Chapter 74
There had been many important tasks at hand, including his personal cultivation and the mission to go hunt vampire brigands in the northwest . Because of all of that, the matter of his aunt Yang Susu had skipped his mind .
But now, here he was, an outer campus student with a more impressive cultivation base than ever . He had the freedom to come and go within the institute as he pleased, unlike when he had been a freshman student and had been subject to many rules about where to go and what to do .
Now, he could go seek out Yang Susu .
Besides, he was interested in getting a better look at the institute . It covered hundreds and hundreds of kilometers, and was filled with pavilions, kiosks, towers, pagodas, and temples . It was a multi-level maze of structures that hid so many secrets it was impossible to even guess how many there were .
Hopefully, a bit of a tour might net more information about Yun Hailan .
Considering the bottleneck he was in, there was no way he would be able to awaken that twenty-first particle any time soon .
The more one cultivated the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth, the harder it got, especially considering that the life force quintessence requirement grew with each particle that awoke . In other words, each one was more difficult to wake up than the previous . That was one reason why godly-class energy arts were usually only cultivated by gods, not humans .
Making sure that his thumb-ring was well concealed, Yang Qi walked out of his room, hopping directly from the thirty-sixth floor all the way down to the ground .
Every floor of the tower was a different room or ‘mansion grotto’ . Each one belonged to a different outer campus student . However, Yang Qi didn't know any of them and actually wasn’t very interested in getting too close .
At the bottom of the building was a well-manicured park filled with towering trees, flowing streams, and little pavilions . It was a lovely place, with teams of freshman students visible cleaning up, or trimming and fertilizing the plants .
Yang Qi had done such work himself in past months, but now, he was exempt from such chores .
As he walked along, the freshman students noticed his clothing, and the large ‘Demi-Immortal’ word stitched on the front in bright red . The envy in their eyes was impossible to mask .
Freshman students had no such marking on their garments . Theirs were pure white, which indicated that they were persons without any academic title or official rank . [1]
Yang Qi noticed the envious gazes, and sighed . There was nothing he could do about how the Demi-Immortal Institute was so strictly organized by rank and title . It was hard to even imagine what the freshman students would think of him if he reached the Lifeseizing level and became an elite student .
He strolled out of the garden, and then began to walk through the various paths that made up the institute, passing buildings, pagodas, walls, and other scenery . Before long, he was at an area filled with majestic temples .
It was a glorious sight . At the tops of the temples were glowing halos that would fill the area with light even during nighttime .
And all of them were augmented by spell formations .
This place was a restricted area, the College of Elite Students .
Only elite students and Lifeseizers could enter, with the exception of lower-ranking students who had authentication tokens .
If any other person tried to enter unlawfully, they would be killed without question .
As he neared the place, and sensed the glory of the temples’ spell formations touching him, he felt blessed . His true energy seemed to grow stronger, and he felt more agile and free . It was almost as if he were being cleansed .
“What incredible spell formations,” he murmured .
The spell formations in the College of Elite Students were far more powerful than formations of spirit convergence . No wonder Yun Hailan and Song Haishan had experienced such rapid progress with their cultivation .
Now that Yang Qi had been in the Demi-Immortal Institute for several months, there were certain things he understood that had been a mystery at first .
Outer campus students had their formations of spirit convergence, and inner campus students had formations of vital convergence . Each such upgrade led to faster and more efficient cultivation .
As for the College of Elite Students, they had energy formations of the dao of monarchs . Such formations allowed the user to constantly absorb the spirit energy of heaven and earth, and the quintessence of the sun and moon . Even more importantly, they allowed one to develop the energy of the dao of monarchs .
Practicing cultivation there led to speed ten times superior to even a formation of vital convergence .
Yun Hailan had almost immediately been admitted into the College of Elite Students, and had been able to cultivate with an energy formation of the dao of monarchs . Thus, her progress was almost unimaginable .
As he thought about the matter, he stood there basking in the glory of the temples, and the feeling of his true energy being stimulated . It was hard to imagine what it would be like if he could actually go inside .
Suddenly, a thunderous shout emerged from one of the outer chambers bordering the temples . “Stop right there!”
The profound killing intent he sensed caused him to stop in place immediately .
From what he could tell, if he took another step forward, he would be attacked with deadly abandon .
Looking over at the outer chambers, he saw several towering men emerge, fully twice as tall as an ordinary person . They wore full suits of steel armor, and wielded dual-crescent-bladed halberds . As for their auras, they were so wild that they seemed like titans emerged from the wilds of yore . [2]
Furthermore, they were clearly Masters of Energy .
