Chapter 0220: Heavenly Prodigy Academy

Chapter 0220: Heavenly Prodigy Academy

"This is a legend that my teacher told me," Pan Dawei said, picking up a piece of food with his chopsticks and eating gracefully. It was surprising to see how refined he could be at the dinner table, despite his size.

Du Gui finally swallowed what was in his mouth and said, "My teacher also told me a legend. He said that inside the Star Yang Treasure Tree, there is a hidden treasure."

Pan Dawei sighed softly and said, "These are all legends and cannot be verified. Even we cannot dive to the deepest parts of Ten Thousand Stars Lake. However, the old academy head once told me that there used to be a city at the bottom of the lake. For some reason, it sank below, and the dragon-ox is the guardian beast of the lake."

"I don't know if those old immortals were just making up stories to deceive us," Du Gui said with disdain. "I've lived by the Star Yang Treasure Tree for so many years and haven't found any treasure. There's nothing but leaves, not even a hint of treasure."

Pan Dawei frowned and said, "I actually believe the legend of the dragon-ox is real. There aren't many powerful Demon Beasts that dare to approach Ten Thousand Stars Lake. There haven't been any Demon Beasts nearby for some time now."

Qin Yun smiled and said, "The defenses of our Star Profound Martial Academy are strong, so it's normal that no Demon Beasts come near."

Pan Dawei shook his head and said, "No, it's not just that! Do you know that the Heavenly Profound Martial Academy and Ling Martial Academy have been attacked many times? The imperial cities have also been attacked multiple times. Even the Blue Spirit Star Palace was not spared and was besieged by several waves of powerful beast hordes."

"As for our Star Profound Martial Academy, Demon Beasts only came close during the Demon Beast tide. After that, nothing has happened. Now, both the Heavenly Profound and Ling Profound Martial Academies envy our tranquility here."

After finishing their meal, Qin Yun and Du Gui returned to the Star Yang Treasure Tree.

On the way, Qin Yun learned that Meng Feiling and the others had already gone to the Imperial City to join the King of Suppressing Demons' grand army and eliminate the demon beasts within the Tian Qin Empire.

Returning to the Star Yang Treasure Tree, Du Gui guided Qin Yun in practicing the Divine Control Technique and Jushensha, hoping that he would become a powerful divine killer in the future.

After two days of learning, Qin Yun had gained a lot of knowledge.

Du Gui knew that Qin Yun was eager to use the Diamond Spirit Marrow and didn't delay him any further.

In a secret room deep inside a tree hollow, Qin Yun placed a large vat in the middle of the room. Then, he put a large piece of beast skin under the vat.

The beast skin had runes on it, forming an array that could absorb the special spiritual energy inside the Star Yang Treasure Tree and condense it into spiritual liquid.

After activating the array on the beast skin, a vortex formed above the vat, resembling clouds and mist. After a while, many glistening drops of spiritual liquid fell.

Soon, the vat was full.

Qin Yun poured the Diamond Spirit Marrow into the vat and then got into it, starting to soak in the Diamond Spirit Marrow.

The Diamond Spirit Marrow was golden, like molten gold, and it dyed the entire vat of clear spiritual liquid golden as soon as it entered.

As Qin Yun soaked in the vat, he felt a sharp, stinging pain, but he could endure it. He had endured too much pain like this before, and gritting his teeth was enough to get through it...

Soaking in the Diamond Spirit Marrow could quickly temper the body, but the process was painful. After all, it was a fast track for cultivation and required some sacrifice.

At the seventh level of the Martial Body stage, the Golden Bone realm, the Golden Bone needed to be further refined to turn the golden bone energy into liquid, essentially condensing the Golden Bone Marrow. This was mainly used to nourish the Martial Soul, turning it into a Diamond Martial Soul.

Once the Martial Soul became a Diamond Martial Soul, it would be the eighth level of the Martial Body stage, allowing the Martial Soul to make the internal energy stronger.

Soaking in the vat, Qin Yun could feel his Golden Bone rapidly strengthening, especially the golden bone energy he released, which had become much darker in color.

