Chapter 99: Beginning of the End of Year Exams!
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The end of year examination for first-year students was not very different this year compared to prior years.
There was a mantra that had begun circulating in the school a long time ago:
First and second-year students dealt with wild beasts.
Third and fourth-year students dealt with mosquitoes.
Fifth-year students dealt with beautiful women.
As for wild beasts, this was, of course, referring to the Myriad Mountain Realm in the Kingdom of the Nine States.
All sorts of ferocious beasts inhabited the realm, with ma.s.s outbreaks of wild beasts from time to time attacking the Stone Dragon State, which was the southernmost state of the Kingdom of the Nine States.
Human cultivators were, of course, no slouches themselves, often organizing large hunting parties to hunt for beasts in the mountains.
Some mutant beasts were like walking treasure troves, all their body parts were fantastic raw materials for pill and tool refinement.
It was killing two birds with one stone, not only were they exterminating threats to the nearby inhabitants, but there was profit to be gained as well.
As for the mosquitoes, these were not normal mosquitoes… This was the nickname the students had for those of the Blood Tribe…
The Blood Tribe was located in a vast expanse of dark marshlands in the southwest region of the Tai Chu Continent.
They enjoyed feeding on the blood of cultivators. Could the cultivators tolerate this?
Of course not! They naturally chose to exterminate them on sight as well!
The Blood Tribe was also a tribe that made enemies everywhere they went as they fed on all types of blood.
Not only were human cultivators a delicacy on their menus, the monks from the Western Paradise and the members of the Light Wing Clan from the Holy Paradise were also all targets upon which they fed…
If it wasn’t for the fact that the dark marshlands were heavily polluted and therefore extremely difficult to access, perhaps the Blood Tribe would’ve been exterminated to the point of extinction a long time ago.
As for the beautiful women the fifth-years had to deal with, they were even more fearsome.
Although they didn’t eat humans, they had a habit of freezing cultivators into cute ice sculptures which they added to their collections. ( Boxno vel. co m )
These beautiful women were known as snow maidens and were a species originating from the Holy Glacial Lands located in the northern tip of the Tai Chu Continent.
The population of the Holy Glacial Lands was actually quite large and were exclusively female, so no one knew how they reproduced.
Their war with human cultivators had already been raging for thousands of years and the Heavenly Court would direct a lot of its forces to reinforce the northern part of the Wind Plain State.
An Lin was only a first-year student and didn’t need to think about things that far in the future. He only needed to focus on how to deal with the upcoming wild beasts.
The end of year examination for their cla.s.s was headed by their home-room teacher, Sword Immortal Ling Xiao, and their target location was Ding’an City which was located in the Chu River Prefectural City in the Stone Dragon State.
The Chu River Prefectural City was one of the most dangerous prefectural cities in the Stone Dragon State, with powerful wild beasts regularly appearing in the region.
This was the first cla.s.s after all. They had the best overall combat strength, and hence, they had to carry the biggest load.
For this year’s end of year examination, the pa.s.sing criteria for their cla.s.s was to kill three thousand beasts of any type during a period of half a month.
It seemed like that was quite a lot at first glance, but it was actually only thirty per student.
Apparently, the criteria for all the first and second-year cla.s.ses amounted to a total of five hundred thousand.
It goes without saying that each year’s end of year examination was quite a blow to all the beasts in the Myriad Mountain Realm…
A ferocious beast was defined as a beast that could use the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to strengthen their bodies and also possessed strong offensive tendencies toward humans. They were quite often the main offensive force during the ma.s.s outbreaks of beasts where the Stone Dragon State comes under attack.
Sword Immortal Ling Xiao wouldn’t normally help the students complete their quota, as he was mostly only responsible for a.s.sessing each student’s performance.
Students that performed well were ent.i.tled to rewards from the university.
However, regarding those rewards, how do we put this…
An Lin was simply too filthy rich to care about those potential rewards…
…
The teleportation spell formation of The United University of Cultivation could teleport users to any state within the Kingdom of the Nine States.
