Daily Renewal Hall

Daily Renewal Hall

Chang Ji shot Xu Xing a surprised look.

For the rest of his life, he had basically no hope of ever being reinstated.

Even the prison guards looked down on him.

The watery gruel they gave him each day had barely any grains of rice in it, little different from plain broth...

Even the gruel distributed to disaster victims outside was better than what he ate every day.

Xu Xing sharing his meal with him was beyond his expectations.

"I, Chang, will remember this."

Chang Ji gave Xu Xing a deep look and accepted the steamed buns and meat he offered.

He had not tasted meat in nearly three years.

For Xu Xing to give braised pork to Academician Su was merely gilding the lily.

But for him, it was charcoal in the snow.

With nothing more than a bowl of braised pork and two steamed buns, Xu Xing had gained the goodwill of two convicted officials.

Xu Xing felt he had made a killing.

After finishing the meat and drinking the gruel, he lay back down on the straw and continued sleeping, conserving his strength.

This was how Celestial Prison's inmates lived every day as well: eating and sleeping. Perhaps when someone had just entered Celestial Prison, they might still practice martial arts or study literature, putting on an air of refusing to sink into depravity.

But after enough time had passed, they would gradually follow the crowd.

Especially since Xu Xing had been sentenced to death.

Thus, no one would suspect him for putting on this appearance of decline.

Yet in truth, from the moment he lay down on the straw, Xu Xing had once more entered the mirror world.

Although his "other self" could practice martial arts in his stead, after careful consideration, Xu Xing still abandoned that shortcut and chose to endure the hardship of training himself.

Horse stance and post training did not merely lay a solid foundation; they also tempered a martial artist's will.

In other words, their ability to take a beating.

Otherwise, if someone punched you or slashed you with a blade, and you could not bear the pain and lost focus, then on a battlefield of flashing blades, flying arrows, and raining bullets, that single instant might cost you your life.

Besides, every time he trained, he gained something in the smallest details.

Those gains might not be of much use now, but in the future, they might prove immensely valuable.

As the ancients said: A difference of a hair's breadth can lead to an error of a thousand miles!

After that...

Xu Xing's daily routine became extraordinarily regular.

He timed his returns to Celestial Prison precisely, shared food with his fellow inmates, then returned to the instance world to practice his foundational post work.

But neither did he forget to search for an opportunity to avert his fatal calamity.

At last, heaven did not disappoint the diligent.

On one trip to Jingyang County Town to purchase supplies, he saw a building paved with stone bricks, with white walls and black-tiled roofs, utterly unlike the surrounding structures.

When he approached the main entrance, he saw a plaque hanging above the gatehouse, bearing four large characters: "Taste Classics Academy."

Many engraved stone tablets stood near the gatehouse as well.

The inscription on one of them made Xu Xing's eyes light up.

It read: "Do not take empty talk for learning; neither should empty talk be taken for teaching."

Another stone tablet read: "Do not teach examination essays; let practical learning be the foundation."

"Practical learning? Taste Classics Academy?"

Xu Xing fell into thought.

Perhaps few people knew of Taste Classics Academy. In practical learning education, it was not as famous as late-Qing academies such as Classics Exegesis Retreat and Sea of Learning Hall. But at the mention of the name Liu Guyu, most people would likely recognize it.

One of the leaders of the Reform faction, he was known alongside Kang Mingyi as "Kang of the South, Liu of the North."

In later generations, Taste Classics Academy had also become Liu Guyu's memorial shrine.

Liu Guyu was also the teacher of the master calligrapher Yu Youren.

Yu Youren later adopted the alias "Liu Xueyu."

Yu and yu shared the same meaning; to study Yu was to study Yu.

It was now the twenty-third year of the Guangxu reign, or 1897 in the Western calendar.

The Qing court had yet to flee west, and Liu Xueyu had yet to submit a memorial to the Qin Provincial Governor and personally slay the Empress Dowager Cixi...

At the same time, the current headmaster of Taste Classics Academy was none other than the renowned Liu Guyu.

