Seeing the Truth

"You said their dormitories covered five thousand square meters?"

"To be precise, eight mu. And they weren't dormitories—they should be called cultivation courtyards!" Deep Blue played Yang Ning a scene from Xun Hu's room.

Through a tiny door, past a screen, the view beyond suddenly opened up into a whole new world.

Pavilions and towers, little bridges over flowing water, an endless training ground, and weapon racks beside it. Sabers, spears, swords, halberds, axes, polearms, hooks, and forks—every damn one of them was a Magic Artifact!

I only knew the school issued us weapons. I never expected the book boy to get one while Xun Hu got ten?

"Why did he need me to forge weapons if he already had them?" Yang Ning asked.

"Probably because of this!" Deep Blue played a classroom video.

The teacher on the platform had thick brows and large eyes, dressed in a blue robe. A line of text appeared beside him, displaying his information.

Lin Shi, Inner Disciple, Qi Refining Second Level.

"Another Lin?" Yang Ning blinked, unsure whether Lin Tianheng had brought over all seven aunts and eight uncles, or whether the Lin clan truly held enormous influence within Taiheng Sect.

"On the path of cultivation, four factors are of utmost importance: wealth, Dao Companions, techniques, and land!" Lin Shi declared loudly from the platform. "All of you are princes of a nation, with an entire country supporting your cultivation. You certainly won't lack wealth. Taiheng Sect will provide the techniques and land, and those are not things you can control. So what can you control?"

Rapping the blackboard, Lin Shi said, "That's right: Dao Companions. This refers to cultivation partners. But in the Cultivation World, men outnumber women. When a female cultivator appears, there are often thousands upon thousands of male cultivators pursuing her. And such a female cultivator will generally only favor the most outstanding group in the sect, like Senior Brother Tian Dao Yi, Senior Brother Lin Tianheng, or Senior Brother Feng Jingbai of our Taiheng Sect. How can you compete with them?"

"For that, the sect has prepared something for you!" Lin Shi wrote three terms on the blackboard: book boys, servants, and maidservants. Then he tapped the word maidservants. "That's right. Maidservants are meant for this!"

"Taiheng Sect has a Mysterious Yin Heaven Mending Scripture, a Peerless Dao Art. It extends one's life, nourishes qi and replenishes essence, and preserves youth forever. No female cultivator can refuse such a Dao Art. And the breath of Mysterious Yin Qi cultivated by this art is also a supreme nourishing qi, capable of helping you go further in the Qi Refining Realm!"

"Holy shit?" Yang Ning was stunned. He only knew that the Mysterious Yin Heaven Mending Scripture was one of Taiheng Sect's Eight Gates of Peerless Dao Arts and could preserve youth forever. He had never imagined it was used for this?

"As for book boys and servants, they are not Dao Companions, but their responsibilities are just as significant!" Lin Shi first tapped the word servants and said, "Those selected as servants are all people with honest, straightforward temperaments and plump builds. The Dao Arts they will learn in the future will all be protective secret methods such as body tempering, iron armor, and soul forging. They will bear the responsibility of protecting your bodies and preserving your lives at the critical moment between life and death!"

Yang Ning thought of Su Bai. Fat all over, simple-minded—it really did seem like he was the perfect candidate for a bodyguard!

"As for book boys, they are your greatest support on the road of cultivation, because they bear the responsibility of learning the hundred cultivation arts, such as alchemy, artifact forging, talismans, and formations. You may not know this, but once you reach the Qi Refining Stage, the prices of all sorts of cultivation resources will soar. Even a nation behind you may not be able to bear the expense. At that point, if you have an assistant who can refine pills and forge artifacts, your source of wealth will flow much more smoothly. And thanks to his abilities, you can save a huge portion of your cultivation expenses!"

"So when choosing a book boy, choose someone bright, clever, and exceptionally perceptive. I must especially praise Xun Hu here. Your book boy, Yang Ning, is a prodigy quite famous throughout all of Taiheng. He was also born with an interest in artifact forging."

Yang Ning's expression darkened. He liked being praised too, but not in this manner.

And I do like artifact forging. But if forging artifacts means becoming someone else's tool, that is an entirely different matter!

"Now that we understand the functions of Dao Companions, what should we do?" Lin Shi continued. "Naturally, support them and cultivate them in their corresponding directions! For maidservants, let them mingle among other maidservants. We need not do anything at all; they will begin competing against one another themselves. When the time comes, in order to win, they will naturally support their masters with all their hearts and souls!"

