Scholar

039 Scholar

After the New Year, everyone became busy again. The spiritual fields were being cultivated near the village, and even the garden originally inside the courtyard was reclaimed by Zhao Siqi and turned into a spiritual field.

These areas were relatively close to the Spiritual Eye, making it easier for them to absorb Spiritual Energy. Secondly, they were near the village, which made patrolling and guarding them more convenient.

The houses outside were also being built according to plan, and the dozen or so farming households who had originally lived inside the village moved out. The small town's protective high walls were built in a ring. The western side was left empty for the time being, while construction began mainly on the eastern side, followed by the southern and northern sides.

Only with strong soldiers and sturdy horses could one gain the capital to establish a foothold.

Ming Shu took Zhao Siqi and Ren Yuan to the valley in the north to visit the butcher, the Hunter, and the others, bringing them some gifts.

They also went hunting with them in the mountains for a day, treating it as an outing and a chance to relax.

After that, they threw themselves back into their round-the-clock experiments. Ming Shu pulled Chong Li along and moved into the area beside the spiritual fields.

After recording all the relevant traits, shapes, precautions, experiences, and methods concerning spiritual rice, he indeed received another prompt from the Life Book.

The spiritual crops had not been cultivated for a long time, and the worldly aura nearby was too dense. The first harvest would not be very good.

There might even be some unexpected pathological mutations midway through.

Ming Shu asked Old Lu about this, and Old Lu said that such a possibility did exist. However, it was nothing to worry about. In the past, they had simply cultivated the land for several more years. As long as the Spiritual Eye nearby supplied Spiritual Energy, they would sooner or later be able to transform this area.

However, to Ming Shu, that would mean far too great a cost and price. He could not afford such losses, so he continued searching for answers in the Life Book.

They could dig up some wild spiritual herbs from the mountains and plant them, then gather fallen leaves and rotting fruit from wild spiritual fruit trees to improve the soil.

They could even dig up soil from around spiritual trees and bring it over.

Next, they could cultivate nearby every day to accelerate the circulation of Spiritual Energy.

Most important of all was the Spirit Planter Master's meticulous care.

Ming Shu moved into the spiritual fields outside, while Zhao Siqi was responsible for tending the spiritual fields inside the courtyard. The two of them watched over the fields separately, while the Spirit Planter Master Old Lu had to run between both sides.

The situation in the inner courtyard was much better. The Spiritual Energy there was more abundant than outside, and it suffered less interference from worldly aura and blood aura.

Later, Ming Shu came up with a new ritual. On every full-moon night, offering a large quantity of ordinary fruit could be exchanged for a small amount of moonlight essence, improving the overall condition of the spiritual fields.

After nearly a month of Ming Shu's efforts, they finally saw results. The turbid aura in the spiritual fields was growing thinner and thinner.

His own realm was also advancing by leaps and bounds, and he was about to reach the threshold of the third-tier Warlock, the [Star Condensation Realm].

At this time, a whole family came from Qing Shui County to seek refuge with him.

Xiao Shiyi was twenty-six years old, a second-tier scholar of the [Scholar Realm]. He had brought his parents and younger siblings; the entire family had come.

He had also brought a letter from Li Jixu, the magistrate of Qing Shui County.

The family had suffered one misfortune after another in recent years and no longer possessed any farmland. After the New Year, they had even sold their last ancestral house for money and goods, then traveled all the way from Qing Shui County to Baishi Village on the northeastern edge of Donghai Prefecture.

Ming Shu naturally welcomed their arrival warmly.

He immediately hired him as his clerk. First, he would assist Old Zhao in organizing a household register and a ledger of income and expenditure, after which he would be assigned other tasks.

They would put him on a trial period first.

At the same time, he gave the family a house to live in and food. As for farmland, they would have to wait until spring, when it could be redistributed and new fields reclaimed.

Ming Shu was still waiting for the pirates to visit again. There was no need to rush into reclaiming land. What if they finished it, only for the pirates to come and destroy it again?

It was better to wait a few more days, until the weather grew warmer.

Xiao Shiyi was merely a student of the county school, and could be considered one of Li Jixu's students.

The Great Jin Immortal Dynasty's imperial examination system had the Imperial Academy at the top, followed by the academies of the various prefectures. They were mainly responsible for managing and reviewing the imperial examinations, among other matters, and did not specifically teach students.

Below them were the prefectural and county schools, which did teach students. Each place had its own quota limits, and their educational results were assessed every year.

This was also one of the most important assessment standards for their political achievements.

There were also civil welfare, criminal law, and taxation. Public order was handled jointly with the local Inspectorate Offices and stationed troops. Yamen runners were responsible for only a small part of public security.

Xiao Shiyi looked refined and scholarly, but his hands were covered in calluses left by farm work. He was fairly strong and did not look like a frail scholar.

The reason he seemed so refined and scholarly was that after reading and obtaining an academic rank, he had gained power, which had transformed his bearing.

In the Academy-scholar system, advancement required passing the imperial examinations. First, the [Academy] had to recognize one's qualifications; then, one had to obtain an academic rank before officially advancing.

Only then could one borrow the corresponding power.

Academic ranks were also the names of their realms. First-tier scholars were students, second-tier were Scholars, third-tier were Juren, fourth-tier were Scholars, fifth-tier were Hanlin, sixth-tier were Grand Scholars, seventh-tier were Great Confucians, eighth-tier were Half-Saints, ninth-tier were Venerated Sages, and tenth-tier were Literary Sages.

Although the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty's imperial examinations were, on the surface, led by the Immortal Dynasty, in reality the specific contests were still carried out among the various factions within the Academy.

The academies in different places competed fiercely, but that was only because the quotas were far too scarce. Everyone wanted to rise higher, so most people were bound to be eliminated.

Every school protected its own, so the competition naturally appeared extremely fierce—at times, it even became a struggle with real blades and guns.

Although the Academy had no living Literary Sages or Venerated Sages presiding over it, several Half-Saints still remained in the world. Moreover, after those Literary Sages and Venerated Sages died, they left behind powerful forces within the Academy.

Their wills had continued influencing the Academy. Unless an extraordinarily gifted person emerged in a single stroke and shattered the rigid rules left behind by their predecessors, the Academy's system would only grow more stubborn and pedantic.

Across the world, the largest number of cultivators actually belonged to the Academy and the Dao Sect.

The Academy had a low threshold for entry, while the Dao Sect had a high ceiling for growth and practically no great restrictions.

As long as the various Lineages were willing to invest resources, they could pile even people of ordinary aptitude up to the fifth tier.

Moreover, after the Dao Sect split apart, the factions restrained one another, making it impossible to control the spread of inherited cultivation methods. Even the introductory techniques circulated among the various Lineages.

What restricted their advancement instead was their own aptitude.

Ming Shu's Baishi Village now almost had people from every major cultivation system. Their levels were low, but the variety was complete.

The Warlocks from the Sky-Toppling Observatory included Ming Shu himself and Chong Li; Old Zhao, Ren Yuan, and the others belonged to the Martial Artist system; Xiao Shiyi was a scholar from the Academy; Zhao Siqi cultivated Dao Sect techniques; and the pirates from Qunwa Island possessed demon spirits, which could be considered the Beast-Taming system newly developed by the Northern Dao Sect for the barbarian tribes.

After Zhao Siqi and the others advanced to the Foundation Establishment Realm, they could also command ghosts. Ming Shu, Chong Li, Ren Yuan, and the butcher could all control demon spirits.