“Hey, Junior Brother, would you please stand in the queue?” a Senior Brother asked.

Only at this time did Xiao Chen come to his senses. He clasped his hands and said, “I’m sorry.” Then he walked back to his team. The teenager behind him saw that Xiao Chen had stared at the floating island in the distance for a long time. He whispered his question, “Brother Chen, what’s the matter?”

Xiao Chen shook his head and smiled. “It’s nothing.” He thought that perhaps he had overthought. After all, she couldn’t appear in the Cloud Mist Academy.

“All right. Everyone, please be quiet.” A Senior Brother counted the number of people and then said to an elder with a solemn look behind him, “First Grandmaster, there are a total of 544 people. All of them have arrived here.”

The old man nodded, but there was no smile on his face. He looked very stern. Then he flicked his sleeves, and suddenly little bits of golden light flew out, flying to everyone’s chests. Immediately, a white badge was automatically put on everyone.

“From now on, all of you will be the disciples of the Cloud Mist Academy,” declared the First Grandmaster.

The new students were excited when they heard that. They looked at the badges on their chests as if these badges were the most precious things in the world. However, when they looked up, the majestic older man was gone.

The previous Senior Brother smiled awkwardly and said, “The Eldest Senior Master has been busy. He is always like this, so please don’t mind.”

Since these new disciples were very delighted now, they naturally did not pay attention to these details. However, in the distance, some senior disciples shook their heads and sighed in a low voice. “This group of new disciples is not talented enough. Though their cultivation realms are not bad, their cultivation grade are too low. It seems that the First Grandmaster was a little disappointed and didn’t even want to talk to them.”

“Unlucky guys, haha.” Some senior disciples even chuckled at their misfortunes.

Xiao Chen looked around with special attention and discovered that all these senior disciples were wearing green badges. The lowest cultivation level of them was the initial stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. Beyond that, the cultivation of these people gave him a very different feeling. It seemed that their cultivations were very pure, much purer than those of the people outside. The unsolid Nascent Soul Realm cultivators outside were no match for these senior disciples. The cultivations of the latter were even much purer than Xiao Chen’s when he was at the Nascent Soul Realm. This fact slightly shook Xiao Chen.

Xiao Chen thought to himself, “This Cloud Mist Academy is indeed not an ordinary academy. Merely these dozens of ordinary disciples are already comparable to these elite disciples of some sects in the Violet Manor.” Suddenly, Xiao Chen felt a little stressed. Perhaps, this place was indeed where the strong gathered.

“All right, everyone, please be quiet.”

A senior disciple, who welcomed these new arrivals, smiled and said. Although the First Grandmaster looked down on the group of new recruits, he needed to do his duty well. After that, he motioned to the two Junior Brothers next to him. The two Junior Brothers immediately took out something from the Divine Vessel and distributed them to each newcomer.

These were green crystals that were half the size of a thumb with a faint halo outside, and it seemed that there were flows of Mystic Power inside. Each of them gotten, and they all looked at the crystals in their hands curiously. “What are these crystals? They seem to be different from the Spiritual Stones.” They wondered.

Xiao Chen also held the green crystals in his hand. Since his sensory ability was stronger than others, he immediately felt the pure Mystic Power in the crystals. These crystals were completely different from the Spirit Stones that contained the spirit energy. Usually, the higher the grade of the Spirit Stones, the purer and intenser the spirit energy would be.

A cultivator could absorb the Spiritual Qi and the spirit energy into his body and convert them into the Mystic Power, which could then be stored as the True Energy in his body. When it was needed, the cultivator would release the Mystic Power. By doing so, he would be able to either exert the mighty power or activate the vital force between heaven and earth. It depended on the cultivator’s cultivation realm and the purity level of his Mystic Power.

However, what these green crystals contained now was precisely the pure Mystic Power, which could be used by cultivators directly. At this moment, Xiao Chen seemed to have understood why every disciple in the Cloud Mist Academy had very pure cultivation—the Mystic Power crystals definitely had contributed a lot.