Once all the members of the first cla.s.s had completed their preparations, they all gathered on the teleportation spell formation as Sword Immortal Ling Xiao began to activate the spell formation.
A brilliant white light enveloped all the members of the first cla.s.s.
Immediately following this, the sky and earth seemingly began to spin around them.
A hundred students suddenly appeared in the connected teleportation square.
After materializing in the Stone Dragon State teleportation square, An Lin surveyed his surroundings with wide, curious eyes.
There were pavilions and buildings here, as well as roads paved with bluestone on which all types of carriages were coming and going.
The pa.s.sersby were either clothed in simplistic cloth garments or luxurious silk garments, all of them mingling together in the market square.
“Wow, this must be what it was like in ancient times!” An Lin gasped in surprise.
Xu Xiaolan rolled her eyes. “What do you mean by ancient times? These are modern times!
“It’s just that the inhabitants of the Kingdom of the Nine States aren’t that focused on developing technology, that’s all.
“Despite that, everyone still lives quite happily here.”
During these times where cultivation flourished, there really weren’t many people who wanted to focus on technological and scientific development.
Besides that, a lot of the states’ imperial families even devised policies to suppress scientific development in the wake of the example set by the Purple Star State.
The place they were at now was the capital prefecture of the Stone Dragon State, where the Coiled Dragon Imperial Family was situated.
The main forces in the Kingdom of the Nine States were often summarised into the Heavenly Court, four sects, and nine imperial families.
The imperial families of all the states were all extremely powerful forces in the cultivating world, controlling all the resources of their respective state in their grasp.
An Lin recalled that Su Qianyun was the princess of the Green Wood Imperial Family in the Purple Star State, a t.i.tle of great prestige.
He cast his sight toward the tip of a mountain embroiled in cloud and mist.
Through the cloud and mist, one could make out the faint outlines of an imposing palace. That was most likely the palace of the Coiled Dragon Imperial Family.
If he could, An Lin really wanted to see just what a palace in the cultivating world looked like, but he didn’t have an opportunity this time. After all, there was still a journey of thousands of kilometers to be made before they could reach Ding’an City of the Chu River Prefectural City. No one had time to dawdle and appreciate the scenery.
They were trying to travel over five hundred kilometers a day!
You heard that right, they really were expected to traverse over 500 kilometers a day.
In the words of their homeroom teacher, this was a part of their cultivation and must be completed!
The students had completed five hundred kilometers in twelve hours, which equated to an average speed of over 40km/h, maintained over a period of twelve hours!
You could imagine the scene of a bunch of students traversing at high speeds over valleys and mountains. This truly was the marathon of the cultivating world…
Within the first cla.s.s, the lowest cultivation base was the Ninth Stage Dao Body.
However, during this insane marathon, there were still a few students who were exhausted to the point of fainting…
An Lin had the Earth Lotus Supreme Skill which could strengthen his body, but even then, he was still drenched in sweat and had shaky legs at the conclusion of that day’s journey.
His frustration only grew as he looked up into the sky at those who were flying along freely in the air.
The difference between cultivators of the Dao Body Stage and the Spirit Nurturing Stage could be perfectly highlighted here.
They could take flight and travel effortlessly in the air, but those on the ground could only run as if their lives depended on it…
The number of cultivators that were in the Spirit Nurturing Stage in their cla.s.s had increased to four.
Aside from Xuanyuan Cheng and Su Qianyun, there was also Xu Xiaolan and Lu Zhan who had recently ascended into the Spirit Nurturing Stage.
Some of the students gazed up at the four students in the air enviously.
It was only now that they began to deeply appreciate just how awesome sword kinesis flight was.
However, An Lin was not one of those people. Was sword kinesis flight really that great?
h.e.l.l, no. Swords were too small in surface area, they were too quick through the air and inconsistent and wobbly. There was no protection either, nor anything to obscure the line of sight…
As opposed to this, dogs were warm and fluffy and soft. Dog kinesis flight was definitely the way to go!
Sigh, if only Da Bai was here…
An Lin thought to himself with a forlorn expression