212: Chapter 212 Ninth-Level Spirit Seal

Three days after the new students enrolled, the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy's first collective trial kicked off in the Northern Heavens Realm. The Northern Heavens Realm was an independent space dedicated to the trial of new students by the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. It was vast, filled with dangerous lands and powerful spiritual beasts. Hundreds of reception platforms were scattered across the continent, randomly deploying the thousands of new students of this class into it. The rules were simple—hunt spiritual beasts to obtain spiritual seals. Reaching a fourth-grade spiritual seal allowed official enrollment, reaching a fifth-grade offered additional rewards, and reaching a sixth-grade or above granted direct qualification to cultivate in the core of the Spirit Gathering Array. For the vast majority of new students, a fourth-grade spiritual seal was already a goal that required their utmost effort. As for a seventh-grade spiritual seal, that was something only top geniuses dared to hope for. An eighth-grade spiritual seal had only appeared a handful of times in previous trials. A ninth-grade spiritual seal had never existed before.

The time limit for the trial was three days. After three days, all surviving new students would be automatically teleported back to the plaza and ranked according to their spiritual seal grade. Hun Muxiao stood on the reception platform, her fiery-red flowing fairy dress rustling in the wind. Her initial spiritual seal was fifth-grade, which came with her recommended spot. She was in no hurry to hunt spiritual beasts. Instead, she found a clean rock on a high ground to sit down, her blood abyss sword resting across her knees, her peach blossom eyes overlooking the entire trial area with great interest. She didn't come to the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy to compete for rankings; her goal was to observe Mu Chen and Luo Li. But before that, she had to make them notice her first.

On the first day, most of the new students were still in the outer areas, frantically dealing with low-level spiritual beasts. Hun Muxiao's gaze, however, remained locked on the depths of the trial area. From the very beginning, Mu Chen and Luo Li did not band together like the other new students. The two moved one after the other, their coordination so tacit it seemed as if they had been through countless life-and-death battles together. Luo Li cleared the way ahead with the Luoshen Sword, her sword light pouring down like the Milky Way, slaying every spiritual beast in her path. Mu Chen followed closely behind. His cultivation was clearly only at the mid-stage of the Hua Tian Realm, two minor realms lower than Luo Li's, but his timing and angles of attack were terrifyingly precise. Every strike landed on the weakest spot of the spiritual beasts' defense, trading the minimum spiritual energy consumption for the maximum lethality. This kind of combat instinct could not be explained by talent alone; it was an instinct honed from countless life-and-death struggles. Hun Muxiao narrowed her peach blossom eyes slightly. No wonder her father said Mu Chen would become one of the top powerhouses on this continent in the future. This kind of combat talent was something she had only seen in those few elders of the Hun Clan who had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

By the evening of the second day, both Mu Chen's and Luo Li's spiritual seals had broken through to the seventh-grade. The two headed towards the deepest part of the trial area, where the most powerful spiritual beast in this region resided—a Nether White Tiger comparable to the peak of the Tongtian Realm. Hun Muxiao saw Mu Chen and Luo Li set up dozens of spiritual seal traps outside the tiger's den. The position of each trap was meticulously calculated, sealing off the Nether White Tiger's retreat completely. Luo Li confronted the Nether White Tiger head-on with her Luoshen Sword, the sparks flying from the collision of sword light and tiger claws illuminating half the forest. Mu Chen maneuvered from the flanks, continuously blasting the Nether White Tiger's hind leg joints with spiritual energy, with every hit landing on the exact same wound. The two coordinated seamlessly, and finally, Mu Chen seized the moment the Nether White Tiger turned around to strike its vital spot on the back of its neck with a palm, bringing the massive creature crashing down.

An eighth-grade spiritual seal. It had only appeared a handful of times in previous trials, yet Mu Chen had achieved it with a mid-stage Hua Tian Realm cultivation and as an ordinary spot holder. When their spiritual seal grades were updated in real-time on the stone tablet in the plaza, all the new students still struggling to hunt spiritual beasts in the outer areas looked up in unison. Staring at the glaring number on the stone tablet, they fell dead silent. A moment later, earth-shattering gasps erupted across the plaza.

"Eighth-grade? How is that possible! In past trials, an eighth-grade spiritual seal has only appeared two or three times, and each time it was by a top genius-level figure!"

"His starting spiritual seal was zero! An ordinary spot! He started from scratch!"

"What on earth did this guy do in the Spiritual Road to actually counterattack and reach an eighth-grade spiritual seal with only a mid-stage Hua Tian Realm cultivation!"

Luo Li's spiritual seal had also reached the peak of the seventh-grade, just one step away from the eighth-grade. The sum of their spiritual seals was far ahead in the trial, leaving all the recommended geniuses far behind.

Just when everyone thought Mu Chen and Luo Li would be the biggest dark horses of this trial, the Spiritual Energy Tablet in the center of the plaza suddenly vibrated again. The spiritual seal tokens of all the new students burst with glaring light simultaneously, and then a pillar of light, more brilliant than any before, soared into the sky from the top of the tablet, painting the entire plaza in gold. At the very top of the stone tablet, a level that no one had ever been able to touch, a number slowly emerged—nine. All sound in the plaza vanished at this instant. Thousands of new students looked up at the number that was almost impossible to appear in a trial, and even the pen in the hand of the recording elder dropped to the ground.

