The Azure Sky Academy in Vermilion Bird Divine City is quite different from the Azure Sky Academy in the Eastern Divine Land, and there are very few of them.

This is directly related to the fact that the Vermilion Bird Temple implemented centralized power and did not establish so many kingdoms.

The Vermilion Bird Temple has its own Vermilion Bird Academy, which is a talent training base belonging to the Vermilion Bird Temple itself.

Anyone who graduates from the Vermilion Bird Academy can hold a position within the temple.

This has led to a rather awkward position for the Azure Sky Academy in the Vermilion Bird Divine Land.

Even the most talented person, after studying at the Azure Sky Academy, still cannot obtain a position in the Vermilion Bird Temple.

No matter how strong your cultivation is, it won't work, because you're not one of us.

Therefore, in the Vermilion Bird Divine Land, any family with sufficient power would send their children to the Vermilion Bird Academy for study, because only by graduating from the Vermilion Bird Academy could one stand out from the crowd and bring glory to their ancestors.

Otherwise, having great cultivation but no way to serve others is no different from being a useless person.

Those with money and power all entered the Vermilion Bird Academy, while those without money or power could only choose to enter the Azure Sky Academy.

Over time, a natural antagonism inevitably emerged.

Those who serve in the Vermilion Bird Temple are all wealthy young men from powerful families, while those who study at the Azure Sky Academy are all children from poor families.

Graduating from the Vermilion Bird Academy brings honor to one's ancestors, but graduating from the Azure Sky Academy means having nothing to do, either cultivating and traveling alone or returning to one's ancestral home to continue the family line.

But many more chose a different path and continued their training at the Sky Academy.

Disciples only come in and never leave, so even with the backing of the Nine Heavens Profound Dao Sect, the Azure Sky Academy couldn't afford to support them, which led to another situation.

Sky Academy is poor, but it is also very, very strong.

The number of disciples in the academy totals several hundred thousand.

Very strong, but even more arrogant, the kind of arrogant that comes from poverty.

If we have no source of income and no spirit crystal veins, then we'll go out and find them ourselves, and once we find them, we'll dig them up.

I'll dig it out and then look again; once I find it, I'll dig it out again.

Their digging angered the Vermilion Bird Temple, which declared that all the spirit crystal veins on the vast divine land belonged to their temple and that their actions constituted illegal mining.

Put it down right now, or I'll punish you bunch of shameless bastards on behalf of the temple.

There's a saying: the stubborn fear the ruthless, and the ruthless fear the reckless.

What's wrong with us? We're so poor we're practically peeing blood, and you go out and mine some minerals and you punish us? You try punishing one of us and let's see.

It's hard to avoid a fight when they're chatting like this.

This attack shocked everyone in the Vermilion Bird Divine Land so much that their jaws dropped to the floor.

The poor, arrogant students of the Azure Sky Academy, whom everyone thought would never amount to anything, directly beat up the chosen ones of the Vermilion Bird Temple.

With this attack, the Azure Sky Academy dug even more aggressively, even seizing the large spirit crystal mine that was originally occupied by the Vermilion Bird Temple.

The things that a poor person can do when they suddenly become rich are all astonishing.

They used to go to distant places to mine, looking disheveled and having a great time. Now that they have the upper hand, someone suggested that they might as well mine right here in Suzaku City.

Anyway, there is a huge vein of top-grade spirit crystals underground in the divine city, so why go to the trouble of going to such lengths?

Goodness.

This completely angered the Vermilion Bird Temple. Finally, after a "friendly" negotiation between the Vermilion Bird Temple and Qing Liuzi, the dean of the Azure Sky Academy...

One-tenth of the spirit crystal veins within the Divine Land belong to the Azure Sky Academy, and the Divine Temple also allocates a batch of spiritual herbs, medicinal pills, and elixirs to the Azure Sky Academy every year.

In return, the Azure Sky Academy will open hundreds of places each year for geniuses from the Vermilion Bird Temple to exchange and learn.

In fact, the Vermilion Bird Temple did this for two reasons: first, to appease the Azure Sky Academy, and second, because it recognized the strength of the Azure Sky Academy.

Sending his disciples to exchange and learn was also because he valued the large number of powerful individuals that the Sky Academy had accumulated over the years.

These people are all geniuses from the Divine Land, but they were unable to join the Temple due to their family background and various other reasons.

This was a mistake in decision-making. If it could be reversed and all of them absorbed into the temple, the temple's strength would increase dramatically in a short period of time.

The idea is good, but there is an inherent irreconcilable difference between the privileged and the common people.

Those disciples of the Vermilion Bird Temple, who were originally sent to recruit skilled individuals, were attacked from behind before they could even utter their confident and well-rehearsed recruitment speeches.

He was then stripped naked and thrown out of the Sky Academy.

If it were just one case like this, it wouldn't be so bad, but the problem is that it's the same for every single one of them.

However, it wasn't all for naught; quite a few people were moved by the temple's sincerity and chose to accept the Suzaku Temple's offer.

But this group of poor and arrogant people had just received the benefits from the temple when they turned around and changed their attitude.

Who the hell took your things? Which ones are yours? Come on, I'll take out all my things. If you call out and someone answers, I'll admit defeat.

This is utter nonsense, but it also clearly demonstrates their stance.

Don't try that with me. Now that you think we're useful and that we've achieved something in our cultivation, you want to use some benefits to lure us over as cannon fodder.

When we were nothing, it was the Sky Academy that took us in—the Sky Academy that you call a garbage dump.

In your eyes, this is just a dilapidated and hopeless college, but in our eyes, it is a sacred place.

A sacred place, inviolable in the slightest.

In the end, the people of the Vermilion Bird Temple had to abandon this unrealistic recruitment method, and even the hundreds of exchange slots each year became just for show.

Nobody went, and nobody dared to go.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!