Half an hour later.
Eastern Line Defense Area of Immortal No. 3 Base.
Wang Fugui and his group were reporting the process and results of this operation to the Immortal Emperor.
"Your Majesty, since we've found the real culprit, it's like we've grasped the key to this battle."
Standing tall and eloquent before the majestic projection of the Immortal Emperor, Wang Fugui continued, "Given that the current war situation isn't too dire and our forces have passed the toughest period, gradually gaining momentum, my suggestion is to delay the demon tribe as much as possible. We should coordinate with the Little Demon Lord and others at Demon No. 2 Base to expand our achievements, weaken the demons, and alleviate our future defensive pressures."
Immortal Artifact? Immortal-grade bloodline improvement liquid? Chaos Spirit Stone? And recalling the Chaos Essence given to the Enlightenment Senior by the Wang Clan...
Taken individually, these items might not seem significant, but when connected, why did they seem so familiar?
"Wait!"
The Immortal Emperor's eyes sparkled as she suddenly remembered something, a sense of foreboding rising in her heart.
Without any hesitation, she immediately activated another energy projection, projecting her main consciousness into it.
This projection, rarely used since its creation, held greater importance than many commonly used energy projections.
In the next moment.
The Immortal Emperor's main consciousness descended into the projection.
The surging immortal spirit energy rose from the spirit-storing jade plaque, the intertwined light and shadow slowly outlining her elegant, majestic, and noble figure.
At this moment, she appeared in a Shenwu relic with a profound sense of history.
This Shenwu relic covered a vast area, and its architectural style was remarkably similar to the No. 3 Officer Training Academy discovered by the Wang Clan.
"Welcome, Your Majesty, to the [Shenwu No. 2 Intermediate and Advanced Officer Training Academy]," the voice of the academy's spirit artifact sounded, "May I ask if Your Majesty is here to recommend outstanding new students for enrollment?"
The Immortal Dynasty had controlled this training academy for nearly ten thousand years, continuously discovering talents and sending them to the academy for training. However, only great prodigies were eligible for recommendation to study at the academy.
Over this long period, by continuously exploiting these students, the primary and intermediate prize pools had long been depleted, and even a portion of the shared advanced prize pool had been consumed, leaving only a few semi-immortal artifacts.
The Yun Clan and the Immortal Palace's strong foundation and enduring strength were partly due to this relic.
Of course, due to the reward mechanism, even some exceptionally outstanding "students" could only obtain semi-immortal artifacts, and only a very few could receive a second reward.
Back when the current Immortal Emperor was young, she had also participated in the graduation exam. Despite her efforts and being a key figure in the royal family's training, when she first took the exam after advancing to the Purple Mansion Realm, her bloodline aptitude only reached the upper level of Peerless B-grade, thanks to the essence of heaven and earth from the inheritance compendium.
Combined with her other performances, which were decent enough to raise her score, she barely managed to achieve 80.75 points, just 0.25 points shy of the top ten on the leaderboard.
Not making it into the top ten nearly brought her to tears.
Her experience was that reaching the top ten on the overall leaderboard was incredibly difficult.
Since acquiring this Shenwu relic, the current Immortal Emperor and Immortal Sovereign, along with various peerless prodigies over the years, had participated in the hero leaderboard exam in their youth.
Only she and the Immortal Sovereign had scored above 80 points in their youth, each contributing a mid-level compendium to the foundation of the Immortal Palace and the royal family.
Other princesses, peerless prodigies, and young peerless talents from the Immortal Palace couldn't even reach 80 points, and a small portion of the peerless couldn't even score 60 points, getting eliminated without even obtaining a semi-immortal artifact.
Of course, this was the minority; most peerless talents managed to score 60 points, bringing back a semi-immortal artifact.
This made the number of semi-immortal artifacts in the Immortal Dynasty not too few.
This also explained why, despite semi-immortal artifacts being the least valuable in the advanced prize pool, they were highly sought after, yet when they reached the Wang Clan, they were almost gone.
Moreover, since this academy had no instructors, as the primary and intermediate prize pools gradually depleted, it became increasingly deserted, with hardly anyone visiting.
Only when a particularly outstanding peerless talent emerged within the Immortal Palace or the Yun Clan would they be sent to try their luck and see if they could bring back a semi-immortal artifact.
