Profound Heaven Soul Sovereign

"It’s that good?" This was the first time Ye Xuan had ever heard of a position with only privileges and no responsibilities. An offer like this was too good to pass up, so he immediately and happily accepted.

"Hahaha." Seeing Ye Xuan agree, Hua Luoxuan was ecstatic. He quickly brought out two boxes. "Master, one of these boxes contains the Guest Minister token, and the other holds a Second-Grade Alchemist badge. The rank is a bit low, but it’s the highest level badge the Blue Moon City Alchemist Association can issue. Please forgive us for that, Master."

"Not bad, not bad. With a Second-Grade Alchemist badge, I can collect a decent monthly stipend from the Alchemist Association." Ye Xuan nodded and accepted them without any hesitation.

Although he had healed Lin Xiong’s martial soul, Ye Xuan didn’t leave the Alchemist Association. With only about ten days left until the final exams, he didn’t plan on returning to the academy. After all, he could use Hua Luoxuan’s training rooms for free, and his cultivation speed there would be much faster than at the academy.

This was exactly what Hua Luoxuan had hoped for. When he heard Ye Xuan would be staying for nearly ten days, he was so excited he nearly jumped for joy.

"Well then, Chairman Hua, I’m off to cultivate. Haha, sorry for taking over your training room. If you need to cultivate, you can just use Steward Zhou’s room." Ye Xuan turned and walked away, his laughter echoing from a distance.

Zhou Huarong: "..."

Hua Luoxuan watched Ye Xuan’s departing figure, then straightened up from his bow and took a deep breath. "Steward Zhou, what do you think of Master Ye Xuan?"

A wry smile flickered in Zhou Huarong’s eyes. In a heavy voice, he said, "He’s unfathomable."

Hua Luoxuan glanced at him. "And compared to me?"

Zhou Huarong thought for a moment. "The Chairman is probably still a cut above."

"A cut above my ass! No wonder you’re stuck as a steward for life, still only at the Late-First Grade!" Hua Luoxuan smacked him hard on the top of his head. A lump immediately swelled up on Steward Zhou’s head as Chairman Hua said gravely, "Remember this. In the future, if I’m not at the Association and Master Ye Xuan needs anything, you must do everything in your power to help him. Seeing him is like seeing me. In fact, you should be even more enthusiastic with him than you are with me. Understand?!"

Zhou Huarong nodded, but he was smiling wryly in his heart. ’To be honest, with my attainments as a Late-First Grade Alchemist, even though Ye Xuan’s earlier refinement was a tremendous shock, if I have to compare him and Hua Luoxuan, I still think Chairman Hua is more formidable. After all, the Chairman is a royal court Alchemist for the kingdom, a Late-Third Grade Alchemist whose reputation has been established for a long time.’

Seeing the look in Zhou Huarong’s eyes, Chairman Hua wore an expression of someone disappointed in an underachiever. "You think I’m making a big deal out of nothing, don’t you? You idiot! I’m telling you, if you could get even a little bit of guidance from Master Ye Xuan, breaking through to Second Grade would be a piece of cake."

"What?" Zhou Huarong’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head.

"Hmph." Hua Luoxuan snorted coldly and muttered, "Master Ye Xuan’s attainments in Alchemy are so profound that you couldn’t find a single person in the entire Liuyun Kingdom who could compare to him."

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Zhou Huarong shot to his feet. His face was a mask of disbelief as he cried out, "That’s impossible!"

"Hmph, what’s impossible about it?" Hua Luoxuan snorted. "Years ago, I had the chance to interact with the kingdom’s Chief Alchemist, Lord Yang An. He is indeed incredibly profound and unpredictable. But the feeling he gave me compared to Master Ye Xuan..." A sharp glint suddenly shot from his eyes. "Master Ye Xuan is even *more* unfathomable!"

Zhou Huarong still couldn’t believe it. "But that’s not enough to prove Master Ye Xuan can compare to Master Yang An."

’Chairman Hua Luoxuan may be a royal court Alchemist, but he’s just a relatively ordinary one. Lord Yang An, the kingdom’s Chief Alchemist, is a Fifth-Grade Sect Level existence. Could it be that even he can’t compare to Ye Xuan?’

"Hmph, you’d better believe it." Hua Luoxuan said gravely, "I have my reasons for saying so. A few of the many techniques Master Ye Xuan used during his refinement—I saw Lord Yang An perform them years ago. Comparing the two, one is in the heavens, the other on the earth. There’s simply no comparison. I heard from Lord Yang An himself that such techniques are impossible to grasp without a certain level of comprehension in Alchemy. And back then, he himself was only in the exploratory stage!"

Standing to the side, Zhou Huarong was completely dumbfounded.

「Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.」

This was the day of Xingxuan Academy’s annual final exams.

After the exams ended, a break of over a month would begin, and many students would leave the academy to return home.

The so-called final exams were really just a test of the students’ progress over the year. Students who had made a breakthrough would be promoted to a higher-level class the next semester, while those who had stagnated would face no punishment.

Early in the morning, the entire academy was abuzz with activity. Students walked toward the training grounds in groups of twos and threes.

"Heh heh, after more than two months in seclusion, I finally broke through to Five Veins! Looks like I’ll be able to enter the intermediate class next semester."

