That day, Jiufeng lied on his bed and entered the mind space. He cultivated there for three days and then woke up from once the sun started to rise again. After spending another two hours cultivating and absorbing the Violet Air from the early morning sun, Jiufeng got up and was about to go downstairs and eat, but then he heard a knock on the door. 

"Big Brother Yang?" He walked up and open the door, but who greeted him wasn't Bai Yangjian. Rather, it was a boy who carried a large backpack on his back. 

The boy had medium-long black hair and a pair of black eyes to match. His clothes consisted of a shirt and pant. Overall, the child had a very ordinary look. 

However, ordinary or not, Jiufeng wanted to know his cultivation level. 

[Beep! Scanning Target! Beep! Confirmed!]

[Name: N/A, Age: 10, Cultivation Base: Half-Step Spirit Cycle (Energy Refiner), Half-Step Spirit Cycle (Body Refiner)]

"Holy sh-" Jiufeng almost cuss in his head. 

"Yo!" The child waved his hand. "I'm assuming that you’re my dormmate?" 

"Uh, yea. Come in!" Jiufeng stepped out of his way. The child walked in and gently laid his backpack. He climbed the ladder onto the top bunk bed and immediately laid down. 

"So nice!" He sighed. However, he then got up again with widen eyes. "Oh sorry. I haven't introduce myself yet. I'm Luo Ming." 

He reached out his hand. Jiufeng reached over and shook it. "I'm Qing Jiufeng." 

At the same time they were shaking hands, another knock sounded at the door. "Excuse me, is anyone in here?" 

Jiufeng walked over to the door and saw two other youths. They were dressed in rather plain clothing, but one had red hair and blue eyes, while the other one had blue hair and red eyes. Just one person was enough to attract attention, but with these two standing next to each other, it truly made a spectacle. 

"Yeah, two people are already in here. Sorry, but you have the wrong dorm number." Jiufeng couldn't stop moving his back and forth between the two children. 

The red hair boy took out his medallion and looked at it. He made a gasp and then smiled apologetically, "Oh, sorry. We're in the next dorm."

He rubbed his hair slightly in embarrassment, but then said, "Well, nice to meet ya neighbor! I'm Meng Yun. This guy over here is Fang Zhu." 

The blue hair boy only nodded. After that greeting, the two boys hurriedly walked over to the next dorm to on the right: Dorm 138. Although they were a bit awkward, Jiufeng silently took note of the red hair boy's medallion which was gold.

"An Inner Court disciple as well, huh? That other guy is possibly also one."

[Beep! Beep! Auto Scanning! Beep! Scanning Completed!]

[Meng Yun: Age: 10, Cultivation: Half-Step Spirit Cycle (Energy Refiner)]

[Fang Zhu: Age: 10, Cultivation: Half-Step Spirit Cycle (Body Refiner)]

He silently gasp in his heart. For those two to have the Half-Step Spirit Cycle cultivation meant that they had powerful background. Jiufeng didn't take their talent into consideration since anyone who entered Everdawn is a genius in their own right. However, what made his heart tremble was Luo Ming with Half-Step Spirit Cycle cultivation in both energy refining and body refining. 

Seeing these three boys who had the same cultivation as him at the same age made his heart slightly uncomfortable. Although Old Man Hai and Qin Daozi, in secret, raised Jiufeng to be humble, he never once met children of his age that we could compete with him until now. The closest person to his age would be Bai Yangjian and that was a seven years difference. 

But now that he arrived at the "School of Deities", Jiufeng has seen many people like him who were gifted and that made him secretly uncomfortable. Unbeknownst to anyone, and maybe even himself, a seed of pride was sowed into his heart a long time ago. 

"Qing Jiufeng, who were those two?" Luo Ming's words broke Jiufeng train of thought, but he manage to reply, "Oh, they're our neighbors, but they accidently got the wrong dorm number that's all."

Luo Ming nodded and then said, "You've been here longer than I have right?"

"Yeah, why?" Jiufeng replied even though he's only been in the academy for three days with most of those days spent on training and exploring the city. 

