Chapter 12 The Second Day of Growing Up
Yu Sui only told Zhong Lique about her upcoming trip to Taiyi Academy.
Zhong Lique saw the message in the evening, and she hurriedly replied with a message: "Why so suddenly?"
Have you already left?
"Ahhh, I didn't even get to see you one last time!"
Sitting in the carriage, Yu Sui, who had already left the capital, scratched his head when he saw the message.
"I'm going to Taiyi Academy to cultivate, not to die."
Zhong Lique replied to her, "Be careful when you're out there alone. Taiyi Academy has people from six countries, so it's a mixed bunch. There are quite a few who are hostile to the Nangong family, but the academy doesn't seem to care about that."
Just as Yu Sui was about to reassure her, the carriage stopped.
The person in charge of escorting Yu Sui was Cao Yan, one of Nangong Ming's trusted confidants and the captain of the Prince's Palace Guard.
Cao Yan's respectful voice came from outside the carriage: "Princess, the imperial carriage has arrived."
Yu Sui put away the Wind Listening Ruler, lifted the carriage curtain, and looked outside.
Ahead lies the Sishui River, the border of Qingyang. The river is wide, and a ferry is needed to cross to the other side.
The riverbank was covered with lush green grass, interspersed with small white and purple flowers. Night mist hung over the river, and in the darkness, apart from the torches carried by the accompanying party, the only other things to see were fireflies dancing on the river's surface.
Taiyi Academy possesses the Cloud Chariot Flying Dragon, built with the world's most powerful mechanical art. In addition to being jointly constructed by the four great mechanical families, it was also blessed by seven renowned sages, allowing it to fly in the sky and never fall.
The academy has dragon carriage stations in all six countries. As long as someone has registered with the academy, the dragon carriage will arrive at the station on time to pick up and drop off the students.
The only way to get to Taiyi Academy is by riding the Cloud Chariot Flying Dragon.
Yu Sui got out of the car and looked up at the clouds in the sky. In the distance, a golden hue appeared faintly, approaching from afar.
From a distance, the flying dragon appears as a slender, golden line.
Cao Yan instructed from the side, "Once you arrive at Taiyi, members of the Nangong clan in the outer city will guide you. Young Master Gu is currently trapped by the Legalists and needs the Di Su Tian Ping of the Ming family to make a judgment. His Highness has already prepared it."
Yu Sui withdrew her gaze from the sky, turned around, and Cao Yan handed her a long black box.
Nangong Ming sent her to Taiyi Academy for a reason. If Gu Gan hadn't been trapped, he wouldn't have been in such a hurry to send Yu Sui to the rescue.
After all, Sheng Fei, the third son who was far away in Taiyi, didn't care about Gu Gan's affairs at all. He was hoping that Gu Gan would get into trouble and be expelled from the academy.
Because they were too far apart, Nangong Ming could only wait for Sheng Fei to return before dealing with him.
As soon as Yu Sui took the black box, he heard a deep dragon roar in the sky. A golden dragon descended from the clouds and mist, its eyes shining through the thick fog and onto the ferry landing on the shore.
From afar it looks like a golden thread, but upon closer inspection, it turns out to be a "thread" made up of segments of the body connected together.
Although it is a man-made inanimate object, it is exquisitely crafted, as if a real dragon has appeared in the world and is roaming the heavens and earth.
The dragon-drawn carriage descended onto the ferry crossing, and Yu Sui could hear the clattering of gears turning. She gazed at the enormous creature half-hidden in the clouds ahead, and just like when she first saw the National Academy's communication array, she was once again amazed by the wonders of this world.
"Princess," Cao Yan and the others bowed and said, "Take care on your journey."
Yu Sui waved to them: "Then I'm leaving."
She walked toward the dragon carriage carrying the long black box. Someone was waiting at the entrance, his clothes fluttering in the night wind. As the small figure below gradually approached, the man raised his head and smiled, "Wait a moment. I am Mo Yun, the driver of this Cloud Dragon Carriage. Please confirm your identity on the register."
