The Big Dipper Academy

The Big Dipper Academy had stood for eight hundred years, one of the most formidable powers in Heavenly Emperor City. It was said to have been founded by rogue cultivators in ages past.

Its founders had all possessed supreme strength, but they lacked sectarian backing—they were lone cranes, each unmatched as individuals. Yet against the long-established great sects, the power of a single man seemed thin. For this reason, like-minded souls had gathered together, and in the Southern Wastes of Heavenly Emperor City, they had founded the Big Dipper Academy. Over centuries of development, it had grown into a major school of the Southern Wastes, its depths unfathomable.

In those eight hundred years, the Big Dipper Academy had absorbed cultivation methods from many schools. After careful refinement by the academy's elders, they had distilled the best and created over a dozen supreme techniques.

As for the neighboring Battle God Academy and White Deer Academy, they had their own founding stories, quite different from this one.

The Big Dipper Academy occupied vast grounds. Its ancient walls stretched like city fortifications, unbroken and imposing. The main gate was grand and majestic, standing directly across the street from Xiao Chen's dwelling, separated only by the road.

Crossing that avenue—the Academy Road—and following the precious daughter of the Mand family, Xiao Chen and the others entered the Big Dipper Academy.

It was already dusk. The day's classes at the Big Dipper Academy had ended; it was a time of relaxation for the students. Many young men and women streamed in and out.

Seeing the blue-haired girl Kana Si, many greeted her warmly. Clearly, this little girl carried some weight in the academy.

But more than a few cast unfriendly glances at Fatty and Hai Yuntian. It seemed the two playboys were not well liked here, and Xiao Chen caught several of those hostile looks by association.

"Come, come! Want to see a duel of experts? Want to see an Eighth Heaven expert beat up a lecher? Follow me!" The blue-haired girl Kana Si began shouting as soon as she entered the Big Dipper Academy, waving to everyone.

"Gods, Mand girl, you don't have to be so ruthless, do you?" Fatty was losing his nerve. He and Hai Yuntian, those voyeurs, often snuck in here to ogle pretty girls, even wandering around the academy. Though they had never done anything truly outrageous, their reputation was far from spotless. Now that people were gathering around, he felt a pang of guilt.

Hai Yuntian was not particularly afraid; he was a fairly strong practitioner and had some confidence in himself. A faint smile played across his strikingly handsome face; he seemed utterly unconcerned.

"Little girl, where is your elder brother? Take us to him." Xiao Chen did not mind being watched. He cared little for keeping a low profile or making a splash.

"Let's go, everyone! Come with me to watch our academy's top expert crush a lecher!" The Mand family's precious daughter yelled with gusto, as if she had already foreseen Xiao Chen's humiliating defeat and wanted to use this chance to vent the anger of the day.

More and more people gathered, following them deeper into the academy.

It must be said, the Big Dipper Academy was extraordinarily imposing. Along the way, they passed many halls and pavilions, eight or nine training grounds, and three exquisitely beautiful gardens, each with a distinct style. Ancient stone hills, bubbling clear springs, lush trees and bamboo, and mist-shrouded towers made the place feel like an immortal palace.

"To the central training ground! Let everyone watch!" The blue-haired girl grew more excited as the crowd swelled. She shot Xiao Chen a challenging look. "Arrogant playboy, today you're going to lose big! You made me lose face earlier—I'll pay you back with interest!"

Xiao Chen found it rather amusing. This little girl was really willful and spoiled.

But Fatty and Hai Yuntian were growing suspicious. Fatty muttered under his breath, "Is that freak really back? Doesn't seem like it. He wouldn't be this high-profile; he'd never let the girl make such a scene."

Hai Yuntian sounded doubtful. "Kana Si, is it really your elder brother who's going to duel Xiao Chen?"

"Of course!"

The central training ground was extremely spacious, adjacent to a small lake as clear and brilliant as a sapphire. The solemnity of the arena was tempered by a touch of fluid grace. Lotus blossoms bloomed in the lake, and a few light boats drifted on the surface. But within the training ground itself lingered a murderous aura—the accumulated energy of countless duels fought here by the Big Dipper Academy's practitioners over the years.

Kana Si, Hai Yuntian, and everyone else had stopped. Xiao Chen, tall and straight-backed, strode to the center of the field. He stood there without a word, sweeping his gaze over the crowd.

Suddenly, surprised voices rose from the onlookers: "It's the Four Great Experts!"

"It really is the Four Great Experts!"

Fatty and Hai Yuntian were taken aback. Fatty said to Kana Si, "What's this about? They're Big Dipper Academy's experts, and there are four of them! Where's your brother?"

"Isn't one of these four my brother?"

"That's your cousin, not your actual brother."

"But he's still my brother, and he's no weaker than my real brother." Kana Si giggled.

Fatty looked gloomy. "Xiao Chen is dead meat."

