And just like that, a year and a half passed by.
Wait, what? I could hear the voices from beyond the fourth dimension cry out. A year and a half!? Did you just pull a random time skip all of a sudden?! What happened during the past eighteen months? You're kidding, right? You can just do that!
Well, I can and I will. Firstly, because nothing of note actually happened in the last year and a half. As for power ups, wait, what? What do you mean, power ups? Do you think I'm some overpowered cultivation protagonist raising my realm every few weeks or months or something? Sure, my growth had been somewhat accelerated because of the system, but once I had reached intermediate Mystic rank, I had to slow down a bit to ensure that my foundation was solid.
I couldn't just keep speeding ahead like a rocket, otherwise I would hit Earth rank before I was the age of twenty…which was, quite frankly, impossible. Most people took decades to attain Earth rank. I wasn't going to suddenly do the impossible and reach such a high rank in such a short period of time. And if I did, where was I suppose to go from there? It would feel like a novelist who wrote himself into a corner and suddenly need to pull a map change to keep things fresh and maintain the protagonist's underdog status.
Well, enough ranting. Point was that eighteen months had passed by, I was nearing the last few months of my third year of high school. You know what that mean.
University time. Even if you hadn't read the typical cultivation web novel or manhua, chances are, you know that every high school student would work hard to get into university at this point of time. That meant entrance exams, which would mostly like include a tournament, various cultivator professors competing to recruit the most talented students, and the obstacles that came with them. Such spots were competitive, but given that I was one of the rare Mystic ranked students in Divine Path Academy, it shouldn't be a problem.
Most high school students only attained Yellow Rank at graduation. In fact, Yellow Rank was the most common realm for most adult cultivators, and the relatively talented ones would attain Mystic rank in their twenties. A few did it before they graduated from high school. The fact that only Long Fan Xue and I reached Mystic rank in Divine Path Academy thus far was testament to how incredibly difficult such a feat was. Of course, there were talented geniuses in other schools who accomplished a similar achievement, but by and large it was rare. Most people peaked at Mystic rank during their adulthood, and stayed there. Only the truly powerful could breakthrough to Earth rank, like my dad, and even he took decades to reach it. Probably when he was in his thirties?
I would mostly likely need another ten years before I could attain Earth rank too, so I wasn't panicking when I was still at intermediate Mystic rank after a year and a half. In fact, I was amazed I had reached that before I was eighteen. It was almost super difficult.
"Hey, Long Wang! How's everything?"
"Great as usual, my lord. Nothing of note has occurred so far."
"Excellent." I studied the ten defensive siege towers. It took over a year, but all of them were finally completed. Most of the construction crabs had evolved into Colossal Crabs, and they were aided by an armada of Lantern Fishes. I had close to a thousand Little Anglers and several hundred Lantern Fishes by now, as well as an army of crabs that continued to scavenge the surroundings. Admiring the glowing runes of the floating spirit arrays, I noted the shimmering layers of barriers that protected the walls.
"We don't have many spirit stones leftover, my lord." Long Wang sounded apologetic as he tallied the number of spirit stones that the Collector Crabs brought from their expeditions. It was a sad pile, especially when I tossed a good chunk of them into the dungeon core.
"Understandable," I said. "It's difficult to upgrade our dungeon further because the amount of spirit stones required for its daily upkeep constantly sucks away most of our income. But hey, it's totally worth it if you ask me. At least our dungeon is finally fully developed."
Long Wang smiled. "That it is, my lord. We should be able to defend against a siege from most dungeon masters now."
"Speaking of which, none of them have bothered us over the past eighteen months," I remarked as I checked on the Guardian Golems. There were eight of them now, standing sentinel over the gates. The Colossal Crabs scuttled about, clacking their pincers, as they followed a set patrol route. "You said none of them have learned of our existence yet?"
"No."
"That's great." I breathed a sigh of relief as I looked around. The Deep Sea Palace had been renovated and now resembled an actual castle. I had added fountains to keep my marine spirit beasts happy, as well as groomed a garden within its walls. The marine farm had been developing nicely as well, not only providing food for everyone but also adding vibrant color to an otherwise stale environment. I grinned. "Hopefully we can keep a low profile forever, and they never find out about us."
"I wouldn't put too much hope in that if I were you, my lord. It might take years, but the other dungeon masters will find out about us inevitably."
"I hope we will be prepared when the time comes." I studied the defensive siege towers. They resembled the fortress citadels so typical in fantasy stories, sporting spires, but they had runes etched into them. Cannons protruded from ramparts, with several Construction Crabs and Little Anglers manning them in shifts. I knew each siege cannon was capable of unleashing bolts of pure qi that could devastate hordes of spirit beasts.
"We will be, my lord." Long Wang clenched his fists and smirked. "We'll not let you down."
