Chapter 22: Master (XIV)

“Protagonist’s blackening value +0.8, blackening degree 99.8%. Please be careful and cautious, host.”

“Protagonist’s blackening value -0.2, blackening degree 99.6%. Please work hard, host.”

“Protagonist’s blackening value +0.5, blackening degree…”

…

In the spacious, bright room, Su Tan propped up his head, listening to the system’s broadcast that rang out at intervals, twirling his pen.

Ever since He Tingdong had taken a pile of cultivation methods to find Yue Qianxun, this broadcast sound hadn’t stopped.

Because the system was leaking audio, he and Qin Tan had been hiding in their room recently, urging it to quickly fix the audio leak problem. However, the system said the protagonist’s cultivation was currently too low, and his fortune was ridiculously poor, so it couldn’t absorb much energy and had no way to immediately patch the vulnerability.

They needed to push the protagonist to level up quickly, but when they stood there, three voices rang out chaotically, so naturally they didn’t dare go out randomly.

He Tingdong said the teaching matters were all on him, so they didn’t follow to watch, letting those two juniors figure out how to communicate and teach on their own.

Currently, it seemed… the protagonist’s resentment seemed quite heavy.

---

Yue Qianxun gulped down a large mouthful of cold water. After relieving the parching thirst in his throat, he poured another cup. This time he slowed down, drinking half slowly before finally feeling a bit better.

He looked at his reflection in the water cup—gaunt and haggard. Originally, the large burn scar from his forehead to his cheek on the left side of his face was disgusting enough. Now his eyes were lifeless, with dark circles under them, making him look like a zombie just pulled from a graveyard.

Wait, how exactly had he fallen to this state?

Yue Qianxun fell into confusion.

At that time, he was grabbed by his mother in the red dress, sank into the water, and fell unconscious. His last memory was her face, laughing while crying.

He hadn’t felt an embrace from his mother in many years. He knew that behind all brief warmth lay long pain and bloodshed to repay it. Yet when in his dream his mother held him in her arms and heard her apologize to him, he still couldn’t help but burst into tears.

And this time, after being embraced, he wasn’t thrown away like garbage, wasn’t strangled and beaten. There was only an ice-cold fingertip that touched his eyes, and then his mother turned into a ball of white mist and disappeared.

He woke up—not in the water, with no more wandering spirits or chaotic spirits either. Only a clean, comfortable bed, spacious bright windows.

That person called He Tingdong, taking advantage of when he’d just woken up and his reactions were slow, asked him if he still had any relatives.

Naturally, he had nothing left.

His head had just tentatively shaken once when the other’s hand landed on his shoulder, patting it heavily. Those distinct black and white eyes stared at him, containing neither disgust nor sympathy, only equal calm. “Little brother, this is really too fateful. All three of us have lost both parents.”

Yue Qianxun: “…” Was this something to be proud of?

“Do you have any relatives or friends you can depend on?” the other continued asking.

His mother was a dragon spirit from the marsh, his father had long since disappeared to who knows where, so naturally there was no place to go. This time, before his head could nod, he heard the other say to himself, “Actually, we two also have nowhere to go, depending on each other, drifting across the four seas. Pity that nowadays times are hard; the Nine Provinces aren’t easy to make a living in.”

On this point he agreed. Those who mistakenly entered the spirit mass all said without exception how difficult times were, with demons running rampant. Only the few major provinces protected by the immortal sects were relatively stable, but one also had to pay high protection fees.

For mortals, just staying alive already required effort and luck, so nowadays in the world, those who cultivated immortality were numerous.

“We two have decided to take the Azure Cloud trial, go to Azure Cloud Academy to earn a living, learn some skills for self-protection. I heard Azure Cloud Academy provides free room and board, and even arranges sect placement in the future.”

“If you have nowhere to go, why don’t you come along with us?”

“Azure Cloud Academy?” Yue Qianxun’s mind was blank. He actually knew nothing about the current world.

