Skyspan City was originaly known as Blue Sea City, as around forty percent of it was bordered with seawater.
However, the Skyspan Trading Company had settled there ten thousand years ago, and changed its name to Skyspan City.
Their meaning was clear: their influence spanned the heavens.
The Northern Divine Mountain’s Skyspan Academy got it’s name from the Skyspan Trading Company, and their faculty and facilities were all from them too. Apparently, some of the school’s resources came from the Sea of Innocence as well, but from the school’s name it was clear that the Skyspan Trading Company was primarily responsible.
However, so long as you lived on the Northern Divine Mountain, you’d naturally wonder about the Skyspan Trading Company’s background. Some people said that the Sea of Inncocence was actually supporting them from the shadows, while others disagreed….
Only those who stood at the very peak knew the truth of the Skyspan Trading Company’s origins.
Officially, the Skyspan Academy was established by the Sea of Innocence and located in the North of Skyspan City. It occupied a full tenth of the city’s landmass.
It was the top academy on the Northern Divine Mountain, and was the one capable of transmitting the dao and resolving students’ every question.
The academy was established primarily to impart recent ascenders as well as the children born on the Divine Mountains who’d just become supremes with a complete, systematic education, and make plans for their future cultivation.
Compulsory education lasted five years, and when the time was up, you could apply to stay longer and continue your studies. So long as the academy agreed, you’d pay three thousand aureus per year in tuition.
This might sound like a lot, but so long as you studied properly and completed a few of the school’s missions, even an earth supreme wouldn’t have much trouble earning that sum in a year. Furthermore, the school even had board displaying bounty hunting missions. Completing them would earn you credit that you could trade for money or treasures.
The academy organized systematic, one-time recruitment once every hundred years. They placed few restrictions on incoming students. Anyone beneath the diviner level could apply. Even students who’d been expelled before had the chance to reapply.
As a result, they’d always recruit a massive number of earth supremes, and even a few sky supremes would rush over to seize the opportunity.
As a result, Skyspan Academy was currently a blaze of activity as they carried out their recruitment procedures.
“Tch tch tch, there really are an awful lot of people here.”
The cities of the Lower Lands could already hold tens of millions of people, but compared to the cities of the Divine Mountains, they were practically villages.
Skyspan Academy occupied a full tenth of the city. The new student registration area alone was a veritable sea of people. From time to time, people would get into arguments due to overcrowding. Sometimes, they’d even fight.
For instance, Ye Zichen had just witnessed a group of students fight over registration. Fortunately, someone from the academy came out to intimidate them into submission, so the rabble-rousers started behaving themselves.
“How did I inadvertently wind up here?” Ye Zichen stood in the crowd and scratched his head. A few days ago, he’d realized his crystal card was missing.
He immediately recalled the most likely spot he’d left it and rushed back to that tavern, but Xue Mo and Chen Guangfa had already left.
Of course, he also heard that they’d waited for him for days. He was moved, but….
That was no use at all!
At the end of the day, he’d still failed to retrieve his crystal card.
The only way into the academy was through your crystal card. Without it, you were off the grid, and the academy absolutely wouldn’t accept you. After all, you might be some outsider of villain with ill intentions.
Ye Zichen still came here, practically subconsciously, perhaps due to one last thread of hope. He wanted to run into Xue Mo and retrieve his card, so he decided to come here.
However, when he saw this sea of people for himself, he couldn’t help but sigh. I was awfully naive, wasn’t I?
“If they knew I might go back to the tavern to retrieve it, why couldn’t they just leave it with the bartender?” Ye Zichen rolled his eyes in esapseration, sighed, and turn to leave the registration area.
“Hey, friend! Wait up!” Someone called out to Ye Zichen from behind.
Ye Zichen stopped, and when he looked back, he saw a grinning youth running right towards him. “You’re a new student hoping to register, aren’t you?”
“You are?” Ye Zichen arched his brows and squinted, but kept his distance.
“Hey, I’m Bao Jingwu, a squad captain of the Grizzly Bear Society, one of our Skyspan Academy’s student societies.” He reached out to shake Ye Zichen’s hand and smiled. “What should I call you, friend?”
His zealous warmth baffled Ye Zichen, but he instinctively reached out and shook the youth’s hand. “Ye Zichen.”
“Brother Ye! I can tell from the sound of your name alone that you’re no ordinary man. In the future, you’re sure to become a dragon or phoenix among men. Do you by any chance have any interest in joining our Grizzly Bear Society? Let me tell you that it’s no exaggeration to say that we’re one of the top five student societies in Skyspan Academy. We have over a million members! Meeting you like this must be fate. How about you join us? Our society has lots of pretty girls, and we offer tons of benefits!”
This was a scruffy looking man, yet his tone was so cute and affected.
Despite himself, Ye Zichen shuddered in disgust.
Disgust?
Even Bao Jingwu himself felt disgusted!
But he had no other choice!
In truth, recruiting a new student was a simple process. All he needed was to see their crystal card. However, student societies large and small competed viciously for new blood.
Remember, although this was academy, by the time someone reached the supreme level they were no longer a child.
Each student society represented a faction in its own right. The stronger each society was, the more resources and support they got from the academy, and the easier it was to take care of bounty missions.
As a squad captain, Bao Jingwu had no choice. He was a ranked officer, but of the lowest possible rank. His superiors had given him the mission of recruiting new students, and he had to reach a quota to keep his position. If he failed, the society wouldn’t give his squad new recruits, and without sufficient numbers, a squad wasn’t a squard. It was effectively a demotion.
Ordinary squads were roughly the size of Huang Yang’s little team: eight people was standard.
Bao Jingwu was a freshly promoted squad leader, and didn’t have any subordinates at all yet. As things were, he couldn’t carry on in his new role.
“Brother Ye? How about it?” Bao Jingwu suppressed his disgust and looked at Ye Zichen expectantly. “I….”
It was hard to say no when he was so welcoming! Ye Zichen didn’t want to offend Bao Jingyu, but he currently didn’t have his crystal card. There was no way for him to enter the academy, much less join a student society.
However, in the face of Bao Jingwu’s expectant gaze, he couldn’t bear to tell him the truth.
Ye Zichen coughed. In truth, he was worried that when he told Bao Jingwu the truth, he’d get mad at him for wasting his time.
“Give up. He won’t join your society.” At that moment, another voice cut in. Ye Zichen turned around and saw Xue Mo and Chen Guangfa, as well as a tall, beautiful woman. All three walked up to them. “This person is joining our Anti-Upheaval Society!”
