The moon was white as frost; the cultivation room at the farthest northern end of the Outer Court was silent and still.
Compared to other crude dwellings of the Outer Court, this cultivation room was even more dilapidated. It was the oldest structure in the Outer Court, standing unnoticed like the weeds that had taken root here long before Qiu Chuzi established the Outer Court, yet it stubbornly remained in existence.
The thatched roof, shaped like a chicken coop, and the worm-eaten plank door were riddled with holes the size of fists.
Occasionally, a cricket leaping out of the clump of grasses would perch on the doorframe, peering inside, only to see pitch darkness; neither sunlight nor moonlight could penetrate this room.
The cultivation room was like a black hole in the depths of the universe, absorbing all the light that tried to break in.
Devoid of windows and with only a door, it was this very cultivation room that Qiu Chuzi insisted be retained by the Outer Court during the division between Outer and Inner Courts. The shelters for the students were built later. As a condition of the negotiation, Madam She Xiang took over the Xuan Technique Pavilion.
Trading several hundred precious Dark Skill Steles for a broken cultivation room that was not even fit to be a firewood shed seemed like a foolish deal that invited scorn from countless people. Even when Shalman first came to the Outer Court, he had complained about it, wondering how Qiu Chuzi, that Old Fox, could make such a foolish mistake.
Qiu Chuzi had never explained himself until, one day, following an incident, senior officials of the Inner Court, including Madam She Xiang, came to realize that the cultivation room was not so simple.
Ten years ago, a conflict erupted between students of the Inner and Outer Courts. At the time, one of the only two students in the Outer Court from Longzhan Country, Ao Beizhan, challenged the top ten students of the Inner Court single-handedly.
Ao Beizhan had the Dark Earth Cultivation at the time, but he also had the bloodline of a Fierce Blood Warrior. After unleashing his Life-bound Dark Skill, he triumphed over the ten students. Yet, the Dark Power within him was utterly consumed, leaving him nearly completely paralyzed.
The ten top students of the Inner Court, who all hailed from Noble families of the Shang Kingdom, along with nearly a hundred experts, including family members and mentors from the Inner Court, sought out the Outer Court, demanding that Qiu Chuzi hand over Ao Beizhan.
Given Qiu Chuzi’s protective nature, he was naturally unwilling to hand over Ao Beizhan.
This incident even alerted Dean She Xiang, and just as the deans of the Inner and Outer Courts were on the verge of a grand battle, an unexpected twist altered the fate of Ao Beizhan as well as the Outer Court for the next ten years.
People from the Inner Court were intent on attacking the nondescript cultivation room, but as they were about to break into the cultivation room, a black wind burst out from within.
It was an incredibly terrifying black wind, like a razor-sharp bone-scraping demonic gale, with the roars and shrieks of countless wild beasts. In reverse, those who got close to the cultivation room turned black all over, their Dantians bursting, leading to their deaths.
Everyone thought that Ao Beizhan, who had been sent into the cultivation room, would not escape this fate, either.
However, a month later, the door of the cultivation room opened.
Ao Beizhan walked out unharmed, his injuries fully healed. But it was since then that the nightmare of the Royal Xuanji Academy began.
Apart from the years of war, the Royal Xuanji Academy experienced the most severe casualty event in its history.
And after that, a passionate young student was lost to the Outer Court, and the Dragon War Empire welcomed an unprecedented figure in hundreds of years: the Blood Prison War Lion - Ao Beizhan.
The first thing Ao Beizhan did after coming out of the cultivation room was to break into the residences of those ten students, without regard for the soldiers trying to stop him, and slaughtered them one by one. Ten mighty Noble families of the Shang Kingdom were wiped out overnight. At that time, blood suffused Polo City, and stray dogs in the city feasted on human bones for over a month.
After the slayings, Ao Beizhan fled to Longzhan Country, where he encountered Long Ao, a Dan Realm Expert of the Dragon War Empire, and after being subdued by him, Ao Beizhan joined the Dragon War Empire and became the only civilian to be given the title of Viscount.
The bloodshed spurred by the cultivation room abruptly subsided.
The King of Shang, not daring to offend the Dragon War Empire, had no choice but to suppress the incident.
Shalman still recalls the mingling of horror and excitement on Liu Xi’s face when she told him the secret of the cultivation room.
The story did not end there. Following the incident with Ao Beizhan, another student from the Outer Court, while the deans were preoccupied, sneaked into the cultivation room without their knowledge. That student never came out again, and not even his corpse was ever found.