December 7th, 2014, winter, heavy snow.

The sky above Hong City was covered by rare snow clouds.

This hot city, usually considered a furnace and rarely experiencing temperatures below freezing even in winter, was experiencing a super blizzard, a once-in-a-millennium event, amidst the chaotic weather turbulence brought about by the spiritual resurgence.

It wasn't just this city; the entire southern region of Zheng Country, the entire world, was being affected by unpredictable spiritual weather. Frequent earthquakes plagued North America, scorching heatwaves roasted ancient cities in Ross Country, the central plains of Fusang experienced a hundred days of torrential rain, and cities along the Mediterranean coast of the Europa Union were forced to evacuate residents as rising sea levels swallowed cities one by one.

And descending upon Hong City were gray-black clouds, damp and cold winds, the completely frozen Gan River, and a super blizzard with an average snowfall exceeding 47 centimeters.

If the local authorities hadn't foreseen this terrifying weather change and started preparing for the cold wave two months in advance, this terrifying blizzard would have caused immense casualties. But now, urgently produced snowplows were traveling on major traffic arteries, clearing a path through the ice and snow.

Even so, all local schools and non-official organizations were forced to suspend operations indefinitely until the blizzard stopped.

Some lamented, some rejoiced, but most people were simply sitting at home, idly scrolling through their phones, occasionally watching the blizzard that darkened the sky and earth outside the window.

But there was one person who was a little different.

"Is this enough, Yala?"

Carrying an oversized mountaineering bag nearly as tall as himself, Su Zhou was fully armed at this moment. He carried his long spear, wore a light gray outfit that looked antique but was actually modernized, and had a combat belt around his waist filled with various emergency tools, including but not limited to knives, pliers, tweezers, stimulants, bandages, and sealed white phosphorus.

For ordinary people, this load might be considered 'unbearable weight,' but for Su Zhou, it felt no different than carrying a schoolbag.

"Actually, there's no need to bring so much. With your extraordinary power, starting a fire is simple. Why bring sealed white phosphorus..."

Perched in front of a silver, pointerless pocket watch called 'The God's Scale,' Yala said helplessly, "It's definitely enough. Now, prepare to begin—our first otherworld crossing operation."

"Mm!"

Receiving Su Zhou's extremely confident reply, the scarlet snake spirit simply aimed at the God's Scale and spat out a mouthful of cyan breath.

After being exhaled, this breath began to spread inch by inch in the air, seemingly trying to create air roots out of thin air and take root in the spiritual world—but it touched the God's Scale.

Instantly, the seemingly broken pocket watch began to resonate with the original cyan breath stored within, emitting colorless ripples.

Then, the pocket watch generated an incredibly vast suction force, like a black hole, instantly sucking in and decomposing all the cyan breath.

Then, an unbelievably powerful energy came from within, but it was limited to within these three feet—a silver glow lit up, and Su Zhou saw that incredibly profound divine patterns emerged from the center of the dial, and then bit by bit, condensed into an incredibly clear cyan scale!

【——World Core Element·Immortality——】

【——Erosion Deviation Value 23.49%——】

【——High Stability Derivative World——】

At the same time, Su Zhou suddenly heard an incomparably vast horn sound, like a war song, or a farewell. Just as he concentrated on this sound, a circular, crystalline light sphere with a cyan glow appeared before Su Zhou, centered on the God's Scale.

Through the light sphere, Su Zhou could vaguely see a scene of mountain forests and snow.

"Alright, let's go!"

Having heard Yala explain the crossing process long ago, Su Zhou laughed and, after the snake spirit wrapped around his hand, fearlessly reached out and touched the light sphere.

Then, Su Zhou felt his entire body suddenly lighten, and then, in a burst of silver light, he disappeared along with the God's Scale!

...Two months ago...

Hong City No. 1 High School, Senior Year, 'Spiritual Energy Class'.

"To go from the mundane to the Awakening stage, what's needed is a wisp of spiritual power born from one's life, that is, the body and soul."

A gentle voice echoed in the newly built, 1,500-square-meter spiritual energy classroom. A spirit gathering array and eight small spirit gathering arrays supplied the classroom with five times the concentration of spiritual energy compared to the outside.

Four hundred seventeen- and eighteen-year-old senior high school students were spaced apart, sitting cross-legged, kneeling, lying down, or with small chairs, using whatever method they found most comfortable to stay in their seats and listen to the lecture from the academy on the stage.

"Only when one possesses a wisp of their own spiritual power can they be called an 'Awakening Grade' cultivator."

The voice came from an elderly male professor from the Yuzhang Academy. Although he had white hair and a white beard, his complexion was ruddy, his physique was strong, and his voice was full of energy. His eyes were also different from those of ordinary old people; they were extremely sharp. Any student who didn't listen carefully would feel a tingling in their head when looked at.

Currently, half of the senior students of Hongzhou No. 1 High School were taking the spiritual energy class here.

Cultivating spiritual energy can sharpen hearing and eyesight, strengthen the body, enhance memory and calculation speed, and strengthen comprehensive thinking abilities, making it more direct and reliable than any brain-boosting secret recipe.

Therefore, since the Zheng Country government announced the truth about the spiritual resurgence, spiritual energy studies quickly caught up with other subjects in a short period of time, becoming the hottest and most important course today, bar none.

