Academy

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Academy
Original Name	书院
Type	Confucian educational and cultivation institution
Location	Peach Talisman Street, Bianjing, Great Qi 344
Affiliation	Great Qi; politically divided between the Academy’s Third Gentleman and Chancellor Su Jing’s court faction 253 354
Occupation/Role	Supreme center of Confucian learning, cultivation, and scholarly legitimacy in Great Qi; also protects the capital from demons 249 253 297
Founder	The Master 249
Status	Devastated during Bianjing’s final crisis in Xie Guan’s Celestial Reincarnation; its teachers chose self-liberation rather than become corpse-controlled monsters. The Third and Fourth Gentlemen subsequently ascended, while the First declined ascension. Its sword inheritance continued through Xie Guan’s experiences and Yu Ke’s later cultivation. 483 488 489 492 493
First Appearance	Chapter 249

Background

The Academy was founded alongside Great Qi and endured through more than 1,200 years of dynastic change. Despite this long history, it had had only two Masters. It was deliberately named only “Academy,” reflecting its status as the highest seat of Confucian study rather than an ordinary school. 249

The position of Master was associated with the most learned person of the age and was inherited upon the previous Master’s death. Its authority extended beyond the administration of the institution. 249

Its founder, the Master, was revered as a figure above conventional political authority. Accounts held that he disciplined incompetent emperors personally, and that there were “no gods” in the world—only the Academy’s Master. 253

Accounts of the Master’s achievements included subduing the demons that proliferated after Emperor Lie of Great Tang killed and cooked the Crown Prince for his fox-woman consort. At Marsh Lake, the Master compelled a Xuan Core Realm demon commander to take his own life, but did not exterminate the entire demon population. 253 297

Publicly, the Master was said to have departed across the Eastern Sea in search of immortals two centuries earlier. The truth was later revealed to be far darker: his four disciples had killed him after discovering that he intended to seize their fortune to pursue ascension. The Master was a Corpse-Liberation Immortal whose body regenerated every Mid-Autumn Festival, leaving the Academy’s leaders bound to guard against his return. 380

The Master had undergone five corpse liberations over a thousand years. Su Jing discovered that he regarded the four Gentlemen as people of the Heavenly Mandate whose fortune could support his own ascension. After killing him, the First Gentleman obtained freedom, the Second obtained a sword, and Su Jing obtained the Corpse Liberation Method; the Third Gentleman’s gain remained undisclosed to Su Jing. 380

During the struggle over Bianjing’s Ascension Platforms, the Master revealed his Natal Essence, Foundation of Worldly Existence, which bound his survival to that of the Four Kingdoms and the major sects. Su Jing called its true nature Corpse Liberation of All Under Heaven. 483

Campus

The Academy stands behind high walls on Peach Talisman Street in Bianjing. Its plain plaque bears only the two characters “Academy,” yet the name alone intimidates Great Qi’s powerful clans and nobles. 344 394

• Self-Cultivation Hall — The Academy’s highest and most important building, where the Master once taught and nurtured his students. It has five floors; no other Academy building, nor any structure on Peach Talisman Street, may exceed its height. 344 394
• Fifth Floor — A restricted inner area associated with the Academy’s most important secrets and senior figures. Ordinary disciples are forbidden to enter. Its furnishings included a low white couch and a writing desk, and the Second Gentleman resided there during his withdrawal. The dragon-vertebra longsword forged by Xie Hong and the Third Gentleman from Long Yi’s shed remains was left there for Xie Guan to claim. 394 456 483
• Library — Its six floors hold Confucian classics, rare books, and secret manuals; cultivation techniques are kept above the fourth floor. 253
• Diligent Study Lake — A lake excavated before the Academy’s main buildings. 344
• Gardens and facilities — The grounds are arranged around self-cultivation, poetry, books, rites, changes, calculation, riding, archery, and miscellaneous studies. 344

Education and Influence

Admission to the Academy requires the approval of one of the Master’s disciples. Entry is regarded by Great Qi’s scholars as a lifelong aspiration, conferring major advantages in both official service and scholarly pursuits. 253

Early descriptions emphasized the small number of personal disciples attached to the Master and his four leading pupils. These descriptions concern their direct teaching lineages rather than the Academy’s entire body of teachers, students, and martial experts. 253 344

Academy students study more than Confucian classics. Its curriculum encompasses civil administration, astronomy, irrigation, military affairs, martial cultivation, and Divine Soul cultivation. 253 307

