Chapter 1058: Tianyuan Ancient Academy

More than ten days later, when Li Luo's flying ship set foot on the western region of Outer Shenzhou, his fifth Heavenly Pearl had finally been condensed into shape.

After several more days of hurried travel, Li Luo crossed straight through the western region and finally arrived at his destination.

Li Luo stood at the top of the flying ship, gazing into the distance, a hint of shock in his eyes.

Where his gaze reached, there were endless mountain ranges, countless steep peaks standing tall, the depths of the ranges shrouded in clouds and mist, and from time to time enormous beast silhouettes would appear, breathing in and out the energy of heaven and earth.

Of course, what truly shocked Li Luo was not these things, but rather deep within the mountain range, there stood an ancient tree so vast it defied imagination; its shape was extraordinarily peculiar, with branches and leaves spreading out like a giant dragon, covering an area of ten thousand miles.

These branches and leaves took the form of a lotus, and at the center, the main trunk of the ancient tree, embraced by the dense foliage, formed a shape resembling a flower bud.

This ancient tree was so enormous that it even vanished into the clouds.

The nearby mountain ranges were already quite spectacular, yet beneath this ancient tree, one could not help but overlook them entirely.

Terrifying amounts of heaven and earth energy gathered within the range of this ancient tree; because the energy was so dense, a faint energy mist appeared in the air throughout this region.

The energy concentration here was simply a notch higher than even that of the Dragon Fang Mountain Range.

"Xiangli Tree..."

Li Luo gazed at that ancient tree, vast beyond imagination, and recognized it at a glance. He had once thought that the Xiangli Tree at the Holy Zhu Xuan Star Academy, which could shroud the entire academy, was already enormous enough, but compared to the one before him, its tier instantly dropped.

Because of the vast distance, Li Luo could already see that on that ancient Xiangli Tree, there existed sprawling academy-style building complexes.

These buildings were grand and magnificent, like entire cities, constructed upon some of the main branches of the Xiangli Tree.

The Holy Zhu Xuan Star Academy planted a Xiangli Tree within the academy.

But the Tianyuan Ancient Academy before him was built upon the Xiangli Tree.

The gap between the two was terrifyingly clear.

"This is probably one of the mother trees of the Xiangli Tree, isn't it?" Li Luo guessed inwardly. A Xiangli Tree of this scale was already a wonder in itself.

The flying ship continued forward, and after an hour, it finally approached the Tianyuan Ancient Academy. By now, the flying ship was already beneath the shade of that terrifying Xiangli Tree.

Some cities were also situated near the Xiangli Tree; these cities were sizable as well, and from time to time countless flying ships could be seen arriving from all directions and landing within them.

Li Luo's flying ship landed at the base of the Xiangli Tree, where a mighty pass blocked the way ahead. Dangerous energy fluctuations flickered faintly in the sky, clearly concealing some kind of defensive grand formation.

This mighty pass was called "Zhao Tian Guan," and it was precisely the gateway into the Tianyuan Ancient Academy.

For outsiders to enter this ancient academy, this was the only passage; otherwise, attempting to enter directly from the sky would trigger a counterattack from the defensive grand formation.

"Third Young Master, we will find a place to stay in the city outside and wait for you the whole time. If you need anything on your side, you can crush the communication Dragon Fang, and we will sense it and come over." Two Marquis-tier experts who had escorted him all the way here cupped their hands toward Li Luo and said.

Within the Tianyuan Ancient Academy, Marquis-tier experts from other powers like them found it hard to stay long, so they could not follow Li Luo inside.

"Thank you both for your hard work." Li Luo nodded with a smile.

"We dare not. While away from home, Third Young Master, please take great care." The two Marquis-tier experts smiled, then turned and left.

Li Luo watched them depart before stepping into "Zhao Tian Guan." A guard immediately came forward to greet him, checking his identity and the purpose of his entry into the academy.

"My name is Li Luo. I've come to see two friends—Jiang Jiang Wanyu of the Three-Star Academy and Senior Zong Sha of the Four-Star Academy. Please pass the word," Li Luo said.

He was not a student of the Tianyuan Ancient Academy, so to enter the academy he needed someone to bring him in. This was also why he had made friends with Senior Zong Sha and Jiang Jiang Wanyu back in the Spiritual Resonance Grotto-heaven.

After all, he couldn't just come straight here and tell these guards he wanted to see that "Lan Lan Lingzi," who held the lofty position of Vice Academy Head; if he did, they would most likely ignore him.

Moreover, he needed to learn a bit about that "Lan Lan Lingzi"'s temperament, whether she was approachable, and exactly what her relationship with Dean Pang was.

And starting from Jiang Jiang Wanyu and Senior Zong Sha, who were students, was a good entry point.

That guard was quite polite and showed no arrogance. He nodded in acknowledgment, then turned and went somewhere, clearly to relay the message into the academy.

After a moment, he came back out: "The message has been sent. If they're willing to come, it should take about half an hour."

The Tianyuan Ancient Academy was simply too vast; a round trip clearly took some time.

"Thank you."

Li Luo thanked him, then waited patiently nearby.

During this waiting period, he noticed that team after team wearing the uniforms of other academies kept arriving. Some of these teams had roughly dozens of members, others around ten, and each was led by a powerful mentor.

When they arrived here, they all gazed at that heaven-piercing Xiangli Tree with expressions of longing and reverence.