He Tingdong pinched his fingers together in a gesture. “A small little academy.”

Yue Qianxun remembered that in the mortal world, neighborhood children would indeed bring tuition gifts to seek teachers and study. So it turned out not only mortals did this, but immortal cultivation was the same.

Looking at these two people who weren’t much older than him, he absolutely didn’t want to show weakness, so he stiffly nodded, planning to first find an opportunity to observe more, learn more, and also extract information from them.

He was currently weak and alone, with many things he didn’t understand. He indeed needed to hide among normal people, conceal his identity, and keep a low profile. After figuring out the situation, he’d consider the next step.

Then, Yue Qianxun, who had just formed a bit of a future plan in his heart, was buried under countless classics and talismanic methods.

He studied continuously until now. Yue Qianxun held his water cup with both eyes blackened, reciting texts until he wanted to die. Yet beside him, He Tingdong, who was desperately gnawing through books, loudly called to him, “Xiao Yue! What realm are you at now? An inch of time is worth an inch of gold; an inch of gold cannot buy an inch of time. Don’t waste your beautiful youth—come study!”

Yue Qianxun turned to look at He Tingdong behind the desk, writing “characters” until his hands trembled, his face as pale as a ghost. He asked somewhat dazedly, “Do normal people really cultivate like this?”

He Tingdong: “Isn’t this normal? This is very normal? This is just ordinary people’s learning speed. Besides, with your aptitude, is it hard to cultivate from twenty-five days to the second realm?”

He poked his companion beside him who looked very dull but was actually ruthlessly efficient. “Ask him how many days it took to reach the second realm?”

That person calmly held up one finger.

Yue Qianxun’s vision went dark. “Ten days?!!”

Fu Fengyan hesitated, swallowed back the “one hour” that almost slipped out, and nodded.

“See, cultivation really isn’t difficult at all. Some people even rise one realm per day.” He Tingdong earnestly advised, “Everyone studies like this. Work hard, charge forward, believe in yourself—you can do it!”

Yue Qianxun didn’t know if he could do it, but he really felt like he was about to die. He wanted to burn the books, blow up the ship, and destroy the world.

But he was still too weak.

Putting down the cup in his hand, he resignedly threw himself into cultivation.

Finally, on the twentieth day, the stagnant spiritual meridians in his body suddenly moved. Subsequently, the spiritual energy throughout his body became lively like thawed flowing water, surging from his dantian to his limbs and bones.

Yue Qianxun successfully broke through to the second realm, reaching the basic realm needed to participate in the Azure Cloud preliminary trial.

At the same time, he could recite backward and forward those classics piled up as tall as a person, and could apply what he learned to the various test papers He Tingdong had him memorize.

The small room was filled with scattered talisman papers, books, formation diagrams, and the ancient immortal seal characters He Tingdong had researched during this period.

Sensing the flowing spiritual energy in the room, He Tingdong tremblingly extended his hand and gave a thumbs up. “Not bad, not bad. Finally up to standard. Keep up the good work.”

Hearing this, Yue Qianxun stood up, his steps unsteady, like sugarcane residue that had been chewed eight hundred times. After walking two steps, he collapsed, trembling as he crawled toward the door. “Don’t want to study anymore, I don’t want to study anymore, really don’t want to study anymore…”

He Tingdong didn’t want to study anymore either. He was exhausted to the point of vomiting.

Fortunately, the mission was finally complete, so he was liberated: “Alright, no more studying. Let’s take a break.”

Yue Qianxun flopped onto the ground and didn’t move.

In the adjacent room, the system’s broadcast sounded. Qin Tan slowly opened his eyes.

“Congratulations, host. Protagonist’s blackening value -10%. Current blackening value 87%. Congratulations!”

“Detected protagonist has risen to level two. System will shut down for three days for vulnerability repair. Please look forward to it, host!”

