Chapter 1184: A Different South Wind Academy

Great Xia.

South Wind City, South Wind Academy.

Today's South Wind Academy has changed beyond recognition—no, strictly speaking, there is no longer a South Wind Academy at all, because with the relocation of Holy Eclipse Star Academy, South Wind Academy has been "absorbed."

However, regarding this "absorption," everyone at South Wind Academy, from the principal down to the students, was overjoyed. After all, given Holy Eclipse Star Academy's status in Great Xia, they could only worship and yearn for it in the past. But now, suddenly, Holy Eclipse Star Academy moved here in its entirety. Although it took over South Wind Academy's location, the students of South Wind Academy also transformed, becoming students of Holy Eclipse Star Academy.

Although today's Holy Eclipse Star Academy is a fallen phoenix, it is still considered one of the top powers in Great Xia, and it still possesses extremely strong teaching resources as well as the backing of the Academy Alliance.

In the past, among each cohort of South Wind Academy students, only a handful could pass the entrance examination to Holy Eclipse Star Academy.

Therefore, Holy Eclipse Star Academy's "absorption" of South Wind Academy received recognition and welcome from everyone, from top to bottom, including the residents of South Wind City.

And now, Holy Eclipse Star Academy, which has occupied South Wind Academy, has expanded considerably. People come and go within the academy, and its popularity is by no means weak.

However, the atmosphere within the academy is now completely different from before.

If the atmosphere within Holy Eclipse Star Academy used to be peaceful and relaxed, now it is constantly permeated with a tense atmosphere. All the students have hurried, nervous expressions—they are either busy with their coursework and cultivation, or practicing phase arts hard on the training grounds.

Because times have changed.

Great Xia was split in two by the Heihe, which emanated a dense miasma of malice, and the Heihe is now constantly expanding. At the places where it borders, aberrations breed frequently, and many bizarre and terrifying incidents occur.

Some towns and villages that failed to evacuate in time were almost completely wiped out, the manner of death so tragic as to be horrifying.

All the citizens of Great Xia live in fear and unease.

In the past, the terror of aberrations was somewhat suppressed, and ordinary people did not know much about it. But with the outbreak of this "Aberration Disaster," common folk finally learned how terrifying and bizarre aberrations truly are.

Fortunately, although Great Xia is divided, on Wang Ting's side, the Eldest Princess managed to turn the tide. Coupled with the support of Holy Eclipse Star Academy and the Gold Dragon Treasure House, the Eldest Princess gradually took control of the situation, while also establishing border defenses and sealing off the contamination line.

And all the various forces sent out elite squads to form "Exorcism Teams," constantly hunting down invading aberrations along the long defensive line.

In less than two short years, no one knows how many people have died from the erosion of aberrations.

But no one can retreat, because behind them lies their homeland. They have already seen what tragedies befall cities polluted by aberrations. To prevent their own homes from becoming the same, they have no choice but to fight desperately to protect them.

And the young students of Holy Eclipse Star Academy are naturally no exception.

As the academy with the most experience battling aberrations, Holy Eclipse Star Academy bore a large portion of the pressure, and for this, the academy paid an extremely heavy price.

Wooo!

Within the academy, a wailing horn suddenly sounded.

Upon hearing this familiar horn, all the students within the academy stood solemnly at attention, their eyes filled with heaviness and grief as they looked toward the direction of the academy's main gate.

There, they saw large squads pouring in in an orderly fashion. The most eye-catching among them were over a dozen white coffins being carried.

These were the elite squads that had gone out to carry out this mission, but when they returned, they brought back over a dozen cold corpses of their companions.

Many students bowed their heads in tribute to those white coffins, while the grief on their faces was tinged with a hint of numbness, because such a scene had become commonplace.

These squads carried the white coffins to the plaza, where a group of the academy's senior members waited. The gentle, beautiful woman at the very front was Vice Principal Suxin.

Beside her was Mentor Xi Chan.

There was also an old acquaintance of Li Luo's—the former principal of South Wind Academy, named Wei Sha.

At this moment, their eyes held a trace of sorrow as they looked at those white coffins. Then Vice Principal Suxin stepped forward and, with a practiced sorrow that pained the heart, performed a purification and blessing for the corpses within those white coffins. Finally, in a silent, oppressive atmosphere, she ordered people to send the white coffins to the back mountain to be buried in the "Heroes' Tomb."

Watching the white coffins depart and the silent, oppressive academy, a trace of weariness flashed in Vice Principal Suxin's eyes. For the past two years, she had been striving to maintain the academy's operation, and she truly felt utterly exhausted in body and mind.

However, she quickly composed herself and said softly to Mentor Xi Chan beside her: "Thanks to you, you brought back a batch of resources. Otherwise, I'm afraid this year the academy wouldn't even have been able to fully distribute the students' rewards."

Without sufficient resources, Holy Eclipse Star Academy would lose its appeal in the eyes of many students. After all, the high-grade phase force tree the academy relied on for survival had already been destroyed. Relying on this single low-grade phase force tree from South Wind Academy, it was truly difficult to attract more new students.