Xu Xing had never expected that, after transmigrating to Phoenix Creek Kingdom, the history major he had studied for his bachelor's degree—seemingly useless—would instead find a use in this mirror world...

At least now, it had become somewhat useful.

"First fate, second luck, third feng shui; fourth, accumulate hidden virtue, fifth, study..."

"Sixth fame, seventh appearance, eighth, revere the gods; ninth, befriend the worthy, tenth, cultivate oneself..."

"It seems that if I want to change my fate, Taste Classics Academy is my opportunity."

Watching the scholars in long robes coming and going within and outside the academy, Xu Xing made up his mind.

Studying was undoubtedly the best path to changing one's fate.

As for the Elder Brothers Society... would it hinder him from entering Taste Classics Academy to study?

There was no need to worry about that.

Once one joined the Elder Brothers Society and became a sworn brother, one was basically destined to oppose the Qing for the rest of one's life. Among the Qin Provincial New Army, quite a few officers were members of the Elder Brothers Society, their identities deeply concealed. Xu Xing had met several of them over the past few days.

If Xu Xing truly proved capable through his studies, the Elder Brothers Society would not only refrain from obstructing him, but would instead raise his seniority and improve his seating rank. If he showed enough ability, they might even make him an incense master...

Three days later.

Xu Xing took out the pocket money he had saved up, rented a long robe, and stepped into Taste Classics Academy.

Over the past few days, he had made inquiries. Taste Classics Academy recruited scholars from outside all year round, never turning away applicants.

Of course, Taste Classics Academy did not accept just anyone.

It accepted scholars.

What was a scholar? Only someone with an official academic degree could be called one.

Yet there were exceptions.

So long as one possessed solid practical learning and passed the academy's examination, the academy would admit them as well.

After all, scholars who specialized in practical learning were mostly unsuccessful in the examination halls.

With a long robe to lend him some respectability, although Xu Xing was somewhat dark-skinned in this life and looked like he came from a poor family, the passing students, hall servants, and instructors did not stop him, allowing him to enter the academy.

He crossed the gate coated in tung oil and went around through the corridor beside the screen wall.

Once past the screen wall, he saw two Turning Wheel Gates before him.

The gate on the left bore the plaque "Daily Renewal," while the one on the right bore "Timely Diligence."

Having already learned the lay of Taste Classics Academy, Xu Xing knew that "Daily Renewal" and "Timely Diligence" each represented a hall: Daily Renewal Hall and Timely Diligence Hall.

This division into halls originated from Hu Ai's Song-dynasty hall-based teaching method.

Both Daily Renewal Hall and Timely Diligence Hall taught practical learning.

However, the two halls differed as well. Besides practical learning, Daily Renewal Hall also taught some knowledge of eight-legged essay composition.

That Yu Youren had been able to place first in the annual examination at the Qin Provincial Examination Hall in the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu was inseparable from Taste Classics Academy's instruction in eight-legged essay composition.

"Should I enter Daily Renewal Hall, or Timely Diligence Hall...?"

Xu Xing hesitated.

If he entered Timely Diligence Hall and focused solely on practical learning, he would be completely at ease.

But if he entered Daily Renewal Hall, he would have to divide his attention to study eight-legged essay composition.

"Daily Renewal Hall!"

He quickly made his decision and stepped into Daily Renewal Hall.

The waning Qing still had more than a decade of realm and rivers left. Reform and changes to the civil service examinations were not matters that could be accomplished overnight. If he wanted to change his fate, he had to seize a high position.

And the eight-legged civil service examinations were undoubtedly a shortcut through life—nothing to be taken lightly.

"You are?"

Seeing an unfamiliar scholar enter the side room, Instructor Wang, seated behind a desk in the room with his back straight against the chair, could not help frowning.

Taste Classics Academy had a little over two hundred scholars, and he remembered every one of their faces.

Yet Xu Xing was a stranger.

Still, his manner of speech was refined and gentle, not enough to inspire any dislike.