At Whale Island University, Su Hao's life was very routine.
Every morning at 7:30, he would get up, wash up, eat breakfast, and train with his spirits.
On Mondays and Thursdays, he practiced blade techniques with the Fire Crow.
On Tuesdays and Fridays, he sparred with the Electric Bear, crackling with energy.
On Wednesdays and Saturdays, he coached the Water Qilin on how to escape amidst a barrage of thousands of energy spheres.
On Sundays... he rested.
Occasionally, he would discuss the development of the Spirit Orb with Butterfly or write down new ultimate move training methods for it.
In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.
Su Hao had ample credits and always followed the top-tier plans in the unlocking scheme to nurture his spirits.
Butterfly and the others progressed rapidly.
The Fire Crow took the lead, being the first to develop to the elite-level limit.
Butterfly hadn't evolved, so its development was slightly slower, still a ways off from the limit.
The Electric Bear had excellent talent, having already accumulated to the mid-elite level, and its range of lightning control had more than doubled.
The Water Qilin...
Was still developing.
"The Fire Crow has reached its limit, and the Fire Crow Slash is nearly mastered. Its combat power can't increase quickly for now. The opportunity to break through to the transcendent level is hard to predict—it might be stuck for a while."
There was no standard model for how spirits broke through to the transcendent level.
All that was known was that the better the nurturing, the higher the chance of breakthrough.
If spiritual power was used as a measure, the typical limit for an entry-level spirit was about 1000 spiritual power, while for an elite-level limit, it was 10,000.
When an elite-level spirit reached its limit, if its spiritual power was barely 10,000 or just a bit more, a breakthrough was almost impossible.
The Fire Crow's current spiritual power, setting aside quality and quantifying it numerically, was about 14,000.
That was much higher than the average elite-level ceiling, so its chance of breaking through to the transcendent level wasn't small.
Maybe one day, it would touch the breakthrough opportunity, with enough accumulation...
And *Biu~*—it would break through.
"If I arranged an advanced evolution for the Fire Crow now, I could use the evolution to directly push it to the transcendent level..."
But doing that wouldn't be right.
First, advanced evolution was the first step for a spirit to break its racial limits, requiring a huge amount of materials, many of which he might not be able to gather in a short time.
The conditions for advanced evolution were also bound to be extremely high, and the current Fire Crow might not meet them.
Second, and most importantly.
The Fire Crow had only evolved a few months ago, and the potential of its final evolved form hadn't been fully tapped.
Evolving now would waste most of the Fire Crow stage's potential.
"Each advanced evolution gets harder, and there's definitely a limit, so..."
After much deliberation, Su Hao still felt he should develop step by step.
He couldn't rush.
"Nurturing a spirit takes way too long."
...
Whale Island University students didn't have a leisurely winter break.
But the entire winter break still passed in a flash.
"Ding-dong—"
"Ding-dong—"
"Ding-dong—"
Early in the morning, the doorbell rang loudly.
Su Hao was eating breakfast.
The Water Qilin had already flown out, standing upright like a husky-lin, pressing its hoof on the villa door switch.
With a "beep," the villa door opened, and Liu Ren's pancake-like face appeared from behind it.
"It's you, Little Lin. Where's your master?"
The Water Qilin, still standing on its hind legs, pointed its hoof toward the dining area with a "whinny," then dropped to all fours and trotted back into the villa.
...
When Su Hao saw Liu Ren, he was wearing a black-and-blue combat suit, a product of Whale Island University, also jokingly called the school uniform.
Besides the combat suit, he carried a black tactical backpack, stuffed to the brim.
Su Hao suspected it was full of snacks.
Seeing Su Hao still leisurely eating breakfast, Liu Ren grew anxious. "Today's the start of our training camp—you didn't forget, did you?"
"We need to be there by nine, and it's only 7:36 now."
"The New World entrance is at the tail of Whale Island; travel time takes a while, hey!"