"In that case, how about you take me around campus?" 

Before Jiufeng could reply, another voice said behind him. "Yo, can you take us too?" 

He turned around to a smiling Meng Yun and quiet Fang Zhu. 

"You guys too?" 

"Yeah! We just heard that you were gonna go around, so can you take us too?" Meng Yun were filled with expectancy. 

Under those eyes, Jiufeng could only groan in his heart. "Alright, sure. Let's go to the cafeteria first, I'm hungry." 

.....

The four children wandered the school campus for the most of the day. They visited countless buildings, looked at dozens of statues and sculptures of famous graduates, spectated mighty duels and battles, and spent time knowing each other. 

Of the four boys, Meng Yun was the carefree and wild type, Fang Zhu was the quiet and calm type, Qing Jiufeng was the intelligent and charismatic type, while Luo Ming was the mysterious type. 

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At least, the other three think of Luo Ming as person of great secrets. He didn't mind telling them that background nor cultivation base, but that only made him more mysterious. 

Half-Step Spirit Cycle Energy Refiner and Body Refiner. 

Raised and born in a small village by a single mother. 

Worked in a restaurant. 

Although these three factors didn't add up, the three boys trusted Luo Ming's words. The group wandered around the campus for several more hours until they got hungry again and went back to the first-year dormitory for dinner. 

After their meal, Meng Yun, Fang Zhu, and Luo Ming all went upstairs while Jiufeng stayed behind, under the excuse that he had important matter. When they left, they didn't see that Jiufeng had a green wooden box under his arm as he walk towards the Southeastern area of the academy. 

.....

On the east side of the academy, near the Southeastern Gate, there was a 50 square mile area called Section 2B. Section 2B was comprised of three buildings: the Trial Hall, the Cultivation Hall, and the Battle Hall. These three buildings were enormous and could easily be shelter for thousands of people, but were instead use to train students of the academy. 

The Cultivation Hall was 200-story tall building. It's primarily used for students to meditate or find quiet and spacious rooms to cultivate in. 

The Battle Hall, as the name implies, is use for students to duel against one another. Every student who was accepted into the academy were top-level talents. As such, many had pride and confidence that were as tall as mountains and vast as seas. With so many prideful kids in one place, was peace even a possibility?

Many students formed grudges with each other and although the academy tried their best to calm the hatred in the academy, there were too many reasons and ways student could fight with each other. Some were from rivaling clans, families, kingdoms, or any other organization. Some formed grudges before even entering the school and some fought just because they were looking for trouble. 

However, Everdawn had extremely strict rules and so there were almost no way for these students to vent. But, that all changed ten-thousand years ago when the second headmaster of Everdawn set up three battle grounds for the students and one of them was the Battle Hall. 

The last building, and also the tallest, was the 300-story tall Trial Hall. Of the three buildings in Section 2B, the Trial Hall was the most mysterious to anyone not enrolling in the academy. The Trial Hall is used a testing ground that measures the prowess of a student, however, per the rules of the academy, no one is allowed to disclose how students are tested. 

At around evening, just when the sun was about to set, Jiufeng entered the Cultivation Hall. Once he walked inside, Jiufeng headed to center of the first floor where he signed up for an empty cultivation room. After five minutes, he found that cultivation room and entered it. 

Once he entered it, Eden scanned the room for him and found that it 20 feet by 10 feet by 20 feet. Although it was rather spacious, Qin Daozi grunted from the ring. "Bah! This place maybe quiet, but it's rather small. Oh well..." 

Jiufeng only ignored that comment and sat down at the center of the room. He placed the green box in front of him, but didn't open it. 

"Big Bro, should I open it?" 

"Mm." Hearing the sound of confirmation, Jiufeng took a deep breath and then open the box. Jiufeng's heart pounded as he was opening it. However, what was inside the box was a small, fist-size blue gem. It shone with azure luster from the light, but it looked very fragile and was translucent. Indeed as Erwin described it as: beautiful, yet very useless. 

"This is what going to help me breakthrough to the Spirit Cycle Realm?" Jiufeng thought aloud. 