"Is it because I have the Nine Yang Spirit Soul that I'm absorbing more potency from the Diamond Spirit Marrow?" Qin Yun secretly marveled. If that was the case, his improvement speed could be even faster.

After five days, the golden liquid in the vat had turned into ordinary water, indicating that the potency had been absorbed.

Qin Yun got out of the vat, poured out the water, and began to condense the spiritual liquid again to prepare for the next session.

"After soaking in another bottle of Diamond Spirit Marrow, I should be able to refine my Golden Bone to its peak!" He hadn't expected the effects to be so good.

As he had estimated, after soaking in another bottle of Diamond Spirit Marrow, he could condense the Golden Bone Marrow within his bones using the golden bone energy.

Due to the fact that he had cultivated the Xuan Huang Heart Sutra, his Diamond Bones also contained Xuan Huang Qi, making them even stronger.

"I have three Martial Souls, which makes cultivation challenging! I’ll focus on solidifying the Diamond Martial Soul in my heart first." To quickly condense the Diamond Bone Marrow, Qin Yun continued to soak in the large vat.

He still had three bottles of Diamond Spirit Marrow!

Now, he only needed three days to absorb one bottle.

"I've hit a bottleneck. After absorbing a large amount of Diamond Bone Marrow, my Martial Soul has reached its limit and can't absorb any more. It hasn't evolved into a Diamond Martial Soul yet." Qin Yun emerged from the vat and muttered to himself.

For now, he could only focus on refining the Yin-Yang Martial Soul in his Dan Tian and the Thunder Fire Martial Soul in his arm.

It took Qin Yun a few days to use up the remaining two bottles of Diamond Spirit Marrow.

The three Martial Souls in his body had all reached their limits and couldn’t evolve into Diamond Martial Souls. He wasn’t sure what the issue was.

"I'm just one step away from the eighth level of the Martial Body realm!" Although Qin Yun hadn't broken through yet, he couldn't help but feel excited.

His Martial Souls were all of high grade, and once they became Diamond Martial Souls, his inner strength would be incredibly powerful, far surpassing others at the same level of the eighth Martial Body realm.

After coming out of seclusion, Qin Yun went to find Du Gui.

Du Gui was standing under the Star Yang Treasure Tree, wearing a rough linen outfit, with his eyes closed. He sensed Qin Yun coming out of the cave and opened his eyes.

"Teacher, I've hit a bottleneck. My Martial Soul can't absorb any more Diamond Bone Marrow, and it won't evolve into a Diamond Martial Soul." As soon as Qin Yun saw Du Gui, he asked urgently.

Du Gui already knew that there was nothing wrong with Qin Yun's Martial Soul. His spiritual energy was so powerful that he could sense the fluctuations of Qin Yun's Martial Soul. He wasn't surprised.

"You've reached a critical point. You need to comprehend the spirit of your Martial Soul. Unify your mental spirit with the spirit of the Martial Soul and achieve a spiritual resonance. Only then can your Martial Soul acknowledge you and evolve into a Diamond Martial Soul."

"Once the Martial Soul evolves, it can leave your body and be exposed to the outside, which carries great risks. The Martial Soul has its own spirituality, and you need to guide it to make that decision."

After listening to Du Gui, Qin Yun fell into deep thought. It wasn't as easy as he had imagined to break through to the eighth Martial Body realm, but he now had a direction.

"Don't be too hasty! You've only recently entered the seventh Martial Body realm, and reaching the peak of the seventh realm so quickly is already very fast, especially since you're only sixteen years old." Du Gui smiled and said, "It's better to improve steadily."

Qin Yun nodded.

Du Gui said, "There's something you might not be interested in, but I have to tell you. The three Xuan-level Martial Courts will jointly establish the Heavenly Prodigy Academy with the Blue Spirit Star Palace. It will focus on cultivating genius students."

"That sounds awesome! Can I join?" Qin Yun's eyes lit up, and he smiled.