"You’ve got it made, man. Dammit, I’m still stuck at the Three Veins realm. I couldn’t break through this semester, so I can only hope to improve over the break. Otherwise, if I’m still in the basic class when the next semester starts, how embarrassing would that be?"

"What’s so embarrassing about that? I heard there’s someone at our academy who’s been stuck in the basic class for four years straight."

"Haha, you must be talking about that waste, Ye Xuan. After four years at the academy, he’s only opened one Profound Vein. It’s absolutely hilarious."

"You two better not underestimate Ye Xuan. Be careful he doesn’t hear you and come looking for trouble."

"Hmph, he’s a waste. You think I’m scared of him?"

"Don’t say I didn’t warn you. That Ye Xuan has been on a roll lately. During cultivation class, he gave Zhou Yan of the Zhou family a harsh beating, and he even got Wang Yue of the Wang family kicked out of the academy."

"Hiss... Are you serious?"

"Duh. Why would I lie to you?"

"My god, when did that guy get so strong? No wonder I heard Wang Fei from the advanced class kept going to the boys’ dorm to look for that waste, yelling that he was going to teach him a lesson. So it’s because he offended the Wang family."

The group continued to chat as they walked further and further away.

’Wang Fei? Is that kid really trying to get revenge for Wang Yue? He’d better not fall into my hands.’ At the school gate, Ye Xuan rubbed his nose and strolled casually onto campus.

Having cultivated at the Alchemist Association for nearly half a month, he had returned to the academy early this morning. The final exam wasn’t a big deal; it was just a test to check the students’ results. The academy didn’t care whether you had improved or not, but if any student dared to be absent without reason, they could expect to be expelled.

Before long, a massive stone building appeared before Ye Xuan. Its magnificent architectural style and imposing presence made it particularly eye-catching on the Xingxuan Academy campus.

This stone building was Xingxuan Academy’s renowned training grounds. All of the academy’s major competitions and student assessments were generally held here.

"Look, isn’t that Ye Xuan?"

"Huh, it really is him. I heard Wang Fei from the advanced class has been looking for him. How dare he show his face?"

"Heh heh, today’s the final exam. If he dared not to come, he’d be expelled tomorrow. He’s been hiding for so many days, but he can’t hide today."

Upon seeing Ye Xuan, many students immediately began to whisper among themselves.

Ye Xuan’s recent exploits at the academy had simply been too sensational. Beating up Zhou Yan, getting Wang Yue expelled, and being sought by Wang Fei—all of it had made Ye Xuan the most talked-about student of the year.

Chen Xing hurried over. "Boss Xuan, you finally showed up!"

Ye Xuan frowned. "I heard someone came to the dorm looking for me. Are you okay?"

"Fuck, you mean that bastard Wang Fei?" Chen Xing’s face instantly flushed with anger. "That son of a bitch came to the dorm looking for you every other day. I told him you weren’t here, and he just kept shouting for you to get your ass out here and stop being a coward. Dammit, if my cultivation wasn’t weaker than his, I would’ve beaten the crap out of him long ago."

A cold glint appeared in Ye Xuan’s eyes. "So arrogant. It seems the Wang family didn’t learn their lesson from the Wang Yue incident. Daring to provoke me... Heh, they truly don’t know their own limits."

Chen Xing cautioned him, "Ye Xuan, you really need to be careful. I heard some news that Wang Fei seems to have broken through to become a Spirit Martial Realm Samurai. He’s graduating this semester and is heading to the Profound Spirit Academy in the Royal City."

"Just Tier One of the Spirit Martial Realm." Ye Xuan scoffed, completely unconcerned.

Chen Xing was already somewhat immune to Ye Xuan’s ’domineering’ attitude. He continued, "Oh, right. I heard something seems to have happened with the Ye family recently. Ye Xuan and the others already finished their tests early and took leave to go back. I asked my family about it, and it seems your family’s businesses have been targeted by the Wang family and suffered heavy losses."

"Is that so?" Ye Xuan raised an eyebrow. ’Looks like the Wang family has some tricks up their sleeve to have become one of the three great families. But the Ye family notified Ye Xuan, Ye Yun, and Ye Fei about this, and I’m the only one they didn’t tell. It seems my status in the Ye family really is ’special’.’

As students continued to arrive, the training grounds became crowded. Students from every class gathered together, and then, one by one, the examining teachers emerged from the rear of the grounds.

"Alright, all students from the basic classes, come over here. This semester, your assessment will once again be conducted by me, Luo Zhan."

Seeing the cold-faced instructor’s stony expression, all the students from the basic classes groaned. The cold-faced instructor, Luo Zhan, was the most merciless of them all. When he was in charge of the test, there were absolutely no loopholes to exploit.

The test began quickly. One by one, students walked up to a machine and channeled the Profound Qi from their bodies into a groove on its surface. This was a Profound Vein meter; however many Profound Veins one had opened, that many pillars of light would illuminate. It was extremely accurate.

"Wang Chen, Three Profound Veins."

"Liu Fei: Four Profound Veins."

"Li Chen: Three Profound Veins."

"Xi Qing: Five Profound Veins. Not bad, you can enter the intermediate class next semester."

"..."

The students were tested one after another.