• Academy students may directly hold the title of Cultivated Scholar without taking the Child Student Examination. 307
• A Cultivated Scholar may draw upon Great Qi’s national fortune; powerful practitioners can match hundreds of armored soldiers. 249
• Academy-trained Cultivated Scholars are considered vastly superior in standing to ordinary examination graduates with the same title. 307
• The Academy’s examination system supervises imperial examinations and is intended to prevent favoritism and fraud. 307
• The Master reformed the examinations by concealing candidates’ names and having Academy teachers set the questions. Before this reform, candidates disclosed their family backgrounds and teachers, and successful candidates disproportionately came from powerful families. 249
• Scions of the Nine Great Surnames could seek admission through service as captains in the Demon-Slaying Office, although this route exposed them to considerable danger. 297

Its admission and teaching rules remained restrictive despite the Third Gentleman’s invitation to Xie Guan. Master Lotus Pond warned that cultivation of Buddhist techniques could prevent entry, and an Academy teacher forbade Xie Yuan from passing on a Primordial Spirit cultivation method he had learned there. Academy teachers also later stopped students from seeking Xie Guan’s guidance, despite his standing after the Gathering of Beauties Banquet. 342 414

The Academy’s influence extended to other educational institutions through its teachers. Luo Jing, a disciple of the Third Gentleman and an Academy instructor, also served as headmaster of Lofty Mountain Academy, the prominent Bianjing school ranked below the Academy itself. 349 375

Defenses and Martial Strength

The Academy is not merely a scholarly institution. It possesses an exceptional concentration of martial experts, including twenty Jade Pivot Core cultivators and roughly half of Great Qi’s Upper Three Realms martial artists. 344

All four leading Gentlemen cultivated both martial arts and the Divine Soul. Lu Hua described this dual cultivation as the grand and upright path, distinguishing it from reliance on martial cultivation alone. 291

God-Stunning Formation

The Master created the God-Stunning Formation, a formation intended to imprison Heaven itself. During Bianjing’s crisis, it was regarded as the city’s ultimate protection against invading armies and hostile cultivators. 468 470

The Third Gentleman explained the formation’s ambition to Yu Ke during his personal participation in the simulation. He contrasted the attempt to imprison Heaven with the Fourth Gentleman’s doctrine that Heaven and Earth were selfish and humanity should seize creation for itself. The Third Gentleman instead chose to stake his life on a wager for Heaven. 468

When an Ascension Platform descended near Bianjing’s western ramparts, the formation left that section of wall unguarded, allowing martial artists to gather beneath the platform. 481

Martial Inheritances

• Second Gentleman’s Nine Swords — A sword inheritance supported by the innate destiny Immortal-Slaying. United, the swords could wound the Master and slay immortals. Individual sword intents could be transmitted through written characters; Xie Guan obtained the Ghost-Slaying Sword through the character “Academy” and the Demon-Slaying Sword through the character “Hong.” 291 301
• Founding Emperor’s Sacred Ape Stance — Said to have been created by the Master. Master Lotus Pond identified hidden dangers in its higher cultivation stages, and Xie Guan later abandoned it in favor of Buddhist and demonic arts. 342 414
• Dragon-vertebra longsword — Forged jointly by Xie Hong and the Third Gentleman from Long Yi’s shed remains, using an entire dragon vertebra. It was stored on the Fifth Floor of Self-Cultivation Hall for Xie Guan. 456 483

Demon Suppression and Enforcement

The Academy kept demons at bay in Capital Circuit, complementing the Demon-Slaying Office’s extermination work and the Divine Hidden Office’s management of demon-populated regions. Sima Ting also waited in Bianjing for an Academy teacher to address the three demons of Jiannan Circuit. 291 297

The Second Gentleman once split Marsh Lake with a sword strike, killed numerous demons, and guarded its shore for five years with a suspended sword that prevented demons from surfacing. The First Gentleman opposed further extermination because he believed the Second’s killing karma was already excessive. 297

Academy teachers also pursued dangerous human martial artists. They participated in attempts to capture Pei Feng after he killed his master, stole the Sword Classic, and destroyed Sword Rain Tower, although he repeatedly escaped. 421

Internal Schism

The Academy’s decline is tied to the division among its four leading Gentlemen.

