Chapter 325 – Xuan Armor Dao Academy, Mysterious Xuan Mountain

Real World, Lihuo Dao Academy.

“A Peak Nascent Soul Stage Flying Corpse body… The rewards from this Instance are somewhat beyond expectations…”

Having returned to reality, Lu Chen gazed at the coffin inside his Storage Bag with deep emotion.

Recalling his recent battle with the Winged Fire Serpent Immortal,

Lu Chen had to admit that without the infinite resurrection feature of the Instance,

he would most likely not have been a match for the Winged Fire Serpent Immortal.

After all, if he encountered the Winged Fire Serpent Immortal in reality, Lu Chen wouldn’t be able to identify his weaknesses in such a short time.

And if he failed to activate the Gathering Immortal Bell within the shortest possible time, his chances of victory against the Winged Fire Serpent Immortal would be less than one in ten thousand.

But regardless, he had still emerged victorious.

The Peak Nascent Soul Stage Flying Corpse body was his reward.

Besides this, Lu Chen had obtained another useful reward.

[Name: Fragment of Enlightenment (1/3)]

[Grade: ???]

[Effect: Remnants left behind after an Immortal’s fall, containing partial insights of the Immortal. Using it allows comprehension of specific Immortal techniques]

This was the first time Lu Chen had obtained such an item from an Instance.

The effect of this item was quite straightforward –

it was a residual Concept from the Enlightenment Realm.

Based on the Winged Fire Serpent Immortal’s heritage, Lu Chen speculated that the Enlightenment Concept contained within this fragment was most likely the Winged Fire Serpent Immortal’s Great Dao Starfire.

However, since it was only a fragment, Lu Chen surmised that even if he used it, he would probably only obtain an incomplete version of the Great Dao Starfire.

And an incomplete Great Dao Starfire held little practical value for Lu Chen at his current stage.

Only the complete Great Dao Starfire might pique his interest.

Not to mention that Instances only refreshed every three months.

Even if the Thousand-Li Red Land Instance refreshed now, Lu Chen wasn’t confident he could defeat the Winged Fire Serpent Immortal again.

After all, Gu Yue True Immortal could only assist him once at most.

Using this precious opportunity on a Instance boss like the Winged Fire Serpent Immortal would undoubtedly be quite inefficient.

Moreover, Lu Chen had never considered using this Fragment of Enlightenment for himself.

Since he already possessed the Samadhi True Fire, adding the Great Dao Starfire would merely be icing on the cake.

But if given to someone else… say, the Blood Flame Flying Corpse currently lying in his coffin, that would be a different matter entirely.

Lu Chen felt that if he could find suitable methods for ‘Corpse Nurturing’ and ‘Corpse Manipulation’, it wouldn’t be impossible to cultivate this Blood Flame Flying Corpse into a Drought Fiend, or even an Unrotten Bone.

By then, he would have an absolutely loyal and powerful enforcer.

Thinking this, Lu Chen gradually formed a plan for his cultivation direction in the coming period.

Qingzhou, Luocheng.

For some reason, Luocheng was currently undergoing a large-scale evacuation.

Everyone in the entire city was being systematically relocated to other cities temporarily.

As for why this was happening, even the cultivators within Luocheng weren’t quite sure, let alone ordinary people.

Above the evacuating crowds, a massive Celestial Ark that blotted out the sky hovered among the clouds.

Though separated by over ten thousand meters, the people below could still feel the oppressive presence emanating from the Celestial Ark.

This was also their first time witnessing the Immortal Alliance’s war machine in operation.

Generally, the Immortal Alliance rarely deployed such massive displays of force.When encountering problems, they often dispatched high-level cultivators to handle them.

Rarely was there such a grand spectacle.

Yet similarly, once such a grand spectacle appeared, it indicated that the occurring event was absolutely extraordinary.

Although the citizens of Luocheng were reluctant to leave their homeland,

as they looked at the numerous Supreme Purity Dao Palace cultivators maintaining order around them, they understood that the current situation was no longer about their willingness.

Rather, it was something they had to do.

After all, staying behind wouldn’t accomplish anything and would only bring greater danger.

Meanwhile, aboard the Sun-Moon Immortal Boat of the Supreme Purity Dao Palace, a group of Supreme Purity Dao Palace cultivators were looking down from above.

However, they weren’t watching the direction of the crowd, but rather the main urban area of Luocheng.

As if something dangerous was hidden within this main urban area.

“Ancestor, do you think the reincarnated heterodox immortal will truly descend upon this Luocheng?”

A young maiden from the Supreme Purity Dao Palace, gazing at the sky over nearby Luocheng, turned to ask the person beside her.

Standing beside her was a man who appeared young.

Strangely, this man looked to be only about thirty years old from his appearance.

Yet the maiden addressed him as Ancestor.

This indicated that his true age was much greater than his appearance suggested.

This man was none other than Chen Xuzi, one of the rare Great Divine Power cultivators at the Transformation Soul Stage within the Supreme Purity Dao Palace.

