As for those whose abilities were merely average, many sects offered them the status of “outer disciples,” along with various benefits and stipends.
Even now, the Trading Affairs Center in Xiushui City continued to accept as much merchandise as people brought in, so long as it met the required quality standards. Its demand seemed utterly limitless.
As a result, the cultivators throughout the mortal world were all extremely busy.
They were busy delivering goods, busy working, busy studying, and busy cultivating. They simply had no time to commit misdeeds.
After all, how could doing bad things possibly earn them as much money—or provide as stable an income—as the proper work they were doing now?
And without putting their lives at risk, too.
If they could live peacefully and cultivate in peace, who would want to go looking for death?
The Lingxian Sect quickly began making arrangements for Sun Yigao’s plan to travel abroad and establish academies.
Over the past two years, trade between Xiushui City and the various sects and imperial families had been exceptionally stable. As time passed, everyone had naturally grown much more familiar with one another. Qin Jianghe asked Sun Yigao which country he initially planned to settle in. Upon learning that it was the Huanyou Kingdom, he immediately contacted its ruler, Zhao Yunzhong.
When Zhao Yunzhong learned that an Elder of the Lingxian Sect at the Nascent Soul stage intended to come to their country and establish a Lingxian Academy, he swiftly summoned his trusted aides for a discussion.
Given their relationship with the Lingxian Sect, having a Nascent Soul cultivator settle in their country was practically equivalent to their country gaining another Nascent Soul cultivator to stand guard over it. If they encountered some sort of crisis, that person might even lend them a hand.
Moreover, this person was coming to establish an academy. They had some understanding of the Lingxian Academy in Xiushui City. It did not teach ideas such as loyalty to the ruler and love of country. Instead, it focused more on cultivating oneself, managing one’s family, governing the state, and bringing peace to the world—principles that could be applied anywhere. From the Huanyou Kingdom’s perspective, this was hardly a bad thing.
Furthermore, because of the historical issues left behind by the Jishi faction, conditions throughout the Huanyou Kingdom had been poor in many respects. Since taking over, Zhao Yunzhong had been so busy reorganizing affairs across the country that he had yet to find time to oversee education in the various regions.
At a time like this, if a Nascent Soul cultivator of upright character from a sect like the Lingxian Sect was willing to bring his disciples over to teach, then even if they only taught ordinary subjects to mortals, it would still be a tremendous boon to the Huanyou Kingdom.
No matter how one looked at it, this was clearly advantageous for the Huanyou Kingdom.
Thus, after a brief discussion with his trusted aides, Zhao Yunzhong readily agreed. He enthusiastically expressed that he would do everything possible to provide Sun Yigao with various conveniences and could even contact the local authorities to arrange the construction of the academy.
Knowing that Sun Yigao intended to take his disciples out for experience, Qin Jianghe emphasized to Zhao Yunzhong that they did not need any special arrangements. He explained that the disciples needed to temper themselves through experience, and only then did Zhao Yunzhong drop the matter.
Everything was arranged smoothly and swiftly.
A month later, Sun Yigao left the sect with five disciples.
He had more than five disciples, but after careful consideration, he had decided to bring only this number. He was going out to establish an academy, and bringing too many people would only make things cumbersome.
Besides, although the sect was no longer so busy that everyone’s feet barely touched the ground, it certainly could not afford to have too few hands.
Sun Yigao’s plan was to travel from place to place. There were countless countries in the mortal world, and when it was time to go to the next one, he could simply switch out the disciples accompanying him so that others could gain experience as well.
A large group of people gathered beneath the ten-mile stretch of peach trees at the mountain gate to see Sun Yigao and the others off.
Among the crowd, Liao Pantu watched Sun Yigao’s tall, upright figure receding into the distance, and his heart was filled with satisfaction.
In just a few short years, his disciple had advanced from a minor Qi Refining cultivator to the Nascent Soul stage. Every breakthrough along the way had come naturally and smoothly, likely because his will had never wavered and his temperament was exceptionally resilient.
Now that Sun Yigao had reached the Nascent Soul stage, he was still willing to keep his feet firmly on the ground, travel among the mortal people, and teach and enlighten them.
Such a state of mind… truly stable and precious!
Liao Pantu was immensely pleased with his eldest disciple.
The Huanyou Kingdom bordered the Pusi Kingdom, and for cultivators, the distance between them was not particularly far.
Before long, Sun Yigao and his five disciples entered the territory of the Huanyou Kingdom aboard a spirit ship.
Sun Yigao had already considered where to establish their first academy in the country. He had no intention of choosing one of the prosperous provinces near the capital. Instead, he selected a relatively remote location.
A place called Qingmu Township.
That was right—their academy would not be established in a prefectural city, county seat, or town, but in a rural township.
Qingmu Township was located at the westernmost edge of the Huanyou Kingdom. The township encompassed nearly thirty surrounding villages.
Because of its geography and climate, transportation there was severely restricted, and the area was desperately poor. Forget reading and writing—even having enough food to eat and adequate clothing to wear was beyond many people’s reach. Every winter, as well as during the transition between the old and new harvests, many people froze or starved to death.
Sun Yigao had explained Qingmu Township’s situation to his disciples while they were aboard the spirit ship.
Of the disciples he had brought this time, two had previously taught at the Lingxian Academy beneath the sect’s mountain: Wen Yuejun and Shen Yingzi.
The other three were younger, only fifteen or sixteen years old. They had never worked at the Lingxian Academy and had no teaching experience.
After hearing about Qingmu Township, Wen Yuejun was puzzled. He did not understand why his master had chosen such a place to build an academy.
Although he had once been an official’s son who knew nothing of the hardships of ordinary people, he had gained a firsthand understanding of them after becoming a teacher at the Lingxian Academy. Even the villagers of Xiushui Village, who had previously received the protection of the Lingxian Sect, had only considered sending their children to school once they could guarantee that their families had enough food and clothing.
It was only later, when every household no longer had to worry about basic necessities and the Lingxian Academy expanded its admissions, that they had finally reached the point where every child could attend school.
Yet Qingmu Township sounded far worse off than Xiushui Village had been in the past. Would they really be able to recruit students if they established an academy there?
The others did not have such a clear understanding of the situation, but broadly speaking, they shared Wen Yuejun’s doubts.
However, none of them immediately voiced their questions.
Their master had taught them that when observing the world, they should keep their doubts in mind while also thinking patiently. If they racked their brains and still could not find an answer, then asking a focused question would yield far more benefit than asking without thinking.
Thus, all five disciples held their questions in their hearts, intending to observe the actual situation after they arrived and then consider the matter carefully.
Sun Yigao brought the spirit ship to a halt at the foot of a secluded mountain in Qingmu Township, where scarcely a person could be seen.
“Change your clothes first.”
Sun Yigao took six sets of long robes and shoes made from coarse hemp cloth out of his storage ring and handed five sets to his disciples.
The five disciples quickly changed into the clothes.
The coarse hemp garments were mostly gray-green or brown, while the shoes were made of black hemp cloth. After removing their sect uniforms, the disciples also took off the jade crowns and other accessories on their heads.
Sun Yigao changed into his own set as well. He then raised his hand and tapped each person’s storage ring several times. The rings immediately vanished from sight.
They were merely invisible to the eye; in reality, they remained on each person’s hand.
At a glance, none of them looked like the otherworldly immortals they had appeared to be before.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
