He was called Chu Feng. He was 15 this year and he was one of the tens of thousands of outer court disciples in the Azure Dragon School.

Although he was an outer court disciple, Chu Feng was different from all the others. He did not feel inferior to others and he did not degrade himself. He did not feel afraid or scared while treating others and he was very calm.

“Come back tomorrow...You think I’m an idiot? These are the mountains! Where are you even going to let us sleep?”

“You must arrange a place of residence for me, or else I’ll go find your elders for reasoning.” The lady did not listen and did not care. She even grabbed onto Chu Feng’s clothes.

“Chu Feng, have you met with trouble?” But just at that time, a sweet voice could be heard.

Looking at that direction, a young female who wore purple was walking over. Although there was a faint smile on her mouth, her eyes were fierce and they tightly stared at the lady.

As she saw the young female, the colour of the lady’s face instantly changed and a strong expression of fear gushed out.

It was not because of anything else. It was just because the young female was wearing the purple robe, and that was a mark of the inner disciples.

The lady hiddenly cursed. She originally thought she could use her status to make things difficult for the young man in front of her.

Who would have thought that the unremarkable young man in front of her had the support of an inner disciple? The inner disciples were an existence that she couldn’t offend.

“It’s nothing it’s nothing, I was just inquiring some things from him.” The lady explained while smiling.

The young female glared at her and only said one word, “Scram.”

At that instant, the lady’s body couldn’t help but tremble and her face was already ashen.

But she did not hesitate at all. She pulled the boy and quickly left, and under the panic she even tripped, which made her look very rough.

Seeing that, Chu Feng helplessly shook his head and said politely to the young female next to him, “Thank you very much Chu Yue.”

“No need to be so polite, we’re family right?” Chu Yue was a bit displeased.

She was correct. They were indeed family. They came from the same family, Chu.

Chu Yue was Chu Feng cousin, from Chu Feng’s father’s brother line and she was only 1 year older than Chu Feng.

However, Chu Yue already passed the inner disciple exam 3 years ago and became an inner disciple. She was now in the 4th level of the Spirit realm.

“We need to follow the school rules.” Chu Feng said with a brilliant smile.

[TN: What he meant by following the school rules was being respectful to elders, as inner court disciples > outer court disciples]

Looking at Chu Feng behaving like that, Chu Yue’s heart ached, “Chu Feng, are you still not going to participate in this year’s inner disciple exam? Or is it that you still haven’t reached the 3rd level of the Spirit realm?”

Chu Feng did not respond and a faint smile still hung on his face. No one knew what he meant.

Seeing that, Chu Yue took off a bag from her waist and put it in Chu Feng’s hands, “Refine it. Perhaps it’ll help you break through the 3rd level.”

Chu Feng opened the bag and instantly, strong spiritual energy was emitted from it. A bright, sparkling, transparent Saint Spirit Grass that was the size of a finger laid within.

“Chu Yue. This is too precious, I can’t take it.” Chu Feng hurriedly returned it back to Chu Yue.

Saint Spirit Grass. It was like a panacea for martial training and it was extremely precious. It had endless usefulness for those within the Spirit realm.

To increase their training speed, the Chu family would supplement one Saint Spirit Grass to the Chu family members every year.

Chu Yue was also supplemented by the family, but she didn’t use it and gave it to Chu Feng. It really moved Chu Feng, so he really couldn’t accept it.

“When I say I give it to you, you should take it. You are my little brother after all.” Chu Yue was slightly irritated.

“Oh? When were you so generous and even started to give Saint Spirit Grasses to people?”

“Look, I am your little brother as well, and coincidentally, I will almost have a breakthrough into 4th level of the Spirit realm. How about you give the Saint Spirit Grass to me?”

A young man around the age of Chu Feng walked over and he was also wearing clothes of the inner court disciples.

He was called Chu Zhen and he was also from the Chu family. Five years ago, he entered the Azure Dragon School at the same time as Chu Feng. However, he became an inner disciple 2 years ago.

“Chu Zhen, you’ve already broke past the 3rd level of the Spirit realm and successfully condensed spiritual energy. Even if you don’t have this Saint Spirit Grass you can rank up quickly.”

“But Chu Feng has not condensed spiritual energy yet, so this Saint Spirit Grass is more important to him.” Chu Yue forcibly put the Saint Spirit Grass into Chu Feng’s hands.

“Yep, you are correct, but sadly he doesn’t want it.” Chu Zhen spread his hands open and sneered.

