Chapter 73: Outer Academy Students

"Outer Academy students and servant students are truly different. They live in high-rise buildings, watching the white clouds drift by and the water flow endlessly. It's really comfortable."

A towering building, standing thirty-six stories high, rose from the ground, piercing the sky. Each floor was ten zhang high, making it look incredibly majestic and grand.

This was where the Outer Academy students lived. Compared to the rooms of the servant students, these were several times larger.

Yang Qi sat cross-legged by the window, looking at the winter scenery outside.

He had exchanged merit points and, after the academy's assessment, was confirmed to have reached the Qi Master realm. The academy then recognized him as an Outer Academy student and rewarded him with this suite of rooms.

He had just moved in.

The other four students also received their own rooms and were now tidying them up.

In this room, the window was a large crystal barrier that blocked the cold wind but allowed light to pass through, illuminating the entire room.

The room was over ten acres in size, resembling a cave dwelling, and was fully furnished with various decorations. It even had a pill furnace, flames, a jade bed, and a series of essential items for cultivating Qi.

Faintly, one could see that the four walls of the large room were adorned with patterns made from unknown metals, forming an array.

This array could absorb the essence of the sun and moon, and the earth's spiritual energy, making cultivation in the room much more efficient.

This was the true essence of the room.

This was the treatment of Outer Academy students.

It should be noted that among the millions of servant students in the Tianwei Academy, Outer Academy students were less than one-tenth. Inner Academy students and elite students were even fewer.

The transition from servant student to Outer Academy student was a qualitative leap in status.

Servant students had to do all sorts of odd jobs every day, guard the gates, and even complete various tasks, some of which involved mining in the mountains.

However, Outer Academy students were different. They didn't have to do anything and could enjoy excellent treatment.

For example, living in this high-rise building with a "Spirit Gathering Array" in the room was a tremendous benefit.

The "Spirit Gathering Array" was an array that could gather the earth's spiritual energy and the essence of the sun and moon. Only experts at the Life Seizing realm could set it up. Cultivating Qi in this array allowed one to constantly receive the array's refinement, with every pore absorbing the earth's spiritual energy, strengthening the meridians, replenishing the Qi Sea, and increasing cultivation efficiency several times over.

Such things were unimaginable for Yang Qi in places like Yandu City.

Yandu City and its surroundings were like the countryside compared to the Tianwei Academy, which was like a slum.

He had never even seen an array, let alone cultivated in one.

Yang Qi also felt the magic of it. If he stepped out of the room, he could clearly feel that the air outside was mixed and impure. But once he entered the room, he immediately felt refreshed, as if bathed in a gentle breeze, almost like a celestial being, with his true Qi circulating much faster.

An unknown force from the air poured into his pores, seeping into his meridians.

Yang Qi deeply memorized all the patterns and designs on the walls of the room. If he advanced to the Life Seizing realm, he would return to his family and draw such a large array in the Yang family, allowing his father and brothers to cultivate more efficiently and greatly benefit the family's young generation.

With such an array, it would take only a few years to reach the Fifth Stage of Qi Burst, which normally took over a decade.

"Brother Yang Qi, this is the treatment of Outer Academy students, the Spirit Gathering Array."

There was a knock at the door, and Yang Qi waved his hand, opening it. Li He, Liang Dong, and the other four entered, all looking elated and proud.

"Rumor has it that the rooms of Inner Academy students have even more advanced Essence Gathering Arrays, allowing for even faster cultivation. We need to accumulate more merit points to strive for promotion to Inner Academy students." Yang Qi waved his hand, inviting them to sit down.

He had become the leader of this small group.

The other four followed his lead in everything.

"Promotion to Inner Academy students requires a lot of merit points. We need to accumulate them one by one. However, rather than accumulating so many merit points, it's better to focus on cultivation. Brother Yang Qi's advancement to the Life Seizing realm is just around the corner. Once he reaches that realm, he will be promoted to an elite student without any merit points. Only those with no hope of breaking through to the Life Seizing realm would try to accumulate a large number of merit points to exchange for Inner Academy resources and promotion." Li He said.

"That's right. Once one reaches the Life Seizing realm, even the academy will take them seriously." Liang Dong sat up straight. "Brother Yang, we owe our advancement to the Qi Master realm and the rapid increase in cultivation to you. Now that we are Outer Academy students, we will return home to visit our families and gain status and resources. Before we leave, we want to report to Brother Yang. Do you have any instructions for us? For example, aiding your family? Now, the people of the Yang family are our people, and your parents are our parents. We have sworn to the heavens to stand by each other in life and death, sharing honor and disgrace."

