Chapter 153: Tier 3 Spirit Crystal

After the Grand Elder finished speaking, the previously noisy and whispering scene suddenly fell dead silent. Everyone was momentarily stunned, their gazes collectively locking onto that chubby figure.

How could this be possible?

This couch potato actually secured first place?

Good heavens!

So many of us couldn't even beat a couch potato?

Do we have no pride left at all...

Incredible expressions involuntarily surfaced on everyone's faces. Zhang Dabao claiming first place was something nobody could accept.

"Haha, earlier Brother Zhang said he would make me rank among the best, but I never expected him to make me first. Those imperial city disciples are truly a bunch of good-for-nothings, brainless fellows. After struggling desperately to the end, they still couldn't match my skill of riding on the coattails of a couch potato. This is simply too awesome."

"Nowadays, it's an era that relies on brains. Idiots with well-developed limbs but no brains—what's the use of having raw physical strength? Better to be a couch potato like me."

If those imperial city disciples knew what Zhang Dabao was thinking at this moment, they might have beaten him until even his own parents wouldn't recognize him on the spot.

"Fatty brother, I didn't expect you to hide your capabilities so deeply."

Ever since Zixuan laid eyes on those layers of fat on Zhang Dabao's body, the term "Fatty Brother" had become his designated nickname.

"Hehe, obviously. Just look at who your Lord Zhang Dabao is!"

Zhang Dabao gave a dry laugh, pondering some bizarre questions.

"You guys definitely wouldn't have guessed that all these core essences were previously distributed to me by Brother Zhang. Surprised or not? Surprised and delighted? Brother Zhang said before that he needed to stay inside for a while, but what was he doing in there? Could he have gone behind my back to flirt with girls? Damn it, Brother Zhang, you dark-bellied fellow..."

"Grand Elder, this is bad, this is bad..."

An elder came running over, completely out of breath.

"What is all this panic about?" The Grand Elder turned around, flicking his sleeve, and said with a hint of lingering anger.

"It's like this, we suddenly discovered earlier that there is still one student missing from those teleported back." The man wiped the sweat beads from his forehead and said in a low voice.

"What did you say!" The Grand Elder's heart suddenly tightened. The moment he announced the ranking results, a vague sense of unease had already begun to creep over him.

He swept his gaze across the surrounding students and failed to spot the figure of the person he cared about most.

Instantly, his anxiety grew even more intense. "Is the person who didn't get teleported back Li Jiansan?"

Ever since reading out the rankings, the Grand Elder had harbored a trace of doubt and unease in his heart.

When he was previously watching the assessment through the Mind-Peeping Mirror, he had already taken note of Li Jiansan. Logically speaking, given Li Jiansan's strength, entering the top ten was an absolute certainty without any suspense.

Yet now, he was missing from the top ten. That was when the Grand Elder's anxiety had begun.

"Yes."

Upon receiving confirmation, the Grand Elder suddenly flew into a rage. "Scoundrel, why aren't you going quickly to look for him!"

Li Jiansan was a monstrous genius; even ten Yuwen Tuos could not compare to him. A genius of this caliber—if anything were to happen to him, it would be a colossal loss for the Azure Dragon Academy.

Alongside his fury, a flash of astonishment and doubt flickered through the Grand Elder's mind. Normally, once the teleportation array was activated, the formations within the Maze Forest should have teleported all the students out completely.

Yet, why had the teleportation array failed to bring Li Jiansan back?

This question was something only Li Jiansan himself could explain.

One hour earlier, inside the Maze Forest.

"It turns out my guess was spot on. The Maze Forest is controlled by intricate and complex formations, and right at the center of these formations lies a tier-three spirit crystal!"

Spirit crystals served as the sustained energy supply for the continuous operation of grand arrays. The Three-Mystery Array Li Jiansan had previously set up at the Ye family and the current Maze Forest array were exceptionally profound grand arrays of heaven and earth. These massive arrays possessed tremendous might and required spirit crystals brimming with spiritual energy to supply their power.

As for instantaneous arrays—such as the grand arrays Li Jiansan had previously inscribed—they were actually minor offensive spell formations. As long as one inscribed runic symbols and condensed spiritual seals upon these spirit arrays, they could summon the power of heaven and earth to erupt with astonishing might, though such offensive arrays could only persist for a very short duration.

"You old fogies of the academy, you actually set the decisive battle of the assessment right at the center of the Maze Forest, allowing me to discover the spirit crystal of the Maze Forest's array. Since it has come to this, you cannot blame me for taking it away."

Upon entering the Maze Forest, Li Jiansan had already detected the array within, but he had continuously failed to locate the exact whereabouts of the array's spirit crystal.

It was not until the activation of the teleportation array that Li Jiansan experienced a sudden burst of realization.

"Hehe, those old fogies surely never imagined that I would actually be able to crack the Maze Forest's teleportation array."

Li Jiansan smiled faintly, abruptly unleashing his spiritual power to begin searching for the location of the spirit crystal.

After stepping into the Foundation Establishment realm, Li Jiansan's spiritual power had undergone a massive enhancement, and he very quickly tracked down the aura of the spirit crystal.

"Whoosh!"

Li Jiansan shifted his body rapidly, arriving before a pitch-black cave in the blink of an eye.

Before Li Jiansan lay a dark, bottomless abyss. Glancing down into it instantly evoked a feeling of chilling terror.

"Let's go down and take a look."

As Li Jiansan looked down and was about to leap, a tremendously powerful force abruptly repelled him back.

Li Jiansan remarked with amused interest, "There is actually still a defensive array protecting this bottomless abyss. Even if someone discovered this place, it would be utterly impossible to enter. But what a pity, today they met me."