• First Gentleman / Xu Xian — The Master’s original direct disciple. He left Great Qi for Great Sui and became its Imperial Preceptor. His innate destiny, Free and Easy Wandering, allows him to cross vast distances in a step. He was known as the peacemaker among the four and treated others courteously. 253 301 310 384 456
• Second Gentleman — A peerless swordsman who became gravely ill and withdrew from ordinary Academy affairs. His Nine Swords could wound the Master when united; his innate destiny was Immortal-Slaying. He later ascended. 253 301 401
• Third Gentleman / Chen Liang — The Academy’s acting leader in Bianjing. He sought to preserve its moral purpose and protect promising students from its accumulated karma. Born into a prominent northern aristocratic family, he mastered numerous disciplines and had once held the chancellorships of six states. He later ascended after declaring that he had won his wager. 253 300 380 468 488
• Fourth Gentleman / Su Jing — Great Qi’s Chancellor. His embrace of ruthless statecraft placed him in direct ideological conflict with the Third Gentleman. He later claimed an Ascension Platform and ascended. 253 380 489

The First Gentleman accepted the Third and Fourth Gentlemen as disciples on the Master’s behalf, while the Master accepted the Second after meeting him by the Eastern Sea. 310

The split between the Third and Fourth Gentlemen became the wider conflict between the Academy and Great Qi’s court. 253 354 The Third emphasized moral instruction and changing people’s hearts, whereas Su Jing treated others as pieces in a struggle for survival and power. Their involvement in the Master’s killing further bound them to a shared burden of karma and the need to prevent his return. 380

By the time of Xie Guan’s later troubles in Bianjing, the Academy was publicly viewed as withdrawn into scholarship, avoiding court interference and mundane affairs. The Eldest Princess of Great Qi questioned this apparent detachment, arguing that the Third Gentleman had trapped both himself and the institution within their larger schemes. 437

After the crisis, the First Gentleman chose to remain in the mortal world rather than claim an Ascension Platform. 489

Relationships

• The Master — Founder and former head. His disciples killed him to prevent him from stealing their fortune, but his Corpse-Liberation nature left open the possibility of his return. He returned during the struggle over the Ascension Platforms. 380 483
• Third Gentleman — Acting leader who defended Xie Guan and invited him to study and cultivate at the Academy. He later ascended. 380 382 488
• Su Jing — Fourth Gentleman and Great Qi’s Chancellor; his court-centered statecraft faction opposed the Third Gentleman’s moral teaching. He later ascended. 253 380 489
• Xie Guan — Protected by the Third Gentleman during the Gathering of Beauties Banquet, then publicly welcomed as a future Academy student. During Bianjing’s catastrophe, he claimed the sword left for him on Self-Cultivation Hall’s Fifth Floor. The Second Gentleman’s Nine Swords became his principal offensive inheritance. 369 380 382 483 492
• Xie Hong — Former Academy member and teacher who nearly became its Fifth Gentleman before withdrawing. His Academy students continued to seek him out, and he remained closely connected to the Second and Third Gentlemen. He helped forge the dragon-vertebra sword for Xie Guan. 284 299 394 456 483
• Zhuge Jian / Master Still Moon — Disciple of the Third Gentleman who publicly conveyed his teacher’s gratitude and approval of Xie Guan’s future studies. 382
• Luo Jing — Academy instructor, disciple of the Third Gentleman, and headmaster of Lofty Mountain Academy. He delivered the Third Gentleman’s invitation to Zhang Yuanlai. 375
• Zhang Yuanlai — Admitted on the Third Gentleman’s recommendation for his diligence, sincerity, and insight into people. Academy membership allowed him to remain in Bianjing rather than depart for Longxi Circuit. 375 411 414
• Xie Yuan — Academy student whose frustration with its restrictions and changing character grew as teachers prevented him from sharing cultivation methods and associating freely with Xie Guan. 414
• Second Prince Chen Feng — Backed by the Academy, in contrast to Prince of Yan Chen Ting’s support from the Nine Great Surnames. 382
• Great Qi — The Academy is integral to the state’s scholarly and cultivation systems, yet repeatedly clashes with the court over authority and governance. 249 253
• Great Sui and outside cultivators — The First Gentleman served as Great Sui’s Imperial Preceptor. He later joined Lu Hua, Demon Master Xu Jiangxian, and Master Lotus Pond in returning toward the Academy. 384
• Mr. East Mountain — Rumored to have close ties to the Academy, including claims that he was the First Gentleman’s twin brother or had copied books for the Master. These accounts were presented as rumors rather than confirmed history. 442
• Red-Eyed Army conflict — The Academy eventually mobilized more than half of its teachers and students to join Great Qi’s campaign in Mountain South Circuit. 462