Yu Sui took the name list from Mo Yun, flipped through several pages before finding her own name, filled in the required information below, and handed it back.
After confirming, Mo Yun stepped aside and said, "Please."
Yu Sui stood in front of the dragon's mouth and looked inside. The lights were dazzling. She stepped forward and entered this magnificent and wonderful world.
The dragon chariot began to fly, re-entering the clouds and heading towards the southernmost part of the Xuan Gu Continent.
Mo Yun led Yu Sui toward her room and said gently, "The journey is long, so you can rest in the guest room for the night. We will arrive at the academy at Chenshi (7-9 AM) tomorrow. If you need a meal, you can go to the red room at the back and let them know. Someone will bring your dinner to your room shortly."
Yu Sui looked down at the wooden planks on the ground and could feel the dragon chariot flying at a considerable speed, but it did not affect people's movement inside at all.
"This is where you'll rest." Mo Yun stopped in front of a black door.
The passageway between the two sections of the dragon carriage was lined with black doors, each with a number written on it. Yu Sui's room number was 806.
“You are the last student. The dragon carriage will not stop and will continue all the way to the academy.” Mo Yun pushed open the door, gestured for Yu Sui to enter, and said elegantly with her head bowed, “You will be notified when the time comes, so I won’t disturb your rest.”
Yu Sui stood at the doorway, looking around the room. The furnishings were exquisite, with a small window, a small bed, a dressing table, tables and chairs, and a vase of flowers on the table by the window. A bunch of white flowers she didn't know the name of were in full bloom in the vase, creating a comfortable personal world.
It's so exquisite.
Yu Sui sighed inwardly, walked to the window and sat down, carefully pushing the window open.
The wooden window was fastened tightly, and she could only push it open a little at a time. After slowly pushing open half of the window, she saw the clouds and mist floating outside, with a golden dragon chariot, hundreds of meters long, bobbing up and down in them.
Not knowing where it flew over, Yu Sui looked down from a high place and saw thousands of lights below through the clouds, from the bustling capital to the quiet countryside, and then to the scattered lights in the mountains and forests.
In the end, all she saw was a boundless sea, with the moon rising and falling over it, but she couldn't see the end of this world.
The Endless Sea to the south is the biggest obstacle preventing people from entering Taiyi Academy. It stretches as far as the eye can see and has no end. It is said to be larger than the six kingdoms combined, occupying half of the area of the Xuan Gu Continent.
Fog is common at sea and can be disorienting. Without accurate navigation, it is easy to get lost and eventually die at sea.
Even by boat, it is impossible to reach Taiyi Academy from the Endless Sea. There are thousands upon thousands of magic arrays of all sizes in the Endless Sea, one inside the other. To this day, no one has been able to cross the Endless Sea by boat to reach Taiyi Academy.
The only way to get to the academy is by riding a cloud chariot, the Flying Dragon.
What Yu Sui saw next was an endless sea, sometimes azure, sometimes dark under the moonlight, occasionally obscured by clouds and mist, making it impossible to see anything.
She rested her chin on her hand, staring for a long time, seemingly lost in thought, until a knock came at the door.
The knocking on the door was incessant, something that wouldn't be done by the elegant coachman Mo Yun.
Yu Sui went to open the door and saw a man and a woman standing outside, about the same age as her. The boy in the blue robe had his head drooping, as if he hadn't woken up yet, while the girl in the white dress with pigtails was full of excitement, and her eyes lit up even more when she saw Yu Sui.
“I am Xue Jiayue from Taiyuan Kingdom,” the girl smiled at Yu Sui, her eyes crinkling, and then pointed to the sleepy boy beside her, “This is my cousin, Xue Mushi.”
Yu Sui blinked but didn't say anything.
