Chapter 1 The Beginning

The Holy Trials selection exams begin on June 10th. The general subjects last for two days, and the third day is for those who pass the physical examination to have their spiritual energy measured.

For high school students aspiring to the extraordinary, it's a three-day marathon from Wednesday to Friday.

June 6th, 2015, Grain in Ear, Saturday.

After the last class in the evening, Hongcheng First High School directly announced the start of the holiday, leaving the remaining days for the candidates to rest and adjust their condition.

The weather was good that day, with not a cloud in the sky. The deep blue sky, illuminated by the orange-red glow of the setting sun, had a mysterious and distant artistic conception, like an ocean of the sky. Several airplanes could be vaguely seen dragging long contrails as they swept across the sky, flying towards the horizon.

In the classroom, which was already somewhat dim, some people were silently packing up the textbooks and test papers on their desks, while others were sitting in their seats, staring blankly at the densely packed electronic blackboard. They, perhaps, only realized today that this was their last day in the peaceful campus.

Soon, they would step onto what was likely the most important battlefield of their lives, unleashing the power of twelve years of hard study at that time.

Outside the window, in the playground, groups of two or three were taking selfies and group photos everywhere. Inside the classroom, some people were also finding their homeroom teacher for various photos. If it were seven or eight years ago, they might still have autograph books or something, but now, tools like mobile phones, QQ, and WeChat were much more convenient. The internet had brought people closer, so there wasn't as much sentimentality.

"It wasn't until this moment that I remembered that I'm an eighteen-year-old high school student, not a fourteen or fifteen-year-old young lad."

Together with Shao Qiming, after buying a bowl of big meat noodles one last time in the cafeteria to savor the taste, Su Zhou looked at the scenes of the campus and couldn't help but sigh, "I'm old."

"Shouldn't you be lamenting about youth at this time? Like, my youth is ending here, or something. What's with 'I'm old'?"

Shao Qiming stared at Su Zhou with an indescribable gaze, as if he were looking at a strange creature: "And according to that sentence, your mental age is only fourteen or fifteen years old?"

"To be honest, it's mainly sentimentality. The last time I saw a similar scene was three years ago when I went from junior high to high school—before that, it was elementary to junior high, but twelve years old is really too young, even I'm embarrassed to say it."

Su Zhou's gaze became distant: "I wonder what the quality of the cafeteria at the future academy will be like. Alas, it's really worrying."

"That's what you're worried about?" Shao Qiming complained.

"Of course." Su Zhou waved his hand, indicating that it was indeed the case: "Although the food in the First High School's cafeteria is heavy on oil and salt, which is actually quite difficult to eat for my overly sensitive sensory organs, as long as I adjust my taste threshold, I can easily feel the wonderfulness of any kind of food—this is also a usage of extraordinary power that I've learned recently."

"You should use your extraordinary power in serious places—wait, this seems pretty serious?"

The two sang in harmony, walking around the campus like a comedy duo, which could be considered a commemoration of the three years they spent there.

Both of them had friends and acquaintances, but they had all greeted and chatted with them before. There were even a few brave girls in the class who confessed to Shao Qiming and then turned around and left, seemingly intending to pour out all their stress before the exam, so as not to underperform.

At that time, Su Zhou was extremely puzzled: "I'm obviously also very handsome, why doesn't anyone confess to me?"

"Probably because they feel that you're just an empty shell with a good-looking face, and inside you're all about food."

The one who said this was Xu Ming, a friend of Su Zhou and Shao Qiming, who had a baby face. He was also the one who took the initiative to greet Su Zhou in the silent auditorium.

His spiritual energy talent was 45%, which wasn't genius-level, but it was good. Coupled with the fact that he was a top student like Shao Qiming, he also had the confidence to agree with Su Zhou and the others to meet again at the Extraordinary Academy—since that was the case, there was nothing to say goodbye to. Wouldn't it be the same to meet again after the exam to celebrate?

Even before leaving, he teased Su Zhou: "No girl would like a guy who can eat the portions of twenty people at the class dinner. At most, they'd just be in awe!"

What Xu Ming was talking about was the valiant deed that Su Zhou performed at the hundred-day oath-taking rally for the Holy Trials selection exams three months ago, when he swept away an entire table by himself at the class dinner... This table wasn't a round table, but a long table filled with all kinds of dishes, and Su Zhou swept across it from beginning to end, clearing everything out—he didn't even spit out the bones, shocking the entire school, so much so that some people still think he awakened a gluttonous bloodline.

To this, the contrarian Su Zhou couldn't even refute... because at that time, he had just condensed his second spiritual power organ, 'Eye,' not long ago, and it was easy to get hungry, so he accidentally ate a little too much.

Choosing 'Eye' as the second spiritual power organ was something that Su Zhou had carefully considered, and even asked Yala for some relevant information before finally deciding.

'Skin' and 'Lungs,' which could enhance the efficiency of spiritual energy absorption, were not in short supply due to the Celestial Circulation.

'Heart' and 'Kidneys,' which enhanced explosive power, were also prioritized later because he didn't need to fight for the time being.

As for the liver, gallbladder, which enhanced recovery and resistance, and even the muscles, bones, and bone marrow, which were the essence of physical strength, even if they were enhanced, the relative gain was not high due to the existence of the Perfect Body.

On the other hand, the improvement of observation abilities, such as vision, smell, and hearing, could detect many pieces of information that were originally undetectable.

