Everyone left the storage quickly. They returned to that open field and, shortly after, followed the head Elder to an area behind the building.
A few meters later, they all stopped. They saw a small tree, about five feet tall, on top of a hill. It looked simple at first glance, but every Spiritual Guardian with a Divine-level body or higher felt overwhelmed by a strong, hot energy.
"That's the Celestial Yang Mulberry Tree. One of the few treasures saved from the great academies of the past," the head Elder said with a sigh. "No one is allowed to get closer than ten meters. The test will be done at its roots, which spread out over several meters around it. They're called the Celestial Yang Roots."
"This stage is a test for Summoners — but not for everyone. If a woman tries, she'll get poisoned and die. I suggest only the men take part, since they'll have to use the Yang in their bodies with the help of their partners' power."
The Elder explained it subtly. All lifeforms have Yin and Yang, which are opposite, natural energies. But races with gender differences have big gaps — men have way more Yang, and the opposite is true for women.
This root only reacts to a high amount of Yang. Women have very little, so they're vulnerable to the risk of Yang invading their bodies and wiping out the Yin — which would cause a fast and painful death.
"Just so you know: the last day will be the turn for the female Summoners. So you can just watch for now, no need to worry," the Elder added casually. "It's pretty simple: each of you will uncover part of the root and try to use your Yang together with the power from your partner's ring. The Summoner stays in control of everything, linking with the root. In the end, you need to spread your Yang through the root and dry it out."
"But don't get cocky. The Yang in natural life is super pure and dense. If you manage to dry out just ten centimeters of the root, that's already a lot. The judgment's simple: the more of the root you dry, the more points you get. Every two centimeters earns you 50 points."
Everyone nodded. This was another control test — but this time for the Summoner, and luck didn't play a part in it.
"In the end, after the score count, you get to keep whatever part of the dried root you managed to extract. It's not very useful for men, but it turns into a treasure for women."
Everyone understood — the next test was probably the opposite. The women would get something they could trade with the men for the root. It was a method to benefit all Summoners and encourage interaction between them. The Academy preferred for them to get along — not the other way around.
"You've got one day, just like before. You can start."
After the announcement, all the male Summoners quickly got moving.
The women stayed where they were… well, not all of them.
A striking Dragoness stepped forward, drawing everyone's surprised looks.
Each person stopped ten meters from the Mulberry Tree. They were spaced about three meters apart and began gently digging with their hands.
It wasn't too deep, and the whole area around the tree was full of roots.
Niara found her root and smiled excitedly. Everyone turned their eyes toward her — then saw her pick up the slug on her shoulder and place it on top of the root.
Everyone watched carefully. Darian didn't move — he just closed his eyes and focused, a red aura surrounding him.
"Elder, can a Spiritual Guardian do it alone?" one Summoner Spiritual Guardian asked the head Elder from a distance.
"No. It's impossible," the Elder replied bluntly. "Unless he has a blessing that controls Yang and more than three rings to support him. Other than that, it's just a waste of energy that could screw them over in the next tests."
Everyone nodded, realizing it wasn't worth trying.
"What an idiot," spat a woman with Dragon blood.
Then her eyes locked onto a man — her lover — who was also there. This was his moment to prove his superiority — and once others were worn out, they could take first place from her rival.
Six hours later…
The slug hadn't moved, so everyone turned their focus to the other participants. At that point, they noticed that most Summoners were sweating nonstop, their faces twisted in pain.
Seeing the concern in the women's eyes, the head Elder commented, "All the roots are connected. Look at those few in the corners."
The women looked in the direction the Elder pointed. They saw the elite Summoners with cheerful smiles and a dense red aura around them.
"They're well-informed. This always happens. They're stimulating the Yang in all the roots, making them more intense. So in the end, the root they dry will be of a higher level," the Elder continued.
The Dragon-blooded woman spoke tensely as she saw her lover's face turning purple: "But... isn't that harming the others?!"
"Yes. It's not against the rules and it's part of the competition. Not everyone's going to score — and even fewer will get a piece of the root."
