the overwhelming terror gripping his heart seemed to have severed his control over his body.

Numerous thoughts raced through his mind, but none could translate into action.

Helplessness. Lv Zhiwei couldn’t remember the last time he had felt such profound helplessness.

In the face of an absolute disparity in power, all flashy techniques lost their meaning.

Lv Zhiwei stared fixedly at the sky as one of the Immortal Swords detached from the formation and hovered directly above them.

This Immortal Sword was entirely crimson, its surface covered in intricate patterns.

Palpable Karma swirled around the blade, looming over everyone’s heads like divine punishment.

Under the despairing gazes of all present, the massive Fiend-Slaughter Sword began its slow descent.

Boom!

When the dust settled, Pine Mountain returned to complete tranquility.

The once-crowded Pine Mountain now held no one except for Lu Chen and Little White Deer.

Little White Deer gazed at the spot where Lv Zhiwei and the others had just been, seemingly still unable to process the earth-shattering sword strike Lu Chen had just unleashed.

Though both were Sword Domains, the one she manifested by borrowing her Natal Immortal Sword was like mud compared to Lu Chen’s clouds—utterly incomparable.

“Go back and focus on your cultivation.”

Just as Little White Deer was lost in thought, Lu Chen’s calm voice pulled her back to the present.

She glanced once more at the place where Lv Zhiwei had been utterly annihilated, leaving not even a trace of remains, and nodded.

Then, she looked at Lu Chen, her eyes filled with adoration.

Meanwhile, aboard the two Fiend Ships outside Pine Mountain.

Madam Tao of the Great Thousand Mountains had come to the deck, her expression grave as she looked towards Pine Mountain.

When Lu Chen had first approached her, she had merely considered him a somewhat talented Golden Core Stage Cultivator with decent Alchemy skills.

Thus, after weighing the pros and cons, she had ultimately agreed to the proposal Lu Chen made at the time.

Their arrangement was simple: allow Lu Chen to participate in the trial for selecting the next Mountain Lord of the Great Thousand Mountains.

Yes, this very conflict between the three temples: Flowing Cloud Sect, Pine Mountain Temple, and Azurefall Temple.After all, it was merely a selection process for the Great Thousand Mountains.

Although Madam Tao wasn’t clear about how Lu Chen had learned of this news, arranging for him to participate in this assessment wasn’t particularly difficult for her.

Not to mention that Lu Chen had even presented her with a ‘Blood Cleansing Pill’ that pleasantly surprised her.

Initially, Madam Tao didn’t believe Lu Chen could last until the end of this assessment.

She had already prepared to intervene if Lu Chen encountered danger, thereby making him owe her a favor.

However, the actual situation far exceeded her expectations.

Lu Chen, a Golden Core Stage cultivator, possessed strength that far surpassed ordinary Nascent Soul Stage cultivators.

Even she herself wasn’t entirely confident she could escape from Lu Chen’s Sword Domain.

Terrifying. This young man’s talent in the Sword Path was truly too terrifying.

After the shock subsided, Madam Tao felt only overwhelming joy.

Because with Lu Chen’s strength, once he arrived at the Great Thousand Mountains, becoming one of the top ten Mountain Lords was almost a certainty.

One must understand that to become one of the top ten Mountain Lords of the Great Thousand Mountains, one needed at least the cultivation of the Transformation Soul Stage.

Yet Lu Chen, who could wield a Great Divine Power at the Golden Core Stage, already had one foot firmly planted at the threshold of the Transformation Soul Stage.

Thinking of this, Madam Tao’s face flushed crimson, and she subconsciously licked her red lips.

As the saying goes, when one man attains the Dao, even his pets ascend to heaven.

If Lu Chen were to achieve Ascension in the future, she, as his half-guide, would certainly gain significant benefits.

But before that, she still needed to help Lu Chen complete some cleanup work.

Normally, people from the Great Thousand Mountains wouldn’t casually intervene in the conflicts of subordinate Sects.

But that was only under normal circumstances.

Now that Lu Chen had demonstrated sufficient value, she could make a slight exception.

For example, helping Lu Chen completely eradicate the remaining forces of the Xia, Zhou, and Chen Kingdoms, allowing these three regions to fall entirely under Lu Chen’s control.