"Well..." Qin Daozi took a moment. "Not exactly this, but more like what's inside of it." 

A golden ray of light shot out from the ring and landed on the blue gem. The golden light sunk into the blue gem and, for a moment in time, everything froze. The temperature around Jiufeng suddenly dropped and an overwhelming feeling of crisis formed in his heart. 

However, his vision was obstructing by golden light and then, he blacked out. In the Trial Hall room, Jiufeng's body collapsed and the blue gem that was in front was slowly churning and morphing into a black blob that was a centimeter in radius. 

Besides the black blob were twelve massive spheres of golden light that were floating alongside it. Whenever the black blob tries to expand, the massive spheres would immediately light up even brighter than they do now and the black blob would return to its initial size.

It was clear the spheres of golden light were suppressing the black blob and a battle was occurring between them. However, every now and then, the golden spheres would emit a light sigh as they continue to suppress the black blob. 

..... 

Minute by minute, hour by hour. A day and a night has pass since Jiufeng collapse. Then in an unknown time, Jiufeng opened his eyes again.  

"Wh-What happen?" Jiufeng sat up from the floor and looked around. The last thing he remembered was a golden light and anything before that was completely fuzzy for him. 

"Yo, you're finally awake." Qin Daozi said. 

"Ah, Big Bro what happen?" Jiufeng knocked his head a couple times. For some reason, he kept hearing Qin Daozi's voice above him. 

"You blacked out when I was breaking that seal on the blue gem. But, you don't really need to know about the seal. Here, need a hand?" 

A hand appeared in front of Jiufeng. "Thanks." He unconsciously reach out. 

However, his hand directly pass through the hand in front of him. He blinked a couple times before looking up. 

In front of him was a young man, dressed in black pants, a black jacket, and a yellow shirt. He had a bead bracelet on his left wrist and wore a pair of golden triangle earrings. His hair was pitch black like the moonless night, but a streak of his hair was golden, as were his eyes. His appearance was very neat overall, but flamboyant.

"Ah, sorry. This is my spirit-body so I can't really give you a hand." The young man giggled. 

However, unlike the cheery young man, Jiufeng had a face of horror. "G-Gh-Ghost!" 

"Ah." The young man blinked. "What ghost?! Can't you see that it's me, your Big Bro?" 

Jiufeng stopped screaming and look cautiously at the young man. Looking at the young man more closely, his appearance was 80-90% similar to Qin Daozi. In fact, he looked more like a younger version of Qin Daozi. After several moments, Jiufeng blinked and said, "Big Bro? Wait! How is it possible that you're here?" 

The young man sighed and then calmly explained, "Alright, maybe you do need to know. That box you got from Erwin had a very unique item called the Skylock Blue-Gem. It's a very powerful item that could seal and trap souls. That gem that you got had a very powerful soul sealed in it and well, long story short, I absorbed that soul and now my soul has healed slightly and become more powerful than before. It's strong enough for me to make a spirit-body and you don't need to know what a spirit-body is just yet. Let's just say that I can exist outside again, but as a spirit." 

"I see...wait! You said that that box would help me advance to the Spirit Cycle Realm! If you used it already than what do I do now?" Jiufeng glared at Qin Daozi. 

"Of course I said that you would advance to the Spirit Cycle Realm! But when did I say that you'll be using that gem to breakthrough, huh?" Qin Daozi harrumphed. "Take this instead, it's way better." 

Qin Daozi compressed his hand together and a tiny golden box formed in between them. The tiny golden box started to dissolve and breakdown and what was left in its place was a tiny blue vial.

He grabbed the vial and threw towards Jiufeng and the latter caught it. At first he felt nothing from the vial, but then his hands started to feel colder and colder until a layer of frost started to form on his them. 

"Wha-" 

"That's a small vial with three drops of Frozen Skytears I got long ago from the Winter Wasteland. The Winter Wasteland probably doesn't exist anymore, but that isn't the point! Now sit down and open that vial. I'm going help you refine that so you can form your core, a core that hasn't appeared since Heaven Revelation Era!"