Xue Jiayue, ever the friendly type, opened the food box hanging on her arm and took out a stack of small food boxes, handing them to Yu Sui: "This is a greeting gift. We're both new students this year, let's get to know each other beforehand!"
After saying that, without waiting for Yu Sui to accept it or not, he shoved it into her hand and turned to knock on the door across the street.
It's clear that this girl is in a state of excitement.
Yu Sui opened the food box in her hand, saw the pastries inside, and then silently closed the lid again.
"Is anyone home?" Xue Jiayue knocked on the door, but there was no response for a long time. Just as she put her ear to the door, she saw the person inside open the door. She almost fell in. The figure standing at the door stepped aside and did not offer to help her.
"Ouch!" Xue Jiayue grabbed the door frame to steady herself. "That was close, you..."
She looked up and paused when she saw the people's attire in the room.
Yu Sui and Xue Mushi also looked at the person who came out of the door. Xue Mushi seemed to have lessened his sleepiness, but there was a hint of confusion in his eyes.
The young man standing at the doorway wore a white robe tied around his waist, his hair bound with a jade crown, and a sword at his waist. One hand rested on the hilt of the sword, exuding a cold and aloof aura. The dim light of the corridor bathed his overly pale skin, and beneath his thick, dark eyebrows, a pair of sharp yet silent eyes gently swept over Xue Jiayue.
His handsome appearance and mature, composed demeanor made Xue Jiayue's heart race.
She quickly stepped back into the corridor, speaking softer, though her tone still couldn't hide her cheerfulness: "Young hero, I am Xue Jiayue from Taiyuan Kingdom. We are both new students, so let's get to know each other beforehand!"
"Here, this is a gift for you." Xue Jiayue handed over the snack box.
The boy remained silent.
Yu Sui scratched her face, somewhat unable to bear the sight.
Xue Mushi whispered a reminder: "She's a woman."
"Huh?" Xue Jiayue turned around. "Cousin, what did you say so quietly?"
“It’s not a young hero,” Xue Mushi said with difficulty, “she’s a woman.”
Xue Jiayue looked back in shock.
The boy did not accept the food box, but lowered his voice and said, "Nanjing, Li Jinshuang."
"Oh...oh oh." Xue Jiayue didn't know what to say for a moment, and kept nodding. To avoid embarrassment, she quickly knocked on the door next to Li Jinshuang's.
Just as Li Jinshuang closed the door, the door next door opened.
The boy who came out was tall and thin, and his clothes were more shabby compared to the others outside. He was wearing only a simple blue robe, and it seemed that his clothes were only needed to cover the parts that needed to be covered.
The boy raised his hand to rub his hair, and his sleeve slid down a lot, revealing his scarred arm.
"Why are you knocking on people's doors in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?" The boy finished picking at his hair and yawned, his narrow phoenix eyes casually sweeping over the people outside.
"I'm bringing a gift." Xue Jiayue smiled broadly. "I am..."
"Understood, Taiyuan people." The young man took the food box from Xue Jiayue, but glanced at Yu Sui opposite him, and slightly raised his chin in acknowledgment, "And you?"
The other two also looked at Yu Sui.
Yu Sui could no longer remain silent, so she spoke up: "Qingyang, Nangong Sui."
“Oh, Princess Nangong.” The young man raised an eyebrow at Yu Sui. “I have long admired your name.”
The look in his eyes, however, held a deeper meaning.
"What about you?" Xue Jiayue urged, "You've already asked others, you can't just not tell me yourself."
The boy lazily replied, "A farmer, Wei Ren."
The three of them were taken aback.
Everyone else said what country they were from, but he immediately announced which sect he was a disciple of.
“This stuff,” Wei Ren said, opening the food box, taking two bites of pastries, then spitting them back out, and closing the lid without any ceremony. Before shutting the door, he commented, “Even a dog wouldn’t eat this.”
"Hey!" Xue Jiayue realized what was happening, but before she could get angry for two seconds, she put her hand down again. "It wasn't me who made it. I took the food from inside the dragon carriage."
