Course Selection Form

The construction plans for Xiushui Village were unfolding in full swing, while Lingxian Sect continued advancing in an orderly manner.

Three days later, early in the morning.

The disciples of Qingyun Peak had arrived at the cultivation hall early. Some were meditating, while others were studying. Whenever they encountered a question, they used sound transmission to communicate with their fellow disciples.

The entire cultivation hall was utterly silent.

That lasted until today’s instructor, Yang Jinshu, walked in and handed each of them a densely packed form.

The disciples lowered their heads and took a look. At the very top of the form was the title: “Lingxian Sect Cultivation Arts Elective Form.”

As the name suggested, everyone quickly understood what the form was for.

Every box beneath the title contained the name of a cultivation art. At a glance, there appeared to be more than a thousand of them.

This inevitably made the many cultivators led by Liang Zhonghuai and Yuan Jinsheng, who had years of cultivation experience in the outside world, grow suspicious.

This couldn’t… actually be real, could it?

There were so many cultivation arts… and all of them were being offered to the hundred or so disciples for them to choose from freely?

Moreover, among these thousand-plus cultivation arts, despite having cultivated for many years, they had barely heard of any of them!

But then they recalled the bookshelves in the cultivation hall that were used to store cultivation methods, as well as the many cultivation methods in the sect’s library. They had been told that those methods were of too low a grade to be suitable for cultivation and were provided only for everyone to browse and use as reference.

With that thought, the vast number of cultivation arts before them—most of which they had never seen—suddenly no longer seemed so difficult to understand.

After all, cultivation methods were even more precious than cultivation arts.

Their sect possessed so many high-grade cultivation methods. It was only reasonable for them to have a few more cultivation arts as well!

Actually, today’s instructor had originally been Little Luan.

However, several members of the teaching and research group were worried that Little Luan would have difficulty explaining the elective courses to everyone, so they deliberately coaxed it into switching classes with Yang Jinshu.

The price was one Golden Core-stage demonic beast core.

Lin Xiao had obtained it while he was in the Golden Core stage, during his trip to the cultivation world, after hunting in a Golden Core secret realm.

There were not many Golden Core-stage demonic beast cores in the sect’s storehouse at present. There were only three in total, all provided by Lin Xiao and Liao Pantu.

After giving one to Little Luan, only two remained.

Fortunately, the alchemy room’s research had not yet reached the field of demonic beasts.

For the time being, there was no need to use demonic beast cores.

Still, Liao Pantu had said that such things were best kept in reserve. If they had the opportunity, they should try to stock up on more.

But this was not something that could be rushed. At present, there were only a few people in the entire sect capable of killing Golden Core-stage demonic beasts, and they still lacked experience adventuring in the cultivation world.

Everything had to proceed slowly.

“You may choose to cultivate any of the cultivation arts listed on this form. However, you cannot bite off more than you can chew. Within one year, each person may choose only five cultivation arts, and everyone must choose at least five,” Yang Jinshu said from the lectern.

Her words sounded somewhat forceful, but she immediately followed up with an explanation.

“Some of the disciples present had already begun cultivating before joining Lingxian Sect. I believe everyone has learned at least a little about the brutality of the outside cultivator world from them. Here, I must remind you all that even with the high-grade cultivation methods we are currently practicing, the further you advance, the more difficult cultivation will become, and bottlenecks will inevitably appear.”

“Shutting yourselves away to cultivate without cultivating your state of mind or gaining experience will make it impossible to advance smoothly all the way. Sooner or later, we will have to leave the sect and gain experience in the outside world. But if all you possess is cultivation and no means of facing enemies, you will easily find yourselves in danger in that cruel world. Therefore, the sect’s teaching and research group unanimously believes that arranging cultivation-art courses is essential. I hope none of you will resist this. Choose the courses you are interested in and devote yourselves to cultivating them.”

Perhaps they had not expected Elder Yang to be worried that they might feel resistant and to give them such a serious explanation. Everyone was somewhat surprised.

But they quickly came to their senses and began responding one after another, assuring Yang Jinshu that they would study the cultivation arts properly and put her mind at ease.

Yang Jinshu nodded in satisfaction. She instructed them to select the five cultivation arts they wished to practice before dinner and hand the forms to Baizhu, who would then deliver them to the teaching and research group in the library.

After that, she began the day’s lesson.

Meanwhile, after leaving the capital nearly a month ago, He Yi had finally arrived leisurely outside Xiushui Village.

From a distance, he saw that construction seemed to be underway there.

Even so, the construction could not deter the large number of tourists visiting the village.

Ever since he had left the official road, the stream of people had hardly stopped.

This village was completely different from the settlements He Yi had seen elsewhere in the mortal world.

However, along the way, he had heard plenty of stories about Lingxian Sect, so he could understand the reason.

The sect’s reputation in this country seemed to surpass that of the other three sects by far.

He Yi looked at the bustling Xiushui Village ahead of him and the continuous mountain peaks behind it. He knew that the mountains were the location of the legendary Lingxian Sect.

He did not even need to make inquiries. The tourists coming and going along the road were talking about nothing but this place.

It would have been difficult for He Yi not to know.

The sky was clear and the air slightly chilly, making it an ideal time for many people to go sightseeing. There were especially many tourists today.

He Yi concealed his aura and blended into the crowd, entering Xiushui Village along with the other visitors.

Once he drew closer, he suddenly sensed something and raised his head to look toward the end of the Northern Mountain Range.

Although the feeling was faint, he was certain that it was a place where yin energy had gathered.

He Yi’s brows lifted slightly amid the crowd.

It seemed his direction of pursuit had been correct.

He raised a hand slightly and summoned a spirit talisman. In a low voice, he said, “Go.”

The spirit talisman immediately flew toward the end of the mountain range.

The people around him noticed nothing.

He Yi withdrew his gaze and was just about to wander around and sightsee like the other tourists when the corner of his eye seemed to catch something unusual.

He raised his head in disbelief and looked toward the sky ahead.

A tiny dot flickered in and out of sight among the clouds.

He Yi focused his eyes.

That was…

A floating island?!

He was stunned for a moment. Seeing him looking up, the people around him also raised their heads to take a look. But with mortal eyes, they could not see anything unusual, so they paid it no attention and continued walking.

He Yi came back to his senses, composed himself, and pretended that nothing had happened as he followed the tourists forward.

Yet his mind was anything but calm.

He had never expected a sect in the mortal world to possess a floating island as well.

Before coming here, he had gone out of his way to learn more about the mortal world.

Based on the information he had gathered from various sources, he had analyzed the situation and learned that the cultivators and sects in the mortal world were extremely impoverished. He had also always felt that some kind of force was controlling the development of the cultivators and sects here.

Although he was not certain what this force was, he had always harbored some suspicions.

Yet he had never expected that Lingxian Sect, a sect in this mortal world, would actually possess a floating island…