The Clear Sky Sect's purpose in taking this move, besides wanting to slowly test the outside world's reaction and let the Clear Sky Sect reappear in the eyes of the mainland...
The second and most important reason was that they urgently needed this new academy to be responsible for the continuous transport and supply of massive resources within the Sect.
This also meant that the students recruited into their academy were not all direct lineage clansmen of the Clear Sky Sect.
The operational model of the academy they founded was somewhat like that of the Thunder Academy.
The academy had clansmen of the Clear Sky Sect as its core backbone, but it also opened its doors wide to the outside, recruiting other wealthy merchants or children of nobility.
Of course, they absolutely did not recruit commoner Spirit Masters.
This was because commoners simply had no money and could not afford the absurdly expensive tuition fees, making them unable to provide benefits to the Sect.
As for the Spirit Hall, the high-ranking members did not make any significant moves or engage in intense suppression regarding the Clear Sky Sect's semi-comeback behavior, which seemed to be testing the bottom line.
Over the years, besides her diligent Cultivate, Bibi Dong had poured almost all of her remaining energy into the path of reforming the Spirit Hall.
For example, with an iron fist, she strictly purged a large number of corrupt parasites within the Gengxin City Spirit Hall Branch (tasks released by Lin Yuan).
Furthermore, she also increased the Spirit Hall's living subsidies for elderly commoners.
This allowed those at the bottom to no longer worry or fret about money and their livelihood in their later years, enabling them to have a stable and good old age.
Bibi Dong's policies would undoubtedly greatly increase the Spirit Hall's massive annual financial expenditures.
But similarly, she also gained an unprecedentedly high reputation and unwavering devotion among the community of commoner Spirit Masters.
However, on the path of cultivation, Bibi Dong encountered a massive and frustrating Bottleneck.
Her current cultivation had been firmly stuck at the level 98 Peak for a very, very long time!
Bibi Dong was completely puzzled and didn't know why this was happening.
Back when her cultivation hadn't been suppressed, she clearly felt that reaching the threshold of a level 99 super Douluo was very easy.
But since she followed the advice to condense an Attribute Soul Core, she now feels that trying to Breakthrough to level 99 again is harder than reaching the heavens!
Clearly, she had the experience of breaking through from level 98 to level 99, but now it simply no longer worked.
This made her extremely irritable, and she even secretly speculated in her heart:
Could it be that to Breakthrough, she needs to take a risk and condense a Mental Soul Core, achieving Dual Soul Core Resonance to completely shatter that invisible shackle and reach level 99?
Bibi Dong truly hadn't expected that condensing a Soul Core in advance would actually be such a massive hidden pitfall in the Late Stage!
Had she known this would be the result, she should have played it safe and first tried every possible way to restore her cultivation to level 99 before condensing an Attribute Soul Core.
...
As for Tang San's side?
Tang San's spirit power had reached the level 20 mark.
However, just as he enthusiastically went to obtain his second spirit ring, that long-dormant misfortune card finally unleashed its most terrifying effect!
Originally, with the full support of the Nuoding Academy Principal and several teachers...
Their group went deep into the Spirit Hunting Forest. Their goal this time was very clear: to find a plant-type Spirit Beast of a suitable age in the forest—a Ghost Vine!
They intended to use it as the second spirit ring for Tang San's Blue Silver Grass Spirit to increase his control ability.
And at the beginning, their luck seemed quite good.
After an arduous search lasting several days and nights, they finally got their wish and found a Ghost Vine that was exactly around six hundred years old!
The Nuoding Academy Principal also acted decisively. Relying on his Spirit Elder level strength, he used tremendous effort to finally beat that fierce Ghost Vine until it was half-dead and on the verge of death.
At that moment, it looked like Tang San just needed to go up and deliver the final blow to kill the Ghost Vine, and then he could obtain the Ghost Vine's spirit ring.
But who would have thought that, as luck would have it!
At the very moment Tang San was prepared to kill it, a small-scale beast tide suddenly erupted in the outer reaches of the originally peaceful Spirit Hunting Forest without any warning!
Countless frightened low-level Spirit Beasts surged toward their location like a frantic tide!
Although the cultivation of most Spirit Beasts in this beast tide was not high, and they didn't even see a single thousand-year level Spirit Beast...
The problem was that the Nuoding Academy Principal was, at most, only a level 30-something Spirit Elder!
Faced with that overwhelming tide of low-level beasts, they simply couldn't resist.
To save their lives, they could only wretchedly abandon the Ghost Vine that was within easy reach and turn to flee for their lives.
And on the way of their panicked escape...
To avoid the frantic trampling of the Spirit Beasts, their group also suffered greatly and sustained various minor and major injuries.
Originally, when they ran panting to the outermost area of the Spirit Hunting Forest, they thought they were finally safe.
But fate's joke happened to reach its climax at this moment!
In their panic, they actually happened to run into a Lone Bamboo Forest.
Just as they stopped and prepared to lean against the bamboo to catch their breath, one of the ordinary Lone Bamboos with ten years of cultivation suddenly emitted a faint white light, as if summoned by some strange magnetic field!
Immediately after, this ten-year withered bamboo actually transformed directly into a white ten-year spirit ring!
With lightning speed, it flew directly toward Tang San, who was still in a dazed state!
It actually performed a Sacrifice to Tang San!
And while Tang San was completely unable to react, it forcibly became the second spirit ring for his Blue Silver Grass Spirit!
This absurdly strange scene directly shocked everyone present into being petrified on the spot!
In all their years, they had heard that some Hundred Thousand Year Spirit Beasts possessed the ability to perform a Sacrifice.
That might be because Hundred Thousand Year Spirit Beasts possess high intelligence no less than that of humans, and they indeed have the ability to Sacrifice.
However, they never would have dreamed that the one performing a Sacrifice before their eyes would actually be a ten-year Lone Bamboo!
This was simply 'absurdity's mother opening the door for absurdity'—it was absurdity to the extreme!
After being forced to absorb this white second spirit ring, Tang San stood up with a blank face and felt the second Spirit Ability he had obtained, which could be called trash.
The name of this Spirit Ability was 'Blue Silver Pole Vault'.
Furthermore, because the age of this Lone Bamboo was only ten years, this spirit ring only negligibly improved the resilience attribute of his Spirit slightly...