A Senior Brother who welcomed new arrivals smiled and said, “This is a Stage-1 Mystic Stone. I’m sure that all of you have seen the difference between the Mystic Stones and the Spirit Stones. In the Cloud Mist Academy, the Spirit Stone is not that important. Instead, the Mystic Stones is of crucial importance. You can change the Mystic Stones into many things that you want, or you can directly refine the stones to improve your cultivation grade. According to your performance, the corresponding number of Mystic Stones will be distributed to you each month…”

“Wait a minute!” Xiao Chen suddenly interrupted him. The Senior Brother looked at him with a smile and asked, “Junior Brother, is there anything that you’d like to ask?”

Xiao Chen frowned and asked, “Doesn’t the cultivation grade that you just mentioned refer to the cultivation realm?”

The Senior Brother smiled and said, “I will give you the answer later, so please don’t be anxious.” After saying this, he looked at the others and said, “Then, please come with me. You need to pass through the Long-Gate Pass in front of you before you officially become the disciples of the Cloud Mist Academy.”

Right after that, those new arrivers walked to the square after the few Senior Brothers. Of course, they stayed in their previous teams. The dozens of teenagers still followed behind Xiao Chen and Chu Qi.

Along the way, Xiao Chen learned something about the Cloud Mist Academy. Those who wore green badges were the previous batch of disciples. The Cloud Mist Academy would recruit new disciples every three years. Thus, it meant that they had stayed at the Cloud Mist Academy for at least three years. As for the batch of disciples who arrived here before those green-badged disciples, they wore purple badges.

Those purple-badged disciples could be considered as the seniors of those senior disciples, who were rarely seen by new disciples. They had their own cultivation caves. Besides, they were taught by their seniors or masters and would not have their lessons with the new disciples. Therefore, their treatment in the Cloud Mist Academy was completely different from that of newcomers.

Sure enough, their strength was strong enough, which far exceeded Xiao Chen’s strength. The strength here was not just limited to a person’s cultivation level.

After a quarter, they finally reached the so-called Long-Gate Pass. There were several towering stone pillars at the pass, and behind the stone pillars, there was an open square that could hold ten thousand people. Beyond these, many magnificent buildings, great places for cultivation, halls, and pavilions were built inside.

When these new disciples saw the scene, great longings for their bright future immediately welled up in their hearts. But to their surprise, next to these stone pillars, three persons with green badges blocked their way. The two men and the woman all looked ice-cold. Like door-gods, they stood in the way that everyone had to pass. On the square behind the stone pillars, many green-badged senior disciples were standing there, watching the fun.

Not knowing what had happened, these new disciples looked at each other with concern and turned to look at the four Senior Brothers who had shown them the way earlier. However, as the four Senior Brothers saw the three people by the stone pillars, they all silently retreated aside.

Xiao Chen, Chu Qi, Jiang Qianqian, and Yumu Shisan walked at the forefront. Thus, Xiao Chen could feel the cultivation of these three people next to the stone pillars. They all had actually reached the initial stage of the Nirvana Realm. Moreover, their cultivation was very pure and did not appear to be superficial. Knowing this, Xiao Chen could not help exclaiming with surprise, “This Cloud Mist Academy is indeed full of hidden talents, which is incomparable to organizations in the outside world.”

“Senior Sister, why don’t you let us go in there?” Xiao Chen, as a leader of the new disciples, felt obliged to ask for the reason.

“I’m Bai Ling,” a woman who carried a long green sword on her back said flatly. She then turned to look at the four senior disciples who were responsible for the arrival of the new disciples. Frowned slightly, she asked, “Haven’t you told them the rule?”

“Well…” The senior disciple, who had always been very friendly to the newcomers, wanted to say something, but in the end, he lowered his head without uttering another word. At this moment, those new disciples were even more surprised. “Are there any other rules?”

