The Dragon Ladder had stopped moving. Yu Sui and Mei Chengyu waited a while, and when they were sure no one was coming in, they tried to open the door and go out to take a look. But even after entering the spell, the door wouldn't open.
Mei Chengyu expressionlessly tried again.
It still didn't work.
The spell interface for opening the door just sat there spinning, but the door wouldn't open.
When Yu Sui looked over at him, eyes full of confusion, Mei Chengyu said flatly, "It's broken."
"What's broken?" Yu Sui rapped her knuckles against the door. "It won't suddenly drop or fly upward, will it? Senior Martial Brother, we're on the thirty-third floor, and there are more than seventy floors above us. If it suddenly flies upward, I'll die, won't I?"
"I won't die."
"Exactly. So I'll be the one who dies."
Mei Chengyu's eye twitched faintly. "You won't die either."
"Really?" Yu Sui moved to stand behind him.
Mei Chengyu added another trait to his impression of Yu Sui: timid.
The Dragon Ladder's spell had jammed, trapping them inside with no way in or out. Its operation had stopped, so Mei Chengyu took out the Listening Wind Ruler and sent a message to Xing Chun, asking him to notify the Mechanism Clan that the Dragon Ladder in the dormitory building had jammed.
"The Mechanism Clan will be here soon," Mei Chengyu said.
Yu Sui stood behind him without a word.
Mei Chengyu turned around and saw Yu Sui gazing intently upward at the Moonlight Pearl embedded in the wall, which served as a light.
"What are you looking at?" Mei Chengyu asked.
"This." Yu Sui pointed at the Moonlight Pearl. "The Dragon Ladder's jammed. Could this also have a problem and suddenly stop shining, leaving the inside of the Dragon Ladder dark?"
Mei Chengyu looked at Yu Sui. "Don't scare yourself. The Moonlight Pearl's light has nothing to do with the Dragon Ladder's operation."
"Oh." Yu Sui lowered her hand.
After a moment of silence, Yu Sui asked again, "Senior Martial Brother, could it have jammed because we rode the Dragon Ladder up and down too many times just now?"
Mei Chengyu leaned against the wall, fiddling with the Listening Wind Ruler. Without even looking up, he said, "Have some confidence. When something goes wrong, don't look for the cause in yourself. The Dragon Ladder's the problem, not us."
Yu Sui applauded him enthusiastically.
Mei Chengyu glanced sideways at her. Yu Sui said sincerely, "I think you put that very well, Senior Martial Brother."
So confident.
Mei Chengyu looked away again and continued studying the Listening Wind Ruler.
After a brief silence, Yu Sui knocked on the wall and asked, "Senior Martial Brother, will it fall?"
"No."
"What if it does fall?"
Mei Chengyu kept fiddling with the Listening Wind Ruler. "Then use the Wind Riding Technique to keep your balance."
"But I don't know how."
"Then lean against the wall."
"But the impact would still affect us, wouldn't it?"
Mei Chengyu glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "You even know about the impact?"
For some reason, the two of them kept up a back-and-forth conversation.
Mei Chengyu thought Yu Sui's questions were all trivial, things he couldn't even be bothered to explain. But whenever she turned to look at him, her eyes brimming with curiosity, he felt that he might as well tell her. Otherwise, she'd never stop talking. This junior martial sister was a chatterbox.
As they talked, the two of them even forgot the Dragon Ladder had malfunctioned. Only when the spell interface finally started running again did they remember. With a click, the Dragon Ladder's doors opened.
Two members of the Mechanism Clan stood outside, dressed in Mechanism Technique robes. The emblem of the Four Great Families was stamped on their reddish-black shoulders. These two belonged to the Wen Yang Family; their shoulder emblems depicted a golden bird with wings spread wide.
The man in front had his sleeves rolled halfway up, showing off his sturdy forearms. He greeted Mei Chengyu, "Hey, you're the one who got stuck in there? Why didn't you fix it yourself?"
Yu Sui had thought he was picking a fight. She poked her head out from behind Mei Chengyu, only to find that he didn't seem hostile. It sounded more like teasing between acquaintances.
Mei Chengyu stood inside without moving. "If I fixed it, what would we need you for? You're paid to do the job, so don't spend all day expecting other people to do it for you."
The Wen Yang brothers, Wen Yangzhou and Wen Yangxiu, weren't angry. Instead, they laughed and glanced at Yu Sui behind Mei Chengyu, teasing him. "I think you just didn't want to fix it because you wanted to spend more time alone in there with her."
