Chapter 172: The Ninth Stage of the Spirit Realm

Though Wang the Fool was somewhat simple-minded, he was by no means a fool. Ever since emerging from the Pagoda of Inquiring Dao, he made it a habit to wander into the Spirit Dao Passage almost every day to pick fierce fights with the senior students of profound cultivation. Although he was beaten black and blue every single time, after returning to his dormitory for a good night's sleep, his body would miraculously recover by morning.

Amidst this self-inflicted torment, Wang the Fool's cultivation grew at an astonishing pace, rocketing to the seventh stage of the Spirit Dao in a mere half-month.

However, this proved to be a bitter trial for the senior students. Wang the Fool possessed virtually no academic credits, meaning victory over him yielded zero rewards. Instead, they invariably ended up with a few bruises courtesy of his desperate, reckless fighting style.

Consequently, long before Lin Xiaobao rose to fame, Wang the Fool had already forged a legendary moniker among the veteran students of the Soaring Dragon Academy: the Indestructible Little Strong!

By now, nearly all veteran students in the realm of the Spirit Dao knew of a certain newcomer who possessed zero credits yet frequented the Spirit Dao Passage every single day to wage life-or-death struggles with them. No matter how severely he was thrashed, he would reappear the following day.

Since everyone wore masks upon entering the Spirit Dao Passage, nobody could ever be certain whether they were about to cross paths with Wang the Fool. Yet, whenever they encountered someone clad in newcomer attire, none of them were willing to let the opportunity slip by.

This created a peculiar phenomenon within the Spirit Dao Passage: whenever a new student entered, every veteran student would mutter a silent prayer before making a move, "Surely I can't be this unlucky again!"

Naturally, on the fifteenth day since his enrollment, Wang the Fool finally suspended his self-destructive regimen of cultivation, for today marked the very first day of classes.

Over a thousand newly admitted students who had passed the examinations now stood standing rigidly straight across the testing plaza. Several instructors stood upon the elevated platform, and right before them stood the supreme figure of the Soaring Dragon Continent today, Academy Dean Kuang Lizhen.

Kuang Lizhen was a man of few words. After offering a few words of encouragement to the newcomers, the process of assigning them to various departments commenced. Depending on their individual aptitudes, they were sorted into the Alchemy Branch, the Array Branch, the Martial Branch, the Miscellaneous Branch...

As names were called one by one, the new students responded in turn and took their places within their respective formations.

"Martial Branch, Lin Xiaobao..."

Hearing the name of Lin Xiaobao, Kuang Lizhen furrowed his brow slightly. By his estimation, Lin Xiaobao ought to have been assigned to the Array Branch. He never anticipated that Lin Xiaobao would choose the path of the Martial Dao, and even more bizarrely, there was no response whatsoever from Lin Xiaobao.

The roll-calling instructor repeated the name, yet silence still met the platform below. It was only then that everyone realized a singular fact: ever since the day of the examination, Lin Xiaobao seemed to have vanished completely from public view.

Even Kuang Lizhen found himself at a loss. According to his calculations, even if Lin Xiaobao had entered the Pagoda of Inquiring Dao, his five hundred credits should only have sustained him for ten days of cultivation. How was it possible that half a month later, his shadow was still nowhere to be seen?

A new student of the Soaring Dragon Academy gone missing? This was an unprecedented event. Although Kuang Lizhen betrayed no outward sign of alarm during the opening ceremony, the moment it concluded, he immediately issued a directive for the entire academy to keep a sharp lookout for any trace of Lin Xiaobao.

This decision was driven partly by Kuang Lizhen's high regard for Lin Xiaobao, and partly by his fierce protection of the Soaring Dragon Academy's reputation. After all, Lin Xiaobao's entry into the academy was common knowledge. If he were to inexplicably vanish without a trace—neither sight nor corpse remaining—it would undoubtedly deal a blow to the academy's hard-earned prestige.

Before long, several instructors quietly issued bounties among the senior students: anyone capable of locating Lin Xiaobao would be rewarded with two thousand credits, while anyone providing his whereabouts would receive one thousand.

In an instant, this yet-unseen newcomer became a household name across the entire Soaring Dragon Academy.

Meanwhile, the instigator of this entire commotion, Lin Xiaobao, remained completely immersed in his profound comprehension of the Dao. The Origin of the Dao, stimulated by the fragment of the Chaos Mirror within his body, permeated his entire being. He drifted freely through the ocean of the Dao, every breath and every heartbeat exuding faint traces of supreme dao principles.