Who said that I didn’t want it?” But then, Chu Feng lightly smiled and unrestrainedly put the Saint Spirit Grass in his pocket before saying, “Chu Yue, I will borrow this Saint Spirit Grass. On a later date I will return them back twofold.”

“Mm, okay.” Seeing that Chu Feng accepted it, Chu Yue was already happy, so she just randomly responded and didn’t care whether Chu Feng would return it back or not.

“If you’re taking it then why return it? Giving you this Saint Spirit Grass for you to use is such a waste.” Chu Zhen’s face had a really ugly look on it.

Chu Feng just smiled and ignored him. He then said to Chu Yue, “Chu Yue, I will participate in this year’s inner disciple exam.”

“Hmph, you? If you can pass the inner disciple exam, I’ll give this year’s supplemented Saint Spirit Grass to you.” Chu Zhen looked at Chu Feng with contempt.

“Is that true?” Chu Feng didn’t really believe it.

“Chu Yue will be the witness. But what if you can’t pass it?”

“Then the Saint Spirit Grass I get this year will belong to you.” Leaving that sentence behind, Chu Feng continued to throw himself into the work of outer court disciples.

“Chu Zhen, we are family. Why do you always need to make things so hard for Chu Feng?” Chu Yue looked at Chu Zhen with annoyance.

“Family? Chu Yue, you should know that that Chu Feng isn’t part of our Chu family.”

“After entering the school for five years, he still hasn’t passed the inner disciple exam. He is absolutely the disgrace of our Chu family.”

“In the entire Chu family, which one likes him? Only you treat him nicely and you even give your own Saint Spirit Grass to him for use.” Chu Zhen really did not understand.

“You are truly stupid.” Chu Yue was a bit angry and after glaring at him for a moment, she walked away.

On the other hand, Chu Zhen smiled. He really was happy. Although he didn’t get Chu Yue’s Saint Spirit Grass, he knew that this year, Chu Feng’s Saint Spirit Grass would certainly be his.

A bit into the night, in the resting area for the outer court disciples. It was complete darkness.

After being busy for the entire day, everyone was very tired and they slept very early. Only Chu Feng’s room was still lit up by light.

He sat on the front of the bed, took out the Saint Spirit Grass that Chu Yue gave him and muttered, “I hope this Saint Spirit Grass can make you full.”

After saying that, Chu Feng closed both his eyes, clamped the Saint Spirit Grass between both his palms and did a strange hand seal.

At that instant, the spiritual energy inside the Saint Spirit Grass started to enter Chu Feng’s body through his palm and it converged into his dantian.

[TN: Dantian]

At the same time, chewing sounds came from Chu Feng’s dantian as if something was having a meal.

If you looked through his skin, you would discover in the deep part of Chu Feng’s dantian, a lump of lightning was occupying there.

That lump of lightning had nine colours and every colour was like a huge lightning beast. It emitted a terrifying aura that did not belong to this world.

Chu Feng wasn’t really from the Chu family. He was an adopted son by “Chu Yuan”, the fifth oldest in the Chu family.

That caused Chu Feng to be pushed aside and to be humiliated at a small age. If it wasn’t for Chu Yuan’s protection, he would have already been kicked out of the Chu family. Because of that, Chu Feng was very thankful towards Chu Yuan, and swore to become the pride of Chu Yuan and to win back some honor.

Five years ago, Chu Feng was exactly ten years old and it was the best age to train in the martial arts.

The him at that time had many expectations for training, because he felt that the time to prove himself had arrived.

However, he never would have thought after entering the Azure Dragon School for one month, lightning would strike his body and enter his dantian.

At first, Chu Feng even thought it was good luck, because when he started training, his speed of improvement was astonishing. In two short months, he arrived at the 2nd level of the Spirit realm.

That speed was completely abnormal, and because of that, Chu Feng didn’t dare to tell it to anyone so he hid his strength and continued training.

But the good scene did not last long. Just as Chu Feng thought he became a genius, change happened within his body.

Because of that change, it made it so his cultivation stopped and did not move forward, and he was labeled to have the most horrible talent of a lifetime.

*bzz*

At that time, the Saint Spirit Grass in Chu Feng’s hands was being refined and absorbed by his dantain.

His refining speed was extremely fast and it exceeded common sense. Normally, with Chu Feng’s strength, it would take at least one month to refine the Saint Spirit Grass.

However, looking at it now, it was already half-way refined just after a short while, and Chu Feng’s dantian that felt like a never-ending cave also had a feeling of being full.

*bzz* Suddenly, light floated over Chu Feng’s hand and the other half of the Saint Spirit Grass instantly disappeared.