Su Tan also breathed a sigh of relief and sighed with emotion: “Finally don’t have to socially die anymore.”

“Xiao He really deserves to be a top student. Such vigorous energy—he actually managed this.”

He Tingdong lay sprawled at the table’s edge, his whole person not much better than Yue Qianxun.

In these twenty days, he had drawn several hundred talismans and successfully stepped into the third realm in cultivation. However, he was originally already at the peak of the second realm, so breaking through was quite natural.

He fished around in his robes and pulled out his little grudge-keeping notebook, drawing a circle after Yue Qianxun’s name.

Fu Fengyan’s head popped up from the edge of the desk. Watching He Tingdong take notes, he asked quietly, “Is this resolved?”

He Tingdong shook his head. “Remains to be observed.”

Then he smiled. “However, currently the progress seems smooth. Divine Lord, it’s been a long journey. Thank you for your hard work.”

“Not hard.” Fu Fengyan propped his head at the table’s edge, watching He Tingdong write and draw.

These past few days had been much easier for him than for them. Every day he just flipped through books. Those test questions went round and round—he couldn’t understand them. Both he and He Tingdong were sword cultivators; when the time came, they could just take the sword technique exam.

Only Yue Qianxun had never touched a sword. This thing couldn’t be learned quickly either. If He Tingdong wanted to stuff him in, he could only temporarily have him study formations. Fortunately, the protagonist’s brain was indeed smart. In twenty days, he memorized over three thousand talisman formations by rote, enough to handle most exams.

“You’re amazing. You know so many things.” Fu Fengyan praised.

“I’m not amazing. It’s just that because I can start over, I’ve tried walking a few more paths. Although I know a bit of everything, everything is just half a bucket sloshing around.” He Tingdong closed his little notebook, lightly glossing over the past. “After all, with poor root bones and slow realm advancement, learning more things naturally means a few more methods of self-preservation.”

Fu Fengyan nodded as if understanding. “We’re about to disembark. What do we do next?”

“Naturally, enroll in school.” He Tingdong clenched his fist. The exhaustion on his body was swept away completely. He said decisively, “After all, in Azure Cloud Academy, there are two Children of Heavenly Dao like Yue Qianxun.”

---

Five days later, the spirit boat landed.

However, because of the Thirty-Three Heavenly Palaces, the spirit boat couldn’t pass through the main city. It had to detour around a route and stop at a small city. This was the Xiangli clan’s dedicated docking point. A large number of spirit boats took off and landed, their massive hulls crashing into artificially excavated lakes, nearly displacing half a pool of water.

After a bout of swaying, Qin Tan led three children off the boat, declined the captain’s invitation to dine, and flew south with them on his sword.

The system upgrade was successful—finally no more audio leaks. They didn’t need to take turns day and night anymore. Now whoever wanted to speak could speak. However, Su Tan and Qin Tan’s personalities differed too greatly, so one could still detect clues from their temperaments at a glance.

Yue Qianxun was somewhat afraid of Qin Tan.

This was what He Tingdong observed after they met.

Perhaps Qin Tan’s personality was too cold and hard, or perhaps that initial “Get lost” left a psychological shadow on the child. In any case, wherever Yue Qianxun was, Qin Tan would definitely show up.

Azure Cloud Academy was at the border between Cloud Province and Central Province, extremely far from the Thirty-Three Heavenly Palaces but very close to the Upper Mystic Realm, so Qin Tan escorted them part of the way.

“I’m returning to the sect. I’ll be at Azure Cloud Academy at the end of April.” Qin Tan stood at a fork in the road, methodically instructing them. “The Azure Cloud trial will take a month. Here are spirit pearls for you three to use, plus my token. Take this to find reception—they should arrange better lodging for you so you won’t suffer.”

He Tingdong was very moved. “Immortal Lord…”

Qin Tan held his sword, his long hair flying. “When I arrive, if I don’t see you at the academy, just wait for a beating.”