Several days later, the Jing Kingdom's Grand Secretariat issued an official statement. Since everyone belonged to the human race, demanding reparations was reasonable, but the amount was simply too high. The Grand Secretariat had therefore decided to invite selected students from the Qing Kingdom to study at the newly built modern academies in the Jing Kingdom, with all expenses deducted from the reparations.
Once this announcement came out, people across the Ten Kingdoms showered the Jing Kingdom with praise, declaring that it had shown the utmost benevolence.
In the Qing Kingdom, the voices calling for war against the Jing Kingdom not only disappeared, but gave way to infighting over whether they should go there to study.
Most people believed that studying in the Jing Kingdom meant forgetting their ancestors while reciting their histories, bringing shame upon the Qing Kingdom's forebears. They adamantly refused to learn from the Jing Kingdom.
A minority, however, believed that if the Qing Kingdom wanted to surpass the Jing Kingdom, it had to learn from everything superior to itself. Only by strengthening the Qing Kingdom itself could they establish a foundation for everything else.
Only a very few suspected the Jing Kingdom's intentions, but their suspicions attracted no attention.
The scholars of the various kingdoms, however, paid little heed to whether the people of the Qing Kingdom lived or died. They soon turned all their attention to the modern academies.
With the Crafts Hall taking direct action, the first batch of specialized academies had already been completed.
The five academies-the First Agricultural School Specialized Academy, the First Craftsmen School Specialized Academy, the First Medical School Specialized Academy, the First Legalist School Specialized Academy, and the First School of War Academy-had begun sending invitations to distinguished figures throughout the Ten Kingdoms. They had even begun selecting their