"For servants, you can use bullying methods. Servants tend to be round-bodied and straightforward by nature, making them targets for bullying in school to begin with. Once you recognize this, you must take the initiative. You can form teams with each other—friends in class, enemies outside. Pick a few fights, and the servants will want to learn on their own. Then tell them that you exhausted all your strength, like nine oxen and two tigers, to finally obtain this Golden Body Method. Why worry that you cannot win their hearts?"

"For book boys who like artifact forging or pill refinement, support them vigorously. Do not think the investment will be too great. If you do not invest now, then once you reach the Qi Refining Stage, using other people's products will cost even more. Besides, the materials bought at this stage are all ordinary materials. How much can they possibly cost?"

"As for book boys with no interest in artifact forging or pill refinement who only want to cultivate, tempt them with pills a few times. Once they have tasted the sweetness but lack the money to buy pills, they will naturally take the bait. Artifact forging works the same way. We prohibit outside weapons from entering. If they are bullied on campus and suffer from having no weapon, what then? They will certainly have to forge artifacts. In this way, they will naturally embark upon the paths of pill refinement and artifact forging."

"So this was the truth?" Yang Ning's expression was cold and indifferent. "It was exactly as Tuo Buchuan said!"

He had suspected that Ascension Academy might be giving different streams of education to different disciples. Today, that suspicion was finally confirmed.

To be fair, the locals probably found this perfectly normal. Cultivation qualifications belonged to the princes in the first place. Giving you the chance to step onto the path of cultivation was already generous enough—what more bicycle did you want?

But Yang Ning had grown up receiving the education that kings and nobles were not born with superior seeds. Every course he had taken from childhood to adulthood had studied how to overthrow feudal dynasties and how to build a world where everyone was equal.

A Yang Ning like this, placed in ancient times, could not be called anything less than rebellious to the marrow!

Were you a prince because you were more capable? Wasn't it just because you had been born into the right womb?

If Yang Ning had not noticed something was wrong so early, he would already have raised the banner of rebellion and changed the dynasty!

You want me to be your tool, and work for free at that? Why the hell should I?

"What else?" Yang Ning asked. "They couldn't have taught only this in class, right?"

"There are also sword arts, saber arts, spear arts, and archery—things not mentioned in the Twelve Divine Forms!" Deep Blue demonstrated another course.

The teacher held a long spear and demonstrated a spear art called Phoenix Cry.

The teacher's body drifted like a phoenix. After a hundred moves, the long spear in his hands actually began to glow red, and before long it was even carving sparks through the air!

Yang Ning watched it over and over, slowing it down again and again. After several viewings, he finally discovered the trick.

This spear art had the foundation of the bird-form Divine Forms, but with the addition of a weapon, it immediately gained countless variations.

Furthermore, it could use the weapon's weight and the force of its swings to bring more powerful, more complete training to the body's muscles.

And that was not all. The Breathing Technique the teacher used while practicing the spear was not the Amber Breathing Technique, and his footwork was not any of the footwork from the Twelve Divine Forms. It should have been a set that came with the Phoenix Cry spear art.

This footwork made the lower body stable and one's advances and retreats measured. At a glance, it was extraordinarily profound. Yang Ning simulated several attack routes in his mind, yet this spear art had responses for every one of them!

It was not that Yang Ning was weak. Rather, he had never created a footwork technique before. The Lingbo Weibu he had envisioned earlier had yet to be created because he had no idea where to begin.

With such a weakness, it was only natural that he could not win.

Was that all? Not even close!

Didn't you see that reddened spearhead? This was a method of using the Qi and Blood Field. By attaching all the fields to the long spear, it could actually heat the spear until it glowed red!

With a spearhead that red, even if it did not pierce someone, a mere touch would scald them until they wailed!

Yang Ning could not help imagining a future scene where he betrayed Xun Hu, used the Twelve Divine Forms at Great Perfection, yet was stabbed to death by Xun Hu's spear.

He would certainly never encounter such a scene, but what about other book boys with ideas of their own?

Yang Ning immediately gritted his teeth. He knew it was impossible for the first eight levels of body cultivation to involve training only one Divine Forms technique!

The dullest ones were sent to temper their bodies, women became cauldrons, while book boys whose talent and aptitude did not fall short of—and might even surpass—their masters could not continue practicing martial arts, only forging artifacts and refining pills!

"Dark. Fucking pitch-black!"