Chapter 27: White Night Neon

Du Fang stood before the cabin window.

Gazing at the towering mountain that pierced the heavens.

“The Linjiang Academy is built on a mountain? How tall is it?!”

Shi Xuan chuckled: “This mountain range stretches a thousand li, spanning the entire Linjiang Prefecture.”

“Its base is Linjiang State.”

“As for its height...”

Shi Xuan extended his hand and traced a line on the particle glass.

“This Whale-Ray vessel ascends vertically.”

“It takes over ten minutes to reach the mid-slope.”

Boom!

As he spoke, the Whale-Ray vessel suddenly accelerated!

The dense clouds on either side were violently torn apart.

Even producing a roaring, explosive sound.

Inside Cabin 1, blue light flickered.

A cold mechanical voice sounded.

“Destination: Linjiang Academy.”

“Time remaining: 10 minutes.”

“Passengers in Cabin 1, prepare for disembarkation.”

Upon hearing the announcement, the new students in the cabin began packing their belongings.

Jiang Jian finished his drink, set down his backpack, and said: “For the departmental assessment, we’ll likely be at a disadvantage.”

Song Ling sat beside him, turned her head, and asked: “Jiang Jian, what do you mean by that?”

“Students from Linjiang State hold a privilege: priority in departmental assignment.”

Jiang Jian fastened his black cloth bag and gazed out the window.

“The annual departmental assessment for new students at Linjiang Academy is a major event.”

“After all,”

“the academy’s ranking determines the amount of resource subsidies.”

“We are outsiders from other states.”

“Linjiang State is the primary source of students for Linjiang Academy.”

“Priority in departmental assignment—meaning, naturally,”

“if two candidates have identical assessment scores,”

“the student from Linjiang State is admitted first.”

“Only then do we outsiders get considered.”

Upon hearing this,

Song Ling’s eyes flashed with indignation.

Yet she understood,

these were matters beyond her control.

Song Ling organized her backpack and said: “But we’re Level 3 Talents—getting into the First Department shouldn’t be hard, right?”

Jiang Jian smiled faintly and shook his head: “The First Department has only fifty spots.”

“There are already twenty-two Level 3 Talents here.”

“And don’t forget,”

“these twenty-two are only the Level 3 Talents Gu Qi gathered after traveling through six states.”

“Not to mention students from other states.”

“Just consider Linjiang State itself.”

“I checked the Linjiang Prefecture forum earlier—it had the results of Linjiang State’s major exam.”

“Linjiang State alone had forty Level 3 Talents this year!”

“Based on discussions on the prefecture forum, I can roughly estimate,”

Jiang Jian swiped the screen and shut off his identity device.

“This year’s entire cohort of new students at Linjiang Academy,”

“Level 3 Talents,”

“total around ninety.”

“Ninety.”

“Competing for the top fifty.”

“It’s not easy.”

As he spoke,

the Whale-Ray vessel began to slow.

Under the blazing sunlight,

the massive cabin windows on either side grew increasingly transparent.

“Destination: Linjiang Academy.”

“Time remaining: 1 minute.”

“Cabin 1 passengers, prepare to disembark!”

The announcement came again.

At that moment,

Du Fang suddenly turned his head, his expression stunned: “Jiang Jian, Song Ling, come look!”

“What is it?”

Jiang Jian raised an eyebrow, rose from the couch, and walked over to Du Fang’s side.

Du Fang’s mouth hung open, his finger pointing outside the glass.

Jiang Jian looked through the particle glass.

An unimaginably vast mountain.

It could no longer even be called a mountain.

It stood like an unreachable, towering celestial wall.

It stood silently before them, enduring countless ages.

Its height was beyond measure, its breadth beyond comprehension.

Beneath Tianzhu Mountain lay an even more astonishing steel forest!

“That’s...”

“Five-Tier Jiangcheng!”

“My god!”

Around them, exclamations rose in waves.

Streams of light surged; flying shuttles filled the sky.

A colossal neon city, entirely forged of steel, stacked in five layers.

Five-Tier Jiangcheng clung to the mountain, tier upon tier.

At every moment, countless vessels took off and landed.

Beyond that,

the sky beneath Jiangcheng was occasionally streaked by showers of luminous meteors.

Each barely visible speck of light was a flying shuttle moving at extreme speed.

“Five-Tier Jiangcheng: one hundred million people.”

“Inside this majestic, colossal steel metropolis,”

“humans are no different from ants.”

Shi Xuan stood beside Jiang Jian, his expression unreadable: “Jiang Jian, do you know what’s in First-Tier Jiangcheng?”

Jiang Jian shook his head.

Shi Xuan lowered his gaze, peering through the glass at the dark forest at the very bottom of Jiangcheng.

“The residents of First-Tier Jiangcheng,”

“are all non-citizens.”

Upon hearing this,

Du Fang spun around, pupils constricting: “What did you say?!”

Song Ling, too, looked horrified.

Shi Xuan was quite pleased with their reactions.

He smiled and continued: “These non-citizens are the livestock of Linjiang State.”

“Put simply,”

“First-Tier Jiangcheng is a self-sustaining treasure trove of spiritual materials.”

“These countless demons, spirits, ghosts, and monsters...”

Though they reside in the First Jiangcheng, they are trapped by the Mountain Array and cannot escape until death.

They can only grow slowly, waiting to be harvested.

Shi Xuan looked at Jiang Jian. “Even our Linjiang Academy owns numerous breeding grounds within this First Jiangcheng.”

Jiang Jian had previously heard hints of this.

But now, seeing it with his own eyes,

he could not help but feel admiration.

Linjiang Province had immense audacity.

It used a single massive city, capable of housing ten million people,

as a breeding ground.

It raised countless “non-citizens.”

Looking out the porthole,

the lowest level of First Jiangcheng lay dark as an abyss.

In stark contrast to the daylight neon above,

from the other four levels of Jiangcheng.

Deep in the darkness,

faint outlines of steel cities could be seen.

And countless silent roars.

Yet,

surrounding this city of ten million souls,

loomed an unimaginable Heavenly Pillar Mountain Array.

Whenever those things in the darkness reached the city’s edge, trying to flee,

transparent ripples appeared, effortlessly blocking them.

“This breeding ground isn’t easy to enter.”

Shi Xuan squinted. “The branch academy entrance exam grants one free entry.”

“Beyond that,”

“every entry into First Jiangcheng requires payment in Alliance Coins.”

Hearing this,

Jiang Jian sharply caught the hidden meaning in his words.

“Shi Xuan, are you saying the branch academy entrance exam takes place inside First Jiangcheng?”

Shi Xuan nodded. “By tradition, Linjiang Academy’s branch exam requires one entry into the breeding ground.”

The breeding ground teems with countless demonic spirits and monsters.

Du Fang, thinking of this, clenched his teeth. “It shouldn’t be dangerous, right?”

Shi Xuan smiled. “The entrance exam has proctors to protect you—no one dies.”

Du Fang exhaled. “Good to hear.”

Jiang Jian, however, frowned slightly.

Shi Xuan’s answer only said “no one dies.”

Beyond that,

minor injuries, serious injuries, even disability—all seemed possible.

“Destination: Linjiang Academy, beside Jiangcheng.”

“Arrived!”

(End of Chapter)