"Thanks."
Once my inspection was over, I teleported back to my room. It was fun to stay in my dungeon and hang out with my spirit beasts, but I still had real life affairs that I needed to tend to. Sighing heavily, I changed to my school uniform.
"Have you decided on a university you want to enroll in yet?" Dad asked when I descended from my room that morning. I nodded.
"Yeah, I already have a place for me in Divine Path University, so I'll just go there."
Divine Path Academy was an affiliated high school of Divine Path University, after all. And with my grades and cultivation realm, I was automatically accepted there. I didn't even have to do much with my application before the school already had my records, and the transfer was smoothly carried out.
"If that's what you want, then I'll support you."
"I still think you can do better, though," mom complained. I shrugged.
"I have my own plans."
Teacher Jiao Shi, who handled career counseling, had the same concerns. After I arrived in Divine Path Academy, he called me up for a session.
"Song Jun Wen, you're applying for Divine Path University, correct?"
"That's right, sir."
"Are you sure you want to continue to a regular curriculum instead of the elite one?" Teacher Jiao raised an eyebrow in confusion as he studied my application form. "Surely, with your qualifications, you can attend the elite classes."
"I prefer the freedom and lack of supervision in the regular classes," I explained.
"But the elite classes offer a lot more rigorous training sessions and provide more resources. I don't think you should be wasting your potential in the regular curriculum when you go to university."
I snorted. "About those resources, they are pretty limited, aren't they? The elite classes are super competitive. I heard that the environment there tends to be toxic, with the elite students often stabbing each other in the back in order to hoard resources."
I didn't want to have anything to do with that, nor did I want to indulge in such edginess.
"That's…true," Teacher Jiao admitted. Then he shook his head. "No pain, no gain. If you want to get better, you have to fight for it. That includes resources. You didn't think you can climb to the top by avoiding competition, did you?"
"No, but I want to choose the kind of competition I participate in. Not a toxic environment where I have to look over my shoulder every few seconds or get eaten alive by my competitors. I prefer working with people I can trust, and growing strong with them together. I know some people are cynical and claim you can only rely on yourself, and to a certain extent, that's true. But I think it's more important to maintain a core of friends you can trust, and have everyone cooperate. If you have a harmonious environment where everyone helps each other out, I think you'll produce results that far exceeds a toxic atmosphere where people step on competitors to climb to the top. After all, there are limits to what an individual can do, but a group of likeminded individuals with similar principles working harmoniously together can achieve so much more."
Teacher Jiao sighed and scratched his head. "If that's what you decided, then I won't try to persuade you. You do have a point. Qin Ying has reached peak Yellow Rank because of your help, and both Tong Xue and Hao Ren have also improved tremendously thanks to you."
"Nah, it's also because of their efforts."
"I am also interested to see this achievement you speak of." Teacher Jiao smiled. "It'll be lovely, I'm sure. And just once, I want to see such a beautiful dream fulfilled. You're right, actually. I'm sick and tired of seeing students and cultivators tear each other apart over resources and because the competition goes overboard. I don't know who came up with the nonsensical 'strong eat the weak' bullshit, but it has been causing us more harm than good. Why can't we all work together instead of trying to hoard as much resources as possible for the individual?"
"Yeah. It's like soccer. It's a team game. You can have the world's most talented playmaker but even the greatest of all time can't win a match by himself. He needs his teammates to support him. And world cup trophies have been won by teams selflessly working in unison, as opposed to those with talented superstars only interested in feeding their egos."
Cultivation might not be soccer, but the same principle applied. Each city…no, each civilization relied on many cultivators working together in groups to defend their comrades from demonic threats. A single Earth ranked cultivator might be powerful, but even he couldn't be everywhere at once and save the world by himself. The human civilization was preserved through the efforts of everyone, from Earth ranked commanders to regular cultivators taking a stand and combining their strength to ward off stronger spirit beasts and demons.
"Now that you've decided, you'll need to take the entrance exam. It's a simple one, but you will be fine." Teacher Jiao gave me a bunch of documents that had instructions written to them. "Go to Divine Path University tomorrow, attend the entrance exam at the stadium, and do your best. Good luck."
"Thanks!" I skimmed through the documents and saw that it was the standard cultivation exam. Strength measurement, evaluative matches against captive spirit beasts, and finally sparring in the arena against seniors from the university. Typical. "I won't let you down!"
"I know you won't. Make Divine Path Academy proud!"
Rising from the seat, I bowed and left the office. Clutching the documents to my chest, I steeled my resolve and mentally braced myself for the exam tomorrow. Even if this was just for the regular class, I still shouldn't underestimate the difficulties.
At that time, I didn't know it, but it turned out I was right not to. Especially because there were forces moving in the shadows to instigate some nonsensical drama to hinder my entry into Divine Path University…