Du Gui didn't expect Qin Yun to be so enthusiastic and continued, "The Heavenly Prodigy Academy will bring in mentors from the three Xuan-level Martial Courts and the Blue Spirit Star Palace. These mentors are at the Martial Dao realm! However, there are some conflicts between you and the Heavenly Profound Martial Court, Ling Martial Court, and Blue Spirit Star Palace."

"Because our Star Profound Martial Court has such a good environment, the Heavenly Prodigy Academy will be located here. An academy has already been set up, and students from the other Martial Courts and the Blue Spirit Star Palace will arrive soon."

Qin Yun became even more interested and said, "Will there be duels? I’m really looking forward to seeing how strong I am now."

Du Gui shook his head and said, "I'm not sure how the Heavenly Prodigy Academy will operate; I haven't looked into it. It's fine if you want to go. If it doesn't work out, you can always leave. I did hear that if you perform well in the Heavenly Prodigy Academy, you can earn Xuan points as rewards. Also, you'll need to go out with the mentors to kill Demon Beasts, which carries some risk."

Qin Yun decided to go and asked about the location of the Heavenly Prodigy Academy before returning to change into a white outfit. He then headed west of the Star Profound Martial Court.

On the west side, there was a long-abandoned courtyard across a river, which could be seen after crossing a bridge.

The courtyard had been abandoned for many years but had been renovated and looked brand new. At the entrance, there was a plaque with the three large characters "Heavenly Prodigy Academy."

To enter the Heavenly Prodigy Academy, certain conditions had to be met. First, one needed to have the seventh Martial Body realm cultivation, and they had to be under twenty-five years old. Qin Yun met all these conditions.

The Heavenly Prodigy Academy was an expansive complex, with elegant pavilions and a massive Martial Arts Field over a hundred meters wide. In the middle of the field, many students were gathered in groups, engaging in lively discussions about their achievements and challenges.

As soon as Qin Yun entered, he saw Xiao Yanglong wearing dazzling blue armor!

Xiao Yanglong had reached the Martial Dao stage, and he was the top disciple of the Blue Spirit West Palace. His presence here meant that he was very likely to become a mentor.

Xiao Yanglong also noticed Qin Yun's entrance!

"Brother Qin, you're finally here." Huo Zhong grinned and jogged over, dressed in black armor that gave off an impressive and commanding presence.

Murong Daren was also here, dressed in the luxurious blue robes of the Blue Spirit Star Palace, holding a folding fan as he smiled and walked towards Qin Yun.

Qin Yun's arrival caused the other students and disciples of the Blue Spirit Star Palace to fall silent. Many of them had never met Qin Yun but had heard of his astonishing deeds.

"Huo Third Brother, Murong Second Brother, you're both here too! Where’s Elder Xie? Isn’t he coming?" Qin Yun asked with a smile, noticing that both of them had broken through to the seventh level of the Martial Body stage.

Huo Zhong laughed and said, "Elder Xie is very powerful now, having become a Blue Spirit Saint and gone out to hunt spirit beasts."

Murong Daren said in a low voice, "Brother Qin, Xiao Yanglong and those from the Ling Martial Academy are really out for you!"

Qin Yun had killed the crown prince of the Tianling Empire, whose grandfather was the deputy head of the Ling Martial Academy and held significant status there, so it was no surprise they were after him.

Xiao Yanglong, seeing Qin Yun's arrival, turned cold, his eyes filled with murderous intent, and didn’t say a word. He was the one who hated Qin Yun the most here.

Over the next two days, Qin Yun hung out with Huo Zhong and Murong Daren while waiting for the Heavenly Prodigy Academy to officially open.

More students kept arriving, bringing the total to around two hundred, all at least at the seventh level of the Martial Body stage, with about ten at the eighth level.

There were fifty mentors, all at the Martial Dao stage, which showed just how important the Heavenly Prodigy Academy was.

What really caught Qin Yun off guard was that the youngest mentor wasn’t Xiao Yanglong, but Lan Fengjin, who had also shown up.