The cold of the Mysterious Ice Pool was practically bone-eating. Cultivators had to constantly expend spiritual power to keep warm; otherwise, frostbite would be the least of their worries—freezing to death was the real danger.
The spiritual power within Mu Guili was rapidly draining, barely allowing her to feel any warmth.
Not to mention the few richly dressed young men beside her, who were already so cold that snowflakes had formed on them. The chicken legs in their hands had become hard as rocks and painful to bite, so they could only rely on drinking alcohol to keep warm.
Sacred Heaven Academy was an academy primarily focused on cultivating the water element. The Water-Settling Art that Ding Chong had made Mu Guili learn was the most basic water-element technique, an extremely simple method of controlling water. Only Ding Class was still teaching it.
Yet the Mysterious Ice Pool was specifically used as a punishment because it contained ice elemental power formed from the mutation of water elemental power.
Without using a water-element technique, one would feel as if one had fallen into a swamp. Forget about staying there—even climbing out would be impossible!
This was a bitter hardship for these pampered young men. Their teeth chattered furiously as they said, “Mu, Mu Guili, hurry up and learn the Water-Settling Art. Once you do, we can follow you and, and get out together.”
Mu Guili said, “Why don’t you use the Water-Settling Art to protect yourselves?”
Gong Yu'an rolled his eyes. “When have you ever seen us complete our coursework?”
Most of Ding Class consisted of spoiled young masters from decent families who were merely waiting around to waste their lives. A small portion had been recruited from impoverished rogue cultivators outside. Thus, apart from their differing social classes, they were all equal in looking down on one another.
At that moment, they wished more than anything for Mu Guili to suddenly become a genius and quickly get them out of this wretched place.
To avoid exposing her family background, Mu Guili had brought nothing with her except a low-level storage ring that could be bought by saving up a little spirit stones, along with her food and clothing.
She still had a divine beast that was about to hatch to raise, and there were even more places requiring spirit stones.
Mu Guili thought for a moment. “Spirit-stone transaction. Success guaranteed.”
When it came to money, nothing was a problem.
Gong Yu'an waved a hand, pulled a bag of low-grade spirit stones from his storage ring, and tossed it over.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry! I’ll give you half an hour. Forget it, I won’t make things difficult for you—make it one hour instead. Otherwise, we’ll all turn into ice sculptures soon!”
In truth, they knew that this was merely buying themselves some psychological comfort. They were all useless. How could anyone learn something simply because they said they would?
But in the next moment, Mu Guili recalled the incantation for the Water-Settling Art, rapidly formed a hand seal with both hands, and drew the water elemental power in the air into motion.
Everyone felt the sensation of sinking into the Mysterious Ice Pool’s swamp vanish in an instant. They froze for a moment, then all rejoiced and climbed ashore.
As warmth returned, they came back to their senses and looked at her in astonishment.
“You already knew it? Why did Old Ding insist that you learn it?”
Mu Guili shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe I just got lucky.”
Gong Yu'an immediately beamed and put an arm around her shoulders like they were close brothers. “Then this assessment will be up to you. Remember to protect us!”
That was right—Gong Yu'an was also one of the five people from Ding Class participating in the assessment.
Mu Guili was a little surprised. He clearly looked completely unmotivated, yet he inexplicably possessed a certain drive.
However, that had nothing to do with her.
Gong Yu'an and the others had been frozen so thoroughly that they no longer felt like playing. They had just turned to bid Mu Guili farewell.
The next moment, a spiritual wind lashed out and sent Gong Yu'an flying, making him spit out a mouthful of blood.
Then a frost-covered magic formation suddenly trapped all of them.
A mocking voice rang out. “Oh, isn’t this Young Master An, who’s about to participate in the assessment for Ding Class?”
“Aren’t you usually so arrogant? Why are you looking so pathetic today?”
Having been inexplicably dragged into the matter, Mu Guili frowned and looked over.
She saw several people approaching. The person at the front bore some resemblance to Gong Yu'an around the eyes and brows, and his gaze was filled with disdain.
Gong Yu'an wiped away the blood at the corner of his lips and suddenly smiled. “Big Brother, what do you mean by this?”
Gong Xi reprimanded him, “Don’t call me Big Brother. A piece of trash like you isn’t worthy of being my younger brother!”
