Li Qiuchen had not known until now that the county school had a head of the academy.
In theory there should have been one, but no one had ever seen the person, and they certainly hadn't co out to address the new students at enrollnt.
This was understandable, of course. If inner hall students couldn't pass the illusory realm trials, they were no different from outer hall students. There was no reason to waste ti eting anyone who hadn't cleared that threshold.
Following Master Qin through the pavilions and galleries of the inner hall, they made their way to the rear hall.
Here too was a vast open square comparable in scale to the one at the inner hall's main entrance, clearly the activity grounds for the upper-year students.
To the left of the square stood a three-story building whose visual style was slightly at odds with everything around it.
Most of the academy's structures were brick and timber. This building was constructed entirely of bluestone, without a single piece of wood.
This was the legendary Hongwen Hall, said to house six thousand volus.
Six thousand volus, not six thousand books. To be precise, over six thousand collections of cultivation manuals and related texts on various subjects.
A single work, sothing like the Senluojing or the Jingyunzi, might contain millions of characters across dozens of bound volus.
Senior Brother Yang, after years of dedicated effort, had only managed to transcribe thirty-odd volus in jade slips.
The plaque at the entrance bore three characters in composed, balanced calligraphy: Hongwen Hall.
Looking through the windows, the interior was brightly lit.
On the right side of the square stood a building in the shape of a pagoda, with a plaque at the entrance reading Langhuan Pavilion.
This one Li Qiuchen had never heard of. He had no idea of its purpose.
The characters langhuan referred to the place in the celestial realm where immortals stored their texts.
A library on the left, and also a library on the right?
The academic atmosphere here was genuinely substantial.
Compared to the two libraries on either side with their distinctly different visual styles, the great hall directly ahead looked remarkably... plain.
No decorative elents to speak of. Just an ordinary hall.
Inside, there were no divine statues on display. It looked no different from one of the classrooms outside, with a lectern, writing desks, and dried grass cushions for students to sit in ditation.
On either side of the main entrance hung a wooden couplet.
True gold fears no refining in fierce fire.
Among the clouds, seek the thod of the heavenly path.
Above the entrance, four large characters: Great Chu National Academy.
This was the true heart of the Yun County school, the official path-teaching hall where the cultivation arts were publicly transmitted.
Li Qiuchen was still savoring the mont when Master Qin didn't lead him into the main hall but instead went around it, turning down a small path on the side.
What... where are we going?
Before his puzzlent could deepen further, a sll of food drifted over from the distance.
Iron pot braising?
Rounding the main hall, they ca to a quiet and secluded small courtyard at the back. Master Qin pushed the door open and stepped in, and Li Qiuchen followed, finding himself looking at a disheveled middle-aged Daoist sitting by a stove with chopsticks in hand, feeding fuel into the fire.
Li Qiuchen stared.
How to put it. Not quite what he had imagined. Sowhat of a gap between expectation and reality.
"Head of the Academy, this is the first new student this year to clear three rounds of illusory realm trials."
"This soon?"
The middle-aged Daoist looked up in surprise and turned to look at Li Qiuchen. "How old is this boy? How old are you?"
Li Qiuchen thought to himself that he wasn't entirely certain, since childhood mories were vague at best, and the village records for children's ages were notoriously imprecise, with a year or two's variance either direction being common.
He had transmigrated, yes. But when he first arrived, the brain hadn't fully developed yet.
Unlike those protagonists in novels who bonded with systems the mont they transmigrated, Li Qiuchen had co through without any special talents.
Those unfamiliar with childbirth might not know that even at ten months a human baby was technically premature, as any longer and delivery beca impossible. When born, various physical functions including mory and even vision were still undeveloped.
Eyes blazing like lightning at the mont of birth, shaking the heavens, that was a monkey's story.
"In response to the teacher's question, your student is fourteen years old."
Since he genuinely didn't know his exact age, Li Qiuchen quoted a number on the higher side. Most students in the cohort were thirteen to fifteen, so reporting the upper end shouldn't raise any eyebrows.
"Fourteen? You? You're..."
The middle-aged Daoist was visibly skeptical, and looked Li Qiuchen up and down. "Your developnt is quite delayed, isn't it?"
Can we please focus on what actually matters?
Li Qiuchen found nothing more irritating than people comnting on his height.
Growing up poor with barely any at to eat wasn't exactly conducive to physical developnt. He would get taller eventually.
The middle-aged Daoist still seed doubtful. "This year's new student? Cleared the illusory realm six months in? Doesn't sll like nepotism, does it?"
Master Qin shook his head. "Head of the Academy may not be fully aware. This student's marks are exceptional. He ca in third on the first-class register in the children's examination, and has now cleared all three rounds of the illusory realm with First Class Upper ratings."
"That capable? This backwater of ours can produce this kind of talent?"
The middle-aged Daoist was delighted, and examined Li Qiuchen with genuine interest for another mont before clearing his throat and asking with a serious expression, "What's your na?"
"Your student's na is Li Qiuchen."
"Very good. Rember this. From today onward, when anyone asks your age, say you're ten."
Li Qiuchen stared blankly.
Why on earth?
Even Tang Xiaoxue was older than ten!
He was aware he looked young for his age, but it wasn't as though he'd chosen that. The dicine Master's blessing automatically refining the body wasn't sothing he could control.