Also, at the same time, everything changed in Chu Feng’s dantian.

The nine lightning beasts interwove with each other. It was hurriedly moving, and it was actually condensing. Finally, it turned into a pill-like object.

After the pill formed itself, endless spiritual energy surged out from it like a tide washing Chu Feng’s body. Very soonly, it permeated through his entire body.

*whoosh*

Chu Feng suddenly opened his eyes, and there were traces of lightning in them! An indescribable expression hung on his face.

“I succeeded. After five years, I finally succeeded.” Chu Feng was incomparably joyful. He jumped down from the bed, and as he walked around, he sized up his body.

In the journey of martial cultivation, the known realms were the following:

Spirit, Origin, Profound, and Heaven. Those were the four big realms, and every realm was divided into nine levels. To pass it within the confusion. There were people like that every year, but most of them ended with failures.

The thing worth mentioning though, was that there were also a small portion of 4th levels there. They were not mediocre people who trained slow, and in fact, some of them were even geniuses.

They intentionally waited until they were at the 4th level of the Spirit realm before participating in the inner disciple exam. The reason? For the reward.

When one reached the 3rd level, they could start training martial skills.

Martial skills were very strong attacking methods. Not only could they thoroughly display strength, they could also make people gain power that exceeded the limits of their body.

Because of that, martial skills were very precious, and even the rich and powerful families that has been existing for generations didn’t have them. That was the reason why all sorts of families had to send their young generations into various schools for cultivation.In every school, there were a large amount of martial skills, and within the Azure Dragon School, as long as you become an inner court disciple, you could start cultivating the martial skills.

Martial skills were also divided into ranks, and from the weakest to the strongest, there were nine ranks.

Within the inner court, the best martial skill book was only a rank 3 one.

But, within the annual inner disciple exam, the first person to pass it would get a rank 4 martial skill book.

That was why those people would rather train in the outer court and not enter the inner court. It was for the rank 4 martial skill book.

“Look, isn’t that Yang Tian Yu?”

“Waa, it really is him. He’s already at the 4th level of the Spirit rank by the age of thirteen. It seems like first place in this exam will be him.”

In the ocean of people, one young man grabbed people’s’ attention. To be more precise it was a boy.

There were dozens of thousands of disciples in the outer court and most of them were unknown characters. However, the focal figures that people paid attention to were mostly geniuses, in which this Yang Tian Yu was one of them.

“That may not be so. No matter how much aptitude Yang Tian Yu has, he is, at the end, a child. It would be very hard for him to get first.”

“There are many unknown talents in Azure Dragon School, and sometimes geniuses may not be able to beat the mediocre. For example, that Duan Yuxuan.” Another outer court disciple pointed with his fingers at a cold young man.

That person was called Duan Yuxuan. He has been in the Azure Dragon School for 6 years and he was also originally an unknown character.

But a few months ago, he unexpectedly defeated an inner disciple who was in the 4th level of the Spirit realm. Because of that, his name was widespread and he became the focal character of the outer court.

“Silence.” Suddenly, a loud and clear sound echoed.

Looking at the source, everyone couldn’t help but stare blankly. They saw a dozen or so silhouettes appear on the high platform in the hall.

Most of them were aged, old people, and they were the outer court elders. But not only was the leader young, she was even a beautiful female.

The female was wearing a red, skintight dress and it outlined her alluring curves. Especially under the dress, there were two straight, snow-white legs, and it could be said that they were perfect.

Not only was her body attractive, her appearance was also extremely lovely. With round eyes, red lips, and an oval face, it was just like a fox face.

She was the famous beauty elder of Azure Dragon School, Su Rou.

Su Rou was a top-class character. She entered the Azure Dragon School at the age of 10, entered the inner court at the age of 12, and became a core disciple at the age of 15.

But just as everyone were optimistic and thought that she would become Azure Dragon School’s #1 disciple, she suddenly became an elder.

No one had the inside information about this change, and up to today, it was still a mystery and it was discussed enthusiastically by people.

“Waa, it’s Su Rou! Wasn’t she supposed to be an elder in the inner court? Why did she come to the outer court?” With the appearance of Su Rou, all of the male disciples opened their mouths and some even drooled.

The outer court disciples were very young. Most of them were teenagers and some were even children. To them at their age, a mature female like Su Rou had the most charm.

Su Rou didn’t have the air of the elders as she charmingly smiled towards the crowd and said gently, “The exam rules are very simple. Enter the gate behind me and come out from the other gate. With that, you pass the exam.”

