53: The Sixth Institution with a profound heritage

The main gate of the Sixth Academy.

Lin Chen, led by Li Yulin, landed and stared wide-eyed at the Academy's main gate, which resembled a heavenly gate and stretched as far as the eye could see.

At this moment, there were only two people in front of the gate, and a shimmering, colorful light curtain filled the center of the gate. Such a grand entrance seemed somewhat wasteful for just two individuals.

"Instructor Li, is it necessary for us to use the main gate?"

"It is necessary. All new students entering the Academy for the first time must use the main gate. Only by passing the gate's verification can you be considered a member of the Sixth Academy."

"What happens if I don't pass the verification?"

"There are so many research institutes in the Federation; there's always one that's suitable. After all, someone who can disguise themselves so well as a human has some research value."

"Alright."

Lin Chen followed Instructor Li, passing through the Academy's main gate expressionlessly, with nothing out of the ordinary occurring.

Lin Chen was human; there was no doubt about that.

He had merely awakened his past life's memories; he hadn't taken over another body. So, apart from some memories, he was a native-born human, and it was perfectly normal for him to pass the Academy's gate verification.

"Student Lin Chen, my task is complete. Next, one of your senior male or female students will guide you through enrollment."

Every year during new student enrollment, many second and third-year students would take a day or two to complete a credit-earning task by guiding new students.

Guiding one new student only yielded 10 credits, which wasn't much, with a conversion rate to federal currency of 1:100 million. However, establishing a connection with new students was very important.

New students were all very promising. Older students undertook the new student guiding task to open blind boxes, hoping to draw the 'Golden Legend' among this year's new students.

Just like Chen Sheng and Fang Ling, who were late-stage Seventh Rank cultivators, they only needed to complete their first-year courses. By the end of their first year, even before their second year began, they would already be reserved by various teams.

Although the Sixth Academy was known for producing 'Old Sixes' and lone wolves, a small portion of students still chose to form teams to improve their fault tolerance, as there were indeed situations where one person alone could not stand.

Instructor Li Yulin's form dissipated, clearly indicating he was a clone, with his main body hiding somewhere unknown.

Before Lin Chen could react, a scholarly-looking senior male student wearing glasses appeared before him like a ghost.

"Hello, Junior Lin Chen, I am Wang Teng. I'm currently a second-year student in the Formation Academy. I will now process your student card and then lead you on a tour of the Academy, explaining the functions of its various areas."

"Hello, Senior Wang Teng. I'll be troubling you then."

"It's nothing. You're the only 'Old Six' among the new students, and I'm honored to be your guide."

As Wang Teng spoke, Lin Chen felt he was perhaps a bit too excited, but he didn't think much of it, simply attributing it to the senior's enthusiasm.

Wang Teng pulled out a white card and tossed it into the air. A bolt of lightning struck the card from the sky, seemingly imbuing it with some power.

Then, the card slowly floated down and merged into Lin Chen's body.

As the card integrated, many pieces of information about the student card appeared in Lin Chen's mind.

The white card was his student card, his credential for navigating the Sixth Academy and using its functional buildings. It possessed many features.

It had two main functions.

First, storing credits and linking to the Academy's intranet.

Second, human race authentication, allowing the exercise of Human Race Power.

"Junior, credits are the exclusive currency of our Academy system, with a conversion rate to federal currency of 1:100 million, and to Federation Merits and Military Merits of 1:1."

"The Academy's intranet can be seen as a small Virtual Divine Realm owned by our Sixth Academy, specifically serving our Academy instructors and students. When you enter the intranet, the intranet's AI will naturally answer all your questions."

Senior Wang Teng briefly introduced the credits and the Academy's intranet to Lin Chen. This wasn't difficult to understand; a deeper understanding couldn't be explained in just a few sentences and required Lin Chen to experience it firsthand.

"Senior, what does Human Race Power mean?"

Wang Teng knew Lin Chen would ask this question, and his face lit up with excitement as he said,

"The starry sky is dangerous, and I imagine you've witnessed that on your way to the Academy, Junior."

Lin Chen nodded, and Wang Teng didn't keep him in suspense, continuing,

"Our human race is known as 'Heavenly Demons' in the outside world. This is precisely because our human race is also one of the many dangers in the starry sky. If other beings can be dangers in the starry sky, our human race naturally can too, and even more terrifyingly so."

"Human Race Power is the 'Heavenly Demon' power recognized by the starry sky. I can't say much about this for now. You'll only understand what I mean once you establish a true cognitive defense and starry sky resistance, Junior."

It wasn't that Wang Teng wanted to be enigmatic; it was simply because Lin Chen hadn't yet systematically learned about the starry sky and had zero resistance to the threats within it, nor had he acquired the ability to establish Human Race Power (Heavenly Demon Power).

Therefore, Wang Teng could only hint at it; saying more would actually harm Lin Chen.

Lin Chen understood that Human Race Power was something he couldn't yet access. It was a power linked to the starry sky, which he could only truly comprehend when he was able to step into the starry sky.

Skipping over that topic, Wang Teng began to lead Lin Chen through various parts of the Sixth Academy. In each area, Wang Teng would introduce the main buildings and functions within that area.