Xiao Chen frowned, thinking, “I’m afraid that this Long-Gate Pass is the last barrier that the four senior disciples had mysteriously talked about yesterday.” He then asked, “We are all newcomers of this year. If you have any rules, you can just tell us.”

Bai Ling looked at him. She seemed to have realized that Xiao Chen was different from the rest of the new disciples. Frowning, she said, “Each one of you should give me three Mystic Stones. You’ll have to do that every month from now on.” The moment she finished speaking, the two senior Nirvana Realm disciples behind her also said indifferently, “You must give us the equal number of Mystic Stones.”

After hearing this, the newcomers looked at each other in dismay. “We can only receive ten Mystic Stones per mouth. If each of them gets three stones, will there only be one left for each of us? Besides, do we really have to pay them every month in the following months?” The crowd knew that the four Senior Brothers who welcomed them could no longer protect them now, so they had no choice but to turn to look at Xiao Chen and the other few people.

Xiao Chen frowned a little and asked, “Why? Since we are all disciples of the Cloud Mist Academy, you should give us a reason for that first.” In fact, he wanted to say that they could not always be bullied only because they were newcomers. But in the end, he swallowed these words.

“Because this is the rule. When we just came here, we also had to hand over the Mystic Stones to our Senior Brothers and Sisters every month. Up until now, we still have to give them the Mystic Stones,” Bai Ling said in a flat voice as if she took the rule for granted and thought that there was nothing strange about it.

“Then, I have a question. Is it a rule set by the Cloud Mist Academy?” Xiao Chen gazed at her, asking with a tone that was neither humble nor pushy.

However, as his voice fell, the atmosphere inside and outside the square suddenly became rather tense. Even the four Senior Brothers’ faces darkened, for they feared something terrible would happen.

Obviously, this was not the rule of the Cloud Mist Academy. Though everyone knew it in their hearts, they would not say it out like Xiao Chen. In fact, this unwritten rule formed a long time ago. They did not know when this rule was put into effect at first. The masters of the Cloud Mist Academy and even the three Perfected Immortals knew about it, but they would not interfere with the matters between the disciples.

At the very beginning, it had been made clear that the Cloud Mist Academy was never a shelter, nor was it a greenhouse for cultivating people as delicate as flowers. In the Cloud Mist Academy, only the strong would be respected, and most of the time, it was very cruel here. People in the Cloud Mist Academy believed that the weak were destined to be stepped on. Nevertheless, just because of this atmosphere of competition, people in the academy tried their best to climb up, even being willing to risking their lives to make themselves stronger.

Therefore, those who graduated from the Cloud Mist Academy were all experts that were fully capable of becoming great leaders. They were not those tender flowers that would wither under the wind and rain after leaving the greenhouse. In contrast, many disciples of the Cultivators’ sects in the Violet Manor could not defeat those from the Devils’ sects once they left their safety zone, just like those withered flowers that had left their greenhouses.

It could be said that the Cloud Mist Academy was a scaled-down Wastelands. The strength-oriented Wastelands didn’t make such a huge distinction between the good and evil like the Violet Manor, in which people always liked presenting facts and reasoning things out. In the Wastelands, whoever had the greater strength would be the master of the truth. Of course, the strength here didn’t just refer to a person’s cultivation.

Xiao Chen looked at the three senior Nirvana Realm disciples and finally figured out what was going on. When he, the three princes, and the others just entered the Sunset Peak of the Three Pure Sect, they were also asked to hand over Spirit Stones to Ye Fei and the other senior disciples. The matter that was happening now was the same story.

However, Xiao Chen would never make compromises at some certain things. Once he did that, he knew he would have to make concessions on many more things for the rest of his life. In the past, he didn’t give in. Now, he wouldn’t yield, either.

Therefore, Xiao Chen fixed his eyes on the three senior disciples before him and said with a determined look, “I’m sorry. But since it’s not an expressly agreed rule of the Cloud Mist Academy, we won’t hand over three Mystic Stones now and each of the following months.”