He was also an undisputed top-tier force within the entire Immortal Alliance, with the Daoist title Chen Xuzi.

Chen Xuzi looked at the clear sky over nearby Luocheng and said with a slight smile: “Whether it descends upon Luocheng isn’t important. What matters is whether we can locate the target immediately.”

“After all, the current Immortal Alliance… can no longer withstand the harm brought by a Mortal Realm Immortal.”

“And although Thousand-Year Elder’s cultivation is ordinary, his innate divine abilities and cultivation manual do have their unique aspects.”

“If not for concerns that soul-searching might not yield the desired results and cause such secret techniques to be lost,”

“Thousand-Year Elder wouldn’t have been simply imprisoned in the Great Wilderness Pagoda.”

“Heaven’s secrets cannot be revealed, yet a secret technique capable of revealing heaven’s secrets is enough to move us.”

“Keep watching carefully. It would be better if the reincarnated heterodox immortal doesn’t come here. If it truly arrives… things won’t be so simple.”

“After all, this immortal… isn’t one to be easily dealt with.”

Having said this, Chen Xuzi turned and walked toward the depths of the celestial ark.

The maiden remained where she was, still feeling that this operation was somewhat excessive.

After all, the entire Supreme Purity Dao Palace only possessed two Sun-Moon Immortal Boats.

It could be said that for this uncertain piece of intelligence,

their Supreme Purity Dao Palace had committed half of their strength.

This demonstrated no small amount of importance.

But considering what the Ancestor had said earlier, the maiden murmured to herself: “If just a Mortal Realm Immortal requires such treatment from the Immortal Alliance, then what exists above the Mortal Realm…?”

One month later, at Lihuo Dao Academy.

“Truly worthy of being a flying corpse nurtured from the body of a reincarnated Golden Immortal, even I can hardly harm it.”

Lu Chen looked at the blood-flame flying corpse before him that had withstood a strike from his Fiend-Slaying Sword, his eyes showing slight surprise.

Previously in the instance, although Lu Chen had managed to injure the blood-flame flying corpse with his Immortal Severing Sword,

the essence of that strike was actually that it had injured the Winged Fire Serpent Immortal’s nascent soul,

which then reflected upon the physical body.

It wasn’t that Lu Chen’s strike had truly broken through the blood-flame flying corpse’s defense.A true Bloodflame Flying Corpse, with just the strength of its physical body alone, is enough to suppress the vast majority of Nascent Soul Stage cultivators.

Unfortunately, Lu Chen currently lacks a proper method to control it, so he cannot yet unleash its true power.

However, Lu Chen was not overly concerned.

Although Corpse Manipulation techniques are niche, they are not impossible to find.

While Lu Chen had his eyes on the Corpse Fiend Cave’s cultivation manuals, what he truly desired was their corpse-nurturing method.

As for Corpse Manipulation techniques, the Corpse Fiend Cave’s were undoubtedly the best.

After all, their entire school specialized in handling corpses, so they must have profound insights in this Dao.

But it didn’t matter if he couldn’t obtain them, as Lu Chen could easily find alternative methods in reality or even within the Azure Clouds School.

“I’ve heard that advanced Corpse Manipulation techniques can even enable the controlled corpse to unleash power far exceeding its original capabilities.”

“If I get the chance in the future, I should pay more attention to this Dao.”

With that, Lu Chen stored the Bloodflame Flying Corpse back into its coffin and placed it inside his storage bag.

Then he pushed open the door of his cave residence and flew toward the school gate.

At that moment, a crowd had already gathered at the entrance of Lihuo Dao Academy.

“Little Lu, over here!”

Seeing Mu Xiaoye waving at him, Lu Chen immediately descended from the sky and landed beside her.

The surrounding students looked at Lu Chen with envious eyes, as he was able to fly on his sword within the academy grounds.

Only those who had reached the Golden Core Stage could perform sword flight within the Dao Academy.

Although all of them were talented students selected to represent Lihuo Dao Academy in the upcoming inter-academy competition, none had yet achieved the Golden Core realm.

Even though Lu Chen was their junior, the Immortal Cultivation World respected strength above all.

Thus, even though Lu Chen was late, neither the team members present nor the supervising teacher showed any resentment.

The strong naturally enjoyed such privileges.

Although the combat phase of the inter-academy competition was divided into individual and team matches, with a maximum of ten participants, normally more than ten students would attend.

Besides the main team members, the Four Great Academies typically brought along ten substitutes.

Firstly, to let these students gain early exposure to the world.

Secondly, to prepare for special circumstances.

Among the dozen or so people around him, Lu Chen didn’t know many.

The only person he recognized was probably Senior Gu Jingwen, who had escorted them to the academy during the opening ceremony.

“Alright everyone, follow me. Although our opponent this time is only the 72nd-ranked Xuanjia Dao Academy, their formations are quite sophisticated. This will be good practice for you to adapt to the atmosphere of the inter-academy competition.”

Everyone nodded and then boarded the Celestial Ark specially prepared for them by Lihuo Dao Academy.

After all, not every Dao Academy was located in Nanli City.

