"The anomalous fluctuation has vanished!" Deep Blue's voice suddenly rang out.
Yang Ning did not answer. He set down the jade tablet, took a shower first, then returned to bed with his phone and played for over an hour. Only when he was yawning nonstop did he finally close his eyes.
"I feel like I'll eventually be tempered into an Oscar-winning actor!" In the Spirit Realm, Yang Ning sighed and asked, "What kind of fluctuation was it?"
"It was similar to the Heavenly Eye of Insight, but at a lower frequency," Deep Blue answered.
Even a Golden Core Stage powerhouse like Lin Tianheng had to observe from close range to inspect someone else's sea of consciousness. That alone showed that the Heavenly Eye of Insight likely had a very short observation range.
A lower frequency meant a larger observation range.
"I knew someone was spying on me!" Yang Ning nodded. Such behavior was perfectly normal. This world was not safe; the various sects both cooperated and contended with one another, and planting spies in each other's ranks was commonplace. Naturally, Ascension Academy cared deeply about the purity of its new students.
Still, being monitored like this was ultimately unpleasant, especially for someone carrying so many secrets.
"The jade tablet!" Yang Ning raised a hand and summoned a jade tablet. Unfortunately, he could not manifest spiritual qi, so it was just an utterly ordinary jade tablet.
"I wonder how the functions of those apps are implemented. What programming language do they use? It should be something similar!"
Yang Ning was quite interested in such a language. He just did not know how well Taiheng Sect protected its intellectual property. If it was decent enough, he had countless types of software that could make money.
He closed his eyes and entered a meditative state. From the outside, he looked as though he had fallen asleep.
In the dead of night, that fluctuation returned several times, continuing all the way until dawn.
Yang Ning woke groggily. He stretched first, then opened the window and took a deep breath of Sun Purple Qi.
His residence was on the twelfth floor. It was not exactly low, but compared to a dam more than a hundred meters tall, it was nothing.
Yet Yang Ning continued to gaze intently at that white wall. He knew that beyond the dam lay the vast blue sea.
"I like the sea," Yang Ning said softly.
"I like it too!" Deep Blue nodded.
The sea truly contained many elements that put people at ease, such as uranium, protium, deuterium, and tritium.
And gold and silver.
Especially after obtaining the Dragon Pearl, entering the sea felt like returning home.
"Perhaps my future lies in the sea?"
Yang Ning put on his school uniform, picked up his jade tablet, followed the map's directions to eat first, then arrived at the classroom right on time.
It was actually a tiered lecture hall. It used the same Meso-Sumeru method; the tiny classroom somehow held over five thousand seats. Yet there were not many people present, only two thousand.
All two thousand were male, their ages varying widely. Unlike Yang Ning, who had come empty-handed, they carried notebooks and pens.
Only after finding an empty seat in the back and sitting down did Yang Ning realize that the books were placed directly on the desks. However, they were fixed in place and could not be taken away.
The pages were also exceptionally tough. Yang Ning tugged them lightly twice but could not pull them free. Judging by their smooth surfaces, they had clearly been inscribed with cleaning, Water Repelling, and Fire Repelling formations as well.
Yang Ning looked around again but did not see Su Bai. There were only four people from the same ship, counting himself, and the other three had all been book boys.
In other words, everyone had different schedules?
"Ahem, hello, everyone!" A young man who looked barely in his twenties but coughed like an eighty-year-old entered carrying a book. He placed it on the lectern, then declared loudly, "Some new students have joined us today, so I'll restate the classroom rules. No talking, no questions, no restlessness. The books are fixed to the desks. Do not damage or tear them, or you will be fined."
"Additionally, the teaching materials may be copied, but they must not be taken outside the academy or spread beyond its grounds. Violators will be treated as spies!"
Then he opened the book and began to read.
That was right, he simply began reading. Yang Ning quickly found the page he was discussing, only to discover that every single word he spoke was exactly the same as what was written in the book!
No, what was the point of teaching like this? Couldn't I just read the book myself?
