Jin Nation Academy.

Everyone couldn’t help but stare at the middle-aged man who had just appeared.

“Greetings, Academy Master!”

They greeted him.

He was the Academy Master of Jin Nation Academy, Li Mocheng.

He had an extremely high status that was not inferior to the king of Jin Nation. In the Ten Nations, he was actually superior to the Jin Nation’s king.

It was because most of the geniuses of Jin Nation were trained by him, including Sikong Jiantian, who was his personal disciple.

“Forgo the formality.”

Li Mocheng immediately said.

Staring at the thousands of people, he took out three incense sticks and stuck them into the incense burner under the altar.

He said slowly, “The Ten Nations Academy assessment is about to begin. The first round is the True Demon Mystic Realm, and in order to let you familiarize yourselves with it, I and other elders of the academy have jointly set up an Essence Demon Mystic Realm.”

“Although this Essence Demon Mystic Realm is not comparable to the True Demon Mystic Realm, it will achieve about a third of the effects. There will be an Essence Demon in this Essence Demon Mystic Realm.”

“This Essence Demon is extremely brutal but it is sentient. If it senses that you guys are very strong, it will try to deceive you, gain your trust, and then suddenly attack and kill you while your guard is lowered.”

“So, when you enter the mystic realm later, you mustn’t trust the Essence Demon.”

“In addition, if you can not fight it, you must retreat immediately. Essence Demons are extremely ferocious and brutal. They don’t feel pain, so once they start being brutal, no one can suppress them.”

“Every time the Essence Demon Mystic Realm opens, there will be disciples who will be seriously injured, and many have also died in the mystic realm, so don’t push yourself too hard if you can’t defeat it. Being reckless only means you are stupid, no one will think you are brave, do you understand?”

Li Mocheng, the academy master, instructed as he stared at the thousands of disciples with a solemn and firm expression.

He was cautioning them not to be reckless or impulsive, and admonishing them to quit if they couldn’t defeat the Essence Demon and let someone else over. Dying in the mystic realm was not an act of bravery but foolishness.

“We understand.”

The disciples chorused in unison after Li Mocheng said that.

“Good. Disciples who want to challenge the Essence Demon Mystic Realm, come forth to collect your token for the mystic realm.”

Li Mocheng waved his hand, and hundreds of mystic realm ancient tokens floated in the air.

Some among the thousands of disciples soon walked out.

The Essence Demon Mystic Realm was so dangerous that it could only be challenged by true geniuses.

Those who dared to challenge it would earn the admiration of the crowd regardless of whether they won or lost.

The first to come out were five people.

There were four men and one woman.

Fang Lei was among them.

His gaze was full of confidence and he was sauntering over, as if he had no fear of the Essence Demon Mystic Realm.

The remaining four people, too, were all true elites as they all seemed extremely confident.

In particular, one of the women was attracting the attention of the people.

The woman was clad in a long blue dress and holding a blue flying sword in her hand, looking extremely beautiful. She was Duanmu Yun, a popular figure of Jin Nation Academy who belonged to a family who had thousands of years of heritage in Jin Nation Academy. She was the eldest daughter of the third generation and had excellent aptitude and talent. In the Jin Nation Academy, she was at the top and seemed to be about to become the best.

The remaining three were not ordinary people either. Walking side by side, they were full of battle intent.

“Duanmu Yun, I advise you not to participate. The Essence Demon has an extremely tough physical body, but you don’t focus on physical cultivation. Don’t end up going in and getting beaten up into a pulp. Getting beaten up isn’t that serious, but it’ll be a terrible loss if your pretty face gets disfigured.”

Someone spoke up. It was a man in black who was smiling.

Duanmu Yun retorted, “Instead of worrying about me, why don’t you worry about yourselves? You guys are only at the perfected Foundation Establishment realm now. A bunch of good-for-nothings.”

It was true that her physical body was not strong, but she had already condensed a pseudo core and could be considered a half-step Golden Core cultivator. As long as she wanted to, she would be able to condense the Golden Core at any time.

Hearing this mockery, Fang Lei spoke up too.