"Hey, can you say that in front of her?"
Mei Chengyu gave a cold laugh and closed the Dragon Ladder door.
The Dragon Ladder ascended.
Yu Sui asked Mei Chengyu, "Senior Martial Brother, so you do know how to fix the Dragon Ladder."
"I don't."
"But you do!"
"I don't."
The Dragon Ladder stopped at the sixtieth floor and opened its doors.
Yu Sui stepped out and turned to wave at Mei Chengyu. "Thank you, Senior Martial Brother. Senior Martial Brother..."
Before she could finish, Mei Chengyu had already closed the Dragon Ladder doors.
Yu Sui blinked at the Dragon Ladder as it closed and ascended.
She returned to the dormitory. The moment she opened the door, she heard a voice inside, still scolding without pause: "What kind of behavior is it for a man to walk around the room like that!"
Perhaps she'd heard the door open, because Shu Chujun, who had been berating Li Jinshuang, turned to look over.
Yu Sui finally met her roommates. Xun Zhiya stood with her back to Yu Sui at the window, looking outside with an unreadable expression. Li Jinshuang stood by the table, still wearing her usual silent expression. Shu Chujun stood by the door. She looked like a sweet, beautiful girl, but her brows and eyes were full of arrogance.
Li Jinshuang ignored Shu Chujun. After wiping the teacup on the table clean, she carried the tea tray straight back to her room.
Yu Sui looked at Li Jinshuang as she returned to her room, then at Shu Chujun, who was still standing by the door.
Shu Chujun snorted and turned back to her room too.
Yu Sui thought she'd greet Xun Zhiya by the window, but Xun Zhiya also returned to her room with an indifferent expression.
All right. If that was how it was, then nobody had to talk.
Yu Sui slowly opened the door to her room and went inside.
She sat on the edge of her bed, looking at the Listening Wind Ruler. The Secret Text was still interfering with Taiyi's Communication Array, and it would probably keep at it until tomorrow night.
Yu Sui closed her eyes to rest for a while. A moment later, she sat up again, gazed at her open palm, and sighed.
When would she be able to sleep well at night without being tormented by the Strange Fire?
Mei Chengyu lived on the seventy-ninth floor, in room 1036.
It was already late at night when he opened the door and went in. The room was brightly lit, and one of the bedroom doors stood open. Wei Ren came out, dressed in loose, casual clothes.
Wei Ren covered his mouth as he yawned, his hair tousled from sleep. When he turned to look at Mei Chengyu, a tiny black scorpion crawled from his cheek to behind his ear.
"You're the Ghost Dao School senior martial brother who lives here, right?" Wei Ren said with a smile, spreading his hands. "I'm Wei Ren. Nice to meet you. Let's get along from now on."
Mei Chengyu had lived alone before. He didn't have any particular objections to getting a roommate now.
After all, it wouldn't be long before he drove his new roommate out and went back to living alone.
Yu Sui had slept fitfully the night before. Once it was nearly time, she yawned, got out of bed, and washed up.
She could hear footsteps outside, along with the sound of tea being poured. Clearly, her other roommates were getting up around the same time.
The Listening Wind Ruler glowed faintly. It was a notice from Taiyi Academy.
New students would all take the Basic Course together, studying in different practice halls according to their assigned numbers.
Black Beard had told Yu Sui yesterday that the Basic Course covered Five Elements and Yin-Yang, Taiji and the Eight Trigrams, the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, and so on. Whether one studied Military Strategy, medicine, Daoism, agriculture, or Yin-Yang, these were all fundamentals that every disciple had to learn.
Therefore, the month-long Basic Course wasn't divided by school.
Yu Sui had been assigned number three, so she had to study at the Third Practice Hall.
Sheng Zui sent her a message, telling her to wait for him so he could take her to the Third Practice Hall.
Yu Sui waited in her room for a while. Only after hearing a knock did she go out. When she came out, she saw Li Jinshuang and asked, "Which practice hall are you in?"
"Three," Li Jinshuang answered briefly.
"Then we're in the same one." Yu Sui invited her, "Want to go together?"
Li Jinshuang didn't answer. She opened the door and walked outside.
Yu Sui's gaze followed Li Jinshuang.
Sheng Zui, standing outside, didn't even glance at Li Jinshuang as she left. He stared at Yu Sui and, with a stern face, held out the little food box in his hand. "Eat before we go."
"Let's eat while we walk," Yu Sui said, taking the food box.
