Inheritance

After the annoying people left, things at home became good again.

Holding his sword in both hands, Jiang Ding contentedly curled up on the sofa and rolled over.

"Brother, I'm hungry!"

Jiang Yuan said righteously.

"Put all the groceries in the fridge. We're ordering takeout today. My treat, with a budget of three hundred." Jiang Ding opened his eyes. Takeout was strictly regulated nowadays, so there were no hygiene concerns, and customs had changed accordingly.

It was just expensive.

Any service involving human labor was never cheap.

"Ah!"

Jiang Yuan screamed.

Lin Wanqiu looked over in surprise as well.

"I made a little fortune today."

Jiang Ding took out three thousand yuan from his pouch and counted it. Then he sent screenshots of his chat with a Colorful Cloud Pharmaceuticals technician through the library app to the Happy Peaceful Family Group, and told them about finding Purple Spirit Grass in the flowerbed.

"You got so lucky!" Lin Wanqiu said delightedly.

Jiang Yuan swiftly pulled out her phone and placed an order, loading it up with cola chicken wings and burgers before adding what Jiang Ding and Lin Wanqiu liked.

Knock!

Jiang Ding rapped her on the head. Before she could angrily strike back, he tossed her one thousand yuan.

"Your reward."

"Ah! Thank you, Brother." Jiang Yuan's eyes lit up. The hand she had intended to use to scratch Jiang Ding instead wrapped around him, and she even kissed him, leaving his face covered in saliva.

"This is for Mom."

Jiang Ding pushed her away in disgust and handed over another thousand yuan.

"Thank you, Dingding!"

Lin Wanqiu said with a smile.

The first two periods in the morning were for the Ideological and Moral Education exam.

It posed no challenge for Jiang Ding. His pen flew across the page as if inspired by divine aid; whenever he saw a question, he wrote the answer almost instinctively. The First Law of the Immortal Sect, the Law of Knowledge, the First Confidentiality Code, application problems, and more—he finished it all within an hour.

After carefully checking it several times, Jiang Ding chose to hand in his paper and use the time he had saved to practice swordsmanship.

A wave of envious gazes came from around him.

It was not exactly showing off. Everyone knew he had been specially recruited because of his exceptionally high Ideological and Moral Education score.

"Jiang Ding, wait a moment."

His homeroom teacher, Guo Kui, stopped him. He sent a message for another teacher to come help proctor the exam, then quickly left the classroom.

"You've advanced to the Inner Qi Realm, haven't you? Let's go to the school library."

The two spoke as they walked.

"Yes, Teacher," Jiang Ding replied softly.

Even Hua Bing and Wu Tianli could easily see through his cultivation. His homeroom teacher naturally could as well.

The two soon arrived at the school library. Led by Guo Kui, they entered a spacious, brightly lit classroom with only a desk and several stools arranged in the middle.

Other than that, there were seven or eight extremely conspicuous surveillance cameras.

They seemed rather out of place. The Immortal Sect's technology could easily make cameras as small as grains of rice with even better functions, so these broad, heavy devices looked far too antiquated.

"Sit." Guo Kui pointed at the cameras overhead. "Do you know what they represent?"

"Inheritance."

Jiang Ding answered calmly, naturally exuding the air of a top student in Ideological and Moral Education.

"For ten thousand years, the collision and fusion of the mundane and the extraordinary brought countless hardships upon the Immortal Sect. At least three times, its entire territory fell, and it nearly faced the extinction of its people. Thus, it places exceptional importance on the orderly inheritance of its grassroots."

"In fact, many internal conflicts did occur throughout history. Some high-ranking cultivators, especially elderly cultivators with no hope left on the path of the Dao, became particularly obsessed with things such as the glorious continuation of their family bloodlines."

"Yet with only an advantage in resources, how could a single family compete against all the talented and outstanding people of an entire region?"

"The best choice was to directly sever that region's inheritance. Personal powers such as clans and sects would then naturally gain a dominant position."

