Seacloud City

"Lin Tianheng's deep blue eyes, I've seen them on Wei Daocheng before. Is this a standard Taiheng Sect eye technique?" Yang Ning asked from within the Spiritual Realm.

"Heavenly Eye of Insight, an Earth-grade Technique. It possesses the abilities of insight, dispelling illusions, observing the minute, and measuring spiritual energy!" Deep Blue replied.

"What does 'measuring spiritual energy' mean?"

"It's sensing soul fluctuations and calculating distance!" Deep Blue answered. "It's a type of perception technique that can distinguish friend from foe based on soul fluctuations and sense distance. However, the same technique can have different effects in different people's hands. Perhaps he can use this technique to sense the Dragon Pearl in someone's Divine Sea!"

"I suspect so too!" Tuo Buchuan said. Lin Tianheng didn't know the bead was a Dragon Pearl, and Yang Ning believed him.

Because Dragon Pearls in their natural state are not gray. A gray Dragon Pearl means it has been corroded by Nightmare energy, and Nightmare energy is from 300,000 years ago.

A Dragon Pearl corroded by Nightmare energy couldn't possibly have been preserved for 300,000 years!

The Dragon Pearls that still exist today are either obtained by humans over 200,000 years ago before they were fully corroded, with the Nightmare energy then removed, or they were never corroded by Nightmare energy at all.

Now, seeing a gray bead in a newly opened ruin, a person's first impression would naturally be to exclude the possibility of it being a Dragon Pearl, and Lin Tianheng was no exception.

But Lin Tianheng still activated his eye technique and scanned everyone.

It was obvious he was playing it safe, just in case.

But unfortunately, after the Dragon Pearl recognized its master, it hid in the Spiritual Realm and wasn't in Yang Ning's Divine Sea, so Lin Tianheng's scan was in vain.

"Master, I have a question, may I ask you?"

"Go ahead!"

"Did you just lie to Miss Ning Rong?"

"Hmm?" Yang Ning was stunned. "Deep Blue, are you speaking up for her?"

"No, your will is my will. I'm just curious why you did that. Just as Ning Rong thought, it shouldn't have been difficult for you to help that girl!"

"It's indeed not difficult. She lost a prince, but surely someone else lost a maid. She could just join them to form a new group of four!" Yang Ning said. "But if I had opened my mouth, that girl would have remembered it. If she fared well in that team, she might not thank me, but if she fared poorly, she would definitely resent me!"

"Her gratitude means nothing to me, and I don't want her hatred. I'd rather be a stranger to people like her! Therefore, wasn't the choice easy to make!"

Deep Blue understood. This was a simple game theory problem.

If he helped, there was a one-in-four chance the girl would be grateful, a one-in-four chance she wouldn't, and a one-in-two chance she would hate him.

If he didn't help, there was a one-in-four chance the girl would understand, a one-in-two chance she would be indifferent, and a one-in-four chance she would hate him.

Yang Ning's choice was not to help and to also play the victim.

Thus, the girl now had a one-in-four chance of feeling sympathy, a one-in-four chance of feeling contempt, and a one-in-two chance of being indifferent. The probability of hatred was now extremely low.

"As for Ning Rong, she lacked the ability to bear the consequences of helping but dragged me into it. I'll have to avoid her from now on. Of course, this is also a consequence of me not knowing this was a cultivation world before and acting too conspicuously. It's a good thing I need to lie low, and she's inadvertently helped me."

"This is, after all, a world of cultivation, not the peaceful era of my previous life. In my previous life, no matter how many women you provoked, how many people you angered, or how ostentatious your behavior, there was always the law to protect you. At worst, you'd just end up doing hard labor. But here, one wrong step can be fatal!"

He possessed the Great Dragon Physiognomy and two Golden Fingers in the Spiritual Realm. He didn't need to show off to gain the sect's attention. What was more important was to stabilize his development and not take risks!

Otherwise, if he died before he could develop, it would be truly frustrating.

Lao Tzu said: "The sage is square but does not cut, is honest but does not prick, is straight but does not offend, is bright but does not dazzle."

There's also a modern proverb: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down," "The early bird gets the worm," "A tree that stands out in the forest will be destroyed by the wind."

Yang Ning understood too many great principles.

Deep Blue understood. The primary duty of a cultivator is survival! Compared to survival, love and beautiful women are insignificant.

After returning the Spirit Artifact chisel to the Artifact Forging Room, Yang Ning went back to the deck.

The Flying Boat was on its way to the Ascension Academy. Everyone was on deck, looking forward to their future studies and life. It wasn't the time to exert themselves.

"This speed, 1698 m/s!" Feeling the silence around him, Yang Ning was speechless. A wooden boat that was completely un-aerodynamic was flying at Mach 5 in the sky. How absurd.

He had clearly read in the Vast Universe Records that the development of Talismans and Formations in the cultivation world wasn't great, yet they could bring about such a drastic change to a wooden boat.

What would the better-developed Artifact Forging and Pill Refining be like?

Also, if something un-aerodynamic could fly this fast, how fast could a fighter jet with a wave-riding body structure fly if I added the same kind of Formation to it?

Three hours later, Yang Ning saw a vast blue sea and a bustling city by the coast. He thought to himself, "The Ascension Academy has arrived!"

The Taiheng Sect didn't used to have a preparatory school like the Ascension Academy. After disciples were recruited, they became Outer Disciples and were left to their own devices. Once they broke through to the Qi Refining Stage, they became Inner Disciples.

But later, the Taiheng Sect discovered that the Inner Disciples promoted this way were all cultivation fanatics who only cared about breaking through realms; they knew nothing else besides cultivation and fighting.

Therefore, the Taiheng Sect established the Ascension Academy before the Outer Sect. The academy systematically taught knowledge of Runes, Formations, Pill Refining, and Artifact Forging, giving disciples with other interests an opportunity and also opening up a new development path for disciples with poor cultivation talent.

This was the official explanation of the Taiheng Sect.

The Ascension Academy had been established for 18,000 years. The number of disciples recruited included not only the countries within the Taiheng Sect's sphere of influence but also disciples from various smaller sects and families, as well as exchange students from sects around Taiheng. In total, there were about 20,000 to 30,000 new students admitted each year.

Yang Ning's boat was just one of many Ascension Boats.

After graduation, some of these students would enter the Taiheng Sect, some would join other sects under Taiheng's banner, and a small number would return to their original homes.

A large number of students, along with merchants attracted by the need to sell the pills and artifacts the students learned to refine, as well as the sect's recruitment stations and industries built by the students themselves, and the offspring born to married students, all gathered around the Ascension Academy.

Over generations of development, a supercity centered around the Ascension Academy had developed nearby.

Because the main material used for the dam at the edge of the city, which intercepted seawater, was the bone of a Seacloud Beast, the city was also named Seacloud City.

Looking at the city below from the sky, its area seemed no less than that of a supercity from his previous life.

Octagonal towers hundreds of meters high are everywhere, with all sorts of Chinese-style courtyards. Greenery covers the city, and mist drifts through the air, a perfect fusion of nature and human architecture, yet a sight unseen on Earth.

Waterways and roads run parallel within the city. There are boats on the ground and flying boats in the sky. Some are as simple as a few wooden planks, while others are so complex and magnificent that they leave Yang Ning speechless.

Outside Seacloud City, tens of thousands of ships come and go from the port, and horse-drawn carriages and cargo trucks travel back and forth on land.

The entire city appears very developed, but the architectural style, primarily composed of wooden structures, gives Yang Ning the feeling of returning to the Tang Dynasty.

In short, modern yet antique, prosperous yet in decline, colorful, and magnificent!