On the way, Sheng Zui told her about the Third Practice Hall and even asked ahead of time who would be teaching that day.
"Jing Yun Kui of the Yin-Yang School," Sheng Zui said. "He's a stubborn old man. If you can't answer his questions or disrupt the class, he'll discipline you. So you'd better not do what you used to and sleep through class all day, then know nothing when someone asks you a question."
Yu Sui ate the breakfast he'd brought and nodded repeatedly.
Sheng Zui furrowed his brows and added, "Now that you've come to Taiyi, don't go fooling around with Gu Gan. Put your mind to studying. Some of the basic Five Elements arrays only need to be memorized. No slacking off. You have to learn them."
"Mm-hmm!"
Sheng Zui had taken it for granted that, as her elder brother, he was responsible for keeping Yu Sui on track with her studies. He also used this chance to end the three-year cold war between them.
He didn't expect much from Yu Sui when it came to cultivating the Nine Schools Techniques. He just wanted her to become absorbed in her studies; that was better than becoming absorbed in Gu Gan.
"Academy disciples are ranked into four grades: A, B, C, and D. You're Grade D since you just arrived. Cultivation can earn you points, but rule-breaking can cost you points too. Disciples of different grades can go to different places."
Some places were only open to disciples of a certain grade.
"For instance, the Nine Schools Library Pavilion is only open to Grade A disciples. If you're demoted to Grade B, you won't be allowed inside."
Sheng Zui was currently Grade A, but he'd drop a grade if he lost two more points. So lately, he'd been consciously keeping his temper in check.
"You have to memorize all the basic applications and workings of the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams within a month. After that, you'll start learning introductory Ghost Dao techniques. I don't know if your ten-percent talent will be enough to learn them, but since you're Sage Chang Gen's disciple, perhaps there'll be another way."
As Sheng Zui spoke, he turned to look at Yu Sui, who was walking beside him. Seeing her focused on eating, he couldn't tell whether she'd taken any of it in.
"Did you hear me?" Sheng Zui asked, just to be safe.
"I know, Third Brother." Yu Sui said, "Can you get beef buns next time?"
Sheng Zui: "..."
The Third Practice Hall belonged to the Yin-Yang School.
It was a building shaped like a giant whale leaping out of the sea, its surface a watery blue. A ring of pale-blue ripples shimmered around it in the sunlight, making the building look as if it were floating in the waves.
Sheng Zui meant to walk Yu Sui to the classroom door, but she refused.
"Third Brother, I'm eighteen, not eight."
Sheng Zui frowned at her.
Yu Sui firmly turned Sheng Zui down, waved goodbye, and headed toward the giant whale building on her own.
Quite a few people were already seated in the practice hall. Some chatted with one another, while others read quietly. Quite a few of them were also nobles and scions of prominent families from Qingyang Nation, and they greeted Yu Sui when they saw her.
Yu Sui easily blended in with the people around her. After sitting down, she listened to the familiar young men and women tell stories about the interesting things that had happened at Taiyi the day before.
She spotted quite a few familiar faces.
For example, the Xue siblings sat in the back, while Li Jinshuang and Wei Ren sat not far in front of her.
The teacher, Jing Yun Kui, was just as Sheng Zui had described: a stern, old-fashioned little old man. His wrinkled face radiated authority. The moment he entered the classroom, his presence silenced everyone. As his gaze, sharp as a flash of steel, swept over the students, each of them instinctively straightened their backs.
"What this old man is about to teach you is the foundation required for practicing the Nine Schools Techniques. Even if you join different schools in the future and practice different Nine Schools Techniques, you still won't be able to escape the power of the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams."
Jing Yun Kui wasted no time on pleasantries. "I'll check attendance every day. No one is allowed to miss class. Otherwise, two points will be deducted from your disciple score."
Points were easy to lose and hard to earn.
Most people didn't want to lose points as soon as they arrived at the academy.
The students in class all perked up.
As Yu Sui listened to Jing Yun Kui teach the Eight Trigrams and Five Elements, she'd initially thought he might cover something unusual. But as she listened, she realized it was indeed all basic material. She knew all of it—and not only that, she knew how to use it well.
After all, the Yin-Yang School, Daoists, and the School of Techniques had incorporated and used the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams, Taiji and Yin-Yang, and the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches in their Communication Arrays. For years, Yu Sui had dealt with this stuff almost every day.
No one had taught her, but she'd picked it up on her own.
