Inside a fairly small circular room, a standing middle aged man with black hair and a black beard was going through stacks of paper placed haphazardly on a round wooden table. Behind him, a door opened wide, slamming onto the wall. Raising his brow, the middle aged man turned around, taking notice of whoever had barged inside, disturbing him in the process.

Not even given the time to ask anything, the person who had entered rudely started shouting.

"Commander! Someone was seen intruding the world's boundary without authorization! We could not sense his cultivation base either!"

Taking in a deep breath, the middle aged man addressed as commander, looked at the young guard in front of him, his towering build shrinking the guard's frail stature even more.

"And where did he go? If you could not tell his cultivation base, does it mean he was around the Heavenly Venerable Realm, if not beyond? If this is the case, what am I supposed to do? Scold him?"

Knowing his commander to steadily lose patience, the young guard tried to find a solution to his current predicament.

"Commander, we just didn't know what to do, the intruder could be here to cause trouble! And even if he is a Heavenly Venerable Realm expert, does it mean he can just ignore Ascended Galla's rules?! Not even Dimensional Monarch Realm experts dare to!"

Frowning, the commander was truly ashamed of his subordinate.

"And what if that person is above the Dimensional Monarch Realm? What will you do then? If neither you nor I can stop him, then it's the Grand Order's problem, not ours!"

"But don't worry, I won't just do nothing, the least I can do is inform them. Now fuck off! And if next time you also barge in so wantonly, I'll smash your skull into fine paste!" Roaring across the room, the commander spat at his subordinate, despising his conduct.

-----

Stopping in his tracks, Alexander raised his head, looking straight ahead.

In front of him, giant wide stairs going millions of kilometers into the sky gave way to a behemoth of a structure high above the sparse clouds.

This exact structure was Alexander's current objective.

Lowering his gaze, he saw the bottom of the stairs, guarded by walls along two armored soldiers of sort.

Above the both of them, a plaque of bronze stood, where two words were carved deep within.

'Dawn Academy... The one who wrote this had quite the understanding of the sword.' Done scrutinizing the academy's grand appearance, Alexander walked toward the two guards.

Seeing a young man approach, the one on the left raised his hand in front.

"Stop! What business do you have here? The entrance examination will only start in two days!"

Raising his brows, Alexander did not celebrate too early.

"Two days? Universal or two days in Galla?"

The guard was already annoyed, but he dared not make it known, repeating the same words he had said many times already.

"Universal!"

Smiling, Alexander thanked the man and left in direction of an inn right in front of the guarded stairs.

'Lucky me!'

Alexander knew that the difference between most worlds and Galla time-wise was night and day. Even if some worlds had differences, Galla was truly a one of a kind. The day on Galla could last up to a few millennia, as for the night, it was a similar situation. So hearing that he would not have to wait multiple millennia to enter a little academy, Alexander was truly overjoyed.

Entering an inn at the corner of the street, he booked a small room and sat there, sparkling his Dao of Time around him soon after, making the two days pass by in the blink of an eye.

Looking out the window, Alexander saw the wide streets be filled to the brim with a sea of people, mainly humans.

He estimated over ten million cultivators, as for how many residents of Galla would be annoyed to death by all the noise and agitation, he would say the same.

Going downstairs, he could barely squeeze himself outside the inn.

Losing patience, Alexander teleported near the front.

"Hey, you! How did you just appear here out of nowhere?" A young girl with brown hair asked Alexander, clearly surprised. But unexpectedly, the young man on her left did not respond to her question, only ignoring her.

Releasing her Divine Sense, she swiped past Alexander a few times, unable to discern his cultivation base.

'He isn't a World Founder Realm expert, is he? I don't want to offend anyone before even entering!'

Glancing to his right, Alexander saw the young girl staring at him, sighing, he looked away.

'True Star Realm trash, I'm not sure if even that little academy will take her in.' Not bothering himself with the surroundings, Alexander waited patiently for a couple of weeks.

Like this, hundreds of thousands of cultivators took the test. Alexander, however, only counted around ten percent making it past the gates, obtaining the opportunity to climb up the white stairs.

After a few more hours, it was his turn.

Taking a step forward, Alexander noticed an old man in black robes wave at him. Seeing the bronze colored accent on the man's robes and his cultivation, he guessed the old man to be an elder of the academy.

'He probably is one of the weakest, even if this academy is not that great, it still possess great authority in this Universe, so having a Heavenly Venerable Realm cultivator as a potential elder is shameful!'