It took a full day for Wang Teng to bring Lin Chen to his detached villa-style dormitory within the Academy.

"Junior, my guiding task is complete. Please give me a good review. If you have any questions, you can contact me via your student card's friend function. I won't hesitate to answer."

"Oh, and Junior, if you're interested in forming a team after your first year, I hope you'll consider the Ziyang Squad."

Wang Teng finally revealed his true intentions, though the 'map' was quite long. Only at the very end did he briefly mention the Ziyang Squad, without intending to introduce it.

This, however, piqued Lin Chen's curiosity, and he planned to check the Ziyang Squad's information on the Academy's intranet later.

"Senior, I'll give you a good review. I'll consider the Ziyang Squad you mentioned and give you an answer then."

"Good luck, Junior, goodbye."

Wang Teng's objective had been achieved, and he had a good impression of Lin Chen. However, he didn't hold out much hope for Lin Chen joining his Ziyang Squad.

Still, it was a connection made. Frequent interactions in the future would naturally lead to some relationship, which would be convenient for future endeavors.

At the Sixth Academy, everyone was an 'Old Six,' and clone-type abilities were standard. When you weren't sure if the person in front of you was a clone, treating them as such was absolutely fine.

Just like Wang Teng, after bidding farewell to Lin Chen, his form directly disintegrated into smoke, dissipating on the spot. His departure was also via a clone, with his main body hiding somewhere unknown.

Lin Chen felt he still needed to practice to integrate more quickly into the Sixth Academy's environment. Traveling by clone was the Academy's custom, and he wouldn't be unique.

The detached villa dormitory arranged by the Academy was quite good: a three-story building with a basement. The third floor was the living area, the second floor housed various laboratories with spatial reinforcement and expansion, the first floor was the reception area, and the basement was a secluded cultivation ground.

After familiarizing himself with his residence, Lin Chen had ideas for renovation, but he hadn't yet learned formation arrays and thus lacked the ability to modify it for now. He would have to wait a while.

Now, he needed to determine his study and cultivation plan for the next year based on the Academy's practical conditions.

The Sixth Academy was actually located in an independent Great Thousand World called the Almighty World.

The Academy's main gate connected the Almighty World with the starry sky, and there were also nine smaller gates for the convenience of students and instructors entering and exiting.

From the world's consciousness down to every flower and tree, everything in the Almighty World was controlled by the Sixth Academy. The Academy had 100% control over the Almighty World.

The entire Almighty World was broadly divided into two parts.

The central area, a million-kilometer radius, was where the Academy's main buildings were located. The other four surrounding areas were various resource zones, used to cultivate all kinds of resources needed by students and instructors.

The resource zones need not be mentioned for now; they were Academy property and had little to do with students, unless one remained to work at the Academy later, in which case they might enter the resource zones.

The core area where the Academy's main buildings were located was further divided into seven regions.

The Teaching Zone: Where instructors imparted knowledge to students. All kinds of teaching environments existed here; any environment found within human territory existed in the Teaching Zone.

The Dormitory Zone: Residences for students and instructors.

The Commercial Zone: Shops opened by students or instructors, selling any resource you could imagine, facilitating internal resource exchange among students and instructors. It was also the only area open to the outside world for receiving external resources.

The Functional Zone: Where the Academy's superficial foundation lay, an area for cultivating various student abilities.

Such as the Qi and Blood Tower, Body Forging Tower, Gravity Tower, Heavenly Ladder Trial Tower, Time Tower, and countless other functional buildings. As long as you had a cultivation need, you could find a corresponding functional building here.

The Martial Arts Zone: An area for the Academy to organize large-scale events. Its utility was limited because the Sixth Academy disliked performance-oriented activities and rarely held large events.

The Research Zone: Where various scientific research titans gathered, producing countless achievements.

The Forbidden Zone: As the name suggested, ordinary students wouldn't know what was inside, and even if they did, they would be sworn to secrecy to prevent leaks. It contained the Academy's ultimate foundation.

The mere scale of the Sixth Academy was such that even if humanity outside were to perish, relying on the Sixth Academy, humanity could be rebuilt.

Other Supreme Academies generally followed a similar layout. Each Supreme Academy was a miniature human race, storing all the knowledge humanity had accumulated to date and housing all types of human resources.

A simple description cannot fully convey the Sixth Academy's profound foundation. The mere presence of over a hundred Divine Realm cultivators stationed there was already its greatest visible foundation. As for other foundations that could not be directly observed, they were overshadowed and rendered inconspicuous by the aura of the Divine Realm cultivators.

Grand arrays capable of slaying Divine Realm cultivators, rituals capable of nurturing Divine Realm cultivators, talismans capable of opening worlds, and precious materials capable of continuously generating energy—these were all part of its foundation.

And in the Sixth Academy, such foundations were countless. It was just that, under the halo of the Divine Realm cultivators, not many people truly paid attention, and even humanity's enemies were not interested in these, feeling that they were not as tangible as a single Divine Realm cultivator.

One could only say, they deserved to suffer.