Who could stand above the rules? There was no need to say it aloud; everyone knew it as clearly as a polished mirror. This rule applied everywhere in the universe.
Chen Nan wanted to become a Transcendent, and he also knew that among Transcendents, if one's strength was merely average, one would still be at the mercy of others, like fish on the chopping block. Therefore, the thought of rising above all Transcendents took root in his heart.
Not every Transcendent would entertain such a dream. Many people preferred to muddle along within the rules, using the rules established by the powerful to live quite comfortably.
You could not change society, so you could only adapt to it.
What a familiar saying that was. Like a maggot, which could in fact live as white and pure as jade, yet it could not change the fact that it lived amid the rot of a dung pit, so it could only adapt.
Thus maggots grew dirtier, and thus people grew more...
Of course, every one of us could say: life had forced us to do it!
In a sense, rules were shit. What Chen Nan wanted to be was the one squatting over the pit.
But for now, he could only muddle along here and head toward the dormitories with the other students.
Since only one parent was allowed inside, only Jiang Lili accompanied Chen Nan in to help him arrange his belongings and make his bed, looking utterly delighted.
Once everything had been put away, Chen Nan said to Jiang Lili, "All right, I'm fine here. Hurry back and get some rest."
Jiang Lili pulled a long face. "Can't I stay here for a while? Under normal circumstances, how could people like us ever get into a place like this?
"Oh, right, we've already thought of a name for our Spicy Hot Pot shop. We'll call it Chen Nan Spicy Hot Pot. We'll borrow a little of your immortal aura.
"You have to cultivate hard here and become a world-famous Transcendent too. Then the name of our 'Chen Nan Spicy Hot Pot' can blaze across the whole world!"
Chen Nan smiled. "You should be more practical. In the food business, quality is what matters, not reputation. You must make sure the dishes you give customers are good in both quality and quantity. Only then can you make money and keep the business going for the long haul."
Jiang Lili sneered. "All right, all right. Do I need a little kid like you to teach me that?"
One by one, the parents began leaving, and the dorm manager started ushering people out as well. Only then did Jiang Lili leave reluctantly.
Once those fussy, lingering adults had gone, the four children in the dorm looked at one another and began chatting with smiles.
They introduced themselves first. The first was Shen Congyun, twelve years old, with a smiling face that made him rather likeable. The next was Lu Butong, only ten, yet half a head taller than Shen Congyun. He had thick brows, big eyes, a straight nose, and a square mouth, giving him a somewhat simple-minded look.
The bed beside Chen Nan's belonged to Shi Lei, who was already thirteen. His head and neck turned in every direction, three hundred and sixty degrees, like a spinning top. He had narrow eyes, and though still so young, a mustache had already begun growing on his upper lip.
After the three announced their names, Chen Nan could not avoid it any longer. He simply smiled and said, "Hello, everyone. My name is Chen Nan."
"Wow, so it really was you!" Shen Congyun said in astonishment. "You're that legendary guy—the one who, at only ten years old, overturned an evil Lineage. And you... you've killed quite a few people too. It's really you?"
Lu Butong looked at Chen Nan with blazing light in his eyes, while Shi Lei stroked his upper lip as though his mustache had already fully grown in. At the same time, his eyes drifted back and forth through their narrow slits.
Chen Nan said modestly, "It wasn't that exaggerated. Everything was just a coincidence."
Shi Lei leisurely added, "Not just anyone gets a coincidence like that."
Chen Nan glanced at him, smiled, and said nothing more.
Shen Congyun and Lu Butong both seemed intensely interested in Chen Nan's heroic deeds and pestered him with question after question. Seeing that Chen Nan was unwilling to say much, they returned to their beds in disappointment.
But how could children stay idle for long? Before long, they suggested going out for a look around.
Chen Nan naturally went with them. At the very least, he needed to learn the layout of the place. That way, when it came time to attend class, cultivate, eat, and so on, he would not be unable to find his way.
As for playing with these three children, if Chen Nan had any interest in that, then he might as well have lived his life for nothing.
Naturally, there was nothing to do on the first day. It was mainly for becoming familiar with the surroundings; classes would officially begin the next day.
In the blink of an eye, the next morning arrived. After breakfast, at eight o'clock, they began their first class at the Preparatory Academy.
Only nineteen students had entered the academy in total, so one classroom was enough.
On the first day of class, the students all sat upright and proper, full of student-like earnestness as they waited for the teacher to arrive.
When the classroom door opened, a rather young male teacher walked in. He was of average height, somewhat plump, and looked utterly ordinary.