"The Five Elements are the primary forces that make up this world. They're everywhere, present in everything. The things we commonly see—the heavens and earth, mountains and rivers, wind and thunder, fire and stone, soil and wood, the heart, lungs, and kidneys in the human body—all reveal the forces represented by the Five Elements and Yin-Yang."
"The Nine Schools Techniques are born alongside the Five Elements Power. The Five Elements Power can create every 'technique' in the world. As for the different schools, each uses a different method to give form to the Five Elements Techniques."
Jing Yun Kui opened his hand, and a cluster of flames sprang to life in his palm. "Such as the Yin-Yang School's Curse Fire, the Daoists' lightning arts, the School of Names' bestowed characters, the School of Agriculture's beast taming,
"the medical school's Blessing Technique, the School of Techniques' divination, the Legalists' judgment, the Military School's blades and swords, and the Ghost Dao School's talismans. All Nine Schools Techniques are powered by the Five Elements Qi. The first form in which the Five Elements Qi is born within a person is called the Five Elements Light Core."
In other words, only those with a Five Elements Light Core could cultivate the Nine Schools Techniques. Those without one were Normal Practitioners.
Back then, Nangong Ming hadn't been able to detect Yu Sui's talent because her Light Core hadn't yet formed. Later, Yu Sui had gained a Five Elements Light Core, but people believed that each person could have only one. During the test, they couldn't sense the first Five Elements Light Core she had crushed. Unable to sense a Five Elements Light Core, they'd judged her to have no talent at all—a Normal Practitioner.
When she heard the explanation of the Five Elements Light Core, Yu Sui perked up again.
The daily Basic Course ran until sunset, with a short break in the middle. Perhaps because it was the first day, Jing Yun Kui hadn't been too hard on them yet.
When it ended, Yu Sui stretched and stood up, following the crowd outside.
She swiped through the Listening Wind Ruler, searching for the Route Map she'd saved the day before. She planned to go to the Taoist Saint Hall.
Sheng Zui hadn't managed to catch up with Yu Sui. He asked where she'd gone after class, and she said she was going to the Ghost Dao School to see her master.
Sheng Zui knew about the Ghost Dao Saint Hall. He couldn't enter, so he could only glare at the Listening Wind Ruler as he sent Yu Sui messages of warning.
Yu Sui, who didn't know the Wind Riding Technique, walked for a long time before she arrived. She walked from sunset until dark. There was no moon that night, and the Milky Way spread magnificently across the sky. There were no lights around, not even a path. Yu Sui used the light of the Listening Wind Ruler to find her way, making her way through the dim forest until she saw the open doors of the Taoist Saint Hall. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.
Yu Sui fanned herself with one hand. On the chilly spring night, she'd worked up a sweat.
She climbed the thirty-three steps and arrived at the entrance to the Saint Hall Main Hall. Its doors were ajar, and a push was all it took to open them.
Before pushing the door open, Yu Sui had already sensed, through the Strange Fire, that there were people inside—living people, and half-dead people.
Mei Chengyu was sitting at the table, playing with the Listening Wind Ruler. When he heard the door open, he looked up and saw Yu Sui, her head covered in sweat. He raised an eyebrow slightly.
Yu Sui put on a surprised expression. "Senior Martial Brother? You're here too?"
Mei Chengyu looked her up and down. "I'm leaving now."
"Oh, I came to see Master." Yu Sui looked toward the portrait rippling with inky colors. "Master, I came to ask you to teach me the Wind Riding Technique."
Mei Chengyu followed her gaze toward the portrait, then looked back at Yu Sui a moment later. He understood how she'd ended up with sweat all over her head.
She'd come all the way from the Yin-Yang School to the farthest end of the Ghost Dao School. It would have been strange if she hadn't sweated.
Before Sage Chang Gen could answer, Mei Chengyu smiled and asked, "You came all the way here just to learn the Wind Riding Technique?"
"Yes. If I learn the Wind Riding Technique, I won't have to run back to the dormitory. If I have to run all the way there from here, my legs might be too sore to get out of bed tomorrow. The teacher today said we can't miss class; we'll lose points if we do."
Mei Chengyu gave that some thought. "That little old man from the Yin-Yang School would definitely do that."
Yu Sui gazed at the portrait reverently. "Master."
Sage Chang Gen answered, "Very well."
Seeing that her master really was going to teach Yu Sui, Mei Chengyu lowered his head and replied to Xing Chun's message asking, "Had dinner?" with, "No." He had no intention of leaving now.
Before you continue