"Why did you let him join? Don't tell me you think he'll be a great help?"

Sheng Feilong shook his head.

"He wouldn't be of much help if s.h.i.+guan were to join us. Inside the Spirit Ascension Platform is a simulation of the ancient Spirit Dou Forest from over 20.000 years ago. With her Bluesilver Gra.s.s, she could perfectly scout the area, but she's not allowed to join us this time. Xiao Yuewu is still a better choice than joining the other 6 or acting alone. Moreover, what he said is right. The Platform is dangerous. Although we won't die for real if we get killed, there are still complications and our enemy isn't only Soul Beasts, but other partic.i.p.ants not from the Academy as well. Killing other Soul Master to absorb their leftover Spirit Power is probably the fastest way to get stronger in there."

Jian w.a.n.g was surprised by Sheng Feilong's explanation.

"So you want to use Xiao Yuewu as a s.h.i.+eld?"

Sheng Feilong nodded, shocking all of the others.

"Yes. A s.h.i.+eld and a scout. Though I won't leave him behind as long as he cooperates. I already said that I don't mind killing him if he doesn't follow orders. Our main goal is to use this opportunity to get stronger. Personally, I want to evolve my Ancient Hypnotic Toad to the 1.000-years-old level as soon as possible and this is a perfect chance."

He took a last bite from his carrot, putting the rest of it into his mouth, munched on it a few time before swallowing it down. "Well anyways, let's get back to cla.s.s."

Just as he finished speaking, the bell rung, signaling for everyone that their break was over.

They headed back to their cla.s.sroom and arrived just a few seconds before their teacher. Quickly taking their seats, the teacher then walked to his desk and started his cla.s.ses. When the bell rung again, signaling the end of the cla.s.ses, the teacher stood up and informed asked the 10 partic.i.p.ants for the Spirit Ascension Platform to stay a little longer.

After everyone else left, the teacher looked at them again an gave them a bit of new information.

"The day for entering the Spirit Ascension Platform is the day after tomorrow. We will meet up here at the cla.s.sroom at 8:00 am and then head over to the Spirit PaG.o.da together. All of you have a day off tomorrow to make your own preparations. Don't bother with the other students, they'll have cla.s.ses as normal on both days. That's all, you may leave."

Sheng Feilong, Jian w.a.n.g and Su Liyun head out together. Looking around a bit, they quickly found Su Liyun's mother, as well as Sheng Lingtian and Jian s.h.i.+guan, waiting for them. They talk for a moment longer, before Su Liyun and her mother leave and then make their way over to the Spirit PaG.o.da. Doing their usual training, they later fight Song Weihan as a team again, since Jian s.h.i.+guan joined them again. Before Jian w.a.n.g and Jian s.h.i.+guan leave, Sheng Feilong told Song Weihan about the Academy's schedule and asked for a day off for all three of them tomorrow.

Song Weihan agrees and let's them do whatever they deem necessary. Sheng Feilong then walked over to the Bao brother's wrokshop, also asking for 2 days off there, since he didn't know how long their adventure inside the Spirit Ascension Platform would last. Sheng Feilong spends the next day gathering as much information as possible about the Spirit Ascension Platform, the layout inside of it and the beasts they may encounter before buying a few supplies, as Song Weihan said they could scan backpacks to take items with them.

A day later, Sheng Feilong and Sheng Lingtian left their home with Sheng Feilong carrying a big backpack fixed with an extra strap around his waist. They boarded Sheng Lingtian's Purple Mecha and headed for the Heaven Dou Academy. Sheng Feilong walked into the cla.s.sroom at around 7:50 am and all the other 9 children had already gathered there. The rest of the cla.s.s wasn't there as they had other cla.s.ses in another room. He quickly found Jian w.a.n.g and Su Liyun who had taken seats next to Xiao Yuewu and sat down as well. They talked about their general tactics for a few minutes until the teacher arrived and hurried all of the children to board a bus together with the other 2 grades of the Intermediate Academy. After some light introductions from the teachers, they boarded the bus and headed to the Spirit PaG.o.da.

Many people were currently gathered at the Spirit PaG.o.da. The opening of the Spirit Ascension Platform was usually the busiest day of the month and today was no exception. One of the teachers asked them to wait with the the others, while she registered their arrival with the PaG.o.da. Nothing much happened other than that they had to wait for a while as the Spirit paG.o.da was well organized and orderly so no one would cause any trouble. The teacher returned with a Spirit PaG.o.da employee in tow, who then led them to another area past a lot of rooms where similar groups had gathered. Sheng Feilong could see a lot of strange, man-sized capsules as well as a lot of computers and machinery inside. They entered a larger hall, similarly equipped with lots of those strange capsules, easily enough for all 30 of the children.

