"Hahahaha!" Huo Yue’s bright, booming laughter rang out across the quiet clearing below the towering pyramid, completely shattering the tense atmosphere.

Every single disciple present—from the arrogant heirs of the Immortal Clans to the battle hardened senior Nascent Soul students—turned their heads simultaneously, staring back and forth between the hysterical Huo Yue and the utterly speechless Shen Haoran with bewildered expressions.

Meanwhile, the newly arrived Su Meilin and Ling Yinchi stood near the edge of the spatial distortion, looking completely confused by the sudden outburst.

They had no idea why everyone was staring at them or why Huo Yue was practically wheezing with laughter.

In reality, the two of them had simply been inside the ancient trial realm of the Shameless Binding Emperor, finishing up the process of receiving their inherited treasures and martial legacies.

The moment Venerable Sky Cloud’s grand, echoing voice resonated across the dimensions, announcing the appearance of the great Pyramid and the Academy’s Mandate, they realized the main event had begun.

Knowing the emperor possessed control over the trial space’s internal spatial laws, they politely asked if he could directly teleport them to the pyramid’s coordinates.

The remnant spirit of the emperor naturally agreed, opening a direct spatial rift for them.

And that was precisely how they had casually stepped out into the clearing, inadvertently stealing the spotlight right from under Shen Haoran’s dramatic arrival!

"Hahaha!" Huo Yue continued to laugh uncontrollably, her eyes tearing up from pure amusement, "Hahaa—hmmmppp!?"

Her loud cackling was abruptly cut off as Shen Haoran stepped forward, a visibly annoyed look settling over his handsome face.

Reaching out a single hand, he firmly grabbed Huo Yue’s face by both of her soft cheeks, pulling and stretching them outward like dough!

"You seem to be having far too much fun at my expense, Yue," Haoran muttered dryly.

Despite having her cheeks pulled and stretched in front of hundreds of elite cultivators, Huo Yue didn’t fight back at all.

She merely looked at him with warm, sparkling eyes, a mischievous, affectionate smile remaining plastered on her distorted face the entire time.

After stretching her cheeks for a few moments until his annoyance subsided, Haoran let go, letting her rub her reddened face.

He turned his gaze away from her and looked toward the massive crowd of geniuses standing idly around the base of the black obsidian steps.

"Why isn’t anyone climbing yet?" he asked, his calm, level voice carrying easily across the clearing.

The surrounding disciples blinked in unison. They looked at Haoran, then turned to stare at each other, and slowly nodded in sudden realization.

Yeah... why the hell aren’t we climbing yet?! What are we standing around waiting for?!

In the very next second, the silent standoff shattered!

Without a single moment of hesitation, hundreds of figures erupted with surging, colorful qi, transforming into streaks of light as they frantically sprinted toward the first steps of the pyramid!

"Move out of the way! The Mandate is mine!"

"Get back, you bastard!"

Haoran watched the initial wave of desperate students storming the base, before turning his head toward Gu Xunyi, who was standing beside him with her usual serene, relaxed posture.

"Do you want to get the mandate too, Xunyi?" Haoran asked casually.

Gu Xunyi chuckled softly, her red eyes reflecting the brilliant green light radiating from the apex. "My Gu Clan already holds 18 official mandates within the academy’s territories, so it doesn’t really matter to me whether I personally claim another one or not. But... I do quite enjoy the thrill of fighting for it myself."

Huo Yue let out an appreciative whistle, her eyes widening slightly in surprise. "Sister Xunyi, does that mean your clan controls 18 full cities in the academy’s inner world?"

"Yes," Gu Xunyi nodded smoothly, though her tone remained completely modest. "It’s really not that much, though. Factions like the Hei Clan and the Shi Clan have been accumulating mandates for thousands of years; each of them controls almost a hundred independent cities and trade hubs under their flags."

"Damn," Huo Yue muttered, shaking her head as she looked toward Haoran and the rest of the Ten Crowns. "Why aren’t the Shen Clan doing the same thing? If your family held a hundred cities, we’d be living like royalty in the inner academy!"

Shen Haoran merely shrugged his shoulders, completely indifferent to the comparison. "The last batch of students our clan sent to the Imperial Academy were my mother and my aunts, and that was around 800 years ago. After they graduated and established their own domain in the upper realms, our clan had no need for such minor earthly things."

"Man, what a shame," Huo Yue sighed, though a grin remained on her face. "You guys are way too casual about this."