Story Role / Major Arcs

Xie Guan’s Admission

After Xie Guan’s writings and answer concerning an “Immortal Realm” impressed the Third Gentleman, the Academy guaranteed his innocence in the Three Truths Lineage matter and invited him to join. 380

His answer described a human society in which all under heaven belonged to all, the elderly were supported, the young were raised, and every person could master their own fate. The Third Gentleman recognized this ideal of universal harmony as a true Immortal Realm and wished to shelter Xie Guan’s moral purity from the Academy’s accumulated karma. 380

At the Gathering of Beauties Banquet, Zhuge Jian publicly announced the Third Gentleman’s approval. More than ten Academy disciples bowed to Xie Guan, recognizing his standing and future place within the institution. 382

The invitation did not result in unrestricted contact with Academy students. Teachers later sternly lectured students who sought Xie Guan’s guidance in poetry and learning, and the visits ceased. 414

When Xie Guan later faced danger from his clan, Hu Yunniang and Chenxiang sought help from the Academy. Their decision relied on his literary reputation and the admiration he had earned among its members, despite public doubts about the institution’s willingness to intervene in worldly affairs. 437

Gathering of Beauties Banquet and Scholarly Patronage

The Academy and Great Qi’s court jointly organized that year’s courtesan queen selection. At Immortal-Inviting Tower, the Fourth Floor was reserved for Su Jing and the Third Gentleman; even the emperor lacked permission to ascend to it. 299 354

The banquet also changed Zhang Yuanlai’s prospects. Luo Jing conveyed the Third Gentleman’s recommendation that he enter the Academy, and Zhang accepted. His subsequent studies allowed him to remain in Bianjing and provided the status needed for a stable life with Feng Yaya. 375 411 414

The Second Gentleman’s Sword Legacy

The Second Gentleman’s sword intents became central to Xie Guan’s cultivation. Lu Hua warned that openly displaying these inheritances would make him a target, describing them as treasures whose united power could harm even the Master. 291

Xie Guan eventually comprehended the first seven of the Nine Swords but initially could not penetrate the eighth, leading him to recognize that the Second Gentleman’s attainment far exceeded an ordinary World Grandmaster’s. In Peach Blossom Spring, the Second Gentleman continued to serve as a mentor and benchmark, defeating Xie Guan’s Ninth Realm attacks with a peachwood branch. 463 474

Bianjing Crisis

As the Red-Eyed Army advanced, the Academy ended its earlier detachment from worldly affairs. More than half its teachers and students joined Great Qi’s military response in Mountain South Circuit. 462

During Yu Ke’s personal participation, the Third Gentleman recognized that the being before him was no longer merely Xie Guan. He bowed before Yu Ke and committed himself to a wager that placed his life on Heaven’s side of the conflict. 468

During the final catastrophe, the Academy became unnaturally silent. Its fallen teachers had taken their own lives rather than submit to corpse qi and lose their dignity; Xie Guan later entered the Fifth Floor of Self-Cultivation Hall and claimed the dragon-vertebra longsword left there. 483

The Academy’s remaining Gentlemen took different paths in the struggle over ascension. The Third Gentleman ascended after telling Xie Guan that he had won his wager. The First declined an Ascension Platform, while Su Jing seized a place among the final ascenders. 488 489

Legacy in Yu Ke’s Cultivation

After Xie Guan’s simulation ended, Yu Ke received his fourteen years of martial insights and life experiences. These memories preserved the Second Gentleman’s sword teachings beyond the destruction of the Academy’s Bianjing institution. 491 492

Yu Ke initially attempted to fully unite Xie Guan’s Nine Swords with Lu Chen’s Heaven-Refining Tribulation Hand. He ultimately used the latter as a foundation and extracted the Nine Swords’ killing intent rather than forcing a complete fusion, creating the Calamity-Refining Fist-Heart Sword for his Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment. 492 493

The inheritance remained active in his later battles. In Azure Spear Valley, Yu Ke used Heavenly Ultimate Maha, a transformation of that Dao art, to combine seven strands of sword intent into Annihilation True Intent and instantly destroy the Black Crow Daoist’s heroic spirit. He concealed the technique’s actual origins by presenting it as a hereditary art of the Luoshui Yu Clan. 836

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