“The only difference is that the first person to pass will get a rank 4 skill book. You can’t even get this in the inner courts.”

“But something worth mentioning is that the person who is first this year will get another special reward.”

“Depending on one’s perspective, this reward could be even more precious than the previous one~” After saying that, Su Rou intentionally lengthened the intonation. The enchanting air filled the entire Hall.

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

...****************...

“What would it be?” Someone asked curiously.

“Elder Su Rou is giving her body?” Some were even shameless and had lewd thoughts.

Although Su Rou was an elder, she was only 20 years old. Compared to the old antiques, she was a lot more easy-going. Because of that, a lot of people didn’t worry at all when they talked like that.

Su Rou only smiled charmingly in response to the guesses of the crowd. She raised five slim fingers, then said, “Five Saint Spirit Grasses.”

“What? Five Saint Spirit Grasses?”

“I didn’t hear wrong did I? The reward are Saint Spirit Grasses, and five?” With those words, the main hall went into chaos and everyone could not remain calm.

Saint Spirit Grasses were extremely precious and even the Chu family could only give each person one per year.

To ordinary people, Saint Spirit Grasses were priceless treasures and some had not even seen it before.

Seeing that the Azure Dragon School could take out five of them, it was a huge temptation to the outer court disciples.

But for most of the people, they could only dream about it because they knew that they had no chance in getting those Saint Spirit Grasses.

However, to the disciples who were aiming to be the first, they were all eager to give it a try and they got even more excited.

Su Rou nodded with satisfaction as she saw the high-spirits of the disciples. Then, she waved her hand.

Behind her, rumbling noises came. The gate that was dozens of feet tall slowly opened.

“What are you waiting for? Don’t want to pass the exam?” Su Rou smiled beautifully as she looked at the disciples who were staring blankly.

“Go~~~~”

At that moment, endless cheers resonated and the tens of thousands outer court disciples were like wild horses who got rid of its reins as they all rushed towards the huge gate.

Chu Feng went along with the flow of people and continued forward. Finally, they entered a deep cave.

The cave was very vast but it was very dark in there. The field of vision was extremely low and people knew the danger of traps that could be triggered at any moment.

“Go! For the rank 4 skill, for the five Saint Spirit Grasses, go~~~”

But of course, there were some people that cared about money and didn’t care about their life. They knew that there was danger but they still went ahead by themselves and didn’t even look back. There was even quite a few of people who were like that.

*whoosh whoosh whoosh*

But after going ahead for a hundred meters, whooshing sounds came in front and endless amounts of silver needles were shot out from the wall, and they shot towards the crowds as if it was rain.

“Ah~~”

“Waa~~~~”

In an instant, all sorts of cries echoed. The disciples that rushed in front were caught off guard and over half of them fell.

Regardless, people still continued forward and they did not have any traces of retreating. They madly ran deeper into the cave.

Although the silver needle was strong, it wouldn’t kill, and they knew that. After all, it was only a mechanism and to the people at the 3rd level of the Spirit realm, they could dodge it as long as they were careful.

As they continued to go in deeper, the silver needles also got denser and denser and the people that they hit were usually caught off guard.

In situations like those, the crowds quickly distanced themselves. The people who were running at the front were no longer people who came hoping they would pass in the confusion. They were strong people such as Yang Tian Yu and Duan Yuxuan.

It had to be mentioned that those people were indeed not ordinary.

As they walked in the storm-like needles, they needed to be extremely careful.

But it was as though they were leveling the ground with their shoes and it didn’t look like they were running through mechanisms at all. They were simply people in a running race.

Chu Feng was always behind them in the Spirit realm army that consisted of people at the 3rd level. He did that for two reasons.

Firstly, he didn’t want to stand out.

Secondly, his situation was very special and he didn’t want to show his true strength too early.

That was why he was waiting for a chance where he could surpass everyone when no one was looking.

“Duan Yuxuan, you’re already so old yet you can’t even win a child like me in a race. Don’t you think it’s a bit embarrassing?”

“Hmph. Little brat, in the journey of martial cultivation, age doesn’t matter. Only strength does. If you want to boast then do that after you win.”

Let us travel through time a bit. There were only two shadows left in the very front. They were Duan Yuxuan and Yang Tian Yu.

Both of them were at the 4th level of the Spirit realm. One of them had outstanding talent, the other had plenty of experience. The two of them were fairly even and the tension between them got stronger and stronger.

It was because they knew that their largest competition was each other. As long as they win over their opponent, the prize for being first would belong to them.

“Huu~” Suddenly, a breeze of wind came from the front.

