South Dipper Palace was one of the top sects in the Void World.
At this moment, the palace's upper echelons—led by Palace Master Wu Dongxing—gazed skyward at the anomalies unfolding around the Void Dao Academy. Ray after ray of radiant light descended from above, falling straight toward the territory of the Seven Stars Pavilion, each beam ushering a Seven Stars Pavilion disciple into the Dao Academy.
The scene played out before their eyes with perfect clarity. They couldn't fathom what was happening, yet a deep sense of unease settled over them.
Such a sudden upheaval in the Void World—naturally, as a top-tier sect, South Dipper Palace wanted to get to the bottom of it. The most pressing question was whether the Void Dao Academy was some scheme of the Seven Stars Pavilion.
They had originally assumed it was, but now the situation seemed less certain. The phenomena displayed by the Void Dao Academy had already surpassed the comprehension of even the Emperor Transcendence Realm. The Seven Stars Pavilion might boast a considerable number of Emperor Transcendence experts, but they shouldn't possess such power.
Just as they were wracked with suspicion and doubt, a single beam of radiant light descended from within the Void Dao Academy—and this beam did not fall toward the Seven Stars Pavilion. Instead, it shot directly toward a particular location within South Dipper Palace.
It was a seven-colored radiance!
Wu Dongxing immediately looked in the direction the light was falling. What he saw was a disciple wearing South Dipper Palace attire, slowly rising into the air within the glow, ascending toward the Void Dao Academy.
The disciple's expression was fairly composed. He gazed curiously at his surroundings, wearing a look of bewildered innocence.
"Who is that disciple?" Wu Dongxing asked urgently. South Dipper Palace had no shortage of disciples, and as Palace Master, he certainly couldn't know them all—especially since this particular disciple appeared to have very low cultivation and had likely only recently joined.
"That's Xue Fei!" one of the sect's higher-ups recognized the disciple.
Wu Dongxing's expression shifted. "The genius disciple who joined three years ago?"
He didn't personally know Xue Fei by sight, but he had certainly heard the name. There was no mystery to it—among the batch of new disciples admitted three years ago, one had shown extraordinary talent, widely regarded as the most outstanding disciple discovered since South Dipper Palace's founding.
That person was Xue Fei.
What was going on? How had Xue Fei been seized by the Void Dao Academy's radiant light?
There was no time to deliberate. Wu Dongxing immediately barked a sharp command: "Stop him!"
A genius disciple of their own sect should naturally remain within their own sect to cultivate. How could they simply let the Void Dao Academy snatch him away?
At his word, numerous Emperor Transcendence experts shot into the air, deploying their various techniques in an attempt to wrench Xue Fei free from the radiance. Yet no matter how hard they tried, none could break through the barrier of light. They watched helplessly as Xue Fei drifted further and further away, until he vanished entirely into the Void Dao Academy.
And it wasn't over. Right behind Xue Fei, several more beams of light descended from the Void Dao Academy, carrying away a handful of additional disciples. After the elders identified them, every single one turned out to be a disciple of exceptional talent—varying in how long they had been with the sect, but all relatively low in cultivation.
South Dipper Palace was not the only sect affected. Across the entire Void World, disciples from numerous sects had been taken in the same manner. Even some children who had never joined any sect and had never cultivated at all received the Void Dao Academy's radiant light reception.
Without exception, every person seized by the light possessed top-tier talent.
This pushed the major sects over the edge. Granted, the cultivation environment in the Void World had been improving steadily in recent years, and promising young talents had been appearing with increasing frequency—but that was no justification for the Void Dao Academy to simply plunder them.
They still couldn't figure out why this was happening, but one thing was certain: the Seven Stars Pavilion definitely knew something.
After all, Miao Feiping had publicly declared himself the first Hall Master of the Void Dao Academy. And the matter of the radiant light reception had been triggered by the Seven Stars Pavilion.
And so, before long, the upper echelons of sect after sect hurried to the Seven Stars Pavilion to gather intelligence.
When the truth was finally revealed—that the Void Dao Academy was recruiting the world's finest talents—indignation spread like wildfire.
Yet even as the sect leaders converged on the Seven Stars Pavilion, the Void Dao Academy's reception never ceased. Every so often, beams of light in varying colors would descend, carrying away some exceptionally talented individual from wherever they happened to be.
In a mere ten-odd days, every talented fighter across the entire Void World had been taken, without a single one left behind.
All who had been carried away shared a common trait: their cultivation was not high, but their talent was extraordinary.
At the same time, certain Emperor Transcendence experts within the major sects suddenly received a spiritual summons from the Void Dao Academy, being selected as Dao Academy stewards. They could enter the Dao Academy to cultivate while simultaneously guiding and managing those disciples who had been brought in by the radiant light.
The selected Emperor Transcendence stewards were understandably skeptical—after all, the whole affair was far too bizarre to fathom. No one had told them directly; they had simply sensed a mysterious power emanating from the Void Dao Academy in some unknowable way, as though a mark had appeared within their bodies, and that alone was enough to make them stewards.
These Emperor Transcendence stewards harbored their doubts, but when they attempted to enter the Dao Academy, they were shocked to discover that they could, in fact, fly straight into the Void Dao Academy without any obstruction.