Before long, successive screams arose from the two Fiend Ships outside Pine Mountain, creating a scene akin to a living hell.

Reality, Li Province, Lihuo Dao Academy.

“So this is the situation in the Ancient Fiend Nine Realms…”

With matters in the Ancient Fiend Nine Realms temporarily concluded, Lu Chen’s Heretical Avatar had already left the Ancient Fiend Nine Realms and brought all the memories from there back to Lu Chen’s main body.

After absorbing these memories, Lu Chen gained a relatively complete understanding of the Ancient Fiend Nine Realms and even the group known as Ancient Fiend Cultivators.

In Lu Chen’s view, the Ancient Fiend World appeared distorted, but its essence was fundamentally the same as both reality and the Central Province within the game.

Because if the two worlds were completely different, even if Lu Chen could deploy his Sword Domain in the Ancient Fiend World, its power should differ due to variations in the laws of heaven and earth.

Yet the actual situation was completely contrary to Lu Chen’s initial expectations.

The Fiend-Slaying Sword Formation he deployed in the Ancient Fiend Nine Realms showed no fundamental difference from those deployed in the game world or even in reality.

This sufficiently indicated one thing: the heavenly laws of the Ancient Fiend World were identical to those of the real and game worlds.

However, Lu Chen could distinctly feel that the heavenly energy in the Ancient Fiend World was far more twisted than in reality and the game world.

Therefore, Lu Chen speculated that the reason for this might lie with the existence of the Ancient Fiends.

As for whether this was truly the case, Lu Chen couldn’t yet determine for certain.After all, he had not yet truly encountered an Ancient Fiend at present.

He couldn’t make a reasonable judgment.

Besides these, Lu Chen gained another insight from his journey to the Ancient Fiend Nine Realms.

That was, Lu Chen had originally thought the Ancient Fiend World should be filled with distorted Ancient Fiend Power everywhere.

But the actual situation was that the most abundant energies in the Ancient Fiend World weren’t Ancient Fiend Power.

Rather, they were Karma and Resentment Power.

Although both these energies, like Ancient Fiend Power, were what Cultivators avoided at all costs,

In terms of hierarchy, the former was still considerably inferior to the latter.

Lu Chen felt that the so-called Ancient Fiend Power should be an existence similar to magical power.

It was a special kind of ‘magical power’ that could only be condensed after being carefully refined by Cultivation practitioners.

This realization also made Lu Chen change his previous mistaken belief that Cultivation practitioners couldn’t cultivate.

The reason he had this idea before was because his understanding of Cultivation practitioners came entirely from what others said in the Instance.

And the Cultivation practitioners known to people in the Instance were already in their state after arriving in the Immortal Cultivation World.

In the Immortal Cultivation World filled with pure Spiritual Power, Ancient Fiend Cultivators who came here were like arriving in a world full of poison – being unable to cultivate was quite normal.

Coupled with the characteristic that Ancient Fiend Cultivators could strengthen themselves through others’ Dao,

It became very understandable why Ancient Fiend Cultivators were so enthusiastic about invading other worlds.

Thinking of this, Lu Chen stood up and walked to the window of his Cave Residence.

Lihuo Dao Academy was located at the highest point of Nanli City, and although Lu Chen’s Cave Residence wasn’t at the highest point of Lihuo Dao Academy,

It still allowed him to overlook the entire Nanli City.

Lu Chen looked through the dense buildings of Nanli City, gazing into the distance.

What he was watching were the towering Vermillion Bird Great Walls reaching into the clouds at the distant horizon.

“The Black Taisui I found earlier at the Great Thousand Mountains outpost emitted pure Ancient Fiend Power.”

“Yet the Immortal Alliance calls it Taboo Power, indicating they’ve long been aware of this power.”

“Perhaps the Immortal Alliance isn’t unaware of Ancient Fiend Cultivators’ existence, but refers to them with another name, such as… aliens.”

“If this is true, then the so-called Forbidden Lands might be far more complex than I imagined.”

“I’ve been wondering before – the Immortal Alliance’s Nine Provinces Ten Lands have a larger area than the entire game world. How did these additional places appear?”