These were giants tasked with guarding the entrance to the College of Elite Students . People with the blood of ancient giant-spirits possessed boundless power, and were the perfect guards .
They were by no means simpletons, and their meridians were ten times as powerful as ordinary humans . A single one who was a Master of Energy could easily defeat ten ordinary ninth phase experts .
They were often tasked with guarding important locations in the Demi-Immortal Institute, and their orders were simple: first give a warning to any trespassers, and if the warning was ignored, execute them .
Given the current level of Yang Qi’s cultivation base, he didn’t fear Lifeseizers, let alone some giant guards . That said, he also wasn't looking for trouble .
Clasping hands respectfully, he said, “Greetings, guards . I've come to the College of Elite Students to see my aunt, Yang Susu . Would you mind notifying her I’m here?”
The leader of the giants looked Yang Qi up and down, his eyes glinting with what seemed like greed . “Notify her? Sorry, we're busy . Come back tomorrow . ”
“Oh?” At this point, Yang Qi realized that these greedy giant guards made a practice of soliciting bribes from students .
Not in the mood to bicker, and fairly brimming with wealth, he waved his hand and sent a banknote worth a million energy convergence pills flying over to him . “Please, take this . I hope that you can be a bit flexible here . ”
“Oh?” The giant leader grabbed the banknote, looked at it, then put it away . However, he didn’t seem to have any intention of letting Yang Qi pass . “Listen, punk . We have a hundred guards here . You really think one banknote is enough? What are we supposed to do, cut it up into pieces? One banknote like this is only enough for one of us . Give me some more treasures, enough for a hundred of my brothers, and then maybe I’ll let you pass . ”
“What?” As of this moment, Yang Qi realized what was going on . These giants were specifically making things hard for him! Frowning, he said, “This is ridiculous . All I want is for you to notify someone of my presence . Do you people do this all the time? Aren’t you worried that you’ll get in trouble if the higher-ups find out about this?”
The giants all burst out into raucous laughter . “Get in trouble? We stand guard here, and the unwritten rule is that we can use our position to earn a bit of extra money . How dare you, an outer campus student, provoke us giants! You really don’t know what’s good for you, do you? Screw the hell off!”
A massive hand waved through the air, sending a massive tornado spinning toward Yang Qi .
Tornadoes were wind-type energy arts, and the type of thing that could uproot massive trees and send them flying through the air . Obviously, it could hurl a human like Yang Qi far off into the distance .
Yang Qi’s eyes suddenly turned as cold as ice, and even began to flicker with killing intent . “Have a death wish, you bunch of watchdogs? Who told you to cause problems for me?”
As the tornado bore down on him, he unleashed some energy, dissipating it instantly .
Then, he made a snatching gesture, causing all of the energy within ten thousand paces to rush toward him .
Suddenly, the dozen or so giants felt their true energy surging out of control; it almost seemed like it might burst out of their bodies and flow toward Yang Qi’s palm .
Both shocked and enraged, they scrambled to gain control of their energy .
However, that was when Yang Qi opened his hand, causing all the energy flows to vanish .
As a result, all of the true energy they had been struggling to pull back suddenly rushed back and slammed into their seas of energy .
It was almost like Yang Qi had personally struck them .
POP!
Blood sprayed out of the giants’ mouths, even their leader .
‘How could a student from the outer campus be so strong?’ the leader thought, shocked .
Making another grasping motion, Yang Qi pulled the leader toward him through the air, then forced him onto his knees . “I know someone put you up to this, giant-spirit . Someone told you to cause problems for me, right? But I don’t feel like bickering with you . Now you see that I'm virtually as strong as a Lifeseizer, right? Once I achieve my next breakthrough, I could easily cause problems for you . I could make your life very hard . ”
True energy swirled out, grabbed the banknote, and pulled it back to Yang Qi . “I gave you a banknote to give you some face . But if you don’t want face, then don’t blame me for taking it back . Now go notify Yang Susu that I'm here, immediately . Furthermore, I'm going to plant a seed of true energy in your sea of energy, so if you disobey, I can cripple you instantly . ”
1 . To some extent this is a slight play on words as the word for “person without academic title or official rank, a . k . a . a commoner”, actually contains the character which means “white”
2 . The dual-crescent-bladed halberd is literally a “square heaven picture halberd” . The name in Chinese comes because of how the crescent blades on either side of the halberd make a “square heaven” . You have probably seen them in games/movies/TV shows, in which they are often just called halberds . Here’s what they look like . In any case, I will translate it as dual-crescent-bladed halberd . This type of weapon will come up again occasionally throughout the story, so try to keep a mental picture in the back of your mind
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