Where does that wicked woman get her conscience?

The crowd looked at each other, none daring to step forward, for fear of being accused.

"What are you doing?!"

Just then, a cold shout broke the stalemate.

The gray-robed old man, whose figure was somewhat hunched, strode forward, his sharp gaze sweeping around before finally landing directly on Guan Xun.

This man was the old man guarding the entrance to the high-level building.

"Teacher, we're having a friendly competition."

Guan Xun blinked, met the old man's gaze, and smiled innocently: "Senior sister insisted on sparring with me, and I luckily won."

Hearing this, the people around were speechless. Luck? They all saw it clearly. It was obvious that the senior was no match for her.

"Sparring? Is this how you spar?" the old man sneered, turning his gaze to the damaged black rock wall, then to Jian Rou's miserable appearance. He waved his hand, signaling the others to take Jian Rou to the hospital.

He had been guarding this place for a while and knew the students who frequently came and went quite well. He also knew Jian Rou's personality; she loved to cause trouble. Now that she was injured, it was a way of curbing her arrogant and domineering nature.

However, Jian Rou is level 22. How could this freshman possibly defeat her? The old man glanced at Guan Xun and saw that she had no injuries whatsoever, and her dress was not even slightly disheveled. She looked like a spectator watching a show.

The old woman's gaze fell again on the black rock wall that had been dented and was covered in blood. She frowned. This girl... was particularly ruthless.

"There are special sparring venues where you can challenge anyone you want, but not here. This is a training ground where all fighting is prohibited. Anyone who violates this rule will be banned from entering here for three months. Considering you are new here and don't know the rules, you can just go to the first floor and pay 10,000 gold coins for repairing the stone wall. You won't be banned from entering here. This is a one-time exception."

Guan Xun: ...

Ten thousand gold coins?! This broken wall is worth that much?!

Guan Xun's eye twitched. Well, it's better than being confined for three months. She still needs to seize the time to cultivate. But as for the ten thousand gold coins in compensation... she will get them back from that senior sister Jian Rou. If it weren't for her, she wouldn't have suffered this loss.

"Yes, I understand, thank you, teacher." Guan Xun replied and turned to head to the first floor to pay the fee.

Then he came up to start cultivating again, and this cultivation lasted for a whole day.

Inside the college, in the dean's office.

"Elder, are you saying that someone used their divine sense to try and spy on the Mountain God Pavilion yesterday?"

The old man who spoke was dressed in a black robe, with white beard and hair, and his eyes were cold and sharp like a blade. He was sitting high in a chair.

"Hmm." On the other side of the table sat an elderly man with gray hair and a face full of wrinkles, but his eyes were unusually bright. He nodded slightly and asked, "Did anyone come to the academy yesterday?"

There is a barrier within the academy, so that unfamiliar divine sense could not have come from anywhere else; it could only have originated within the academy.

“Yesterday…” The dean’s cloudy eyes darted around for a moment, then he thought seriously for a moment, “Yesterday was the day the new students enrolled. Apart from the new students, only His Majesty and the Imperial Tutor came to the academy.”

"Could it be the Imperial Tutor's divine sense spying on us?" he asked in surprise.

The elder frowned, then shook his head and denied it, saying, "The Imperial Tutor's power is unfathomable, and his divine sense is so strong that no one knows it. But the Dao God yesterday was clearly inferior to me, so it couldn't be the Imperial Tutor."

He paused, picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip, and said, "Besides, what is the Imperial Tutor doing spying on the Mountain God Pavilion? Everything inside is his doing."

After listening, the dean nodded thoughtfully. That made sense; there was no reason for the Imperial Tutor to spy on the Mountain God Pavilion. "Could he be a subordinate of the Emperor?"

The elder shook his head again: "Impossible."

The dean fell silent. It couldn't be an elder or teacher from the academy, since their spiritual senses were all familiar with each other.

"So... does that mean you're still a student at the academy?"

Now it was the elders' turn to fall silent. They all knew the average level of the students; possessing such divine sense was almost impossible.

He sighed softly, his words sounding almost unbelievable even to himself: "I suspect this person is mixed in with the freshmen."

"How is that possible? They're all just fourteen or fifteen-year-old kids, and their levels aren't high. How could they possess such powerful divine sense?" The dean denied it. No matter what, he couldn't believe there were such people among the freshmen.

The elder shook his head and stood up: "I told that person to back down, so he probably won't dare to make any rash moves for a while. Dean, you can ask the teachers to keep an eye on him."

"Ah."

… …

In the spacious cultivation room, Guan Xun slowly opened her eyes. A red light flashed across her dark eyes. She raised her head slightly, her gaze sweeping over the now-dimmed stone walls. She stretched with satisfaction and walked out of the cultivation tower.

In a full day, her spirit had been repaired considerably, and even her spiritual power had improved.

"This cultivation tower... is indeed amazing. I wonder what kind of place its source is?"

Thinking this, Guan Xun became even more curious about the place she had previously explored with her divine sense. Although she couldn't go there yet, she would find out what it was one day.

Since Guan Xun came out of the cultivation tower, she could clearly feel the curious and inquisitive gazes directed at her from those around her on her way to the dormitory.

She was also helpless and could only ignore it and go her own way. It seemed that the news of her fighting with Senior Sister Jian Rou in the training room had already spread throughout the academy.

Remembering the ranking list that the onlookers had mentioned, she raised an eyebrow. This list must be the ranking list of the strongest students in the school, right?

Jian Rou is only ranked tenth at level 22. I can't imagine what the first-place student's level is. But what's the point of this ranking? Is it just for motivating other students to cultivate?

On second thought, she realized that it wasn't just that; if the rankings of the freshmen winners were so generous, then the rewards for the academy's strongest rankings must be just as good.

Guan Xun's eyes gleamed. If there was a reward, she would be happy to try it. She figured Ye Fengjing probably knew about it, so she would ask him when she got back to the dormitory.

Soon, Guan Xun returned to the dormitory entrance.

"Little Xun!"

The loud shout startled her. She snapped out of her thoughts and saw Dongyang pacing back and forth at the dormitory entrance. When he saw her return, he greeted her with a worried expression.

"Dongyang? What are you doing here?" she asked. It should be just after class, right? She'd heard that doctors were very busy with classes; she hadn't expected them to have time to come here.

"Where have you been? You're finally back."

Dongyang stepped forward anxiously, grabbed Guan Xun's shoulders, and asked, "I heard someone bullied you! Are you hurt anywhere?"