"Hello, everyone. I am your instructor for your first academic year. My name is Li Guodong." As he spoke, he wrote his name on the blackboard behind him.
Many of the students immediately felt disappointed. In their eyes, Transcendents ought to be heroic and dashing, with immortal airs flowing around them.
This Teacher Li Guodong, whether in appearance or name, was no different from an ordinary person. Just from his bearing, they had already looked down on him.
Thus, little by little, the students below began doing all sorts of things.
This instructor did not manage the students at all. His mouth seemed wound up like a clockwork mechanism, mechanically following its track. He would not spare even one extra sentence to maintain classroom discipline.
This teacher was surely a model husband. At the very least, he definitely would not "go off the rails."
Listening to a teacher like this, understanding the knowledge became secondary. The most important thing was staying conscious beneath the assault of his "sleeping spell."
They said counting sheep helped people sleep; that was probably the reason. It created a hollow, tedious void in one's mind, and then sleep, like water flowing downhill, came naturally.
Fortunately, Chen Nan's willpower was strong enough, and in his very first class, he experienced what it meant for learning to be like rowing against the current. Therefore, he managed to take in seventy or eighty percent of Teacher Li Guodong's lecture.
In truth, the content was not particularly important. They were things one would naturally learn after spending enough time in the world of Transcendents. Let us give a brief introduction here, lest Teacher Li's divine lecturing art spread to the audience and make them drowsy as well—that would be a sin.
He mainly covered two broad topics. The first was the Transcendent system.
Transcendents were divided into two major factions, as had already been explained. One faction consisted of Transcendents, while the other consisted of Nature Masters.
Transcendents were the mainstream of the modern world, accounting for more than ninety percent of all Transcendents. They had four major branches and eight minor branches, namely:
Power Transcendents, divided into Basic Power Users and Magic Power Users;
Agility Transcendents, divided into Basic Agility Users and Magic Agility Users;
Technique Transcendents, divided into Rune Masters and Summoners;
Magic Transcendents, divided into Mages and Saints.
They had clearly defined strength ranks, ninety levels in total, with every ten levels forming one tier.
On important occasions, introductions were generally made like this: a certain Tier Three Level Nine Basic Power User...
In this way, the nature of a person's abilities and the extent of their strength could be seen at a glance.
The Nature Master faction did not have such detailed classifications. They only had divisions based on strength: Clear Mind, Object Study, Mystic Understanding, Entering the Dao, and Unity.
Each stage was further divided into early, middle, and late phases.
In fact, this faction had one more realm: Nothingness. People called it the ultimate state of Transcendent cultivation. It was said that upon reaching this realm, one could commune with gods, break free of the universe's rules, and become like a deity—able to create things and control fate.
But even during the heyday of Nature Masters, few people could reach that realm, let alone in such an era of extreme decline. Therefore, Nature Masters rarely spoke of this realm, and other Transcendents were even less interested in it.
The general view among Transcendents toward this realm was much like their view of Nature Masters: mysterious and hazy, lacking practical applicability, and even less grounded than fantasy.
That was roughly the first portion of Teacher Li's introduction.
The other part he discussed concerned some academy rules and matters requiring attention.
What interested Chen Nan more was the matter of obtaining cultivation resources.
To acquire top-grade cultivation resources, one had to pass certain assessments. There were two methods. First, one's talent could reach a certain level and the academy could determine that one was a key talent worthy of focused cultivation. Alternatively, those lacking sufficient talent but possessing great perseverance could obtain top-grade resources through the Diligence Ranking.
That was to say, students whose talent levels were insufficient to attract the academy's attention could challenge the Diligence Ranking. As long as they placed in the top ten, they could receive the same treatment as the geniuses selected by the academy.
What had just been described was naturally the route to obtaining top-grade cultivation resources without spending money.
If one had money, naturally there was no need for such trouble. It seemed the rich truly could do whatever they pleased.
Apart from this rule, Teacher Li also explained some other rules, such as the rules for duels.
Among Transcendents, duels were extremely common and were viewed as a symbol of bravery.
However, to keep duels from looking as ugly as ordinary people fighting, anyone who had not mastered a Transcendent ability was not allowed to duel.
After that, Teacher Li began introducing the students' daily schedules, future course arrangements, and a whole series of trivial matters.
Chen Nan knew that this first class was merely a general introduction. If he wanted to learn the core knowledge of how Transcendents cultivated and grew stronger, he would have to wait for the formal lessons tomorrow.
He only hoped that when they began teaching that formal Transcendent knowledge, especially the key subjects, Teacher Li would not be the one teaching them.
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