"Ni... Ninth-grade? Impossible! The highest record in the trials is eighth-grade, a ninth-grade has never appeared!"

"Who is it? Which new student could get a ninth-grade spiritual seal?"

Everyone's eyes shifted away from Mu Chen, and they began to frantically search the crowd for the person who had obtained the ninth-grade spiritual seal. To cause the Spiritual Energy Tablet to erupt with such a level of reaction, the quantity and quality of that new student's spiritual beast hunts must have far surpassed Mu Chen and Luo Li, and it had to be a solo hunt—because spiritual seals above the eighth-grade could not be obtained through teamwork, which was a rule.

While everyone was abuzz with discussion, a fiery-red figure slowly walked out from the depths of the trial area. Hun Muxiao was still wearing that same fiery-red flowing fairy dress, with seven ribbons in her hair gently swaying in the wind. Her blood abyss sword was wrapped in cloth and slung diagonally behind her back. Her aura remained at the Tongtian Realm Great Perfection, and a very faint smile hung on her face. She was neither smug about getting the ninth-grade spiritual seal nor deliberately humble, as if she had just gone for a stroll. As she walked back to the plaza from the trial area, all the new students along the way voluntarily parted to both sides, their eyes filled with awe. Tongtian Realm Great Perfection, eighteen years old, ninth-grade spiritual seal—this achievement could no longer be described as just genius. Mu Chen's counterattack to an eighth-grade spiritual seal with an ordinary spot made him a dark horse, but Hun Muxiao was a giant dragon that had never shown her true strength from beginning to end.

Mu Chen's gaze lingered on Hun Muxiao for a long time. He had sensed before that this red-clad girl was not simple, but he hadn't expected her to be not simple to this extent. A ninth-grade spiritual seal, an achievement that had never appeared in the history of the trials, and she had obtained it effortlessly, without showing any signs of struggle from beginning to end. Just how much strength was she hiding? Luo Li's deep blue eyes also fell upon Hun Muxiao. She had sensed that something was off about Hun Muxiao's aura even earlier than Mu Chen, and the achievement of the ninth-grade spiritual seal now confirmed her intuition. This girl, who claimed to come from a small place in the south, was definitely no ordinary new student.

Hun Muxiao walked to the front row of the new student area and stood still, her gaze casually sweeping past Mu Chen's direction. She noticed that Mu Chen was looking at her, and a very faint ripple finally appeared in his usually calm black eyes—not hostility, not jealousy, but curiosity. This was exactly the effect she wanted. She withdrew her gaze, a smile only she understood playing at the corners of her mouth. Her father had asked her to secretly observe Mu Chen, but to observe someone as calm and introverted as Mu Chen, the best way was not to approach him to curry favor, but to make him take the initiative to become interested in her. The ninth-grade spiritual seal was just the beginning; the upcoming battles would be the real highlight.

On the high platform right in front of the plaza, a woman dressed in a moon-white robe slowly stepped out. Her face looked to be only in her early thirties, her figure was slender, her long hair was loosely tied up with a jade hairpin, and her temperament was as cold as frost. Elder Ling Xi, the Spiritual Array Elder of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, a Fifth-Grade Spiritual Array Sovereign, and the top combat power in the academy second only to the Beiming Dragon Kun. Her gaze swept across the entire field, and her voice, cold and flat, clearly reached everyone's ears.

"The results of this year's trial are out. One person with a ninth-grade spiritual seal—Hun Muxiao. One person with an eighth-grade spiritual seal—Mu Chen. Two people with seventh-grade spiritual seals—Luo Li and Yang Xiu. Twenty-one people with sixth-grade spiritual seals. The remaining new students will be allocated cultivation qualifications in the Spirit Gathering Array according to their spiritual seal grades." She paused, her gaze lingering on Hun Muxiao for a moment, a deeper meaning that only she understood flashing through her cold eyes. "Hun Muxiao, you secured a ninth-grade spiritual seal with a recommended spot, breaking the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy's thousand-year trial record. The academy has noted your performance."

Low murmurs of discussion erupted across the plaza once again. A ninth-grade spiritual seal, a thousand-year record—this was no longer a common genius, this was a monster.

Elder Ling Xi raised her hand to suppress the discussion in the plaza. Her gaze fell back onto Hun Muxiao, her tone still flat but carrying a layer of testing that only she understood: "According to academy custom, after the trial ends, the top ten students of the Heavenly Board will engage in a mixed battle with the top ten new students of this class. Your first opponent is the second on the Heavenly Board—Li Xuantong. Li Xuantong, at the peak of the Hua Tian Realm, has already touched the barrier of the Tongtian Realm, and is the top student in the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy second only to Shen Cangsheng. Your realms are similar. In this battle, do you have confidence?"

Hun Muxiao stepped towards the battle stage, her fiery-red flowing fairy dress rustling in the wind. She walked to the center of the battle stage and turned to face the crowd, her peach blossom eyes sweeping over the slender figure slowly walking down from the other side of the high platform, a very faint smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

"Thank you for your concern, Elder Ling Xi." Her voice was not loud, but it clearly spread across the entire plaza. "However—to deal with him, I don't even need to draw my sword."