What Kind of Classes Were They Teaching?

Over the next three days, the Spirit Cloud Sect's courses suddenly became far more demanding than before.

The disciples were often tormented by cultivation all day, only to return to their dormitories and continue suffering through Survival Mode on hard difficulty.

Under this double torment, not only did the disciples not break down, they instead grew increasingly excited.

New cards required them to grind for Spirit Stones to unlock.

Different zombie combinations required unique countermeasures.

The plants they had once arranged casually now required careful consideration of resource allocation between spiritual energy, combat power, and defense...

The more the disciples suffered, the more they loved playing—and the more they suffered, the stronger they became.

To save time, many disciples even learned how to split their attention and enter the Illusion Tower to operate it while walking.

Across the entire sect, the overall level of Spiritual Sense control improved at a staggering pace.

Ding Mingcang had been feeling much more at ease lately.

According to intelligence obtained by Qian Yutang, the Trial stages Lu Ze had launched a few days ago were far too difficult.

So difficult that the entire Forum was filled with complaints, everyone saying it was simply impossible to clear them.

This was completely different from the cheerful atmosphere of discussion from a few days ago.

Ding Mingcang thought—

This is stable!

Why had Lu Ze's "Demonic Path Escape" succeeded, in his view?

Wasn't it because it was easy and entertaining?

Now that Lu Ze had adopted the exact opposite approach of extreme difficulty in order to prevent the disciples from clearing the stages, failure was inevitable.

Furthermore, the major spiritual peaks had recently greatly increased the intensity of their classes. The disciples were no longer as free as before.

They were busy to death all day, only to face an obstacle-filled illusion realm cultivation session when they returned?

No matter how much the Spirit Cloud Sect disciples loved to compete, they probably could not keep that up!

Thinking of this, Ding Mingcang was in high spirits and decided to personally inspect the atmosphere and witness the peaceful academic environment.

The first place he went was Sword Inquiry Peak.

That day, the Elder of Sword Inquiry Peak had held quite a few objections toward "Plants vs. Zombies."

He believed that practicing swordsmanship by chopping fruit sullied the sword path.

Sure enough, just as he had expected, Sword Inquiry Peak swiftly answered the call and increased the disciples' course load.

From far away, Ding Mingcang saw countless students in the lecture hall listening intently as a Steward explained the lesson.

"Not bad, not bad... This atmosphere is the Spirit Cloud Sect I know."

Ding Mingcang secretly praised them, deeply satisfied.

The students in the lecture hall were all diligently recording key points with their pens.

When the lesson reached an exciting part, quite a few disciples even mimicked the movements, completely absorbed.

But when he moved closer, his brow suddenly furrowed.

The image projected into the air by the Steward...

was actually filled with fruit raining down from the sky, with spirit plants mixed among them??

And upon listening more closely, the lesson was actually about how to plant the desired spirit plants in designated positions in the shortest possible time??

From the trajectory of a single sword strike that cut down useless fruit, to the fine control of using the flat of the blade to adjust where spirit plants landed, every movement was analyzed step by step to teach the disciples how to properly master basic sword techniques.

According to the Steward teaching the class, what appeared to be an ordinary sword swing actually required extremely precise and swift movements if one wanted to plant a needed spirit plant in the shortest amount of time.

Quite a few disciples even suspected that Lu Ze's attainments in Swordsmanship were only higher, never lower—unfathomably profound.

Otherwise, he could never have created such an exquisite design...

Ding Mingcang's scalp went numb as he listened from the side, yet he could not say much.

After all, it was not his territory. Aside from being somewhat related to "Plants vs. Zombies," the lesson content was indeed useful.

He left directly and turned toward Danqing Peak.

Upon arriving at Danqing Peak, the sight in the lecture hall made him cough up blood even more.

