Jong separated from us early on, though—compared to the two of us, he was behind in cultivation base. Fishing the River Lord had taken up a great deal of his time last year, and though he'd gained a lot from it with the Experiential Physique, he was still about 10 million Qi short of the Core Solidification Realm.
Last year, Mount Bing had been less a proper mountain and more a set piece for the temple Jue Zhu had found at the top. Compared to Tribulation Mountain, it was more like a very large hill. Halfway along the trail that led from the starting camp, the path split, each direction blocked by a special gate manned by an Academy teaching assistant who wouldn't let you pass until you had reached Core Solidification. Trying to circumvent the gates usually ended poorly whether you succeeded or not—they were really there for the protection of the students.
Jue Zhu didn't talk much as we continued on, which suited me just fine. All the magical beasts in the area were too wary of us to attack, too, though that might have been more Jue Zhu's presence than mine. Or maybe not, since they were all of the 4th Realm.
By sunset, we reached a sizeable area of level ground. This was where the trail split. The Gate of Yang led to a further trail around the mountain and back down the other side, where there were roughly a dozen locations where a Spiritual Beast prowled and where the Academy had hidden a treasure-tier item. There would be weapons like last time, but there were also alchemy pills more advanced than were available in the Academy shops, even perhaps the special Inner Court store, and about 2 weeks before today, Hasegawa had dropped a hint in a lesson covering the Spiritual Forest that one of the rewards up for grabs was a life-saving treasure.
The gate of Yin led into a cave which, according to available materials, led to another cave mouth higher on the mountain, from which it was possible though prohibitively difficult to reach the summit. This had been covered in one of the preparatory lessons—a student who reached the summit and brought back proof they'd done it was awarded Academy points, 10 for groups and 50 if you managed to do it on your own. However, there weren't any magical beasts on the way to the summit, so nobody ever tried it unless they had already advanced their cultivation to the best potential of the area, which meant in practice that hardly anyone tried it at all.
Which is why I was very surprised when, as we agreed to stop there for the day and move on in the morning, Jue Zhu referred to such as going our separate ways. "There's--something I need to go for past the Gate of Yin," he explained, "I can't give details yet. I was told not to, until after a certain Inner Court lecture."
"...Huh." I shrugged. "Good luck then. Just make sure you're still able to advance your cultivation base."
Jue Zhu nodded. "Of course."
After all the tense anticipation, my second summer ended up strangely easy. I grinded solo for a few weeks, until Shokoya and the others successfully passed the Gate of Yang. By then, I had reached the 4th stage of Core Solidification, and I was just a few million Qi away from the 5th. That was far enough ahead of Shokoya's group that I respectfully declined joining them for normal grinding, but I stayed relatively nearby.
Shokoya did take my advice for us to seek out some of the Ascended Beasts as a group before they were totally satisfied with their cultivation base progress. As I predicted, competition for them heated up in the third month of summer, so I was glad to have already taken out two of them. Both prizes were pills—one Ascended Beast guarded a pair of them which the system identified as Earth Grade Body Refining and Mind Refining Pills, each of which would increase all three of the Body and Mind stats respectively within a random range independent of cultivation base. The other was a Qi Pill that held enough to instantly advance a stage in the Core Solidification Realm. I took that one without argument, and Lun Jiaoping accepted the Refining pills.
In spite of the lack of remote communication methods, we were able to arrange a meeting at the area informally known as Yin-Yang Campsite with Jong and Quan. By now, they were confident in having narrowed down which of the remaining Ascended Beasts had the life-saving treasure, and it had long been all but known that the strongest "boss" deep in the forest guarded a Spirit Grade weapon that would well suit Shokoya. The two agreed that they would compete over the former at the same time that we'd take on the latter, so there would be no temptation to poach each other.
Of Jue Zhu, there was no sign, and neither those two, nor Mei and her group when we'd ran into them and I had the chance to ask, had spotted him anywhere either. Peculiar, but I supposed it wasn't my problem.
With a few weeks to go, we took on the Terror of Tribulation Woods, a spider-creature that dwarfed any of the Spiderwolves I'd faced last year. It was a challenging fight—I was basically forced into the role of tank, since I had the highest cultivation base of anyone, as well as possessing the charm against poison from last year. I wasn't used to tanking, but with Lun Jiaoping also tanking it was nothing I couldn't manage. Still, it could have gone a lot quicker if we'd been able to have a party composition where I was able to use my Lamentation Bow.
The weapon turned out to be a black-bladed jian, at least that's what Shokoya called it. Once he'd obtained it, we more or less went our separate ways. With 10 days to go before the end of camp, I successfully broke through to the 6th Earth Realm, the Golden Core Realm. I thought about trying to keep going to the 2nd Stage like I'd done for the 5th Realm last year, but since I didn't have a whole region to myself this time, the population of magical beasts in the reserve was thinning so much that I doubted I could accumulate enough. So, I returned to the base camp and had myself a mini summer vacation.
This time, when Jong and Quan returned, both of them had also reached the Golden Core Realm. This cements Quan as the real last member of the "Big 4" I thought, but I corrected myself. Now that we had parity in cultivation base, my training matches with Quan were in danger of going very much differently. Technically, I'd be able to use special techniques now, but the Academy curriculum didn't offer any—not even the Inner Court class, I'd already long since asked. If I was going to stay ahead of the ex-soldier, I'd need to push myself in training even more.
Jue Zhu finally arrived in the base camp himself just two days before we were to return to the Academy. He had reached the 2nd Stage of Golden Core Realm. He also looked like he'd not had an easy time—I didn't see any injuries but he was a lot less energetic, I'd even call him subdued as he strolled into camp. That suggested a few things to me, though nothing stronger than speculation.
The morning of departure, Senior Liam called for all the students to assemble by the teleport formation. "We will shortly return to the Academy. For most of you, check the Third Year rankings board for your junior class placement. However, I must have the following students remain here and await further instructions for a short time:
Jue Zhu,
Kunlun Jong,
Xu Zuhui,
Senyu Quan,
Kai Shokoya,
Shai Shan,
Ding Qilong,
Lun Jiaoping,
Qingling Mei,
And Wang Jing."