Seeing Li Qiuchen's reluctance, the middle-aged Daoist smiled. "I am the head of the academy. Following my guidance won't steer you wrong. Being young has its own advantages. You'll understand in ti... Little Qin, you can head back now. Leave him with ."
Master Qin gave a small nod and turned to leave.
The middle-aged Daoist walked to the stove, lifted the lid, held his nose over the pot and took a long satisfied sniff, and nodded approvingly. "You've co at just the right ti. This pot of tendons and offcuts is done to perfection. Go and dish out so rice. The two of us can get up on the kang and have a proper chat."
The two of us?
On what grounds?
Whether this person was reliable or not remained to be seen.
If Master Qin hadn't brought him here personally, Li Qiuchen would have thought he'd walked through the wrong door.
Wasn't he here to beco a cultivator? Why the big iron pot and warm kang?
There was no use worrying about it now. He was already here. Li Qiuchen could only get on with things obediently.
And he had to admit, this elder had a very comfortable way of living.
An iron pot of braised tendons and offcuts going strong, a platter of sliced marinated pig ear and fried peanuts on the table, steaming two-grain rice, two heads of raw garlic, a dish of green radish and dried tofu with fernted paste, and two small bottles of local spirits.
Genuinely an immortal sort of life in the physical sense of the word.
With everything in order, the middle-aged Daoist beckoned Li Qiuchen up onto the kang.
Li Qiuchen took a philosophy of going along with things as they are and picked up the wine flask to pour.
"Can you drink?"
Can I... or can't I?
Before he could decide, the man added, "From now on, whenever you're out in public, say you can't drink. Understood? Can you act like a child? Be well-behaved about it... you seem like a well-behaved sort. Keep that up."
I am more than capable of that.
No, wait. I am a child. Why would I need to act?
Li Qiuchen set down the flask and asked respectfully, "Head of the Academy, why should your student falsify their age?"
"Call
what? I'm surnad Zhang, Daoist na Shouzhu. Since you've cleared the three rounds of the illusory realm trials, you may call
Master. When you're out in the world and soone asks, just say you're a student of Old Daoist Zhang of Yun County."
Daoist Zhang took a sip of spirits and put a piece of braised offcut in his mouth.
"I have a sect lineage, and I am also the head of the Yun County official school. These two are not in conflict with each other. The official school doesn't have the complicated rules of the old sects. Results are the only standard. There is also basic respect for one's teachers and elders, of course... you seem like a sharp and well-mannered young person, so I won't go into detail."
"I can tell you already have so cultivation. Did you co to
with arts already in hand? What lineage are you practicing? Tell
about it."
Li Qiuchen had co a long way from the anxious and uncertain person who had first arrived from the countryside. Mostly it was the accumulated experience of everything he'd been through.
So he didn't hesitate, and said directly, "My ancestor was Li Jingyun. He left behind a transmitted cultivation thod. But over the years the family declined completely, and by my generation nothing was left."
"Li Jingyun..."
Daoist Zhang chewed on his chopsticks and thought for a long ti. "Can't place the na. What era?"
"Several hundred years ago, probably."
"Local? What cultivation realm?"
"Golden Core, I believe?"
Li Qiuchen wasn't entirely certain.
"Golden Core, surnad Li..."
Daoist Zhang thought for a while, then suddenly slapped his forehead. "Jingyunzi, right? No wait, that would be Jingyun, I just couldn't match them up. That was a remarkable figure indeed. Studied the official curriculum halfway through and then went off to research heterodox thods on his own, and actually ca up with sothing worth noting. Wrote quite a few books. When you said Li Jingyun I couldn't place him because back then his nickna was more famous. Everyone called him Golden-Eyed Tiger."
What kind of terrible nickna was that?
Li Qiuchen didn't even know how to react.
Well, his ancestor was known for his ocular techniques. The Yin-Yang Dharma Eyes were supposedly capable of perceiving all things...
"Master has t my ancestor?"
"Crossed paths in my younger days. Weren't close."
Daoist Zhang chuckled. "Hard to believe he actually produced descendants. Baffling, really. I distinctly rember him swearing he was devoted entirely to the dicine Master's path, said won were nothing but beautiful skeletons, that beauty held no power over him. No wonder he got stuck at the Golden Core realm and couldn't advance. When soone says one thing and does another, when the mouth and heart don't match, ascending to immortality is going to be quite difficult!"
Li Qiuchen stared at nothing in particular.
As a descendant, he was in no position to comnt on any of that.
"How much of Jingyunzi's arts have you learned?"
"Very little, practically nothing. The family's transmitted texts were burned. Only a few fragnts were rescued. My knowledge of this ancestor amounts to little more than knowing that he existed."
Daoist Zhang glanced at Li Qiuchen's eyes and gave a small nod.
"Do you know anything about pill refining?"
"Just a little."
"A little is enough. Listen to your master. Going forward, pill arts should be your main area of study and practice. Your family heritage will allow you to go further on this path than most. And these days a pill master is always employable. Whatever kind of pill you refine, there's money in it."
Li Qiuchen said, puzzled, "Master, don't I need to cultivate my Elixir Viscera first?"
"You do, yes. That's a separate matter entirely... actually, let
explain this from the beginning."
[NEXT CHAPTER]
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