After all, in less than two years, some of the Marquis Realm mentors originally hired by the academy had successively resigned and left, some even choosing to leave Great Xia entirely.

After all, for Marquis-level powerhouses, no matter where they went, many forces would extend generous olive branches. Now that Great Xia's "Aberration Disaster" showed signs of spreading, it was truly not a place to linger.

But fortunately, these were only a few, otherwise Holy Eclipse Star Academy would truly exist in name only.

Mentor Xi Chan shook her head and said: "This is all thanks to Li Luo. I stayed at Tianyuan Ancient Academy for a long time without anyone to receive me, but I happened to run into him. His background is extraordinary, so he helped me resolve these troubles."

Vice Principal Suxin also sighed and said: "Only someone who has come out of that kind of power could possess such bearing. Even the principal treats them quite courteously."

She returned to the topic and sighed: "Unfortunately, we still couldn't obtain a seed for a high-grade phase force tree."

For the academy, a high-grade phase force tree was the most important thing. Only with this could the academy continue to grow stronger.

Mentor Xi Chan said: "When I left, Li Luo was representing our Holy Eclipse Star Academy in participating in the Ancient Academy's conscription mission. It is said to be extremely perilous—even all the students of Tianyuan Ancient Academy's Celestial Star Division were mobilized. Li Luo said that if he could earn enough merit within it, he would exchange it for a seed of a high-grade phase force tree for us."

Vice Principal Suxin said: "This child Li Luo values loyalty and righteousness. He is truly a blessing to our academy."

She looked again at the old principal Wei Sha beside her and said: "Speaking of which, Li Luo also came from South Wind Academy. Principal Wei, you sent us a good seedling."

Being spoken to like this by Vice Principal Suxin, Wei Sha was also filled with emotion. Who could have imagined that the empty-phase youth from back then could have reached where he is today?

While Vice Principal Suxin was speaking with Wei Sha, she sighed softly in her heart. Even the students of the Ancient Academy's Celestial Star Division had been mobilized, so that so-called conscription mission was clearly extremely difficult. Although Mentor Xi Chan said Li Luo was now at the Tian Zhu Realm, in front of the students of the Celestial Star Division, that amounted to nothing. Therefore, she truly did not hold out much hope that Li Luo could earn enough merit to exchange for a high-grade phase force tree seed.

But having reached this point, what other extravagant hopes could she have?

As she was thinking this, she saw two young figures walking over from the squads ahead.

One male, one female.

The woman carried a red-tasseled spear, had a slender figure, and short hair that reached her ears, looking very dashing and heroic. It was Bai Bai Doudou.

The other was a young man with an unruly smile on his face—who else but Seeing Yu Lang?

However, just over a year had also made Seeing Yu Lang much more mature. He had been through too much, yet his eyes still seemed exactly as they had been back then. If Li Luo were here, he would comment that those eyes held a clarity tinged with a touch of steadfast foolishness.

The two clearly had a very close relationship. They stepped forward to greet Vice Principal Suxin.

"You two have worked hard on this mission as well," Vice Principal Suxin said gently to comfort them. The two had also participated in this Exorcism mission, but fortunately both returned safely.

She knew Seeing Yu Lang was Li Luo's good friend. If something happened to Seeing Yu Lang, it would truly be hard to account for in the future. But fighting aberrations on the front lines—who could guarantee anything? If she told Seeing Yu Lang not to participate in these things, given his personality, he probably wouldn't agree either.

"Mentor Xi Chan, I was busy carrying out the mission before and haven't heard you talk much about that guy Li Luo," Seeing Yu Lang said to Mentor Xi Chan with a grin: "Did you tell him that I am now a powerhouse tied for first place in the Three Star Division alongside Qin Qin Zhulu? Once I advance to the Four Star Division next, I'm going to start pushing for the Tian Zhu Realm."

Beside him, a trace of complexity flashed deep in Bai Bai Doudou's eyes as she looked at the still optimistic Seeing Yu Lang. The latter had followed Mentor Mentor Mi Er in cultivating that special Mi Fa, resulting in his phase affinity being permanently capped at the sixth grade, in exchange for a rapid advancement in his own strength.

She felt deeply guilty about this, because it was precisely her family's contempt for Seeing Yu Lang that had forced him to take this step.

He only wanted to strive to be worthy of her.

Thinking of this, Bai Bai Doudou bravely reached out and, in front of everyone, grasped one of Seeing Yu Lang's hands.

Seeing Yu Lang's eyebrows shot up, his face radiant with spirit—too bad Li Luo wasn't here, or he would surely have admired Seeing Yu Lang's charm, which had even won over Bai Bai Doudou.

Just as Seeing Yu Lang was thinking this, the expressions of Vice Principal Su Xin and Instructor Xi Chan suddenly changed. They turned their heads toward the center of the academy, where the low-grade Resonance Force Tree suddenly erupted with a pillar of light shooting skyward.

All the students and instructors in the academy stared at this scene in astonishment.

What is happening?