Currently, the teacher for the third spiritual energy class came from Yuzhang Academy—the teachers for each spiritual energy class came from different academies, varying from place to place, but the professors who could represent the academy to lecture undoubtedly possessed extraordinary power and could represent a powerful and illustrious lineage that had continued from ancient times to the present.

For some states, this choice might not be too plentiful, but for Hongzhou, this choice was a bit of a luxury—not to mention the Zheng Yi and Jingming Academy's two Daoist lineages that had already taken their turn, there were also the Tantai and Bailudong Academy's two Confucian lineages waiting.

This could be considered a happy problem for the local students.

Yuzhang Academy was the local official academy of Hongzhou, belonging to the Law lineage. It usually didn't involve itself in the factional competition between the various sages, and this old professor's lectures were the most impartial. He was currently discussing the precautions for the Zheng Country government's popularized cultivation method, the 'Correct Foundation and Source Condensation Breathing Method'.

The [Correct Foundation and Source Condensation Breathing Method] was the most upright, simple, neutral, and peaceful Awakening cultivation method. It had no special effects, and its cultivation speed wasn't outstanding, but it was first-rate in the world in terms of stability and solidity. At worst, one would only have a stomachache for two days from Qi deviation. Therefore, it was popularized by the government as a method for the masses to cultivate.

This breathing method also had a characteristic, which was that because it had no special characteristics, it could be seamlessly connected to most of the Zheng Country's inherited cultivation methods—in the end, it was just a simple matter of absorbing external spiritual energy and stabilizing the internal spiritual power cycle, so how could there be any problems with connection?

Unless those unique cultivation methods were really too unique.

At this time, all four hundred people in the room entered a meditative state in their most comfortable postures, and then began to sense the surrounding spiritual energy, trying to absorb it into their bodies and transform it into their own spiritual power.

"Even if the spirit gathering array increases the concentration of spiritual energy, it would be good if a dozen or so people out of the four hundred can sense spiritual energy by the end of the semester."

The old professor from Yuzhang Academy surveyed the classroom and murmured in his heart, "This is still modern society, with good diets, very few people suffering from malnutrition or physical defects, and all of them are literate and have healthy bodies and souls."

"If it were ancient times, there might not be one out of forty thousand."

Generally speaking, by the third spiritual energy class, if there were students with good talent, they should be able to preliminarily guide spiritual energy into their bodies, try to combine it with the power of life, and transform it into spiritual power with personal imprints—the old professor narrowed his eyes slightly, activated his spirit sight, and discovered five students with spiritual energy surrounding them, like small whirlpools. He was quite pleased in his heart: "We Zheng Country have successors!"

Having discovered five talented spiritual energy seeds among the four hundred people at the very beginning of teaching already exceeded the national standard value.

Being able to guide Qi into the body after three teachings was what was commonly known as a genius. Without a doubt, the five who awakened first would receive resource tilting in the future.

Of course, this world doesn't only have geniuses.

"Hoo, hoo—"

The roaring sound of violent spiritual energy was echoing in the corner of the classroom.

The old professor from Yuzhang Academy sighed, not knowing whether he was happy or distressed, and then turned to look at the corner of the classroom.

Because there, a violent 'spiritual energy tornado' was swirling.

One could see that at the very center of this spiritual energy tornado was a handsome young man with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, but for some reason, he was unexpectedly a little intimidating. He was sitting cross-legged, and although his movements weren't very standard, they were very natural.

"Rumble—"

The vortex of spiritual energy swirling around him could even emit a rumble close to thunder in the spiritual realm, stirring up the spiritual energy flow of half the classroom.

If he hadn't been arranged on one side of the classroom, with the other three hundred and ninety-nine people occupying the other side, perhaps everyone else would have been unable to cultivate properly at all.

"Hey, did you record it? The speed of this spiritual energy flow!"

"I remember it very clearly—the speed of his spiritual energy intake and output is hundreds of times the standard value. He's terrifying!"

At this moment, there were four other people who seemed to be teachers, surrounding the huge spiritual energy vortex, looking extremely excited and unable to control themselves, recording the data—judging from the emblems on their clothes, they were actually the other four major academies in Hongzhou, besides the Yuzhang Academy.

"Student Su, could you please perform that again?"

At this time, a relatively young man from the Zheng Yi Academy, who seemed to be just a trainee lecturer, had a flushed face and said in a very kind tone.

He was holding a special spiritual energy camera engraved with cloud pattern runes in his hand, filming the young student called 'Student Su'.

And everyone else was looking forward to this scene.

"Alright."

Hearing this, 'Student Su' smiled helplessly. He closed his eyes in the expectant gazes of everyone.

Then, the huge spiritual energy tornado that was originally rotating clockwise suddenly reversed its direction of rotation and began to rotate rapidly counterclockwise!

"Ooh-ooh!"

"Amazing!"

"As expected of someone with a natural Dao body, he can easily do things that we can't!"

Seeing this counter-intuitive scene, all four academy transcendents couldn't help but cheer.

But Su Zhou, who was stuck in the middle, could only let out a long sigh.

"If I had known, I would have restrained my talent a bit... Novels often say to make a fortune quietly, and I often didn't take it seriously, thinking that while acting high-profile was not good, there was no problem in naturally being myself, right?"

"But now it seems that making a fortune quietly may not necessarily make you rich, but at least it can give you some peace."