Chapter 388 - Stealing Spirituality

Within the large hall, all was quiet as Dean Tai Cang and the Elders looked at the glowing Spiritual Energy screen, where the scene happening in the Freshman region was displayed. Obviously, the commotion that happened there had caught their eyes.

“That little fella...”

Focusing on the figure of Mu Chen displayed within the glowing Spiritual Energy screen, Dean Tai Cang finally gave a soft laugh with the feeling of a heavy weight having been lifted off his shoulders.

Ever since he gave Mu Chen the condition of breaking through to Heavenly Completion Stage within a month, he had been secretly observing the former. With Mu Chen’s strength then, breaking through to Heavenly Completion Stage within a month was a rather difficult task to accomplish.

This would also make him feel extremely pressed.

Dean Tai Cang wanted to see the decisions that Mu Chen would make when he was forced into such a pressing situation. When Mu Chen had sought Ling Xi’s help, he and the other Elders were slightly astonished. However, the cultivation method that he had used afterwards had caused their hearts to sink down a little.

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

The path that led to one becoming a true expert was filled with too many thorns and torments. However, of the people that were able to finally walk out of this path, every single one of them were tenacious in spirit. Regardless of any situation they were in, they weren’t people that would give up so easily.

The the Dao of cultivation, practising by oneself was the righteous path. As for those that were similar to how Mu Chen was relying on Ling Xi’s Spiritual Energy to cultivate, they had diverged to the wrong fork in the road. Perhaps, it was able to allow for his strength to rapidly increase in a short period of time. However, in the distant future, this malpractice would become a heart demon in Mu Chen’s path towards becoming a true expert.

If he continued cultivating using such a method, it would have an extremely huge impact on his future accomplishments.

During the past few days, even Hall Master Mo You and the other Heavenly Seated Elders were unable to endure Mu Chen’s continuation with this cultivation method so much so that they thought of forcefully intervening. However, they were restrained by Dean Tai Cang. In such a matter, if Mu Chen was able to comprehend the consequences by himself, it would have a beneficial effect of greatly increasing his mental state. If others were to butt in and interfere, it would not lead to such a perfect ending.

However, even Dean Tai Cang was unsure if Mu Chen was capable of giving up on the lure of drastically increasing his strength that this way of cultivation provided.

As they quietly watched, time went on, continuing for half a month. However, during the half a month, as Mu Chen’s strength rapidly increased, the disappointment within their eyes slowly piled up and up.

If Mu Chen was any other ordinary student, they might not have cared so much about him. However, the current Mu Chen could be considered to have exceeded Shen Cangsheng and become the most outstanding student in their Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. There were only an extreme few in the earlier batches that were able to compare to him. In fact, he might have even walked much farther than them on the path towards becoming an expert.

Therefore, they had extremely high anticipation and expectations towards Mu Chen. Nevertheless, those expectations started to dissipate, little by little...

All of these feelings lasted till Mu Chen suddenly stopped that cultivation method two days ago...

“That’s a hard decision to make. I’ve even assumed that he would sink deeper and deeper...” Hall Master Mo You exhaled a breath, before sighing in admiration as he spoke out. In accordance to the rate Mu Chen was progressing in that cultivation technique, he might’ve been able to break through to Heavenly Completion Stage in a few more days. However, who would have expected that Mu Chen would actually put it to a halt at the most critical moment.

“However, Ling Xi is really reckless...she had actually used such a method. Exactly what relationship does she have with Mu Chen?” Frowning, Elder Zhu Tian asked.

Ling Xi’s method had eliminated some of the negative influences that might affect Mu Chen on his walk along the path of cultivation, and was completely on the level of hurting herself to benefit others. Such a thing was obviously exceedingly inconceivable to the Heavenly Seated Elders. Furthermore, with Ling Xi and her famous cold and detached personality, she had never once interfered with any matter of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. Only when the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy needed to construct Spiritual Arrays and under the behest of Dean Tai Cang would she give a little bit of face and take action. However, now...

