From Five Animal Exercises to being hailed as a saint and ancestor

Deep within the Silent Abyss, in that pure land supported by the power of the sacred remains, the concept of time has become blurred.

Yao Mengkang sat cross-legged before the increasingly dim golden skeleton, like a stone sculpture, with only the violently surging energy fluctuations around him indicating that he was undergoing an astonishing transformation.

The Chaos Stone Bead continued to spin wildly within his dantian, like a bottomless pit, constantly devouring the vast golden energy emanating from the sacred remains.

The warm golden light domain that originally covered a radius of a hundred feet has now visibly shrunk by more than half, leaving only a range of less than fifty feet, and it is still slowly and steadily shrinking.

The stone bead does not simply take; while absorbing the pure holy power, it also releases a trace of gentle energy that has been initially transformed and is more easily absorbed, which is fed back to Yao Mengkang.

This tiny bit of energy was like fine wine to Yao Mengkang, who was still in the Spirit Sea Realm. It was an unimaginable tonic!

His body, like parched land, greedily absorbed the nourishment from this high-quality energy.

Under the impact of energy, the meridians are forcibly widened and strengthened, becoming wider and more resilient than before, and the speed of spiritual energy circulation is several times faster!

The three hidden meridians (Divine Bridge, Dragon Spine, and Ancestral Aperture) that had already been connected, as well as other major meridians, were now radiating a shimmering, precious light, and were much thicker and more solid than before!

This laid a solid foundation for him to shoulder even greater power in the future.

The most significant change is in his spiritual world!

The original 100,000-zhang spiritual sea began a new round of expansion under the infusion of this holy power and the transformation of the stone beads!

The boundaries of the Spirit Sea continued to extend outward amidst the roar, the seawater became deeper, and the total amount and quality of the spiritual energy it contained were rapidly increasing!

110,000 zhang... 130,000 zhang... 150,000 zhang...

In the end, his spiritual sea stabilized at a terrifying breadth of two hundred thousand zhang!

Furthermore, the power of the sacred remains has not yet been fully absorbed. Yao Mengkang could clearly sense that if this continued, digesting the remaining power and reaching a spiritual sea of ​​250,000 zhang would not be difficult at all!

With the frenzied expansion of his spiritual sea and the strengthening of his physical body and meridians, his cultivation bottleneck, which had been stagnant at the first level of the spiritual sea realm for a long time, quietly melted away like ice and snow under the sun, and he naturally stepped into the second level of the spiritual sea realm!

Feeling the immense power surging within him, far surpassing anything he had ever experienced before, Yao Mengkang slowly opened his eyes. His eyes seemed to hold the birth and death of stars, and his inner light was restrained.

He clenched his fist slightly, causing the air to burst with a faint sonic boom.

"Now, if I were to face that Bull Demon Soul Beast, who is at the threshold of the Yuan Dan realm..."

A confident smile curved his lips.

"One strike is enough!"

The surge in strength brings with it absolute confidence.

The immense spiritual power provided by the 200,000-zhang spiritual sea, coupled with the terrifying burst of the "Silent Soul Blade Technique," gave him the confidence to challenge a major realm!

……

Meanwhile, outside the Abyss of Silent Souls.

The three-day assessment period has arrived, and the enormous "Sky-Patrolling God-Slaying Ship" hovers silently outside the abyss, casting a huge shadow.

Elder Li Xun, Sword Master Lin Shouzhen, and the elders leading the various forces all stood on the ship's side, their gazes complex as they watched the disheveled young figures emerging from the gray mist below.

The atmosphere was heavy and oppressive.

Ultimately, after counting, of the more than 6,000 students who resolutely stepped into the Abyss of Silent Souls three days ago, only 1,975 have returned alive!

More than a third of the deaths!

This number made every elder's face so gloomy it could drip water.

The fate of the more than one thousand who have not yet returned is predictable; they have been forever left in that forbidden land, becoming nourishment for the Abyss of Silent Souls or wandering ghosts.

It is worth mentioning the team from Qinglu Academy.

Except for Yao Mengkang, whose whereabouts are unknown, all the other disciples from the outer academy have returned!

Although they were all injured and looked exhausted, their lives were not in danger.

This was thanks to Xuan Yuanpo finding them in time and forcibly feeding them the antidote, preventing them from going to their doom in a state of out-of-control infighting or frenzied hunting.

The situation for the inner court disciples is not so optimistic.

Of the nineteen who went, only eleven have returned! Eight of the inner court elites, including Zhao Zhongming, failed to escape the Silent Soul Abyss.

As for why Xuan Yuanpo was able to bring back the elite disciples of the inner academy, that story begins with Su Xiaoman.

None of the inner disciples expected that the shy, muscular man could bring Senior Sister Su back to her senses.

The returning Su Xiaoman, Shi Potian and others seemed to have improved their strength, but most of them still had a trace of scarlet blood deep in their eyes that had not completely disappeared. Their aura was restless, obviously because they had hunted a lot of soul beasts. The corrosive power accumulated in their bodies was not light and they needed time to recuperate and resolve it.

Most of the prodigies who failed to return, like Zhao Zhongming, possessed the strength to hunt soul beasts, but under the temptation of enhanced soul sources and the corrosive influence of the aura of the silent soul, they became increasingly entangled, eventually either losing their minds and killing each other, or recklessly venturing into the abyss and encountering irresistible terror, perishing in the abyss.

On the contrary, most of the disciples who were of average strength, unable to hunt soul beasts, and lucky enough to avoid other fatal dangers returned safely.

This is undeniably ironic.

As for the sacred remains that caused such a huge uproar, and the crucial finger bone, they disappeared without a trace, as if a stone had sunk into the sea.

Elder Li Xun looked at the surviving students below, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

He mustered his strength and announced in a deep voice:

"The assessment is over! Now, let's tally up everyone's harvest! The basic scores will be determined based on the quantity and quality of the three spiritual materials collected: Soul-Soul Flowers, Soul-Giving Grass, and Soul-Soul Calamus!"

The academy's stewards immediately got busy registering the assessment results for the returning students.

Among the crowd, Xuan Yuanpo, Zhou Tiancan, Mu Qingqing and others gathered together, gazing at the deep entrance to the Silent Soul Abyss, their eyes filled with undisguised worry.

"Senior Brother Yao... he'll be alright!"

Zhou Tiancan spoke in a deep, muffled voice, as if he were comforting someone else, or perhaps himself.

Mu Qingqing nodded gently, but the worry in her beautiful eyes remained.

They personally experienced the dangers of the Silent Soul Abyss. Yao Mengkang was teleported alone to an unknown place, where his fate was uncertain.

Xuanyuan Po held the Frostmark Sword in his arms, remaining silent, only his tightly clenched knuckles revealing the turmoil in his heart.

On the high platform, Mingxin Sword Master Lin Shouzhen's gaze swept over the crowd below, then looked at the desolate Silent Soul Abyss, his face expressionless, lost in thought.

With no clues about the remains or the personhood, this plan, which used the guise of an assessment to conduct an investigation, seems to have... failed to achieve its intended effect.

An assessment that cost lives has come to an end.

Some reaped great rewards and improved their skills; some were heartbroken and lost loved ones; and some remained forever in that darkness.

But the real storm may have only just begun to brew.