"Twenty minutes is enough."
"Twenty minutes isn't enough! I take the school shuttle from the dorm area to the tail, and it takes over forty minutes. If we're late today, there might not even be a bus."
"I meant riding the Husky-lin. Twenty minutes is more than enough."
"Whinny~!" The Water Qilin raised its hoof, then remembered it shouldn't put its foot on the table and quickly put it down.
Liu Ren: "..."
Su Hao, considering Liu Ren's plight of having no good mount, quickly finished his breakfast, grabbed the backpack he'd prepared the night before and hung it on the Water Qilin, then called the other spirits...
Time to go!
...
He, Liu Ren, Gu Lingyao, and Li Songting met at the intersection of the dorm area.
After waiting for over ten minutes, they finally caught a not-quite-full automated campus bus.
On the bus, over a dozen freshmen, filled with anticipation for the training camp, rode toward the tail of Whale Island.
"Hey, Su Hao, do you know what the training camp format is like?"
Liu Ren said, then looked at Gu Lingyao and Li Songting, his pancake face practically screaming "Ask me."
But Su Hao and the others knew him too well.
They didn't say a word.
Liu Ren held out for two or three seconds before blurting out, "Let me tell you, based on my intel, the whole training camp lasts two weeks.
"During the camp, we'll probably be thrown into some desolate, dangerous place. Unlike our high school special training or the college entrance exam, there won't be any supplies, so... you all brought your essentials, right?"
Liu Ren opened his backpack, pointing at the tent, sleeping bag, rain gear, lighter, knife, cold medicine, flashlight, water bottle, utensils, seasonings, food, food, food, and other items inside.
Liu Ren had mentioned it in the group chat yesterday.
Li Songting and Gu Lingyao had both brought quite a bit.
As for Su Hao himself...
Su Hao pursed his lips. "See, what I brought is all there."
On the Water Qilin's back hung five tactical backpacks.
Liu Ren shed envious tears.
He wished he could too.
But he...
His Lava Dragon Turtle had to be summoned, so he couldn't put things on its back, and his slippery Sea Tide Frog King couldn't carry anything either!
He was too pitiful!
...
Following the main campus road, they drove forward for several tens of minutes until they reached the road's end.
The tail of Whale Island!
Looking out, they could see the blue sea beyond the island.
By then, some early-arriving students were already waiting there.
Su Hao also spotted several instructors.
And...
"Senior Wu!"
"What, surprised I'm here too?" Wu Tianwang swept his thick hair and said, "After all, I'm one of the few天王-level at the school. I need to keep an eye on you freshmen during the training camp.
"Even so, you need to be extra careful. No matter what you do or encounter, always stay vigilant."
Since Wu Tianwang was the person in charge, he didn't chat long and left.
More and more students gathered around. Liu Ren summoned his Lava Dragon Turtle, which stood like a two-story building, casting a shadow as it plopped down.
Finally, the time reached exactly 9:00 AM.
Wu Tianwang, dressed in a suit and tie, slowly floated into the sky, hovering for over ten seconds before speaking, "Now, everyone, follow the teacher nearest to you. Move out."
...
Past the main road, they descended a sloped path into an underground tunnel.
The tunnel was wide enough for six cars to drive side by side, with a height of over ten meters. The lights above made it as bright as day.
A long line of people walked through, their chatter echoing in the tunnel.
Gradually, a fork appeared ahead.
But the right side was marked "No Entry," with guards stationed there.
The instructor led them into the left tunnel, continuing forward.
After walking for about a few minutes, they arrived at an open underground space.
The long line of people ahead disappeared one by one at the front.
Finally...
Su Hao squinted, then opened his eyes.
He found that the surroundings were no longer the underground space with only blazing white lights, but... a massive hall.
Sunlight streamed in.
Ahead, an instructor stationed long-term in the New World looked at them, arms spread wide.
"Welcome to Jingzhou City."