The employee was about to explain a few things about the Spirit Ascension Platform until he noticed a man sitting at one of the computers, reading a few doc.u.ments. The employee froze for a moment before quickly bowing to the man.

"Greeting to the Department Head!"

The teachers were surprised for a moment before quickly following suit and bowing to the man.

"The teachers of the Heaven Dou Intermediate Academy greet the Department Head!"

The Department Head nodded, mentioning for them to be at ease and stood up. He is about 1.90 meters tall, with a lean build and a sharp jawline, wearing a white uniform with black pants and shoes. On the left side of his chest he wore a golden coloured badge endowed with three stars. The most eye-catching thing, however, is not the badge on his chest, but his hair. A giant, 4 cm wide and 15cm high mohawk cut in a vibrant, pink colour.

The children were surprised by the strange sight, a few of them beginning to chuckle and carefully point at the man while whispering among themselves, causing the teachers to sweat profusely. Jian w.a.n.g froze as he didn't know why the man was here, while Sheng Feilong was just as bewildered and blurted out, while walking to the front and lightly bowing.

"Master? What are doing here?"

The Department Head, Song Weihan, looked at Sheng Feilong and smiled innocently.

"Well, working of course. Little Pong asked me to review a few things as he didn't have the authority to judge them himself, ha, ha."

Sheng Feilong still looked as bewildered as before, so Song Weihan explained nonchalantly.

"The Spirit Ascension Platform was originally created to research and groom artificial Spirit Souls, so naturally I'd be in charge of things here. You should have already figured that, didn't you?"

Sheng Feilong wrily smiled and shook his head, causing Song Weihan to laugh. The teachers had relaxed already since Song Weihan didn't seem to mind the children's whispering, but Sheng Feilong's cla.s.ses teacher was still sweating buckets. He didn't know Sheng Feilong was the disciple of such a big shot. He was currently thanking whatever deity had looked over him, since Sheng Feilong's position among the 10 to partic.i.p.ate was nearly taken from him by the teacher. The end result was 4:4 and he made the decision to allow Sheng Feilong to partic.i.p.ate as his talent was enormous. He didn't dare to think about what would've happened if Song Weihan knew his disciple would have been denied access!

Song Weihan stepped forward, gathering the attention of all the students and teachers with a clearing of his throat before he explained the origins of the Spirit Ascension Platform briefly then told them about the dangers inside and how to absorb the leftover Spirit Power into their Spirit Souls. Afterwards, the students were asked to lie down in the capsules and then told to close their eyes. A few moments later, Sheng Feilong felt as if his Soul was leaving his body. A strange feeling like being pulled over and then falling from some height. When the feeling stopped, he opened his eyes, but to his own surprise, he wasn't lying in the capsule anymore.

No matter in which direction he looked, all he could see were towering trees, all kinds of plants unknown to him as lush green gra.s.s. Although he read about the Star Dou Forest of old before, truly standing in it, or at least a simulation of it, was entirely different. While he was looking around, quite a few other people popped up all around him; all of them other students from his Academy. He waited for little while longer and found Su Liyun, then Jian w.a.n.g and lastly Xiao Yuewu.

The four of them quickly made a plan to distance themselves from the other and headed northeastward with Xiao Yuewu about 50 meters in front of them to scout the perimeter. They quickly found their first beasts in the woods. A flock of 10-years-old Crookbeaked Falcons, lead by a number of 100-year-old variants, but decided to avoid them due to their great numbers. A while later, they found a small lake and chose to set camp there and wait for sole beasts to arrive.

Sheng Feilong used a rope from his backpack to climb a tree and hide there with Su Liyun while Jian w.a.n.g and Xiao Yuewu hid in the bushes near the tree. All of them observed the lake and surrounding woods carefully and patiently waited, after all, lakes, rivers and the such had always been gathering places for beasts, as even they need to eat and drink. After a while, a lone panther like creature appeared at the lake and the group prepared to engage it, but suddenly, the noise of trees and wood breaking was heard, accompanied by a thundering roar that stopped them from acting on the thought.

The roar thundered through the forest, instantly causing the panther to run into the opposite direction at top speed in fear for its own life. Sheng Feilong and the other were patrified.

The roar came from directly behind them and it was unimaginable close!