With regards to this, Dean Tai Cang could only shake his head. Ling Xi’s history was already extremely mysterious. However, all in all, this was of no harm to their Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. Speaking out, he said, “Ling Xi’s too young. Although she’s extremely strong, she’s lacking in experience, compared to you guys. She’s not to blame for this matter. As of now, let’s allow Mu Chen to continue cultivating at her place. I think that the previous matter should not happen again.”

“Then, if Mu Chen really breaks through to Heavenly Completion Stage, would you still allow him to participate in the Divine Spiritual Mountain?” asked Hall Master Mo You.

“Compared to the most elite of the younger generation in the Northern Heavens Continent, a Heavenly Completion Stage Initial Phase still has quite a bit of disparity. Although Mu Chen cannot be judged by the book, this is still an extremely important and yet dangerous occasion to participate in,” added Elder Zhu Tian in a deep voice.

“There’s still half a year left before the start of the Great Academy Competition...If something happens to Mu Chen before that, it would be too great of a loss for us.”

With a bitter laugh, Elder Zhu Tian continued speaking, “Furthermore, the elimination rate of our Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy in the past two Great Academy Competitions had exceeded 80%. According to the rules, this doesn’t meet the standards. If this was to happen again in this upcoming one, there might be people that would take advantage of this to snatch away our title as one of the Five Great Academies. After all, the Saint Spirit Academy has always disliked us. Furthermore, there’re quite a few strong and powerful academies that are eying us covetously...”

This caused a few Elders to turn quiet. Within the Five Great Academies, their Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy was ranked last, and had comparatively weaker backgrounds than the other four. The absolute majority of the reason why the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy was able to become one of the Five Great Academies was due to the strength of Lord Northern Sea Dragon. However, if they weren’t able to produce adequate results, their title would be stripped. Even Lord Northern Sea Dragon wasn’t able to do anything about that. Furthermore, they didn’t have the face to use that as a point to threaten others...

With a single statement of saying that their students were being deficient and that their academy was being incapable, it was already enough to stuff their mouths full.

“Hmph! For the sake of recruiting students with special and distinguished talent, the Saint Spiritual Academy had relied on some unscrupulous methods. They have even interfered with the Spiritual Road. At that time, when they had settled on Ji Xuan, they had secretly provided help, letting Luo Li face some life-threatening situations. They had also forced Mu Chen to turn into that Blood Calamity of the Spiritual Road, causing a massacre which resulted in him being kicked of out there...” said Hall Master Mo You with a cold snort, appearing exceedingly discontent with the Saint Spiritual Academy.

“There’s still...Shen Cangsheng, Li Xuantong and the rest of those on the Heavenly Rankings. They are good seedlings, and the matter with Mo Longzi this time had quite a big impact on them...”

Slightly narrowing his eyes, Dean Tai Cang gentle dispelled that thought with his hands as he said, “The matter of the Divine Spiritual Mountain would have to see if Mu Chen is able to break through to Heavenly Completion Stage within the remaining time. As for Shen Cangsheng and the rest, I’ve my own plans for them. For those children, if we give them some time, what would the most elite in the younger generation of the Saint Spiritual Academy be compared to them?”

Upon hearing Dean Tai Cang’s words, Mo You, Elder Zhu Tian and the other Elder didn’t continue speaking and nodded their heads in approval.

...

The next day, Mu Chen appeared once again on the quiet and secluded mountain peak where Ling Xi lived. At that place, Ling Xi was already waiting for him. Upon seeing his figure, a smile surfaced on Ling Xi’s beautiful face.

“I assumed that you’d not come.”

Mu Chen tilted his head in slight displeasure.

“I’m sorry. I’ve not considered much for this matter.” Looking at Mu Chen, Ling Xi spoke out in a soft voice. Although her experience and wisdom truly was not comparable the Heavenly Seated Elders of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, whom have cultivated for many, many years, being a person on the same level as them, she had sensed the malpractice her method would bring to Mu Chen after calming down and thinking it over after the scene that happened yesterday.

