late at night, in the room where xu nian stayed.

    xu nian didn''t fall asleep peacefully, but instead entered into arduous training.

    after exchanging punches with that nine-star star realm body cultivator today, he clearly felt how the iron hammer influenced his strength.

    at this moment, xu nian, with the iron hammer on his back, supported himself on one hand on the floor, standing upside down in the room.

    veins popped out all over his body, his muscles swelled up like a cage, and powerful gang qi roamed within him, moving beneath his skin like a mouse scurrying back and forth.

    xu nian''s face reddened, drenched in sweat, obviously struggling to maintain such a pose, but he gritted his teeth and persevered.

    every second of this upside-down stance was incredibly difficult; during this process, he had to absorb gang qi through every cell in his body, and ultimately concentrate it all in his arms to maintain his balance.

    of course, as painful as it was, the effects were tremendously significant.

    now, two hours of xu nian''s cultivation was equivalent to a usual day''s training, showing the rare effectiveness of this training method.

    this way, xu nian persisted through the night.

    by morning, he felt that his cultivation had significantly advanced, the eight-star body cultivation, which was supposed to break through in several months, seemed to loosen a bit, as if he was close to breaking into the nine-star realm.

    once xu nian''s divine demon cultivation truly broke through to nine-star, there would be no rival left in the star realm.

    xu nian changed into a clean set of clothes and walked out of his room, only to find chen xifeng already in the courtyard, holding something in his hand, with a troubled expression.

    "what''s wrong?" xu nian walked over and asked.

    "this academy''s grand competition is really a gathering of geniuses, getting a place seems not as easy as imagined; here is the list of participating colleges for this time," chen xifeng replied, and then handed a beast skin scroll to xu nian.

    xu nian took the scroll and found there were thirty names on it, each associated with a corresponding academy.

    however, these participants were not listed by academy, but rather ranked according to some system.

    "how are they ranked before the competition has even started?" xu nian asked puzzled.

    "before every major academy competition, the governor mansion ranks participants based on intelligence from the ten great colleges, and these ranks largely represent the competitors'' standings," chen xifeng replied.

    "this zhao yan is also extremely remarkable. like ji yun, he too reached star realm peak two years ago, but he also has another identity as an artifact master. it''s said he''s reached the five-star apprentice weapon master and controls an incredibly fearsome flame," chen xifeng answered.

    "artifact master? interesting!" xu nian''s face showed surprise.

    continue reading at empire

    he hadn''t expected to encounter a five-star artifact master apprentice in this grand academy competition.

    considering his own artifact refining level might have reached a four-star apprentice weapon master by now!

    with that thought, xu nian really wanted to meet this zhao yan.

    "and this feng rain?" xu nian continued asking.

    "this feng rain, the one we met yesterday, i just found out today she''s only twenty-two years old, at nine-star peak, but most importantly, she possesses an innate sword spirit body," chen xifeng revealed.

    "innate sword spirit body?" xu nian appeared stunned.

    innate sword spirit body was indeed a special physique, whether for body cultivators or spirit cultivators, having a unique body.

    like the legendary four supreme bodies among body cultivators and the nine innate attribute battle bodies among spirit cultivators.

    xu nian''s nine dragons supreme body too, could be considered an extremely powerful divine demon physique.

    "innate sword spirit body, no wonder she was so targeted towards dugu jingcheng," xu nian thought to himself.

    xu nian glanced over the list again; perhaps aside from these top three, there might be more hidden dragons and crouching tigers among the rest.

    as chen xifeng said earlier, securing a ranking seemed not so easy this time.

    "wait, he''s also on it!" xu nian suddenly focused on one name.

    qin tian!

    his nominal big brother, the once most brilliant talent of the qin family, who also cultivated at tianhen academy, who xu nian once looked up to.

    "he''s actually ranked seventh! i wonder what his expression will be when he sees me again," xu nian mused to himself with a slight smile on his lips.