Originally, the Immortal Emperor's plan was that Yun Mengyu and Fugui, both exceptionally talented, had previously enhanced their bloodline aptitude to around Peerless B-grade using the immortal spring. If properly nurtured, they might even make it into the top ten on the leaderboard!
By then, each of them could receive three advanced rewards in one go—wouldn't that be wonderful?
Additionally, there were a few geniuses in the Changning Wang's Clan who could also participate in the assessment, though she planned to charge Wang Shouzhe for it.
Wang Shouzhe was so wealthy; it would be a perfect opportunity to extort him.
Of course, compared to the advanced prize pool, the rewards in the super prize pool were even more tempting to the Immortal Emperor. However, those rewards required breaking records and taking first place to obtain, purely there to whet the appetite, with no one ever likely to break Little Holy Emperor Ji Wushuang's record.
That guy, if not for an accident, could have succeeded the Holy Emperor during the Shenwu period.
For this, the Immortal Emperor had even scolded the Holy Emperor, thinking he was just teasing people by putting unreachable treasures there.
"Spirit Artifact, we've recently discovered a batch of promising seedlings," the Immortal Emperor said, "It won't be long before I bring them here to enroll and eventually take the exam."
Of course, enrolling was just a pretext; the main goal was to participate in the graduation exam later.
"That's truly exciting~" the Spirit Artifact responded enthusiastically, "With more and more talents among the human race, the fight against outer region demons becomes less arduous. Recently, the No. 3 Intermediate and Advanced Officer Training Academy has produced many geniuses..."
"Wait! No. 3 Academy? Didn't you say it had been silent all this time?" The Immortal Emperor's expression changed, the sense of foreboding growing stronger.
"It had been silent, but recently there was a significant change in the hero leaderboard. I checked and found that the No. 3 Academy is also operational," the No. 2 Academy Spirit Artifact said, sounding quite frustrated, "After all these years, there's finally news from the No. 3 Academy."
A significant change in the hero leaderboard!?
The Immortal Emperor's heart skipped a beat as she recalled the Chaos Spirit Stone and Immortal Sword, involuntarily raising her voice, "Could it be true? Did someone really break Wang Fugui's record?"
The Immortal Emperor's projection instantly teleported to the examination site, saying, "Spirit Artifact, open the hero leaderboard."
"Rumble!"
The hero leaderboard monument slowly rose.
The Immortal Emperor watched, feeling a rare sense of tension, even her palms slightly sweaty. Her heart was filled with anticipation, yet she couldn't help but feel a twinge of bitterness.
It seemed likely that someone had indeed broken Wang Fugui's record.
But it was so unbelievable~ As someone who had personally taken the exam and experienced the difficulty of the hero mode, the Immortal Emperor knew how challenging it was to break the record. Could Little Holy Emperor's bloodline truly be so extraordinary?
Wait, it seemed there was more than one person who broke the record. Otherwise, how could there be both a Chaos Spirit Stone and an Immortal Artifact? One was Yun Mengyu? Who was the other? Could it be Wang Anye?
Two!
There were actually two people who broke historical records in Yun Mengyu...
The Immortal Emperor's heart was filled with a torrent of emotions.
Why? How did so many talented individuals all appear in Yun Mengyu? Why not in the Yun Clan?
As the Immortal Emperor's thoughts raced, the hero leaderboard fully emerged, one name after another appearing.
The Immortal Emperor looked from the bottom up. Tenth place, uh... a mosaic, the one above, still a mosaic!
Mosaic!
Mosaic!
Row after row of mosaics appeared before the Immortal Emperor, constantly impacting her mind.
The hero leaderboard was filled with mosaics!
"This, this, this..." The Immortal Emperor was shocked and incredulous, "All ten are anonymous, what's going on? Could it be that the top ten were completely replaced in such a short time? Are these all Yun Mengyu's people? Each one in the top ten?"
"Since the owners of the names chose to hide their names, due to the mosaic confidentiality agreement, I can't reveal those names," the No. 2 Academy Spirit Artifact answered honestly.
Damn confidentiality agreement!
The Immortal Emperor felt her mind buzzing, even her mouth twitching involuntarily.
