Chapter 1184: Rewards

The void rippled, and four figures walked out of it. They all possessed terrifying presences. Some also had clearly visible injuries as they had just been involved in an intense battle.

These four were the vice principals of the Heavenly Origin Ancient College.

All of them were Kings.

Earlier, they were caught up in a fight against the King-level subordinates of the All-Beings Devil King. That was why they were injured.

Amongst them was a young lady in blue armor and golden boots. She gave off a heroic and awe-inspiring presence.

It was none other than Vice Principal Lan Lingzi.

The Lan Lingzi that Li Luo had encountered at the college was just a skin clone made by the All-Beings Devil King. The one right here was the real deal.

"Congratulations, Principal. You've severed a crown of the All-Beings Devil King," said a man that stood tall like an iron tower. His upper body was exposed and glittered with raven light, making it resemble black iron. He had multiple scars, and each of them radiated terrifying energy waves. This was Han Yue, another vice principal of the Heavenly Origin Ancient College.

Wang Xuanjin barely showed any signs of happiness on his face. He simply replied, "I can't take much credit. It was all due to the students' contributions in the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm. They were able to distract the All-Beings Devil King. If they hadn't destroyed that strand of its will, I wouldn't have been able to exploit the All-Beings Devil King's weakness with the Heaven Illuminating Mirror."

Lan Lingzi looked a little down and frustrated. "It's all my fault. I accidentally allowed the All-Beings Devil King to get a piece of skin from me. This allowed it to create a clone of me and fool the other two vice principals, luring all the students into the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm."

Clearly, she had learned about the All-Beings Devil King's scheme.

Wang Xuanjin waved his hand and smiled at her. "The All-Beings Devil King is very crafty and his methods are hard to counter. If even I didn't see through its plan, how can we blame you? Besides, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. If it hadn't gotten a piece of your skin and fooled Wu Yu and the others, we might not have reached a conclusion in this battle even now."

"Oh?" Lan Lingzi was a little surprised to hear this. The other three vice principals didn't understand him either.

Wang Xuanjin grinned lightly. "Do you know who contributed the most to the mobilization mission?"

"It was one of the two top students from either of the ancient colleges’ Heavenly Star Hall, right?" Vice Principal Han Yue responded.

Lan Lingzi's eyes moved a little. "I heard that the Hallowed Coruscation Ancient College has an elite student with dual ninth-grade light resonances. Could it have been her?"

"Dual ninth-grade light resonances?" the other vice principals exclaimed in surprise. It was extremely rare for anyone below the Duke Stage to possess dual ninth-grade resonances, let alone two of the same.

Such a person was simply born to destroy the Others.

Wang Xuanjin laughed. "The maiden with the dual ninth-grade light resonances is indeed spectacular. In the future, she'll definitely be an indomitable force that will shake up the shadow world. However, there's another fellow that outshone her. He is the one who defeated the strand of will of the All-Beings Devil King."

Wang Xuanjin pointed his finger at a glowing spot of light. The light expanded and transformed into a screen with the image of Li Luo.

He was still in a daze. A girl was holding him tightly with a worried look on her charming face. At the same time, another girl with long, crimson hair had cut open her own wrist and was dripping her blood into his mouth.

"This brat is Li Luo. He's only a nine-pearl, but he can control the power of a spirit beast at the Duke Stage," Wang Xuanjin explained.

"The power of a spirit beast? Didn't the All-Beings Devil King try to corrupt him?" one of the vice principals asked. They knew what the All-Beings Devil King was like and its powers. Under its watch, the violent nature of the spirit beast’s power would be amplified severalfold. How could a nine-pearl student like Li Luo resist such strong corruption of both mind and body?

"Principal, did you give him a hand?" Lan Lingzi asked.

Wang Xuanjin smiled. "I did help him neutralize the effect of the All-Beings Devil King's corruption. However, this was after he resisted the first attempt. If not, I wouldn't have made it in time."

"How did he do it?" the other vice principals asked curiously.

"He has three resonant palaces and six resonances. One of his secondary resonances is a light resonance. He made use of some secret art to convert the spirit beast’s power into light resonant power, resisting the initial tide of vicious corruption," Wang Xuanjin explained.