Hai Yuntian turned to Kana Si. "Mand girl, you are too shameless! You actually brought him out! He's thirty years old, a whole half-generation older than us. Why didn't you just fetch your uncle?"

"Nonsense! Brother Lumuda is only twenty-nine. According to the unwritten rules of the continent, that still counts as the younger generation. It's not unfair at all." Kana Si's face was all smiles; her big, beautiful eyes had curved into crescent moons.

"Damn! A half-generation older expert... The Mand family's standards are too low!" Fatty cursed under his breath.

The Four Great Experts walked unhurriedly into the arena, taking up positions that surrounded Xiao Chen from four directions.

Lumuda stood with his hands behind his back, his expression cold and haughty. Though not particularly handsome, he carried the bearing of a true expert.

The other three were also six or seven years older than Xiao Chen, around twenty-five or twenty-six, and each possessed an extraordinary demeanor.

When word spread that the Four Great Experts—including Lumuda—had gathered at the central training ground, many students rushed over to see who dared to duel the Eighth Heaven expert Lumuda.

"All four of you, come at once!" Xiao Chen's voice was not loud, but it carried clearly across the training ground.

The crowd had swelled to seven or eight hundred. At these words, an uproar broke out. Was this brat insane, daring to challenge the Four Great Experts alone? And with Lumuda at the Eighth Heaven, if he was counted among the younger generation, few could match him.

"Who is this guy? So arrogant!"

"I heard he actually won the Mand family's precious daughter as a follower today. What guts! Isn't he afraid her freak of an elder brother will come back to settle accounts?"

"No need for Kana Si's freak brother—this Lumuda is more than enough. He's also at the Eighth Heaven!"

"What background does this Xiao Chen really have?"

In the span of a few breaths, Xiao Chen's name spread throughout the Big Dipper Academy. Many onlookers, both male and female, were asking about his origins.

Hai Yuntian and Fatty, the lecherous duo, craned their necks left and right. Fatty couldn't help saying, "So this is how easy it is to attract pretty girls... Look at those beauties... Sigh, when will I ever be the center of this kind of attention?"

"When you manage to inherit your family's Xuanhuang Beast-Fighting Palace, beauties will flock to you like clouds," Hai Yuntian said mercilessly.

In the arena, Lumuda's brows rose and fell. He spoke calmly, "I am nearly ten years your senior. If I truly fought you, it would be bullying. Let these three friends of mine spar with you one by one. If you can win, I will not make trouble for you." His demeanor was supremely arrogant; with this reply to Xiao Chen's earlier boast, he only appeared more the master.

"Then let all three of you come at once." Xiao Chen was very calm, his words direct.

"Xiao, you are too arrogant! Lumuda is showing you courtesy, yet you don't know when to quit. I, Wang Ming, will be the first to test you!" A man in blue robes charged forward, his black hair like ink, his movements swift as the wind. A blue shadow was all that remained in place as he rushed at Xiao Chen.

"Wang Ming has made his move! Twenty-five years old, a Sixth Heaven expert!" Exclamations rose from outside the arena. Many knew he was a master of the Big Dipper Academy.

"He's best at the Blood Dissolving Heaven-Entangling Blade! Look, he's drawing his blade!"

A blood-colored saber unfurled like a rolling cloud of gore, bringing with it a hazy blood-mist that swallowed the space before Wang Ming into a crimson haze. Crimson lightning forked across the center of the training ground. Eighty-one streaks of saber-light tore out, condensing into a terrifying blood-miasma blade-curtain that descended upon Xiao Chen.

Gasps erupted from the onlookers. The saber-mist tore through the void, dazzling their eyes, making every heart race as they watched the arena with bated breath.

There were no intricate, fancy moves, no earth-shaking collision as imagined, no heart-stopping blaze of energy. Only a single, unremarkable light flickering within the blood mist. Xiao Chen's palm pierced straight through layer after layer of blade-curtain, silently shattering every single saber-beam!

"The Imperishable Seal! That's the Imperishable Seal of the Undying lineage!"

"Since when did the Undying lineage produce such an expert?!"

Some knowledgeable spectators in the crowd cried out in shock.

The Imperishable Seal—countless techniques cannot touch the user; as long as the heart is not extinguished, the body is not extinguished! It is a supreme mystic art for overcoming the strong with the weak, for the weaker to slay the stronger.

"That man is far more skilled than Wang Ming, and he uses the ultimate technique for overcoming the strong with the weak—his advantage is overwhelming!"

Amid the shouts, Xiao Chen took one step forward. Between the turns of his Imperishable Seal, Wang Ming's blood-saber shattered like porcelain, and Wang Ming himself was sent flying backward, convulsing violently as if struck by lightning.

One blow, and a Sixth Heaven expert was utterly defeated!

The crowd erupted in an uproar; many could hardly believe what they had just seen.

"Wang Ming lost—defeated in a single blow!"

More people from the academy rushed toward the arena, drawn by the commotion.