Simultaneously, the spiritual energy within Lin Xiaobao's Dantian underwent continuous compression. Yet, the spiritual energy inside the Pagoda of Inquiring Dao was extraordinarily dense; no sooner had Lin Xiaobao compressed his spiritual energy to carve out a tiny void than it was instantly replenished by fresh surges of energy. Seemingly perceiving that Lin Xiaobao stood upon the precipice of a breakthrough, the Chaos Mirror fragment behaved with rare benevolence, refraining from devouring his newly generated spiritual energy.

The relentless influx of spiritual energy pushed Lin Xiaobao's Dantian to bear an overwhelming burden, forcing it to expand once more. Protected by the power of the Dao's Origin, this expansion caused him no discomfort whatsoever; instead, it filled him with an incomparable sense of absolute bliss.

Concurrently, under the refinement of this formless dao power, his spiritual consciousness grew even purer, suddenly surging from a fluctuation frequency of twenty thousand times per second to a staggering fifty thousand times per second.

A crisp, thunderous explosion echoed deep within his Dantian. Lin Xiaobao felt the spiritual energy within his Dantian undergo a qualitative sublimation amidst the resounding crack. The spiritual energy that had previously bloated his Dantian to the brim was now compressed into less than a third of the space. Although fresh spiritual energy continued to pour in incessantly, the rate of accumulation seemed slightly slower than before.

At that moment, Lin Xiaobao understood that he had reached the absolute apex of the Spirit Dao realm: the ninth stage of the Spirit Dao. Yet the Chaos Mirror fragment seemed somewhat unsatisfied, continuing to cascade the power of the Dao's Origin downwards, greatly consolidating his newly achieved realm while faintly hinting at a continued upward trajectory.

This sensation felt as though, provided there was sufficient spiritual energy for replenishment, the Dao's Origin released by the Chaos Mirror fragment could propel Lin Xiaobao past the barrier of the Dao Heart realm in a single bound.

Truth be told, Lin Xiaobao felt a stirring of temptation. The Dao Heart realm was the true threshold; only upon entering this realm could one genuinely be considered a proper cultivator. *Break through!* Keeping the enemies he intended to face at the forefront of his mind, Lin Xiaobao tightly reined in his emotions, refusing to let himself snap out of this mystical, ethereal state.

He knew all too well that such an opportunity was exceedingly rare, one that many cultivators might never encounter even once in a lifetime.

With the right timing, favorable terrain, and harmonious conditions all falling into place, Lin Xiaobao's cultivation realm steadily climbed higher and higher. Time lost its conventional meaning at this moment, and Lin Xiaobao transitioned seamlessly from the newly attained ninth stage of the Spirit Dao to the absolute peak of the ninth stage. Just as he prepared to make his final push for a breakthrough, he suddenly felt the surrounding spiritual energy thin out abruptly, and the Chaos Mirror fragment, which had been unceasingly shedding the Dao's Origin, finally quieted down.

This abrupt change gave Lin Xiaobao a jolt of alarm, fearing something had gone awry with his cultivation. Slowly opening his eyes, he realized that he was now standing at the entrance of the Spirit Dao Passage. Pulling out his identity token for inspection, he saw that the number thirty on the back had vanished entirely, while the credits on the front now displayed a flat zero.

So his allotted cultivation time had finally expired! Though he felt a lingering pang of regret for failing to cross the threshold into the Dao Heart realm in one go, upon second thought, advancing from the eighth stage to the absolute peak of the ninth stage in a single month was an achievement he could readily accept.

Moreover, through this session of profound enlightenment, Lin Xiaobao had accumulated a vast reservoir of insights into the Dao. Even outside the Pagoda of Inquiring Dao, ascending to the Dao Heart realm was now merely a matter of time.

Naturally, Lin Xiaobao still held towering expectations for the Pagoda of Inquiring Dao. At that moment, he was already pondering whether he should brew a few batches of medicinal pills to exchange for credits. In matters of alchemy, Lin Xiaobao possessed supreme and unwavering confidence.

Lost in a whirl of various thoughts, Lin Xiaobao took a few aimless steps forward, when a sudden realization struck him: the opening ceremony was supposed to take place half a month after the conclusion of the tests. By now, that time had long since passed, and as for himself...