“I’m the one who put forth the request, so I’m the one that needs to apologize,” said Mu Chen while shaking his head. Although this matter had narrowly caused a great deal of trouble for him, it was still a good matter, all in all. His cultivation since coming to the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy had increased too quickly, with his mental state of mind having some fluctuations after achieving victory. This time could be considered as a method to temper his mental state, and allowed him to control his true heart.

A faint smile appeared on Ling Xi’s face as she replied, “For the sake of compensation, I’ll do my best to help you. Naturally, I’ll not use that method again.”

Looking at Ling Xi’s beautiful smile, Mu Chen’s finally relaxed his heart. With a smile, he said, “As long as it’s not the fusion of Spiritual Energy, I quite like any other method similar to that.”

Ling Xi immediately gawked, before a faint shade of red appeared on her beautiful face. Gently pursing her lips, she replied him with a smile, “Are you trying to take liberties with your Elder Sister?”

“My mistake, my mistake. Let’s start.” Giving a dry cough, Mu Chen hastily changed the topic.

Ling Xi shot a displeased glare at Mu Chen, before walking towards the back of the mountain, with Mu Chen rapidly in tow. After nearly ten minutes, they stopped at a spacious clearing behind the mountain.

Upon arriving here, Mu Chen shot an astonished look at the sky, noticing the faint feelings of distortion happening there. Faintly, he was seemingly able to see the complicated intertwinement of countless glowing threads, as well as the presence of Spiritual Array fluctuations.

Furthermore, Mu Chen was able to feel that the Spiritual Aura of the world seemed to be exceedingly thick and dense in this place. In fact, there were condensations of Spiritual Energy found on the tree leaves in the vicinity, while a dense fog covered their surroundings.

“The Spiritual Aura here...” Mu Chen spoke out as he looked towards Ling Xi in astonishment.

“You should know that the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy has an 8th grade Congregation Spiritual Array, right?” replied Ling Xi with a faint smile.

Knowing about that, Mu Chen nodded his head. 8th grade Spirit Convergence Array. That was an extremely frightening thing. Within the entire Northern Heavens Continent, it might be the only one of its kind. However, since entering the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, Mu Chen had yet to see that Spiritual Array. It’s said that the 8th grade Spirit Convergence Array wasn’t open to students, and was hidden within the deepest part of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy.

Could it be that the 8th grade Spiritual Array was at this place?

“The Spiritual Aura of the world present in the entire Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy is supplied by the 8th grade Spirit Convergence Array. Therefore, it can be said that it is the lifeblood of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, and can be considered as the academy’s most important thing. Other than special circumstances, it will absolutely not be opened up.” Ling Xi started her explanation.

Mu Chen got a flash of understand. That’s why he had never heard of anyone truly being able to enter the rumoured 8th grade Spirit Convergence Array.

“This place is...” said Mu Chen as he looked doubtfully at Ling Xi. Since the 8th grade Spirit Convergence Array won’t open up, why did Ling Xi explain all this to him?

“Indeed, the 8th grade Spirit Convergence Array cannot be opened. However...I’m able to use some methods to steal some of the Spiritual Aura from inside it,” replied Ling Xi with a sweet smile.

“Steal some?” Now Mu Chen’s eyes had sprung wide open. How was she able to do that?

“After staying in the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy for so long, the only thing that has some interest to me is that 8th grade Spirit Convergence Array. After researching for some time, although I’m unable to completely control it, I can feel and tweak some of its principles and functions. Therefore, stealing some Spiritual Aura from it isn’t considered too difficult for me.”

Placing her hands behind her back, Ling Xi tilted her head as she looked at Mu Chen. As she did so, her black hair slipped off her shoulder like a waterfall, accentuating her beauty to soul-stirring levels. At this moment, while looking at Mu Chen with her beautiful eyes, a sweet smile appeared on her face.

“This way, can it be considered as genuine cultivation? You won’t reject this, right?”