All the older Outer Academy disciples who weren’t able to meet the Celestial Academy’s requirement to become an Inner Disciple would watch in amusement as the new disciples frantically fought over resources to increase their cultivation.

Though, the Outer Disciples didn’t face this type of pressure alone. The disciples who had Sky-grade innate talent and were promoted straight to an Inner Disciple would face a demotion to the Outer Academy if they weren’t able to reach the Sea Expansion Realm before they were sixteen.

It’s been three months and the ‘Freshmen Disciple Competition’ was coming up.

This competition was separated by Outer and Inner Academy disciples.

This Freshmen Disciple Competition caused the tension between all the new disciples to become noticeable, the Outer Academy disciples even more so.

This was due to the prizes that are rewarded to the disciples that place first, second, and third in the competition, but especially first place position.

For placing third a disciple was awarded five thousand mid-grade Spirit Stones, three Qi Condensation pills, three Blood Purifying pills, three Bone Reconstruction pills, and three Meridian Opening pills.

Second place would receive ten thousand mid-grade Spirit Stones, a low-grade Spirit Artifact, and ten of each pill mentioned above.

And the prizes for the disciple that placed first, which was what everyone was on everyone’s mind, were ten thousand high-grade Spirit Stones, one mid-grade Spirit Artifact, and the most well-desired Sea Expansion pill.

For the third-place prizes, those weren’t something a normal disciple could afford. Just the ten thousand mid-grade Spirit Stones could allow them to procure resources that could greatly improve their cultivation, not to mention all the valuable pills.

From those pills' names alone, one could tell that taking those pills could help with their cultivation within the Five Physical Realms.

The second-place prizes were more lucrative as a disciple would receive even a low-grade Spirit Artifact, something that was rare among the Outer Academy disciples.

But with all of that said, it’s the first-place prize that made all the newly arrive disciples become cultivation maniacs.

They were using everything at their disposal and all of their time cultivating so they could have a chance to come first and get their hands on the Sea Expansion pill.

The commotion among the Inner Disciples was a bit tamer though since the resources they were given were a lot as Inner Disciple were a lot, but the Outer Disciples were filled with mania at the thought of receiving the Sea Expansion pill.

The Sea Expansion pill was a product of the alchemy masters of the Celestial Academy. It took a lot of time and expenses to create even one so they were a limited amount.

The pill itself could allow a disciple at the peak of the Meridian Opening Realm to have a seventy percent chance of developing their Qi Sea within their Dantian and entering the Sea Expansion Realm.

This means that this one pill could give them a seventy percent chance of becoming an Inner Disciple!

This was something that any Outer Disciple would do everything to receive, as their chances of becoming an Inner Disciple were close to zero previously.

….

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Within one of the Outer Academy courtyards, there was a makeshift hut made from the surrounding forest trees within a corner of the training grounds.

Some distance away from the makeshift wooden hut was a two-meter tall boulder that would take two adult men to wrap around it. Sitting cross-legged on top of it in meditation was the ragged clothe youth.

Though that name should be changed, as he was now wearing the gray Outer Disciple’s uniform. And to give him credit, with him out of those ragged dirt stain clothes, and his once bird’s nest hair neatly combed into a ponytail, he now appeared rather handsome to the eyes.

In the three months he and Xi Shen had lived together, you could say that he went through a drastic transformation from his country bumpkin persona to a refine and good-looking youth.

However, aside from speaking with Xi Shen three months ago, the youth hadn’t seen him since.

What Xi Shen had told him before he went behind closed doors was to not start his cultivation, and instead meditate until he came out of seclusion.

He did exactly as Xi Shen said and had not even opened the cultivation manual that the Celestial Academy gives to every newly admitted Outer Academy disciple.

Over the past three months, while he was meditating, the memories of what happened during the disciple selection ceremony replayed constantly in his mind.

The elder’s cruel expression as he broke his arm, the ridiculing remarks of the crowd. Those memories will forever be imprinted in his mind of how everyone treated him like he wasn’t worth anything.

He’ll never forgive those people, and in the future, he’ll make sure they regret ever looking down on him.

As these thoughts occupied his head, his mind became unstable from the intense emotions. As a result of that, an intangible pressure suddenly erupted from his body, which cause all the small pebbles and stones in a ten-meter radius around him to rise a couple of feet off the ground.

Even the large boulder beneath him was beginning to rise.

Just when he was on the verge of completely losing control of his emotions, he heard the voice of Xi Shen calling his name.

“Yang Su.”

When Yang Su heard Xi Shen’s voice, his intense emotions calmed down and all the rocks and pebbles fell back down with a thud.

Yang Su then suddenly thought back to when Xi Shen had helped him during the ceremony.

He had the notion that as someone from a small village, no one would ever show him kindness or go out of their way to help him, but when Xi Shen had carried him on his back, Yang Su had never felt more grateful.

Despite Xi Shen being the second prince, he was willing to help him, a mere commoner who was from a backwater village.

At that time Yang Su made a promise to himself that he would become a great assistant to Xi Shen. He didn’t know what it was but he felt a connection towards Xi Shen and even thought of him as a kind older brother of sorts.

Yang Su then thought to himself, ‘Just thinking of him calling my name was able to calm me down. I’m indebted to the second prince so..’

Yang Su wasn’t able to finish this thought, as he heard the voice of Xi Shen calling his name again, this time from a closer distance.

“Hey, Yang Su I’m calling you, have you become a statue or something?”

Yang Su frowned when he heard that, he thought Xi Shen's voice sounded awfully real for his imagination.

Opening his eyes, Yang Su came out of his meditation and looked around the courtyard.

“Down here,” the voice of Xi Shen said again.

Yang Su looked down and was stunned to see that the voice he thought was his imagination was actually coming from Xi Shen.

With arms behind his back, Xi Shen was looking up at Yang Su on top of the boulder.

As he stood there in his outer disciple uniform, the surprised Yang Su could sense a profound aura surrounding Xi Shen’s body.

Snapping out of his surprise, Yang Su quickly got up with a smile on his face and leaped down from the boulder.

After landing in front of Xi Shen, Yang Su cupped his fist and excitedly said, “Greetings elder bro... I mean, second prince. Did your seclusion go well?”

As Yang Su said that, a slight smile appeared on the corner of Xi Shen's lips.

“Yang Su, I said before it doesn’t matter if you wish to call me elder brother, I don’t care what address you use. And my seclusion went very well, fantastic even.”

When Yang Su heard Xi Shen’s former words, he began scratching his cheek with his index finger while a sheepish smile played on his lips.