Nalan Su felt that the other three branch deans were too much of a hindrance.
He even thought there shouldn't be four branch deans. If the dean wasn't present, the Four Symbols Academy should naturally be managed by their Nalan family.
Inside the Sinkhole Secret Realm
After Xin Ci and the others passed through the light gate, the first thing they smelled was the scent of blood flowing in the air.
Surrounded by ruins, dried bloodstains were visible everywhere. Countless human corpses and the remains of demonic beasts were scattered across this ancient battlefield.
The entire sky was a blood-red color, casting a sense of oppression on anyone who looked at it.
"Is this the Sinkhole Secret Realm?"
Looking at the desolate land before him, Xin Ci couldn't help but whisper to himself.
At the same time, he tried to use his soul power to survey from above. He discovered that the sinkhole was incredibly vast. Even if he used all his soul power to probe in one direction, he could not see its boundaries. What kind of extraterrestrial object could have caused such a massive sinkhole?
Everyone curiously examined their surroundings. They had arrived inside the Sinkhole Secret Realm.
They all knew that the Sinkhole Secret Realm was fraught with danger, and stopping carelessly could very well lead to an attack by blood spirit creatures. They could only walk forward with cautious steps.
At some point, someone in the Xuanwu Academy's team suddenly pointed in a direction and shouted in alarm.
"Holy crap, what is that thing? A ghost?"
Everyone followed his gaze.
Not far away, three figures seemed to be walking in a neat line.
Their clothes were so stained with blood that their original colors were indistinguishable.
The fabric of their clothes had long since become tattered, and their long hair was disheveled, making them look like vengeful spirits.
"Hmph, you're already this scared by just three people,"
The people from the Qinglong Academy looked somewhat disappointed and mocked the one who had just screamed.
The person being mocked immediately became annoyed and retorted, "Nonsense, of course, I can tell they're people, but their feet aren't touching the ground. They're floating!"
As soon as he said that, everyone was stunned.
They looked intently again and indeed, just as he had said, the three figures were floating.
What's more, what they found eerie was that these three had no aura of living beings on them.
Their lower bodies were perfectly straight, but their upper bodies, whether it was their shoulders or hands, were limp.
Even their heads seemed to have broken necks, with their hair hanging down to their chests.
The students from the four academies were instantly struck with a chill, and a piercing coldness washed over them.
The three eerie blood corpses, as they floated, suddenly stopped.
Just as everyone held their breath, the heads of the three blood corpses turned a full one hundred and eighty degrees and looked in their direction.
The students present finally got a clear look at the faces of those things: they were faces that had rotted beyond recognition.
Everyone's hearts turned cold.
Some female students couldn't bear to look at the disgusting, rotten faces and turned away to vomit.
"Not good, those three blood corpses have discovered us!"
Someone shouted, alerting the blood corpses.
They let out sharp, piercing shrieks and floated towards them at extreme speed.
The students from the Baihu Academy were the first to be approached.
A disciple in the middle stage of the Earth realm, in a panic, swung his sword, cutting the three blood corpses in half at the waist.
With a few thuds.
The three blood corpses fell to the ground.
The disciple who had killed the blood corpses became smug, "What the heck? Scared me. I thought they were so powerful, but they were dealt with in one sword."
The tension in everyone else's nerves eased slightly.
Only Xin Ci remained vigilant, staring at the three blood corpses.
Because his soul power sensed that the strange energy on the blood corpses had not disappeared.
As expected, the three blood corpses, with only their upper bodies remaining, suddenly lunged.
The others were startled and it was too late to warn them.
The disciple turned to see the blood corpses opening their ugly, bloody mouths to bite him, and he was so terrified he froze.
However, a sharp sword light flashed beside him, and the heads of the three blood corpses shattered.
Various red and white substances fell to the ground, and three blood-red beads floated out.
A handsome young man with flowing hair reached out and grabbed the three blood soul beads.
He then turned to the crowd and said, "These blood corpses are just a type of blood spirit creature, so don't panic. As long as you take out the blood soul beads from their bodies, you can truly kill them."
This young man was the second-ranked disciple on the Heavenly Ranking, Shen Qiuling from the Baihu Academy.
This was his second time entering the Sinkhole Secret Realm, so he was more familiar with these blood corpses.
The crowd also relaxed.
"As expected of Senior Brother Shen, his knowledge is extraordinary."
"Of course, Senior Brother Shen is the chief disciple of our Baihu Academy."
"Under Senior Brother Shen's leadership this year, the Baihu Academy will definitely rank in the top two."
The disciples of the Baihu Academy showered Shen Qiuling with compliments.
However, the crisis was not over yet.
The ground sand began to flow, and a massive creature more than ten meters tall suddenly emerged from the quicksand.
As the sand flowed off the mysterious creature, its eight scarlet compound eyes focused on everyone.
It turned out to be a colossal blood demon spider.
Everyone was shocked and immediately drew their weapons, preparing to fight.
Unexpectedly, the ground beneath them began to shake without warning. Xin Ci clearly felt the ground he was standing on was rising.
It wasn't just him; the other disciples were also experiencing the same thing. It was then that they realized they were standing on the backs of spiders.
One after another, blood demon spiders emerged from the ground. It was likely that the recent beheading of the three blood corpses had alerted them.
"Damn it, we've fallen into the territory of the blood demon spiders! Everyone, get off their bodies quickly!"
With a loud shout, everyone immediately sprang into action, scattering from the backs of the blood demon spiders.
Of course, there were also those who were not afraid of death and engaged the blood demon spiders in combat, proudly declaring, "They're just spider demonic beasts, what's there to be afraid of?"
As he spoke, he unleashed several sword beams that struck the eight legs of the blood demon spider, which were covered in fine hairs.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
To their surprise, the legs of the blood demon spider were harder than metal and stone.
One of the spider legs, like a spear, directly counterattacked.
Clang!
The long sword broke upon impact with the spider's spear.
The others gasped in disbelief, as it was clearly a mid-grade spirit artifact!
It couldn't even withstand a single leg of the blood demon spider.
For a moment, the blood demon spider's other spear thrust forward. The disciple, startled, quickly injected spiritual power into his token.
Just in the nick of time, he was teleported out of the Sinkhole Secret Realm.
Everyone's faces grew grim. Someone had already left the Sinkhole Secret Realm just after entering.
The strength of a single blood demon spider was comparable to a peak Earth realm expert.
Looking at the hundreds of blood demon spiders continuously emerging from the ground, it was clear that engaging them would likely lead to complete annihilation. Everyone fled in all directions.