Li Jiansan smiled, and then flooded his immense spiritual power straight inward, instantly shattering that defensive array into pieces.

Meanwhile, outside the Azure Dragon Academy.

"Grand Elder, this is bad, someone has destroyed the array guarding the spirit crystal!"

Another person ran up to the Grand Elder in absolute terror.

"Damnable! Exactly who destroyed the guardian array of the spirit crystal?"

Hum!

With a leap of his physique, Li Jiansan plunged straight down into the bottomless abyss.

After Li Jiansan's figure descended, his body kept falling continuously.

It was pitch black inside; forget about light, even the air had grown thin.

Relying on his exquisite footwork, Li Jiansan fell a full several thousand meters before finally reaching the very bottom of the abyss.

Without movement martial arts, even if someone else had found this place, they would have been incapable of entering.

At this moment, Li Jiansan's eyes were like dazzling stars in the night sky. Even in the pitch-black darkness where one couldn't see their own hand in front of their face, his vision remained exceptionally clear, and everything around him was visible in sharp detail.

The area beneath the bottomless abyss was exceedingly vast, filled with interlocking and densely crisscrossing karst caves, resembling an underground world of its own.

"Let's go in and take a look." Li Jiansan followed these rock tunnels, slowly walking deeper inside.

As Li Jiansan continued to push deeper inward, the light inside grew increasingly bright.

The space that was originally pitch-black gradually grew luminous, as if opening up to a sudden vista, leading him into an entirely different realm.

A short while later, Li Jiansan arrived at a fiery-red magma cavern.

The surrounding temperature also instantly turned scorching hot, as if a blazing sun had fallen and ignited a temperature of tens of thousands of degrees.

At this temperature, even Li Jiansan found it slightly difficult to endure.

"As expected of a place where a tier-three spirit crystal is stored; this temperature could probably melt even ordinary Mysterious-grade weapons."

Li Jiansan was somewhat surprised. Not only that, but he also discovered that the concentration of spiritual energy here was vastly superior to the outside world. If one were to cultivate here,

perhaps they could even match the cultivation speed of supreme geniuses.

"Right there." Deep inside the magma cavern, Li Jiansan caught sight of a crystal emitting a faint glow.

Overjoyed, Li Jiansan rushed toward it, but the moment he drew close, a bolt of lightning crashed down, forcing Li Jiansan to repeatedly retreat several steps.

"Sure enough, there is still an array here."

Gazing at this crystal, Li Jiansan muttered to himself, "This final array should ideally be a tier-three spirit array."

"With this array in place, even a Martial Lord standing here probably wouldn't be able to take away this tier-three spirit crystal."

Having said that, a smile crept onto the corner of Li Jiansan's mouth. "But what a pity that the person standing here today is me..."

Li Jiansan abruptly released his spiritual power, instantly blanketing the tier-three array, and very swiftly located the array's weak point.

Boom!

Following that, he formed seals with a single hand, and a dazzling spiritual seal condensed within his palm.

If anyone were to witness this method of Li Jiansan's, they would undoubtedly be struck with boundless terror.

Forming a seal with a single hand within a span of inches—this was the divine skill of a tier-three spirit array master! Such spirit array techniques were not entirely unheard of, but for one to appear on a teenager in his early teens was enough to cause a sensation!

"Hum!"

With a wave of Li Jiansan's hand, in the span of a breath, that brilliantly glowing spiritual seal merged directly into the array.

Crack-boom!

Instantly, a violent surge of energy fluctuations washed over them, and the tier-three spirit array was effortlessly cracked in Li Jiansan's hands.

If any high-ranking figure from the Azure Dragon Academy were to witness this scene, they would surely be frightened out of their wits!

Because this array had been personally laid down by the former Dean himself, who had once declared that within the entire Chu State, not a single person could crack his array, telling them they could rest completely assured.

What manner of figure was the former Dean? He was one of the mere few Golden Core realm powerhouses in the entire Chu State!

"This tier-three spirit array is actually quite interesting; probably very few people in this vast Chu State could crack it." Li Jiansan gazed with a hint of solemnity at the energy-dissipating spirit array.

After breaking the array, Li Jiansan grabbed with his palm and easily acquired that tier-three spirit crystal.

The moment Li Jiansan secured the tier-three spirit crystal, a burst of energy suddenly diffused outward from the surroundings, shaking the entire subterranean cavern until it hummed and trembled.

Meanwhile, inside the Azure Dragon Academy.

"What is going on? The aura of the tier-three spirit crystal inside the Maze Forest has actually vanished."

The instant Li Jiansan removed the tier-three spirit crystal, its aura disappeared completely, causing the Grand Elder to cry out in alarm.

An elder furrowed his brows. "Could it be that Li Jiansan inside took the tier-three spirit crystal?"

"Impossible. Even though Li Jiansan's talent is formidable, given his current strength, even if he managed to discover the bottomless abyss housing the tier-three spirit crystal, he wouldn't be able to break the array inside at all."

"Let alone enduring the scorching high temperatures within and walking all the way into the magma cavern. The underground caverns possess temperatures exceeding ten thousand degrees; even we might not necessarily be able to endure it. Li Jiansan is merely at the Foundation Establishment realm, how could he possibly accomplish that?"

A sudden thought struck the Grand Elder, and his expression grew increasingly uneasy. "This is bad, someone might have sneaked into the Maze Forest with the sole purpose of seizing the tier-three spirit crystal!"

"Quick! Hurry... enter the Maze Forest and check what is going on!"

As the Grand Elder spoke, he grew more and more anxious.

If an external enemy could infiltrate the Azure Dragon Academy so silently, then they were truly finished...