Shen Haoran turned his gaze back up toward the great Pyramid.

Right now, the peaceful atmosphere of the climb had already vanished completely.

Halfway up the black obsidian steps, dozens of elite disciples were already locked in chaotic, bloody combat.

Terrifying sword light, blazing elemental spells, and heavy palm strikes collided violently, unleashing earthshaking shockwaves that rattled the air and sent defeated students plummeting down the stone stairs.

The gravity and soul pressure embedded in the ancient steps were growing heavier with every meter, forcing the climbing cultivators to expend immense amounts of qi just to move forward while fending off attacks from all sides.

"Shall we go?" Haoran spoke calmly, his eyes scanning the chaotic battlefield above.

"Young master, allow us to lead the way and clear a path for you!" declared Shen Tao, stepping out from the ranks of the Ten Crowns.

His muscular frame expanded slightly as his fiery internal energy burst outward like an erupting volcano, causing the gravel beneath his boots to melt into glass.

Haoran looked at him and gave a firm, approving nod. "Go ahead."

"Understood!" Shen Tao roared, his eyes glowing with fierce excitement.

Then, without a single microsecond of hesitation, Shen Tao, Shen Fei, Shen Xun’er, and the rest of the elite Ten Crowns charged forward in a terrifying formation, their combined pressure tearing through the wind as they launched themselves directly toward the stairs of the Apex Pyramid!

*

*

*

On the steep, ancient steps of the great Pyramid, chaos had completely ensued.

The heavy, crushing gravitational array embedded within the black obsidian stone bore down on everyone like a falling mountain, turning every single step upward into a agonizing battle against earth and sky.

Yet, despite the suffocating pressure and soul-rending weight, the stairs were drenched in blood and ringing with the relentless, deafening screech of colliding weapons.

*BOOM!*

A terrified yell echoed through the air as an early stage Nascent Soul disciple was struck squarely in the chest by a surge of jet-black energy.

His protective light shattered like thin glass, and his body was sent hurtling backward, tumbling wildly down dozens of steep obsidian steps before crashing heavily into the rocky plains below.

"Damn you, Hei Xuan! You treacherous bastard!" the falling student screamed, his voice raw with pure rage and despair as his ribs groaned from the impact. "We were supposed to be from allied branches! Why are you targeting us?!"

A few dozen steps higher, a young man with heavy eye bags and red eyes, having pale, sickly skin stood casually with his hands folded inside his wide, embroidered sleeves.

It was Hei Xuan, the arrogant heir of the immortal Hei Clan.

Beside him, Shi Tian—the towering, muscular scion of the Shi Clan—stood like an iron wall, casually backhanding another desperate student straight off the edge of the monument with a single, effortless flick of his wrist.

*CRASH!*

"Hahaha!" Hei Xuan threw his head back, letting out a sharp, mocking laugh that echoed mockingly over the screams of the falling disciples. "Allied branches? Don’t make me laugh! You weaklings think you have the right to breathe the same air as us at the top?"

He looked down at the bleeding, battered students scrambling below them and smirked with deep, unadulterated disdain.

"Listen closely, you trash," Hei Xuan sneered, his voice carrying clearly across the steps. "Weeding out weaklings like you right at the start is infinitely easier than exhausting ourselves fighting a true powerhouse! Why should we waste our precious qi clashing against each other when we can clean the path first? Once the garbage is cleared off the staircase, the real contest can begin!"

True to his ruthless words, the surrounding elite students and senior Nascent Soul experts were doing the exact same thing.

Rather than clashing with rival geniuses of equal strength and burning through their reserves before reaching the peak, the powerful cultivators had formed an unspoken pact.

They deliberately avoided fighting one another, instead using their overwhelming pressure to violently sweep away, throw off, and eliminate every weaker student within their reach!

Screams, curses, and desperate pleas filled the air as dozens of disciples were mercilessly thrown off the monument, their dreams of claiming the mandate crushed under the cold pragmatism of the strong.

Just then...

*BOOM—!*

The dark sky above Hei Xuan’s head suddenly ruptured!

A streak of fiery energy tore through the heavy gravitational field like a falling star, descending directly toward Hei Xuan’s skull at terrifying velocity!

Hei Xuan’s eyes widened in sudden shock. Sensing the brutal, explosive force behind the descending strike, he didn’t dare block it directly.

