We hopped on the back of Xiao-Xiao and flew to the north, the direction was to a portal that will take us all the way to the depth of space.
The Heavenly Academy was of course not on this planet, but it had its own domain where it prospered.
It was in a neutral area of the Vast Expanse where none of the four major powers had any say.
It took less than a day to arrive, and like Old Man Gin had said, not many would be there since we cleared our own trials faster than anyone.
The portal structure was simple, a massive circular warp gate that would allow transport to vast distances.
Most cultivators cannot afford to pay for the usage of such a portal, hence they use the ships to travel vast distances. However, a few eccentric cultivators, well able to afford the cost still chose to use the ships so they could travel the Vast Expanse and benefit from some opportunities that they can obtain along the road.
The three of us walked up to the gate and a couple of guards stopped us.
After they confirmed our identities and the tokens we held, they operated the gate for us.
"From here onwards, you're on your own, like I said, you two should watch each other's backs, make sure to topple the opposition. Good luck, and Godspeed," the old man said.
Liang Yu bowed and gave the old man a sincere thanks.
And so did I, for I had no reason not to thank a person who taught me so much in so little time.
"It is a shame that I cannot be your master," the old man Said.
"I don't really care about the etiquettes of Master Disciple, but what I do know is, if a man teaches me a letter I'll owe him for life, and I owe you much to care for this," I spoke then gave a deep bow to the person in front of me.
It was only natural.
A teacher's ability is showcased by his disciple, though we're not master and disciple, he taught me, and he deserves my gratitude.
The old man snickered and said, "Your words may make the heavens jealous, but for a man who talks back against heaven itself, it would be rude not to accept your bow, go child, go and make the world know your name," the old man said and took a step back disappearing from sight.
Damn, how are they all able to do that…
I stood back up and turned to the gate, "Let's go," I said to Liang Yu as I held her hand and the two of us walked forward.
The moment we stepped through the warp gate, I felt as if the world was stretching, and my whole being slowly disintegrating, not in pain, but as if I was being slowly decomposed and reconstructed.
It lasted for a long time, or probably for only a second because just as I closed and opened my eyes, I was already standing on a massive platform high above the clouds.
The whole world felt different here. And the skies were dyed in a purple hue.
There were three moons up above us, and the skies themselves were shining in an amalgamation of stars that would take ten thousand lifetimes to count.
Surrounding the platform were sky-defying stone formations that seemed to rise from the depth of the earth to challenge the skies.
These rock pillars seemed naturally made, and they had an array of nests where birds seemed to be sleeping for the night.
The sound of water caused me to turn my head to see even bigger pillars, more like mountains rising up in the distance where waterfalls seemed to be coming from, falling down in cascades, and creating small rainbows all over the place.
Rainbows? At night, interesting.
"What a beautiful place," Liang Yu said.
"It really is, but, what are we going to do now?" I asked as I looked around, there didn't seem to be anyone here to escort us to the 'Heavenly Academy'.
"I wouldn't know, I don't have information regarding the Academy itself, we'll have to figure it out ourselves," Liang Yu said.
I went to the edge of the platform and used my divine sense to try to locate and find if there is anyone nearby.
All I could catch in my divine sense, which by the way became pretty huge thanks to my rise in cultivation.
I could now approximately scan fifty kilometers of spherical distance around me.
And I still couldn't spot anyone.
"This is interesting, it could also be a test to figure out the location of the heavenly academy, we should look around, and we'll probably find something," Liang Yu said.
"No, there is no need," I said as I retracted my divine sense.
"They're already here," I said as I looked up.
Soon two cultivators appeared in front of us, they both had blue robes and slowly descended from the skies. It was a man and a woman.
"You arrived at such an annoying hour," the man spoke as he lazily cleaned his ear with his pinky finger.
The woman laughed lightly behind a small fan and said, "Don't be like that brother Mo, they're new recruits."
"You," the person named Mo, spoke, "How did you figure out that we were here?" he asked.
"Oh," I looked up, "The stars, they changed, when you two arrived, there were two more stars in the sky," I spoke.
The man frowned, "You're telling me, you were able to count the stars, and figure out that two were added to them afterward?" he said.
"Something like that," that was a lie, I simply have a photographic memory, and what I did was it's like taking two pictures of the same thing and putting one above the other, canceling everything that has already been overwritten and thus allowing the two new stars to be seen since they didn't have a place in the first picture.
It sounds much harder to explain than it is, thus I spoke a little lie.
"Interesting, follow us," the man said and they turned up, the two of them shot forward like meteors into the skies and seemed to disappear immediately afterward.
"Let's go," I spoke to Liang Yu and the two of us shot forward.
I was thankful for one thing when I made it to the Soul Formation Stage. It was the ability to fully control my own Qi, and now I don't passively release poison as I fly unless I want to.
The two of us shot forward and as if we were in a submerged world, we broke through the illusion that was cast upon the world below and bore through the canopy of stars into a bright world.
We shot through what seemed to be a massive well and appeared in a vast plaza.
There were hundreds if not thousands of cultivators rushing all about, with books and scrolls in hand, each heading with confident fast steps almost everywhere.
Looking back at the place where we emerged, it was a massive well that seemed to not have water but held the blackness of the night skies and the stars that we've seen before.
This is the entrance to the Heavenly Academy apparently.
Around us, were massive buildings that seemed to be designed for different purposes.
From the east was a building on top of a massive mountain where you could smell the scent of spiritual herbs all the way from there.
On the west was a volcanic mountain where the torrents of smoke rose upon every occasion.
To the south was a massive open field with many other structures and facilities that could host a swath of different subjects. Stretching my divine sense as much as I could, the first structure I could see was an arena and there was already a fight there.
And on the northern side, there was another building in the distance, it seemed like the main academic building where the majority of the people with scrolls and books were moving towards.
This was slightly awkward however because the information I have on the heavenly academy was slightly different, where is the tower for example? And where are the caves?
Only when I looked up did I relies what was going on.
The entirety of this place was not even the academy itself but more like a place where people train and practice to be able to enter the heavenly academy.
A giant floating island was hovering in the distance far away from us.
And from here I could see a tower standing tall on the island.
Using another wave of divine sense I could also locate the Caves, they were under us, and it seemed that the houses surrounding us were the entrances to these caves.
Before I could even ask the two people that escorted us how to get into the houses, they already seemed to have mixed in with the group and left us.
"I guess we're on our own, Liang Yu, how about we head to the caves, we'll need to get you housed up," I said.
"Oh, I don't think so, how about you piss off and leave that lovely lady here, you're not fit enough to be with her anyway," I heard.
Turning I saw a group of guys, the one that spoke was a middle-aged man with a nasty grin on his face.
Three more disciples seemed to be following him and they all had an ugly ogling gaze pointed directly at Liang Yu.
Seems that my first day in the Heavenly Academy was bound to be bloody.
Nothing that I didn't expect, time to put some people in their place and show them who's boss.