Xi Shen’s eyes casually glance over the names on it and realize that it stopped counting at one thousand. He also realize that these people on the ranking had their cultivation base beside their names.
Moving from the bottom where there were only Sea Expansion Realm cultivators, Xi Shen reached the eight hundred mark where the cultivation realm of the disciples became the Foundation Construction Realm.
Still going upwards, Xi Shen saw the cultivation increase steadily until he reached the top one hundred and it was then that disciples in the mid-stage Foundation Realm appeared. The Mid-stage of the Foundation Realm was the 4th level to the 6th level, which corresponds to the number of Divine Platforms the disciples had constructed.
Xi Shen moved up further and the disciple in the Late-stage appeared, however among those disciples only the top ten had cultivation ranging from the 8th level to the 9th level.
The top ten positions' names were highlighted in violet color, while the top three were highlighted in a golden color.
Xi Shen read the three names at the top of the Inner Disciple Rankings under his breath.
“Lin Mu, Sun Xing, Ming Doulin.”
All three of them came from the top three Major Clans on the Continent. In fact, as Xi Shen looked at the disciples in the top ten and top hundred, there were only several disciples who didn’t possess one of the surnames from one of the Seven Major Clans.
Seeing this, Xi Shen frowned a bit. If this was how it was in the Inner Academy he can imagine that the rest of the Academy was the same.
Xi Shen came to the realization that carrying out his father’s plan and creating a Faction wasn't going to go so smoothly. There would definitely be resistance from the powers of the Seven Major Clans within the Academy.
“They’ve entrenched themselves too deep in the Academy. If just one of the Major Clans were to pull all their members from the Celestial Academy, most of its operations would grind to a halt. That's not a good thing, how did father even think taking back the Celestial Academy under the control of our Li Family was possible when the Seven Major Clans had already sunken their fangs into the academy and become most of its foundation? If we provoke them too much, then the entire Celestial Academy can collapse within itself.”
As Xi Shen was mumbling his worries under his breath, a deafening uproar suddenly sounded within the Missions Hall while several people were pointing at the Inner Disciple Rankings with shock and disbelieving expressions.
This made Xi Shen turn to look back at the Rankings just in time to see a name that was in 12th place move up two rows into the 10th position.
Xi Shen read the name, and suddenly realize why the commotion was occurring.
The name of this disciple was Wang Fei Yin.
Meaning this person was not from one of the Major Clans, but yet had managed to take a spot in the top ten that was filled with members from the Major Clans
“No fricking way! I can’t believe Fei Yin actually manage to beat Bai Shin!!”
“Everyone thought he was getting ahead of himself to immediately challenge the Top Ten after his breakthrough into the 7th stage of the Foundation Construction Realm, but look what happened?! He defeated Bai Shin who was in the 8th stage!!”
Suddenly a disciple's shout from the entrance could be heard as he shot through the door using his movement technique.
“What are you all still doing here?!! The Inner Disciple Ranking is updated in real-time! If we're lucky we could reach the arena in time to see the results of the battle!!”
As if everyone had been jolted awake from a deep sleep, the disciples in the Missions Hall's eyes burn with red hot excitement as they all stampede towards the Battle Colosseum Arena.
Xi Shen also moved as well, and he too was feeling anticipation because of the crowd's reaction.
After a few minutes of using his Spectral Steps, Xi Shen and the crowd of disciples came to the front gate of the huge Colosseum.
Xi Shen didn’t have time to marvel at its structure before he was carried along with the crowd inside.
“Over there!!”
A disciple at the front of the group of the mob pointed at one of the smaller stages inside the Arena. There on the stage, a young man wearing the Celestial Academy’s blue robes of an Inner Disciple stood in front of another youth that was clutching his right arm on the ground.
From here Xi Shen could see the standing youth’s blade covered in blood.
After the disciple shouted that, he led the group in the direction of the stage, but upon coming closer this new group of disciples saw the expressions on the faces of the ones who were there first, and it was filled with horror and was drained of blood.