He shifted his weight, his feet sliding across the obsidian stone as he threw his body backward, barely dodging the downward crash by a hairsbreadth!

*KABOOM!*

The heavy obsidian step where Hei Xuan had been standing just a second prior detonated into spiderweb cracks, sending a wave of compressed shockwaves and dust blowing in all directions!

As the dust settled, the towering figure of Shen Tao emerged from the crater, his muscular arms folded tightly across his chest, his aura crackling like wild static.

Hei Xuan stabilized his footing, his face darkening severely as he glared at the man who had almost crushed him.

"So it’s you... cripple."

Before Shen Tao could even respond, the atmospheric air pressure around the mid-section of the pyramid plummeted drastically as several more powerful figures dropped down from the sky in rapid succession!

*THUD! THUD! THUD!*

The rest of the elite Ten Crowns landed in a perfect combat formation around Shen Tao, their combined presence radiating an unshakeable, mountain-like weight.

Directly behind them, floating down gracefully with eerie calm, came Shen Haoran, Huo Yue, Qian Yunxi, and Gu Xunyi.

Their boots touched the stone steps without making a single sound, their eyes sweeping over the chaotic battlefield with complete indifference.

"Heh, you piece of trash!"

Shen Xun’er stepped forward from the ranks of the Crowns, her hands clenched into fist as she as she glared daggers at Hei Xuan, her eyes burning with fierce, murderous anger.

"How dare you call our First Seat a cripple with that filthy mouth of yours?! Believe it or not, if he takes a single step toward you, he will fold you into two like a piece of cheap paper!"

Hei Xuan’s jaw twitched, a cold, dangerous glint flashing through his eyes as he looked at the gathered powerhouse lineup of the Shen Clan.

He knew how terrifying Shen Tao’s raw physical prowess was, and fighting the Ten Crowns right here alongside Shen Haoran would be suicide before reaching the summit.

So instead, Hei Xuan just let out a cold, mocking laugh, taking a step back toward Shi Tian. "Hahaha! I would absolutely love to test that, little girl, but right now, I have zero interest in wasting my energy on you fools. Let’s settle this at the top!"

With that, without wasting another second, Hei Xuan and Shi Tian turned on their heels, channeling their full speed to sprint straight towards the top of the pyramid, using their powerful spatial techniques to surge past the higher steps!

"Hmph! Cowards!" Shen Xun’er spat on the stone, her eyes full of utter contempt as she watched their retreating figures vanish into the upper clouds.

However, before the group could advance any further, the sudden halt in their momentum drew the eyes of the surrounding crowd.

Dozens of desperate, blood-soaked students who had been driven to madness by the elimination pressure saw the small window of opportunity.

Realizing that the top seeds were lingering on the middle steps, a wave of manic greed overtook their minds.

"They’re distracted! Attack them now!"

"If we drag down the Shen Clan’s representatives, we have a chance to reach the peak!"

"Die!"

Over twenty desperate senior and junior Nascent Soul cultivators abandoned all reason.

Driven by intense panic and ambition, they unleashed their ultimate, high ranking battle techniques simultaneously, firing a rain of blazing elemental beams, razor-sharp sword light, and heavy earth shattering palms directly toward Shen Haoran and his group!

Seeing the incoming barrage of attacks, Shen Haoran didn’t even bother to raise a hand.

He merely stood there with his hands tucked behind his back, his expression completely calm.

But.... the Ten Crowns immediately took action!

"Ignorant fools!" Shen Tao roared, stepping to the front lines like a wall of solid diamond.

He slammed his bare hands together, creating an immense shockwave of pure physical force that instantly pulverized the incoming sword light and elemental spells into harmless glowing sparks!

Beside him, Shen Fei stepped forward, his Sacred Physique activating instantly!

A heavy, crushing gravitational field erupted from his frame, slamming down onto the advancing students like an invisible anvil.

Their legs buckled, their bones creaking under the sudden, immense weight, freezing them right in their tracks!

"Back off!" Shen Xinye declared, summoning a sword intent blade in a brilliant, blinding flash of silver light.

She executed a sweeping horizontal arc, releasing a wave of sharp, pressurized sword intent that slashed across the chests of the attackers, shattering their defensive shields and sending all twenty of them flying violently backward off the stairs!

In less than three seconds, the desperate ambush was completely dismantled, leaving the obsidian steps around Shen Haoran completely clear once again.