“The answer to this question might exist within those Forbidden Lands.”

“But whether this is truly the case, I might only know after I personally visit the Forbidden Lands.”

Thinking of this, Lu Chen’s eyes gradually grew profound.

Because if everything was really as he thought,

Then both the emergence of the Forbidden Lands and the relationship between the Ancient Fiend World and the real world in reality could have relatively reasonable explanations.

Lihuo Dao Academy, a conference room.

In the conference room, the Deans of Lihuo Dao Academy’s several major colleges gathered here.

Their reason for gathering was simple – to discuss the candidates for the upcoming Dao Academy competition.

The Dao Academy competition is held every two years, and only allows students in their fourth year and below to participate.

Each year’s Dao Academy competition is not only a rare exchange opportunity,

But also a chance to showcase the Dao Academy’s strength to the outside world.Even the Four Great Academies, which already stand at the pinnacle of the Immortal Alliance’s institutions, place great importance on the biennial Dao Academy Grand Competition.

After all, the smaller Dao Academies compete for substance—hoping to showcase their unique strengths during the competition to attract more outstanding talents.

The Four Great Academies, however, compete for prestige.

Though all are counted among the four, there is still a hierarchy among them!

In previous years, Lihuo Dao Academy, due to its focus on Alchemy, often struggled to achieve good results on the practical-oriented stage of the Dao Academy Grand Competition.

But this year… is different!

“So, shall we finalize the roster like this?”

Jiang Yanting, Dean of the Alchemy Department at Lihuo Dao Academy, smiled as he handed the list to the others for confirmation.

The other deans examined the names, their gazes lingering on two in particular: Lu Chen and Mu Xiaoye.

Seeing these two names, the deans from other departments exchanged meaningful smiles.

“No issues here. I don’t see any room for improvement in this lineup. If even this configuration can’t deliver good results, I can’t imagine what better candidates we could find.”

“But are you certain about allowing the non-humans to participate in this year’s competition? I still have some reservations about trusting them.”

The rather conservative Sword Institute Dean, Wenren Yan, pointed at the specially marked non-human section of the list with a serious expression.

Other deans held different views on this matter.

“Old Wenren, that’s rather narrow-minded of you. It’s been over a century since the non-humans joined the Immortal Alliance, and throughout these hundred years, they’ve shown little difference from other Alliance members.”

“If the Immortal Alliance can gradually subdue even the ancient Yao Beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, how much more these non-humans?”

“To be frank, integrating non-humans into the Alliance isn’t just the intention of the Academy masters—it’s also the will of those few at the highest levels of the Immortal Alliance.”

“If you have objections, discussing them with us won’t help. You’d need to take them up with those individuals.”

Hearing this, Sword Institute Dean Wenren Yan said nothing more.

“Alright, let’s set aside these minor details and properly discuss the lead instructor for this competition. After all—”

“I’ll do it!”

Before Jiang Yanting from the Alchemy Department could finish speaking, the assembled deans shouted out one after another.

Their eagerness suggested they were afraid this opportunity might slip to someone else.

In previous years, not only would they not have rushed to claim the lead instructor position, they might even have avoided it.

But this year was different.

With this year’s configuration, they couldn’t see any possibility of defeat.

Such a face-gaining opportunity—how could they let it fall into someone else’s hands?

Jiang Yanting watched his old colleagues scrambling for the lead instructor position, his eyes narrowing slightly.

“It seems everyone has great enthusiasm for this year’s Dao Academy Grand Competition.”

“But there’s only one lead instructor position, and all of you are important figures who can’t all leave the Academy to serve as Agents.”

“In my opinion, for such a major event, we need to send someone who can truly command the scene.””I may not be particularly talented, but I feel I am quite suited to be the team leader for this trip. After all, not only am I the most accomplished cultivator present, but I am also an Alchemist.”

“If any unexpected situations arise during the journey, I can provide immediate assistance to the students. What do you all think?”

As these words fell, the meeting room first fell into a brief silence, then erupted into heated arguments.

Clearly, they were not going to indulge Jiang Yanting’s shameless self-praise in the slightest!

(End of Chapter)