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Lin Dong and his companions felt their hearts leap into their throats as the Soul Seal Codex erupted with a blinding light and literally shattered.
Fortunately, the explosion didn't cause the Codex to vanish. Instead, it regressed into its most primitive form: individual book pages. Rather than disappearing, the energy returned to the pages themselves.
However, the regression wasn't the focal point. The crucial part was that once these pages returned to their original state, they began to resonate with other pages—a phenomenon Lin Dong was intimately familiar with.
Four months ago, after Su Wen had finished establishing the "Mountain of Books and Sea of Learning" in other cities across the Heaven Dou Empire, he had returned to Heaven Dou City to upgrade the local branch. At that time, thirty-six pages from thirty-six classrooms had resonated, combining and splicing together to form the Soul Seal Codex.
Now, as the Codex reverted to its page form, that same resonance had returned. But where were these pages resonating from?
Lin Dong dispatched students from the Hall of Supervision to check the thirty-six classrooms. They found that the pages there had manifested once again, resonating with the Hall of Seeking Knowledge, though it seemed more like they were providing a supportive empowerment.
A theory began to take shape in Lin Dong's mind.
"Could it be that Teacher Su is mobilizing the Soul Seal Codices in other cities, triggering these changes here?"
Lin Dong recalled the materials Su Wen had left behind, which discussed the difficulties of long-distance communication across the continent and proposed several hypotheses. It must be said that Lin Dong had been a diligent student of Su Wen's records. Unlike Zhou Yuan or Ye Luochen, Lin Dong had never stopped his theoretical studies. He was more than happy to do so, seeking a path forward through knowledge just as Su Wen had hoped.
Su Wen had provided him with the method for his first spirit ring—absorbing a thousand-year ring to evolve his martial soul and overcome its innate weakness—but the specific path forward was for Lin Dong to walk himself.
While Heaven Dou City remained relatively composed, other academies across the continent were in a state of chaos. The Soul Seal Codices had exploded! However, as time passed and the pages began to exhibit extraordinary transformations, the panic subsided, replaced by an eager anticipation for what these regressed pages would become.
Spirit City: The Advanced Spirit Master Academy
Bibi Dong arrived at the library and took a deep breath as she surveyed the scene. Her perception was far deeper and more acute than that of the Chrysanthemum Douluo. She could sense ripples radiating from the central page, connected by faint threads to distant locations.
She had captured that connection. Coupled with the most pressing problem Su Wen currently needed to solve, a guess had already formed in her mind.
Su Wen was attempting to communicate with every Mountain of Books and Sea of Learning across the entire continent!
But how did he plan to achieve this? If every communication required such a heavy price, it wouldn't truly solve the problem. Bibi Dong watched Su Wen's condition, sensing the rapid depletion of spirit power within his body, and continued to speculate.
At the same time, she confirmed one thing: Su Wen indeed held absolute control over these constructs. He could likely destroy every Mountain of Books and Sea of Learning with a single thought.
Su Wen seemed unafraid of the Martial Soul Hall taking action against him. Despite his massive consumption of spirit power, he pressed on with the creation of the Academic Realm.
The Zhantian Douluo released his martial soul, entering a state of Spirit Possession. At Rank 96, with a soul born for battle and God-bestowed spirit rings, his combat power neared Rank 97. With Ning Fengzhi's buffs, he would be even more formidable.
The Bone Douluo and Xiao Zhan were also present. While the Pope's Palace was still unaware of Xiao Zhan's true strength, his mere presence acted as a significant deterrent. "Xue Qinghe" stood between Su Wen and Bibi Dong, seemingly on guard.
Bibi Dong frowned. Her eyes met those of "Xue Qinghe," and for a moment, they stood in silent opposition, their gazes tangled with a myriad of conflicting emotions.
The Birth of a New World
Su Wen was oblivious to the outside world. He was poured entirely into the creation of the Academic Realm.
The Academic Realm—a virtual world.
In truth, this virtual world physically existed. Su Wen had carved it into a spatial fold, creating a physical "body" for the realm. He then used the interconnected pages across the continent to project this world, realizing the function of a virtual network.
After two and a half hours, Su Wen finally finished organizing his vast knowledge into a codex and merged it into the Academic Realm. He possessed an immense amount of theoretical knowledge, but because of the frequent establishment of these "Mountains of Books," he had reviewed it all during every projection. Coupled with his "Review-style Martial Soul Mimicry" cultivation, he was constantly refreshing his learning. This allowed him to quickly organize and integrate that knowledge into the realm.
The skull spirit bone in Su Wen's hand erupted with light, and the already potent ripples of energy intensified. Bibi Dong's eyes shimmered. If the spirit bone had previously been just shy of the ten-thousand-year mark, it could now officially be called a Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Bone.
However, the bone's evolution was no longer the main event. As the Academic Realm reached completion, Su Wen began the final step.
First, a beam of light separated from the page in front of them—the one regressed from the Codex—and merged into the spirit bone. Then, pillars of light fell from the heavens, descending upon Spirit City and the Advanced Spirit Master Academy.
Across the continent, light gathered. The sky was filled with brilliant, flowing colors as golden threads linked together. All of this light converged toward Spirit City.
"What is happening?!"
Countless spirit masters across the world looked at this grand spectacle in confusion. But those within the academies, having witnessed the initial changes to the Soul Seal Codices, were beyond shocked. Some who had seen the original formation of the Codices realized that this was a magnified version of that very scene.
"This... this looks like Teacher Su is condensing a Soul Seal Codex."
"What? You're joking, right?"
"I'm not joking! I feel like Teacher Su is using the Codices of every city as individual pages to condense an even higher-level Soul Seal Codex!"
In this moment, no matter how fantastical it sounded, that spirit master spoke his theory with a look of fanatical devotion. The others were left speechless. A Soul Seal Codex... of a higher level?
Rumble!
Inside every academy, the pages formed from the shattered Codices broke apart completely, transforming into golden light that shot into the sky. In their place, an illusory phantom of a Soul Seal Codex remained, sustained by the resonance of the thirty-six classroom pages.
Spirit masters who were still in shock suddenly felt a message, as if by divine intuition. They drew out their own Soul Seals. As they injected spirit power, their consciousness spun, and they found themselves in a strange, vast space.
"Welcome to the Academic Realm."
(End of Chapter)