Yet the other students had no objections, as though they were accustomed to it. They spread out their notebooks and pens, hurriedly copying things down.
"I remember the academy has a library, right?" Yang Ning took out his phone and checked. It did indeed have one.
Then couldn't they just go copy things in the library?
Yang Ning looked over the schedule and understood. There was more than one subject to learn. If every class was like today's, then there would be quite a lot to copy.
If they only went to the library after class to copy things down, they really might not be able to finish.
As for why the materials were not printed into books, had the teacher not said they were forbidden from being spread?
"I love it!" Yang Ning had no objections to this at all. He rather liked this teaching method, since he had the Spirit Realm.
If the teachers all read straight from the text, then he could simply read the books himself.
When he opened the first page, Yang Ning's expression darkened.
Sure enough, it was that familiar Vast Universe Records style again.
Even the Compendium of Materia Medica knew to classify medicinal herbs. Yet you did not classify these ores at all, not even with a table of contents. One could imagine just how perfunctory the person compiling this textbook had been.
Forget it, I'll do it myself!
Mineral Identification and Cognition was another massive tome, with 1,400 pages. Each page introduced two or three minerals; some of the more simply described ones even squeezed in more than ten.
Altogether, it covered 7,420 types of minerals.
Yang Ning had already classified minerals when cataloguing Vast Universe Records, so he could simply use that system now.
The minerals of the Taiheng Realm were divided into five types: water minerals, metal ores, stone minerals, crystal minerals, and spirit minerals. Their grades were divided into two categories: Mortal Minerals and Spirit Minerals.
The difference between Mortal Minerals and Spirit Minerals was simple. Anything infused with spiritual qi was a Spirit Mineral. For example, iron ore was a Mortal Mineral, while Spirit Iron was a Spirit Mineral. Water was a Mortal Mineral, while Spirit Water was a Spirit Mineral.
Among minerals of the same type, Spirit Minerals were dozens or even hundreds of times more effective than Mortal Minerals, and they often possessed many unbelievable effects as well.
Spirit Minerals were also materials for refining all kinds of Spirit Artifacts, treasure artifacts, Dao artifacts, and even immortal artifacts.
The teacher spoke very quickly, able to read through one page in a minute. But Yang Ning flipped pages even faster. After flipping through twice, he even found a way to turn pages without making a sound. Before the class was even over, he had finished the entire book!
"Mineral Identification and Cognition recorded!"
"The next class is Mineral Blending and Conflict, located in Classroom C 517!"
"Classroom whatever? I'm not going. The teacher won't take attendance anyway!" After class, Yang Ning did not head for the classroom, instead making straight for the library.
He was already used to skipping class. If you dared not take attendance, then he dared skip.
Besides, his photographic memory had already been exposed back in the Yue Kingdom. There was no need to hide it at all.
Smearing himself with mud, so to speak: a supremely gifted genius who loved artifact refining, a genius who had gone down the wrong path. Nothing wrong with that.
"What a huge library!" Yang Ning had known the library was large when he looked at the map. It covered five mu of land.
Only after arriving did he realize he had still underestimated it, because this library did not have just one floor!
It was an entire cluster of buildings. The tallest was Central Ding Tower, which had eighteen floors. Four smaller towers were attached to its east, west, south, and north sides, each nine stories high, symbolizing nine cauldrons suppressing the eight directions.
Around the Ding Tower stood four V-shaped buildings with folded corners, each twelve stories and thirty-six meters tall, named Azure Dragon White Tiger and Vermilion Bird Black Tortoise.
Yang Ning took out his phone and opened the library app. The app only contained an introduction and map of the library, with no actual catalogue of its collection. There was not even a way to search for which book was located where.
Still, the introduction was enough. Yang Ning planned to move the entire library into the Spirit Realm within six years, so it did not matter where any particular book was located!
"Since I'm going to refine artifacts, I'll start with books related to metals!" Yang Ning identified the direction, then headed toward White Tiger Tower.
Before you continue