This time, they were heading to You Province, outside of Li Province.

You Province, Xuanjia Dao Academy.

The Xuanjia Dao Academy was particularly lively at that time, with many non-academy individuals present within its grounds.

Many students had emerged from their cave residences and were hurrying toward a particular arena within the academy.

All because this was the day their academy was scheduled to compete with another Dao Academy.

However, regarding today’s match, neither Xuanjia Dao Academy nor the spectators from other academies believed they could win.

The reason was simple: Xuanjia Dao Academy’s opponent this time was Lihuo Dao Academy—the strongest academy in the entire southern division and one of the prestigious Four Great Academies.Although everyone knew that the main team members of Lihuo Dao Academy would definitely not be participating this time, and only the substitutes would be taking the field to warm up, many still wanted to use this opportunity to gauge Lihuo Dao Academy’s strength. After all, while Lihuo Dao Academy might be the perennial fourth place, that was only relative to the other three great academies. For those outside the Four Great Academies, Lihuo Dao Academy remained overwhelmingly powerful. Even their substitute team members were far beyond what ordinary academies could match.

Surprisingly, however, everyone at Xuanjia Dao Academy—from the students to the teachers—was quite satisfied with the draw. Why was it considered a good draw? Simply because this was only the selection stage. Even if they lost to Lihuo Dao Academy, it wouldn’t affect their participation in the final southern region selections. Of course, winning would be a cause for celebration, but losing didn’t matter either. Thus, the entire Xuanjia Academy was quite relaxed.

“Look, Lihuo Dao Academy’s Celestial Ark has arrived.”

As a fiery red Celestial Ark broke through the clouds and eventually docked at a specially reserved landing area within Xuanjia Dao Academy, many curious eyes turned in that direction. Shortly after, the teachers and students of Lihuo Dao Academy disembarked from the ark, where they were greeted by the teachers of Xuanjia Dao Academy.

“Old Xu, it’s been years since I last saw you,” a robust, bald elder from Xuanjia Dao Academy warmly greeted the leading teacher from Lihuo Dao Academy.

Fang Heng smiled at his old friend and replied, “It’s not that I haven’t been welcoming you—it’s just that you’ve been in seclusion for years. You can’t blame me for that.”

Wan Qingkun, the Golden Core Stage Body Cultivator from Xuanjia Dao Academy, laughed heartily. He admitted he was at fault but joked that Old Xu wasn’t entirely blameless either—after all, even if he was in seclusion, couldn’t Old Xu have come to visit and catch up?

Fang Heng took his friend’s teasing in stride. While the teachers from both sides chatted casually, the team members also sized each other up. In particular, Lu Chen, who stood at the back of the group, drew much attention. After all, Lu Chen had gained considerable fame among the major academies. Reaching the Golden Core Stage before even enrolling was something most academy students couldn’t even dream of. And when they learned that Lu Chen had achieved this through sheer talent and hard work, without the backing of any major Sect or powerful influence, his legend reached its peak. Many were eager to see this once-in-a-millennium Sword Cultivator prodigy with their own eyes and understand how he had attained the Golden Core Stage while still in high school.

Faced with the curious gazes of the Xuanjia Dao Academy students, Lu Chen did not respond much. At that moment, his attention was captivated by another part of the academy. Behind Xuanjia Dao Academy stood a tall, black mountain. Although they were still some distance away, Lu Chen could distinctly sense the mountain’s profound heaviness. In his perception, the entire mountain seemed to be forged from some special metal, making it a magnificent sight. Moreover, within the mountain, Lu Chen detected a faint sense of familiarity. However, due to the distance, he couldn’t quite confirm his suspicions.Perhaps noticing Lu Chen’s gaze, Wan Qingkun, who had been chatting with Lihuo Dao Academy’s team leader Fang Heng, immediately said with a smile, “It seems Fellow Daoist Lu has also noticed our academy’s treasure guarding the institution.”

Hearing this, Lu Chen asked curiously, “This mountain… is it not a natural landscape?”

Wan Qingkun said proudly, “Of course not. You might not believe it, but legend has it this mountain was personally brought back by our Xuanjia Dao Academy’s founding ancestor from an ancient ruin.”

“Initially, the mountain was only over ten meters tall, but as time passed, it began growing rapidly at a rate of ten meters per year.”

“Now, after more than a century, the mountain has grown several thousand meters taller.”

“And this is only one of Xuan Mountain’s unique characteristics. The most crucial aspect is its special spirit ore… Black Xuan Essence.”

“Although our Xuanjia Dao Academy’s ranking isn’t high, when it comes to influence, we’re not necessarily much inferior to your Four Great Academies.”

“After all, many of the Magical Artifacts within the Immortal Alliance were forged by our Xuanjia Dao Academy.”

Hearing this, Lu Chen’s gaze toward Xuan Mountain grew even more profound.

Because the more he looked, the more he felt this Xuan Mountain closely resembled the Celestial Artifact Black Cauldron from his Pot-Lifting Brute instance…

(End of Chapter)