When Alexander reached the old man, he received instructions.

"Young man, if you want to pass, it is very simple! You see that stone on the right? Attack it with all you've got! Depending on the results, I might or might not let you pass. Just a reminder though, the minimum requirement is a force of a hundred thousand True Mountains!"

Listening, Alexander nodded. Not waiting any longer, he punched the fairly small stone with his fist, making it lit up.

'I used strength around the low stage of the Star Emperor Realm... Since he asked for the low stage of the True Star Realm, it should be more than enough to pass this dumb test.'

Indeed, after reading the stone's symbols, the old man was shocked.

"You pass! Here, take this jade, if you make it past the staircase, you can give this to anyone with an accented black robe. It will make you a second grade student from the get go."

Patting Alexander's shoulder, he let him pass through.

-----

A few minutes later, Alexander was peacefully walking up the countless white stairs, wondering if he could fly or not.

'It will take way too long!' Looking around, he saw a couple of cultivators here and there, but compared to him, each and every one of them was struggling.

Curious, Alexander walked to a man slightly behind him, at the right edge of the staircase.

"Hey young man, why do you look like this? Are you struggling that much? For a True Star Realm cultivator, being unable to walk up some stairs is quite the embarrassment!"

Dumbfounded, the young man looked at Alexander's leisure with disbelief.

"You... How can you stay unfazed?! Doesn't your soul hurt?!" As he was about to bombard him with questions, he saw Alexander simply ignore him, going up the stairs in the process.

'So it was a soul thing, no wonder, my soul is just too strong and resilient, I didn't even notice!'

It was not that Alexander was too arrogant not to pay attention, but the side effect caused by his cultivation base immunized him from the trial.

Past the sixth layer of the Ascension Realm, the soul was immortal under the Heavens. So he had no need to pay attention to anything affecting the soul itself, simply because it was useless to worry about it. Even if the stairs he was currently on could dissipate his soul, he would barely be affected, as his soul would simply regenerate again and again, until he made it out one way or another.

A few minutes later, Alexander turned his head around, looking behind him. Passing by him, a fast young girl with twin-tails flashed like lightning, quickly advancing.

Raising a brow, Alexander was now sure of his next course of actions.

'If she doesn't get called out, then it must be fine...' Levitating, Alexander's figure vanished, before a deafening sonic boom was heard.

Quickly overtaking the young girl's position, Alexander did not stop, arriving at the end of the staircase in a matter of minutes.

A the top, a black robed middle aged man looked at Alexander with shock.

"Young man, you sure are a fast one! If the elder at the bottom gave you something, then don't hesitate to present it to me!"

Not intending to hide anything, Alexander handed over the token he received.

Soon after, the middle aged man looked back at him.

"I got the gist of it, you punched the stone with around 700 000 True Mountains of force, since that is the case, take this."

Handing Alexander a few sets of purple robes, he explained.

"These indicate your status as a second grade student, being at the Star Emperor Realm. If you ever need an explanation, just go inside, there are helpers along boards filled with everything you need to know."

Moving to the side to let Alexander enter freely, he remembered something.

"Oh! And by the way, congratulation on making it! You are now an official student of the Dawn Academy!"

Nodding, Alexander passed by the thin and tall wooden doors, entering a hall, its ceiling reaching hundreds of meters high.

His eyes wandering about, metallic boards, signs, steles and much more were distributed all around. Near each of them was a cultivator on standby.

Walking over to the leftmost sign, Alexander could read some basic information about the academy's system.

'Students are divided into grades it seems. There are first, second, and third grades students. Above them are the graduates, and even higher are the elders. The one I saw at the bottom had a metallic bronze texture as his robes' accent, according to this, he was indeed the weakest, as there are silver and gold ones.'

Remembering what the man had said at the hall's entrance, Alexander looked at the next sign.

'Robes indicate one's status, my robes mean I am a second grade student, below are the brown robed first grades, as for above, the third grades wear white robes and the graduates black ones. What about the ones above the elders? I can't find information on them.'

Alexander was not sure if it was worth spoiling his fun using his Divine Sense.

Deciding not to, he read more about the academy, but after the eighth one, he could tell that he had wasted his time, as no more interesting information was to be read. Everything explained was about missions, rules and more. Not being interested in any of it, Alexander simply left the hall.

Walking outside, he was bathed under a bright white light. The entire academy seemed to use this white light as a sun, or so Alexander thought.

Not bothering with the enchanting sight of streets and buildings, all blessed by the white light, he went left, in direction of an administrative building.