Skywater Academy

Shui Yue'er immediately patted her chest and promised, "Of course it's true. I, Shui Yue'er, always keep my word. Once I get to the academy, I'll definitely help you find someone."

"Yue'er." Shui Bing'er rebuked her.

At that, Shui Yue'er sheepishly shut her mouth.

Shui Bing'er set down her teacup, her tone carrying a trace of apology. "My younger sister is still young and speaks without thinking. Please don't mind her."

"I won't."

The carriage traveled along the main riverbank of Skywater City for about half an hour before arriving at Skywater Academy.

This women's academy, famed throughout the northern frontier of the Heaven Dou Empire, stood on a peninsula in the eastern outskirts of Skywater City. It was surrounded by water on three sides, backed by green mountains, and covered an astonishingly vast area.

Today was the day new students registered, and the plaza was bustling with voices and excitement.

The plaza was packed with people. Young girls gathered in groups of three or five, ranging from eleven to thirteen years old.

Behind the registration desks sat the academy teachers responsible for admissions. They were all women, dressed in matching sea-blue uniforms, with kind yet stern expressions.

Senior students in charge of maintaining order guided the new students and their parents into orderly lines.

The Shui Family carriage slowly came to a stop at one side of the plaza.

The head guard dismounted in a fluid motion and hurried to the carriage door, lowering his head as he reported, "Miss, we've arrived."

The carriage door opened, and Shui Bing'er stepped out first.

She stood on the carriage shaft and glanced around before looking into the carriage at Shui Yue'er, who was still dawdling.

"We're at the academy. Hurry and get down."

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Shui Yue'er jumped from the carriage.

Madam Wu Changkong then bent over and emerged from the carriage. Supporting himself on the doorframe with one hand, he lightly leaped down.

The moment he got out, the first to notice him were several girls closest to the carriage.

"Oh my God, who's that white-haired person?"

"Look, look!"

"I see him, I see him. He's so pretty..."

"Is he here to register too? No, that can't be right. Doesn't Skywater Academy only accept girls?"

"Maybe his older sister or younger sister is registering, and he's just here to see her off?"

"He could also be a girl whose chest hasn't developed yet."

Wu Changkong was covered in cold sweat. Whether now or twenty thousand years later, girls were still quite gossipy.

"Wu Changkong, look, look! Those girls are all staring at you."

"If you really attended Skywater Academy, I guarantee that within three days, the girls pursuing you would form a line from the academy gates to the other side of the river."

"Then you really wouldn't have to worry about girls not chasing after you. I said before that I'd introduce some girls to you, but now it looks like I don't need to worry about that at all."

"Mm, I don't need that."

"What don't you need? You don't need girls introduced to you, or you don't need admirers?"

Wu Changkong didn't answer. Instead, he looked toward Shui Bing'er.

Could he really like my sister? Shui Yue'er secretly wondered.

"Alright, let's go inside," Shui Bing'er said.

The two sisters walked side by side toward the academy gates, with Wu Changkong following behind them.

Once they crossed through the gates, they entered Skywater Academy's front courtyard plaza.

The plaza was equally crowded. New students and parents stood in several long lines, completing their enrollment procedures one after another under the teachers' guidance.

Just then, a sharp rebuke rang out from the center of the plaza.

"What do you take Skywater Academy for? A place you can come to whenever you want and sneak into however you please?"

Wu Changkong looked toward the voice.

In front of a registration table at the center of the plaza stood a woman dressed in a sea-blue dean's robe. She was tall, appeared to be in her early thirties, and had dignified, striking features. Her brows carried an imposing sharpness that commanded respect even without anger.

At that moment, her blade-like gaze was fixed on a middle-aged man before her.

"You dressed your son up as a girl and brought him to Skywater Academy to register. Do you think the academy teachers are blind?"

"There are so many academies in the world, yet you had to set your sights on Skywater Academy. What exactly are you plotting?"

The man flushed red and opened his mouth to defend himself, but before he could speak, the woman cut him off with a wave of her hand.

"There's no need to say anything. While I'm still willing to leave you some dignity, get out of here."

A burst of laughter and murmuring arose from the crowd.

Unable to bear the humiliation, the man grabbed his son's hand and stormed toward the exit in fury and embarrassment.

Watching the father and son leave in such a sorry state, Wu Changkong turned to Shui Bing'er beside him and asked, "Does Skywater Academy really not accept a single male student?"

Shui Bing'er nodded. "It's a women's academy. Since the day it was founded, it has had a rule that it only accepts female students."

"First, it gives female Soul Masters a cultivation environment free from distractions. Second... mixed-gender schools can easily cause problems. Teenaged boys and girls are easily distracted, and when they're mixed together, their minds tend to drift away from cultivation."

Shui Yue'er cut in from the side. "I know the most important reason."

"What is it?"

"I heard that when Auntie Dean was young, she was terribly deceived by a man. So she swore never to believe a man's lies again and simply built an academy filled entirely with women."

After hearing that, Wu Changkong said nothing and merely nodded thoughtfully.

"Bing'er, Yue'er, you're here."

A familiar voice came from behind them.

Wu Changkong turned around and discovered that the woman who had publicly scolded the parent for disguising his son as a girl had somehow already come up behind them.

The next instant, Shui Yue'er's expression changed completely. "A-Auntie."

Shui Qinghan narrowed her eyes and reached out to pat Shui Yue'er on the head.

"Mm, I seem to have just heard someone saying that someone had been deceived by a man?"

Shui Yue'er's smile froze on her face. Then she abruptly pointed at the sea of people in the plaza.

"Wow, Auntie, look! There are so many people this year! Auntie, have you found any especially talented students this year?"

Her attempt to change the subject was painfully clumsy, but Shui Qinghan apparently had no intention of pressing the matter. She merely shook her head helplessly.

"You little thing..."

Then her gaze fell upon Wu Changkong, who stood behind the sisters.

"You are?"

"This junior is Wu Changkong, Bing'er's friend. I was fortunate enough to accompany them today and came to observe your esteemed academy."

"Oh?" Shui Qinghan turned toward her niece. "Bing'er, when did you make a friend like this? Why haven't you mentioned him to your aunt?"

"We only met today, at the Shui Family's gate."

"Wu Changkong, a boy?"

"Yes."

"Mm, I'm Shui Qinghan, the current dean of Skywater Academy, as well as Bing'er and Yue'er's aunt."

"Since you're Bing'er's friend, come in with us."

"However, the academy has its rules. Visitors may only observe within the plaza area. The teaching buildings and dormitory area are not open to outsiders."

"Thank you, Dean."

"Alright, don't just stand around here." Shui Qinghan clapped her hands and beckoned the sisters toward the center of the plaza. "Come register, then reveal your Martial Souls."

"Auntie, we have to reveal our Martial Souls too? It's not like you don't know us. Can't we just go in?"

"Of course you have to reveal them. Rules are rules. You may be my nieces, but within the academy, you are students first. Not a single required step can be skipped."

"Besides, if we don't let everyone see the Shui Family's geniuses, how would that do justice to your years of hard cultivation?"