"Brother Yang, I just went back and checked." Hua Yinhu said. "The area around Yandu City, within a radius of ten thousand miles, seems to have fallen into war. This war was initiated by the Sea Race, and the Yang family is in grave danger."

"Is that so? What good suggestions do you have, brothers? My family is weak, and with the Sea Race invasion, what should we do?" Yang Qi looked at Li He, knowing that this brother would have good ideas.

"No problem. We four have already discussed it. We will return home and take over the family's resources in one day. Within three days, we will send Qi Master experts to contact Yandu City and arrange a safe retreat for the Yang family. If there is any sign of trouble, we will immediately evacuate." Li He spoke confidently. "With the influence of our families, this is not difficult. However, Brother Yang Qi needs to provide us with some proof to gain the trust of our uncles."

"Good!"

Yang Qi was delighted. "I entrust my family's affairs to you. Here are ten Nine-Transmutation Golden Pills and ten Purple-Gold Vein-Strengthening Pills. Take them to my family and give them to my father for my older brothers to take. Use the extras to cultivate loyal family members."

"Of course. In ten days at the earliest, or half a month at the latest, we will return from our families and report good news to Brother Yang Qi."

The five of them discussed some details and then left.

Yang Qi looked at the empty room and nodded. These four had formed a common interest alliance after the bandit incident, which would greatly benefit the family.

Now, with nothing to do, Yang Qi could only cultivate in the room, trying to understand how to break through to the Life Seizing realm.

He sat cross-legged in the center of the room, breathing and exhaling.

Immediately, his true Qi surged within his body, flowing everywhere, strengthening his meridians, cleansing his bones and muscles, and causing waves in his Qi Sea, like thunder and volcanic eruptions, with boiling lava.

With a slight effort, he could cause mountains to crumble and the sea to break the sky.

However, in his Dantian Qi Sea, the thunderous elephant had completely disappeared, unable to produce any more life essence.

Yang Qi once again activated the "Divine Elephant Hell Suppressing Strength," feeling as if the entire room had disappeared, and he was in space, transformed into 840 million tiny stars. These stars formed a galaxy, the shape of a divine elephant. However, in this divine elephant galaxy, countless stars were lifeless, with only twenty stars shining, representing the twenty ancient elephants he had awakened.

However, twenty stars were insignificant in the entire divine elephant galaxy.

Yang Qi knew that if all 840 million tiny stars in his body were awakened, his power would be no different from that of a deity. He would be a god.

"Life essence, awaken the twenty-first micro-particle!"

He closed his eyes, focusing his true Qi to produce life essence, attempting to inject it into the twenty-first micro-particle and awaken the power of the twenty-first ancient elephant.

Unfortunately, the life essence he injected into the micro-particle did not move at all, showing no signs of awakening.

This was very different from his previous smooth cultivation, as he had hit a bottleneck.

In the past, with the life essence of the thunderous elephant, he could constantly refine it, and the micro-particles in his body would awaken one after another. But now, no matter how hard he cultivated, he saw no results.

"Phew..."

He took a long breath. "Indeed, once the life essence of the thunderous elephant is exhausted, my cultivation speed will slow down a hundred or a thousand times. Cultivating a divine-level Qi technique is not easy. My current strength has reached a bottleneck. If I can awaken more micro-particles, I might break through to the Qi Technique realm, seizing life and energy from heaven, reaching the Life Seizing realm. Unfortunately, to awaken the twenty-first micro-particle, it might take twenty years of cultivation at my current speed."

In other words, at his current cultivation speed, it would take him twenty years of hard cultivation to accumulate enough life essence to awaken the twenty-first micro-particle.

Twenty years of hard cultivation, and the flowers would wither.

However, Yang Qi had a plan. He would do everything possible to construct a Hell Furnace in his Dantian Qi Sea. Then, he could use this Hell Furnace to refine all kinds of exotic true Qi, even directly consuming the cores of demonic beasts.

At that time, his body would be a large furnace, capable of digesting even stones.

As his true Qi surged, Yang Qi turned his ring, and a deep blue ocean-like portal opened, revealing bottles and boxes of pills.

Of course, the most eye-catching was the "Holy Demon Map," composed of ten thousand Qi Master demonic beast cores and one Life Seizing realm demonic beast core, forming a large array and emitting a sacred aura.

"With these miraculous pills, my cultivation might be faster, but I don't recognize what these pills are, so I can't take them casually. However, in the Tianwei Academy, I have no one to trust..." Yang Qi thought.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Right, why don't I go find my aunt? Now that I am an Outer Academy student, I can move around freely."

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(End of Chapter 73)