The head Elder finished coldly. A chilly silence fell over the place.
Suddenly…
"Hehehe, time to shine!"
Everyone turned toward Niara, who spoke cheerfully.
"Did this bitch go crazy?"
The Dragon-blooded woman muttered.
"!"
Suddenly, the entire atmosphere changed, leaving everyone stunned.
The small slug started pulsing and glowing like a star.
"Calamity level..." the head Elder muttered from afar, swallowing hard.
Yeah, it was impossible for a regular Spiritual Guardian to do this alone… but that didn't apply to *all* Spiritual Guardians. There were no public records of what a Calamity-level one could do, so he'd just dismissed the possibility.
Now, though, the Elder could clearly feel that the little slug had connected to the root on its own.
As for Darian, he had managed to break in. But his plan was something else entirely.
Secretly, an intruder had entered the Celestial Yang Root. They were all connected to the Celestial Yang Mulberry Tree — and even better, all the Summoners were using their powers and linked to a root nearby.
Could there be a better opportunity than this?
Darian took a while to subtly activate the power in his body — he still wasn't exactly good at it. But now, his treasure was moving through the roots.
His target?
A man with Dragon blood, far away, face twisted and purple from the pain.
Darian was totally focused. The spiritual form of his canine tooth approached the root where the man was, then released a tiny black dot into it.
It looked like a grain of sand. The man, fully focused on controlling the Yang in the root, couldn't afford to lose focus. He was giving it everything he had just to not be humiliated.
That dot was absorbed by the connection he'd created... and quietly slipped into his body without him even noticing.
Of course, once he stopped, it wouldn't be hard to sense the intruder, thanks to his Spiritual Guardian. Darian wasn't naïve about that. That's why he needed to stir things up a little.
"Time to put an end to this game," Darian said softly, breaking the silence.
Then, his body pulsed even more intensely.
All the elite Summoners in the distance were stunned.
"What the hell is that?!"
"Son of a bitch!"
They quickly realized what had happened and turned toward Niara and Darian.
She, meanwhile, took the curses like compliments.
"Oh? Easy now, it's not over yet."
Suddenly, the slug glowed even brighter.
Then...
All the Yang in the roots suddenly weakened, like it was being overpowered.
The eyes of all the male Summoners who were struggling lit up.
They finally started gaining control over the roots with excitement.
Darian had just wrecked the elites' little scheme to boost the root's level. They tried to counter it, ramping up the Yang to the max… but of course, it didn't work.
He basically dominated the Yang and drained its strength, like taking the power out of a battery. Naturally, the tree would recover without any trouble, but by then, everyone would've already taken control of their roots.
That made the guy with Dragon blood forget everything else and focus even harder on his root. At the same time, everyone else got super hyped. They quickly took control of over ten centimeters!
Without realizing it, with things suddenly so easy, they started burning through all the power in their partners' rings just to get more and more length.
Their greed would be their downfall, Darian thought, thrilled.
Because of that, the Dragon-blooded guy would be totally drained, and neither he nor his partner would notice the intruder in his body for a long time.
"YOU! HOW DARE YOU!"
One of the elites roared at Niara, furious.
"Stop barking. If you want, go ahead and attack. I'd be happy to settle this right here." Niara gave a small wave, completely unfazed. "What? You coming or just gonna keep yapping?"
They all choked on their words. Now it was the elite guys who were purple-faced with rage. No one said anything else, and everyone focused back on their roots — this had become a contest to see who could score the most points.
Hours passed in complete silence.
"It's over," the main Elder declared.
Everyone stopped. Then the other Elders started moving in to do the score count...
It didn't take long before one of them walked up to Niara.
"This…"
He muttered, tense. The main Elder came over too. When he looked at the pair's root… his eyes darkened ominously.
Then he turned to look at the Celestial Yang Mulberry Tree in the distance.
"What?!"
He confirmed something was seriously wrong, then turned to Niara and Darian.
"YOU TWO! This is treason — punishable by death!"