Classes were also in session on Danqing Peak. A huge topic floated in midair, visible from far away—

Using the Ice Peashooter as an example: How to cultivate an outstanding mutated ice-element spiritual plant

The lecturer was none other than Danqing Peak's Third Elder, Lin Qingxuan, personally taking the stage. He animatedly described his idea of cultivating every spiritual plant from Plants vs. Zombies within the sect...

"Hiss—!"

Ding Mingcang sucked in a breath.

His head hurt even more!

He changed direction again and headed for Quenching Gold Peak, which had always been strict in body forging.

In Body Forging Valley, Mu Yawen, her skin bronzed like ancient copper, was leading a group of junior disciples in punching the brown boulders before them.

Their punches howled through the air, striking the brown rocks before them with neat, muffled thuds.

Ding Mingcang recognized those rocks. They were body-forging stones specially used by Quenching Gold Peak disciples to temper their bodies, their toughness anything but ordinary.

"Finally, something reliable..."

Ding Mingcang let out a sigh of relief.

Thinking about it, it made sense.

Mu Yawen had the most simple and honest nature, while Plants vs. Zombies required a great deal of thought.

He remembered that day in the plaza, when Mu Yawen had died countless times in the starting level alone.

It was only normal that she would not like it.

With such a senior sister leading them, Quenching Gold Peak's cultivation atmosphere naturally put him at ease.

"Wait, these body-forging stones seem a little strange..."

Ding Mingcang frowned and looked more closely.

The brown rocks actually had a pair of round little eyes carved into each one, making them look exactly like the Tall-Nuts from Plants vs. Zombies!

Shouts rose one after another from below.

"Come on, everyone! Temper your bodies well, and protect your fellow disciples like Tall-Nut Taoists do!!"

"If Wall-nut Taoists can do it, then we must not fall behind!"

"Yesterday, I lacked the ability and lost eight Tall-Nut comrades. Today, I'll punish myself by personally smashing eight body-forging stones!"

Ding Mingcang was dumbfounded.

How had these disciples, who loved body forging so much, fallen into it too???

Ding Mingcang wandered across several peaks, his expression growing increasingly grim.

The amount of coursework in the Spirit Cloud Sect had skyrocketed, and the disciples had come to enjoy attending class.

But the course content always seemed inseparable from Plants vs. Zombies.

If this continued, Wouldn't Lu Ze's reputation only grow better and better?

A bad premonition rose in Ding Mingcang's heart.

In a foul mood, he returned to Numinous Ascent Peak.

On the way back, he spotted a lecture being held in the sect plaza below.

The sect plaza was relatively free-form, and there was no record of it. At a glance, it was clearly some disciple's private class, set up on a whim.

Ding Mingcang focused his gaze and happened to see the topic floating in the air—

Using Survival Mode as an example: An analysis of the essentials of formation layout

Already upset and distracted, Ding Mingcang became furious the moment he saw yet another course using Plants vs. Zombies as its entry point.

Moreover, formations were Numinous Ascent Peak's specialty. Someone teaching a formation class here was undoubtedly a slap in his face!

"Who dares teach privately in our sect plaza without permission?! And a formation class from my Numinous Ascent Peak, no less!"

Ding Mingcang shouted and leaped directly down from the air.

The moment he saw the other person's face, Ding Mingcang froze.

The lecturer was actually the Grand Elder, Chao Wendao.

"What? Lectures aren't even allowed in the sect plaza now?"

Chao Wendao's face darkened, his interest in teaching interrupted.

"No, no..."

"Then you think I'm showing off my meager skills by teaching formations?"

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare..."

Back at Numinous Ascent Peak, Ding Mingcang felt that the situation was extremely serious.

The elders who had originally disliked "Plants vs. Zombies" now all seemed to be taking an ambiguous stance.

Ding Mingcang was freaking the hell out inside.

He did not want to face the wall in Repentance Valley.

In the sect's history, no Elder had ever been sent there for losing a bet with a disciple.

"No, I have to think of something..."