Pine trees and sea of clouds
One month later, Xuancang College.
The people at Mingyue Peak seized the opportunity to spend a month freely and leisurely, and finally made up their minds to go to Mount Taihua.
Wuchen Island also sent another master, the master of Biqu Peak, Fufeng Xianzun, who planned to teach students in Xuancang Academy the techniques of refining spiritual plants.
Since she was born, Xu Shulou did not take up the position of lecturer, but entered the school as a disciple with her fellow junior brothers and sisters. She always felt that she was still incompetent and not qualified to teach others.
Although she had enrolled in the school, Xu Shulou did not plan to share the joys and sorrows with her fellow junior students for too long. Instead, she was ready to run away at any time depending on the situation. Several of them were unaware of Xu Shulou's sinister intentions and were surrounding her with admiration.
Here, each student will receive a number which will serve as their temporary code name for the next few years.
This move is also for the sake of fairness. Once enrolled, all past honors can be put aside for the time being. In Xuancang College, they are just students. No matter if they were independent cultivators or disciples of famous sects, they are all treated equally after arriving here. Students are not allowed to inquire about each other's identities and origins.
It is still unknown how effective the specific implementation will be, but the idea is good overall, and the various sects have no reason to object.
Xu Shulou got number 121, and the seven disciples of Mingyue Peak lined up to get their numbers. When it was Bai Roushuang's turn, it was number 127.
The person handing out number plates to everyone was no longer the servant boy they met during their first visit, but a puppet.
Xu Shulou heard someone in the crowd sigh, "Puppets are very expensive. As expected of the Qingcheng Sect, they are indeed very wealthy."
Bai Roushuang had never seen a puppet before, so she couldn't help but cast her eyes on those nimble wooden sculptures. In Xuancang Academy, except for the teachers who were responsible for teaching, all other positions were replaced by puppets. These puppets were all carved from wood and driven by spirit stones. They had no emotional bias and only followed the rules.
Xuancang College probably wants to uphold fairness to the end.
Xu Shulou and his party lined up to receive the uniform, five sets per person, all of which were mainly plain colors. Those disciples with low cultivation and unable to keep warm could also receive two extra sets of cotton-padded clothes.
She changed into white clothes, put on a hair crown, tied a jade belt, hung the small wooden sign engraved with "One Hundred and Twenty-One" around her waist, and quickly blended into the crowd.
Many people in the cultivation world have heard of Xu Shulou's name, but only a few recognize her face. Most of the students here don't know her and just think of her as "One Hundred and Twenty-One". She has made a few friends here, and occasionally they affectionately call her "Xiaoyi" or "Ayi".
Everyone attends classes like kendo and spiritual cultivation together, but when it comes to magic and swordsmanship classes that require actual hands-on practice, the classes are divided into several classrooms and everyone practices under the guidance of different masters.
I don’t know how the Qingcheng Sect communicates with these masters, but at least on the surface you can’t see that they are hiding anything, and most of them are willing to share their skills and teach their disciples.
The course selection here is very free, and there are many courses for students to choose from. Some people only want to ascend to heaven, so they don't touch those "unorthodox ways", but not everyone comes from a big sect with endless cultivation resources. It is inevitable that they need a skill to gain a foothold in the world of cultivation. If they want to learn more, they can choose at will.
Xu Shulou chose a course called "Flowers and Winemaking" based on his hobby. The teacher was an old man with a white beard and a slightly weird temper, but he would often bring the wine he brewed to class for the students to taste, which won Xu Shulou's heart.
Few people chose this course, which resulted in many opportunities for the few students to communicate with the master. As time went by, the master introduced Xu Shulou as a drinking buddy. From time to time, he would bring her a jar of newly brewed spirit wine. The old and the young would lean against a pine tree on the cliff and drink facing the sea of clouds below.
This spiritual wine was actually brewed to replenish the spiritual energy of cultivators, but the two of them just wanted to drink it as a delicacy, and no one stopped them.
Xu Shulou's winemaking skills also improved by leaps and bounds. In class, the master tasted a glass of rose wine that she tried to brew and said frankly that she would be able to pass the assessment of this course easily.