"They all seem to be personnel teams from other academies." Li Luo found it a little strange. These people from other academies coming in batches to the Tianyuan Ancient Academy—were they really just here to pay a visit and observe?

Half an hour passed quickly as Li Luo waited patiently, and then he heard a hearty laugh ring out from afar: "Haha, Brother Li Luo, you really did come to our Tianyuan Ancient Academy."

Li Luo turned his head and saw, not far off in the sky, a patch of emerald-green "flying carpet" drifting toward them. Standing on the carpet were two figures—Senior Zong Sha and Jiang Jiang Wanyu.

As the "flying carpet" drew closer, he realized it was actually a broad emerald-green leaf several zhang wide, with peculiar energy fluctuations flowing across its surface.

This leaf was likely a leaf of the Xiangli Tree, but after being refined through special techniques, it had become a common mode of transport for the students of the Tianyuan Ancient Academy.

Li Luo walked up with a smile and said, "I mentioned before that I had business and would come to the Tianyuan Ancient Academy, so here I am to bother the two of you."

Senior Zong Sha was very enthusiastic and said with a smile, "In the Spiritual Resonance Grotto-heaven, we owed much to Brother Li Luo's care. Now that you've come to our academy, we will certainly host you well."

Beside him, Jiang Jiang Wanyu's beautiful eyes fixed on Li Luo, and her red lips curved slightly as she said, "Being able to host Li Luo, the Dragon Head who bears the bearing of invincibility, is also our honor."

At this moment, Jiang Jiang Wanyu was wearing the standard academy uniform of the Tianyuan Ancient Academy. The well-fitted uniform accentuated her delicate, curvaceous figure; her curves were full, and her long trousers wrapped her legs, revealing a striking boldness. Her long hair was pinned up, giving her a dashing air, and her pretty face always carried a certain coldness—yet this coldness happened to be especially stirring. Just standing there, she kept drawing glances from passersby.

Moreover, when speaking with Li Luo now, the coldness on her cheeks, bright as the autumn moon, faded considerably, which made her all the more eye-catching.

But Li Luo paid no attention to these things. Instead, because of Jiang Jiang Wanyu's words, he understood that the writings on the Fenghua List had already begun to spread.

"It must be that Mu Yao's doing—truly shameless." Li Luo cursed helplessly.

Senior Zong Sha and Jiang Jiang Wanyu both smiled. They knew of the conflict between Li Luo and that Mu Yao in the Spiritual Resonance Grotto-heaven, so they could guess that much of the writing on the Fenghua List had been fueled by Mu Yao.

"Although his move was somewhat underhanded, the effect was not small. The Fenghua Records is very popular in our academy; students pay attention to it all the time. Your title of invincibility among your peers has drawn quite a bit of attention." Jiang Jiang Wanyu said.

Senior Zong Sha also nodded and said, "Originally, if you had stayed within the Li Li Tianwang line, it might not have mattered. But now that you've come to the Tianyuan Ancient Academy, it's bound to attract some attention."

There was a hint of warning in his words.

Li Luo smiled; this did not surprise him. The Tianyuan Ancient Academy gathered countless young prodigies, all of whom took pride in the ancient academy. Someone of his background, from a Li Tianwang line, would actually find it harder to blend in.

But it didn't matter; he had no intention of joining the Tianyuan Ancient Academy anyway.

"Let's go, Brother Li Luo. We'll take you into the academy first. If there's anything you need, we can pass word along for you later." Senior Zong Sha said.

"Then I'll trouble the two of you." Li Luo nodded, then followed them onto that emerald-green leaf that resembled a flying carpet.

Meanwhile, Bi Ye drifted upward along the massive main trunk of the Mutual Force Tree at a steady, unhurried pace; below along the way stretched broad avenues and sprawling clusters of buildings.

Senior Zong Sha enthusiastically introduced the situation within this ancient academy to Li Luo.

Li Luo listened intently, and after a while, suddenly asked, "Senior Zong Sha, it seems there are many teams from other academies."

"Oh, those are teams from various Sacred Academies across the Outer Shenzhou, and some from the Outer Shenzhou... they are all here for the biennial academy-level evaluation," Senior Zong Sha said.

"Academy-level evaluation?"

"Yes, to put it more plainly, they come to participate in the evaluation to claim more cultivation resources from this ancient academy. Generally speaking, the higher the level granted by the evaluation, the greater the resource allocation; this is extremely important for those Sacred Academies," Senior Zong Sha said.

Li Luo understood, then sighed somewhat, thinking that if Sacred Profound Star Academy had not encountered that incident, it might have participated in such an evaluation.

"By the way, Brother Li Luo, you mentioned earlier that when you were in the Outer Shenzhou, you also came from a Sacred Academy? What was it called?" Senior Zong Sha recalled something and suddenly asked.

"Great Xia Kingdom, Sacred Profound Star Academy," Li Luo replied.

Senior Zong Sha thought for a moment and smiled, "Oh, oh. Since I happen to be working on hosting these Sacred Academy teams, I do have some impression. Your Sacred Profound Star Academy also sent a mentor over, but strangely, it was only her alone; this does not look like a team coming for the evaluation."

Li Luo was stunned, then exclaimed in astonishment, "A mentor from Sacred Profound Star Academy came? Who is it? What is her name?"

Senior Zong Sha scratched his head.

"It was a female mentor, quite beautiful, named..."

"Right, she is called Xi Chan."