"This tower is called the Task Tower. Various tasks issued by the academy teachers and their rewards are posted inside. After accepting a task and completing it, you can collect the corresponding merit points here."
As Senior Brother Sun spoke, Xu Yi stepped into the first tower. The first thing she saw was a wall full of tasks.
"Urgent! March 8th, Teacher Wang needs three students to assist in the delivery for his pet. Reward: twenty merit points!"
"Teacher Chen is offering a high price for Ice Spirit Grass! Reward negotiable!"
"Fu Tower urgently needs a teacher's assistant. Daily salary: thirty merit points! Note: Must pass an assessment."
"..."
The dense array of tasks made everyone's eyes blur.
Disciples selecting tasks inside the Task Tower also saw Xu Yi and the others. Their gazes flickered, and their faces showed playful expressions.
"Sun Yue!"
Xu Yi followed the sound and saw a man with a gentle appearance and no aggressive aura walking towards them with a smile.
"Dai Sheng."
Upon seeing the person, Senior Brother Sun finally showed a slight smile.
The man named Dai Sheng was clearly very close to Senior Brother Sun. He walked up and eagerly slung an arm around his shoulder. "Good lad, so you snatched Teacher Yu's task."
"Luck, just luck."
Although Senior Brother Sun was modest in his words, his eyes clearly shone with pride.
Compared to other tasks, the one guiding new disciples was undoubtedly much easier. He had been waiting there for several hours to snatch it.
"Junior brothers and sisters, hello. My name is Dai Sheng. I joined the sect in the same batch as Sun Yue." Dai Sheng turned his head and greeted everyone with a cheerful smile.
Dai Sheng's attitude towards Xu Yi and the others was completely different from Sun Yue's, which made them have a much better impression of him.
"Hello, Senior Brother Dai."
"Sun Yue, I don't have anything going on today. Why don't I join you?" Dai Sheng suddenly said, his eyes darting around.
"I took this task myself. Don't even think about me sharing merit points with you," Sun Yue said, narrowing his eyes warily, his tone tinged with defensiveness.
As disciples who joined Kunlun Academy in the same batch, their relationship was naturally closer than others. However, this did not mean they could interact without any guard.
They were both companions and competitors.
"Don't worry, I'm not interested in merit points. I just want to make more friends."
Dai Sheng smiled innocently.
Sun Yue thought about it and did not refuse. When their group left the Task Tower, Dai Sheng had joined them.
"This tower is called the Formation Tower. If any of you are skilled in formations, you can enter to complete the assessment for formation cultivators. The assessment results can also be exchanged for merit points."
Upon reaching the second tower, Sun Yue had no intention of leading them inside.
The Formation Tower was managed by the formation cultivation teachers within Kunlun Academy. From the entry level, numerous assessments were set up.
Non-formation cultivators entering would only trigger the formations inside, and then be thrown out by the formations or directly kicked out by the formation cultivation teachers.
Therefore, as a general rule, apart from formation cultivators, other disciples would not enter the Formation Tower.
Xu Yi's eyes lit up upon hearing Sun Yue's words.
She had seen the words "Fu Tower," "Qi Tower," "Dan Tower," and so on, in the Task Tower earlier. Did that mean she had many more channels to obtain merit points than others?
Xu Yi's heart skipped a beat. She took a deep look at the Formation Tower, determined to visit it.
When Senior Brother Sun led them past the Qi Tower, Xu Yi saw Yu Xiaoyu's eyes sparkling, clearly very much looking forward to the Qi Tower.
Perhaps because of Dai Sheng's addition, Senior Brother Sun's tone had softened considerably.
Kunlun Academy was all-encompassing. Xu Yi later saw the Buddhist Tower, the Beast Taming Tower, the Sword Pavilion, and more.
It was then that Xu Yi understood why there were so many treasure towers here.
"The towers in front are all places where you can safely obtain merit points. However, these next three places carry certain risks. So, before you decide to enter, you must carefully weigh the pros and cons."
When there were only three towers left, spaced further apart, Senior Brother Sun stopped his steps, his expression solemn.
"Don't dismiss Sun Yue's words as unpleasant. He's doing this for your own good. The most important thing in Kunlun Academy is not to get injured, because once you're injured, your ranking will definitely be affected."
Seeing Xu Yi and the others silent, Dai Sheng quickly defended Sun Yue.
"Senior Brother Dai, Senior Brother Sun, you've been talking about the importance of ranking all along. What's the difference between high and low rankings?"
Xiong Zhuangzhuang finally couldn't hold back.
All the way here, Senior Brother Sun had been instilling the importance of ranking in everyone, but he had never mentioned the differences between these rankings.
This made him, an impatient person, extremely uncomfortable.
Dai Sheng raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Sun Yue hasn't told you yet? Then I'll explain for him."
"Kunlun Academy distributes cultivation resources every month. The higher the ranking, the better the cultivation resources. The top three can even receive direct guidance from the Dean, who is at the Mahayana cultivation level."
"And the most important point is that Kunlun Academy has a secret realm called the Time Realm, which opens every December. The time spent inside is accumulated based on the monthly rankings."
"For example, the first place each month can enter the Time Realm for two days, second and third place for one day, fourth to tenth place for eight hours, tenth to fiftieth place for six hours, and fiftieth to one hundredth place for three hours. As for those outside the hundredth place, it's only one hour."
Dai Sheng and Sun Yue had never ranked within the top one hundred in their one hundred years at the academy. Therefore, after eleven months of accumulation, their total time spent in the Time Realm was only eleven hours, which was even less than what the first-ranked disciple accumulated in a single month.
"Then, what is the wonder of this Time Realm? Is it related to time?" Xu Yi said slowly.
"That's right, it's related to time!" Dai Sheng clapped his hands and looked at Xu Yi with admiration. "The flow of time within the Time Realm is different from outside. Cultivating for one hour inside is equivalent to cultivating for one year outside."
Xu Yi and the others were all shocked.
Didn't that mean that even if they could only cultivate for eleven hours inside, it was equivalent to eleven years of cultivation in the outside world?
Their eyes immediately lit up with fervor.
Bai Shan clenched his fists tightly, biting his lower lip.
This was the true strength of a top-tier force on the Nine Provinces Continent; it was truly extraordinary!
No wonder the disciples of Kunlun Academy were striving to earn merit points. Even they were now focused on how to quickly acquire merit points.
"Don't get too excited. With your current strength, even after decades, you might only rank at the very bottom. You'll only get eleven hours. Don't even think about more."
Senior Brother Sun seemed to dislike Xu Yi and the others' excited expressions. He sneered and said mockingly.
"Sun Yue," Dai Sheng shook his head in displeasure.
"What? I'm not saying anything wrong. We've been cultivating in Kunlun Academy for a hundred years, and we're still hovering outside the top one hundred. I'm just reminding them to avoid having too high expectations and suffering a greater fall."