The improvement of spiritual vision could also enhance tracking ability and make it easier to find evildoers. Even in battle, it could find the enemy's weaknesses faster, taking into account many benefits, and the spiritual energy required for reshaping was not much, so Su Zhou made it his second spiritual power organ.

Just like now, with a single glance across the school, Su Zhou could clearly see all the spiritual energy reactions inside a building through the concrete walls... As long as it wasn't the kind of material that insulated spiritual energy, any cover and hiding was meaningless under Su Zhou's eyes.

"Alright, it's time to say goodbye to high school life... It feels like it went by so fast. In the blink of an eye, it's been almost a year since that summer."

Su Zhou was quite emotional: "This year has been really magnificent." What he was talking about included the adventure in the Divine Wood World, saving a world, which could be said to be magnificent.

"Yeah." Shao Qiming also nodded slightly, his expression changing slightly, but what he was thinking was different from Su Zhou: "A year ago, who would have thought that this world would suddenly become like this? Even the sun and the moon have changed. Who knows what the next change will be?"

The revival of spiritual energy was not just something happening on Earth. Just as Daoist Zhang Qingyun had said before, this was an 'astronomical phenomenon' with the solar system as the basic unit.

The current sunlight was no longer just a simple source of light and heat, a negentropic donor to the Earth's ecological cycle system. Its light possessed extremely powerful extreme yang and evil-breaking abilities. Ordinary, third-rate evil spirits and demons would turn into ashes as soon as they touched the sunlight—regardless of ultraviolet rays, any electromagnetic wave separated from sunlight had extremely strong spiritual energy reactions.

The same was true for the moon. The fierce evil-breaking power of the sunlight converted by the moon had been transformed into a gentle nourishing power, which all living beings, including humans, could withstand.

It was said that deep-sea submarine volcanoes had erupted several times, and the powerful spiritual energy fluctuations could be felt globally. Some ocean shipowners claimed that they had heard the roar of a dragon.

In the tropical rainforest, there were also towering giant trees. Su Zhou had not seen them with his own eyes, but he thought that there must be a familiar aura there.

Everything that had once left was now returning.

Everything that had once been dormant was now reviving.

At this time, the two had already arrived at the school gate. Shao's family's car was parked to the side, and Su Zhou also got on his bicycle. After saying goodbye to his friend, he embarked on the road home.

When Su Zhou returned home, most of the meal was already prepared. Ning Shiyu was still in the kitchen, while Su Beiluo was sitting on the sofa, snoring softly—his parents had taken rare leave these past few days to accompany him. After Su Zhou greeted them, indicating that he was home, he went back to his room with practiced ease, picked up his Squirtle watering can, and watered the Tree of Wisdom, which was hidden under an ordinary apple bonsai.

It could be seen that three small fruits, already taking shape, were hanging on its branches, looking full and cute.

Recently, Su Zhou really didn't have time to hunt demons... To be precise, it wasn't that he didn't have time, but that he couldn't find an opportunity.

Demons were something that you could only encounter by chance, and most of them would appear in uninhabited areas.

Even if Su Zhou had Qinggong (light body skill), he couldn't hunt those demons and monsters without being discovered, in order to fatten the Tree of Wisdom... But even so, it wasn't impossible to plant trees.

After the Demon Emperor died, Su Zhou dug out twenty-four wooden beads, twelve of which were used to communicate with the Banyan Undying Tree and were consumed. As for the remaining twelve, Su Zhou originally planned to use them as poisonous materials, but later, under the strong request of the Tree of Wisdom itself, Su Zhou realized that the remains of the King of Divine Trees, which contained excellent wood energy, were really great as fertilizer for the Divine Tree.

Although the Demon Emperor's wooden beads contained extremely high concentrations of miasma toxicity, the Tree of Wisdom could use time to wear them down and convert them all into benefits to absorb. Su Zhou ground all twelve Demon Beads into powder, mixed them into holy water as fertilizer, and after five months, finally allowed it to absorb all the power of the Demon Emperor's wooden beads, condensing three Wisdom Fruit prototypes.

"I wonder if this counts as planting trees with bone ash. It's a pity that I can't let it mature before the Holy Trials selection exams. I wonder where there are demons or bad people for me to kill."

"If you insist on thinking that way, then of course it does."

Although she complained on the surface, but looking at Su Zhou humming a little tune, it was obvious that he didn't care about this matter. Yala also replied with a noncommittal sentence, and urged: "The revival of spiritual energy in your world is estimated to usher in a wave of extremely large revival during your summer vacation. At that time, many demons will inevitably be spawned.

"This is probably your opportunity, not only can you reasonably harvest a wave of otherworld coordinates, but also cultivate the Tree of Wisdom and grow rapidly yourself."

"Is that so? Then I have to prepare well."

Yala's tips were always timely and irresistible. Su Zhou kept this in mind and couldn't help but lick his lips: "It's been a long time since I ate evil souls, I even miss the taste a little."

"Su Zhou, has anyone ever told you that you're really evil sometimes?"

"Can the act of a Demon Lord eating evil souls be called evil?! This, this is natural ecology!"

Instantly, the room was filled with a cheerful atmosphere. When Su Zhou finished watering and the Tree of Wisdom's spirit in his soul stopped shouting that it was hungry, he also left the room and had dinner with his family.

Four days passed in a flash.

June 10th, 2015, early morning.

Su Zhou opened his eyes.

Today was the first day of the Holy Trials selection exams.