Chapter 26

Several months had passed since the first time class zero had entered the spirit ascension platform.

The class of elites went to the spirit ascension platform every week, increasing their battle experience and slowly strengthening their rings.

However, the 'slowly' part didn't apply to Huang Yu.

Every single time he entered the spirit ascension platform he would always get haphazardly ȧssaulted by hundreds of spirit beasts coming at him from every corner.

Although he liked a good fight, he quickly got sick of being forced to fight so many spirit beasts every time.

He had gained great benefits from slaying all those beasts of course, easily increasing his spirit ring's age to the 5000+ year-old level, but he wished that he could actually enjoy the view inside the spirit ascension platform for once.

The matter about his spirit ring's were only known by Long Hengxu, Wu Zhangkong and several staff members of the spirit pagoda.

Huang Yu didn't deign to tell anyone about the continued progress of his spirit ring. In fact, even Long Hengxu and Wu Zhangkong would have been kept in the dark about it had they not been monitoring Huang Yu inside the spirit ascension platform.

The Spirit Pagoda, finding out about Huang Yu's talent, wanted to recruit him into their organisation. They flooded him with requests, offering him many benefits and the best teachers.

While any normal person would immediately agree, Huang Yu chose to ask for time to think about it.

This was Huang Yu's way of stalling the offer. He had no intentions of joining the Spirit Pagoda at the moment since he had his hands full with Nox. However, he couldn't just refuse them straight to their face.

Speaking of Nox, it had become quite successful in Eastsea City. After Huang Yu had instructed Guang Biao on the methods of using vital energy and some precautions, he let him loose to begin the cu—organisation.

Cult had such a negative connotation attached to it. Organisation sounded much better.

Back to the topic, Guang Biao had been very smart in spreading the organisation. He and the three others that were under Huang Yu started their organisation from the slums.

Why the slums? It was a place where a lot of people were sick and unable to get proper medical treatment. However, more importantly, the people in the slums weren't very educated.

They would be far more willing to believe that Guang Biao was a priest sent by a god to save them after the usage of vital energy to produce a miracle for them than others.

The number of members of Nox had increased very quickly. So much so that it far surpassed Huang Yu's expectations.

It turned out that Guang Biao regularly held sermons, slowly brainwashing Nox's new followers that vital energy was 'a blessing from God'.

Huang Yu gave a big thumbs up to that.

At the moment, class zero was in their class, having a lesson with Wu Zhangkong.

"Teacher, do we need to take a final exam?" Tang Wulin asked.

Wu Zhangkong kept his usual stony expression on his face as he answered. "Yes you will need to take them. Your final exam will test two things. The first is the spirit ascension platform."

A groan sounded out of Huang Yu's mouth.

Ignoring Huang Yu, Wu Zhangkong continued. "You must survive for at least an hour to pass the exam. However, this time you will be entering the rebellion spirit ascension platform."

Xie Xie asked in shock, "Teacher, what is the rebellion spirit ascension platform?"

Everyone except for Huang Yu stared at Wu Zhangkong in shock and curiosity. They had never heard of the rebellion spirit ascension platform.

Wu Zhangkong said, "Twice a year, the spirit ascension platform will rebel. At first, they were caused by the unstable energies that the spirit ascension platform was made of. As the technology progressed, however, they were able to gain control over the rebellion periods and turned them into a special feature of the spirit ascension platforms. During a rebellion period, the soul beasts will grow excited and become more visible, increasing the danger within the spirit ascension platform. The Eighteen Pillars of Heaven imposed a limit of 300 people to enter the rebellion spirit ascension platform each time. This time, you five are fortunate enough to be one of those 300 people after the academy spent an enormous amount of resources to secure five quota spaces for you. You should appreciate just how great of an opportunity this is."

"During the rebellion period, you will be able to enter the spirit ascension platform as a team, but your number cannot surpass seven. Since there are only five of you, so there will be no problems for you to enter together. This will serve to test your coordination as a team. Don't forget though, in addition to soul beasts, you might encounter other Spirit Masters. They will pose just as much of a danger to you as spirit beasts, because if you are ejected from the spirit ascension platform within the 100 seconds it takes to absorb a spirit beast's spiritual energy, the remaining energy will go to the nearest Spirit Master. These are the special rules of the rebellion spirit ascension platform."

Huang Yu wasn't surprised when he heard this. He had already heard about it from Guang Biao.

From the descriptions he got from Guang Biao, what they would be facing wouldn't be much different from what he usually faced in the spirit ascension platform anyways.

As for facing other spirit masters? Why should he be scared of anyone under Rank 50? Those below that level weren't even on his radar anymore.

"You'll enter the spirit ascension platform in three days. You can take the next three days off as a vacation to rest and prepare." Wu Zhangkong picked up the books on the table before he started leaving. "Class dismissed."

As the students left the classroom, Gu Yue walked up to Huang Yu.

"I guess it'll be time for you to reveal your strength during this exam. We haven't sparred for a long time and I'm sure you've advanced a lot since then."

Huang Yu laughed softly but didn't reply.

— — — —

On the day of the final exam, the moment the first glimmers of dawn peeked over the horizon, Wu Zhangkong had already brought the students of class zero to the Eastsea Pagoda. The earlier the entered, the less likely they were to encounter any competitors.

"You all must remember that at its peak, the spirit ascension platform will be filled with many other people, of whom many will be your enemies. You only have one mission inside of there: survive! Anyone who doesn't pass the final exam will be penalized."

After hearing Wu Zhangkong's warning, Tang Wulin couldn't help but ask curiously, "Teacher Wu, what's the penalty?"

"No vacation."

The expressions of all the students of class zero morphed into one of abject horror. No vacation? That was outright inhumane!

Although his instincts of being a politician in his past life wanted him to complain for an injustice like this, he chose not to.

He was perfectly confident that he wouldn't fail to survive one hour inside.

"Let's go."

The six students were brought to the same room that they visited for quite a few times already. Huang Yu could tell that this wasn't normal since the room was always the same. This was preferential treatment.

Being the only intermediate academy in Eastsea City, Eastsea Academy sure had great influence.

"The spirit ascension platform is highly dangerous during the rebellion period…"

Huang Yu tuned out the words of the staff member of the Spirit Pagoda. He had heard this warning repeated over ten times already. He didn't want to hear it again.

After the staff member was done speaking, the students of class zero entered the spirit ascension platform.

Inside the spirit ascension platform, Tang Wulin tried to act as the leader for the team.

"Let's get into a formation!"

All the students got into a formation with Tang Wulin except Huang Yu. He never trained as a group with them so he could only stand there awkwardly.

Tang Wulin noticed this. "Guys, open up the formation a bit. Let Huang Yu—

Before Tang Wulin could finish, Huang Yu summoned his martial spirit before kicking the buŧŧ of the hilt and sending it flying.

The sword cut past all of them at speeds they couldn't even fathom. The eyes of everyone in the formation widened.

There was silence for a few moments after that before Huang Yu began to walk towards the direction that he kicked the sword in.

"Sorry, just wanted to take care of a pesky Man Faced Demon Spider that was hiding over there."

Gu Yue let out a wry smile.

'This guy… I don't know if he's being genuine or if he's just trying to show off…'