"He possesses a strong will and is also quite smart. What an interesting way of achieving this." Lan Lingzi said. Wang Xuanjin had made Li Luo’s accomplishments sound simple, but they all understood how challenging it was to pull off. An ordinary individual would not be able to do the same.

At this point, they recalled something as well and asked in harmony, "Is he a student from the Hallowed Coruscation Ancient College?"

They knew that no student in the Heavenly Origin Ancient College had three resonant palaces and six resonances.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Wang Xuanjin shook his head. "He's not from the Hallowed Coruscation Ancient College. He's also not a student from the Heavenly Origin Ancient College."

The four vice principals were slightly taken aback.

Wang Xuanjin looked at Lan Lingzi and grinned. "He's from the Astral Sage College."

The other three vice principals looked at each other in confusion. A student from a sage college? Why had he taken part in the mobilization mission of their ancient college?

Lan Lingzi was stunned for a few moments before she exclaimed out loud, "Isn’t the Astral Sage College where Old Pang is Principal? Isn't that in an outer divine continent?"

She then figured out why this had occurred after figuring out the time of year. "Were they at the Heavenly Origin Ancient College because of the Academic Evaluation?"

Wang Xuanjin smiled. "The All-Beings Devil King wanted those students' skins as tributes as well. Hence, he created a clone of you and tricked them into this."

The vice principals looked at each other strangely. If the All-Beings Devil King knew that the fellow who had foiled its plan had been summoned into the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm only because of its fake mobilization mission, how furious would it be?

Lan Lingzi recalled that the old fellow had gotten himself into quite a bit of trouble. The Umbra Cave that the Astral Sage College was in charge of had gotten out of control, and he had been sealed inside there ever since.

She could not help but sigh. That stubborn old man... Unfortunately, the Heavenly Origin Ancient College was in trouble themselves. The problem with the All-Beings Devil King had been resolved, but there was still a list of other equally crucial issues waiting in line to be dealt with. All the vice principals had been working hard, and they could barely spare any time to travel to the outer divine continent and to assist the Astral Sage College.

She could only pray that Pang Qianyuan could endure just a little longer.

"I will ask Wu Yu and Qing Man to allocate more resources to the Astral Sage College later," Wang Xuanjin said. He clearly knew what was on Lan Lingzi's mind.

She nodded slightly and stopped worrying. Then she looked over at the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm and asked, "The students have contributed greatly to the success of this mission. Now that it's completed, we should reward them handsomely."

Wang Xuanjin explained, "The Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm will provide a large amount of cultivation resources to the Heavenly Origin Ancient College. They will definitely get their fair share.

"The exceptional students should be rewarded as well."

He stared at the fainted Li Luo on the screen. He pondered for a moment before continuing, "There are ten strands of Worldly Source Energy in the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm. We can take one out and split it amongst them based on their contributions. What do you think?"

Hearing this, even Lan Lingzi was a little moved.

"Rewarding them with Worldly Source Energy? Isn't that a..." Vice Principal Han Yue could not help but say. However, he did not finish the sentence with "waste of resources." After all, the students had put themselves in immense peril for the college.

The other vice principals did not say anything, but they all had the same thought in their minds. Worldly Source Energy was an exquisite and valuable resource; it was something that even Kings would like to get their hands on. This was a prerequisite to break into the King Stage, and giving a strand to the students would undoubtedly incite unrest amongst the Dukes with the potential to reach the King Stage.

Wang Xuanjin smiled slightly. "The Emperor should not let his soldiers starve. If we are stingy with rewards after all the dangers they've gone through, it'll be a little demoralizing."

Seeing how Wang Xuanjin had already decided on it, the other four vice principals simply nodded.

"Let's do that, then."

Wang Xuanjin beamed. He lifted his fingers and lightly flicked at the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm. At the next moment, the other Kings in the area noticed strands of mysterious smoke rising around the small world space.

The smoke was barely noticeable to Dukes; only Kings could see it.

The smoke rose up and gathered in the sky above the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm.

Wang Xuanjin pressed his hand down, then beams of light flew down and landed in the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm like a meteor shower.

Each of the meteors landed on a student.

The one that shone the brightest landed on Li Luo.