Xue Mushi suddenly said, "Don't move."
Xue Jiayue turned around: "What's wrong?"
"Don't move." Xue Mushi looked troubled, seemingly unwilling to get involved but having no choice but to help.
He stepped forward, brushed aside Xue Jiayue's hair at the back of her neck, and pulled out a small red scorpion from the roots of her hair.
"The stone scorpions used by farmers are commonly used to steal intelligence." Xue Mushi tossed the little red scorpion to Xue Jiayue and took five steps back. He himself was actually quite afraid of such a small thing.
Xue Jiayue's eyes widened after seeing this, she was furious, and she threw the stone scorpion at Wei Ren's door: "You're too scheming!"
Still not satisfied with what she had said, she wanted to kick the door, but then she realized that they were on a dragon carriage and the other party was already a disciple of a sect. She hadn't even noticed a stone scorpion, so what if there was something else?
Xue Jiayue endured it, stomped on the stone scorpion until it broke, and then angrily left the dragon carriage.
Yu Sui looked at the stone scorpion that had shattered into pieces on the ground. After a moment, the fragments returned to their original state and reassembled into a stone scorpion, which then crawled through the crack in the door.
The room was dark, with no lights on. Wei Ren, lying on the bed, stretched out his hand, let the red scorpion crawl onto his fingertip, and then put it in his mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it.
Yu Sui closed the door, sat back down by the window, and gazed at the Black Sea outside, lost in thought.
When Wei Ren mentioned the farmer, she was certain that this person knew that the Breath of Soil was with her.
The Xue family cousins are quite different. The younger sister is lively and good at socializing, while the older brother is a bit socially awkward but has exceptional eyesight, able to immediately spot the stone scorpion that Wei Ren left on Xue Jiayue.
As for the "young heroine" Li Jinshuang, who was disguised as a man, she's quite interesting.
Yu Sui tapped the table lightly with his fingers, and after a moment picked up the Wind Listening Ruler. In the Endless Sea, there was no communication array, nor could a communication array be established, so there was no way to send messages outward.
She glanced at the motionless Wind Listening Ruler, then at the black box beside her, which contained the Di Constellation Scales, an important tool for rescuing Gu Gan from the Legalist territory.
Yu Sui thought for a moment, opened the food box, grabbed a piece of mung bean cake and put it in her mouth to eat. A moment later, she spat it all out.
really.
Even dogs wouldn't eat this.
Yu Sui did not sleep all night.
She sat by the window all night, watching the moon slowly sink and then the sun rise in the east, its orange-gold light breaking through the clouds and gradually illuminating the sea and the road ahead.
As the massive islands and cities came into view, a deep, resonant dragon's roar echoed.
Taiyi Academy is as large as a country; this is no exaggeration.
Looking down from the sky, Yu Sui could feel the vastness of the land below. As the sunlight chased after him, the dimly lit lamps in the city gradually went out.
The outer city was almost entirely populated by businessmen.
Some of them have been here since birth, while others came from outside to do business with Taiyi Academy. They come from different parts of the six countries, and the place is a mixed bag. Some are simply doing business, while others are involved in shady dealings. There are also fugitives from other countries who live honest lives under assumed names, while others are dishonest.
In the outer city of Taiyi, the academy does not concern itself with the disciples' grudges, family feuds, national feuds, or personal feuds.
The rule against killing only applies within the academy.
There are twenty-four saints in the academy today.
There are tens of thousands of students; people come and go every year.
The dragon's roar faded into the distance, and the people on the carriage rose to prepare to disembark. The dragon carriage stopped at the outer city ferry crossing, where there were dozens of landing points along the coast.
When Yu Sui opened the door, she happened to see Li Jinshuang from across the hall also coming out. The two met unexpectedly. Li Jinshuang glanced at her briefly and then looked away, walking towards the exit alone.