The scenery of Mount Taihua is beautiful, with green pines, sea of clouds, and thousands of towering peaks. Xu Shulou likes to float in the sea of clouds and relax in his spare time.
However, there is not much free time, as the schoolwork here is quite busy. The people from Mingyue Peak are all busy with their schoolwork. The seven of them have chosen the courses they are interested in. Except for the swordsmanship, they are busy with their own things. Xu Shulou has not seen her beloved junior sister for three days, although they still live under the same roof.
In Xuancang Academy, the small building that Xu Shulou bought in the mortal world finally came in handy. The disciples from Mingyue Peak did not want to live with others, so they temporarily lived in this small building, waiting to earn a single room for themselves in the academy while taking the assessment.
Other disciples also raised doubts, but the puppet just shook his head with an impartial face and said, "It does not violate the school regulations."
Then some disciples learned from the experience and some set up tents in the yard, and some even built temporary wooden houses. As long as there was no fire hazard, the puppets would pretend not to see it.
In Xuancang Academy, people gradually divided into two categories. One category probably had a good family background and did not value the learning resources here. The other category worked extra hard because of the way resources were allocated according to test scores. Especially when the test was approaching, everyone would study at their desks at night, and the aura of magic spells could be seen everywhere in the night.
Xu Shulou, who has always been casual, is actually one of the more hardworking ones. She likes the library here very much and often goes there to borrow books. Sometimes she will hold a book and read it carefully while floating in the sea of clouds.
Time flies, and in a blink of an eye it is the day of the first assessment. This assessment is relatively fair, as it only tests what everyone has learned and seen in the three months since they entered school.
Bai Roushuang worked very hard. When Xu Shulou passed by her room, he found that she didn't even comb her hair. She just casually tied it behind her head with a brush, and made a hand gesture, trying hard to practice the water control technique.
Perhaps because she was born in the mortal world, Bai Roushuang is very interested in those small spells that can bring convenience to life.
Xu Shulou smiled, did not disturb him, turned around and left quietly.
This kind of orderly and step-by-step learning did bring them some benefits, and Xu Shulou was also able to learn a lot of new magic skills besides swordsmanship.
When she was tested on her control over spiritual power in class that day, she used a move she had just learned, Picking Leaves and Flying Flowers. A lifelike apricot blossom slowly formed in her hand. The next moment, all the petals shot out and stuck to the white wall of the classroom.
"Okay!" The teacher in charge of this course nodded, picked up a pen and paper and wrote a note after her number.
What Xu Shulou didn't expect was that Xuancang Academy's system of hiding one's identity actually brought her some romantic opportunities.
Since real names were not known in the academy, Xu Shulou could only temporarily call the other person "Thirty-three". He was a male cultivator who was considered handsome. Perhaps he was attracted by Xu Shulou's remarkable performance in class and began to pursue her.
Even though it was forbidden to inquire about each other's identities and backgrounds in the academy, Xu Shulou could guess that this thirty-third young master probably came from a good family.
Because his style was, well, more domineering. He seemed to believe that Xu Shulou was a poor but hardworking girl, and tried to corrupt her with money and spirit stones.
Xu Shulou didn't quite understand what this guy was trying to do, and he dodged him several times in confusion. However, this thirty-three-year-old young master seemed to get some fun from it, similar to the "one chasing and one escaping" game, and started to get more aggressive.
That day, he blocked Xu Shulou on his way home from school and said with a smile, "Run, little rabbit, run, I want to see if you can run out of my grasp."
"..."Xu Shulou suddenly realized.
Later, she described the incident to her fellow junior students in this way.
"At that time, he blocked me there and said something like, 'Run away, little bastard!'" Xu Shulou shook his head and sighed. "When I heard that, I thought, isn't that a provocation? How could I run away? So I just beat him up."
"..." The fellow students did not hear anything sweet in this retelling. They just thought that this was another guy who was looking for revenge on his senior sister without knowing his own limitations. They all sighed, "Why did you mess with her?" and then dispersed.
It's a pity for this unknown young man of thirty-three, whose inner thoughts are unknown to anyone.
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