Mountains and Rivers Academy

Biodata

Power Progression

The ranks below describe the academy’s personnel and backing, not a cultivation realm held by the institution itself.

Background / History

Shen Shihuang initially considers establishing a sect, but Wu Ci offers to handle its administration, resources, and staffing. Because the institution is intended to move rather than remain permanently in one territory, Shen chooses an academy instead. He sees graduates who become regional leaders and family heads as the foundation of a wider network of influence, using Jia Nan Academy as his example 67.

The campus is established in the Black-Corner Region with Wu Ci managing operations and Hua Bubai providing protection. Recruitment flyers delivered by Dou Zong experts attract the attention of the Jia Ma imperial family, the Mite’er Family, and the Misty Cloud Sect. The advertised Dou Zong graduation requirement generates both interest and disbelief 68.

Early territorial trouble comes from the Hundred Sword Sect. After confronting its provocateurs, Shen orders the sect eliminated but declines to retain its territory, since the academy will eventually relocate. Mo Tianxing’s Black Emperor Sect receives the surrounding territory in exchange for protecting the academy’s students and approaches 72 73.

Shen subsequently arranges for Jia Nan Academy graduates to continue their studies at Mountains and Rivers Academy. Han Yue, Lin Xiuya, Liu Qing, Lin Yan, and others later arrive as new members. Business ties and a spatial wormhole connecting the academy to Danta extend recruitment into the Central Plains, causing enrollment to surge 79 80 92 146.

Admissions and Academic Policies

Magical Beast Education

• Shen directs that two staff members be assigned specifically to magical beast students, addressing Wu Ci’s concern about enrolling beasts that have not taken human form 67.
• Wu Ci states that the academy can awaken ancestral bloodlines and supply stronger ones 67.
• Recruitment remains aptitude-based: Shen rejects indiscriminately granting bloodlines to beasts unsuited to cultivation 67.
• The Snake-People students’ disappointing progress reveals that pills and cultivation aids cannot replace compatible techniques. Shen asks Wu Ci to find methods suited to their race 81.

Campus and Facilities

Mobility and Transport

• Mobile campus: Wu Ci plans to move the Twelve Mountains to the academy as their inhabitants recover. Three mountains in place would allow the entire academy to move 68.
• Flame-powered airships: The academy’s primary aerial transport does not require flying magical beasts and travels at a speed comparable to a Dou Emperor. Its power comes from flames of the Space Flame Realm 70.
• Recruitment transport: Airships stationed at the Black-Corner Region’s entrance carry applicants who arrive with academy flyers 70.
• Danta connection: A spatial wormhole serves both commercial traffic and families sending students from Danta’s region of the Central Plains 146.

Cultivation Resources

Life-Refining Flame

• A non-Heavenly Flame that compresses, refines, and purifies Dou Qi rather than functioning like the Fallen Heart Flame’s heart-fire 81.
• One tempering may reduce an average cultivator’s apparent level by two or three stars while making their Dou Qi substantially purer and more stable 81.
• Wu Ci presents it as the means to remove the instability and residual effects associated with pill-assisted advancement, reducing time otherwise spent consolidating cultivation 81.

Inherited Techniques and Specialized Training

• Each of the Twelve Mountains possesses inherited cultivation methods and Dou Techniques suitable for talented students 67.
• The mountains offer distinct cultivation paths, including alchemy, Dou Qi cultivation, soul cultivation, and slaughter 81.
• Demon Saint Mountain is intended to provide life-and-death trials once opened 81.
• Soul-cultivation methods form a major recruitment advantage for alchemists. Wu Ci proposes publicizing them once Spirit Mountain opens 81.
• The associated Medicine Domain contains cultivated medicinal herbs and its own twelve governing top-tier existences; it is distinct from the Twelve Mountains’ Fire Domain 109.

Special Constitutions

• Qian Shuangyu recruits Heavenly Poison Girl by offering mastery of the Woe Poison Body, not removal of the constitution 69.
• Xiao Yi Xian is offered a unique academy method that may grant perfect control of her Woe Poison Body and potentially produce a Heavenly Flame derived from it 107.
• Successful students receive cultivation methods and Dou Skills suited to their particular constitution 107.

Resource Limits

• At founding, Wu Ci explains that the usable ceiling of the academy’s accumulated resources depends on Shen Shihuang’s strength: a Dou Zong dean permits cultivation support up to nine-star Dou Zong, while a Dou Zun dean would permit support up to peak nine-star Dou Zun 67.
• Breaking through beyond that ceiling still requires the student’s own effort. Shen’s advancement may create an opportunity, but does not make an individual breakthrough automatic 67.
• Access to personnel from additional mountains initially depends on further upgrades to the Taisui Flame 80.

Leadership and Personnel

• Shen Shihuang — Founder and true dean; determines admissions, graduation standards, institutional strategy, and major appointments 67 70 107 169.
• Wu Ci — Operational administrator and general manager of the Mountains and Rivers Realm, with authority over the Twelve Mountain Lords 68 81 110.
• Hua Bubai — Supplies Bubai Mountain, protects the campus, and selects teachers 67 68.
• Zhao Yining, Qian Shuangyu, Sun Sanlin, Li Bufeng, and Zhou Haori — The five original nine-star Dou Zong staff supplied to develop the academy and recruit students 67.
• Qian Shuangyu — Recruits Heavenly Poison Girl and explains the academy’s inclusive admissions policy 69.
• Li Bufeng — Escorts Queen Medusa and the Snake-People, defeating Yun Shan and Protector Wu when they block the airship 70 71.
• Ren Tuzi — Assigned to escort incoming students from the Black-Corner Region’s entrance 73.
• Earth Demon Old Ghost — Offered a guardian role, compensation, and help restoring his origin 73.
• Gai Shentong, Heaven Eye Pupil Elder, and Chu Shanwang — Join the academy; two undertake student escort work while one accompanies Shen to Jia Nan Academy 73.
• Hun Miesheng — Secretly joins and accepts the vice-dean position, with an opportunity to lead a new force 168 169.

Planned Dou Sheng Forces

Security and External Relationships

• Campus rules — Killing and fighting are prohibited on the Mountains and Rivers Plain. Dou Zun experts enforce the rule; two battling Dou Huang experts are suppressed with a single slap and nearly killed 80.
• Black Emperor Sect — Protects students outside the academy and controls surrounding territory. The academy promises support against enemies beyond Mo Tianxing’s ability, including Dou Sheng opponents 73 92.
• Jia Nan Academy — Provides a voluntary further-study route for graduates. Su Qian agrees to distribute information, while the decision remains with individual students 79 80.
• Danta — Maintains thriving business and a spatial-wormhole connection with the academy. Shen considers eventual integration of Danta, but the supplied context does not establish that a merger occurs 134 146.
• Snake-People Tribe — Invited to send talented youths and migrate under the academy’s protection. Shen seeks race-compatible cultivation methods for them 68 71 81.
• Misty Cloud Sect — Fears the academy’s effect on its dominance and the possibility of Xiao Yan gaining its support. Academy students and Shen later participate in the confrontation at the sect 68 95 100.
• Hundred Sword Sect — Early hostile neighbor; Shen orders its elimination and assigns the remaining forces to the Black Emperor Sect 72 73.