The other young men from Ding Class could not hold back their anger. “Gong Xi, is your Jiazi Class ever going to stop? Ding Class already has assessment slots. Do you really have to come looking for trouble whenever you have nothing else to do?!”
Gong Xi said coldly, “An entire Ding Class full of trash like this shouldn’t exist in Sacred Heaven Academy at all. You’re not worthy of participating in the assessment alongside us either. If you know what’s good for you, withdraw immediately!”
Mu Guili narrowed her eyes. How strange. First Ren Ningning had come, and now there was Gong Xi.
Perhaps the other three people had encountered this kind of situation as well.
What exactly had happened?
Before she could think it through, a chill like the cut of a blade swept over them.
The magic formation imprisoning them had been activated!
“This is the Frostblade Formation. It begins by lowering the temperature and gradually forms ice blades, layering them one after another. It will not stop until blood is drawn.”
Gong Xi swept a casual glance over Mu Guili. Clearly, even he knew of this famous beauty who was also known as a good-for-nothing.
The people behind him also spoke with malicious intent. “Ye Chen is from Jiazi Class, and Chi Roushu is from Jiazi Class as well. We people from Jiazi Class would never take a shameless good-for-nothing from Ding Class seriously.”
The implication was that since Mu Guili was a good-for-nothing, it was only natural for her fiancé to look down on her and for her fiancé’s beloved to trample all over her.
It was Mu Guili’s own shamelessness that made her stay in the academy. She had also occupied a slot despite lacking the virtue to deserve it. She had brought it all upon herself!
“You should be grateful that this is merely the weakest water-element formation produced by our Jiazi Class. This formation will dissipate after one hour. You’ll only be crippled, not killed. Take care of yourselves!”
Crippling two assessment slots in one stroke satisfied them immensely.
The group laughed and left.
Gong Yu'an concealed the unwillingness in his eyes, gritted his teeth, and stood up.
Mu Guili asked, “Why doesn’t Jiazi Class want Ding Class to participate in the assessment?”
She had to participate in the assessment in order to retrieve her Big Brother’s Crimson Sun Shield.
“Who knows what’s wrong with them!”
Another young man, Chen Jing, shivered as he used spiritual power to resist the cold. “The assessments can at most result in a class promotion. Quite a few people from Yi Class and Class C advanced from Ding Class through the assessments. Some people can even rise to Jiazi Class within a few years.”
“But this time, who knows what those people from Jiazi Class learned? They’ve gone completely insane trying to suppress the Ding Class participants.”
“Even several people from Class C who had only advanced from Ding Class last year were forced to withdraw from the competition.”
Because Ding Class was truly too useless, it had only been granted the minimum of five slots. The other classes were different; dozens of people would often participate in the assessments.
Even so, they had not spared Ding Class, whose number of slots accounted for only a tiny fraction of the total.
“Stop chatting and move!” someone shouted. “Conserve your stamina and spiritual power so you won’t be injured by the stronger attacks that come later!”
A cold wind suddenly rose, gradually forming ice blades. They had already been weakened from just emerging from the Mysterious Ice Pool, and now this was truly adding frost to snow.
Countless ice blades shot straight toward them. The others swiftly dodged, but Mu Guili was still standing in place, as if she had been frightened senseless.
“Mu Guili, you damn idiot, dodge!”
“What they said just now may have been true, but even if that bastard Ye Chen doesn’t like you, don’t give up on yourself! Isn’t he just one man? There are plenty of men in Ding Class for you to choose from!”
“…”
Mu Guili remained motionless. She rapidly scanned the magic formation.
In the shadows, Ding Chong sighed painfully. Filled with helplessness, he was just about to step in and save them.
Could it be that these two were no good either?
Yet in the next moment, Mu Guili flicked her hand and sent a ray of spiritual light flying. It landed at a certain position.
Boom—!
The Frostblade Formation instantly exploded into a heap of energy particles, which scattered and vanished with the wind.
A formation produced by the dignified Jiazi Class had been destroyed by a single strike.
In an instant, everyone was dumbfounded.
Ding Chong’s pupils contracted.
Gong Yu'an stared with his mouth agape. “H-How did you do that?”
Mu Guili frowned. “Because the formation was too simple.”
But she had overcomplicated things, believing it to be some formidable formation, and had consequently wasted quite a bit of time.
Unfortunately, in her previous life, she had been possessed before she had the chance to study the Five Profound Arts. Who would have thought that the Five Profound Arts would be so powerful?
Everyone: “…”