Although the names on the leaderboard were hidden, it was obvious to anyone that these were all Yun Mengyu's people. Otherwise, where did the Immortal Artifact and Chaos Spirit Stone come from?
If one or two people made it into the top ten, it could be said that Yun Mengyu was blessed with extraordinary talents, but if everyone was like that, there was definitely a problem.
The Immortal Emperor didn't believe for a moment that they had achieved this with their true strength.
If that were the case, wouldn't Yun Mengyu have the potential of a True Immortal?
How could that be?!
"Spirit Artifact, did the people from the No. 3 Academy cheat?" the Immortal Emperor quickly asked.
Her first reaction was this.
"Not likely, cheating shouldn't be possible. Otherwise, the No. 3 Academy Spirit Artifact wouldn't agree to give rewards," the No. 2 Academy Spirit Artifact replied, "We Spirit Artifacts always follow the rules."
"Then it must be that Yun Mengyu found a way to exploit a loophole," the Immortal Emperor said with certainty, "I don't believe they all have the potential of a True Immortal."
This guess was half correct; they did exploit a loophole.
For instance, using the Immortal Sword for assistance was almost impossible on the Immortal Emperor's side.
After all, other people's Immortal Swords couldn't be brought into the exam, and to bring an Immortal Artifact into the exam, it had to temporarily recognize a master.
An Immortal Sword, with its pride and arrogance, wouldn't easily change masters.
The Immortal Dynasty's Immortal Artifact naturally belonged to the Immortal Emperor. Even if she wanted the younger generation to use it, it wouldn't comply.
However, Yun Mengyu's Neiyue Immortal Sword was a reward from Ancestor Long Yan for breaking a record. It hadn't recognized a master and was persuaded and threatened by Wang Ning. Moreover, Yun Mengyu's talent was indeed outstanding, so Neiyue was willing to choose a master, enjoying the feeling of being spoiled for choice.
If one day Neiyue Immortal Sword recognized a master, it wouldn't allow such a situation of being passed around. With Neiyue's proud nature, anyone daring to suggest it might get a beating.
"What about the prizes? How much is left in the advanced prize pool? How much is left in the super prize pool?" After her mind buzzed for a while, the Immortal Emperor finally remembered the most crucial thing.
"None left..." the No. 2 Academy Spirit Artifact replied.
"None left? What do you mean by none left?" The Immortal Emperor's eyelid twitched, a sense of foreboding rising again.
"None left means none left. Not a single item remains in the advanced and super shared prize pools," the No. 2 Academy Spirit Artifact said excitedly, "I didn't expect such a burst of talent from the No. 3 Academy."
"Good heavens!"
The Immortal Emperor held her forehead, feeling faint, her heart bleeding.
The items in those prize pools had always been considered reserve resources for the Immortal Dynasty. Now, she felt like her home had been emptied while she wasn't paying attention.
She trembled with anger, unable to resist cursing, "Little Holy Emperor is too ruthless, clearing out the prize pools in one go."
She had planned to slowly nurture talents, bit by bit, to eventually empty the prize pools, but never expected that one day there would be nothing left.
No, no, she had to find a way to get the Chaos Spirit Stone from Little Holy Emperor.
Just as she was about to contact Little Holy Emperor to summon him to the Immortal Dynasty, she suddenly remembered something and changed her mind, "Forget it, I'll personally go to Eastern Gan to see Yun Mengyu and see if there's a way to exchange for the Chaos Spirit Stone."
"I need to prepare several plans, and if all else fails, use seduction. I refuse to believe that Little Holy Emperor can resist my True Immortal allure."
As for forcefully taking it, the Immortal Emperor had considered it.
Firstly, the social environment and structure didn't allow it.
The stability and prosperity of the Immortal Dynasty were hard-won, achieved through the continuous efforts of many generations of Immortal Emperors and Immortal Sovereigns. As the Immortal Emperor, she couldn't destroy the foundation of society.
Secondly, was Little Holy Emperor so easy to rob?
She had long coveted the items in the super prize pool, knowing exactly what was inside, and now, those items were in Little Holy Emperor's possession.
Among them was a [Holy Emperor's Wrath].
This item!
Could slay a True Immortal.