“If the realm can represent everything, what do we need geniuses for?”

“You may now be a half-step Golden Core realm cultivator, but as long as I want to, I can condense the Golden Core at any time too. I just don’t want to break through to the Golden Core realm so soon.”

Fang Lei’s voice was calm as he answered Duanmu Yun. He wasn’t being sarcastic either.

“You can condense the Golden Core immediately. I don’t need to break through, I can suppress you with one hand.”

Duanmu Yun immediately said.

She was domineering and seemed to be a tough and assertive woman.

“There’s no need for that. How about we have a fight after the challenge in the Essence Demon Mystic Realm?”

The man in black also interjected in a calm but straightforward tone.

“Sure!”

The four of them chorused.

That was the competition between geniuses where no one was willing to admit defeat to anyone.

Not far away, the senior members of the academy saw everything.

No one tried to stop them or persuade them. In fact, they were even happy to see this kind of fight.

It was because only through fighting could there be outstanding geniuses. If one remained status quo and chose not to fight, they would all be unambitious and the Jin Nation would never be able to become stronger.

It was a good thing for there to be fights and a thirst for more. As long as there were no casualties or severe injuries, bickering and competition were normal.

Soon, the five of them stopped in front of Li Mocheng and each bowed to him respectfully.

After doing so, each of them received a mystic realm ancient token that had a number on the back. They then entered according to the number.

Fang Lei was lucky enough to have drawn token No. 1. Hence, he could be the first to enter the Essence Demon Mystic Realm.

“Brother Fang Lei, you must be careful.”

Someone cautioned Fang Lei.

However, the latter looked incredibly confident and arrived at the altar.

Fang Lei was absolutely confident that he would be able to kill the Essence Demon with a single punch later.

“You’re so inexperienced!”

At the next moment, Li Mocheng, the academy master, didn’t say much nonsense either and simply released a ray of spiritual light.

In an instant, a void crack appeared on top of the altar.

Soon, Fang Lei walked into the crack confidently.

Just like that…

At the rear cliff of Qingyun Dao Sect.

After Ye Ping comprehended the spatial array pattern, the stones suddenly vibrated.

Immediately afterwards, Ye Ping’s figure disappeared right on the spot.

Soon, he was a little surprised when he opened his eyes.

The surroundings resembled a gladiator arena as it was vast and empty, looking rather eerie.

“Did I succeed?”

Ye Ping was a little surprised because he didn’t expect his first attempt at breaking a spatial array formation to be successful.

‘But… where is this?’

After coming back to his senses, Ye Ping couldn’t help but look around and scrutinize his surroundings carefully.

He was unsure of where he was.

However, at this moment, a figure dashed over.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The ground started quaking. The figure was several feet tall and humanoid, but it looked extremely peculiar as it was shrouded in black light and had bloodshot eyes while charging towards Ye Ping.

“This is bad.”

Ye Ping instantly moved backwards by dozens of steps. He did not know where he had been sent to, but he didn’t waste his breath on any nonsense and instead launched the Golden Wheel of Expiation immediately.

He wanted to expiate the monster.

However, unfortunately, the Golden Wheel of Expiation could not expiate the monster in front of him.

“Is this not a demon? It’s not a resentful spirit either, right?”

Ye Ping frowned.

However, there was no time to think more as the humanoid monster started charging towards him again.

“It happens that I can use it to test my cultivation level.”

Looking at the ferocious beast that was charging at him, Ye Ping immediately raised his fist and tried to kill it.

Ye Ping’s physical body was the Little Godfiend Body.

Although he did not know any profound punching techniques, there were some basic inheritances in the Ancient Godfiend Technique.

His ancient punch caused the entire arena to shake.

A dragon roar sounded as Ye Ping struck with all his might. His physical body was extremely terrifying.

The mere punch directly smashed the demon into bits.

In an instant, the demonic creature turned into clouds of smoke and disappeared on the spot.

“What is this thing?”

“Where exactly is this?”

Ye Ping frowned, clueless as to where he was.

However, at this moment, a crack appeared.

Afterwards, a figure slowly appeared too.