It looked like they’d just witnessed a terrifying sight.
“Oh my god!! Isn’t that a human hand?!!”
A female disciple in the new crowd said stupefied as she pointed at a particular spot on the stage.
The crowd of charging disciples suddenly grind to halt several meters away from the stage and looked in the direction the disciple was pointed at to see a bloodied hand that was severed from its wrist. The eyes of the crowd then turned to look at Fei Yin and Bai Shin, and saw Bai Shin clutching at a stump on his now severed hand, while Fei Yin brandished his bloodied midnight colored black longsword.
Seeing this sight made the group of disciples that had just arrived mirror the expressions of the earlier crowd of disciples.
Xi Shen however, looked at this youth name Fei Yin with interest.
'He doesn't belong to one of the Seven Major Clans but dared to sever the hand of a Bai Clan member.'
‘He either has guts, or he’s completely stupid to provoke the Bai Clan. Even if they were one of the weakest of the Seven Majors Clans, compared to a large aristocratic family or clan, their power was head and shoulders above them. Not only that, I don’t remember there being a Wang Clan among the large clans or aristocratic families on the Maple Continent. Did this youth provoke the Bai Clan without any backing?’
As Xi Shen went over this in his mind, a shout echoed from Bai Shin that confirm his speculation but also stunned him at the same time.
“Wang Fei Yin you dog of a servant, you dare hurt me?!! I knew I should have ordered my men to butch you when you tried attacking me!! Murdering your entire family wasn’t enough!!!”
The crowd of disciples down below was equally as stunned as Xi Shen. They knew of the conflict between these two, with Fei Yin being a former servant of Bai Shin, but they didn’t know the grudge was so deep that Bai Shin had ordered Fei Yin’s family to be executed.
When Fei Yin heard Bai Shin’s words, his expression turned frighteningly scary and his eyes became completely bloodshot.
“You still dare be so condescending in front of me?!! Don’t you know where you are?!!”
Fei Yin yelled that before his figure moved forward and appeared in front of Bai Shin. Exclamations of shock then came from the crowd of disciples around Xi Shen as they witness Fei Yin’s sword leaving a black streak in the air before Bai Shin's wails pain reverberated in the deathly silent Colosseum Arena.
Bai Shin’s second hand was severed and was sent flying a few meters away on the stage. The crowd of disciples watched the gruesome sight of blood spraying like a fountain from Bai Shin’s severed hand.
A couple of disciples' faces turned green and they felt like they were going to be sick. They had never seen such a display of cold-bloodiness, aside from those demonic cultivators in the Unorthodox Sects.
Fei Yin’s expression didn’t change at any time during his actions, even when blood from Bai Shin’s severed hand was sprayed onto his clothes and face.
Looking at Fei Yin’s blue robes that were now dyed in blood, and seeing the resolve in his eyes, Xi Shen’s eyes flickered as he realize this Fei Yin was actually planning to kill Bai Shin.
These Ranking Matches organized by the Academy were a way of tempering their students in life and death situations, so the academy allowed anything to go. This was also a place where disciples with irreconcilable grudges come to battle to the death.
As long as one enters this arena, then they better prepare to fight with their life on the line.
This was allowed by the Academy, and they had a rule, where anything that happened in the arena was not to spill over to the ongoings of the Academy. Meaning friends of the deceased can not attack the killer, but they can challenge them to a battle as revenge.
However, it was a Bai Clan member that was involved, someone from one of the Seven Major Clans.
All the disciples know that severely injuring or crippling anyone from the Major Clans would receive retaliation from them. Just that it wasn’t in the academy because of their rule, but that rule doesn’t apply to the outside world. Not to mention killing someone from a Major Clan, this Fei Yin was only seeking death if he went ahead and killed Bai Shin.
In all the years of the academy having its Ranking System and battles, no one outside of the Seven Major Clans had ever killed someone from a Major Clan.
From Fei Yin's actions and demeanor, it looks like he wanted to be the first.