Each ferry dock on the shore corresponds to a section of the dragon carriage, and Yu Sui and the others don't need to walk far to see the exit. Outside the door is a new world, filled with birdsong and fragrant flowers. The towering rock walls are covered with flowers and grass, and seabirds sing melodiously in the early morning, perching on the back of the dragon carriage with food in their beaks to watch the new students arrive.
The Nangong family had been waiting for a long time.
"Princess." The black-bearded man standing at the ferry dock waved to Yu Sui, "This way!"
Blackbeard walked toward Yu Sui, with Ji Meng, who had grown up, following behind him.
Even after growing up, Ji Meng still looked like a skinny monkey. The difference was that his skin was darker than when he was in the capital of Qingyang. He was very worried about Gu Gan's affairs and was anxious. But when he saw Yu Sui getting off the dragon carriage, Ji Meng couldn't help but be stunned and briefly forgot his anxiety.
It's only been two or three years, how could there be such a big change?
Ji Meng's impression of Yu Sui was still that of a somewhat naive and cute girl. Especially when he climbed over the wall that night and saw that it was Yu Sui, he even doubted whether he had gone to the wrong place in the Nangong Prince's Mansion.
He was deeply impressed by that night.
Because Yu Sui was standing under the tree with a broom, she noticed that the moment he was startled after landing, he looked just like a cat, with its pupils dilating and turning black.
The girl walking in the golden orange morning sun has a slender waist and porcelain-white skin. The gauze skirt she wears softens the red of her dress, but as she walks in the sunlight, the bright red is brought back to life, becoming bright and dazzling.
Her eyes, like autumn water, held a natural smile, and her dark pupils still made Ji Meng think of her as a cat.
She has grown taller, and her delicate and pretty face, which was already beautiful when she was a child, has blossomed, becoming even more charming and lively.
A sentence inexplicably popped into Ji Meng's mind: I am right.
I remember a few months ago when he was chatting with Gu Gan and others about who was the prettiest girl in the National Academy and the girl in Taiyi, he said it was Yu Sui.
Gu Gan said that each had its own merits, but the other two said that Xun Zhiya of Taiyi was superior.
Now that he has met Yu Sui, Ji Meng affirms, "I was right."
Blackbeard helped Yu Sui take the box containing the Di Su Tian Ping (a type of weight), and said as they walked, "It's quite a distance from the outer city to the Legalist trial ground. Since the princess doesn't know how to control the wind yet, we'll take a carriage there first."
Yu Sui responded with an "Mmm," then glanced at Ji Meng, who was standing motionless to the side, and greeted him, "Long time no see."
Ji Meng realized what was happening and quickly said, "Princess, it's been a long time."
"Are you calling me that here too?" Yu Sui stopped and looked at him. "Isn't it said that within Taiyi Academy, class is disregarded and honorifics are unnecessary?"
Ji Meng awkwardly touched his nose: "This is the outer city, not yet within the academy. Besides, I'm used to calling it that, so it's fine if I don't change it."
Yu Sui nodded and, with the help of the servants, got into the carriage. Blackbeard and Jimeng followed her in and explained the current situation to her on the way.
The students disembarked from the dragon bus one after another, and exclaimed in amazement at the vast and majestic world before them, chattering and making a racket that even drowned out the cries of the seabirds.
Li Jinshuang walked alone on the shady path, silent amidst the noise.
Wei Ren found the sunlight dazzling, so he rubbed his eyes and slowly squeezed out of the crowd, aimlessly scanning the crowd. Three or five companions walked towards him, walking side by side.
Xue Jiayue ran forward with a cheer, while Xue Mushi opened his mouth, but in the end decided against it and said nothing, walking slowly with his head down.
"Cousin, why are you walking so slowly? Run!"
Xue Jiayue turned around, grabbed Xue Mushi, and dragged him along.
The seabirds on the dragon-shaped vehicle seemed to be frightened by the newcomers, swallowed their food in one gulp, and flew away.
[Author's Note]
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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