No Leveling Up Without Studying Hard

"Quiet!" Mu Qingyi shouted loudly from below.

Immediately, the Confucian Dao Academy fell silent.

Looking at the now quiet crowd, Ma Feifei ignored the shock on their faces and said with a smile, "As you all probably know, the Confucian Dao Academy was established jointly by me and His Your Majesty. Furthermore, in the future, under the leadership of the Vast Academy's Grand Dean Cang Lan, Confucian Dao Academy will be established in every academy throughout the entire Azure Dragon Continent. At that time, Confucian Dao Academy will be found in every corner of the Azure Dragon Continent."

At this point, Ma Feifei pointed to the Confucian Dao Academy below and added, "But yesterday, when I passed through Wu'an City, I discovered that the Confucian Dao Academy here hasn't had any students studying the Four Books and Five Classics for over a month!"

Ma Feifei's tone became somewhat serious after that. The students below felt a chill in their hearts upon hearing Ma Feifei's words, believing that Ma Feifei was already dissatisfied with the Wu'an Academy.

Ma Feifei is the owner of the Mysterious Bookstore and has a very good relationship with the Empress. If he is really dissatisfied and wants to blame Wu'an Academy really has no way to deal with it and will have to take the blame obediently.

Fortunately, Ma Feifei's next words relieved the students.

"Of course, I won't blame you for not coming to study the Four Books and Five Classics, because you feel that the Confucian Dao Academy has not brought you any benefit and that studying the Four Books and Five Classics is useless. But what I want to say is that if you think that way, you are very wrong."

After Ma Feifei finished speaking, he pointed and a wisp of purple energy shot towards the stone tablet in the square.

"Biu~!"

"Bang!"

The purple aura struck the stone tablet, bursting forth with scorching light, causing the entire world to tremble.

When the light faded and everything returned to calm, everyone looked at the stone tablet and saw that it was slowly emitting wisps of white gas.

The white gas was visible to the naked eye, but instead of dissipating into the sky, it slowly drifted from the ground outwards. More and more wisps of white gas accumulated, eventually enveloping the entire Confucian Dao Academy.

The ground was obscured by white gas, and everyone felt as if they were above the clouds, with countless clouds below.

"Huh! It's entering my body." A student looked at his legs in surprise. He felt the white gas slowly entering his body, and an indescribable feeling welled up in his heart.

"Boom!"

Suddenly, a powerful aura erupted from the student, and a faint white beam of light shot upwards.

"I've broken through!" The student slowly opened his eyes, stretched out his hands, and looked at everything in disbelief.

"I also felt it enter my body," another student exclaimed.

"Me too~~" Another one chimed in.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"BOOM!!!"

One exclamation after another, and breakthroughs followed one after another, before finally quieting down after a while.

There were two thousand students who had previously enrolled in the Confucian Dao Academy class, and today all of them have arrived. In the short time just now, about one-tenth of the students successfully absorbed the white gas and completed their breakthrough.

The remaining nine-tenths of the students watched in disbelief as those people broke through.

"Why can't I?" some students began to get anxious.

"I don't either."

"Me too! Nothing I do works."

"Eating it won't do any good."

"How exactly do you inhale this?"

"..."

That's how people are. In the same place, with the same opportunities, some people benefit while others gain nothing, which leads to imbalance and unhappiness.

Ma Feifei stood on top, quietly watching the group of nine out of ten students below complaining, without stopping them.

"Boom!"

Suddenly, an unparalleled aura soared into the sky, drawing everyone's attention.

"Senior Sister Qingyi?"

At this moment, Mu Qingyi was already sitting cross-legged on the square, her eyes closed, her long hair fluttering in the wind, and the powerful aura from just now was emanating from her.

The white gas Levitate on the ground continuously surged into Mu Qingyi's body at a speed far exceeding that of the previous one-tenth of the students.

The stone tablet no longer emitted white gas.

"Whew!"

The remaining white gas seemed to be blown away by the wind, gathering towards Mu Qingyi.

The ground returned to its original appearance, and the white gas was eventually absorbed by Mu Qingyi.

With the wind calm and the waves still, Mu Qingyi slowly opened her eyes, leaped up, spun around in place, and her face was full of joy.

"Has Senior Sister Qingyi broken through?" a student asked in a low voice, puzzled. He couldn't tell Mu Qingyi's level at all with his current cultivation level.

"It seems so..." The answer was yes, but still uncertain. So the students below all looked toward one place, where a gentle and refined young man stood.

This is the strongest student in the Confucian Dao Academy, named Chen Beixuan.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Chen Beixuan raised an eyebrow, shrugged, and said helplessly, "I can't tell either, but he's at least broken through three ranks."

"Hiss!"

Everyone gasped.

Chen Beixuan, a cultivator at the Spirit King first stage, couldn't even discern Mu Qingyi's cultivation level. Doesn't that mean Mu Qingyi's cultivation has reached at least the Spirit King fifth stage?

It should be noted that Mu Qingyi's cultivation level was only one small level higher than Chen Beixuan's.

Just because he absorbed that white gas, he broke through to the Spirit King fifth stage realm?

Could such a miraculous thing really exist in this world?

"Do you know why some of you can't absorb this white gas?" Ma Feifei asked from above.

Everyone stopped discussing and looked up at Ma Feifei, wanting an answer.

"Because you didn't study hard enough." Ma Feifei's words were sure to be shocking.

Study hard...

It just sounds awkward no matter how you look at it.

"Shopkeeper, are you referring to the Four Books and Five Classics?" Chen Beixuan suddenly asked from below.

Ma Feifei nodded slightly and replied, "That's right. The name of that white gas is 'Righteous Qi,' which was cultivated by all the students of the Confucian Dao Academy of your Wu'an Academy through reading the Four Books and Five Classics and Five Classics."

"Righteous Qi?" The students below fell into deep thought.

"When each of you students of the Confucian Dao Academy reads the Four Books and Five Classics, if you comprehend their meaning, a wisp of Righteous Qi will be nurtured within this stone tablet. The more you comprehend the meaning of the books, the more Righteous Qi will be nurtured."

"Once the Righteous Qi reaches the critical point of the stone tablet, it will be released in its entirety and distributed according to your respective levels of comprehension. Therefore, those who absorbed the white gas just now are students who have a certain understanding of the Four Books and Five Classics. Those who did not absorb it prove that you have not studied hard enough. How could you possibly absorb the Righteous Qi in that case?" Ma Feifei said in a serious tone.

In fact, the Righteous Qi within the stone tablet had already reached its peak, but it wasn't activated at the beginning, so it wasn't released in time. If it had been activated earlier, everyone would have gained Righteous Qi to improve their cultivation, and the current situation wouldn't have occurred.

After hearing Ma Feifei's explanation, the students below who had not taken the Four Books and Five Classics seriously were filled with remorse, while those who had grasped some of the meaning of the Four Books and Five Classics showed joy and secretly rejoiced.

As for Mu Qingyi, she became even more arrogant, smugly taking out a chicken leg and gnawing on it, mumbling, "Big brother is indeed big brother; he can understand the Four Books and Five Classics better than you all just by casually reading them."

Upon hearing this, everyone covered their faces and lowered their heads, filled with shame.