His killing intent surged.
He had less than thirty percent of his Magical Power left, and blood was seeping from his meridians, ravaged by the forced circulation of his power and a medicinal backlash. But instead of retreating, he spread his arms wide.
Pushing his Cultivation Technique to its limits, Chu Bai began to forcibly absorb the viscous, highly toxic Earth Smoke Fire Evil Qi from the air.
It was the fire poison of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, fatal to an ordinary person on contact.
But Chu Bai had no time to worry about that. With sheer force of will, he crammed the fire poison into his own meridians.
His Spiritual Power was burning, and so was his life.
In that instant, Chu Bai was enveloped in pitch-black flames.
Chu Bai abruptly thrust his sword-fingers toward the sky.
The hundreds of Spirit Water Needles, once scattered throughout the Void, were now pulled by some unseen Law, converging wildly toward a central point.
One, ten, a hundred...
Ultimately, all of the power converged, forming a massive spear over ten feet long and as black as ink.
The tip of the long spear tore through space, actually creating a fine spatial crack.
"Go to hell!"
Tears of blood streamed from Chu Bai’s eyes as he violently swung his right hand down.
The streak of black light instantly pierced through a space hundreds of yards wide.
The last remaining Shadow Beast leader, a creature at the Third Layer of Qi Cultivation, didn’t even have time to roar before the terrifying streak of light split it down the middle.
The streak of light instantly churned their Evil Qi into nothingness.
BOOM—!!!
The final blast completely cleared the canyon of all smoke and dust.
Chu Bai looked at the empty world before him, at the ashes of his classmates covering the ground. He could no longer hold on, and the world began to spin.
He collapsed onto his back on the scorched earth, gazing up at the still, silent sky.
"Is it over...?"
His consciousness plunged into an endless darkness.
"Chu Bai? Chu Bai!"
A frantic voice, laced with lingering fear, echoed in his ears.
Chu Bai’s eyes flew open, and he took huge gulps of fresh air.
No smoke or ash.
No deathly silence.
No charred ruins.
He found himself lying on a pristine white Spirit Grass mat in the center of the Martial Arts Arena.
Dean Su was bent over him, his old face filled with a grave expression and a level of lingering fear Chu Bai had never seen before. His large palms were pressed tightly against Chu Bai’s back, a vast yet gentle torrent of Magical Power frantically mending his nearly destroyed meridians.
Not far away, Dong Feng was clutching his chest and coughing violently. Lin Xuewei, her face pale with shock, was being supported by Instructor Jii Yu, while Jin Changyu simply stood by in a daze.
Chu Bai glanced around.
Of the three hundred new students, apart from the dozen or so lucky ones who had been eliminated before the Shadow Beasts mutated, the rest were all ashen-faced. However, it didn’t seem like anyone was actually missing.
Chu Bai looked down at his hands. There was no blood, no wounds.
But the 6830 points still pulsing wildly in his Sea of Consciousness, and the bone-deep exhaustion that permeated his very soul, both told him:
’Everything that had just happened was no mere dream.’
Seeing Chu Bai awake, Dean Su finally let out a long breath and gave a wry smile to Dean Chen, who was somewhere in the Void. "Senior Brother Chen, I’m never doing this ’Add Fire’ business again. If anything had happened to these promising young talents, the Head Dean would have had my hide."
"It is still too early for you to be fighting this desperately. Do not damage your potential."
Hearing this, Chu Bai instantly understood. The Law Net hadn’t made a mistake.
’It made sense,’ he thought. ’An exam overseen by three Foundation Establishment Great Cultivators, held within the Daoist School’s own Spirit Realm... how could such a massive blunder have occurred?’
’But the situation had been dire, and he’d seen it all with his own eyes. Even if he’d had his doubts, he wouldn’t have dared to gamble his life on them.’
"Was everything I just saw an Illusion Realm?"
"No, not an Illusion Realm."
Dean Su sighed, his expression complex as he looked at the boy who had single-handedly torn through the Spirit Realm. "The injuries you all sustained were real, as was the experience itself."
"As for the deaths you witnessed..."
"It’s just like the Demon Beast projections. The moment an injured student was teleported out, their physical body was replaced by a projection that would then burn to ash. At your current level of Cultivation, it’s natural that you couldn’t see through it."
"I never imagined, however, that someone would actually manage to fight their way through the entire Spirit Realm today."
"As for this session’s semi-annual grand competition... I don’t think there’s any need to say who the victor is."

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