Lin Yun sucked deep breath when he saw his brother's move. It was amazing! And even though Lin Xiao was not that suitable for water element even though lake was formed with water, the power within Lin Xiao's move was so powerful that it completely outclassed others.

He then narrowed his eyes. "Bro, with you being in Golden Core Stage 1, I don't think that I can fight against you anymore."

"Hmm?" Lin Xiao lowered his sword and smiled faintly. He had noticed it himself but it seemed that he was indeed growing a bit too fast for others to follow. Looking at how Lin Yun was looking at him, he couldn't help but chuckled.

"Bro?"

"Your cultivation will be faster than me, Yun. There'll be more herbs soon and I'm sure that you can reach Golden Core Stage 2 in no time."

Lin Yun nodded. "Yeah, but my skill is nothing compared to you."

While Lin Yun could indeed advance faster due to his special body constitution, his skill couldn't advance as fast as Lin Xiao. He needed to practice more and it would take time. It was impossible to master a skill overnight.

"You can practice. And if our gap in cultivation is so big, you can easily crush someone at lower cultivation no matter how good their skill was." Lin Xiao laughed and patted his younger brother's shoulder.

In front of absolute power, any kinds of tricks were useless!

"Alright. I'll practice. Bro, can you repeat the move again?"

"Sure."

It didn't take long for Lin Xiao to repeat the moves a few times. Lin Yun memorized it by heart and then stayed in his room to continue practicing. The only problem with this method was the fact that their room was not that spacious enough and they could accidentally destroy a furniture if they were to practice here. 

After finishing with his instruction, Lin Xiao went out and noticed Fan Ling had come out. He nodded to her. "Finished practicing?"

"Not yet but I sense you coming out. Lu Jian had finished his investigation regarding that… ugh… what's his name?" Fan Ling scratched the back of her head, feeling slightly frustrated. "Oh right, Lan Qing Xi."

"Oh, that strange senior." Lin Xiao nodded. "Where's Lu Jian?"

"Taking care of our new factions."

Lin Xiao: "…" I'm considered a faction now?

But thinking about how he had already attracted so much attention plus the fact that he crushed Lin Hong and Princess Lan Xiao Yue's position, he could only smile wryly. Those two, who used to be placing first, were now only at the fourth and fifth position thanks to him, Lin Yun, and Fan Ling.

It was no doubt that they would be angry and annoyed at him.

"Lin Hong had already advanced to Golden Core Stage 1." Fang Ling passed a look at Lin Xiao. "He'll surely take his position back along with that princess. She's adamant on challenging the eight floor."

"Eight?" Lin Xiao was stunned then he shook his head. Even though it was designed for Golden Core Stage 1, it was not as easy as it sounded. If it was ordinary cultivator, they would never be able to pass the stage no matter how hard they tried when they were in Golden Core Stage 1.

The only perquisite was that they had to be a genius!

Strong foundation, strong skill, and strong comprehension.

It was all required if they wished to defeat the guardian at the eight floor. Lin Xiao had seen his senior's skill and even though not all of them were good, those who were picked to guard the tower all had considerably high skill.

Defeating them would not be easy.

"I can only wish for her luck." Lin Xiao merely used that move of challenging the tower to increase his presence. There was no point in him keeping the first position either since he didn't have the intention to challenge his way up in this ranking.

Maybe he would work a bit harder in the next ranking but not this one.

Fan Ling nodded. "I'll call Lu Jian then I'll return back to train."

"Ok."

Lu Jian came a few minutes later while looking a bit haggard. He glared at Lin Xiao because he knew that Lin Xiao had no intention of managing the new faction that was built. The other students were mostly divided into three with some minority groups and it was only now the fourth faction was emerging.

But not many looked favorably upon his chance of obtaining the throne.

"Lu Jian." Lin Xiao waved his hand. "Busy?"

"Of course I'm busy! There are a lot of people who want to join your faction but most of them are spies!" Lu Jian rolled his eyes.

Ah…

It was not that rare for spies from other factions to come. Lin Xiao had already expected this and it was precisely because of this point he was too lazy to think about managing the faction.

Too bad that it was impossible because he would need people if he wished to become the Emperor. 

"I know you can do it." Lin Xiao gave a thumbs up.

Lu Jian: "…" Do you know how annoying you look like when you're saying it like that?

Of course, Lin Xiao had no plan of bantering with Lu Jian all the time. "What did you find regarding that strange senior, Lan Qing Xi?"

"Oh, he's one of the rare genius who had the qualification to graduate but still stay in the academy."

Lin Xiao blinked his eyes. "He's 23, right?"

Lu Jian laughed. "Yes. In fact, there are a lot of seniors who actually can advance but they choose to stay in the academy to enjoy the benefit of being student."

Benefit of being student?

For some reason, Lin Xiao felt that there was none. The Academy was stingy!

…

Tower floors' ranking in case you forget:

1-3 for Body Training 

4-6 for Foundation Establishment 

7-9 for Golden Core Stage Rank 1

10-15 for Golden Core Stage Rank 2