The two of them were surprised as they looked closely and they couldn’t help but slow down their paces. It was because dense fog appeared in front of them.

The cave was already dark, and with the fog it meant that their vision would be even poorer. With that, it also greatly increased the difficulty of dodging the mechanisms. Even if it was them, they needed to treat it carefully.

“Good chance.”

Just as everyone was slowing down, Chu Feng secretly rejoiced. He went forward in huge strides, and with a whoosh, his entire body was like an arrow leaving a bow as he flew forward.

*whoosh*

At that time, Duan Yuxuan was concentrating on dodging the silver needles. Suddenly, a black shadow flashed past him. Without giving any time for him to react, that person disappeared once again.

“Did I imagine it?”

With that, it made Duan Yuxuan feel quite a bit of shock. He thought it was Yang Tian Yu at the start, but he noticed that Yang Tian Yu was not far behind him. Then, he was distracted with his thoughts.

The person who successfully left everyone behind, Chu Feng, didn’t care about them that much as he increased his speed to the maximum.

After that long running, he didn’t feel any fatigue. The spiritual energy within his body was endless to take and it continuously surged from his dantian.

Not only that, his speed and strength, hearing and vision power all surpassed the people who were at the same level than him. At least it greatly surpassed Duan Yuxuan and Yang Tian Yu.

Chu Feng wasn’t too surprised at that chance because it was something special about him.

He already seen this specialness five years ago. From now on, his specialness returned and it gave him incomparable self-confidence because there was no one who could call themselves a genius in front of him anymore.

As he ran with flying speed, Chu Feng finally left the mechanism stage, exited the dark cave, and arrived in the middle of a wide hall.

At the end of the hall, there was a tall platform made out of stone. On top of the stone, there were several items. It was the rank 4 martial skill book and the five Spirit Saint Grasses.

Seeing those things, Chu Feng was a bit emotional. However, he didn’t not rush ahead. Rather, he looked at the stone doors on the side of the hall.

“So behind those are the legendary Fierce Beasts?” Chu Feng’s mouth curved up in expectation.

He knew that this exam just only started. The creatures that he was going to face were terrifying, blood-thirsty, ruthless creatures, called Fierce Beasts.

“Elder Su Rou look, this is too astonishing.”

“I’ve been guarding here for so many years, but this really is the first time that I’ve seen a disciple that passed through with such a speed.”

Within a mysterious stone room in the underground palace, an old elder was staring at a disordered stone and astonishment filled his gaze.

That was not a normal stone. It was a mechanism within the underground palace. The stone only disordered itself after a mechanism got triggered.

Looking at it, the entire stone was disordered. Which only meant one thing. Someone already passed the mechanism stage.

The fastest person to clear the mechanism stage took two hours from the past examinations. But currently, only one hour had passed.

This change grabbed everyone’s attention. The dozen or so elders in the stone room all gathered around and they were all very startled.

“It seems that there’s an interesting character within the outer court disciples this year.”

Su Rou also gathered over, and as she looked at the disordered stone, she nodded with satisfaction, “Since it’s like this, we can’t let him pass so easily. Let me make it more interesting.”

After saying that, she looked above the stone. There were three round stones embedded in the wall.

Suddenly, she smiled strangely, and hit the three stones with three bangs.

“Don’t touch it!” Seeing that, all of the elders there were alarmed.

But it was too late. At that time all three stones were already pressed by Su Rou.

“What? Didn’t you tell me that these stones would release the Fierce Beasts?” Looking at the elders in panic, Su Rou also felt that something was wrong.

“Those three stones do indeed release the Fierce Beasts, but they cannot be pressed at the same time.”

“If they are pressed at the same time, they will release all the imprisoned Fierce Beasts at the same time.”

“That would be thirty rank 2s, nine rank 3s, and one rank 4.” After saying that, Elder Li’s face was already pale and his voice was trembling a bit.

The elders that guarded there understood the Fierce Beasts very clearly.

They were ruthless and terrifying creatures, and they were many times stronger than the people who were at the same level.

Seeing so many Fierce Beasts being released at the same time, a round of slaughter could not be avoided.

To think of the tens of thousands of disciples in the underground palace being slaughtered by the Fierce Beasts was not a pleasant thought.

“Why did you not remind me earlier?”

At that time, Su Rou’s face also changed greatly. Her body rose and became the wind. When the stone doors opened, she already disappeared.

“Elder Li, what should we do?” Everyone’s gazes landed on this aged elder.

“What else can we do? Hurry and go help!” Elder Li bellowed angrily and rushed out.

...****************...