"After several civil wars that affected the entire Immortal Sect, the Immortal Sect established strict inheritance regulations."

"An Inner Qi Realm martial artist already counts as one of the most basic soldiers, having entered the Immortal Sect's system of power and obligations. A negligible sliver of the Central Array-Spirit Computer's attention has already begun watching this place."

"To ensure that the Immortal Sect's most basic inheritance proceeds strictly."

A trace of complexity appeared on Guo Kui's face.

"Very good."

As an elderly cultivator with no path forward and no hope of Foundation Establishment himself, he had spent these years paving the way for his descendants. At this moment, he could not say he had no messy thoughts of his own.

"The Inner Qi Realm inheritance is very simple. There are only two branches: line infantry and reconnaissance infantry."

Guo Kui reined in his slightly stirred emotions and spoke slowly.

"Line infantry can accumulate merit and rise as high as company- or platoon-level officers in a Class C legion. Their weapons are heavy machine guns, certain grenade launchers, mortars, and other ground firepower. At school, however, you only need to study heavy machine guns, and the exams are related only to those."

"Reconnaissance infantry have the same promotion ceiling. Their equipment includes scout camouflage capable of blocking certain divine-sense searches and spirit-particle radar scans, anti-materiel sniper rifles, and so on. They must be able to survive and fight alone in the wilderness, obtaining the intelligence required by the corps."

"Accordingly, the martial arts each must study emphasize different things. Line infantry must learn the Vajra Seal to stabilize heavy machine guns, while reconnaissance infantry must learn the Minor Breath-Concealing Technique."

"In terms of grades, line infantry is easier to pass. Its lower limit is high, its upper limit is not low, and it is relatively safer among crowds. Reconnaissance infantry has a low lower limit and a high upper limit, but its danger level is high."

"Which do you choose? You can discuss it with your family. You have one week to decide."

"There's no need."

Jiang Ding shook his head. "I choose the reconnaissance infantry specialization."

He might have hesitated in the past, but there was no need now. He spent most of his time exploring another world alone, without comrades. The reconnaissance infantry specialization suited him by nature.

"Fine. I'll submit your choice. Teacher Zhang Dingjun will be notified as well in your cultivation class." Guo Kui said nothing more. Boys this age were confident and proud, making them difficult to persuade. "Within one month, you will have one chance to change specializations. If you find reconnaissance infantry training unsuitable, remember not to miss the deadline."

"Thank you, Teacher."

Jiang Ding rose and took his leave.

After leaving the school library, he discovered that only twenty minutes had passed during their conversation. Jiang Ding considered it for a moment, then headed toward the cultivation room.

The door opened.

In the empty cultivation room was still a half-open emerald wooden palm. Resting upon it was a pill that glimmered with faint light: the low-grade mortal-tier Ginseng Flower Qi-Regulating Pill, which could replenish the vital essence within an Inner Qi Realm martial artist and make it easier to generate Inner Qi.

It was not that pills capable of directly increasing Inner Qi did not exist, but such pills that brutally raised one's cultivation would damage one's potential. Once detected by the cultivation room's array-spirit, a student's cultivation class grade would be immediately reduced to zero.

To young martial artists, such pills were no different from poison.

The Ginseng Flower Qi-Regulating Pill followed the Immortal Sect education system's usual style for supplied pills: low cost and passable effects.

It was roughly equivalent to half the Essence-to-Marrow Pill he had taken during the Bone-Refining Realm. He also had to strictly follow the pill's instructions to expel trace amounts of pill toxin, lest it affect a young martial artist's potential.

If the cultivation room's array-spirit detected residual pill toxin in his body, it would refuse to provide any pills.

The light-blue figure before him began to move. Arrows within its meridians moved in orderly, intricate patterns, weaving into a net across the ten largest meridians of the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian.

He swallowed the Ginseng Flower Qi-Regulating Pill.

A bright silver radiance appeared, then began to dance. Sword light scattered throughout the cultivation room. Empowered by the circulation of Inner Qi, the air was sliced to pieces, and sword shadows filled the room.